Saturday, August 4, 2007

12 DAYS LEFT!!

I was just sitting here looking at all the new referrals that came in, remembering the way I felt at this time last month and just had to write a few words. I look at the pictures that we "think" is Olivia, and I just get so teary-eyed. I just think that in 16 days, we will be holding our daughter, who we have been waiting for, through this adoption, for 21 months!! I have always wanted a daughter and the Lord saw fit for me to have 3 of the most precious, sweet, gorgeous, gentle boys ever. Now, don't get me wrong, they do have faults, but I think the good qualities cover their bad most of the time!! I have truly been blessed with my boys, but always knew that I wanted a little girl, a daughter, to call my own!! This truly is a blessing from God and we are so blessed to be able to do something like this. I think this is why God gave me 3 sons, because He knew that we would be doing this and without a "birth" daughter, this thought might not have entered our minds. Now don't get me wrong, WE KNOW that God's will would be accomplished no matter what, but our minds sometimes try to get in the way, so although we know that God had Olivia for us all along, I personally think it took me having 3 boys to see it clearly!!

Anyway, I am sooo excited, scared, anxious, worried, and just really elated to go and get Olivia. We are soooo going to miss our boys because we have never been away from them for more than 5 nights, they are in school, they are getting switched around, to great people, but nontheless, switched around and we are going to be worried about them!! We know it will be fine, but it's still going to be hard! They will be on our minds greatly, but what an opportunity.
All three boys came up to me tonight and said,"Momma, I want my sister!!" and they didn't hear the other one say it...how loved is she going to be???

Well, I am going now. Chase has a bad ear infection that I had to go to Walgreens at 12:00 for meds. His ear is swollen about 3xs what it should be, the ear opening is NOT OPEN!! He can't hear anything and he's in pain. My children HATE to miss church. They have had 103 degree fever and still mad at me for keeping them from going to church and tonight Chase asked if he could stay home...he has to feel bad. Pray for him. School starts Monday and he DOESN'T need to be sick!!

I am really going now. Thanks for being interested in our family enough to read all this "stuff!" I love having this. I hope you like reading it.
So, until later....

Sunday, July 29, 2007

More pictures of Olivia's room!






So Lana and I finished the last of the "Crafts" for Olivia's room. We made the Bow holder, well Lana did most of the painting on that, and we did Olivia's name. I love them both and think they look so pretty in her room. I bought the curtain rod, but Anthony doesn't like it like that, so I have to go and get another one, but the curtains came in Olivia's big girl bedding that Meme and Papaw John (my mom and dad) got her. It matches perfectly!!! The rest of the bedding has ladybugs on it, but it's going to stay new until she's in her toddler bed...hopefully about 2 years!! :)
So anyway, I am going to get another curtain rod and her room is complete. I am very happy with the way it turned out!! I normally keep the door closed to keep Dawsey (our dog) out, but Anthony now wants it open so he can walk by and look at it!!! Already wrapped and she's not even here!!
I just taped the pictures on her Made in China canvas and when we know when we lay our eyes on her that it is her, I will probably glue it on there. It looks so cute up there...I just love it. Anthony looked at it and even made the girl, "Awww" sound!! I love it when he does that...he says now all we need is her...and it is. I have all but her prescriptions and formula packed. She's got all she will need hopefully!! All we are waiting on is time now....
17 days and counting!! Oh well..have alot to do in those days, and we all know they are going to fly by!! I will post more later. Hope you are enjoying following our family and can't wait to send pics from China!!

More about Dollywood!





Well, it was at Dollywood on the 25th of July that we got the call about our Travel Approvals coming in. That will be very memorable for us. I had called David Sweet and told him we were going to be at Dollywood and asked if he could call me if any information came about TA's. He of course said YES (he's so sweet!! HAHA). Well, my phone rang right as I got on the ride, so I couldn't answer it...as soon as I got off I saw he left a message that said, "Call me when you can....good news girl!!!" I knew exactly what he was going to say. I immediately called him back and he told me that we got our TA's and the tentative dates of travel were the 16-26 or 28th!! I started jumping up and down!! I was so excited. Then I told Anthony and although excited, he has to start his last year in the Master of Divinity program on the 13th, which means he is going to have to miss 2 classes!! Oh, and he's taking GREEK!!! Well, his excitement went to thinking and a little panicing I think, but he worked it all out and then got excited. We told the boys and then the in-laws and then I called my mom, Lana, Jennifer, Heather and Julie. They were all excited and a little screaming went on too....MOM!!! Anyway, after the news, I was excited all day long and still had all day to have fun.
Here are more pictures of the boys at Dollywood!! All 5 of us rode the log flume...twice. It is so fun...that's us on the top of the fall and yes, we fall straight down. Cameron closes his eyes and screams, I scream with my eyes open and Zack, Anthony and Chase hold their arms up and scream!!! It's fun however you do it!

A day at Dollywood







Well, I finally talked Anthony into taking a whole weeks vacation...besides for Christmas where we travel the whole time...in 8 years!! We spent a few days with Lana and Jasen, just the 4 of us, and then we went to the in-laws to get the boys. My FIL was off Tuesday and Wednesday, so we made a trip to Dollywood. The first day was great, and the second day it rained most of the day so we got a raincheck and are going to go back at Christmas when Olivia is here!! First time in a long time with a stroller in an amusement park!!
Anyway, here are a few pictures from our day. I made Chase wear the Birthday hat because it was going to be his birthday 2 days later! I thought it was cute...he was THOROUGHLY embarrased! Oh well. The one with Cameron and Chase on it was a ride they got on that they had to pull themselves up with a rope as a team while the part they were attached to went in circles. They thought it was fun but Cameron is VERY afraid of heights so he said that he told Chase to tell him when they were at the top (because you stopped pulling the rope and slid down to the bottom) because he wasn't looking. While he was up there we told Mrs. Betty and Mr. Willie that he fell from almost that high a couple of months ago and they were even more horrified then when I called and told them we were on the way to the ER!! I guess the visual made it more real!!
Anyway..it was a great trip. I am going to add more pics and comments on a new blog entry!!