Thursday, December 31, 2009

Belated Christmas Gift

We got a very unexpected and exciting phone call from Cathy, our adoption coordinator! She wanted to let us know that she heard from Daina, our Latvian lawyer and coordinator, and she needed to know if we could travel in Feburary! Of course we can! It was so awesome to not expect to hear anything and then to get the call! We started rattling off a ton of questions at a speed of 90 miles an hour! She didn't have the answer to most of them, but she said she would do her best to find us some answers.

This news really lit a fire under me and I started cleaning and organizing like a crazy person! I got the office done (for those of you that have been in there, you know what a feat that was!), the toy room done, which was a complete disaster, and Agnese's room finished (expect for one desk drawer). We also got Ryleigh and Daniela's room done, except for the wallpaper border that will go around the window and the curtain hung up. I feel so blessed when I go from room to room and know that God has blessed us so much with these four girls. My new year's resolution is to be the best mom I can be.

We are having some friends over tonight to ring in 2010 and I am really looking forward to it! I love playing games and laughing and hanging our with good friends! My girls are excited to have their own kid party in the basement. Ryleigh said "Are we going to watch that ball thing drop like we always do?" I said, "Yes", but what I was thinking was "Sure, just like you have one time in your life!!!" Good times!

Our prayer as we reflect on 2009 is that every person could know the freedom and love you have when you are in relationship with Jesus. He is the reason we have found true happiness and contentment! Have a blessed new year!

Stay tuned... WE ARE GOING TO LATVIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Holiday Happenings

We survived Christmas although the girls were up about 5 times during the night, full of excitement and anticipation! We finally just gave up and started our day at about 4:45! It was a great day, but we didn't make it to Tim's grandma's because of the weather.

Tim's parents got us a Wii and it has been nonstop fun for all of us! Reagan loves bowling and Tim is finding it fun to play tennis and golf. My favorite is the boxing, even though I am super sore from it! Ryleigh likes to play everything and has definitely spent the most time playing it.

We are very blessed to be sharing our adoption knowledge with some very good friends of ours (The Friend Family!!) as they begin their journey to their daughter who is here with Brad and Stacy on the New Horizons hosting program. It's so awesome to watch God open doors and work things out! We are excited for them and for our girls who will have a friend from their birth country!

Tim and I have spent some time working on our name list to give the girls if they want an American name. It's really fun to name pre-teens that you already know, rather than a baby that you know nothing about!

We took the girls to Silver Dollar City last night and had fun seeing the lights and Christmas parade and riding a few rides. They both love Fire in the Hole! Good times!

Looking forward to a fun New Year's Eve party at our house!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Blog Kick-Off!

Well, we chose this name several months ago, with the intention of starting to document our journey to Latvia with the paperwork stage, but...
that didn't happen! So, since we have given this blog address out to several people in our Christmas card, we figured we better get started!
We wanted to start a new blog to help keep our friends and family updated on our adoption of Agnese and Daniela. We finished our paperwork with only a few bumps along the way (courtesy of our homestudy agency that we will no longer be recommending) and mailed it to Latvia on my birthday, November 20th! The only thing we have heard from our agency is that they have not heard anything yet and our person in Latvia is on vacation until January. BUMMER! It would have been such an awesome Christmas gift to hear that we have been approved by the Latvian government to be adoptive parents. It is so, so, so much faster than China, but nevertheless, it is so hard to be patient. We still hope that we will hear something soon and be able to travel in January. I am beyond ready to see the girls again and be able to hug them and see how much they have grown in the last few months. We are both worried that we could possibly be gone on Reagan's birthday, which would be difficult and sad for us. We will keep praying and try to give it all over to God and let Him work it all out, since He does have a knack for that!

We are ready for Christmas and hope for snow, but not so much that we can't make the Christmas day rounds to both sides of the family.

Ryleigh's basketball team won second place tonight in their basketball league at the Courts! They have some so far together as a team and I am proud of Ryleigh for all the ways she has improved. I love being a basketball mom! Tim has been pretty vocal at the games lately, too! We are probably going to get the reputation of "most obnoxious fans"!