Good- bye 2009

It is time to take down the Christmas Tree and get everything ready for the New Year! I love my tree it is decorated with pictures of my kids from the time they were babies until present. Setting up the tree is a time of reflection as I pull out each picture ornament and find the perfect spot on the tree for that picture, I reminisce about each child and what was happening when the picture was taken, where we lived and what was going on in our lives.
The same is true when I take down the tree I am sad to be packing up so many memories, but I am also looking towards the future hoping that this will be the year that the girls come home, and thinking about all the great things that are going to happen for our family in the coming year! Good- bye 2009 like an old pair of ratty shoes that have trudged through too much muck and mire, you will not be missed. Hello 2010 there is great expectation in store for you, please don't disappoint!

Make a Smilebox greeting

My Late Christmas Present!

I opened my email today and look what I found...
UPDATES!!!

Avrie looks so good, happy and healthy!

I can't believe how long her hair is after I cut if off in June!

And Destina, I can't wait to get her home! She is wearing one of the shirts I left with her..

I miss them so much! No news on our file yet!

Our Christmas Adventure!

2 - the number of parents/grandparents we were able to visit

5 - the number of days we were gone!
7 - the number of people we had in the SUV
2000 - the number of miles we traveled
32 - the number of hours spent in the car with our children
4- the number of states we were in or driving through

6 - the number of siblings, including Lisa, that we got to see
Brother-in-law Dan!

Brother-in-law- Mark and
Sister-in-law Cathlin

Sister Julie and niece Nalaya

Niece Lisa, but more like a sister, and hubby Paul

Big sister Sheree hubby Eric and Jay!

3 - the number of restaurants we ate at

10 - the number of cousins (not counting spouses and their children) we had the chance to reconnect with
9 - the number of friends we had a chance to visit with wish it could have been more and for a longer time

The memories from this trip were too many to count we had a great time cramming so much into so little, we came home tired and worn out from all the fun! Thank you to Julie and Grandma and Grandpa for letting us stay with you and for taking such good care of us!

Christmas Song 2009

Make sure your volume is up loud, it is a little hard to hear, and we were too tired to do a retake!

Merry Christmas

Can You Guess....

which one of my girls just came home for Christmas from Hawaii???

Her plane was 3 hours late, she landed at 12:05 AM we were on the road headed back home at 12:40 AM and pulled into the driveway at 2:30 AM my head hit the pillow at 3:00AM! We are so happy to have you home for 2 weeks!
We have been making cookies all day and delivering them along with our Christmas Song if you do not live close enough to us to get our cookies and our free entertainment stay tuned I can share the entertainment but you are out of luck on the cookies!

WELCOME HOME MCKENZIE!!

Stockings are Hung by the Chimney With Care...

Wishing they could be here for Christmas!

Adoption Analogy -- Running on the Treadmill

Adoption is hard, my adoption has been extremely hard. So today I have come up with several analogy's that I feel relate to my adoption experience. Now I don't want to discourage anyone from adoption because in the end I will have my girls home and this will have been one of the hardest, yet best experiences in my life. And my experience is on the upper end of the worst case scenario in the adoption world, I know there are worse, but there are also a lot of cases that are better!
I love the Amazing Race so this analogy is along those lines....When we started out we had 2 choices, kind of like a detour in the Amazing Race, we could run on the bumpy road with pot holes and obstacles in our way, but the end was determined and if we made it we would be through that detour in a relatively short time. The second choice was to run on a smooth treadmill with the occasional bump in the road but the catch here was there was no end in sight. Somehow we must have choosen the treadmill route, I feel like I have been running on this treadmill for a really long time and once in a while someone will yell out to me sorry, you must start over....so I get back on the treadmill and push the start button and get my energy back up and start the run again. I am going along and then I hear sorry, you must start over again but this time it wont be so bad you have already been running for so long that surly this time will be a shorter distance you are almost there! So I drag my tired body back on the treadmill push the resume where left off button and I am happily on my way knowing that the end will be here soon, right? I have already been running a long time. I even get encouraging words along the way from my fan club, "hang in there it will be any day now and it will be your turn to get off". This goes on for quite a while and I'm getting tired. Next thing I know I am being told no, no, no, you were not almost done running you had to start all over, again, you just didn't know it this time, but now you are getting close to the end, it should be any day now and you will be able to get off of the treadmill called IBESR and on to the next task.

Best Friends

These two have always looked out for each other, I can't wait to hear their story of how they became such good friends. Destina would give her prized possession to Abie and I know Abie would do the same I have seen it happen time and time again on the trips. They look out for each other, they make sure the other one has enough food, toys, and snacks. They like to share shoes, every trip I see Abie wearing a pair of Destina's shoes and Destina wearing Abie's shoes, they willing give to each other. They share a very unique bond that I hope they will never forget. Abie will be coming home before Destina and I know they will both feel the loss when Abie leaves. It will be so much fun to see these too visiting each other over the years to see if that bond continues to grow, I am so glad that Destina has had Abie and that they look out for each other, it is nice to know that someone has your back!