Friday Finds!

O.k. I have a few finds/things I love right now:0) First is the book "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge. This book I have read last year as a book study, it changed my life.....I could write a whole blog post on this book. However I won't bore you all:0) So I'll just say its a book you have to read when you have silence around you! No interruptions! No kiddies! No husbands! If you plan on reading find a quiet place and I suggest reading one chapter every few days so you can really reflect on each subject. I was planning on redoing this study starting last week but the ladies that were coming all felt we have alot going on and other studies we are attending. This Fall we plan on reading it though and I am very excited!

Soooo this next book comes out next Tuesday May 4th, and my sister Krista and I are so excited! Yes I will be there when the bookstore opens!!! Just kidding:0) It's totally cheesy and (gasp) about vampires and is total drivel, but it is such a funny series and I love it! So I guess I am a cheesy drivel loving nerd! And I am totally ok with that.

Yum-0 I just picked up a couple packages of Starbucks yummy instant coffee for our trip to China. Now they even have travel mugs that will hold up to 6 individual packages of the coffee! I may have to invest in 2 of those as well;) My only concern is I like a little cream in my coffee and that doesn't pack so well. We will have to get creative and figure something out.

I just picked up this CD from our Christian bookstore. Usually I just buy singles on iTunes, but this whole CD is awesome! I would say they are an alternative christian band. I have been listening to them all week on repeat, and still love the whole album:0)

O.k. are these not the cutest swimsuits ever?I think Addison and Riley may need matching ones!

These are Kate Mack's ballerina tutu swimsuit and I have noticed they have tonnes on ebay! I can just picture the girls in these matching swimsuits playing at the beach!

And finally Matilda Jane clothing. Sigh I so love their summer line called Hammond Bay. I have ordered this outfit and one more for Addison and was hoping to order the matching one for Riley but they are sold out of Miss Riley-roo's size:( I was hoping to have pictures of the girls done once we are home for a bit. However by the end of August or September all the Fall stuff will be out so I'll be sure to order early!

Anyways these are some of the things I have fallen in love with lately.

Application Status Change

We just found out our application for Addison's adoption has had a status change at the CCAA.....our application has been approved. This is really just a pre-approval, the CCAA still has to comb through our dossier before we get our LOA (letter of approval) But this pre-approval came alot quicker than I expected! So we will celebrate this baby step in the right direction:0)

What We Know About Addison.....So Far

Right now Addison is living in Wuhan city in the Province of Hubei. She is living in foster care and has been in this foster home since she was 3 months old. We were very excited to hear she is in foster care, but realize our first few days could be extremely hard as little Miss will be doing some major grieving. Addie loves the outdoors and her favourite toys are cars:0)

Addison has been described as shy, loving, talkative and a sound sleeper (yahoo!) She loves her foster Mom, and knows where and points to her eyes, ears, mouth and nose. She knows the word "no" She is said to get along well with others and is said to be fairly introverted.

At the time of her medical exam she was 19lbs and 82cm tall. She also has 16 teeth. Apparently she eats well and lots of variety. It says she loves to go to the supermarket to shop with her foster mom! Well with a family our size it seems like we go daily!!! So she have no shortage of supermarket outings:0) It also says the family loves her very much, I am so happy about that info. I am glad on one hand that she has been in a loving home, yet on the other hand I am sad that we will be taking her faraway from that loving home.....if the family had a choice would they keep her? Do they have a choice? Of course we want her....but is it "right" to take her away from a loving family? I know others whom have adopted struggle with that knowledge, I guess we just pray and trust that we are the right family for her and love her to bits. I can't wait to meet Miss Addison I am so curious to see how much of the info we have received is true:0) I have found some uber cute stuff on the Matilda Jane website and I think I will be making an order this week! Riley says she NEEDS some hair pretties! So I will leave her in charge of that;) I am just now trying to get together some family pictures for a photo album we will send out. Also a friend suggested that Howard and I use a digital voice recorder and read her some books so she can hear our voices. I really like that idea! I am trying to decide if I need some new shoes as I will want to break them in before we go, Howard was in need of new runners so we picked those up yesterday. Come on LOA! We are hoping to travel in August!?!

First Weekend After Referral

My Mom and Dad! It's so nice to have them living close enough (right now) so they can visit! We hope they will be up in our neck of the woods for the rest of the year!


My parents brought the cake....really? We need a cake this size for 7 people!?! Lol!

We had this picture made last year when we were visiting Disneyland, the kids wanted Addison to know we were thinking of her.

Some of little Miss Addison's room. We will get to painting it one day!

Wow! What a whirlwind these past few days have been! We had the pleasure of having my parents come up to our house for an overnighter. We received Addison's referral the day before my Dad's birthday! So they came up to celebrate both events with us! We had a great time! My parents left on Saturday afternoon, and Howard and I went out with some dear friends of ours to celebrate our referral! We went to an amazing Chinese food/Martini bar. Our friends brought there daughter home from China 18 months ago, so they totally get how excited we are:0) The food was amazing and Trina and Vince said it was very comparable to their favourite dinning experience in China. I think it was one of the best meals out I have ever had. Sunday we had a Bbq after church and I recruited our guests help in rearranging Addison's bedroom and hanging pictures etc. in there. We have decided to leave the queen size bed set up in her room as well as the crib, they both fit comfortably. I chose not to paint Addison's room for many reasons 1. We have only been in the house for 2 years and it didn't need painting 2. The other kids would have been miffed if I painted her room a special colour and theirs was left in the builders spec colour. 3. I could paint one room, but to do all four of my kids rooms in the next 4 months sounded like more work then I was willing to commit to! So Addison's room will remain the same tan colour as the rest of our house, until I get ambitious and want to paint and pick out themes for 4 rooms:0)

I still think it looks cute with the wall hangings and bedding we chose. Today was spent running around getting photocopies of stuff for Addison's citizenship application, picking up things I want to bring to China, choosing a care package to send her and writing a letter to be added to the care package. Oh yeah and the Canadian $ is at par with the US so we are debating whether to cash in our orphanage donation now or wait and see what happens in the next few months! Its funny I have a million little things flying through my head, some are seriously ridiculous and others need to be dealt with soon. I believe I have lists within lists! I am so far liking this part of the process because I have things I can be doing! While my parents were here we went shopping for a camera! Yay! I have lived without for long enough! I was wanting a DSLR, but was a little nervous I wouldn't have the time to learn how to take great pictures with it. So I decided to buy a ultra zoom digital camera instead. Its a step down from the DSLR but I am very happy with my decision, and when my kids get older and I have more time for a hobby I think then I will get a DSLR to play with:0) I am so excited to not have to "borrow" my kids point and shoot cameras anymore! Well I should get dinner started....in the next day or two I want to do a post about Addison and the info we have thus far. So until then have a great day!

Finally....Here She Is!

Here she is..... our newest little Mervyn!

Guoying Wu ( Addison Hope Guoying)

Born April 9,2008

Wuhan, Hubei

We just sent out our LOI (letter of intention to adopt) So now we wait for a letter of approval (LOA) from China and then TA (travel approval) and then we fly to China a get our girl:0)

I have this silly song in my head from Nihao Kailan "were going to China, were going to China...I feel so happy..." Hahaha Riley loves it when I sing the song to her:0)

What a crazy day we had yesterday... I was already overbooked:0) ( Isn't that how it always works!) We had heard the new list was coming out on the 21st (China time) so I figured if we were to get a call it would be first thing in the morning.....boy was I wrong! I had a day full of running around like a chicken with my head chopped off:0) When I ran home to drop off a few things before I picked the boys up from school I almost didn't answer the phone, I really did consider it, thinking I would be late..... well I was late because it was our referral! I was so shocked....it may have been one of the few times I was actually speechless!lol! So I ran to get the kids, and then phoned Howard from home and then finally was able to open my email which contained, all of our sweet little ones info a pictures:0) Oh did I mention we had to leave a few minutes later as I was serving at the church!!! I can not remember one conversation I had that evening as all I could thing about was getting home and seeing that sweet little face again! So I apologize to anyone who thought I was off on Wednesday night....I was off! I am writing this and I know the story sounds silly an meaningless but I want to remember that day, I want to read this later and laugh at how crazy, wonderful, blessed and scary that day was:0) I now have a million and one things to do before we go. Anyone have a great packing list!?!

The kids are excited, but are more concerned with who will be hanging with them when Howard and I go to China! Each one has there own idea on who would be best:0) Riley is concerned that Addison has "boy clothes" on!!!! And should we send them a note to let them know that Addie is a girl!!! I almost peed myself laughing when she said that! Josh likes that she has a birthmark like the one he had when he was a baby! And Nathan well he thinks its "cool"! (11 yr old indifference!)

As much as I am excited I feel like I am in shock a little. I am sure that will pass soon. We spoke to Dr Baxter (international adoption specialist) this evening and everything seems to look positive with Addison. I was concerned with keeping the name Addison....but Howard was adamant about it. Since he is rarely opinionated about things, I agreed with him. He felt that our little girl that came home from China was always meant to be Addison. I feel utterly and truly blessed that God would entrust this amazing wonderful little girl to our care! And trusted Him even when we thought things had all fallen apart a couple months ago, we trusted that He would place the child that was always meant to be in our home.

Many, O Lord my God,

are the wonders you have done.

The things you have planned for us

no one can recount to you;

were I to speak and tell of them,

they would be too many to declare. ~Psalm 40:5~

I read this verse this morning and that is exactly how I feel. I can't put into words all the amazing and wonderful things God has blessed my family with. All I can feel is humbled, amazed and last but not least THANKFUL!

EEEK We Have a Referral!

I guess the title says it all:0) We have an official referral, and once we have gotten more medical info tomorrow we will post a picture of our sweet little girl! And of course share some more information. All I can say is what a day! I already had a crazy busy day ahead of us and then add in a referral call minutes before I had to pick the kids up from school, all I can say is chaos, joyful chaos:0) I will share more hopefully tomorrow!

April's List

All I can say is 4 more sleeps until the new shared list comes out!!!! Hopefully April is our month:0) Sigh.....at least its only 4 more sleeps until we know if we have a referral this month or not! Have a fab weekend! We plan on enjoying our spectacular weather:0) +20 we are all wearing capris, shorts, and flip flops;) I so love when winter gives way to spring!

Som Finds!

I really don't have much to update on! We had a lovely weekend, Howard was home for 4 days and we even got out on a date (lunch and equipment auction!hahaha!) The lunch was lovely and I actually had fun crawling in and out of all the the travel trailers the auction will be selling this week. The kids are great and we saw some dear friends we haven't seen in a while.

I thought I would share a couple finds. This magazine( Life: beautiful)is awesome its has some tea party ideas, an article on China some yummy recipes, and if you look in the front it has a calender with scripture reading from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs for each day so you can read the Bible in a year. There is also some great articles from Dr James Dobson, Max Lucado, Dr Gary Smalley and Joyce Meyer in each publication. If your in Western Canada I got my magazine at Save On Foods.

My second find is... on Ebay a girl can find some high end bras! Think Freya, Fantasie etc. etc.

for a quarter of the price they sell for in specialty stores most of them New With Tags (NWT) I like to support our local retailers but when the bra I want is $168 and I can by it for $46 it makes it rather hard to shop local! I will continue to shop locally once in a while, but for my favourite bras that I know the size and model# I think Ebay might be the ticket:0)

On a different note.....can that darn waiting child list come out already:0) We're on pins and needles over here! Hope you have a lovely week, I plan to get out and enjoy our spectacular weather they are forecasting with my Riley-girl we might have to do a picnic at the park if it truly reaches the highs they are forecasting!

Not much excitement around here

Well its April which means.......that the new SN list will be out anywhere between 5-19 days (if it is released when expected) I am starting to get some little butterflies in my stomach when I think about it! We may be matched this month, then again maybe not.....I am soooo ready to get on with this! And meet our newest little member of our family. I am shopping around for car seats and a stroller, and loving it:0) When we had our first child Nate, we were so young and had very little so most of what we had for baby gear were hand me downs, don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with second hand items, but it's such a treat to be able to pick exactly what you want this time around:0)
This last week the sun has been shinning and the daylight is lasting so much longer, I think it was 8PM and it wasn't dark out! All of our snow is almost gone! Except the big piles. We even saw a few people wearing sandals and capri pants!!!! It so isn't that warm yet:0) I think our highs have been +5 so its still chilly, but I guess when you live in Northern Alberta as soon as its in the pluses people think its time to pull out the shorts!lol! I have been loving Winners. They have so many cute little sets for Riley this year. I have also really been loving Matilda Jane and Etsy. The boys haven't grown much over the year so I think most of their last year stuff will fit.
We are in the process of shopping for a travel trailer, as Howard will be working away from home most of the summer. The area he is working in is 30 minutes away from our church camp land so we thought if we had a trailer out there it would cut down on hotel expenses and the kids and I could come and go every couple days. The camp land is awesome a slow moving river with sandy banks cuts through the property so we can swim and play. I think we might make a trip to Edmonton next weekend to take a look at a few of the trailers we like, and do some shopping:0)The kids have been bugging us to go to the indoor waterpark at West Edmonton Mall and since we won't be going on a vacation down south this year at least we can do this with them!
I am hoping Howard will have tomorrow off (Easter Sunday) its a possibility even though its his weekend to work. A really nice lady from our church heard that we were "on our own" for Easter and she invited us to join her family for dinner, did I mention she already has 32 people confirmed for dinner!?! I guess when you have that many family members whats 5 more people! I'm not sure if we will go, we have lived here for 8 years and have gotten use to not having family around for all the holidays. Usually I would have some other people over for dinner, but I just wasn't on it this year:0) I think the first couple years I felt homesick, but now I enjoy the holidays and creating our own traditions. Don't get me wrong if my family showed up on our front steps I would be ecstatic!
Well now that I have babbled on about basically nothing, because thats exactly whats been going on here! Busy with the kids but busy with the same old same old and loving it:) I should get ready for the day! Hope you have a Happy Easter!

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday and I have spent this Passion Week reflecting on what it is that God did for us through Jesus. Usually we see these "pretty" pictures of a beautiful Jesus on a cross. Well it wasn't pretty what he went through for us..... I think we forget or take for granted that what Jesus went through for us was the ultimate act of love. He was betrayed by one of his best friends, and then was beaten so badly that by all accounts his organs should have been visible (the beating probably should have killed him) the Romans tried to humiliate him with his crown of thorns, and then finally after all these atrocities he had spikes driven through his wrists and feet on a cross. And then he took all of our sins past, present and future on himself.... Jesus the man who when he walked this earth never ever sinned. God forsook his one and only son so that we the imperfect people of this world could never feel what its like to be truly forsaken by God, have a choice of a relationship with him and a chance of eternal life with him in heaven! Even those of us who don't believe have never known what its like to be truly and wholly forsaken by God. Every good and wonderful gift we have received is from him, the fact we are breathing right now is a gift from him. So I reflect on what Jesus did and the pain he felt for me, and I am humbled and amazed and Thank you hardly seems adequate. This week I have learned through quiet time, prayer,and a couple amazing messages that God is GOOD! Like crazy good. I knew that, but did I truly believe it? Even in the "dark times" We have all had those dark times. But in this time of reflection I think for me I truly believed that God is good and that he is truly for me! That now when I am in the dark that instead of asking why? I will choose to ask what? What, God do you want me to do with this? How can I use this pain for your glory? What is your plan for me? I think for me that is the only way for me to "carry my cross" to show my gratitude for Jesus sacrifice for me.... I know I can never earn what he did for me, but I know I can choose for my pain and sorrow to stunt me and my growth and affect others negatively in my life; or I can choose to allow God to use it for good. So I hope that the latter is what I will choose each morning when I wake up. I know I am not very eloquent in my writing but I am truly passionate that people get this! I watched an amazing message on Life Church's website and would encourage anyone who needs some encouragement to check out their site Pastor Craig Groeschel is an amazing speaker. www.lifechurch.tv The message I am talking about is called Red Letter Day and it is message number 1 in the series. Anyways I hope you and your family's have a wonderful Easter weekend!