1.  This weekend one my favorite local annual events took place....the giant used book sale at the state fairgrounds!  Admission is free and there are gazillions of used books all organized in categories - and all for sale super cheap...$1.00, $2.00, $0.50, etc.  Love it!  We were there a couple of hours and stocked up on some kids books....

2.  Also, this Saturday I received my Friends for Adoption goodie from Melissa.  This is adorable........

...and this little book is so uplifting.  Thank you Melissa!

3.  Another thing I meant to mention is that last summer we had the awesome opportunity to attend a picnic with other families who have adopted through our agency.  We had a great time making new friends, hearing their stories, and meeting the precious children adopted into their families.  When we were leaving, one of the ladies gave us two tickets for the amusement park.  They don't expire, and she gave them to us to take our future children to the park.  Her gesture was so sweet and encouraging!

Happy Miscellany Monday!!!  Here's how YOU can join the fun....lowercase letters

It's Miscellany Monday!

1.  My Friends for Adoption friend, Melissa, sent this to me for January.  It deserves to be in a frame and I am working on that.  This is one of my favorite songs.  I love it and it reminds me that through Christ I have victory and I need not let the world make me feel defeated.  Thanks Melissa!

2.  I've been busy with work, etc. lately and didn't get a chance to post anything around Christmas.  My 3-year-old nephew got this for Christmas and once he opened the box, this was his outfit for the remainder of the evening. (My sis-in-law said it was $1.50 at Ikea.  What a deal!)

3.  My brother, whom I miss dearly because he lives in a different state, is in high school (yes we are far apart in age) and he plays goalie for a local hockey team.  He always loved hockey and the goalie position, and this year an opportunity for him to play came about and they actually had need for a goalie on the team (totally a God-thing!) .  So he has been busy playing many games, getting experience, and having a great time.  Here he is in action.  I'm so proud of him!

 

 

4.  I was having a crazy week at home and work again last week and my sweet husband sent these to me at work to cheer me up.  Aren't the unexpected surprises the best!

5.  Ok, I just read that Russian hot chocolate is like a melted bar of chocolate that you can eat with a spoon.  Um....what can be better that that?  Yummy!  I am definitely going to have to try that.  Hmmm, I wonder if it comes in dark chocolate flavor....

Happy Miscellaney Monday!  Wanna participate?  Check out my friend Carissa's site at lowercase letters.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's 2012 - We're getting closer!

We were excited to see the turn of the new year as we believe this will be the year we finally get to be parents!  So where are we at in the whole process?  Well, in the Fall we updated our paperwork that was turning about a year old (because once it's a year old it's considered expired by Russia).  Then in October our coordinator told us we could start gathering new paperwork that will be required for court.  If we can get most of this together before we get a referral and make our first trip to Russia, then we will be able to get a court date faster.  So over the past few months we've gathered, notarized, apostilled, and fowarded 90% of the paperwork that we are able to prepare before court. And the most recent update from our coordinator is that we are now at the top of the waiting list with a few other families from our agency (YAY!), so basically at this point we are just waiting for 2 little ones to be matched up to us.  We are being told that we should receive a referral somewhere around February to April.  We're so excited!!!  We are just trying to keep ourselves busy as we continue to wait.  We hope for a referral soon, as we are ready to meet the little ones that we'll have the blessing of being parents to!

I have to also say that we are very excited to have a majority of the paperwork done.  Adoption requires A LOT of paperwork!!!  But don't take my comment as complaining...I know every bit of it is totally worth it to give 2 little ones a forever family.  We're just glad to get most of it done and be ready for the fun part - being parents!!

So, I have to add....if we only knew that we would have this much paperwork, we would not have started off with this to hold our papers....

...which we quickly filled up to the max and had to switch to this pink file box....

....(oh and yes, that is a stack of approximately 50 documents needed for court sitting next to it!) The pink file box reached it's maximum a month ago so we bought this to hold it all....

We're anticipating that this file box will be large enough to contain all the paperwork here on out. 

Welcome 2012!!!