Good news? Not good news?

Well, I'm really trying to be happy about this. We got an email from our agency today with really wonderful news-- really. Our social worker announced that she is 6 months pregnant with her first child. Isn't that wonderful?? Yes, I thought so. Until I realized that new baby = maternity leave. Now, I really have no right to worry about this, because truly, it is all GOD'S timing. But of course I am worried. What if we don't find our little one before she goes on leave in April? How is the replacement SW going to be? Will she be as diligent? What if she decides to take more than two months off when she realizes her baby is sweeter than she imagined?? So many unknowns, I'm really trying not to let my head spin. Dear Lord, help me be patient.

Adoption update

Sorry. Not much to report. Here's a bit of encouragement, though! According to the small sampling of folks logged in to USCIS on the Rumor Queen website, it would seem that wait times for approval are decreasing!! While I'm not expecting to have approval for a few more weeks yet, we are quite hopeful that we at least will not exceed the 90 day maximum window that USCIS strives for. Our approval should come at the end of January. At that time, we can get all of our documents authenticated and SENT OFF TO CHINA!! We are kind of cutting it close on this one, but our medical exams reach their 1 year point on March 6th, so we're REALLY hoping to not have to redo them. Steve's doctor, as some may recall, was a little bit of an idiot when it came to this. That's all for now, we'll keep you updated!
p.s. we'll start looking at files once we get documents off to China-- on the other hand, we're so close... maybe we'll start looking the next time files come out to the shared list! Please continue to pray for us.

Merry Christmas

To all our family and friends near and far that mean the world to us, Merry Christmas! May you be blessed with the HOPE and JOY that the infant Savior brought to a needy world. Our prayer for you is that you are safe, warm, well-fed, and surrounded by love today and always.
WE LOVE YOU!!

Bring it ON!!!

Okay, yes, I am one of those people that just adores the snow. I am a homebody and generally don't have any pressing places to go, so this week has been great for me! The cold weather has lasted all week long and it has been so beautiful. It snowed again on Wednesday, but both of our snows were so piddly and unimpressive...until tonight! There is supposed to be some major storm moving in with winds and ice and scary and all, blah, blah, blah, but for now, we're basically having a blizzard. My dad and I went for a nice little walk where we had to keep our faces down, lest our eyes get stabbed by the shooting dart flakes. My dad had basically discovered a frozen pond in the road of the neighborhood across the street from their house. And what do you know? I still had my ice skates at their house from some 15 years ago! So of COURSE we had to go try it out. I think we were only out for about 30 minutes, but it was the coldest 30 minutes I have ever experienced at home in Western Washington (I've lived here all my life). We had a blast, though, complete with about 5 rounds back and forth on this little pond-- that was all I could stand! Dad said this snow reminded him of the midwest snows of his childhood. Crazy!

Here's a picture of our freezing venture, so much fun!

Samuel making his first snow angel.

Samuel and Uncle trying out the sled together earlier this week.

Uncle and Timothy enjoying the beautiful winter wonderland.

I'm totally bummed that it is supposed to start raining. Oh well, it has been a great way to slow down and enjoy our time before Christmas. It's way too easy to forget that. Be blessed!

Let it Snow!

We, here, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest have apparently been picked up and moved to an area of the world that gets actual cold weather. Don't get me wrong, we do have years when we get the occasional snow storm that the news jumps on and hypes up with the idiot reporter standing in the middle of-- well, usually just some empty field that WILL be covered with snow sometime early this week... but here in Washington, the snow generally lasts for a few hours to a day and then leaves us for rain, rain and more rain. It doesn't really freeze along with the snow. Well, on Saturday, we actually saw it freeze FIRST and then snow! Where we live, we only got about 3 inches, but it is THE REAL THING!! The kind where you can see individual ice crystals and blow it off your gloves before it melts. Powder, baby. And the amazing thing is, it is still so cold that the forecast believes we won't see above freezing temps for a week or more yet!! WHERE ARE WE, AGAIN??? So, Samuel and Timothy were excited to wake up to a world of white outside (okay, I was too) and of course going outside was the first thing they wanted to do that day. Samuel was quite disappointed that he could not make a snowball or a snowman-- and really, who can blame him? We did have a blast with our sled, though. We have an awesome sledding hill in our front yard. Unfortunately it ends right in our not-so-friendly neighbor's yard. We may have to track down some hay bales to remedy that. Anyway, here are some fun pictures of our adventures! Enjoy and stay warm!!


By the way, I know I look like a dork in this picture-- I am wearing a size 2T hat.

This is our winter view, isn't it pretty? In the summer all the trees have leaves, so we can't see the lake, but now we love to take advantage of the view!

A Little Math

Yesterday, Samuel was contemplating the bit of imbalance we have in this household, gender-wise. He noted that we have 3 boys in our house, but just the one girl. And he figured that when we come back from China, we will have two girls, but still more boys which apparently is not okay. So, he came up with a solution that I really feel is a good one: we come back from China with TWO little girls! Way to go, Samuel, that's my boy!! I wonder if I'll be able to talk DH into that one...? (What do you think Noelle? Pretty good solution, eh?!)

Fingerprints? CHECK!

Not very exciting, but we just went in for our biometrics appointment at the local USCIS office this morning. We are just one step closer, trying to keep our chins up with the increasing wait times even for SN. Keep the prayers coming, it's so hard to wait.