Thursday, January 19, 2012

catch up: timeline style

October 27 came and our sweet AnnaClaire blew six candles out on her birthday cake! It's hard to believe that our baby is now six years old! She is always one to come up with quite the gifts, so it was no surprise that she asked for a guitar for her birthday! As you can probably tell from these pictures, this child is extremely spirited and full of LIFE! She always has been and I pray that she always will be. Her laughter is contagious and she always keeps us smiling. She is truly a blessing and although six seems so old, it's such a joy to watch her grow!


On October 28, the crew headed down to Auburn for my sorority's parents weekend! I got to show the whole fam around the school that I absolutely adore, which was so much fun! We went to some of my favorite restaurants, I got to introduce my friends to the whole fam, and the kids even got to experience the football game and rolling Toomers Corner! (It's a tradition here to roll these big oak trees after every win!) It was such a fun weekend!!!







October 31
was of course Halloween, which is not really a big deal in our family, but we always do have fun carving pumpkins and trick or treating! :)


November 6 was Dad's birthday! They had fun celebrating with dinner, cake, and the birthday crown of course!
The end of November brought Thanksgiving, of course! It was so fun having everyone home for the holiday! We LOVE Thanksgiving in our house, and this year was no different. Grandma was in town and she, mom, and the little girls did all of the cooking for us! Football, family, and really good food... it just doesn't get much better than that! :)






On November 25, Grace turned 12! She was the lucky one who had the whole family AND Grandma in town for her big day! We had so much fun celebrating at a favorite restaurant of everyone's! She got a few exciting things for her birthday... her favorite probably being legos! She's definitely our tomboy :) It was fun to celebrate our big girl! Hard to believe that she's TWELVE already!



The weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed to the mountains for our tradition of cutting down the Christmas tree! Cutting down the tree is always fun in our family and this year was no different. There's nothing like piling into a wagon and riding up to the top of the hill, and then walking around for the next while, trying to decide which Christmas tree is perfect for our family room! The day was complete with hot cocoa and horse rides for the littles, and then dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours-- some good ol' home cooking!



The Christmas season was really fun this year, too. Between decorating, putting together puzzles, making snowflakes, taking the train to see the singing Christmas bears downtown, visiting Santa, helping wrap presents, and finding some of the best Christmas lights in the area, we definitely got festive this Christmas and it was SO much fun!



We had a wonderful Christmas eve/day, too! I'm convinced that the bigger the family, the more fun Christmas is! :) It's just fun being together, watching the excitement of little ones open their presents, and just laugh about our goofy family! There's literally never a dull moment in our house...







I think that's about it for now. I don't have pictures from AC's gotcha day, New Years Eve, or Charlie's birthday, but I'll get them and add them eventually! It's definitely been a good couple of months... they have FLOWN by!

February 6!



That's the day. Officially! Mom and Dad are leaving the 3rd with a CA on the 13th. And most importantly, they will be holding Ellie on FEBRUARY 6th!!!!! That's less than three weeks away!!!!!!!

The flights are booked, the suitcases will eventually be packed, the aunts and Grandma will be there to take care of Grace, AC, Charlie, and Kate. And Mom and Dad will be off to China one more time. They even have Amy as their guide again! Amy was our first guide back in 2006 when we were in Hunan adopting AnnaClaire. The Lord has literally brought us full circle... back to Chenzhou, back with Amy.

I'll be following along with the rest of you. :( I wish getting out of college classes for two weeks was possible. But I can probably manage two days, so this girl will be going home to welcome my adorable baby sister HOME on February 15!

You can follow along here: www.myadoptionwebsite.com/ellieatlast! Dad has promised to take pictures for me. And Mom will take over the rest.

Prayers are so appreciated as Miss Ellie leaves all she has ever known, and as our family grows once more. IN 18 DAYS!

Praising Jesus tonight for his faithfulness always. And for his perfect timing. He is so very good.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!

Rejoicing today that the Lord has been faithful to us in what he promised back in May. Miss Ellie is coming HOME!!!!!

I'll update as soon as we have a confirmed CA and travel dates, but it is looking like Mom and Dad will be leaving on February 3rd and holding precious Ellie on the 6th! Thank you for praying and journeying with us all these months. I know I've have been so distant, but I promise to post soon and catch y'all up with the family and also a little bit of what Jesus has been showing me!

But as for now, we celebrate the fact that Ellie is FINALLY coming home. We covet your prayers as we make the journey to China once more and adopt another precious treasure into our family!

"What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do." -Isaiah 46:11