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.

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

SO much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving...

But we'll start with naming one...

WE HAVE LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY.

170 days later and the email came on Thanksgiving of all days :)

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 106:1

So many updates!!!

Sorry for leaving y'all wondering about us for the past couple of months! I figured y'all deserve a little update on the happenings of our family, so here you go! Sorry it's SO long in coming!!

First up-- ELLIE! All our stuff has been super delayed because our entire dossier was lost, and so we are having to do the re-use process, but we are working on getting her home as soon as possible! Still waiting for LOA, unfortunately. The whole process has been extremely frustrating considering we sent LOI back in May and were already through review, but trusting God in HIS perfect timing! Our agency did tell us yesterday that we should have it in at least 2-4 weeks. Not soon enough, but at least a light at the end of the tunnel! But here are some updated pictures of our girl... isn't she ADORABLE?!?! The last 2 are from back in August and the first 4 we were sent yesterday from our agency! Our baby girl is now 17 months old and has 16 teeth and weighs 22 pounds! Can't wait for her to be a part of our FAM! Never thought we'd still be waiting...

As for the family, everyone is doing well!!! I was home at the end of Sept. for homecoming and it was SO good seeing everyone! AnnaClaire is doing soccer, Kate is loving dance, Grace is swimming, and Charlie just got his leg braces off so that is good news! They are all doing great with homeschool stuff and I'm sure keeping Mom very busy! I miss seeing their precious little faces daily, so it was good getting some time, although it went by much too fast! They're coming down this weekend and I'm so excited to show the littles off to all my friends and show them all around AU! AnnaClaire turns SIX tomorrow, which is just crazy! My babies are growing up without me!! They are all doing so great though!

Dad sent me all of these yesterday... they are from trips to the apple farm and pumpkin patch! I know they are all enjoying and embracing fall back at home! I may be biased, but I have the cutest siblings in the world :)





Yesterday was Kate's THIRD gotcha day!!! I can't even believe it's been 3 years since this precious little girl joined our family and changed my life! I remember it like it was yesterday... the screams, the tears, the heartbreak, the resistance, and the somber little 19 month old that slowly broke down her walls and let us in... and that same little princess is now 4 and a half and so full of JOY and LIFE no matter how small she may be! I love her more than words could ever describe and am so thankful that I have the absolute blessing of being called her big sister! I so wish I could've been there to celebrate her special day but am thankful to at least have some pictures to remind me of how thankful I am for HER and that God chose HER to be a part of our family!

My PRECIOUS roommate!

As for me, I am LOVING Auburn! I cannot imagine being anywhere else in the world! God has blessed me ABUNDANTLY here and I am so thankful! I have an incredible roommate who has become one of my very best friends and precious girls that I have met in my dorm and become very good friends with! I am in a sorority and loving that! It's so much fun though and a great group of girls! I'm definitely staying busy between balancing all of the social stuff and schoolwork, but getting used to the balance! I'm going to a Church that I love and hope to become more and more involved in. And of course football is great. Even though we aren't having the best season, it's still been so fun to watch and I've gotten to visit some of my friends at other schools for our away games, which is SO fun! I've seriously had such an amazing adjustment here and just love college life! Obviously not every moment is easy and there are definite lonely times and times when I wish I could just be home for a little (my own space, home cooked meals, my family, my friends from home, being familiar with everything and everyone would be nice... you know, those typical things that everyone misses!) However, I am extremely blessed and ADORE Auburn! My friends and I are always going on walks and we just stop in amazement that THIS is our school!

So that's about all I can think of for now. Sorry I just left you all hanging for so long and come back with such a long post!!! I've missed blogging and having a record of everything going on in our lives! I'm going to try and teach Mom how to blog so she can pick it up and keep y'all updated, especially as we get closer to completing our family!!