Kindergarten and 2nd grade!

I know I probably say this every year, but I have no idea how this happened so quickly.  I can still remember when they were just born.  I think I blinked, and they grew overnight.  I've tried to prepare myself for this day for a while.  Having both kids in "big school" is a huge adjustment.  This is Emma's 3rd year in school, so I think I've become pretty used to that.  She LOVES school, and seeing her excitement for it has always made it easier to watch her walk out of the door every day.  But I also think it has been easier because I've always had Liam here with me.  Watching him walk out the door and being home alone for a big part of the day has been a really big adjustment.

Thankfully, I'm not writing this on the actual first day of school or I might not be able to see the screen through the tears.  They've been in school for about a month now, and I'm starting to get more used to it.  I definitely miss my sweet one-on-one time with Liam.  Little things remind me of him during the day, and then I remember that he isn't at home.  And then I start to think about how he's at school, learning new things, meeting new friends and in a whole new world.  My initial reaction is to want to protect him and make sure he is safe and loved.  But then I have to stop myself.

It's a scary thing to have your kids in school for most of the day.  For the first 5 years of their lives, you can "try" to control almost everything (or at least feel like you're in control of it).  But when they head to school, all you can do is trust and pray.  Trust that you've taught them what it means to love...love God, love your friends, love your teachers, love those that are mean to you or hurt you.  And trust that God goes with them wherever they go.  

I pray that they love school.  That they learn and grow every day.  And not just learn and grow in academics, but also that they learn and grow in their relationships with others.  You learn hard lessons in school about people that will hurt you, loving kids who aren't easy to love, honoring and respecting adults and friends...tough life lessons that it's hard to think my 5 and 7 year old are already learning.  But I'm thankful that we have a Heavenly Father who loves my kids and is with them all day long.  And I also have to remind myself that He has BIG plans for them..

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.  Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Very excited to both be at Lake Park!

2nd grader!

1st day of Kindergarten

New backpacks

New shoes!

The Alley crew!

Ready and excited!

Too sweet for words!!

The waiting continues...but getting closer!

So, I am really not very good at keeping this blog updated.  It is very true that some people have the gift of writing.  I do not think I am one of them.  (Probably why I struggled so much in college English...only class I made a B in in college:).

But we have had an eventful summer.  We spent several weeks at the beach.  Thanks to a very gracious family that offered up their beach place several times, I was able to spend some very sweet time with Emma and Liam.  Because Brad is saving up all of his vacation days for our travel to China, he was only able to come with us once.  But we were also able to have other sweet friends come down a couple of times.  It was a very very fun summer, and I could not be more thankful for it.  To get to spend so much one-on-one time with my kids all summer before we have some hugh life changes was priceless.  Thank you thank you to the Hawke family!!!

First "toes in the sand" of the summer!

Sweet friends came down to stay

BFFs

Couldn't be more thankful for these two!

Sweet summer of memories!

So much fun with two of my very favorite girls!

That's right...nothing says Florida like shuffleboard!

 I also went on a backpacking trip with 6 of my YL girls to Colorado.  That will be have to be a whole separate post, but it was a huge highlight of my summer! And Brad took 5 guys on an amazing road trip.  Maybe I'll get him to write about that (granted it would be only the second time he's written anything here:)

And because we can't stay put for long, we also decided to move this summer.  As though we don't have enough craziness going on in our lives right now, we thought we'd add a little more.  We moved about a mile down the road into an incredibly unique house.  We are still in our same neighborhood (which we love), but we now have 5 acres, our house sits back in the woods and we have a pond in our back yard...all right in the middle of our 'hood.  A huge blessing just fell in our laps...this house was drastically reduced and we sold our old house without even putting it on the market.  Clearly we knew that God was in control and that He orchestrated all of this.  So, we're in house #8 in 11 year of marriage and WILL NOT be moving EVER again (yep..you can write that down!)  But we do love it and are very thankful.

One other HUGE update...we got our LOA!!!!!  This is the official "letter of acceptance" from China.  This is another hugh step.  We have been waiting on this since April.  We waited a little over 100 days for this piece of paper.  Some people wait 30 days, some 60 and some for as long as we have.  To say it was an exciting day would be an understatement.  This mama was on cloud 9!

So, as for where that puts us in the adoption process...we are on the very last leg of the process.  We have mailed everything to U.S. Immigration, we're applying for visas and now we just wait for our TA (travel approval) which we will hopefully get in the next 8 weeks or so.  So, we're hoping to travel to China in late October/early November.  It can't come soon enough!!

Last week I had a tough week.  For some reason, the waiting just got to me.  My heart was weary and worn-out.  So very little is in our control during all of this waiting.   And as we get closer to bringing him home, I think I get a little more impatient.  A good portion of last week was spent crying and in frustration....and on my knees in front of our Heavenly Father asking him to give me peace and strength to finish this journey.

I think it made it even harder because Wren turned "1" last Friday.  Knowing that he was on the other side of the world.  Praying that he was loved and taken care of.  Trying to fight feelings of "worst case scenarios".  Just wanting him to be home with us.  Dreaming of all of the rest of the birthdays where he will be home with us.  It was tough! But we did have a small "birthday party" for him with some very good friends...and cookie cake, of course.  It helped to think of what future birthdays will be like when he is home and to share in this journey with great friends who have walked alongside us and prayed for us during this last year.

Ok.  So this was a long post.  And as I write I realize that a lot has gone on this summer.  I need to update more often.  I will try to be better!  Thanks to those who still actually "check-in" on us from time to time and continue to pray for us.  We're thankful for you!

Adoption Raffle for Baby Elliott

$1 per ticket

Tickets on Sale May 15-31^st

Drawing on May 31^st

Raffle Prize-

1 hour shoot of family, individual

with a CD of approx. 35-40 high resolution images and

 the rights to those images

Shanna Scott Photography

Please email ylangiebelle@gmail.com to purchase tickets or if you have any questions.

It's a boy!!

It seems like it's been a while, since I've updated on our adoption.  The last few months have just been a lot of waiting.  We sent our dossier to China in late February, and then we just waited to get a referral for a child. And I am now so very excited to say that we have been matched with a child....a sweet 8 month old boy!! To say that we are all excited is an understatement.  Just to watch Emma and Liam's faces when we talk about him is priceless.  Huge grins and giggles and questions galore....where is he going to sleep? when are we going to get him? what is his name going to be? With two small children, I sometimes feel like I answer questions all day long....but these are questions that I actually love to get to answer.

I don't have the answers to a lot of these questions.  We are now waiting on our Letter of Approval from China, which can take anywhere from 2-4 months or so.  We hope to travel anywhere from August to October...and yes, all 4 of us are going!! I can't imagine a better experience for Emma and Liam to go with us to bring home our son.

A lot of people keep asking why it takes so long after you get matched to actually go get your child.  Truthfully, I have no idea.  I know that China does still have to officially review our dossier.  Why it takes a few months to do it I'm not sure.  But this whole process has been this way.  There's definitely a lot of waiting and wondering and wanting things to move quicker.  And it's hard to not get impatient.  But I can truly say that God has given us a spirit of peace and patience as we have waited.  First, waiting to get matched with a child and now waiting to actually bring him home.  And I'm also treasuring moments with Emma and Liam, as we also prepare their hearts for a new brother.

The last few months have also been filled with yard sales and other small fundraisers to help raise the money to bring home our son.  We've also just found out that an organization named Lifesong has agreed to help us with our fundraising.  You can give money to our adoption through Lifesong and it is tax-deductible.  This is a huge blessing! (If you'd like to give you can go here...http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html.  Please make sure to include our name and number in the donation: Elliott #2613).

So, this mama is excited and over the moon and already in love with this precious child that God has given us.  I know the next months will sometimes feel slow and other times feel fast.  I'm praying God will continue to walk alongside us in the "waiting".  And I'm also praying for our child's health, for the caretakers and orphanage he is in, for the bonding is to come with us and him...and thanking God every day that He is allowing us to be His parents.

Liam is 5!!!

How does this keep happening?  Somehow my kids keep getting older!  There's something very bittersweet about your kids growing up.  It's so fun to watch them do new and exciting things, as they grow up.  But it's also sad to realize they'll never be babies again.  It constantly reminds me to slow down and to cherish every single day with my kids.  I often catch myself just going through my day, doing my day-to-day "stuff" and not really sitting down to just "be" with my kids.  One day I won't be able to just cuddle with Liam for an hour every morning, and they won't want to give me 100 hugs and kisses all day long (without some embarrassment) and they might not come to me with every little boo-boo or to just show me the grasshopper they've just found...I don't want to miss a single minute (and I will one day invent a machine that makes time slow down).

birthday morning!

5!

Celebrating with friends!

5 Things I Love about Liam on his 5th birthday:

1) He loves to cuddle

2) He is FULL of adventure and energy

3) He has an incredible imagination...anything can become a toy gun, sword, spaceship

4) He can start a conversation with anyone...even complete strangers

5) His contagious laughter

Spring has sprung!

It has been a fun couple of months. Spring has always been my favorite time of year.  There's just something about the blue skies, things starting to bloom and spending all day outside.  Here's a little re-cap of our spring, so far...

Liam has started to play t-ball.  There nothing much cuter (and funnier) than watching a lot of 4 and 5 year olds play baseball.  Liam has been great. 

 I think we've definitely got a future big leaguer on our hands:)

We had a great Spring Break at Mexico beach with some very sweet friends.  So incredibly blessed by our friendship with this family.

And yes, it is very hard to get 4 kids to look at the camera and smile.  (and this is only 4 of the 5 kids we had there).

We had a great Easter celebrating our risen Savior.  School easter egg hunts, church easter egg hunts (one with a helicopter) and a hunt at our best friends' house, lunch at Cracker Barrel (cause this mama was just lazy) and lots of fun time with family and friends over the weekend.

Easter morning

Resurrection baskets

Happy Easter!

And everyone needs a kung-fu picture while taking Easter pictures

We were also very blessed to go to the beach a 2nd time for the weekend.  It was such a fun weekend for our family.  There's just nothing like getting away with each other to do nothing but have fun together.  And we definitely have two kids that love the water.  I think Emma would stay in the water all day long every single day.  She really is an excellent swimmer and doesn't seem to mind even when the water is freezing.  Lots of memories made on this trip!

fun in the sun!

First time kayaking in the ocean

Nothing like putt-putt at the beach

 And, of course, no spring would be complete without Field Day!  Field Day brings back so many memories from elementary school.  There's just nothing quite like it.  There's no other time that you get to do an egg race, jump in a sack and do tug-of-war...and get out of class all day.

Go Green!

Winning 1st place in tug-of-war

Emma and Liam only have a few more weeks of school filled with field trips, K4 graduation, parties and all of the other fun stuff that makes the last few weeks of school so exciting.  I feel like a little kid waiting for Summer..it can't come soon enough!

7!

I'm not sure how I missed writing about this over a month ago...but Emma turned 7 on January 7th...wow! 7!  It still feels a little weird to say she is 7.  She has grown up over night and way too quickly.  We celebrated with a bowling party (in case you were wondering, bowling is pretty entertaining with a bunch of 6 and 7 year old little girls).  And Emma had a great surprise when Nana and her cousin, Annie, came to visit and have a sleep-over.  A super fun weekend for one super sweet little girl!

7 Things I love about Emma:
1. Her contagious laugh
2. Her sensitivity
3. Her caring heart
4. The way all she (still) needs is a hug to make things better
5.  That she is so brave
6.  How she teaches me about grace every day
7.  The way she completes our family

Emma, you are an amazing daughter.  You are kind and loving.  God has incredible plans for your life, and I can't wait to see what they are.  I love you so very much.  You will always be my cuddlebug.  Happy Happy 7th birthday!