Friday, September 28, 2007

Our Next Daughter

When Brian & I started this past adoption process early last year, I truly felt it was an answer to prayer. Besides the fact of us believing in the spritual aspect of caring for "the least of these", we wanted Emma to have a sister who shared in her heritage. Our paperwork was officially logged into the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs last summer and that's when the wait basically began. We've been waiting now for almost 15 months and have no idea as to when our next daughter will join our family.

There has been a lot of angst in the adoption community over the extended wait times with the China program and for the most part I have remained positive that we will indeed one day have another daughter. However, there have been some weeks where the wait has gotten me down - just a little. But yesterday I received an update to a blog that I have subsribed to that is written by a lady who is from South Africa and runs a foster home in China for medically fragile children. Her story has really touched my heart and I hope that one day we will be able to financially support this mission. Anyway, as I read the post from yesterday my heart was once again touched and the desire for another child was strengthened. I again realize why we are doing that which we've set out to do. As I read the story and came to the part with the child with the red coat, I couldn't help but think of my little Emma bug and how precious she is and how much of a blessing she is to us, our friends at church and to several of her teachers at daycare. And to think that she could possibly have been that child with the red coat - it breaks my heart.

I shared with someone yesterday how that when we adopted the first time that it was really important to me that our child be as young as possible. There were several reasons for that - but now I realize that really wasn't important at all. What's important is that a child be placed into the loving arms of a family that will not only provide a home, but more importantly a forever family to love and cherish that child. Children truly are a blessing from God - they are his reward.

The story I'm referencing can be found at this link, it's the entry dated Wednesday, 9/26.

http://http://http://www.chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Parade - Simpsonville Fall Festival

Simpsonville, Kentucky - According to Wikipedia, the area ia 1.3 miles (but yes, there is a stop light). As of 2000 the population was 1281. On another site I found that the estimated population for 2006 is 1,407 - which is probably about right and there are 4 churches in town. All of this helps put the parade pictures in perspective ...

"Fall Festival Parade" ...



A friend of ours from church invited Emma to ride with her in the parade.







That's our baby in the Cobra!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Princess Pageant

Here's the pictures from the princess pageant. Emma went up on the stage easily, but she was acting a little silly when Melinda tried to ask her questions. We all laughed at how she leaned backwards as Melinda was leaning in with the mircophone.

Simpsonville Fall Festival

I'm so far behind on blogging ... goodness!

Okay, last weekend we attended the annual big even for the town of Simpsonville - the Simpsonville Fall Festival. Ryan ran in his first 5k run and did very well (for his first time - and for his age). He ran it in 31 minutes! He was most tickled with himself and even more tickled that he could get a free sausage breakfast by running in the race.

Emma was in the princess pagent for 3 & 4 year olds, but she didn't win. Of course we still thought she was the cutest one up there! The little girl that did win was adorable though and she answered her questions very well. Regardless, Emma was still asked by a friend of ours to ride in the parade! She thought she was the cat's meow riding in a Cobra and throwing out candy.

Here's the pictures from "The race", I'll post the princess pageant ones in a separate post:

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

FCC Dinner last week

I finally got around to downloading some pictures I took last week at the FCC (Families with Children from China) dinner. I think I mentioned the restaurant in a previous post, but it's called Mike Linnig's and it's way over on the other side of town from us and is close to the river. It's been around for ages and the atmosphere is so relaxed and nice. They have a huge outdoor seating area that is just concrete picnic tables, which doesn't sound that nice - but they are set out under these HUGE trees. They also have a playground so the kids can have fun while the adults have some time to visit. Hopefully there will be another dinner there, it was really nice!

Here's a few pictures ... baby girl LOVES "CONE" (that's what she calls corn).


Just a swinging


View of the outdoor dining area - not at all fancy, but very inviting. Especially on an evening with beautiful weather.


View when looking from the dining area down towards the river.


"CONE - YUM"!



hanging out on the playground

The World According to Ryan

For the past few years, Ryan has been a staunch UK fan. Prior to establishing them as his favorite team, whoever winning was his favorite so we've been fairly happen that he's finally sticking with one team.

We were watching the UK - U of L football game the other night and out of the blue (no pun intended), Ryan says "wow papa, have you ever noticed that everyone in red is sitting on one side and everyone in blue is on the other!".

It really makes us laugh when it seems like he wakes up in a new world for the day.

Friday, September 14, 2007

"China Cracks down on One-Child Violators"

http://http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RL8LK00&show_article=1

I ran across this article earlier today. Interestingly enough, Emma & I recently had lunch with a lady from China and I had inquired about some things I had read about various reasons behind the slower referral process for adoption now. She said that part of it was due to more wealth in China and that now people are merely paying the fine. This article seems to go along with that.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Work needed on our prayer life!

We attended a local FCC (Families with Children from China) monthly dinner last night at a really neat fish restaurant on the Ohio River. They have an outside dining area with a playground so it was a great opportunity to let the kiddos romp while the parents socialized.

An aquaintance of ours has a son a couple of years older than Ryan. Shortly after dinner he became sick and threw up. Emma brought this up several times on the way home and then brought it up again as I was rocking her at bedtime. I reminded her that we needed to say a short prayer for him that he would be feeling better soon. Emma said something about the little boy's mother and to clarify, I asked if she meant that we needed to say a prayer for his mother too. She testily replied "No. You're not HIS mommy. HIS mommy needs to pray for him"!

Obviously we have some work to do ...

Monday, September 10, 2007

Moving right along ...


Woohooo - exciting news this morning on the CCAA Website (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs), we are FINALLY out of the review room. We're still not sure how much longer it will be until our actual referral, but at least our paperwork has passed the review stage.

http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Worldfest



We attended "Worldfest" over the weekend down on the Ohio River. We've wanted to go for several years now, but just now getting a chance to get down there. It was a beautiful day to be out and about. Several groups were represented from local churches, organizations and such. There were lots of food vendors and their prices were fairly cheap for something like this! We watched some Irish dancers and we also watched some young Indian ladies dancing as well. As much as my heart is in China - adoption wise, it would be wonderful if we could adopt from India as well. But our agency does not work with India so I guess that's just a thought I shouldn't be having right now.