Pumpkin Carving- Ugandan Style

Yesterday we did pumpkin carving with the entire choir. It was a lot of fun and the kids had never done it before, although their pumpkins were very impressive. Then Erisa, Junior, Jackson, Auntie Marci, baby Jackson, Paul, and I went home for dinner and to finish Back to the Future. After that we went bowling and had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures! Oh well, here are some of the pumpkin craziness.

You want me to dig that out?

Auntie Marci

Uncle Godfrey's

Jackson carved his name!

Junior the ham:)

Ester

Grace

Erisa and his pumpkin with ears

Viola, i think

Jackson

Ivan being silly

Erisa

Jackson

Erisa

my boys

Ugandan Orphan Choir

Last night's performance was AMAZING. The kids were so good and they are all beautiful. I have 3 boys staying with us from the choir, I am totally falling in love with them! My pictures from the performance didn't turn out so well so I will give you video which is better anyways.






Sorry about the heads..... I didn't want to sit too close because I did not want Jackson to think he could get up there and join them! I have lots more video and pictures to come but we are off to go bowling now!

DFW people!

Just wanted to let you all know that the Ugandan Orphan Choir will be performing at our church on Wednesday evening at 7:00pm. It is free and the address is Trinity Bible Church, 400 W Campbell Road, Richardson, Tx 75080. Hope you can make it!! We are going to be hosting some of the children from the choir so I will be posting pictures later in the week! We are super excited about it! Here is the link to learn more about the Ugandan Orphan Choir.

Referrals are going out like hot cakes!

Ok for the last two weeks referrals have literally been flying out the window of our agency! I mean, whoa.... I seriously thought I was going to be good at this blog stalking business, but truth be told, it's like having a full time job lately..... and I still have no idea what number we might be. Ok, I have an idea but it's more than likely wrong. I think....and I do mean think....we are 23. Congratulations to all the families that have gotten to see their beauties this week, I would give you links but like I said, too many to count:)


PS. in all reality I know that this recent trend is bound to slow down, please pray for patience for me when that happens....it's so hard to see lots of movement and know that it probably won't last very long.....thanks. I think I might take a blog stalking break.....maybe just a short one:)

CUTE cards!

Ok so I have been wanting to share this with you all for a while but have not quite found the time, you know, with all the fabulousness of being number 24 and all....

So Jana, who is obviously super creative and artsy, has made these super cute Ethiopian Adoption Announcements and note cards! I can not wait until our daughter comes home so I can get some of these! (NO, that is not the only reason!....I know what you were thinking!) Ok let me rephrase, I think these are so cute and are a great way to honor and share our child's heritage. Better?

Ok so I think she will work with you if you want other countries so go check out her Etsy site. Oh and the money goes to her adoption:) love it.

Tagged! and unofficially 24?

I've been tagged! This is my first time to be "tagged" so I am excited to participate! Thanks for the love Autumn!



1. I literally have some weird sleep disorder where I require more sleep than the average person... I know I know. But I have even have an extensive sleep study to prove it. I could definitely sleep every night for 16 hours no problem... It's too bad that schedule doesn't work with a toddler or really any normal lifestyle and I have super expensive medicine that I can never afford so I just deal with being tired all the time. I take a nap with Jackson most days so that helps me a lot. Doesn't help the laundry or the vacuuming but it helps me be a better mommy so that's what really matters:)

2. this isn't very random or weird but I am a huge bookworm....Paul says that my weirdness is that I have actually made it through a Tolstoy, in which my response was "who hasn't?" oh yes, I forget that not everyone is as nerdy as I am.....

3. I love all things 1980's. I even have a record collection which includes my all time favorites The GoGo's. From breakfast club to big hair and leg warmers, the 80's will always have my heart:)

4. I am currently taking a guitar class at the community college. It's nothing like the rock star class I imagined and instead I am painfully making my way through reading music and learning the classical style of guitar....but for 35 bucks a semester you can't beat it. oh and by the way...I am super terrible.

5. I once ate an entire can of cheese whiz in one minute.....crazy church camps.

6. I don't really like peanut butter and my friend Ann Marie (you know, Nastia's BFF) thinks I am from a different planet because of it.

7. ummm I just got our biweekly update and I think UNOFFICIALLY I might be at most #24 on the girls list!!!! Now I don't know for sure but I do know that I have moved down at least 2 spots!!! PROGRESS PEOPLE! PROGRESS!



ok now to tag 7 peeps.

Whitney
Jana
Annie
Amber
Angel
Kristi
Michelle

AHHHH!! it's here!!!!

Oh man have we been on our toes around here.... So I know you've been waiting and believe me I have been waiting! (It looked like something important got lost, not anyone's but a very slow slow postal worker's fault:) but in the end it was found and all is good again!) So what you've all been waiting for..... We are OFFICIALLY

on the girl's waiting list!!!!

What does this mean? Well it means there are 25 families ahead of us waiting for kids....Lots of families are on both the boys and girls lists so our numbers will go down even with lots of boy referrals. We are so excited and thankful for everyone who has been praying for us! Oh and the estimated time limit is anywhere from 6-8 months until we are numero uno:)

Operation Princess Hair for Abby!

Ok so I posted about beautiful little Abby last week and my friend Angel is doing something wonderful for her. If you would like to join us in helping little Abby, read on:) I took this from Angel's blog.


It's hard for me to even start this post. Already I feel a big lump forming in my throat. Someone that many of us care about is walking through a deep valley. That someone is sweet Abby....

I have serious doubts that I will get through writing this without crying..... Ok now it's too late... I am already there...with tears flowing. This is Abby. You will find her precious family at this blog address.

Abby is so many wonderful things. She is part of an amazing family. There are 7 wonderful kiddos in her family. 3 of those sweeties- including Abby came by way of adoption. Abby is a bouncing, happy, funny princess of a 3 year old....

Now she is also a dear little warrior fighting for her life. She was diagnosed with Leukemia and life suddenly took a radical turn for this amazing family. Her concerns of which princess dress she should wear have turned to whether she will get poked or be able to keep her food down today.

This is sweet Abby right now....

These are the battle scars she has right now in her fight against cancer...

Just one of the MANY things she has been forced to give up is her GORGEOUS princess hair and it makes her very sad.... What is it like to be the mommy that has to tell your 3 year old that she has to take medicine that will give her horrible sores, make her throw up constantly, and cause her to lose her hair? What is that like? What is it like to watch tears slide down your sweet baby's cheeks even in her sleep cause that's how much it hurts.

THIS is not OK with me. If I could I would make this go away. If I could I would change this- I wish there was a way. I know there are so many of us who wish that. We CAN'T MAKE IT GO AWAY! We just can't.

What we can do is give Abby back her princess hair. It's expensive and not something this family needs to worry about during this stressful financial time of paying for medicine and gas and hospital bills. We can not make this all go away but we can give Abby back her hair and make her smile.

SOOOOOO TODAY WE BEGIN....

OPERATION PRINCESS HAIR!

This is your mission, should you choose to accept it...

1. I want us to buy sweet Abby one of these- http://www.hatswithhair.com/

It's called a pony sport. It costs $228. It's made with real human hair. It's very comfortable and can be worn with any baseball type cap that Abby prefers.

After visiting with her mommy we feel this would be very comfortable and fun for everyday use at home and the hospital.

2. We will flood Abby and the other kiddos in the family with care packages that let her and her family know they are loved. If you feel you would like to send Abby or her family a present please e-mail Angel at angelweir@gmail.com

We can all send Abby fun presents AND ALL SEND an ADORABLE BASEBALL CAP to wear with her new hair. Then everytime she is having a hard day her momma can bust out a new care package to give her something to smile about.

3. We are also going to buy Abby a custom made wig! Check it out here....

http://www.celebritystylewigs.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=493

I am so excited about this! It is going to be custom made to look a lot like her hair did before she needed to start chemo. So when Abby wants to dress up nice and look like the Abby she remembers she will have this. This wig will cost about $450. It is made of real hair and created just for her little head.

4. If there are donations exceeding the needed amount for the princess hair we will invite the family to use this money to help with whatever extra expenses they are facing during this difficult time.

It's hard for me to fathom what this family is facing. I want to do whatever I can to support them.

They are full of faith and strong. Cancer FEARS this little fighter! Let's do whatever we can to love and walk with this family during this time. I can't begin to imagine what they are facing but I PRAY that people would be there for me if we ever did walk this path.

TO HELP ABBY GET HER PRINCESS HAIR YOU JUST NEED TO CLICK ON THE PAY PAL BUTTON ON THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER THAT SAYS "OPERATION PRINCESS HAIR."

IF YOU WANT TO SEND ABBY A CARE PACKAGE INCLUDING A CUTSIE NEW BASEBALL CAP PLEASE E-MAIL ANGEL AT angelweir@gmail.com

PS If you would like to spread the word on your blog PLEASE do it!! Feel free to take this whole post or part of it. Then please link your blog to mine so everyone can see how many people are loving and praying for Abby.

Jealousy:)

My friend Ann Marie has a really cool job. She is the editor of a local newspaper around here and today she sent me this picture in an email saying "look what I did today!"

oh and I am still waiting.......

No News Yet....

I did stalk the FedEx website all day and got a confirmation email saying our dossier was delivered today around 1:30 Pacific Time but no emails from Julie yet. She said she normally reviews papers on Fridays so hopefully she will get to ours. Now of course they might still be waiting on the check from LifeSong and so Julie might not get to it until next friday.....so who knows when me and mr. waitlist will finally meet.....

I am however enjoying now stalking all AGCI Ethiopia families:) Yep, it's a fun new past time to see who is who and what number. So go on over and tell my new buddy Nell Ann congratulations on her new numbers! Hopefully we will get to be #26:) maybe I'm jinxing myself.....


Next time maybe we will see......

S-E-N-T!!!!

That's right! Our dossier was over-nighted to AGCI today! I can't believe it! It's finally gone.... Ok I am a nerd and took some pictures of it:) But I could not help myself, I was way too excited!


In all its glory



super thickness



Adios! (hmmm maybe goodbye in Amharic would be more appropriate here.)