We Got New Pictures

Today we got new pictures of our baby girl. Don't look too hard as we aren't allowed to post them until the adoption is completely finalized. It appears she got an extemely short haircut, similar to a butch. I'm not sure if this is normal, but I wish they would let her hair grow out a little. My cousin said to think of it as a "pixie cut.".
We also got measurements. At seven months, she is now 15 lbs and 25 inches long. This is small in comparision to my boys, but I think it may be actually on the large size for a Taiwanese baby. Can anyone comment on this? She looks rather well fed and quite plump. Glad to see she is getting enough to eat, of course she is our child. We didn't get any other info as far as personality traits or how the court process is going. We hope we hear something soon! The wait is agonizing.
We thought we had her name all figured out, and it's quite an unusual name. Now, we are second guessing it as we wonder if she will hate always having to explain how to pronounce it or spell it. We may go with more of a traditional name.

My Thoughts Exactly

Fun inspirational words for all of us!

Chinese New Year Valentines

Yes, I should be in bed, but I'm not. While cruising around the blogosphere, I came across a really cute idea over at Our Best Bites on how to make Chinese New Year Valentines. I thought you might enjoy it too. Looks fun!

Do You Have a Disaster Plan?

Tonight our church presented a great lecture on "how to prepare for disasters". It was hosted by a trained FEMA member. Members of the Red Cross and our county had tables set up with more info on disaster plans.
Going into the meeting I feel like our family is pretty prepared for many situations. Coming out of the meeting, I can see that we can still improve.
We will be having some additional family home evenings on:

• Fire Drill
• Practicing what to do in case of a chemical spill in our area
• Practicing evacuating with our 72 hour kits
• Need to upload photos to an online storage site & especially current photos of the kids.
• Also upload import documents to this online storage site.
• Take color photos of our home inside and out.
• Check with the school on how to get our kids out of a lockdown situation in case we need to evacuate the area.

It's not fun to think about, but it's better to be prepared.

Donate to Help the Orphans of Haiti

Our adoption agency also works with orphans in Haiti. With the earthquake in Haiti, they still have not received word to the status of the 3 orphanages they work with in Haiti. Here is our quote from an email from our agency "We work with an organization in Haiti called Foye, who has 3 orphanages in Haiti housing over 300 children from all ages. We are desperately trying to receive word on how the children in the orphanages are doing and the care givers that work to take care of these children every day. We have heard from a 3rd party that the infant/ toddler orphanage is still standing but have received no word on the other two that are very close to the children's hospital that collapsed."

If you would like to donate to help these orphans, my agency, FEC has created a paypal account to allow those interested in donating to the three orphanages they work with. Anyone who would like to donate can go to http://www.paypal.com/ and click on the "Send Money" page. Enter their email address: donations@foreverychild.org and donate. As a 501c3 organization all donations are tax deductible and every penny will be used to get the supplies needed to their orphanages. Even if you can't donate very much, a little here and there will go a long way! I want you to know that I practice what I preach, so I sent off a generous donation.

Thank you,

Christmas 2009

I know it's a bit late, but here are some pictures from Christmas 2009.

Being silly old men on Christmas Eve at the Lodge.

I love this picture!

And... the Haul!

We Survived 2009!

It's the last day of 2009 and I have to admit I am OVERJOYED to be done with this year! Yes, there were high spots in the year, but overall it really stank!
I don't want to come across as a complainer, but here are the reasons why I am glad to be kicking 2009 to the curb:

• In late 2008 we bought a new house and moved into it. Tried to sell the old house, but the housing market crashed. Couldn't sell it. Spring of 2009 we moved back to the old house and I know manage the new house at the "Teddy Bear Lodge" for vacationers. I rent it out and clean it etc. It's helping us stay afloat, but it is exhausting and a full time job.
• January 2009, Gerry's knees started killing him. He couldn't take the pain anymore and decided it was time to have knee surgeries. He had a birth defect that finally got to the point he could hardly walk. He held off as long as possible. April 2009 - one day after moving back to the old house, Gerry had his first knee surgery and six weeks later his second. Thankfully the surgeries worked and he feels better than ever!
• Oct 2009 the highlight of the year - finally getting our baby girl assigned to us! Yeah - after 2.5 years on the waiting list!
• One week later Gerry lost his job. Now I must add that this didn't entirely suprise him. He worked this job for almost 20 years. This was our family business and thankfully we sold it 2 years ago. He has been managing it for the new owners. When the economy took a turn for the worse, so did the business. Finally the new owners decided to manage it themselves to save money. We were just hoping he could continue working there until we got the baby home. But, sometimes new jobs = new growth.
• Thankfully he got a job 2 days later, but making substantially less. But, in this economy we are thankful to have a job.

So, here we are the last day of 2009 and "WE SURVIVED!"
I know there are lots of worse trials we could have gone through, we've had many of those in the past such as Gerry's brother Rob's accident which left him with brain damage, losing my dad, my mom's stroke and other health problems, etc. Thankfully our kids are healthy and overall happy! They were overjoyed to move back to the old house - next door to their grand parents.

But, this year has left me completely exhausted in almost every regard.

I'm only setting a few goals for 2010 as I'm afraid I'm still going to be very busy with the lodge and blogging on my websites to supplement our income. I'm trusting in God that he knows our situation and will help provide the way to accomplish these goals:

• Getting our baby girl home and having the bright spark that only a baby can bring to a home!
• Hopefully being able to sell the newer home.
• Completely unpacking and getting pictures, etc. back up on the walls of the home we live in to make it a piece of heaven once again.
• I hope to work smarter and not harder.
• I would like time to exercise 5 days a week.
• Time to play with the kids and actually get the laundry put away.
• 10 minutes a day of spiritual renewal.
• Dinner made every night with a plan for dinner each day by 10 a.m.

Can you see a theme? It revolves around finding more TIME for the important things. I want us to enjoy life and not just survive in 2010!