We had another great Christmas and were so happy to have Grandma and Papa up here now to celebrate with us!  The girls both got their gifts they asked Santa for.  Reagan really wanted a violin and Hannah wanted a fashion design set.  Ben got lots of boy stuff, although he only asked Santa for candy.  The kids got up at 6:30, opened their gifts quickly and then the girls played with all their new stuff while and Ben, Sam and I were all took a nap.  Then we enjoyed a great dinner at Grandma and Papa's house.  It was a wonderful day! 

We spend our Christmas Eve day doing this.....SO MUCH RAIN!

So much fun leading up to Christmas!

 Reagan was pretty sure if she fed her cat the "reindeer food" he would be able to fly.

I know why they call it a journey....

I've been spending lots of time reading adoption info and family blogs to read about other families experiences and they always refer to it as their "adoption journey".  I totally get it now.  Sam and I had our orientation meeting at CCAI, our adoption agency, this week. A 2-1/2 hour meeting that was complete information overload. We had a bunch of paperwork to collect before going to this meeting and I thought that was a lot of work but that was hardly nothing compared to what is to come. They reviewed all the paperwork we would have to complete, the home study process, visiting the immigration office, getting our physical exams, and so much more. They also talked to us a lot about our trip to China which was both very exciting and a little bit scary.

Describing it as a journey is the perfect word for what we will be going through.  Not only a physical journey of collecting paperwork, meetings, and training but an emotional journey as well as we struggle with knowing our little guy is out there and we can't bring him home yet. They told us if everything moves along smoothly we would be traveling in about 9 months to get our son.

It's making me a little sad to think there is a boy who will be our son very soon living on the other side of the world and we are having to spend Christmas away from him. I just hope wherever he is they are taking good care of him and he is getting loved on.

For now we are setting up our first meetings with our social worker for our home study and gathering paperwork and waiting for our agency to call us with a match.  Merry Christmas!

Little Lambie

Finally got our pictures back of our sweet little lamb from the Nutcracker

He's so handsome

We were so excited to visit with Melody and Scott last weekend. And we got to

meet the new little guy, Ethan. Our kids just loved playing with the him and he got a ton of attention!  Our time spent together sure looks WAY different than it did 14 years ago in college!

Big News!

Our next family adventure is a big one we would like to share.  We are on the path to adopt a child from China!   This whole idea started for me back in May.  I had never really thought too much about adopting, but then a family from our church was going through the process and seeing them growing their family in this way really opened up my eyes to adoption.  I started doing some more research, seeing faces of sweet orphans, researching countries and it really turned my heart in this direction.    Sam and I have always toyed with the idea of having 4 children and this seemed like a perfect way to grow our family.  

It was actually on my birthday this year that I brought this up to Sam.  He, of course, thought I was crazy.  We had never talked about it before, and here I was feeling like it was so right and he had not even had time to digest the idea.  I requested to read the file of one of the little boys I felt so connected to and to do this the agency required me to fill out a checklist about our family and medical needs we would consider.  

Sam and I continued discussing adoption over the next several months off and on, but we were just not in the same place with the decision to move forward.   Adopting was never far from my mind over the next several months.  It’s so hard to have faith that this is what God was calling us to do.  There are just so many unknowns with this….Can we afford it?  What if our other children don’t get along with him?  What if he resents us when he gets older for taking him away from his home country?  Can we leave our children for 2 weeks to travel to China?    I continued to pray about this daily and praying that if this was God’s plan for our family that Sam’s heart would be softened to this idea.

Then two weeks ago I got a call from that same agency I had been talking to over the summer.  They had a child for us!  I was pretty shocked to get the phone call since I didn’t realize they had kept our information this whole time and were still seeking a little one for us to add to our family.   His file was emailed to us and the clock started ticking with a week for us to decide it we wanted to pursue adopting him.  Sam and I reviewed the file and spent the next week talking and praying about this.  He was a really cute little guy, a few months younger than Ben, with a pretty minor medical need.    I won’t disclose his real name, but we called him “Ducky” as a nickname because of his fuzzy hair.  A week is such a short time to make such a major decision, but understandable since they don’t want the little guy to wait too long.  Sam and I were getting to a much closer place with this whole idea of adoption but we were still not in 100% agreement that this was what God had planned for us.  We continued to prayerfully ask God to give us wisdom and lead us in the right direction.  We spent the next few days discussing this with family and friends and shedding a few tears.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Sam told me that he was ready to commit to little “Ducky.”  God had made his plan to grow our family in this way clear to Sam as well as me and we quickly emailed the adoption agency and told them we were ready to move forward with adopting the little guy.   

Unfortunately, they had already shared his file with another family (as we were outside of our 1-week time limit) and the other family had decided to adopt him.  I am so happy the little guy found his forever family but sad for us as we thought he was going to be our son.   Obviously, God has other plans for a different child for us.  But “Ducky” helped bring Sam and I to the same page about adoption and for that I am grateful.  

So now the process continues!  We have formally applied to the adoption agency, CCAI.  We have given our family histories, medical information, financial information, and are working on getting our references in and waiting for another phone call with a child that matches with us.  This is going to be a long journey, but can’t wait to bring another little child into our family!

Nutcracker

 After a couple months of practice the time has finally come for Hannah's Nutcracker performances!  Our little lamb in 6 shows this year.  She did 3 this weekend and then has 3 more next weekend.  She did an awesome job and said she wasn't nervous at all!  I volunteered in her dressing room on opening night and it was really fun to see all the girls getting ready and you could just feel all the excitement.  These girls have worked so hard for this!  We went and watched her performance Sunday afternoon.  Sadly, no pictures were allowed during the show so I don't have any in her costume but will have some when the order comes in.  She is getting to be so big! 

So Thankful!

 We have SO much to be thankful for this year and we had a great time celebrating it on Thanksgiving!  It was just Sam, me and the kiddos and Sam's parents this year.  But we had a yummy feast and spent lots of time outside while the food was cooking.  Here's some pictures from our day!

 Reagan was a pilgrim at her kindergarten Thanksgiving feast!

 The girls were great helpers in the kitchen.  First time making homemade cranberry sauce and pecan pie!

 

 Super thankful for this guy!

 At least 2 out of the 3 cooperated for a picture!

Halloween

Just realizing that somehow I never put up any fun pictures from Halloween!  We had another great year of fall festivities.  Halloween night was super fun.  We went out with our good friends, the Holmes family.  Ben loved trick or treating until near the end of our night when he fell down a couple stairs on someone's porch and landed on his nose.  Lots of blood and tears but he was okay.  Reagan was a cat again this year, Hannah was a sock monkey and Ben was a Ninja Turtle.  They were so cute!  

 Hannah designed and carved a pumpkin mostly by herself this year!

 Reagan's cat obsession continues....

 Another visit with their kindergarten teacher, Mrs. East and her helper.

 Sampson and Holmes kiddos.