A day with mommy!

Allie and I just hung out all day today at home, stayed in our pj's and enjoyed every minute of it...gotta love Christmas break!

Wordless Wednesday...

A few new pictures...

There should be a warning label on Oxy Clean...

This morning Cory and I were working on deep cleaning the house. I was scrubbing everything down as he was working on laundry. I went to scrub the toilet and was out of toilet bowl cleaner. Hmmm....I HATE a dirty toilet.

So, I decided to use my ever favorite Oxy Clean. (After all, Oxy Clean can get dye out of clothes...I figured it should work great to clean the toilet.) I sprinkled some in the toilet and decided to just let it sit for a while. Well...when I came back later the toilet wouldn't flush. Apparently the Oxy Clean and the 2000 flushes that I always have in my toilet reacted and the Oxy Clean formed a kind of cement in the bottom of the toilet!!! We ended up having to use a chisel and a hammer to break it apart!

Needless to say, my husband is a less than impressed with me right now!

p.s. He wasn't impressed that I was snapping pictures either!!!

Junk Posse

There is this amazing woman (Junk Posse) who makes adoption jewelry and donates 30% of her proceeds to adoptive families. I LOVE all of Tracey's jewelry, but this is the one that I really want:

Before I purchase this necklace, I would like her to add another charm for Allie. Kind of like a mother's ring, just a little more unique than that. Tracy personalizes the items for you, so I'd eventually like to get baby E's name on the back of his/hers. I just can't figure out what to write on Allie's (besides her name on the back).

PLEASE...does anyone have any good brainstorms???

All I can think of is "Our first miracle," "Our first blessing," or "My sweet pea."

What do you think?!!?!?!

Just in case you are interested here are some more awesome necklaces from Junk Posse:

This is her newest necklace. It's an angels wing that's in the shape of Ethiopia with a crystal and a charm on it that says LOVE. How cool is that???

Af-i-ca

Melt my heart...when you ask Allie, "Allie where is your brother or sister coming from?" She quickly nods her head and says, "Af-i-ca!" How adorable is that (insert mommy bias here)?!

What a sweetie!

How sweet is this!?!

With all the changes with Ethiopian adoption, Cory knew that we just needed a little excitement as far as baby E goes. There are a ton of things that I have bookmarked on my computer that's kind of a 'wish list' of things I'd like for baby E and/or our family. Well, Cory went online last week and ordered (which he never does unless it's for Cabala's) a few little things off my list for baby E and surprised me. I didn't even realize that he knew that I bookmarked them. Isn't that sweet?

I plan on using this material for the inside of baby E's Christmas stocking (like Allie's). I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but the shape on the material is an outline of Ethiopia. I think it will be perfect. Jen has agreed to help me out with beginning baby E's stocking. I figure that I can make most of it and then we can add the finishing touches and the name after we receive a referral.

This is the Christmas ornament that will be on our tree this year for baby E. The picture doesn't do it justice. It really is beautiful and it has a scripture from the bible on the back. Both of these items are fundraisers for adoptions so it's pretty neat to know that we're helping another couple out as well as getting pretty cool things!

Time extended...

On Tuesday afternoon, CHSFS sent out an e-mail to all Ethiopian adoption waiting families. Here's a short overview of the e-mail:

"As of November 6, 2009, we estimate that the wait for children newborn to 24 months of age may now be approximately 18 - 24 months. So that we may better serve our existing clients, as of November 6, 2009, we have temporarily stopped accepting applications from applicants who are only open to receiving the referral of a child who is under 24 months of age."

It looks as though our journey to baby E will be longer than we expected. It's hard to read at first, but we know that this is the way adoption goes and that in the end it will all be worth it. I only wish that I knew if baby E is a boy or a girl...then at least I could shop for him/her! : )

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Loving the leaves!!!

Happy Halloween!

Hangin' out with Sophie

Yesterday, my friend Lisa and I took our daughters shopping for the day before the big trick-or-treating night. Sophie and Allie always have so much fun hanging out together. Sophie loves Allie so much that she even called her her "little sister"! Hopefully we can do it again someday soon!

5 months waiting update...

Newest adoption news as of today's e-mail from CHSFS...

Well, not really anything to tell but lots of people have been asking so thought I would tell you all where we are in regards to baby E.

Families most recently matched with a child under 12 months of age with few known health concerns began their wait in June 2008. We began our wait in June 5, 2009. Although it appears to be only one more year for our turn, it is impossible to know how many families turned in their dossiers during that time. So, we could be waiting one year for a referral or even 2 years. We just don't know. Our agency does not give those numbers out because they believe it is difficult to tell you where you are since everyone's situation in different. Some people might be open to some things that people that are logged in before them aren't, giving them the referral before the person with the earlier log in date.

So while we wait, we are trying to stay busy and we hope to be putting our house on the market within the next few months. We are hoping and praying that everything falls into place in the near future and we move to the Walnut Grove/Tracy area. We've wanted to live closer to where I work and where Allie (and baby E) will go to school for a while now. We are planning on possibly renting a farm site until the house that's just right for us falls into our laps.

That's all I know about baby E for now, hopefully everyone is having a great beginning to the week and have a happy Halloween!!!

More from this weekend...

I thought these were too cute not to share. Allie just loves to clean, scrub, and vacuum with us. Whenever our vacuum comes out, she needs to get hers out too! I just want to freeze time and keep her this age for a while longer!!!