W's 2nd Mouseketeer B'day

Our Baby Boy is Two, I can hardly believe it. Time with him has flown by so fast. It makes me sad to think we won't celebrate another 2nd B'day in our family. :-(  On the other hand, we have so much to be thankful for, we love our boys so much. We can hardly imagine how it's going to be with another girl around here.

After much to do about the location and time of the celebration. We were very fortunate to have it at Great Ma's. Thank you again, Ma, for opening your home for the celebration!  We had a fantastic time, it's so much fun just watching the kids all play together. We had some of those bendable balloons and a pump - the best entertainment ever.  Until.... all of the balloons were gone, oops. The Special Delivery Mickey was really cool and everyone wore their ears!

Thank you to all of the family and for loving on W and our family, so well. Here are a few pics of the 2 yr. old celebration.  We love you, Whit! You are a joy each day in our lives, we pray  that you'll always hold tight to that love, only the Holy Spirit can provide from within.

Love ~ Ginny

Happy, Happy Birthday sweet Son!

Happy Chinese New Year Festival

This is a great cultural event and lots of fun, too! Think about going... 

it's worth the drive.

Love this Song; how the years go!

TobyMac's City on our Knees, yeah Baby!

It's actually my ringtone. Love his music, because it is so real and clear spoken, not just sugary pop tunes... He speaks a clear message through his music and has since I was in middle school. Whoa, the memories from old Huffman AOG/Cathedral teen spot. Speaking of, I cannot believe that my 20 yr. reunion is later this year :-0 (maybe it's a calendar error)

Also, Thank you A.L. for being YOU, for 25 years - an angel's thread for me! I can hardly believe it. Thank you sweet friend/Sister. 

Love ~
Ginny

Lots, Lots....

It has been a very full week. We had the most horrific dental experience this week, which lasted about two days and required MUCH medication and rest. Many thanks to my wonderful husband for taking care of me and to our awesome Papa, for helping corral the kiddos this week. Two more house showings, Yeah!! But we're still waiting for One good contract :-)

We had a couple of days of school testing this week and another had a Dr.'s check-up. And.... a birthday party tomorrow, two house showings, as well as about 5 five other things.... LIFE! Sometimes it's hard to just take it in stride and rest easy. That's much easier said than, can be done by me most of the time.  This verse was revealed to me this week, and I've recalled it often.

Ephesians 2:8-10 

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We're so excited to be celebrating Whit's birthday! He is such a joy. I cannot imagine our lives without him; the sweetness and pureness of a babe that he  still has... maybe the 'terrible two's, three's, four's, etc. will never come from him... we can only pray, but it's kind of doubtful. Anyway, I Love Him and his wonderful spirit.


We had some fun times this week, the boys have become obsessed with playing army man/soldier and it mainly involves wearing as much camouflage as possible, from shirt to sock to pant to belt to jacket,.... it's cute. But, I am having a difficult time keeping it washed.


Last, but not least. More exciting news! We received our I-800 approvals from HLS and received our Chinese Visas - pretty cool, so the date is approaching! (The Great Wall background on the visas is pretty.)


Thanks for all your prayers, friendship, and kindness

Love ~

Ginny

Real GUYS

Red Thread

 

Adoption into the Family

God's love is so amazing and infinite. Sometimes it truly hard to comprehend that God wanted/wants me and has provided such a love and opportunity for me to belong His family. But... just with any family, we  are expected to do 'our share', which is serving Him and sharing His love with others. 'His Love' meaning our lives.  These thoughts come to me often with respect to my need to sacrifice to myself and give to my husband, my kids, and many others who I don't even know their names.  

One way that God is teaching me and Rob, has been through our adoption journey. There have been many curves, peaks, and valleys.  We are already tremendously blessed with our three sons and feel so fortunate to be entrusted with our daughter as well. We're thankful for the many people that God has allowed us to befriend and grow with, through our heart for adoption, fostering, and the bigger plight of orphans locally and worldwide.  It's especially evident now with so many children being 'lost' in Haiti without parents. We all continue to pray for the Haitian people during this horrific time.

We have met a few families who have recently adopted internationally and two sweet families who are adopting this week in China. The C's left on Friday and should be united with Lily this evening, they also have four other children.  The W's will depart on Friday for China and are taking three of their four children with them! It's amazing to see the fruition of their faithfulness in God uniting their families. Adoption is a calling, a blessing, a treasure, unearned/unconditional love. We know how unworthy we are to be able to adopt Nara Josette, but we have been so filled from God's love with each step on this journey. Even, more so for the fruitful witness that the W's journey has been. Join us in praying for the C's, the W's, and many other 'adoption and foster friends'. 

Here' s a beautiful picture of Lily at her SWI. Despite circumstances, God can grow flowers in the desert. (I love their caption) Please continue to pray for orphans and children in need, near you and worldwide.

only wimps need mattresses - wood

They are very strict in China, regarding quarantining 

anyone with a temperature for observation

Love ~

Ginny

Being Alive and Lovin' My Boys!

I love this new song, Alive! I've been trying to do more 'fun' things with the boys, to enjoy them each day and relish them more before they're all grown up.... especially since Nara Josette will arrive soon and they may not receive as much one on one time with me at first. 

What a loving and awesome God of the universe.

Get up and dance! That's what we're doing! :-)

Click this link to listen:
ALIVE song from POCKET FULL OF ROCKS  



Love ~
Ginny

                                     

Today is a wonderful family day. It's been such a busy week with house showings, adoption paperwork, homework, and life. Rob's had a busy work week, too.

We finally completed all of our adoption paperwork to return our LOA with our I-800, 864W, DS230, I-800 Addendum, and a few others. So now we wait for our TA.

The boys and I had a fun week with friends, paintings, lessons, and just playing around.

I was excited to receive an email from our new friend, Kim Anderson. She makes CUTE children's clothing and can find just about any fabric you can imagine. I ordered a couple of things for WT and NJT, I cannot wait to get them in the mail.  Thank you so much Kim for your ministry, we're looking forward to meeting your precious family. 

Check out Kim's blog, BoutiqueBottomsDesigns

LOVE ~

Ginny

LOA

ARRIVED TODAY!

Today we received our call, that our LOA (letter of acceptance) from the CCAA in China arrived at our agency! Yeah, what a blessing. It's about 3-4 weeks earlier than we had expected it. This estimates our timeframe from LOA to TA (travel approval) is about 2-3 months. Once we receive our TA, we'd travel within two weeks. We'll most likely still travel in the spring. 

The Chinese New Year holiday begins in a couple of weeks and the CCAA and the U.S. Consulate each close for alternating weeks, so that will probably add 2-3 weeks onto our timeline. We're very excited that our friends in Bham also received that LOA today, too!

Regardless, the time the drawing near when Nara Josette will be home with us all. The boys are excited. This afternoon the boys and I went to the pottery place and painted. They painted beautiful creations and were sure to include a couple for their sister, too. Whit had fun for a while, but was ready to be done with the paint so he began throwing brushes and sponges. Thank goodness they were dry and I had some tic tacs to tame him. :-) We cannot wait to pick up the masterpieces next week.

Lots of Love ~

Ginny

CHRISTmas Celebrations

We traveled near and far, and enjoyed a lot of time at home with family and friends. The Christmas season was a blessing in many many many ways. We celebrated Jesus birthday for about a month, which He is more than deserving of, but it was tiring.  We've almost got all of the Christmas decorations stored and the boys went back to kindergarten today. It's very quite here without them, I can hardly focus. 

One of the best gifts I received this Christmas was the continual singing by the boys sweet, pure hearts/voices. Jesus' spirit shined through Ford and Graham so many times to remind me of the true joy that Jesus brings to us each and day if we allow Him to overflow through us. This year, I hope we can all be wells from which His life of living water overflows. James 4:13

We're looking forward to this New Year. Please keep us in your prayers for discernment and changes coming our way. Our home is still on the market, deciding on a school for next year, buying a new home, and not least, Nara Josette's arrival in a couple of months. Right now we are awaiting our LOA in the adoption process (Letter of Approval - to travel). As it gets closer, we're getting a little nervous, just like when we brought home each of the other little ones. Except, this time she'll be a Girl and a little older. Please continue to pray for our family, each of our hearts to be open to keep Christ at the center of our hearts and all to embrace and love one another now and after Nara Josette arrives. We're very excited - pink- her we come!  He says I've been 'nesting' for a few weeks now, I don't know what he's talking about... :-)

Sorry for not posting sooner, it's been a little busy. Here are some fun pics from our Christmas season. 

Blessings to you all through this New Year and for the little song in your hearts.

Love ~

Ginny

Christmas stories

Warming our toesies by the fire

Jesus Birthday Party cupcakes

Father Purcell's Children's Home Christmas Gift Tree,

this and the food pantry were wondnerful ways to

help remind us of our blessings and to care for others

Jesus Birthday Party, fun!

Great Ma's Christmas ornament cake

Cousins hiding

Krispy Frosty Snowman

Our placemats, we made for the party

Santa (Whit) and Aunt Ash

Santa playing with Santa

Beautiful... Audrey

The cutest gift, Baby Audrey with Amy/Mom & Nana D.

Cousin's Mischief

Santa and Nana