Sunshine of my Soul:)

That's my little pet name for all three kiddos... Sunshine of my soul:) You should hear Piper repeat it after I say it to her. Nothing sweeter! She truly brings pure joy and happiness to our home. You should hear her talk! She literally speaks in 6-9 word sentences most of the day. It's so cute and pretty impressive! She loves her big brothers so much! She adores daddy and mommy! She has the funniest personality and is constantly trying to make us laugh. She loves to read and talk on the phone.. sometimes at the same time;).
Some of our favorite Piper phrases are:

Watch this daddy, watch this.
Ahhhh man!
I love you, too! (after we say it to her first:)
Buddy Ole PAL (trying to call the neighborhood dog)



We love you Piper and pray so much that God will open your eyes to HIS goodness. May your life glorify HIM.

Another referral means...

we are now NUMBER...



ALSO.... there's a great give away going on right now over HERE. I heart Target:) check it out...

We have a new number:)

We are now number....

(and I have no idea what that is a picture of exactly, I just needed a number 52;)
I am really, REALLY hoping to be able to go get Joleigh before Spring Break next year. I would then take the rest of the school year off. We are SO excited to see the numbers counting down! Can I just say again how EXCITED we are:)??

We took the boys to Branson for a couple of days and had so much fun:) We left Piper with Grandma and Papa and she had a good time, too. Here's a phone pic of the boys getting ready to go swimming. I've also added a phone video of Parker learning to ride his bike. This was his first time to ride without the training wheels:) we are SO proud of him!

I love this...

My friend Phoebe posted something on her blog that you guys should take a minute and read. I know she and her husband are financially on their way to being debt free, not sure how long away that goal is but I know it's how they live! You know what I LOVE the most.... I love the fact that their home isn't froo froo fancy. I'm not saying it's bad to have froo froo fancy if you can afford that and be debt free but if not why go into debt for froo froo fancy? Cameron and I definitely do not live in a froo froo fancy (are you getting tired of seeing that yet? ;) home BUT oh how we LOVE our home! Several, several times a month we discuss with grateful hearts how much HE has entrusted us with. We are hoping to be in the position in a few years to be debt free. Our desire to be debt free is driven by our desire to serve HIS children more. We would LOVE to be able to help others financially who are led to adopt. We have a strong desire to be freed of any excuses, debt, chains that would cause us from serving others. Thank you Phoebe for not being sucked in to the American dream! Thank you God for placing this burden on mine and Cameron's heart.

Two things..

1. More can money:) Cameron and dad took the cans today and cashed in $336!! We have raised $1,170 so far with just cans! This weekend we are having a yard sale to help raise funds. Prayers appreciated that it is successful.. also prayers for Cam's job search! We are praying and believing it will be SOON! Pray with us!!

2. You must read this blog post... just 3 minutes but SO worth it! Here's my favorite part of the blog, which is straight from MY heart!!
I look at the numbers and I truthfully cannot fathom them: 147 MILLION ORPHANS. Nothing means as much as pleading their cause because they are not numbers, they are children. When I think about pedicures, I think about their small feet covered with cuts and sores because they do not have shoes. When I think about the latest fashions, my mind goes to the thought that they would be thrilled to own a school uniform so that they could attend school. When I think about the latest décor for my home, I am reminded that all they want is what is in the home – a family and love. The one thing that we all have to give is love, so why do so many feel that these children are undeserving of love? Why are they supposed to be someone else’s responsibility? Why do others not see this picture that I continue to see in my mind of 147 million children without families? I assure you it is not an optical illusion. It is not hard to see.

You know you're a teacher when...

things like this make you giddy :). My students CONSTANTLY steal my pencils... little thieves! While I was at the customer service desk @ Kroger I used a pen with a flower stuck on it. I thought what an AWESOME idea! I made a vase full for my room and it's been the perfect deterrent to thwart the thieves at GHS. One of my dear friends whom I coteach with has been so generous to us while we try to raise funds for our adoption that I wanted to do something sweet for her. I teach with her 1st and 3rd period and kids are constantly taking her pencils so I made her this... if you're looking for a good gift idea for a teacher, especially upper grades, this would be PERFECT! I just bought some flower tape and took the erasers off the pencils, broke the long stems and taped them together. You should see those tough high school boys writing with a big pink gerber daisy!

We've been waiting to be waiting...

We got the news today that we are an OFFICIAL WAITING FAMILY! Our dossier just came back from DC and we are now on the waiting list. What does that mean? Well, it means that we've done all we can do to speed up the process and now we just wait for God to choose Joleigh for our family. This is the first time that I am able to post what number we are on the waiting list.... and here it is....


This means there are 57 families ahead of us on the list BUT a lot of those families have requested young babies so it's possible for us to move up on the list b/c we've asked for a little girl between the ages of 6 months and 30 months. When I got the email today stating we were officially a waiting family I was overjoyed. I really can't put it into words. Butterflies raced through me and my stomach was in knots.
I needed today because yesterday was NOT a good day. Several circumstances led up to the bad day and then I got home and Cameron told me we had an email from Children's Hope International, our adoption agency. It stated that there have been changes in the Ethiopia adoption process. My stomach sunk... it is now a requirement for parents to travel TWO times to Ethiopia. This was quite a shock! There are reasons behind it that I totally understand but it's not going to be easy for us. This will increase our adoption cost from about $25,000 to over $30,000 just for the extra airplane tickets, not to mention our stay there. Here's one thing I've learned through this process... Satan is constantly at work trying to disrupt HIS plans. Here's another thing I've learned... HE IS BIGGER and will provide. All Cameron and I were really raising funds for was our travel and now that is doubled. That looks big and scary but He is bigger and we trust HIM fully! We canNOT wait to bring Joleigh home to meet her siblings!

How could I forget??

During my last post, I talked about what we've been up to but I forgot to mention the BIGGEST thing we've been up to... completing our Dossier! It is FINISHED:) wooohooo! The dossier is a huge compilation of paperwork needed for our adoption. We could not be placed on the waiting list until it was complete. We began working on it at the end of October and would've been finished weeks earlier but our paperwork we were waiting on from the CIS was lost in the mail! So it took about 4 months for us to complete it which is fairly quick compared to most. The expected wait time is approx 12 months. Which means we should have a referral in about 12 months and then travel to Ethiopia a few months later. I am "hoping" it won't take so long because we should be around 60th on the waiting list and there were a total of 20 babies referred in Feb so if we have a couple more really good months like that, it's possible for us to get a referral sooner. One can always hope:).

What have we been up to?

Well, first of all.... we've been collecting and crushing a LOT of cans:). Today we picked up a ridiculous amount of cans from a couple of my students. The can collecting is definitely going WELL! I was hoping for $1000 in a year and we've collected about that much in a little over 3 months. I HEART aluminum:)

This is the first year for the boys to play any type of sport and they chose soccer! Today was their first game:) they both had a great time! Cameron volunteered to coach so it's super entertaining watching all three out on the field! We won today 5-2 and guess who scored all our points?? Andrew! He was really excited:) Parker is still getting a little warmed up:) he's not really aggressive or competitive, especially around strangers. He did have a really good time though!