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!

Too good not to share...

The words written in the post I'm pasting below are written by another mother but straight from my heart, too. Happiness is NOT my dream for my children.... Check out this post to find out why!

Happy Birthday Parker Isaac!!

We had a Hiking Party for Parker's 5th birthday. It was a lot of fun, a little chilly but tons of fun! We cooked out at Woolly Hollow and then hiked one of the trails afterwards. We all had a good time celebrating Parker.
Oh I wish you knew how dear you are to us Parker!!! You are the joy of our family! You truly are a constant joy, full of life. I pray for you SO often. My prayer is that God will use your passion to honor and bring Him glory.

Check it OUT...

I've just updated our new can totals:) Since November 23rd we've raised $834 in can collecting!! That is almost 58,000 cans:) YAY!! Did you see that total? My goal for the year was $1000. It looks like we'll pass that in just over 3 months! It's a GOD thing!
You wouldn't believe how involved my students have been in this!! They have amazed me! Daily I get to my room and find bags of cans waiting. We probably have over 400 folks collecting cans! My cousin Amy is rallying tons of support in TX. Mrs. Henthorne at West Side has gone crazy collecting cans! Our youth room has contributed mucho cans!! Blogger friends have been rallying behind us. A dear friend from Canada has been collecting for us. Complete strangers have been collecting cans to help bring Joleigh home. The youth of United Methodist Church in Greenbrier have taken this mission on full blast!!! It is their ministry and they are PUMPED about it! Thanks to ALL who have helped us collect cans. We are forever grateful!