The Price of a Ride to the Airport Is...

...bringing back IN'N'OUT Burger from California. Our neighbor down the street went to CA for Spring Break with her kids, and so we offered to drop them off and then pick them back up so they wouldn't have to leave a car there all week. She asked us if they could bring anything back for us and David promptly replied, "Some IN'N'OUT!!" She looked kind of dubious about bringing back burgers on a 4 hour flight, but agreed to bring some back. When David picked them up from the airport and they had 4 burgers double bagged and sealed tight, I thought he was going to cry he looked so happy. I personally thought it was kinda gross that these burgers had been sitting for 5 hours but David was thrilled and scarfed down 2 at 10:00 at night. Yummy!! We love this place and wish they would open one here in Dallas. Dave of course, had to introduce Emilee to the greatness of IN'N'OUT...

Emilee, ever the cautious child, had to first inspect it with her pointer finger before it was deemed worthy of consumption.

Could she open her mouth any wider?

Don't think that she found this as amusing as we did!!

After a full belly of IN'N'OUT she went to help Dad with work - notice what kind of T-shirt Dave is wearing...

The Wiener Changes EVERYTHING!!!!

Well today we found out that our birth parents were having a boy instead of a girl, and then a few hours later we found out that they have now decided that they "just can't give up their son." WHAT - your daughter was OK, but now that it has some Easter eggs you can't part with it? We are still in a state of shock, but the one thing we have learned with adoptions is that nothing is over till the papers are signed. There is still a good chance that they will realize that being near homeless will not enable them to provide for a son or daughter at this point and come to their senses, but we don't know yet. Keep praying with us for them, that they have will have sense. It is sad we find ourselves praying for sense, common or not, for more and more people. We sometimes find ourselves wishing we had more control over the situation like with normal biological kids, then we could decide not to give the baby drugs and alcohol etc, but the Lord gives us all our little growth opportunities. Thanks for letting us rant on about this, just needed to let off some steam.

A Daily Rant from Dave

A Change In Plans...

This post was going to be about what color to paint Emilee's room, as she had a baby sister that was going to be adopted in May, and we figured that they would eventually share a room in a year or two. We even bought a second set of crib bedding and girlied-out the bathroom that the two girls would be sharing. Birthmom and grandma went to the doctor today and found out that instead of a girl...it's a BOY!!! Just as soon as I had finally wrapped my head around having two girls 16 months apart, we discover that it's a BOY!! I'm still in shock. Enjoy the pictures of Em's room and bedding. We will now be starting from scratch and looking for more manly bedding - even though I hear that pink is in for boys.

Spring Time!!

This is my favorite time of year! When the flowers start to bloom and the garden starts to sprout, and it's not cold anymore!!

How cute are those peas starting to come up?!

Emilee has also noticed the change outside, and her days of sitting at the window waiting for warmer weather are over.

Instead, she likes to sit at the window and play with her best friend - her reflection. She gives her friend high five...

...and shows her how to hit the ball on the glass and make lots of noise.

Can we go outside and play?

Winter Wonderland...in March?

Okay - so I know it's totally late to be posting these pictures, but I got side tracked with Em's hurling. So here are the snow pictures. So glad that it melted quickly. I am not a fan of frozen stuff falling out of the sky. Jody - you have my sympathy...















It was cold - so Emilee had to wear her little furry animal slippers!!

Gross!!

Em has been sick with the stomach bug that his been making the rounds. I now call her our little Weapon of Mass Destruction. I am amazed at her aim and the skill at which she releases the brocolli and various other foods that she had for lunch yesterday - all over herself and of course me. Poor thing has had 4 baths in the last 18 hours and we are quickly running out of clean jammies. She is on the mend now and has been keeping liquids and bland solids down so I hope we are in the clear. Love me some Pedialyte!! Only thing that she was able to partially keep down and kept us from having to call the doctor over the weekend. Off to do more laundry...

What the Hail??!!

A couple of weeks ago we had a really bad storm that came thru our area. One of the worst in a while - and it dropped golf ball sized hail and 70-80 mile an hour winds on our pathetic little roof. I was inside the house and could literally hear it flapping in the wind. Not good. We called our insurance agent and she said to go ahead and have an adjuster look at it. He looked at it and then promptly totaled it. Not good, but better than if we had to pay for everything out of pocket. So, now we are getting bids to have our roof replaced and looking at a nice $1,500 deductible. Lovely - just in time to finish paying off medical bills and sucking in so we can pay for an adoption in May. I'm just going to keep repeating my mantra for the last 7 months - "We are very blessed, and it could be worse."

Rub a Dub Dub...Little Em in the Tub

This picture just cracked me up and so I had to post it. Notice the strategically placed blue fish! She cries every time I take her out because she loves to play in the water. She is looking forward to being able to go to the pool this summer with Uncle Fishy (Chris) so she can learn how to swim.

Little Monkey

Em loves bananas. She would eat them all day if I let her. As you can see by the picture below, she also loves to shove multiple pieces of banana into her mouth...



resulting in this. Her mouth overflowing with delicious banana.


Here she is doing her kissy face because I was trying to get her attention to look at the camera.


Can I have some more please?

And Then There Were 4!

Sooo, to make a long story short - Emilee's birthparents are pregnant again with another little girl due May 7th, and they want to place her for adoption with us! The girls will be 16 months apart and will be adoptive siblings as well as full blooded biological siblings. What a neat bond for them to share. Unfortunately, the birthmom is currently doing drugs and drinking a little alcohol, so we are praying that all goes well with her and the pregnancy and the baby is born with little or no complications.

It hadn't really hit me until we went shopping for a double stroller yesterday and then almost had a panic attack as we left the store. My mind is already running wild with lists of everything that needs to get done in the next 8 weeks. Yikes!! BTW - if anyone hears of someone wanting to get rid of a crib let us know - we are going to need 2 now. David and I consider ourselves "veterans" of sorts when it comes to crazy adoption stuff, and will not believe it a done deal until all the paperwork has been signed, but we are cautiously optimistic that this will go thru. That's about all the news for now. We'll keep everyone posted...

Shout Out to Cousin "Aunt" Steph

Emilee wore her new dress to church last Sunday. She loved it!!