Amazing Asheville Street Performer

Drew and I went on a date tonight and a couple blocks away we heard our favorite Asheville street performer. She has the most powerful voice-it is magnified times 10 when you hear her in person! I love her daughter sitting in the background drawing. :) This song is special to me for a couple of reasons, but one being it is so timely. I love the verse in the Bible that talks about how much God cares for us, every single one of us...he cares for the sparrow, how much MORE does he care for us!

We are now (unofficially) on the waiting list for our baby...and wow we have a wait ahead of us. Possibly 14 months! Just the thought of waiting 14 months for my next child makes my stomach hurt! Thats why I am just going to think about what I DO have right now and how THANKFUL I am for what I do have!!!

For example, my daughter who will be FIVE TOMORROW! So thankful the world has been blessed with five years of Quinn. She amazes me everyday.

A Wonderful Day

Today has been such a wonderful follow up to such a fun day yesterday.  It was all about Quinn yesterday and she knew it!  Her idea for bags to give her friends when they left was cute...she made "mini" crayons and added her business card and a silly band and then personalized each of the bags.  Speaking of her crayons, I don't think I have blogged about what she is doing! 

 You can purchase some of these for Christmas presents by going to Quinn's Etsy store online.

Let me just start by saying, Quinn LOVES to create!!!  She is very artistic and is always making something out of nothing.  When I taught her how to recycle crayons into fun shapes she was hooked!  She loved making them so much we have gone through all of our old crayons and she is now making new crayons out of new crayons.  :)  Quinn has an entrepreneurial spirit in her...I could tell the second she decided she wanted to SELL her crayons.  She said she wanted to sell crayons to help bring home her baby!  That girl is just too fun.  So, now she has joined the ranks of business women in the house and is a crayon maker.
Oh, and a precious moment from today that really shows how her heart is being shaped, I told her Celine Dion just had twins (don't judge-Quinn knows who has the most beautiful voice in the whole wide world...actually, she said it was me so maybe she doesn't know.)  And her response was, "Cool!  Are they the same color as her?  Like, did they come from tummy or did she adopt them?"  I LOVE that her almost 5 year old brain goes there!  When I was four I would have just assumed all babies come from the mom they live with.  She knows how family can be built. 
Quinn's friend Avenue spent the night (first time anyone has spent the night that was not from out of town) and they were so cute to listen to as the giggled themselves to sleep.  And actually, they were quite cute to listen to as they woke up giggling at 4AM!!!!  Avenue is staying with us until tonight so the fun has continued and the kids are enjoying the nice weather. 
I have spent the day working on things around the home that I feel like I never have time to get to.  I've been making my own Accountability Kids cards and hanging system.  I'd heard several good things about this "chore system" so I thought I'd give it a try.  Buuut, seeing as we are on the adoption budget I am making my own.  Let me just say, there has been a lot of cutting, laminating and painting going on here.  I'll take a picture once I get it finished and hanging up.  If you can afford it I would recommend just buying the kit, it would save a lot of time!  :) 

And, just for kicks (no pun intended) I'll post this picture from Quinn's last soccer game where she got her metal.  I'm not so sure she will be my soccer star, but at least she had fun playing.  :)  She was glad the season is over so she can start DANCE with Avenue!  I'm glad she hung in through the season-it made me smile to see my first born in shin guards and cleats...I know, I'm strange. 

Quinn's 5th Birthday

Because I'm SO tired, I'll let this video speak for itself right now and I'll write more tomorrow.  Today we celebrated my Quinny's 5th birthday!  We had such a good time with friends and family.  The day was celebrated with ice cream delights, a Care Bear cake (that has a good story to it!), Shrinky-Dinks, fun in the back yard and lots of friendship.  The only think I wish I'd done different was take more pictures!!!  Here is a sneak peak...till tomorrow.

(click on the link below...disclaimer, these were just taken with my phone)

Quinn's 5th Birthday

Sick & Tired of Being...Sick & Tired

You know that kind of sickness that just sucks the wind right out of your sail?  You can hardly stand up to talk two feet?  Your body hurts so bad you can't lift your phone?  That's been me the past couple of days.  But, I am happy to report I am feeling much better today-not better, just not feeling dead anymore.  My head is still in a fog so I apologize ahead of time for the clarity of this post.

I got an email update from our agency today.  It suggested that we have about another SIX month wait for a referral of a child.  I knew that was coming but it still boggles my mind when I think about waiting SIX more months just to find out who our child is.  What is even harder to think about is the fact that if our child is more than six months old at the time of the referral (which we are guessing will be the case) then he/she has already blessed this world with their presence.  Can you imagine your child being born and being on the other side of the world just waiting for you?  Thankfully I know who my baby-daddy is. :)  No, not Drew, not his/her bio father, but GOD.  Our child's creator...HE knows where our baby is and HE will watch over and protect our child.  For now I will just wait, so eager to get THE call.

In the mean time I'll fill my time with the precious family I have.  Here are some pictures from our last hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

Drew hiking, the kids catching a ride.  They know their daddy will do ANYTHING for them!  Include carry them up a mountain. (Yes, he really hiked like this...for at least a good mile)  

And, just for laughs, my princess Quinn with her prince, Jake.  :)

Dossier SENT & Halloween

(Above: The kids at the Post Office with our dossier packet)

Our dossier (AKA- LOTS of paperwork telling the Ethiopian government all about us) has been sent to our adoption agency today!  What a whole lot of paper work!  I am praying none of it will come back as needing to be redone.

Asa was very sad as we drove home.  He sat in the back seat crying, "But I wanna go get our baby from Affriiica at the post office!"  I had to explain that we just mailed the paperwork from the post office, that's not where we will get our baby(s).

So now what do we do?  We wait.  We pray. And we wait some more.  I'm not sure exactly what we are waiting for.  :)  I think for our agency to call and give us an update on when our dossier is sent to Ethiopia, or if we need to make some changes.  I'm praying I didn't miss something!

As far as Halloween last night, Quinn was Cinderella.  My friend made her a custom Cinderella dress, just because she loves her.  How sweet is that!?  Asa wanted to be a pirate, but we are on a budget so we had to go with something we had...a Starbucks Barista uniform.  ;)  Normally I would just make him a costume but I've been too busy sewing shoes.  So, I thought the Barista idea might be kinda fun-maybe he'd like looking like his hero, daddy.  So, Quinn got dressed in her Cinderella dress and I did her hair and let her wear make up.

Then, well, then it was Asa's turn.  He threw himself on the ground saying he wanted to be a cow!  A COW??!!  All this time he's been saying a pirate.  I was prepared to let him wear an eye patch and a Starbucks apron.  But nope, he wanted to be a cow.  After about 30 minutes of me explaining that he can either look like daddy, or be a chicken (his costume from last year).  He didn't want to be a chicken which I was thankful for.  (It would be super small on him.)  Finally I got him dressed and the only way we smoothed things over was I pined a Batman pin on his hat.

I have a lack of pictures because I just wasn't feeling it.  Cranky kids-didn't know who we would be trick-or-treating with or where we were going for that matter.  (You can't go in our neighborhood)  I won't finish the rest of the story because it was kind of gross and depressing.   We'll just leave it at, my kids looked adorable.  :)

Off to bed!  I have a board meeting for Sole Hope tomorrow morning.  I cannot even tell you, (but sometime I will try to explain) how much I love the board of Sole Hope.  They give me so support and encouragement!!