Alexis' Room

So here's the almost finished project.  We still need to hang the valances, but we're close.  The green walls turned out great.  The boys are so excited.  Jackson told me yesterday, we needed to stand in front of the bed and surprise Lexi.  It's definitely more pink than I ever thought I'd have in my house :)  I should have taken a picture of the inside of the closet.  It is stuffed with girlie dresses and tutus and hats!  So Fun!

All Eyes Ahead

So Clay and I found this the other day in the boys room.  If you look closely, everyone is facing the same way.  Apparently they were watching a movie on the wall :)

4th of July

We spent the week of the 4th with Clay's family at a beach house in NC.  We swam in the pool and the ocean, played the wii at night, and generally just hung out, ate, and talked.  It was wonderful and relaxing.  Clay has posted a ton of pics on his website, but I wanted to put a few of my favorites up here. 

Clay and Jonah try on pirate hats at the local souvenir shop.

Clay had to fish a huge crab out of the pool one morning. Unfortunately crabs and chlorine do not get along.

Jack and Joe spent many hours hauling water up to the sand castle.

financing

Clay and I have been very determined not to go into debt with the adoption, but with the value of the dollar going down and travel and fees going up, it seemed that a loan was unavoidable.  We decided to wait and pray about it.  This weekend, we got 3 checks that totaled enough to cover the entire 2nd trip to Russia which was basically all we had left!  God is faithfulness never ceases to amaze me.  Thanks to everyone who's given over the last year.  You will never know the true thankfulness in our hearts!

Shower

I'm a little behind in my posts, but at the end of June some gals here gave me an amazing shower. Let's just say, Alexis will be the best dressed 2 year old around!  Thanks to Jen, Marianne, Denise, and everyone else who helped out.  And, of course, thanks to "Miss LouAnne" for the yummy cookies. :)

Adoption Prayer

Many people have been asking what to pray for as far as the adoption goes.  A friend of mine sent me an Adoption Prayer Bracelet.  In it, each bead represents something, so I thought I'd share.

Purple- represents mourning.  Pray for peace and comfort for the baby's birth parents.

Black- represents abandonment.  Pray for the baby's protection.

Red- represents Russia.  Pray for her country to be open to God's love.

Pink- represents the baby. Pray that God will give her our voices so that she will know that we are her forever family.

Green- represents new life and renewal.  Pray that God will prepare her for her new life.

White- represents God.  Thank you Father, that you are already caring for the life of this little girl.

Double heart- Pray for her heart, tender to stay.  Guard it, protect it, Father, I pray.  On her wedding day for her to wear, give her a heart as a symbol of your prayer.

Adoption Update

So we thought we would be traveling in August, but again Russia runs behind.  We had to redo a bunch of paperwork for no apparent reason.  We also will be repeating the kid's physicals and all our labwork and xrays this month.  The word we get is that our court date will be in September.  Please continue to pray for things to go smoothly and that maybe one of these grant people would feel sorry for us and give us some money :)  We are anxious to bring Alexis home.  We've been working on her room and when its done we will post pics.

Kiddo quotes

So we were explaining to Jackson and Jonah yesterday that they were starting swim lessons. Jonah makes a fist and pumps it straight in the air and says "SWEET!"  

The boys have been really into Toy Story and so we broke down and bought Toy Story 2.  There's a horse on there called Bullseye, but according to Jonah he's Pullseye.  Pullseye goes everywhere with us... no there's no toy just a horse in Jonah's imagination that goes in the car, in the pool and pretty much anywhere we go.

Jackson announced to me the other day that when Lexi got here he was going to teach her "how to do nice things and jump really high".

Jonah's tent

A few times this year when we've been bored, we make a tent out of Jonah's bed. Apparently during nap he decided to make his own tent and then fall asleep in it.  Notice that he's also at the foot of the bed.

Other KC pics

Worlds of Fun

The whole gang went to Worlds of Fun when we were in KC.  The boys loved everything.  They wanted to ride every ride again and again.  On every ride they were up high on, Jonah would say "look at me, I flyin' high like a black bird!"  no idea where that came from.  They rode the kiddie roller coaster, the Wacky Worm, 8 times total!  It was a great day, no lines, and us big kids got to ride all the big roller coasters while we were there too.

Prayer Request

Our application for an adoption grant is being reviewed this week and we will be notified by the end of the week if we get it, so please be praying that we qualify.   Thanks!

Jackson's milk

So the other day Clay had poured milk out of a new carton for the boys at breakfast.  Jackson tells me that the milk smells funny and we discover that its bad.  Anyway, we're discussing it and Jackson says, "Yeah, it tasted bad, kind of like grandma's soil milk"  Translation... soy milk.  You gotta laugh!

Fun with Aunt Heather

We went to a indoor playground called MonkeyBiz.  The boys jumped and jumped and jumped...

Jonah didn't let the "over 3" on the big slide stop him.  You had to crawl through a tunnel, up a wall, through another tunnel, then up a huge wall and down the slide.  I know this b/c I did it with Jonah the first time, but after that he was all on his own.

Great grandparents- GG and Poppy

There's this great park close to my grandparents that we always try to take the boys.  This year they discovered the tire swing.   Jonah was laughing hysterically.  It's a little hard to capture the moment :)

GG and Poppy and the boys.

Great Grandparents- GG and Gmac

Jonah plays golf with his bat.  I guess you can tell where we live :)

More rock climbing and throwing rocks in the creek.

Uncle Clay attempts to demonstrate how to throw paper airplane.

GG helps out too.

GG and Gmac with the boys.

KC Zoo

We went to the zoo while in KC visiting everyone.  All Jonah wanted to see was kangroos and he got his wish.  It's apparently fun to climb rocks no matter where you are.  

This is Emma, one of Jackson's friends from KC.  Her class was at the zoo on a field trip and we ran into them.

Jonah sings!

Jonah loves to sing these days.  Here he is singing his version of the ABC's. Notice the "T, V, U". You'll have to pause my music off to the right.

Russia pics

I know its a long time coming, but all the Russia pics were on Clay's computer which he proceeded to drop about 2 days after we got home and then it was in the shop for a week.  Anyway, they finally got transferred to my computer.  There are much more pics on Clay's blog, so I didn't see any reason to post a bunch, but these are some of my favorites.  

She loved being held, though they kept telling me to put her down and play with her.  Not sure why they cared.  She also loved for Clay to push her around in this little tricycle thing.   If he stopped, she would start rocking, trying to get it moving herself.  You can see the little scrapbook we left with her.  It had  family pics that they are supposed to show her on a regular basis.  

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for the 2nd trip.  We have been in the midst of a ton of paperwork that has not been easy to complete.  When we get it turned in then they will set our court date.  All the medicals are only good for 3 months, so pray they don't set it too far off or we will have to repeat everything.  And, obviously, we're really ready to bring her home. I think Jonah asks every day when "little sister" is coming home. Thanks for all the support, we are so blessed to have friends and family!

Big Move!

We moved the boys into the same room last weekend!  They're doing great.  There was a lot of talking and giggling the first couple of nights, but they're pretty settled in now and are loving it.  Jonah still asks every night if he gets to sleep in his "brand new bed" and if "bro bro is sleeping in the bunk".  Like some day we're going to move him back.