Our Prayers Have Been Answered!

And the answer is No! We asked everyone to pray for guidance and acceptance and we got both. The little girl was not feeling right to me and we both felt okay about it. We have lots of options and for now, we are going to pray our daughter is on a SN list coming out this week and if not, we will pray and look until we find her. Thanks everyone for your comments and prayers.

Frannie Has Been Ours for 6 Months!

Today is the anniversary of Gotcha Day. How far this little kid has come. She looks so sad in all her pictures and movies for the first 2 or 3 days!

Once Again, please pray!!!

Okay, so I hope I am not getting carried away, but we found a little girl on one of the Waiting Child lists that we are hoping will be ours. I'm not going to give too much info because I don't want something to go wrong, but please pray that we find the little Fay-ette (please let it be this one!) and that we are both willing to accept the outcome. I will only tell you this, she is young and VERY cute! If you guessed that our next child's name will be Tammy, you are wrong!

Tough Job

The worst part of my job is losing my students. I am not sure why this hit me SO hard, but I found out the day before yesterday that I lost two beloved former students, one of whom was not even in my class, but in my former school. Although both Diamond and Shawanis are in the greatest place for all eternity, it hit me right in the gut. I thought of Shawanis at our Valentine's Day pagent, driving her scooter with such pride and how we all cried for her because for the first time in her life, she was able to move herself with Dillon's borrowed scooter. She had the most beautiful smile I've ever seen. Diamond was a miracle -- she had one of the worst cases of scoliosis I've ever seen, but she smiled ALL the time. I know she lived as long as she did because of the love she got at home. She was always surrounded by a house full of foster siblings and her foster Mom who loved her since infancy. Pray for those families for their losses.

Let's all count our blessings today. We can all come up with a minimum of 10 things to be REALLY grateful for. Thank you Lord for the ability to get out of bed, thank you for having too much to eat, thank you for having a family that loves me even when I'm not very nice, thank you for the love these students have given ME, thank you for the way Frannie says "moop" instead of moose, thank you for my husband who gets me Sprite when I don't feel well, thank you for my faith.

I'm going to try to treat every person today like they might be Jesus in disguise, want to join me?

A Fun Day With Godmother Pitty Pat

Frannie, Mary Pat and I went to Stone Mountain Park for a fun time! Coincidentally, we found Aunt Pitty Pat's store! We met a family from China, all of whom were very interested in Frannie and where she is from, her diet and language :) Since Mary Pat is the resident expert on Stone Mountain Park, we were lucky enough to get a tour of her favorite places.

Frannie and I have missed Kevin a lot since he has been away since Wednesday. He's been in Phoenix and then to New Orleans for basketball. He will be home tomorrow afternoon, yeah! I already have a to-do list of adoption chores for him -- I truly can't wait to get the ball rolling. We will need to discuss how we are going to approach the adoption this time. Since we know we are going to be applying for a child from the Waiting Child list, we can actually get a referral first and then get our paperwork filed -- hard to explain if you've never adopted from China before, but we need to decide whether to choose an agency first or later -- there are benefits to both options. We need prayers! We would love to adopt from the same orphanage, but we are not sure that is likely. Hope Haven took such wonderful care of Frannie that I can only hope to get another beloved girl from there again. Since we know Xi'an now, why not. My only regret from the last trip was that I didn't get one of those menus from the restaurant in Guanghzou -- the restaurant that serves dishes like pig liver bile noodles and chicken rectum soup, you know, those recipes that just never made it over to my local Mandarin Chinese place. I will be sure to get one of those menus this time. To heck with pearls and silk, I want that menu! Please pray for Frannie's sister as much as you prayed for her. We know she is the gorgeous, smart and loving girl that she is due to all those prayers! Her sister's name will be......

Once Again, Donna Saves the Day :)

I have been researching domestic and international adoption for a few days, feeling discouraged, mostly because we are either prohibited from adopting from certain countries due to our age or we are given the option of only adopting special needs/older children. Donna has always been my friend and adoption Wikipedia, but yesterday changed everything. She talked me through it and encouraged me to try China again, despite my beliefs that we are prohibited from adopting from China again, due to their strict changes made in May. Well...... I was wrong. After going over the changes with her, making a few phone calls and taking her advice, we are on the road to China again! I began paperchasing before we even got Frannie and we are going to persue children with minor special needs, like Frannie from various agencies. I am so excited that this could actually happen for us in 2008 -- it's a long and complicated process, but by taking Donna's advice, we may be able to have a baby referral within a few months, but we still need prayers! Kevin was flying to Phoenix in the midst of all these conversations and I had to call him "please call me please call me please call me" and when he did, he was also excited and happy at the prospect of Frannie having a sister!

Chinese New Year Party!

Hope for Children Chinese New Year Party

We had such a great time at the Hope for Children Chinese New Year party -- Frannie and Ally ran around and tossed around a treasured packet of duck sauce. I will have to post more photos (and video) later. Lucy took this great picture of our two Xianyang girls.

Happy Chinese New Year!

We are celebrating this year with our other friends from China on Saturday. Our adoption agency is having a party in Roswell and Frannie is very excited to put on her pretty dress again. The Year of the Rat, hmmmm

Gifts from Auntie Peg

Frannie got some cool gifts from her Aunt Peggy and cousin Jim the other day and her FAVORITE thing was this tutu leotard. She was doing her excited Flashdance moves as we were opening the package (she's a maniac, maniac) and she must have said "pretty" about a dozen times when I held up the leotard. I thought she would have a fit when I took it off her, but she has been drooling lately with 2 upper molars coming in and she didn't want to get it all wet! She is growing, but not by leaps and bounds. She can still wear some 12-month sizes, but mostly 18 months now. Thank you Peg and Jim for the goodies (I wasn't sure what was in the bag, something I should smoke or cook with, ha ha -- it was vanilla beans from Madagascar, thanks!)

We got tickets for the Big Apple Circus in a few weeks, which should be exciting. Frannie's favorites are animals, music and ..... (shoes) good times so I guess it should be a hit!

Our friend Pete had brain surgery yesterday on an AVM, say a prayer for him and his family.