Happy New Year to ALL

In less than one hour it will be 2006. Wow! 2005 has been a roller coaster ride. We watched one child graduate high school and go on to college. We watched another child start her first year of high school and another one move up a grade and mature at what seems like to fast of a rate.

We continued on our journey for our adoption. Hard to believe we started at the end of 2004 and will complete this journey in 2006.

I want to wish all my family and friends a joyous New Year in 2006 and may all your dreams and wishes come true.

ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!!!!

ALERT........ALERT.......ALERT..........
I am so excited I can hardly stand it. A stork alert has been issued and my referral is in the air on its way to the USA! Because Monday is a holiday we won't get them until Tuesday. Needless to say it is going to be a tough next few days.

Happy Holidays To All

Twas the night before Christmas and all in the Stahley house are tucked in and comfy for the night.

Last night we had Christmas with Mike's family. It was a lot of fun. Mike's parents took us all (14 of us) to Red Lobster for Christmas dinner. Then everyone came back to our house for present time. We had done a name draw at Thanksgiving time so we each had one person to buy for. It was fun watching everyone open their gifts and see what the bounty was. Mike's parents did not stick to the rules and passed out money envelopes to everyone. Shame on them...but I love them. :)

Tonight we had our Christmas program at church. It was put on by the children from the church and was very cute. The rest of the night we are just spending relaxing at home. Watching movies and staying warm.

Tomorrow is pretty low key for us too. No plans except for our own Christmas at home. I really like that. We don't have to rush off to anyone else's home. My dad is coming though in the morning to watch us open our gifts and eat some goodies for breakfast.

I got the COOLEST gift yesterday! My super-cool Lovebug sister from Kentucky sent me a gift and I love it. It is a little denim backpack and she had Olivia's name put on it. I can picture our little one when she is about two years old walking around with her pack on her back. Thank you Sheila, I love ya girl!

Merry Christmas to All and remember the Reason for the Season.

Suprise Mail

Today in the mail I received an envelope from Brazil. Many years ago we had an exchange student that stayed with us for a year. Gleise became our oldest daughter. It was a wonderful experience having her with us for that year. The following year she came back and stayed with us for a month. We had kept in touch for a while, but over the years that communication has run dry. I knew she was going to Australia for 6 months and then we just lost track. I only have an old address for her mother. Anyway, today I got an envelope with two pictures in it. They are of Gleise's almost two year old daughter. She is sooo cute. There was just a quick note on the back of the picture and no return address. ARGH! Well I am going to give it a try. I typed up a letter and I am going to send it to her mothers old address. Maybe the mother still lives there. I hope.

Please feel free to add comments to my journal. I have no idea if anyone out there in cyber land even reads this. LOL!

The first half of the Lovebugs got their TA's today. YEAH! I don't know why that excites me so much but I guess I feel like we can't get our referrals until the group before us gets their travel plans. There is a possibility that they will be leaving on January 4th.

Mike said something today about heading to Kentucky for a couple days next week. WOW! That came out of the blue. So, we may be planning a trip south for a couple days.
Chinamama

Home From Iowa

Well we just got home from Iowa this afternoon. We went out for Christmas with mom. Olivia got her first two Christmas presents. That almost made me cry.

We drove out Friday night and had Lisa and baby Nolan with us. (Jon had to take Megan to the airport so she could fly to Texas to spend Christmas with her dad.) We got there pretty late that night. On Saturday most of us went shopping to help mom spend the rest of her money. In the afternoon mom and Gordon treated us to a movie. (Note: Go see The Family Stone-it is really good.) That evening we opened presents and were up till about 1 AM.

Evan is home for three weeks too. He met us at mom's house. He is staying out at mom's for a couple extra days.

Tomorrow is a FREE day. Whoo Hoo! No school and no plans. R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N!

ChinaMama

Same old, Same old

The home front is pretty quiet right now. Only two days left of school and then two weeks of Christmas break! YEAH! I am sure ready for this. I will love not having to get up at 6 and go out and start my bus in the freezing cold weather.

Christmas shopping is done and wrapped so now I can just kick back and relax. We are leaving Friday night and heading to Iowa for Christmas with my mom. Then nothing until the 23rd when we have the Stahley Christmas. We really have a pretty light schedule this year.

This is really a week of anniversaries for us. On December 11th we made the decision to adopt. On December 12th we contacted our social worker for the first time and on December 13th we sent in our application to the adoption agency. So I guess you can say that a year ago this week we got the ball rolling in the process.

I have been sick this week with a headcold. This has put me in a rather grumpy and tired mood. Hopefully I will have it kicked here in a day or two and then be great for our vacation weeks.

Mike has been puttering around the house driving me nuts. He has been washing dishes (by hand instead of the dishwasher) and today he swept the living room. Now I know most of you women would think "That is Awesome" but on a certain level it bugs me. It makes me feel like he doesn't think I am doing my jobs right. I know he is trying to find things to do, but he hasn't even started on my honey-do list and the lack of income is really bugging me too. I think he will be helping the neighbor guy on his farm some, so that will keep him out of my hair.

Next Batch of Referrals

Well the latest batch of referrals has arrived. They came on December 8th which is awesome because that is two days less than a month from the last batch. They have been coming 5 weeks apart, so that is good news. Our agency did not receive any referrals because our group is the next batch they are expecting. The cut off for this batch was April 14th so we missed it by 3 days. We WILL be in the next batch though. YAHHOOOIE! I can hardly wait to see sweet Olivia's face. I think this month will go quickly.

We got 10 inches of snow on Thursday night so yesterday we had a snow day-meaning no school. Morgan and I went Christmas shopping. I think she has most of her stuff done now.

Mike is laid off. Bummer! This is about two weeks earlier than we hoped for. I am just praying for that there are no unexpected expenses this winter.

One more week of school before our Christmas break. I am looking forward to that. Evan will also be coming home in a week and be home for about three weeks. Hopefully my sanity holds out. LOL!

Oh Paybacks!

Remember about 5 weeks ago I told the story of how I went down to Kentucky to surprise a few of my Lovebug friends. Well there is a such thing as paybacks. Friday night we came home from going out to eat and found a 6 pack of Ale-8 on my front porch. (Ale-8 is a pop that is made in Kentucky that Morgan has become a big fan of). I knew immediately that something was up and sure enough within about 2 minutes a vehicle pulled into my driveway with Kentucky plates. After I got done screaming and going crazy I got to sit down and visit with Sheila, Jack, Kim and Kimmee who made the 6+ hour drive to visit me. It was so awesome and they got me good. I did not have a clue they were planning this (believe me my fridge would have been stocked and my house clean if I knew!). We stayed up until 1 AM Friday and Saturday night gabbing and laughing. We went to Shipshewana to visit Amishville. It was exactly what I needed this weekend to pull me out of my funk from the bad referral news. The weekend flew by and now I have the energy to wait another month. Thanks girls! I love you!

One more month

Well word is in.....we got cut again. They only matched up to April 15th. Referrals are suppose to be sent out at the beginning of next week. That is the only good news I heard so far. (The referrals have been sent about every 5 weeks and this time it is less than 4 weeks). I thought I was prepared for this, protected my heart and all, but I guess that wasn't true. I had an appointment to get my nails done today and when I sat down, Dawn looked at me and said "Why do you look so sad?" To which I replied "Whaaaa whaaa!" Yep, I started bawling. How embarrassing. I am such a dork! The thought of waiting one more month isn't too bad because it is December and because of the holidays will go quickly-what is bad is that I am still 3 months now from holding my little one. Instead of traveling in December we will probably travel in March. ARGH!!! I am going to take 1-2 days to cry, scream and throw things and then I will move on to positive thoughts.

Well, I can now say I am 99% positive we will be in the next batch. We technically only missed the cut off by 2 days (the 16 & 17th were weekend days). SO-around the first part of January we will get to see the face of the newest Stahley member and I will get to start packing and planning.

I just read a post from another mom-to-be in the same situation that we are in and I totally agree with her. I need to picture God asking me "Do you trust me?" And then I need to completely and totally trust him and his plan and get off my high horse.