The total is in......

The total for our benefit is outstanding. It was so much fun too. I can't wait until we find a reason to do another one. I heard several others said the same thing. That is great. Okay, okay I will get to it. The total is.....drum roll please.......$3,996.00. Yippee! WOW!! Whoo Hoo! Unbelieveable!

I AM A GREAT AUNT!

My neice had a baby boy on Saturday night. After being in labor for two days she gave birth to an 8 lb. 6 ounce bouncing baby boy, Tevis Alexander. TWO DAYS OF LABOR! No 18 year old should have to go through that! LOL! He is adorable. AND she looks pretty darn good too.

Benefit

Yesterday was our benefit at church. I would call it a great sucess. I don't have the totals yet. They will give me those tomorrow. But there was plenty of food. They served chili and potato soup, bread and brownies. We brought soup, brownies and bread home as did several others there was so much left.

Then the items for auction! WOW! I would guess there were about 30 items up for silent auction. Some of the most beautiful baskets! Coffee baskets, chocolate baskets, Mary Kay baskets, movie basket, bath basket, kitchen basket, car care kit basket, children basket, tanning basket, Christmas basket and more. There was a dinner at a fancy restaurant donated, a night at a bed and breakfast donated, a couple golf outings donated, a kids set of golf clubs, hand stamped cards, hand made blankets....I could go on. It was so cool. And people were having so much fun bidding. They were practically wrestling over some of the items.

So, I would say it was a great sucess and I can't wait to do something like this again as a church cause it was fun!

Lori Kay, our pastor's wife, and my good friend, also interviewed us during the church service today. She asked us questions about the adoption process, our feelings and expectations and then prayed for us. It was nerve wracking but afterwards several people said we did really well. WHEW! I hope so, cuz I sure was sweating up there!

Surprise Shower! & We are GOING TO CHINA!!!

Last night at our Bible Study group they suprised us with a shower. Above is the gifts we received. We also had a cake, punch and non-alcoholic hooch (white grape juice). We were so shocked. We have only been part of this group for a few weeks but they have embraced us and supported us from day one. It has been really neat.

PART 2: At 9:30 last night we got confirmation of our Consulate date so our agency started working on our flights. Today we got those booked. It is now official! We are leaving on March 8th and returning on March 22nd. Our Consulate appointment is the 20th. We should get our full itinerary next week so we know what we will be doing each day in China.

I just can't believe it. After waiting for so long, the dream seems to be really turning into a reality. We are really going to China in less than 2 weeks! I know the time is going to fly with all the things we have going on yet and the things to do. YIPPEE!!!!

Okay-first advertisement...... our travel log can be found at www.journeytome.com (username: stahley password: stahley) Bookmark this site. This is where I will be posting our pictures and our travel log. I hope to be posting everyday that we have Internet connections. I will post this again before we leave.

Happy Birthday Son!

Today is my baby's birthday. Twenty years ago today I gave birth to my only son. Evan was 10 weeks premature and only given a 50/50 chance of living. He weighed a mere 3 pounds and lived in the hospital for 5 weeks. Well that little guy was a fighter. He fought and he grew and today he is 20 years old and a freshman in college.

Happy Birthday Evan~ I Love You

Trip to Ohio

Okay, I had some time to kill so I had to make another one of my surprise trips. LOL! This time I headed to Ohio to surprise another one of my travel mates. Yep-she didn't know I was coming. Morgan and I jumped in the van and made the almost 5 hour trip to her house. She was getting her hair done (we knew that). So when she got home, we were laying in wait. As she got to the door, I opened it for her and asked if she had any packages I could help her with. Well lets just say it is a good thing she does not wear dentures or we would have been picking them up off the floor. Then the screaming and hugging began! I had a great afternoon/evening visiting with Lisa. My buds Sheila and Jack drove up from KY so we could all go to supper together. Julie (Lisa's cousin who was in on the surprise) and her hubs Dave came too. Julie and Dave just got back last month from China picking up their second daughter and Lisa and Mike are also getting their second daughter.

Here are some pictures of Mike, Lisa and Laney. I am terrible about taking pictures. I totally forgot to get my camera out when we were together as a group. Sorry.

I am working on putting together a site for our travel log on Journey to Me. I may try to post here too, but several people have had problems with blogs being blocked in China. Plus on Journey to Me I can have all my pictures, my travel journal and any comments people leave me burned onto a CD for $25 and the site is free. It is password protected though(that is the one thing I don't like about it). Once I have it set up I WILL post here what the address it and the password so everyone can follow along. Kewl? Good! I won't leave anyone behind.

We are hoping for Consulate confirmation today and then we should be able to book our flight tickets today too! Yippee!

ChinaMama

TA'S ARE HERE!!!!!

YIPPEEEE!!!!

We just got word that our Travel Approval's have arrived!! That is what we have been waiting for. Our agency has now put in for our Consulate appointment and if we get our first choice we will be leaving for China on March 8th. Since our agency has requested a date so far out I doubt we will have a problem getting the one we want. I am a little bummed that it is still three weeks away but AT LEAST WE HAVE A DATE!! Hang on Olivia Mama is coming to get you.

Very Special Gift

Tonight I got a very special gift. There is a picture of it at the top. Does it resemble the picture underneath? Almost perfectly I would say. It was from my friend LK. She about had me in tears tonight. Believe it or not she "claims" that 10 months ago she could not even draw stick figures of people but now she can produce a drawing like this. I am absolutely amazed! And then she was worried that the pink mat would not match Olivia's room. Well that is not a problem because it won't be hanging in Olivia's room. It is hanging in my family room. She even spelled out Olivia's name in Chinese characters and then wrote "Daughter of my Heart" across the bottom. I just can't stop looking at it.

There is still no news on our travel approvals yet. I am feeling a little down today about it. I know realistically it will probably not be until next week, but I was really hoping for this week.

Hang on Olivia! Mama is coming!

PS: Morgan has one more (last) baby goat. She has Scooter, Missy and Lily.

Morgan has babies!!!

This morning early, around 6:00 AM one of Morgan's goats had twins. One little boy and one little girl. One (the white one-boy, looks just like the daddy) and the other (the brown one-girl, looks just like the mommy). Morgan got to watch the little girl being born. It was one of those life experiences that dad thought was worth missing the bus for so he drove her to school. She is so excited you would have thought she had them herself. Enjoy the pictures.

My Shower!!!

Today was my shower. It turned out really great. The picture above is of my mother, my girls and myself. The picture to the right is a picture of a gift from my friend for Mike. If you can't make it out, it is a walker with a stroller attached. It is hilarious. Olivia recieved lots of clothes, a potty Elmo, a Pink Leap Pad, lots of sippy cups, a couple stuffed animals, some dishes, a bunch of tub toys, some books, a couple gift cards and more. The theme was Ladybugs! It was a great celebration. Now all we need is Olivia home!

Packing, Packing, Packing

This is what Olivia's room looks like right now. A MESS! I do have the packing all figured out though. AND the only thing I have left to pack is my laptop (when it gets back from getting overhauled), my two camera's, my baby carrier once it gets here, and my make up which will actually go into the corner of one of the small bags. Other than that it is all done. If they called me tomorrow and said it is time to go, I would be ready to head out the door. SO-BRING IT ON!

Project Living room almost done.

Okay the walls are all done in the living room. Now we can get the trim up and push everything back into place. Yippee! This was one project I had been putting off but really wanted to get done before Olivia came home. Mike can normally have the trim up in one evening. I will probably have to buy a few more pieces and stain them, but it shouldn't take too long.

No TA this week so that means that we won't hear anything for the rest of the week since CCAA is closed this week for Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Dog. But my little girl was born in the year of the Monkey....same as her mommy! Mike says "Great, just what we need is two monkeys in the house!"