handsful

The kids in their assigned yellow tees for Cousins Day

Here is our “Cousins Day” weekend trip to NC in the form of our own TOP 10…in no certain order.

1. Spending time with Donna’s mom and dad…and watching Ethan wipe out on his Heelies in their driveway. Ethan says thanks for the first aid.

We know how this turned out…

2. A fantastic “triple-date” with Tony, Dee Dee, John, and Kim. A wonderful dinner with a movie on each side! (go see the Bourne Ultimatum…it’s gooood)

3. Speaking of our dinner…Drinking a yummy “Blue Violet” and watching Randy eat his “Tuna Poke”. This was NOT McDonalds.

4. Cousins Day. 16 kids. Ages 2 to 16. 3 adults, 1 house, 24 hours. Nana and Paw Paw, have you recovered yet?

Hugging cousins

5. Randy beats his brother Tony in basketball…again. Randy’s punishment? Five minutes in the dreaded wet sauna!

6. Getting lost while hiking and exploring at Kim and John’s new house. Once we found our way out, we checked out the backyard. Most of you won’t get that one ;)

7. Seeing my sweet grandmom, who still seems as young as she did when I spent nights with her as a child.

4 Generations…Grandmom, Dad, Me, kiddos

8. Finding out that Randy’s Uncle Terry’s TERMINAL cancer is…gone. Really gone. Praise God!

9. Hanging out with Randy’s Mom at her house and at the mall (you should see my cute new belt…). Ann, your new furniture and house look great!!

10. Having an amazing Sunday morning, re-connecting with our great friends at Grace Church.

**11. I know, it’s only supposed to be 10. But, we came home to a VERY stinky house. We finally realized that a breaker had flipped, turning off the freezer in our garage. We had meat in there…and fish. Not the welcome home I wanted! But, we now have a very empty and clean freezer. Now, to get rid of the smell…

Kelly B, from my Ladybug Believers yahoo group, handmade this gorgeous bib for Lainey! I can’t wait to see it on her…or, is it too pretty to use??

Look at the adorable clothes! My “no-longer-secret” pal, Joanna sent these in her last package to us (our year of secret pal goodies is up!). She also sent candy and presents for the kids, chocolate for me, and pistachios and cashews for Randy. The girls love their initial bracelets and the boys love the stretchy-thing toys (lol). Thank you!!!

I’m kind of in a groove, with these number post titles!

Today marks 10 months since we turned in our Medical Conditions Checklist, hoping to be matched with a Waiting Child. Lainey will have some type of special need(s) that we’ve researched and feel capable of dealing with. Children in China who have something out of the ordinary are usually treated harshly. For instance, a child with a cleft lip and palate is seen as defective or bad luck. They are teased (or worse) by even adults. An abandoned special needs child in China, who does not get adopted, faces a very uncertain future.

Children with extensive needs, like those requiring surgery, are often unable to receive the kind of care and treatment that they need because of the cost involved. Families usually just can’t afford these expenses. This is the main reason why so many children with special needs are abandoned in China.

Our agency receives lists of Waiting Children every 2-3 months, and they received their latest one a few days ago. There is a chance that Lainey could be on this list. We’re sure praying that she is. We know that God has chosen the child meant to be in our family, and we’re sure ready to be let in on the secret!!

It’s our anniversary today! 15 years…wow. We actually met and began dating in 1985. Our wedding day was wonderful. Well, except for the fact that everyone said it was hot (I didn’t notice) and one of Randy’s groomsmen fainted during the ceremony. Randy’s aunt ran down the aisle, one shoe off, to try and catch him. My dad helped her. We were good, and didn’t turn around and look!

Happy Anniversary, Randy!

One of my online adoption support groups decided we would have a cyber baby shower in August, so our names were tossed in a basket and we sent each other gifts. The theme was playtime and Dana chose a great gift for Lainey. I think she’ll love it! All of our kids are animal crazies, and I’m sure they’ll turn Lainey into one too. The neat thing about Dana is she lives about 15 minutes from me AND she’s leaving for China THIS Wednesday for her little girl, Tian. Her blog is http://oneroof.wordpress.com/ God speed, Dana!! And, thanks again!

I’ve mentioned before about the ladybug tradition that began in the China adoption community. Prospective adoptive parents view them as good luck symbols, or they believe seeing a ladybug means something is going to happen or has happened (maybe their baby was born that day, or an important piece of paperwork will FINALLY show up). Marley is constantly catching bugs of all sorts, and always brings the ladybugs for me to see. Seeing them just reminds me of a little girl waiting in China. And, that makes me smile.

You’ll never know how many tries it took to get THIS picture.

We begin school on Monday, so today was our last totally free summer day. It was great …they played, rode bikes, we went to TCBY for frozen yogurt (yum!!), and then they had fun swimming in our really WARM pool (bath water, at this point in the summer!). We homeschool, so we have the luxury of choosing to begin school gradually. We’ll start math on Monday, with language arts added on Thursday, and all the other subjects added in on the following Monday.

Marley gets the royal treatment, with 2 human floaties!

In case you were wondering, here’s Ethan. He had already been swimming once today, and sat this one out. Yes, it’s hot here, but the boy likes long pants. Notice the big scrape on his chin? That’s the result of Tuesday’s “let’s dive in the pool head first” trick. With no hands to break his descent, he scraped his shoulder and chin. Lesson learned.

It’s been a nice, relaxing week. A little harder than usual, though, because Randy has been in Las Vegas since early Tuesday morning. His flight gets in late tonight, and we’re all excited to have him home.