JUST A FEW MORE PICTURES FROM CHRISTMAS!

Don playing guitar hero! It was pretty funny. :)

Tifanie showing off her new bracelet from her aunt and uncle. I think one of her favorite gifts!

Randy after opening his gifts.

Maggie(our niece) and Em playing with Maggie's new farm set.

9 WEEKS DOWN ???? TO GO!!

Well...with Christmas and all of the craziness I forgot to post on Friday. We have been waiting for 9 whole weeks for our little guy. The time seems to be moving right a long. I have good days mostly with a few bad thrown in! I guess you have to mix it up a little! :) I am anxious to see how many referrals there will be once CHI opens on Jan 5th. I am sure there will be a few at least. I know some girls would be great but the more boys the more movement we make. ;)
I spent Friday taking down decorations. We still have the tree up BUT it will be coming down tomorrow! I love putting up decorations for Christmas but am always ready to get things back to normal. I do not function well in chaos or when things are not where they belong! The kids said they are proud of me because I keep moving the ottoman so we can play wii. Usually, I would gripe at them for moving it! :)
Saturday we got to visit with Don's cousin Matt. He is in the military. We were actually in Germany at the same time for a bit. This was many years ago! Tifanie was just a little one about 1 yr old. WOW...that was over 17 years ago!! I AM OLD!!!! Anyway...it was really great to see him with his family. They are also expecting another little one in May.
I have some more pics to post but will spread them out over time. I will post a few today. They are from Christmas Day with Don's side of the family.
Mammy and Grandpa with the kids.

We got Maggie a cannister with lots of musical instruments. She was really enjoying the harmonica! Uncle Donald wanted to get her a drumset! :)

Mammmy and Grandpa gave this bear to our little guy. We are supposed to travel with it. It is so soft and cuddly!


SO...Until later~
Tina

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!
We went to bed last night with the alarm set for 3 am so we could get up and play Santa. After being up at 3 and it taking a little while to get back to sleep...we were up at 7. We were woke up by our middle child. (YES...the 15 year old!!) Every year he is our first one up! He then goes and gets the youngest one up and then sends them to get everyone else up!!
We had a great morning. We opened gifts and then had a nice big breakfast and now are working it off playing our new Wii Santa brought us!! We are slowly getting around to head to Mammy and Grandpa's. I think the kids had a nice Christmas.
I do so wish that our little guy was here to share it with us but I am praying that in just a few months he will be here!
Here are few pictures of our morning!

Here on our mantle sits the one thing I bought for our little guy. It is a stuffed reindeer. I just wanted something to be here that made us feel like he was a part of all of this.

Emilie with her new webkinz. She has named her horse Chloey.

Tifanie with her new Spiderman shirt! She is not a morning person so this is the best picture I have of her for the morning! :)

Randy with his new weights and weight bench!

Have a great day! Remember Jesus is the reason for the season!!

Until later~
Tina

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!

It is hard to believe it is already Christmas eve. Actually, in less than an hour it will be Christmas Day. We woke up this morning and had french toast (requested by Randy and Em). We had Matthew and Heidi so we decorated cookies for Santa and for dessert tomorrow. Then later in the evening we went to Christmas Eve candlelight service at our Church. It is always very meaningful and teaches the kids that it is not all about the gifts. We came home and had tacos and did our tradition of opening a few gifts and watching The Christmas Story. (Don's favorite Christmas movie). Now we are off to bed before Santa arrives her in KC!!

Until later~
Tina

THE KING IS COMING...

Emilie had her Christmas program tonight. The name of the program this year was A King is Coming to Our Town. It was cute. Emilie had a bigger part this year and she did a great job. She is very dramatic so this is right up her alley. The program was about finding the "King". They got to sing and dance about King Kong...King Tut...and Elvis "The King of Rock and Roll" and Jesus. All of the kids did a great job. Emilie was quite thrilled with her fans that showed up. Mom, Dad, Randy, Grandma & Grandpa, Melanie, Bill and Nick. And, of course, everyone else from Church!!:)


Emilie getting ready to leave for the Christmas Program.

Emilie doing the dance about King Tut.

Emilie reading about the birth of Jesus.

SANTA & MRS CLAUSE COMES TO TOWN!

Emilie...She asked them for a baby brother! Too sweet...and very funny when Mrs Clause told Dad to keep trying! :)

Randy with Mr and Mrs Clause

Tifanie with Mr and Mrs Clause

HUBBARD FAMILY CHRISTMAS!

WE WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!!

Today we spent some time with our extended Hubbard family. We always enjoy going to this event every year. We enjoy seeing family that we don't usually see and visiting. Each year we get a visit from Santa and Mrs Clause. This year was so fun as Chloe, Don's cousin's little one, was full of questions for them. She is such a doll!! Our niece, Maggie, was not impressed with Santa this year.


Emilie, Tifanie, Sarah, Randy, Steven and Maggie. "Steve and Donna's Grandkids"


Me and my girl!

I will post some pictures with Santa tomorrow! Hope you are enjoying a great weekend!

Until Later~
Tina

8 WEEKS WAITING!!

Today we have been waiting 8 weeks. The time seems to be moving quickly. Although, we do not have our little guy this Christmas we have moved up quite a bit on the list as of this week. There were 5 baby boy referrals within 2 days time this week! :) YEAH!!! We are moving on up. I think that puts us at 26! Not bad for starting at 38 eight weeks ago. I am still very hopeful that we will get our referral in May and I pray that we will be able to pass court before they close in Aug and travel within the summer. Please pray with me!:)

This week has been a very busy week. Monday Emilie had swim lessons and Randy has scouts. At scouts they were caroling at a women's home and then dinner afterwards. Tuesday was free! On Wednesday we had swim lessons but were unable to go because Em had dress rehearsal for their Christmas program at Church. We were there until almost 930. UUGH!! Then we brought Heidi home with us because Matthew was having surgery on Thurs for his tonsils, adnoids and to remove one of his tubes from his ear. Thursday was thankfully pretty quiet. Today I have to pick Randy up early from school and then run to the store and then I am in charge of Em's Winter party at school. So...I will be insane by this afternoon!! :) Emilie is very excited about me doing it so I guess that is all that counts. Saturday we have another family Christmas to attend. Then on Sunday evening is the Christmas program at Church. I think I may be able to breathe after then...maybe!

Yesterday we found out that Don is #4 on the list for Master Patrolman. He took the test a few weeks ago. This is great news and we are so very proud of him!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Things are going well right now but we still a good wait infront of us and a lot of money to save! We appreciate ALL of you so much. We can truly feel all of the prayers!

Until later~
Tina

UPDATE: Just read the weekly update from our agency. There was 2 more referrals TODAY!!! Both were little boys (10 months and 14 months!) So...we are now #25!! :)

7 WEEKS WAITING AND COOKIE BAKING!!!

Today marks seven weeks waiting. If you read my post yesterday you know I have had the adoption blues lately. Today I am feeling better. A wonderful friend helped me through yesterday! She will probably never know how much she did help. Don and I went out to dinner last night and to finish our Christmas shopping. We were able to just talk and I think that helped me as well. At dinner he asked me how long we had been waiting? He said 4 weeks?? I said no 7. Then he said you really probably shouldn't count the days...HA! I told him I may start counting the hours...HMMM!
Today as I changed my inspirational calendar the verse was...

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Col. 3:12

HMMMM...guess I need to try harder!

Today I am baking cookies. We have several events coming up and I thought it would help me if I finally got into the baking for Christmas. Usually, I do a lot of baking and candies. This year I just didn't feel much like doing it plus it can get a little expensive. Right now the basic choc chip are baking. BUT the cookie dough it GREAT!!!

Also...I am very excited that tonight is girl's night out! We decided instead of buying gifts for one another that we would do dinner and movies. So...we are headed to Jackie's house for dinner and movies. NO KIDS!! :) I am still fixing dinner for the kids and Dad before I go but I am really looking forward to it.

Please continue to keep those waiting in your thoughts and prayers. There was a referral yesterday for siblings. (4 yr old twin girls!)

Until later~
Tina

THE CHRISTMAS FUNK...

A few nights ago I was feeling really blue. If someone looked at me wrong I felt the tears welling in my eyes. I knew this was coming but thought I could push it down and get through it. Well...it has hit.

It has been almost 2 years since we began this process. It started with a foster care thing before Christmas 2 years ago. That fell through and so we decided that our hearts were being pulled toward international adoption. We knew there would be bumps we just never realized what the bumps would be and where they would take us. Last year at Christmas things were so uncertain for the Vietnam program and we were so sad to not have him with us. I made it through all of the questions and survived with the hope that he would surely be here in 2008. Well...instead 2008 brought along many changes and no little guy this year. I get questions daily on where we are on the list and when will we get our baby. I wish I could give exact answers but with adoption...your guess is as good as mine!!

I do know that "this too shall pass". I am hopeful that God will bless us with our little guy in 2009. I am praying for everyone who is waiting that they will receive their referrals very soon.

I am thankful, that right now as I am feeling a little sad that our little guy is not here, that God is carrying me through it. I will be a stronger person because of all of this.

Please continue to pray with us for more referrals and understanding as we wait.
We appreciate all of you so much. Your prayers and support are what is making all of this bearable!

Until later~
Tina

A CAT'S ADVENTURE, 6 WEEKS WAITING, & THE FINAL WEIGH IN!

I know I have your attention by the title, right? Well...I will start with the cat adventure.

Our oldest has a kitten named MJ. MJ likes to dart out the front door if you are not paying attention to her. Somehow last night she got out while Tifanie was leaving to take the boyfriend home. She woke me up at about 11pm looking for her. We hunted through our house and then walked around the house outside and a few neighbor's yards but she was not to be found. I finally crawled in bed at 1230 am and the cat had not been found. Tifanie was sleeping on the sofa just in case she showed up,inside the house. I tossed and turned and could not sleep because I knew how sad Tifanie was. I prayed a lot hoping MJ would survive the bitter cold. When I got up this morning I was in the kitchen fixing breakfast and praying to myself about finding the kitten. Then the deck came into view. I put my shoes on and walked out to look under it and as I called to her she stumbled out from under where we keep the riding lawnmower. Her eyes were HUGE and she looked like she had not liked her adventure very well. I took her in and down to Tifanie. Tifanie asked where I found her and I just told her God told me where to look. SO...that was the cat's adventure!


6 WEEKS WAITING! Wow...these 6 weeks have really flown by. I am thankful for that much and that God is showing us with each step that HE is in control of our finances. Little unexpected amounts of money come in just as we need them and we are slowly rebuilding our savings in hopes of a referral in the next 6 months. This seems to be such a trying time for many right now. I am thankful at this point that Don has a job.


THE FINAL WEIGH-IN...We started a biggest loser challenge the end of August. Today was our final weigh-in. I lost 13 pounds but have lost a total of 21 since June. I wish I had waited until the challenge began but such is life! I would love to lose another 10 before we bring our little guy home. I am still trying to walk with a friend so we can remain healthier. This was a fun challenge and really kept me accountable. I hope and pray I can keep it off!!

SO...that has been our week. Please keep praying with us about referrals for those waiting, those who are in financial strain right now, and those who have lost their jobs.

Thanks for your support! We are so thankful for ALL of you!

Until later~
Tina

MY BIRTHDAY GIFT...

While I was gone on a sister get away my children were preparing to surprise me for my birthday. They went and got their picture taken.

Emilie, 10, Tifanie,18 and Randy,15