OUR CA AND SHOPPING!! OCT. 24

We didn't get the call until Wednesday that our CA (consulate appointment) was confirmed. Lord willing we are planning to leave here on Nov. 7th and fly to Dallas then onto Tokyo and then Guangzhou. We will be meeting Hope on the 10th and then our CA is the 19th and we plan to fly home on the 20th. We will be home one week and then spend Thanksgiving with my family in New Jersey. Grace is a great traveler.A few times this week she has out of the blue said, "I am so excited to go to China." We are praying Hope is excited to travel too!!!

The boys soccer was cancelled today so we decided to go to the Mills Mall and get a bunch of things we need for China. Grace has grown out of all her summer clothes and it is 80 degrees in China right now. Grace loves to shop and pick out dresses. She will take them off the rack and hold them up against herself then she says, beautiful. It is very cute and funny. Every store we went in she was picking things out for Hope and trying to put them in the cart. I tortured the poor boys by having them shop with me all day,but Mike was happy, as he bought himself a new shotgun at Cabellas. I think this is the first time we have ever eaten both lunch and dinner at the mall. I bought Grace and Hope lots of matching outfits, bows and shoes. I also bought all the gifts we need to take to China for the orphanage staff . I still feel like we have a ton of things to do, especially when I think in 2 weeks we will be in China.



GRACE FEEDING HADYN CHINESE FOOD

GRACIE STILL FEEDING HADYN




THE BOYS ARE SO HAPPY TO BE SHOPPING




GRACIE LOVES SHOPPING. WE ARE NOW ON OUR SECOND MEAL AT THE MALL



THIS IS HOW THEY REALLY FEEL AND CURRAN AND HADYN WERE TOO TIRED TO EVEN BE IN THE PICTURE





A SUCCESSFUL DAY OF SHOPPING!! LOTS OF MATCHING OUTFITS!!!!

Fall Fest Oct. 19

Our church had their fall fest on Sunday afternoon and it was great fun. A Chili and dessert contest,costume contest,chicken chasing,face painting and pony rides. It was quite the event and these contests are competitive!!! Grace loved chasing the chickens. These poor birds won't lay eggs for weeks. I saw one 5 year old boy grab the chicken by the leg and then he drug the thing all the way across the yard. Curran dressed up like Napolean Dynamite and played the part all night. The boys all played soccer. It was nice to fellowship with everyone and meet some people in the church we hadn't met before. I got a bunch of these great pictures from Pastor Meyers' smug mug page.

Hadyn helped Grace get this chicken

GREAT COSTUME

COSTUME JUDGES

WATCHING THE KIDS KILL, I MEAN CHASE THE CHICKENS

JACOB RIDING HIS CHICKEN

DANIEL

JAMES

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CHILI CONTEST

NAPOLEAN

MIKE,GRACIE AND RYLAN

MORE NAPOLEAN DOING THE SOME SAY LOVE DANCE

A Day At The Pumpkin Patch

After Soccer today we went with the C family to the local pumpkin patch. It was actually a fairly warm day, but I had all the kiddos wear sweaters, because you can't go pumpkin picking in short sleeves. Grace had a great time and is slowly getting over her fear of all the scary things she has seen this Halloween. She has come a long way since her first experience in Sam's when she freaked out over the scary display and we had to take her screaming out of the store. Now she just looks at all the scary stuff and all she says is, that looks scary. The boys had a good time hanging out with their friends and we were able to get some great pictures.


Eamon and Paul still playing soccer
Just Hanging Out
Grace loves Anna and Emily
All The Kiddos
Rylan and Grace
Grace Is Getting Tired

Wow It Looks Windy

Say Cheese
Paul with Grace
Friends
Grace and Emily


We Had A Great Day

WE HAVE TA!!!

We are praising God for the news today. We will be holding and loving our new baby girl soon!! Heritage our adoption agency is trying to schedule our consulate appointment and we are tentatively scheduled to leave Nov. 8th and meet Hope on the 10th. Lord willing we will be home on the the 21st and will be celebrating Hope's first birthday in the States on the 28Th. We are flying space avalable and are praying we will all be able to fly to China together. It's hard to believe all the waiting is almost over.

NEW PICTURES OF SOPHIE!!

We are following Kens blog while he is in China and he just posted two new pictures of Sophie taken today at the orphanage. She looks beautiful and her lip is healing so well. We can't wait to see her, hold her and love her.These new pictures just melt my heart. We are really praying for a miracle, that we will receive a report that her brain is healing. We were so excited to see that smile on her face, as she has not been smiling in any of the other pictures we've seen. We will contact Ken this week and pray for some encouraging news. Ken also shared some other exciting news - since they aired the Xin Hui TV special on adoption in China they have had 200 applications from Guangdong province from Chinese families wanting to adopt from the Xin Hui orphanage. What a huge praise that God is providing homes and families for all these precious children.

Enjoying The Weather And A Crazy Dog

This is our crazy dog Dixie, she thinks the zip line is alive and something she just has to have. She spent several hours barking and chasing and jumping really high after this thing. Hadyn and Grace went out to see how high they could get her to jump.








We are really enjoying the fall weather here, even if it's still in the 80's most days. The mornings and nights are cool and the leaves are just starting to change. Grace wants to go out and swing on the new swing set almost everyday and she really loves to jump on the trampoline. If we don't make it outside, she will try all her tricks inside like jumping,tumbling, swinging,usually with a lot of loud laughing and shouting, so we usually try to make it outside everyday and I am very thankful for all this warm sunny weather.