Finding Joy in the Little Things

I am here to tell you, the WAIT, WAIT & WAIT SOME MORE" is NOT easy. I struggle everday to let ten minutes go by without an adoption thought crossing my mind. BUT, now that I can rest assured with our new agency, I am learning to find joy in the little things. I received the first square for Samantha's quilt in the mail this week from the Frank family (http://www.blessingsfromvietnam.com/) along with a beautiful prayer for Samantha. What a blessing it is to have met such wonderful and supportive people on this amazing journey to our daughter. I also received my Amazon book order this week. Cherie's book "After Sorrw Comes Joy" is amazing! My nose has been in this book every spare minute I have. EVERYONE should read this book. FALL! My favorite season. I got out my fall decorations and the house smells of pumpkin spice and it is looking like harvest time! Although we have mostly summer weather here in Texas, I am thankful to experience a little bit of fall, winter & spring. The summer heat brings lots of fun activities, but the fall & winter bring me so much joy! Lastly, I had to make a quick run to Super Target after church last night for ziplock bags and a loaf of bread. Some how I ended up in the baby section (imagine that!!!) and found the neatest thing (see picture above)! After speaking with several people who have adopted internationally, the #1 reccommended toy to take for playtime at the hotel is beach balls and other inflatable toys. Of course I had already purchased a cute little girlie beach ball as soon as the pool toys hit the Toys R Us shelves, but to my delight, I came across the Safari Roller by infantino. It is an inflatable toy that has a jingling ball inside, and when you roll it, it rolls back to you, promoting movement and crawling. Are you excited yet??? I am (incase you couldn't tell, it doesn't take much to excite me when I'm baby shopping!) What's great about inflatable toys is that they pack great. Everyone keeps saying "PACK LIGHT" and that will be hard for me as my packing list is already pages long and we're not even close to travel time yet, but every day we are one day closer!

Good Books

Who loves a good book? I do, I do!!! Speaking of books, I ordered some books from Amazon the other day. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember all of them that I ordered, but I know for sure I bought the book that Cherie Clark wrote, "After Sorrow Comes Joy." After all the buzz about it on the PLAN yahoo group, I decided it is a must read. Does anyone have any great adoption books (for adults or children) they'd reccommend? I have one that I read for the first time 5 years ago. Since then I have read it another two or three times. It is an amazing book titled "The Strength of Mercy." If you are interested in reading it but have a hard time finding it, let me know and I'll let you know how to get a copy. You won't regret the time spent reading this book!

100 Good Wishes/Prayers Quilt

As you know we are adopting Samantha from Vietnam. Before deciding on Vietnam we researched several other countries to adopt from, one being China. In researching China adoption, we learned about a tradition in Northern China called the 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I thought this was such a cute idea. What a special gift for any baby born anywhere!
Here is a little info:
To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.
At this time I am asking you help us with our quilt for baby Samantha! It will truly mean alot to us (and someday to her) if you participate.
Below is some info, if you wish to participate:
Select a fabric that is meaningful to you.
100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better.
Fabric should measure about 12" x 12"
Please include a wish or prayer from you along with your name on a seperate piece of paper, index card or note card....whatever works for you.
Email me chkkbc@msn.com and I will email you our address to send it to!
THANKS SO MUCH! This will give me something meaningful to work on while I W-A-I-T!!! Also, I am a scrapbooker, so I will be putting all the written wishes & prayers in her lifebook/scrapbook!

We are DTV (Dossier To Vietnam)

WE ARE DTV!

For those of you who know what that means, YES, we are doing the happy dance! For those of you who may not know what that means, let me explain: ALL of the stacks and stacks of paperwork along with chasing documents and getting them notarized that has consumed our time and our minds for the past six months, it is ALL DONE and ALL in it's way to Vietnam! So exciting to finally reach this point! So, now what? Now we get ready to WAIT... WAIT... WAIT and WAIT some more for that phone call that will give us the VERY HAPPY news that we have been matched with our daughter. Oh how I long for that day!

I've Been Tagged...

I have been tagged by Jenna at http://www.babystoll.blogspot.com/ and here are the rules of this tag...

* You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
* Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
* If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
* When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
* At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged & to read your blog! of this tag...

My middle name is Lynn - short, should be easy!!!

L - LOVE to shop!!!
Y - YES...I'm STILL in the middle of the adoption process & YES, I am still impatiently waiting!!!
N - Never seems to be enough time in a day, days in the week (and so on) to accomplish the many things on a working mom of 4, and soon to be 5, to do everything I want (and need) to do!
N - Now it's my turn to tag 4 people. If you've already been tagged, You're already done!

I'm tagging:
Jennifer @ http://www.journeytoholly.blogspot.com/
Sue @ http://www.macklisfamily.blogspot.com/
Jillian @ http://www.johnandjillian.blogspot.com/
Leigh @ http://www.ourquiverfull.blogspot.com/

HAVE FUN!!!