1st Ruling!!!!

Super great news!!! We just received word that we had our 1st ruling. This means we could be traveling within the next 6 weeks or around December 15th!! It would be great to have Brooke home before Christmas. We will know more when we have our final ruling (4-6 weeks). We are hoping we have one of the "fast Judges".

1st Ruling

Tic Tac Toe

THIS IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MY SON ANDREW!! Please leave him a comment!!!!! (non bloggers: click on comments at the end of this post)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Brooke's 3 month old update!

We have finally received Brooke's update. She is 3 months old at time of update. She weighed 12.1 pounds and 24.44 inches long!

Here is her video. Watch closely and you can see she is about to start crying!

Piney Grove Camping Trip- Oct 2008

Byron and Andrew playing Basketball.




Mike and Byron Playing.

I just loved this sign. It was across from the Pizza Factory!!

Family Photo!

Andrew and Logan hard at work building a dam out of sand and mud!

Andrew and Catherine also enjoying a little mud!! I wish these photos showed how muddy they were!!!!

Byron trying to beat Andrew at Chess! Andrew is very good for a beginner. Byron never beat Andrew!!The kids doing what they love...finding firewood. The bigger the better.

This has been a slow month for adoption news. We had our 1st hearing on October 2. Now waiting on our first ruling 1-3 months! Also waiting on our next update any day. There has been only a few referral this month. I hope there will be a lot more to come!

We went on a camping trip to Piney Grove, MS with the F.'s. . The weather was great. The kids had a blast playing in the sand (really mud) by the lake. The dads had a great time playing basketball. The dogs had a fun time playing chase at the beach. Andrew became addicted to Chess. He had been wanting to learn to play for a long time. As luck has it....Mike brought his chess set and taught Andrew how to play. Byron and Andrew stayed up to 1:00 a.m. playing. Byron was unable to win!! We all had fun finding "Pizza Factory" in the middle of nowhere. Thank goodness for our GPS.

One strange event occurred with our GPS. When we passed the "Indian Mounds" (a lot of Indians are buried here), our GPS stopped working which caused us to get lost going to the camp ground. This has never happened before. It occurred both times (coming and going). Must be the Indian ghost!!!

Morgan's homecoming video!

To all my JOH friends. Still no update, but I was finally able to get this video to upload.

Here is a short video I took with my camera on the night Chuck and Amy arrived in Huntsville with Morgan!

Morgan comes home!

Morgan is home (With his grandmother).

Morgan looks like he has red hair in this picture (but he has dark hair)



Andrew after a long day.. a visit to his grandmothers, company picnic, cousins birthday party, a trip to the airport to see Morgan come home!!!

One of the great things about adopting is the people you meet...the friends you make... the thrill you feel when others get great news...happiness when other travel to pick up there babies...... and when you get to see it first hand!!!!!!

I met Chuck and Amy through our on line JOH group. Due to us being on the wait list about the same time and living fairly close by (1.5 hrs apart) I have taken special interest in their journey. Andrew and I were blessed to be able to join Chuck and Amy's family at the airport to welcome Morgan home. Byron had to work. It was very exciting to see the three of them together. Andrew spent a lot of time making a great poster and card for Morgan (see above). I have a short video and will have Byron try to post, after I make sure it is ok with Chuck and Amy.

October is here!!

My grandmother turned 95!!! Still living independently!

Andrew's 1st pair of glasses. He is very proud. "I look smart"!

Andrew attended his two best friend's soccer game (Jacob and Ethan).

As each month ends, we are one month closer to picking up Brooke. It has been 54 days since referral. Our first court hearing is tomorrow (Taiwan time) tonight our time. We are really hoping to have our next court hearing in 4-6 weeks. There has only been one boy referral for September. Hopefully October will be another big referral month like August!!!!

My TN JOH friends Chuck and Amy are in Taiwan right now!!! They were able to pick up their son yesterday and he is doing great. Chuck and Amy have waited since January to travel to Taiwan!!! The average court process takes 4-6 months. Their process took almost 9 months. Follow their story (see JOH blogs Chuck and Amy).

Another JOH friend, Kristy (AL) finally made the wait list September 18th after many, many, many delays on her home study!!!! She should have her referral of a baby girl in the next 12 months.

Other News:
-Byron built Andrew a loft bed and we moved all his things into his new room!
-My grandmother celebrated her 95th birthday!!!
-Andrew now has glasses.
-Received new photos of Brooke
-Brooke celebrated her 3 month birthday and probably moved to foster care home!