Friday, January 9, 2009

Yea!!!! We're HOME!




We made it through all our travel adventures-- I feel so brave and all grown up :). The boys and I had a great time on the farm in IL... boy, it is COLD there! I am spoiled in sweet NC! And, of course, we were welcomed just perfectly to a cold arctic blast as we pulled into the driveway of my parent's farm-- negative temps and 30mph winds for the first 3 days we were there. I opted for being a yogi instead of a runner for those days :). But, it warmed up to tolerable, and even veered into mild for a couple of days! We all managed to catch the flu bug in between Christmas and New Years-- I have become good friends with Clorox and Lysol.

Boys with their favorite new toy--funny, where's the Wii?
Oh wait, that's Mommy's favorite new toy!

Santa brought a Wii this year-- they must have been making an overload supply this year at the North Pole. It seemed to be the gift of choice. Funny, the boys didn't even really recognize that they got the Wii when they were frantically looking at all their treasures! They noticed all sorts of other things and even a couple things they DIDN'T get, but the Wii elluded their attention for quite some time. It was Aunt Emily and Mommy who went wild about it, and then they recognized its existence. BTW, Aunt Emily and I LOVE Guitar Hero :) I'm really bad at it, but it is still fun. I think I can still hear "Slow Ride" in my sleep and sadly, "Baracudda" still has the best of me... but not for long-- I SHALL prevail!!

My gladiator and God-warrior... forces to be reckoned with!


Tony is doing well on the other side of the globe. He is in a good routine, getting to do some pain medicine stuff and seems to have plenty of time to eat healthy, workout a lot and read a lot. He begins every conversation with, "I'm so huge, you should see my _______ (arms, shoulders, traps, abs, etc)!" I'm happy for him. And once I can run more than 2-3 sporatic days a week, finish any one of the books I started three months ago and lose my new and ever so lovely hive rash all over my torso, neck and arms, I'll be even THRILLED for him. Until then, happy is good enough :)

Creation Museum in OH with the Harbaughs on the way back to NC-- VERY FUN!!

Last, but not least... adoption news. There is none. But this is not to be un-expected. We have been waiting 7 1/2 months now and are in a line that is a bit sporatic. The sibling group line. Right now, I am starting the process to have our USCIS approval broadened a bit to include any sibling group or two children ages 0-6 years with one or both of them being a girl. We have always been happy to be this broad, but somehow during the paper chase process, we let the wording be too narrow-- I don't know why-- it is all so confusing when your going through it. Anyway, our fingerprints expire in April and there is not a chance that we will get a referral, go to ET and get back with our kids before then. So, I have to do this whole hoop jumping thing again anyway-- might as well get the age range right this time :).

Even though there is no DIRECT news for us, there has been a lot happening in our agency's program. Ten referrals for the month of January have already been given and this is unheard of for so early in the month. That is very exciting! There is fear on the YG that this is it for the month. I don't think so. I won't believe it. I believe that more children are going to be referred to their forever families this month and I even believe that the wait times for court and travel are going to start to shrink. Why do I believe that? Why NOT? :)

Well, Happy New Year to you all!!! Thank you so much for praying for our family during this deployment and adoption time!! Thank you for leaving posts and comments on our blog and thanks for faithfully checking in, even though I am the sporatic blogger :) My love to you all!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

4 comments:

Susan said...

It is great to hear from you! It has been so long since you posted! Glad to have you back in NC!

~Susan

Rob and Candy said...

Team D- it's great to hear that you had a nice Christmas with your folks... even if if was freezing cold.
It's good to hear that Tony is in a routine and doing well.
I'm ready to go back to ET!
We hope to see you all soon!
xxoo
candy

Anonymous said...

glad to see you back! I love checking in on you! The boys are so cute, I just can't get over how long its been.
Marcie

the Steiger's said...

wii is favorite in our household as well. (including me and Fil) We race each night. I am glad you had a nice vacation.
love, Lenka