We're Ready for our Referral!

Sam loves his new ride!

Today I spent the entire day at a dealership in Fayetteville, trading in our van for a suburban. I have been on the hunt for a couple of weeks and last week, I found "the one". Whatever that means. It was hard work getting the best trade in for our van, getting the dealers to get to our numbers and do it on my own. Then, if that wasn't hard enough, trying to purchase the the Yukon XL with a Power of Attorney was an ENORMOUS pain-- almost as enormous as our new superburban!!!

I don't think this is a good idea...

Yeah. That's better!

Now, we can get our referral for our two new kids-- I can't wait. Think I should call our agency and tell them they can go ahead and give us our referral now???

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Room for 6 kids!!

And room for LOTS of stuff :))

Team Dragovich and the Big Snow

Hurray!!! Snow-- and its even the good sticky kinds for snowballs!

Yes, they DID get a snow day-- don't ask how that works... here's my excuse-- "Everyone else was off!!"

Once upon a time in the land of Sanford, North Cackilacka, there lived a beautiful family with the most lovely but somewhat haggard from her husband's recent deployment, mother in all the land... oh, sorry-- sidetrack... There lived a most interesting family with THREE crazy-- I mean, well mannered boys in it. One day, when those sweet, angelic, completely obediently children woke up, what should they find? Why-- it was SNOW!! Snow had fallen from the sky and completely covered their entire yard, trees, flowers, toys that they perpetually leave outside every day... why, even their lovely, eternally patient, completely joyful mother's mini-van was vanished by mounds and mounds of crystally white, sort of damp and clumpy, but absolutely stunning snow...

This may be the only picture we ever have of our house coated in snow

Anyway, it snowed :)! Just like the beginning of my tale which you would NEVER believe-- well, it really can happen. Snow really CAN fall out of the sky in North Carolina!!

Shall we go out to enjoy a glass of wine on the back porch?

Grace and Peace,
Shari

You gotta give the boy credit :)

Wyatt had a math test yesterday-- first one in over a month, since we have been off and he has had his cast. There was a problem he didn't know regarding measuring liquids-- how many pints in a gallon... He couldn't remember and I wouldn't budge on giving him the answer, so he got creative. Next thing I know, he comes downstairs from where he is taking his test, he starts rummaging through the refrigerator, pulls out the almost empty milk carton, a one pint container of whipping cream and goes to work. He drank the rest of the milk so it would be empty, then he found a cup that looked the same size as the pint container of cream (thank goodness he didn't drink that, too!!), then he found a funnel with the science experiment stuff (I'm impressed he knew we even had that) and started pouring full cups of water into the now-empty gallon jug of milk... spilling and and sloshing as he went.



I was in the middle of teaching Isaac his Math, but I just had to stop and take a couple pics of my boy at work. I was proud of him for putting so much effort into this one problem! Unfortunately, he still got the problem wrong... but I think he deserves some credit for trying!!

In adoption news... two more families received referrals and several families are waiting to pass court in the next week, so they can go pick up their precious little ones!! I think it is so wonderful that there has been such a rush of activity this month... so many people are praying for children to be brought home to their forever families and Almighty God-- El Shadday-- is certainly working and answering the prayers of His faithful.

My love to you all! Stay warm and praise God for His sweet providing!
Grace and Peace,
Shari

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

All I want for Christmas is some extra sleep!

We are doing great. Really, we are! I am just very, very... very tired. Too much Christmas-ing, maybe? Too much being single mommy, maybe? Too much cheerleading to a boy with a cast and a fussy disposition? Too much redirecting-- and not always in a nice way--to five and seven year old boys who can't seem to stay on-task to save their life?

Probably all of it wrapped up in one. Oh well-- It's Beginning to look a Lot like Christmas... In Illinois, anyway :). Which is GOOD, because that is where we will be this year! So, I hope since we are to travel that way, my boys get to at least experience a sweet snow fall and some good old fashioned snowball fights! All while I sleep... because that is what I am SURE I am getting for Christmas ;).

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Pictures of our last week

Fun at the Animal Show at Busch Gardens

The Hippo that did Wyatt in (this is the play set on which Wyatt broke his hand)

At Shark Tooth beach on the Gulf side

Mommy and her boys at the Christmas Carol in Durham

Cool Cast

Happy Boys

We've only been a LITTLE pre-occupied :)

I'm sure you have all been sitting on the edge of your seats for an update on Team Dragovich. I just knew it-- and I am soooo sorry to let your bum get sore :)

The truth is... we tried to stow away in Tony's Army baggage and head across the Big Pond with him. It almost worked, until his bags were weighed and each one came in WAY over the limit and... well... here we are. Back in NC!

Okay, that isn't what really happened-- I bet you're shocked. Really, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were so very thankful to have Daddy come home for a few days-- but it made saying goodbye again that much harder!! Fortunately, I didn't have too much time to wallow in my self-pity. The boys and I made and impromptu trip to Florida to visit a very dear friend of mine who was in the states for a couple of weeks. We haven't seen each other in four years and I would say it WAS ABOUT TIME!!! The boys and I made the 13 hour drive on Monday, played with our friends until Friday and then drove home. We had a SUPER time-- except for the part when Wyatt broke his hand at Busch Gardens in Tampa... on Tuesday. UGH! It ws not one of those obvious breaks, but when I finally did take him in to the ER (the next afternoon, of course!), there it was-- a spiral fracture on the bone connecting to his first finger-- forgive my lack of medical terminology... my husband is gone, you must suffer through my lame explanations of things (what would that be, the first meda-tarsil? Oh my, and I'm even spelling it all wrong!).

Well, anyway, other than the broken hand-- which sort of put a damper on things for Wyatt-- we had a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I braved the trip. I think I have not fully recovered, though. We sort of came home and hit the ground running-- and NOT the kind of running I would personally have preferred :) Saturday we went to Durham to see a theatre performance of the "Christmas Carol". Sunday I spent a large part of my day at church. Monday, we were at the hospital for many, many hours, trying to finalize Wyatt's hand situation. Today we had homeschool P.E.; and somewhere in there I have tried to make our home at least a LITTLE festive (we opted for no tree this year, since we will only be here for 2 weeks enjoy it, and all my boxes of Christmas are WAY up high and require an extension ladder and a Tony to haul them down), do the Christmas shopping, cram in some school--ha, ha! and whatever else seems to creep up. All I have to say is, "Praise the Lord for internet and FREE SHIPPING!!" ;D

To all my stalkers from IL, whom I just realized read my blog and don't post-- how naughty-- I am coming your way, so watch out!! I would love to catch up with you while we are in town, so shoot me an email or something! We'll be there for a while, so hopefully I can see some old friends :)

Grace, Peace and Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy to you all!
Shari

PS... I tried twice to load pictures and twice it was interrupted, so you will have to wait.