An Update!

We were so surprised to get our update today! After it dragging out an eternity during Thanksgiving I was not getting my hopes up. Well, all three of us traveling together got our updates today. I will post details later about what his report says. Basically, he is extremely healthy and cared for. Holt has been wonderful and I cannot say enough about them. These pictures were taken on Jan.15 which was only about 2 weeks ago. Ahhh, my baby will not get any bigger without me. No more updates!! I will not miss waiting and wondering. Well, I'm headed off to the grind. We have made large strides with Will's room. We should move him in tomorrow night. Two rooms down, one to go. I want my last week to be relaxed and centered on spending time as a family. The last time as a family of 4. Yippee!!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, SETH!!!!

Our thoughts have been with Seth all day. I wonder if his foster family is celebrating. I wonder if they are doing anything special. We had planned on grilling out and eating cake but are putting it off until tomorrow night. I know that with my own kids we rarely celebrated their birthday on the actual date. We have finished Kara's room and moved her upstairs. We are exhausted after a busy weekend getting ready for our new addition. Only 4 weeks and 3 days! I just can't believe it!!

This is a picture of the birthday package that we sent Seth a couple of weeks ago. We included a one time use video camera that records up to 20 minutes. Several toys including a truck and ball. Our favorite gift was a bear we made at Build-A-Bear. We put a sound chip it that had our voices on it. Each of us (including the kids) said "Happy Birthday Pat, love Daddy", so on and so forth with Will talking last. It is so cute and I hope we can take it home with us when we get Seth. The bear is also wearing a University of Memphis t-shirt. Go Tigers. Not shown was a yellow "King" shirt and a couple of outfits.

Happy Birthday, Seth, we love you so much even though we are a world away. Not long now.

Craft Night

Last Sunday Kara wanted the family to have "craft night." Before we left for church that night she set everything out on the table. She cut out paper for us and set out all of the supplies we needed to make "popcicles". She was very serious about being the art teacher and "instructed" us on exactly how to make our project. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad she did it. Kara loves to do crafts and I hope she continues this as she gets older.

Think We Have Enough?

Aunt Jamie was so so sweet to bring over "some" clothes yesterday. They are a combination of Will's and Hudson's. There were over 60 pieces on hangers that she washed and ironed for me. Just in size 12 months! How do I decide what to take to Thailand? She also had a tub of p.j.'s (tons and tons), swim trunks, and shoes. Before we leave she will also have a coat for Seth. It was so much fun going through the things and seeing how cute everything is. I can't wait to see Seth in them. Jamie also loaned us some traveling things - sleep masks, neck rests, noise reducing earphones.

Aunt Jamie also helped me clean out a large closet upstairs that had a lot of miscellaneous things that I needed to get rid of. She also helped paint Kara's room. She is a hard worker and I appreciate her so much. I am blessed to have such a wonderful sister in law. My brother, Greg, has also been a help. He is in Colorado skiing this weekend but last weekend he took Will swimming to give us some time to work. We love you Greg, Jamie, and Hudson.

Kara's Getting Ready

Girls Night Out

Last Saturday night Bebe treated us to a girl's night out at the Orpheum. We also went with Debbie's girls and Pastor and Nancy's daughter, "A". "A" is a High School Musical groupie. That child wears HSM clothing almost everyday. She sat next to me at the performance and would tell me when the lines were not the same as the movie. The show was actually more enjoyable than I had envisioned. There were a lot of season ticket holders at the performance. Some you could tell had no idea what they had gotten themselves into.


Bebe enjoyed herself too. She bought Kara a HSM purse and a "I Love Troy" t-shirt. Kara is not really into all of it but she loved the purse. In December we had Hannah Montana tickets and Kara didn't want to go. We ended up selling them. They were a hot ticket in town. Kara went to her soccer party instead. She is such a tom boy. I'm glad though.


Mrs. Debbie bought all of the girls matching HSM shirts and hats. We ate downtown at Hunan's. "A" loved her dinner of shrimp lo mein. Kara said "that's because your Chinese." "A" agreed. Gotta love it.

GUESS WHAT!

We are traveling to Thailand! I am so so excited. Marissa at Holt called me today to let us know that we have received our travel call. We have to travel by Friday, February 22nd. We will attend the February 27th meeting. I am in total shock. We were thinking April or May. All of the paperwork says 7 to 9 months for travel call. We waited 4. Can you believe that! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

Bless little Seth's heart. I don't have anything ready for him. I had to go out tonight and buy diapers to make me think at least I have something for him. Let's just say this family will be very busy the next few weeks. I laugh a little thinking about how different it is from when I was pregnant with Kara. I think we had everything together by my 7 month. Everything had to be perfect. Well, after being a parent I now know that there is no perfect. You do your best and that's all you can do.

Please pray for our family as we travel. Kara and Will are staying here and I have never left them for more than a few days. This will be trying for us.

Thanks to everyone who have followed our story and been so supportive. We truly appreciate it!

Problem Solved

When I used a different computer I was able to put up the lastest picture of Seth. For some reason my laptop at home couldn't/wouldn't do it. Thanks Robin for your help. I wish Blogger was as easy as Myspace.

I Need Blogger Help!

As you can see, the picture of Seth to the right is blurry. I have worked HOURS on this. If I use a pic from my pictures then it just has the triangle that goes on and on. If I try to use a picture from Photobucket is says that I need to chose an image. UGHHHHHH! I am about to pull my hair out. If any of you experience bloggers can help, please leave a comment.

By the way, I can add pictures to my posts just fine. Go figure.

Thanks!

Will Loved Santa