2010 Year In Review

Well, another year has flown by! "They" weren't joking when they said time flies when you have kids! God has blessed us so much and we are thankful for that! Here are a few highlights from the year.....

Jan. - We spent the New Year in Oklahoma and got to play in lots of snow!!!! Christy turned 30 and had a great 011110 birthday game night! Hannah saw a GI Dr. and started on a nutritional supplement and she has grown in inches and has gained weight, as well as gotten her hair to grow back in the last 12 months! Hopefully in 2011 we can get her off the supplement!

Feb. - My Valentine baby, Benjamin, turned 3! Right before Christmas he had memorized the book "Where the Wild Things Are"and loved "reading" it! So he and Hannah had a "Wild Things" birthday party. Hannah turned 4 on the 16th and started talking about when she would turn 5!

March - We got a van! After much prayer for a van, we were finally able to find one we could afford! Once we got the van I lit the fire for us to start the Adoption Process! We attended an informational meeting for Heaven Sent Children in mid-March.

April - We sent in our official application for Heaven Sent Children and started adoption process #3!

May - Nashville Flooded - thankfully we were unharmed but so many lost everything. We had our homestudy visits and finished them up by the end of the month.

June - Daniel and I participated in the annual Relay for Life, this was our 3rd year to participate. We also took a road trip on Route 254 (VBS). Daniel turned 30!

July - The Littleton crew and Davis crew loaded up and headed to Oklahoma. We went to surprise Grandad for his 80th birthday! It was so much fun. His birthday party was at the aquarium. The whole family was there and Daniel got to meet Uncle Richard for the first time (my Mom's brother)! We also officially got our homestudy approved!

August - Daniel got to take a group of Middle School kids to Centri-kid in AL. Hannah, Benjamin, and Elam started homeschool preschool! Beau and Aunt Haley helped too! What fun!

September - November - Christy started keeping sweet baby Joshua, still homeschooling, and keeping busy with church and family events. Jonathan and Julie brought home baby Joy in October!

December - We had a fun Christmas with our families, baby Hope was born the 30th to Adam and Melanie.

That is about it! We are now just in the waiting process for our adoption. Our profile has been viewed one time that we know of, and she never got back to the agency with a decision. We know God's timing is best. Hopefully we will welcome a new little one in 2011! We will see. We are thankful for God's many blessings. Daniel is still working on editing Sunday School literature and really enjoys his job. He is also still the student minister at our church. We have shifted our focus to Middle School Ministry in the past year. Christy enjoys homeschooling and babysitting. The kids are getting so big and are such a joy! I love to hear the things they will say. Just today Hannah told me when we get a new baby we are going to name her Sally Ride!

Just a little update

E-mailed our social worker. She said there have been 5 birth mothers that have contacted them in the last month. A month or so ago she mentioned 2 (not sure if they are included in the 5). She said most of them are not far along. There is one that is 6 1/2 months along. So just keep praying. Glad to hear there are birth mothers that are coming in. For now we will continue to wait, knowing God has the right baby for us.

In the meantime - we are keeping busy.....

Here we are at preschool with Beau, Elam, Hannah, Benjamin, and baby Joshua (little guy I babysit)

Halloween Picture for the Great Grandparents!

This is Thumbilina and Buzz Lightyear

Fall Fun

Well, no new adoption new for us (though Daniel's brother and his wife were matched with a birthmom last week, the baby boy was due Nov. 5. The birthmom had an emergency c-section this morning and a baby GIRL was born!!!! So now they will be going to pick up their baby girl soon! - So excited for them).

While we are waiting for our match we are staying busy. Here are some pictures from our trip to a pumpkin patch this past weekend.

Cousins

First Day of Preschool

We officially started preschool today. We talked about the letter "A", the Number 1 and about how God is our Father. We also talked about our earthly Father's and how God gave them to us to take care of us. Our colors for the month are red, blue, green, and yellow so we played red light green light and our own version of Twister. We are using the Horizon's Preschool Curriculum. It is so much fun.

Big Kid Room

So, we are hopeful a new baby will come soon. If a baby comes he/she/they will need a room. This means that Hannah and Benjamin will have to share a room. I wasn't sure what I would do with their room because at the moment it is painted a little girly. I decided we would need to make it more of a gender neutral room. I started looking for girl/boy coordinating bedding. I found the PERFECT bedding for them @ Target.com. The problem came when I clicked on the boy bedding and found that it was "discontinued". I was so sad. Both of my kids love fish, sharks, whales, sea creatures of all kinds and this bedding had all of that and it coordinated so well. So, I started looking on ebay. I FOUND IT!!!! I found the boy bedding and was so excited. I also found the girl bedding on ebay. It turns out I go the girl bedding for about 50% off what I would have paid @ Target and the boy bedding for about 30% off what I would have paid at Target. I was so happy to find good deals! Now I need to figure out how to paint the room!

Here it is....

Hannah at Gymnastics

June and July highlights

We have had a busy and fun summer. We've been involved with Relay for Life, Vacation Bible School and we took a trip to Oklahoma for Grandad's 80th birthday.

This is the entire Gwartney (Littleton/Davis) family. This has not happened in years! It was so great to see everyone.

We decided to go to the Tulsa zoo while we were in town. We met Uncle Roger and Aunt Jayme. It was sprinkling when we arrived. The rain kept coming and coming. We were not there long before we were soaked and decided to leave. We saw very few animals!

We've been so busy, see how tired Hannah is! She fell asleep standing up and in mid-sentence!

Gibson, Benjamin, Haven, and Hannah at VBS, Route 254! We had a great time!

AWANA Awards

The kids finished another year of AWANA. Hannah got her book two award and Benjamin got his book one award. They have learned so much this year! They did very well!

Two of my favorite pictures

Where we are....

I'm trying to remember to keep you guys up to date on where we are in the process. We have our second homestudy visit next Tuesday. She said she will cover courtship, marriage (Tues. is our 8th anniversary!), and childrearing/discipline.

Today we are going to get our fingerprints done and hopefully have time to stop and get our police clearance as well.

I have my doctor appointment scheduled for next week and hopefully Daniel will get his scheduled soon!

I got my pictures for the profile book I will make so tonight I will go out and buy some paper, stickers, etc. so I can start working on the book. This book will be the one the birthmothers look through to choose a family.

After Tuesday we will have two more meetings before they can complete the homestudy. I'm hoping to have all or paperwork, drs forms etc. turned in by the last meeting. Hopefully, I can get the profile book finished and copied by then as well! My goal is to have all the homestudy stuff finished by the end of June so they can start showing our profile in July. We shall see.

Next step....figuring out where to find the money for the placement fees, lawyer, etc. Going to apply for matching grants soon!

Home Studies and Water Restrictions

We sent our formal application in to Heaven Sent Children, an adoption agency in Murfreesboro last Friday. They called yesterday to set up our first home visit! In the state of Tennessee you are required 4 visits with the agency before your homestudy is complete. Most of the homestudy process is interview as a family, couple, and individual interviews. They ask about your childhood, your schooling, your marriage, discipline philosophies, etc. They must do at least one of these meetings in your home to check for safety issues, adequate sleeping and play space, etc. In the past we have had our 3 hour home visit last, but this agency prefers to do this visit first. Then on their last visit they will expect us to have the house with all the required elements.

What is required?
Funny, I don't remember what is required for the state of TN because Benjamin's adoption was such a whirlwind. I do remember some stuff from both adoptions, it was things like:

• safety locks on cleaning supplies

• working smoke detectors within so many feet of each bedroom and at least one on each level of the house.

• medicine locked up

• fire extinguisher (this was for KY they didn't ask about it for Benjamin's adoption)

I'm sure they will give us a list next Wednesday when they come.
I do know that new requirement is the medicine has to be behind a key locked door or cabinet, it used to just have to be behind a child lock. So we will have to install a new knob on our bathroom closet door.

So anyway, our homestudy is next Wednesday. Currently we are under a water restriction because of the flooding and one of our water treatment plants is under water. So, I have been rinsing dishes in used water and I have not been doing laundry. We are limiting showers (I did have to give the kids a quick bath today but kept the water level low). I have a lot of cleaning and washing that will need to be done by next Wednesday and we are not sure when the restriction will be lifted. So I'm not sure what we will do about that. It could be interesting!

Other homestudy requirements include:
Copies of birth certificates for all family members
Adoption decrees for our current kids
Health forms filled our by all of our doctors
Forms from the vet
Marriage License
Background checks from all states we have lived in
Fingerprints
Work experience
Tax Forms
Proof of income
That is all I can think of right now.

My next project will be to work on a profile book. This is basically a scrapbook of our life. Pictures of us and the kids and things we like to do. The birth parents will look through different profiles to choose the adoptive family. This will also include a "Dear Birth Mother" letter that is a letter to the birthmom explaining our desire to adopt and a little about our family and our life.

So there is a little about the homestudy process in case you have forgotten since it has been 3 1/2 years since we last had one (can't believe that!).


Oh....someone asked us about time frame from this point on. They told us they can go as quickly or as slowly as we want on the homestudy. It is just a matter of coordinating our schedules for the 4 visits. Then we have to wait on background checks, etc. to come back. It took about 6 weeks with Benjamin. They said to expect up to 18 months for placement. It took two weeks with Hannah (after homestudy was complete) and of course with Benjamin we got the homestudy done in order to get him. So we will just see what God's timing is!

Easter Weekend

Virtual Easter Basket

I was tagged by my friend Emily in her blog for a virtual Easter basket.

It's the Hershey's Better Basket Blog Hop! If you have a blog, you can help raise money for a GREAT cause!!! Hershey is donating up to $5,000 to the Children's Miracle Network with this promotion – $10 for every blog that participates in the Better Basket Blog Hop. The post that you are reading right now is another $10 that will be given to children’s hospitals all over North America. An additional $5,000 to this charity would be the world of difference to many sick children.

My virtual Easter basket will include Cadbury eggs, you can't have Easter without them, some Snickers bars, and a cute little cuddly bunny rabbit!



The lucky people who are getting tagged in this challenge and get to receive my wonderful virtual basket are:

Michele
Haley
Aislynn
Katie

Here are the rules below:

Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop Rules
Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
Please note that only one blog post by each blog URL will count towards the donation.

Rainbow cupcakes

We made rainbow cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day! It was so much fun and they turned out really neat!

Here We Go Again!

It is that time again. Time to start the roller coaster ride you may know as the adoption process! Daniel and I have been wanting to do this for at least a year now (if not longer, you know our baby is 3!), but the time just hasn't been right. As you probably figured out we now have a van so we can start thinking of adding to our family again!

For the last several months we have been thinking through and praying through our options. We felt a peace about looking into Foster to Adopt through the state. So we started that direction. After speaking to a few people and getting some discouragement, and after trying to sign up for the training classes and not being able to we decided God must not be leading us in this direction right now (we are still open to this possibility in the future but feel like doors have closed on this avenue for now).

So I started looking into private adoption once again. It is such a conflicting process.....on the one hand I think, "we can't afford another private adoption", "aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, I don't want to do another homestudy!", and other things like that. On the other hand I think, "God has provided for us for two adoptions, we made a lot less money then, if He wants us to adopt He will provide all we need once again!", "The homestudies were not that bad, at all! There is nothing to fear!" And of course, our desire to add to our family and our trust that God will lead us through the process once more, gives us the peace to continue on and look into it!

I have e-mailed several agencies for more information. So far only one of them has gotten back to me personally. They are having an informational meeting tomorrow night that Daniel and I will attend.

So that is all I know for now. We are praying and seeking God's direction and wisdom in all of this. Right now we aren't sure where He will lead us but we are ready to hang on and know that "God will be right by our side, on this roller coaster ride". Of course we appreciate your prayers through all of this!

Van

This is a picture of our new van. We have been wanting a van for a couple of years now but have never really looked hard for one. I had hoped we could get one last year with our tax return, but then Hannah was in the hospital and guess where that money went! I'm not really sure why Daniel decided it was okay to look for a van now but he said we could go ahead and look. I found this one on craigslist and it was within what I figured was a reasonable price range for Daniel. He agreed to go look at it! It is a 2005 Kia Sedona. I do not like white vehicles but I couldn't pass up this deal just because it was white! I'm so glad that God has answered our prayers for a van (I know I've been praying for one for almost 2 years!). I also know God's timing is always best! :)

My Little Valentines - A little late!

Hooray!!! It let me post a picture! Here are my sweet babies that aren't babies anymore! Now they are 4 and 3! Unbelievable! February is such a wonderful month for us to look back and see what all God has done for us! He has truly blessed us and we are so thankful! I would have never imagined these two beauties in my life but now I can't imagine life without them! I'm so glad God is in charge and not me!

SNOW

Well, I'm having trouble uploading pictures of us playing in the snow. I'll try again another time. We have really enjoyed all the snow this year! The last time it snowed enough to play in here was March 2008 and the kids were really too little to play (they had just turned 1 and 2).

Rosalynn's Hope

I was just reading a blog about orphan care and adoption called Rosalynn's Hope. I don't know much about it as I just started reading it. I do know that it is sponsored/supported by our former church (that we still consider our family :) ), Ninth and O Baptist, in Louisville. They had links to other blogs and ours was one of them!

I encourage you to check out their site Rosalynn's Hope

Pray about your involvement in orphan care and check out some of the links on their page. All of us as Christians are called to care for the orphans, and there are so many ways to carry that out.

Quote from blog:

Orphan care is what happens when we believe the gospel.

In conversion our affections are transformed to mirror the heart of God. That is why James can write, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27).