Helen

Went to Helen this weekend with a friend for a few days. Did a little hiking, shopping, looking for her a house and adopting a dog. I also took a few moments to take out my camera and took some photos. I really have missed using my "big" camera, my digtal rebel. I miss the feel of it. I have a few shots that I wished I had taken a little more time with because there are some washed out places because of all the white but I didn't really go for shooting, another day maybe.

Farewell to the Candy Man

Today I attended the funeral of one of the greatest men I have ever known. Colonel William LeRoy Kinney died Sunday. This 94 year old man has live a long life showing others how to be Christ like. He has extended his heart to many, many people. He was like a grandfather to me. He and his first wife, Mrs. Ruthie used to baby sit me and my brother and then my other brother and sister after we adopted them. He came into my life when I was just a baby. He was known then as the “Candy Man” at church. He always had candy and hugs for us little ones and this never stopped even after I grew up and moved away. Every time I would visit Zion Baptist Church, I would go and see him and he always gave me a hug and a kiss along with a piece of candy. He even had candy at his funeral. This made everyone smile and cry. He was always willing to help those in need. He would take people to the doctors, pray for them, help out with finance, and call the department of family and children services to help others get on their feet. One lady at DFACS asked how he came to find so many people in need or how did they came to find him. A story was shared today about 2 men who showed (in the pouring rain and soaked to the bone) up after church services wanting a place to crash. The preacher asked him “What do you think?” and the Colonel said that “every man needed a dry bed to sleep in.” That night they put them up in the hotel next to the church. The men asked if they could repay them and they said if you like you can come tomorrow and stack chairs. These guys actually showed up. The Colonel stated that he could count of one hand the number of people who have paid him back. He would do this even if it cost him. Such as the time when the people he put up in the hotel stole everything from the room from towels to the T.V. He was a man who loved everyone regardless. He was an investor, not just in stocks and bond but in the lives of others. He would never take credit for the deeds he has done, but always gave credit to his father in heaven.

He also shared in the excitement of others and never forgot them. I had told him a while back that Mike and I were adopting from China and when I went to see him last month while he was very sick asked me about my China doll and when I was going to get her. I told him it would be a while. This is a man that I would have loved for my daughter to have met. I just hope that I can in some small way be able to exhibit the Character of Christ that this man has. Good bye, I love you and will miss you.

The photos was taken in January of 2006 with his 2nd wife Bobbie whom he has been married to for 10 years after the death of his first wife, Mrs. Ruthie Kinney.

WE'RE IN BEIJING!

Or at least or paperwork is. I have tracked it from Atlanta, GA to Memphis, TN to Anchorage AK to Beijing China. What a trip!

So What!!!

So What if I talk to Squirrels! I also take thier picture. See Peacefullness from Mike's blog for futher explanation.

We are DTC Finally!

As of today (yesterday) July 14th, we are finally DTC (Dossier to China). Sorry I check my email at midnight. This has got to be one of the happiest moments yet. We can officially begin the countdown. As I said before wait time to referral is 13 months and then another month before we travel. Lets all pray that the time does not go up. I am attaching photos of the finished product.

Quilt Square 2

After somewhat of a depressing week of still waiting on the final piece of paperwork before sending everything to China and logging on to the agency web site to see that waiting time to referral is now 13 months plus 1 month before receiveing our travel arrangement. The time continues to go up. Hopefully by the middle of next week we will finally be DTC (Dossier to China) and we can start counting. So something to make me smile came in the mail and it was the 2nd square to the quilt all the way from Charleston SC from Kate Heare. If you are interesting in participating please see the Need Help! from a previous post. Only need 98 more to go.

FIREWORKS!!!!

Last night for the 4th we went downtown to River blast. We haven't gone to see fireworks in a while. It was a nice evening. I had a funnel cake and some cotton candy while Mike had some BBQ and beer. The fireworks were really nice but unlike what we heard about last year the music was not really there. We heard last year that the music was loud and seemed to be in rhythm with the fireworks. This year there must have been something wrong. We were very close to the truck and could not hear the music over the PA's. They sound system was working fine because we heard the announcements but that was it. We still enjoy the fireworks and relaxing under the sky trying to count stars before everything go started. I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July celebration.

Approval 2

Well before the paperwork goes to China has to go to Atlanta to get authenticated first, this will take about 2 weeks then everything goes to China.

IT'S HERE!!!!

Today we received our approval from Homeland Security! It took 6 weeks for this to arrive. I have faxed a copy to our agency. Hopefully on Wednesday (because of the holiday) our paperwork will be sent to China and we can officially begin the long wait for a referral. As of today the wait is 12 months. Hopefully it will not go up to much as some of the rumors that I have read have suggested. So in just a little over a year I will finally be a mother.

Birthday Blast!!!

For my birthday this year, I got confined to quarters for 48 hours. As most of you know that I don't know how to be still for that long. Friday night I got a sore throat and did not feel good all weekend. I tried to go to prompt care on Sunday but my insurance doesn't cover them. So today I finally get to go to the doctor to find out I have strep throat. I have never had this before and pray that I never again will and will never wish this on anyone not even my enemies. I am sorry that I haven't post photos from our vacation yet but will try to do so tomorrow while I am sitting around. For those of you whom I have contaminated I do apologize. I did so without the knowledge of what I had. I do want to thank my sweet husband for bringing home birthday cookies and sorbet, and for fixing me a birthday punch. But I will not dwell on the bad. I am happy to be here among all of my friends. I love each and everyone of you.

Japanese Name

I thought this was interesting because I am getting ready to go to Japan in November.

Your Japanese Name Is...

Moe Genji

What's your Japanese Name?

Lost Ankel

Well as many of you know that I tend to be a little accident prone. I think I have an invisible red target on me that says "Hit Me!" I was playing ball on Tuesday night and a line drive caught me just above the left inside ankel. I have a bruise the size of Texas (or at least the size of a softball, maybe a little bigger.) My ankel is swollen but you should have seen it before the swelling went down. My leg looked deformed. It sort of hurts to walk. I have really bad timing because we are going to New York on Sunday and we will be doing a lot of walking. I also had an x-ray taken and should find out tomorrow if I have a hairline fracture. The doc said it just looked like a really bad hemotoma (a big bruise) but wanted to make sure there was no fracture. The only real treatment for it would be to stay off of it. ha ha.

A Sad Moment

As most of you know by know that Mike and I are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. What most of you do not know is that on Thursday we were asked to become the adoptive parents are a young lady locally. It was a very exciting but confusing moment. It was what we originally wanted. Over the weekend I went to visit my parents and was doing a lot of thinking about having a newborn verses and toddler. I was having a hard time knowing which direction to take. I know deep in my heart I would not have been able to turn this baby down but I also didn't want to let the China dream go. I was trying to figure out also if we could do both but I know that would have been very difficult. Yesterday when I got home and went to my friend's house she had told me that the young lady had a miscarriage. It really bothered me, I didn't think that it should but it was like a part of me had been lost. I really had a hard time sleeping last night thinking about the baby and her mother. Below is a poem that I wrote as I was dealing with my fealings about both babies. I now know that I will go to China but am saddened at the thought of it knowing that this little life has been lost.


How do you make a decission so drast
One waiting child has now become two.
Which path to take- I do not know.
How can you leave either child who needs you too.
Oh! What to do? What to do.
One Child has been born in my heart and here comes number 2.
Oh! What to do? What to do?
How do you kow what is right?
When God has placed them both in your site.
Oh! God! Oh! God! Please tell me what's right
When both are so precious in our sight.
Oh! What to do? What to do?
Path number 1 or path number 2
Either path will leave one behind
Oh! What to do?

Immigration

Today we had our fingerprints done at immigration. I will have to say it was the smoothest transaction that we have done to this date. We got there early, went in and was out in 20 minutes. So we are now one more step closer. We now wait upon approval from immigration and once we get it our Dossier (paperwork) will be sent to China

Quilt Square 1

I received my first quit square today. It was from my class with all thier names on it.

Split Lip

Here's a photo of my busted lip that required 2 stiches. It's amazing how fast the body can heal. A little less that one week later you can barely tell what happened. I think that the stiches really did help because it closed up the gap in the lip and kept it from scabbing and scarring too much. This is a lovely self portrait I took at a red light on my way to the E.R.

BIG MOUTH

This can be taken several ways. Most of you know that I am know for talking aka having a big mouth, but not everyone knows that I have recently aquired a physically big mouth. I'll attach photo later, It's at school on my classroom camera. Tuesday night warming up for the ball game I was tossing the ball with my team mates. I turn to say something to the girl on my right who just threw the ball, and then turned to prepare for the other girl to throw me the ball, little did I know that she had already done so, so when I turned it was there right on my face. Needless to say it busted my mouth. They asked if I was O.K. because I continued to hold my mouth and then looked down at my hand and it was covered with blood and they were saying "oh my gosh!" So, I missed the first couple of innings while I iced my mouth and waited for it to quit pouring blood. After the game I had Holly, my best friend who is an nurse look at it and she thought it needed a stich. I headed to promt care at 8:05 to find out that they closed at 8:00. I then headed to the E.R. at Doctor's and stayed there until about midnight. I ended up with 2 stiches in my lip.

On a brighter note, we got our appointment for our FBI fingerprints for next Friday, May 19th, the last day of school. I have had perfect attendance up to this point working on getting a bonus which I will now loose. I am o.k. with that because it puts us a little closer to getting our paper work into China. This process has had some unexpected delays due to life, It is still looking like we will get our daughter in June 2007.

Dossier and I 600A

On Friday I mailed off our Dossier Packet (the paperwork that will eventually be sent to China) to our adoption agency to be authincated by the Great State of Georgia. Saturday, I sent in our first payment for the adoption and then mailed of our I 600A petition to (adopt an orphan) to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. So hopefully soon we will get our approval and get our second set of fingerprints done. I also want to thank all those who have already agreed to help in the "100 good wishes quilt" I know it will be very special becuase it will be from all of you, my friends and family.

WE'RE APPROVED!!!!!

We are officially approved by our adoption agency to become adoptive parents as of yesterday. Sorry I didn't blog yesterday but I was busy finishing up some last minute paperwork for our adoption. We have our homestudy and follow up complete and can now send it to immigration. We are finally moving on to the next step. We still have a long way to go before we bring home our little girl but we are one step closer.

Before and After

As I mentioned before I am adding some pictures that I had taken on a previous trip to Biolxi and a few that were taken this week. The first one is of one of the casino's Treasure Island or Treasure bay prior to the hurricane. There are photos of it now in previous blogs. Notice how far the ship has been moved. The next 2 are of the Hurricane Camile Memorial and the following 3 are of the Church and bell tower.