A couple of months ago, some very special friends invited me to a baby shower in Houston, for their very beautiful daughter, Michelle. Michelle was my little flower girl in my wedding 23 years ago and was the most beautiful, intelligent and enchanting little girl you would ever meet. As you can see, pictured here with her proud Mom and Dad, she is still very beautiful. This afternoon, I received a phone call from her Mom, that she delivered a beautiful, healthy 7 lb. 13 ounce little girl named Averie Grace. Paulette and Jim are now very proud Grandparents to their first Grandchild and are waiting again for the birth of their second Grandchild to their son Bobby, who by the way just graduated from medical school and is now a Physician. Congratulations to the entire family on the arrival of Princess Averie Grace and to Bobby for his graduation and accomplishments.

I saw this on another blog and couldn't resist using it. It is a cute expression of how we feel now that we are in the Waiting Stage of the Referral Process.

WE ARE PREGNANT !!!!!!!

You just won't see my stomach growing.
I won't have morning sickness.
I won't be retaining water and getting big ankles.
We won't be able to feel the baby kick.
We won't hear her heartbeat before we go to China (even though our hearts are already connected.)
We are pretty sure she will be a girl!
We don't know when our due date is (we are leaving that up to destiny.)
We do know that she will have hair as black as night, eyes the shape of almonds and the most beautiful smile that will melt your heart with one little grin.
We have already fallen deeply in love with her before we even meet.

Today I was able to spend a wonderful afternoon and enjoyed a great visit and dinner with some family who drove up for a Baseball Tournament. My great-nephew plays for "The Louisiana Allstars" team from Louisiana. His team won the game today, 8-0!! Congratulations on the win and Good Luck for the rest of the games this week Taylor. ( I love you all and miss you very much.)

In January this year, we traveled to Crystal River, Florida and met up with some friends and divers from Louisiana to swim with the manatees. We have enjoyed visiting and swimming with the manatees for many years, but this year the weather was beautiful and we saw more manatees than ever before. We just received these pictures from our friends and wanted to share. ENJOY!!!

Me with a manatee at Three Sisters Springs.

Matt at Rainbow River just after a drift dive





















Kelly, Matt, Nancy and Kimberly who was pregnant with little Amber Grace at the time.

(Oh yes! Cannolli went to see the manatees too!)

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered:
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may Accuse you of Selfish, Ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be Honest and Frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build it anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Teresa~

Our Fingerprints expire on July 1st, so I had to write a letter to the CIS requesting another appointment to have our fingerprints done again and pay the fees again. We received our appointment, scheduled for today at 8:00 a.m. This morning we got up very early, drove to Atlanta and stood in line with 1,000+ other people and did it again. They are scanned on computers. You would think there is a permanent record somewhere wouldn't you? So why do we have to pay the fees again and do this again? Go figure. One funny thing did happen though. We took our puppy, Cannolli with us. He goes everywhere with us in a special bag that looks like a purse. (My husband insisted that he come with us) Well, when they asked to check inside my purse, I knew that they would be surprised, so I tried to prepare the lady and the guard by telling them that Cannolli was in my bag. I did not want them to over react and cause a scene when I opened the bag. Well they laughed and asked me if I was kidding, to which I replied NO! She then said with a big smile that she had to check the bag anyway, still thinking that I was kidding. I opened the bag quickly and Cannolli stuck his little head up so I closed it immediately. The lady started laughing and the guard standing next to her just said, "I didn't see anything" and laughed. They both approved us to go on through and said that I had made their day. We were in and out within 45 minutes and on our way home. I am sure it is a story they will laugh about and share with others for a long time.

CIS Application Support Center where we had to go to have our fingerprints redone. Do fingerprints ever change? ( LOL ) Just another hoop we have to jump through, but things are moving along - at least they seem to be.  

Good News!! The CCAA made their official announcement of this month's referrals today. I think this made all of the waiting families very excited! Maybe this means that things will start moving faster and we might be getting our referral in August. Our LID is August 24th, and it looks like the wait has been about 12 months wait on referral times. If this continues, we might be traveling in October to bring Katherine home. What a great Birthday present that would be for me and to have her home before the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. We have some good friends who just received news that they will be receiving their referral next week for their second little girl. It is beginning to feel like this very long wait for us will be coming to an end soon.

Sorry, but this is how I am feeling today!!

The "WAIT" is also very hard because there are so many children waiting for their "forever families".

Well, we are still waiting and will be for at least 2 more months. For any friends and family who are beginning to wander if this is ever going to happen for us, there is an interesting website www.chinaadopttalk.com where you can check out the rumors that all of the "waiting" families are hearing via the web. As you will see, this waiting game is a "roller coaster ride" and the ups and downs are getting worse by the month. Rumor has it though that the CCAA is trying to keep the wait to 12 months and we are all praying that this is true.

 
"Aunt Janet" and Amber Grace 

 
Amber Grace - 1 month old 
We finally got to meet her !!!

  
Amber Grace and her Proud Dad

   Matt (Katherine's Big Brother)

   Matt's Birthday cake celebrating his 20th Birthday

   Last week, during our trip to visit family and friends, we celebrated Matt's 20th Birthday at his Grandmother's home on June 12, 2006. It was a very special day for him becoming a young man and no longer being a "teen". I had mixed emotions, remembering that 20 years ago I was giving birth to him and having to grasp the reality that he was no longer a child, but now a young man. I thought of how fast the years have gone by and the many wonderful memories we have shared with him. What a lucky little girl Katherine will be to have such an INCREDIBLE BIG BROTHER.

We are proud to announce the birth of a new "family member", born May 12,2006. We will be traveling soon to meet and welcome her into our hearts and family and give her lots of love, hugs and kisses. Please welcome little "Princess" Amber Grace!

For anyone interested in Chinese Art, please check out the website www.scrollsfromchina.com. The scrolls are amazing and are painted by and benefit the children who are in orphanages in China.