New Blog

I have started a new family blog.  I will not be updating this one anymore.  Please come and visit us at www.ourmiraclesandblessings.blogspot.com.

Thank you!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Blessings

We had a wonderful Christmas as a family of 5.  This is our last Christmas as a family of 5.  Next year we'll have a little boy to chase too.  :-)

The girls were so excited. They wanted to see where Santa was on the computer.  We fed the reindeer their food and set out Santa's cookie & milk.  Then they went to bed.  Quite easily I might add.

As usual, I woke up bright (well not so bright) and early.  I thought I heard little feet upstairs. So I got dressed and checked it out.  Of course Jadyn was up.  I woke Bill up and we got our camera's ready.  Then the girls ran down the stairs to see if Santa did come. They were happy to see that he had.

We drove to my parents house around noon to have Christmas with my family.  We had fun. The kids were all very good.  And very patient.  We ate lunch first and then did the kids presents.  They received some wonderful things from their grandparents, great-grandma, Aunt & Uncle.

Saturday our Christmas continued.  We went to Bills mom's house for Christmas with Bills family.  We had fun.  The house was filled with little girl voices.  The kids had fun playing.  We opened gifts first and then ate.  The girls were so excited with their gifts.  They were all wonderful gifts.

We are now starting to settle down from the Christmas excitement.  Thankfully we have been blessed with cooler weather.  This week we are taking it easy, relaxing, enjoying friends etc.  School will begin next week and Bill & I will begin getting ready to leave for China.  Flights are booked.  Now we need to pack our bags.  We leave Jan 14 and return home Jan 28.  Ethan will be with us on Jan 18.

I hope you have had a very Blessed Christmas and I hope you have a Very Happy & Wonderful New Year!

Love, Debbie

Merry Christmas!

Much Needed Update

Life has been super busy. And I don't see it slowing down any time soon.
The girls are growing up fast. Tiffani is talking about wanting to get her learners permit. She turns 15 in April. Abby is literally growing tall. We are surprised with how much taller she is than Jadyn right now. And Jadyn is counting down the days until she is 6. Two more days! She's excited. We also are waiting for the travel call, any day now. We anticipate meeting Ethan on Jan 11th. We are excited.

I have a bunch of photos in this slide show from the last month or two.

Tiff has finished marching band for this year. She is sad. But I'm relieved. We now get to see Tiff again. Newsome came in 3rd in their division in state. We are proud of them. Jadyn was chosen as Terrific Kid for Cooperation at school. They did a ceremony and she received a bumper sticker, certificate & pencil. She was excited. Abby has lost 5 teeth now and #6 is coming out soon. Tiffani has faced her fear of Tower of Terror, and she went on the ride with dad & her friend Brooks. She got off the ride and said she had fun and it was awesome. She can't wait to do it again.

Jadyn has had 3 birthday celebrations. We celebrated with our families during Thanksgiving. And then she had a tea party with 4 friends. She loved it. We had "tea" (lemonade) and some snack foods. Then cupcakes and the best part, presents. She had fun. We also played games and laughed a lot.

The girls are excited about Christmas. They love the decorations. They love knowing it's Jesus' birthday.

Last night we went to The North Pole. We took The Polar Express there. The girls were excited. And they had fun. The train ride was fun. Then when we arrived at the North Pole, there were a lot of fun activities to do. Tattoos, crafts, making reindeer food, and hot chocolate & cookies. And of course, SANTA was there. After we met Santa, it was time to eat. They sold hot dogs & chips etc. The girls had fun and they were exhausted when we left.

One more week of school. And this is another busy week. Tomorrow (Dec 14) is Bills birthday. We are hoping that he & I can drive up to Disney for a few hours, alone. Disney is giving you a free day for your birthday. Since we have annual passes, Bill will get a gift card for the amount of a day's admission. Tomorrow night Tiff is playing her flute at her friend Hannah's recital. Tuesday is Jadyn's birthday and Bill is planning on taking Jadyn to Disney, alone, to get her gift certificate, and to spend some one on one time with her. She does not know about this yet. Next Sunday the girls are singing in church in the Christmas musical. They are excited. Friday is the last day of school for 2009. Where has this year gone?

We think that we'll be in China in 4 weeks. So 3 1/2 more weeks here with just the girls. So much to do!

We have set up a travel website for Ethan. It is www.ethanwilliam.com

Here are the photos I've promised. Enjoy!

Updates coming soon

Sorry for the delay in updating this blog. Life has been super busy. I will do my best to update what is going on very soon.

We do have a new travel site for Ethan. It is www.ethanwilliam.com

Until next time.......

Happy Birthday to Me!

Friday, August 28 was my birthday. It was a good day. Unfortunately, Jadyn & I were sick. But we did not make that damper our spirits. I enjoyed my evening with my girls & Bill. We had spaghetti & meatballs (planned to go to Outback but sickness changed those plans) and then had cake and then put our PJ's on and watched a Disney Channel movie. It was a good night. Next year Ethan will be here to help celebrate! It will be fun too.
Enjoy the photos....

18 years ago today.......

Bill & I said "I Do".
Happy Anniversary Bill! Thank you for making all my dreams come true. I love you!

Punta Gorda 2009

On Sunday, the girls & I drove down to Punta Gorda. My parents own a timeshare down there. It's nice to get away for a little bit. We swam, looked at the shops, watched movies, took a sunset cruise etc. I think the girls had fun. And they loved spending time with their grandparents.
Here are just a few photos from the trip. I have a new computer and do not have Picasa on here yet. Once I do, then I'll add the slide of photos from our weekend getaway.

Family Throwdown!

Bills Uncle Al was in town this week. So he thought it would be fun to have a "family throwdown" on the grill. Bill was in charge of steak, Rick was in charge of chicken and Al in charge of shrimp. It was fun. Bill tried to sabatoge Rick's reciepe but thankfully Rick caught on before it was too late. There was a lot of teasing going on. And a lot of laughing.

When it was all done, we left it up to the kids to decide who made the best dish. Abby, Jadyn, Marissa & Olivia were the judges (Tiff & Grace were not here). By a 3-1 vote, the SHRIMP won. Al was very happy. :-)

Life is changing.....

Wow, what a week this past week was. In case you did not go over to our adoption blog, we have been referred A SON! His name will be Ethan William. He is almost 9 months old. He has an unrepaired cleft lip and cleft palate. He's the cutest little boy! We're so excited and also very surprised with his age. We were expecting a toddler. But very happy for a baby. Everything is going fast and smooth. We accepted his referral on July 7th. We have a LID of July 9th. We are currently waiting for our pre-approval from China. This could take a few weeks. We hope to travel by the end of this year.

In between the excitement of finding out we have a son waiting for us, the girls have been keeping us busy. Tiffani went bowling with her friend Ashley & 2 boys. Yes, there was an adult chaperone. And I was informed this was not a date. :-) They had a lot of fun and they are all good friends. Tiff has also had several sleep overs, one that the girls stayed up till 3:30 AM. I was not too thrilled about this. I'm really enjoying the friends Tiff has and so glad they come over to our house. Tiff has had a wonderful summer so far. She has also started going to band and is getting more comfortable with that. Band camp starts Aug 5th.

Abby & Jadyn have been busy too. Abby had a playdate the other day with her BFF from school. She had a blast. Jadyn & I spent some time together while Abby was gone. All of Jadyn's BFF's have been away for the summer. They should be home soon. Abby & Jadyn I think need a break from each other. They have started fighting a lot. Typical sister fighting. We will be ready for school to begin. :-)

The girls are very excited about having a baby brother. Abby has already told me how she plans to help me. Jadyn is telling everyone that his lip is broken, but it will get fixed. And that we need to get him a crib and that he does not have a foster mom. Tiff was texting all of her friends while Bill & I were still on the phone with our adoption agency. She is thrilled.

It's a new week. We don't know what God has planned for us yet. So far, so good.

Until next time......

A Disney Getaway!

This past week was rough on Bill. A lot of stress for him. So he wanted to get away. Our Disney passes will expire this week. We looked online and they had some good FL resident discounts on hotels. So we booked a room for the weekend. We were so thankful for our friends to look after the dogs. :-)

We left Friday afternoon. We checked in and then started exploring the hotel. Our room was a Pirate Theme. It was neat. We decided to walk to dinner. And did not realize how long the walk really was. We ate dinner (and the girls each got a sand pail with their dinner). Then A & J wanted to get their hair wrapped. Jadyn was super excited because some of her friends have done this before. So J picked out her colors and sat. Abby decided she did not want that, she wanted one already made with a clip. So J sat and sat, getting her hair wrapped. After about 5 min she was over it and wanted it to be done. She got to pick out some beads and loved it. Abby then picked out her clip wrap. The girls were very happy. :-)

After the hair wrap, it was off to the beach. They could not wait. We found a nice little beach by our hotel room and the girls had a blast. Tiff & Bill went back to the hotel. Tiff was hot and wanted to cool off. So the girls & I sat out and really enjoyed ourselves, until the sun found us. Then we got hot. We went back to the room, and around 7 PM got ready to go to the Magic Kingdom. They were doing 4th of July fireworks Friday & Sat nights, so we decided to try them Fri night. We got on the bus around 7:15. They crammed so many people on the bus. It was not fun. We got to the park around 7:50. We went to the tea cups, waited about 10-15 minutes. The girls love this ride. Then we went to Small World. By time we were done with that, we had about 10 min before the fireworks. We looked for a good spot and ended up back in Fantasyland. There were so many people there this night. But we still had a good view of the show. The show was good. The girls liked it. Then A, J & I decided to take the bus back to the room, while Tiff & Bill stayed and took advantage of the late hours of the park. It took the girls & I over 30 min just to get to the exit of the park. Then we walked to the bus, to get into another long line. Thankfully Disney was on top of the crowd situation because they had more buses running. We waited about 15 min or so for the bus. Again, cramming people on. THANKFULLY we got the last seat on the bus, so I could sit with 1 of the girls while the other was able to stand next to me. Then they took turns. It took over 30 min to get off the bus. It was 10:45 when we finally made it back to the hotel room. The girls changed & passed out. Bill & Tiff did not get back until about 1:45 AM. They had a great time. They went to the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor and They chose Bill to be "Thank Guy". Bill said it was great! Here are photos from Friday.




Since we stayed up so late Friday night, we decided to "try" to sleep in. Well Jadyn does not understand what "sleep in" means. 6:30 (her normal routine) she's up and making noise. We were not too thrilled. We all got up and ate donuts and then got our bathing suits on. We decided to check out the big pool. We chose to drive this time. :-) We did not realize that the water park and slides did not open till 10. It was about 9:15 when we got to the pool. So we just swam in the big pool. The girls had fun. Then the water park opened. They played in there for about 15 min and then they wanted to go back to the beach to build a sand castle with dad. So we got our things and drove back to the same little beach by our room. We found shade and chairs and we sat while the girls played in the sand. Dad did help them build a castle. They had fun. I think we were out there maybe an hour. It was such a nice morning. After the beach, Bill & Tiff went back to the room to shower and I took the girls to the little pool by our hotel room. There were 2 other kids there, so it was not crowded at all. We swam there for about 30 min. Abby made a new friend. It was fun. Here are photos.


After showers, we decided to go to Downtown Disney to see what time Ice Age 3 was playing. We ended up seeing the movie. The girls loved it. It was a cute movie. Then we went back to the hotel to rest. After some down time, we went to Riverside and ate dinner & got dessert to take back to our room. We could hear thunder in the distance, and we knew the crowds would be bad, so we chose not to do fireworks last night. We watched a movie we brought from home and we tried to go to sleep around 9:30. Unfortunately, we had loud neighbors, so Bill, Tiff & I were up till after 12:30. Finally they calmed down and we all went to sleep. I did not take any more photos.

We are home now. We had a nice getaway. Even though we went to the park once, we still had a lot of fun.

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July.
Until next time.....

Summer Updates

Well, we are in the 4th week of Summer Vacation. The first 3 weeks were so busy. It's been nice not having anything to do this week. Unfortunately it has been raining all week. So we have cabin fever now. I'm so thankful for all the rain, because we need it badly. But we're ready to see a little sunshine now. :-)

Youth Camp was Great! Tiff had a blast. It showed, because she could not find the time to call home. I'm glad she had fun. She got closer to God, which is awesome. She got closer to some of the kids too. Friendships were formed, or they grew closer. She has a lot of memories from camp. I'm glad she went. Even though we missed her a lot. Here are some of the photos that she took during camp.


The week after camp was VBS. I taught the 4/5 yr olds with my good friend Billie. We had a good week. We had a good group of kids. Abby & Jadyn were with us, and at first I was concerned how they would act. They were very good, considering their mom was the teacher. The theme this year was Boomerang Express: It All Comes Back To Jesus. It was a lot of fun. And the songs are stuck in my head. Abby just loved the songs and really got into singing them during worship rally. Here are some photos from our week.


Last Saturday, my high school friend got married. I am so happy for her. It was a mini high school reunion at her wedding. I have not seen my friends in many years. It was good to catch up. Only Tiffani & I went. Bill stayed home with Abby & Jadyn. I'm so glad he did, because they would not have done well at the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and so was my friend. Here is a photo of the HS gang. :-)


It is now coming up on the 4th of July. We are taking a weekend getaway. We're going to Disney for the weekend. We were fortunate to find a hotel on property at the FL resident discount rate. This will be the last time we'll go using these annual passes.

As far as an adoption update, our dossier is in China. It was sent last Friday. Now we sit back and wait for a referral call. We don't know when we'll get the call. Could be this month, could be 6 months from now. We just do not know. We're okay with waiting. We know that God will bring us the perfect son for our family.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. We are having a lot of fun.

Until next time......

Updates soon...

I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog. I've been so busy with the girls & VBS etc. Tiff did make it home from camp safely. She had the best week. I'm so glad she's home. This week was VBS and it wiped me out. I have not had any motivation to journal. I promise, one day next week, I will try to update the blog and put some photos up.

Our Disney Get-Away

Three words: HOT, CROWDED, FUN! I bet you never thought those 3 words could even go together. But they do for this trip. Yes, it was HOT at Disney. Of course it was CROWDED at Disney. But we did also have a lot of FUN. I'm so thankful that we had the cabin to come back to. We turned the AC down so it would be cold when we got back.
We arrived at Disney on Tuesday afternoon. After we checked in, we went to Hollywood Studios (formally MGM). We tried to get Jadyn on Tower of Terror. She got scared at the last minute. Rock-n-Roller Coaster wait was too long for Bill & Tiff. So we did the Movie Ride and Backlot Tour. Then we ate. It was about 6:30 by this point. Then we watched the final show of the American Idol experience. That was neat. We left around 7:30 and headed back to cool off.
Wed we got up early and went to Animal Kingdom. Long lines fast there. And of course hot. Tiff & Bill did Everest, then we got a fast pass for the Safari and while we waited we took a walk through some of the animal trails. Then it was time for the safari. I'm glad we did not wait in that long line. The animals were not out. :-( Then we ate lunch at our favorite place. Then we headed back to the cabin. This afternoon we went to Downtown and watched Night of the Museum 2. Cute movie. That evening, I stayed back with Abby & Jadyn and took them to the pool, while Bill & Tiff went back to MGM to do some rides.
Thursday up early again and went to Magic Kingdom. The lines were actually not too bad here. We did a lot and left around noon. That evening we went to Epcot and did a few things.
Friday we slept in and then went to Downtown Disney before heading home. We were glad to be home.
Here are a few photos from our trip. Enjoy! Until next time.....

The Last Week of School

It's officially summer here. Schools are out! Abby & Jadyn are so happy to be going to kindergarten now. Tiffani was very sad to leave her friends, but looking forward to High School. This week has been a very busy week with all of the end of the year stuff planned.

The preschool had water fun days. Unfortunately for me, they did not schedule Abby & Jadyn's class to go on the same day. So I had the "pleasure" of doing it twice. First Abby's class went. They had fun. Chasing each other and making sure everyone got wet. The next day was Jadyn's day. She was not as adventurous as Abby. She got a little wet, but did not want to get soaked. Thankfully both girls got tired and we were allowed to leave early. :-) Here are some photos that I took of our fun water days.



And yesterday, was the official last day of school. Of course I had to get photos of the girls. I love seeing how much they have changed since the first day. After we took the photos of the girls, I took Abby & Jadyn to school. They were so excited. They were going to have an ice cream sundae party. When I got home from the preschool, I noticed Tiff changed her outfit. Typical for a 14 year old girl. Then her friends Maddy & Terry came over for a photo shoot. Then off to school for the last time.

Tiff called me at 1:30 saying she was on her way home. So the girls & I met her. She was crying. She said she has been crying all day. Her teachers kept giving speeches and that would make her cry. She cried for about 30 min after school was over.

Then her friends started showing up for her party. Unfortunately so did a thunderstorm. But that did not stop the fun. The girls were silly upstairs for about an hour, then into the pool once the storm passed. They had a great time. Around 7:30, the mom's came over and we watched a DVD that I made for the girls. I had photos of the girls from 6-8th grades. The girls screamed & laughed. Us mom's laughed so hard we were crying. It was a lot of fun.

Here are photos from the last day of school.


Summer is officially here. And Tiff is already gone. She's gone to the beach for 4 days with her friend Maddy. I hope she has a blast. I wish I could have joined her.

Until next time......

Online Store

I wanted to let you know, if you took to the left of the blog, you will see items for sale from Studio Store Frog. This is Bill's little shop. He made everything that you see on this page. He's very talented. Feel free to take a look and if you like anything, let us know. He can make special orders too.

Thanks!

Graduation

That time of year. Can't believe it. Seems like we were just looking forward to starting preschool, and now we're done. The girls have had a great 2 years at their school. They have made such wonderful friends. I think they are more than ready to go to the "big" school in the fall. Kindergarten, here they come!!!

Here are some photos from the preschool graduation the other night. The girls were so cute. Jadyn HATED being up on stage, walking across by herself, all the way to her teachers to get her diploma. Abby on the other hand ate it all up. She loved it.




Here are a few photos of the girls teachers.



And last but certainly not least, Ms. Tara. Jadyn's favorite teacher. She was a great teacher for Jadyn. Unfortunately her husband got a job transfer and Ms Tara had to move. We were so happy that she came back to see the kids graduate. Jadyn was in heaven.


So hard to believe how fast all 3 of our girls are growing up. We have 5 days of school left. Then we'll have a freshman in high school and 2 kindergartners. Wow!

Until next time.......

Animal Kingdom

Today we drove to Animal Kingdom for Tiffs birthday. The weather was beautiful. Not too hot. A nice breeze. We got to the park before 9, when we walked in a lady asked if we would like priority seating for The Lion King. (She informed me this was free LOL). So we accepted. That was for 11 AM. We walked over to Asia and Tiff & Bill did Everest. Tiff loves this ride. Jadyn so badly wants to ride it. She loves roller coasters. We were not sure if she was tall enough. (We learned later she is and she got to ride it-story later in the post).

After Everest we walked over to the Safari. Fun ride. Then it was The Lion King time. We were seated right behind the handicap seats, but there was nobody in front of us. Once the show started it was fun. One of the cast members came up to the girls during a song and asked for a high five. Then later in the show, they came to Abby & Jadyn and asked if they wanted to come and be in the show. They got to shake an instrument and walk around the room with other kids & cast members. I loved it. I took video. I was shocked that Jadyn did it. And shocked that they left us without even looking and saying bye. :-) They had fun.

After the show was lunch. Then we walked to Dinoland and Tiff & Bill did Primevil Whirl and the girls & I did Triceratops Spin. Abby loves this ride. She got to ride in the front all by herself. A big deal for her. Jadyn was upset because she wants to ride Prime Evil Whirl. But she's too short (see photos).

Well, Jadyn kept saying "I want to ride the roller coaster". So we walked back to Everest. She is tall enough. The wait was 55 minutes so I took Abby back to Dinoland to "dig" for bones. Well we were there maybe 5 minutes and Bill called asking where we were. He said that a cast member came up to them to check her height. Saw she was good and then said "Do you want to take advantage of a million dream gift?" Bill said "Of course". So the guy took Tiff, Bill & Jadyn and they skipped the whole line and walked right on to the ride. It was great. Bill said Jadyn LOVED it. And she said she wants to do it again next time.

Our day was fun. We're exhausted. I hope you enjoy the photos & video.

Until next time......

Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye is always hard. Today was no different. We said goodbye to Granny. We know that she is happier now. No more pain. No more discomfort. Walking with Jesus and her hubby who she has not seen in almost 30 years. We know she is rejoicing. And we sure hope she was looking down at us today, smiling really big.

The funeral service was nice. We sang some old songs, heard some people speak, the grandchildren all wrote a special memory they had of her. It was fun to hear. After the funeral, we went to the cemetery where we released doves. They were beautiful. I took a little video of it. I hope it turned out. Then we had lunch together at the church. What a fun time to just relax and remember. It was nice seeing my cousins again. It's been too long. We laughed at things we did as kids. We laughed a lot.

I will miss you Granny. I love you. You are a very special woman to me. I know one day I will see you again.

Here are some photos and (hopefully) some video of our day.
Thanks to all the emails I've received. I truly appreciate it.
Love, Debbie