Saturday, October 29, 2005

Painting Day and more...

I spent the day painting our bedroom and bathroom. I have never liked the yellow that it was, so it is going back to... China Doll... this is the color of most of the rest of the house. I picked this color out to use in our first house way back in 1997. Coincidence?

This week I hope to paint our front bedroom which will eventually be the nursery. I am planning to paint it a light mint green color. It is such a peaceful color. I hope our little tiger will love it too!

While I was painting the phone rang. Now this is very unusual. Everyone who calls me, calls me on my cell. Usually our home phone is just for telemarketers. I looked at the caller id and it said Colorado. I thought this was strange but I decided to answer it. Boy am I glad I did! It was CCAI calling to tell us that our application has been approved. YAAA! I wasn't really worried that we wouldn't but it means we are "official" now...

I wish I could send all the forms back in on Monday, but Derek has to sign some, so it will have to wait until he is home....

Where is Derek? Well, he went to Atlanta last night to see our friend Maceo, and he was going to the Clemson game today (we lost... not good!) and tomorrow he is driving to Alabama for his fishing tournament. He qualified to fish as a co-angler in the Everstart Series Championship. There are four divisions and the top 40 professionals and co-anglers from each division get invited to fish the championship. Derek is ranked 11th in the Southeastern division, so he is thrilled to be going! The tournament officially starts on Wednesday but he hopes to pre-fish (practice) on Monday and Tuesday. First place for the co-angler is about $30,000 in cash and a new Ranger bass boat worth about $40,000. GO DEREK!!!! His dream is to be a professional and I say he's doing a good job of getting there!

I wish I could be there with him for the tournament, but I decided to stay at home. Our furbaby, Katie (Springer Spaniel) had emergency surgery last month to remove her spleen. It had ruptured from a tumor growing inside of it. She was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma, and the prognosis is not good, so I didn't want to leave her. I want to spend as much time as I can with her! I think she is getting annoyed with me though, because all I do is hug and kiss on her everytime she comes near me!

Being at home was a good opportunity to get the painting project done... On that note I need to get back to it... those walls aren't going to paint themselves!!!

Friday, October 28, 2005

Wow- did I just set this up by myself?

After reading other's blogs about their journey to find their little girl in China, I decided to start one for our family! Of course, being the Clemson Tiger fanatics that we are (our blood really is orange!) I decided to call it OurLittleTiger.blogspot.com. I think it is fitting. After all, she will be our little tiger!

After almost 4 years of trying to start our family and 3 years of fertility roller coasters, we realized that God's plan for our family was to create our family through adoption. After all, God wouldn't have put such strong desires in our hearts if we were not meant to be parents. Through this process I remember a conversation I had with my grandmother during one of my weekends with her. I had just found out where babies came from and decided that I was going to adopt (probably a really typical response for a young girl!). I announced to her my intentions, and remember such a sense of satisfaction. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We were riding in her 1972 Oldsmobile 98. Little did I know that my path had already been determined.

After much research and soul-searching, we have decided that our little tiger is waiting for us in China. We have a good family friend, Sandy, who has adopted two precious girls from China (Heather and Lily). Knowing their family has helped to educate us on the possibilities!

We have chosen to use Chinese Children Adoption International as our adoption agency. This is the same agency Sandy used and after getting all of their information, we really believe this is the right agency for us. So, to make a long story even longer, we mailed our application yesterday, Oct. 27th, 2005. Now we wait for our approval and sign up to get our Homestudy started. I really would like to have our paperwork in China by March. This would help make sure we get our little girl home by next Christmas. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be!

Well, now that I have our blog set up, I will have to get back to work (lunch is now over) but I will add more tomorrow. Thanks for reading our story- this one will have a happy ending!