Happy F'all Y'all!

This past weekend, Steve was volunteering at the Sheriff's office all day on Saturday, so I decided it would be a good day to take the girls to the pumpkin patch.  It's been a few years since we've last been because Jenna is a bit too old for it now and we just couldn't fit it in. 

We are about to embark on a bunch of FIRSTS for Kylie and her first Halloween is coming up fast.  Jenna wanted to bring her friend from school, Gracie, so we picked her up and we were on our way.

We went to a local farm which is well known in these parts and we picked a Saturday where a HUGE college football game was being played here (Auburn vs. Vanderbilt).  I intentionally planned the trip at about the same time as the game hoping the farm would be less crowded and it was!

It was the absolutely perfect day too.  It was mostly sunny, not raining at all and in the 60s with no breeze (which can make it so much colder!)

Unfortunately, I had forgotten and set my camera on different settings.  These settings are great for doing close up portraits shots of things that aren't moving, but not so much for the kind of pics I was taking.  And because I had my hands full, I didn't stop to look and realize most of pics were blurry.  I did correct my ISO so they weren't all blown out, but boo on losing most of the good ones I thought I had.  But I did get a few decent shots...

Kylie especially loved the hay ride where she could see the cows (you'll have to trust me since none of the photos turned out) and she was saying "moooo mooooo" the whole way in that high voice of hers.

She liked the corn too.  We just had a good time in general.  The big girls were a huge help with Kylie and most of the time fought over who was going to hold her, walk with her, give her the cup and pose with her.  Poor Kylie is going to grow up with a multitude of "mothers" with all of Jenna's friends!!

We did end up with pumpkins.  Several actually.  Jenna picked the biggest one she could possibly find.  I don't know what we'll carve it into, but I know there will be roasted pumpkin seeds from it and this year I might try to make something with the pumpkin like bread. 

The best photo of the day?  The one I took with my iPhone.  Of course.  God bless the iPhone.

Happy fall everyone!!!

Halloween Decor

It's beginning to look a lot like...HALLOWEEN!

Jenna came home from the grocery store with these window clings...

Right now, it's slim pickins at our house where it concerns Halloween decor, but we sure have had fun making edible decorations!

What can you make with the following:

Isn't it obvious?  You make a graveyard cake!

Mine doesn't look quite like the original which can be found here, because I ran out of whip cream before I could make the ghost.  I took this to our Lifegroup on Sunday night and brought home a clean dish.  Must've been good!!! :)

Also, it's time to start seeing this round our house...

Let's hope it lasts until Monday night!!!

Mansker's Station

Right before fall break, Jenna's class went on another field trip.  This one was to Mansker's Station.  It was a great thing to do before the start to fall break!  I was not able to go on this trip, but Jenna has proved responsible with my point and shoot, so I let her take it to document her trip.

When I say responsible, I mean she didn't lose the camera, not necessarily that she took pictures appropriate for the trip!  Oh I jest...here are some...

In Jenna's words, this is the fireplace in the fort at Mansker's Station.

This is the blacksmith station...where they'd put the iron in and get it really hot.

Toting water...all the kids got to try this.  Jenna claims it wasn't heavy, but I bet after a few times, it would start gettin realllllly old.

Jenna is really starting to turn into a budding photographer.  She's proving she can get some decent shots even when I'm not around.  I'm very proud of her!

Local Fall Festival

A friend of ours from church owned a wholesale tree nursery in our little town.  Several years ago, he opened the retail area and it's where we got most of our leaves for Jenna's leaf project as well as our pumpkins.  This past weekend, Riverbend Nurseries had it's fall festival.  It's the first year we've been to it and we went with our neighbors Sean and Bridget.  Their son was also adopted from China. 

A little aside was when the house across the street from ours went up for sale, I joked to some friends that I was praying for a family to move in that had an adopted daughter from China.  The family who moved in has two daughters, but they aren't adopted from China!  However, through the wonderful internet world, I found Bridget who lived literally a house down from us on the opposite side of the street.  We love spending time with them and they are waiting to travel to China for their second son.  She's just a tiny bit behind us in paperwork and the way this crazy journey goes, it could be that we travel together.  We had dinner together Friday night and decided to go to Riverbend together.

Riverbend was fun.  There was lots to do and the weather was perfect.

Petting Zoo

Corn Maze



There was pumpkin painting, games, a hayride, a bounce house...lots of fun things.  And the company was great too!  It was a wonderful day topped off with a first birthday party of a sweet baby girl I have had the pleasure of keeping in my nursery on Sunday mornings since she was first born. Not only that, but I had her sister since she was little as well. I've spoken of their mom, Elizabeth, on my blog before, but here they whole family is...

I love this family.  They are the most wonderful Christian family and I admire their parenting skills.  A little trivia about my friend Elizabeth...she was the iPad winner last year!  A lot of families were at the birthday party and someone snapped this photograph of the moms...

Oh my, how I love these girls. And not just one of them.  ALL OF THEM.  ALOT!  From left to right, that's Jill (the mom of my smiley girl, MB), Lindsay (the most patient mom of 2 precious girls, soon to welcome a SON!), Elizabeth #1 (whose youngest was the catalyst for Jenna to start wanting a brother, he's SO sweet!), me, and then Elizabeth #2 (mom of the birthday girl).  I absolutely love these women of God AND their kids.  I'm so blessed.

It was the end to a perfect, beautiful day!

(Pictures used by permission)

Nothin' But Fun!

This was Jenna's last official Nothin' But Fun Day at her school.  Next year, she'll be in the middle school.  Of course, once Kylie is in school, she'll be able to come back down, but just for a visit, not really a participant!

This was on the Friday we were leaving for Birmingham, so there aren't many pictures and we weren't there long.  She was ready to get on the road and so were we.

Fall is Here!

How do I know fall is here?

A pot of homemade chili.

A lit fire pit.

A bundled up Jenna.

S'more Fixin's.

YUM!

Road Trip-Birmingham!!!

Yesterday we spent the day in beautiful Birmingham Alabama!  Actually, we stayed in Hoover, but close enough.  :) 

We drove down Friday night because Saturday was our adoption agency's 30th birthday/reunion!  I honestly had no idea what to expect but it sounded like a fun time, was only 3 hours from home and I thought it would be a good road trip for us.  At this point, we surely needed to get away!

Anyway, it was a rough first hour because we got there, but knew NO ONE.  We got over to the craft table where Jenna made a butterfly...

The other reason I wanted to go was to meet the woman who found Kylie for us.  She lives in China and her name is Lily.  She works for several agencies (as I understand it) and before we were with Lifeline, I had heard a lot about the famous Lily and how unbelievable she was.  Her reputation certainly preceded her.

The first person I met was actually Rebecca.  She will be our guide in Guangzhou.  She was so fabulous to talk to and I can't wait to spend time with her in China.  She has a cute sense of humor as well.

Rebecca shared with us that a Chinese delegation was there also, including one of the directors of Jiangsu (Kylie's province) and the 2nd in command at the CCCWA.  UM HELLO!?  Can I meet her?  I need her to remember my name so she can move that LOA along!!! LOL.

I did actually meet her and she was very pleasant.  I didn't want to freak her out by asking for a photo.  She did have many pictures made with some of the children, but since Kylie's not here yet, I thought it might be a little weird.  I just got one from the back while she was talking with someone else.

She's the one with the golden jacket on.  In case you are wondering who the tall, long haired woman is next to her?  Well, that's Lily.  I wish I'd gotten a picture with her, but she was crazy running around translating for the Chinese delegation.  When I met her, she was asking me what Kylie's Chinese name was, trying to place her face and who we were.  When I told her the name, she said, "Oh, you transferred to us!!" and I was like, "YES!  That's us!!!" and then she just threw her arms around me and hugged me.  She was so instrumental in getting my dossier from the CCCWA and getting me logged back in under Lifeline.  She was amazing.  I'll admit, I just about burst out into tears of gratefulness.  She brought our sweet Kylie to us and I could never thank her enough.

There were lots of people there including a friend I met on the adoption boards that I frequent.  Her name IRL is Emily and she introduced me to a couple people who are with Lifeline and who very possibly could travel at the same time we do. 

There was a presentation and this is a little bit better picture of Lily.

After the presentation, we sang Happy Birthday to Lifeline and then we all went out to have yummy birthday cake.  Right before we were dismissed, they acknowledged the keynote speaker for their upcoming fundraising dinner was present.  Guess who?  None other than David Platt himself. 

Let me just take a minute to say if you haven't read his book Radical, you do NOT know what you are missing.  I read this book as part of the ladies' Bible study I used to be part of.  And it changed my life.  If you are not ready for change, then stay away from this book.  It was while reading this book on the heels of "Crazy Love", that I started praying again about adoption.  I would come home and share what I learned with Steve and eventually his men's group read it.  Shortly thereafter, he shared with me that he was open to adoption.  We have watched several of David Platt's podcasts and his sermons are unbelievable.  If you are interested go here and watch a few.  But again...be ready to be changed.

Anyway, while Jenna and I were standing there eating cake (Steve was introducing Katie to some little girls), who other than David Platt stands next to us with one of his sons eating cake!  I couldn't just stand there, so totally out of form, I tapped him on the shoulder and apologized for bothering him but I just had to tell him how much his book changed our lives.  He was SO nice.  We introduced each other and I told him how his book opened our hearts to adoption and how the ladies' Bible study group I attended read it.  He thanked me for the encouragement.  He asked about our adoption, what step we were on and when we expected to travel.  They are traveling "anytime now" to pick up their little girl in Guangdong.

He was the nicest, humblest guy and it was definitely another highlight of the trip.  Somehow Steve couldn't find us, and by the time he came over, the Platt's were leaving.  We were on our way out too, and I tried to get Steve to stop him for a picture, but then it did seem a bit stalkerish to go running after him, so this is the best I could do.



Oh, and Mr. Platt, should you ever stumble on this blog, I apologize for this crazy, stalker picture, but we felt like running across the parking lot screaming at you to stop for a picture might have seemed a little overboard.

It was an honor to have met all these people.  From the beginning of our journey with the author of Radical, to the climax of our journey of seeing Kylie's face for the first time (thanks to Lily) to going to get her (with Rebecca)...it was an amazing day.

Fall!

Last weekend we went to our friend's nursery to start on her big leaf project.  After we finished gathering some leaves, we went to do some personal shopping!  It was a great time for our family to be together and Steve (the nursery owner) does a bang up job decorating for Halloween!

Just look at this background they've set up!  I think we might use this for one of our Christmas card photos...



Jenna is a bit too old for some things, but she sure did love running through the pumpkins trying to find the perfect one....or FIVE.

This is probably the creepiest thing ever.  Just gives me the heebie jeebies.