Approved!!!

We have officially received what is called "First Approval" from the Thai Adoption Board!  This is a HUGE step in our journey to bring Ellie home!  This approval will generate a document called an Article 16 that we need to file for her Visa paperwork to bring her home.  Unfortunately the Board is very behind on issuing their Article 16's so it is unclear when we will get the document :(  It could be in a week or two or a couple months from now.  If there's one thing we know for sure about Thailand's adoption process, its that its unpredictable to say the least!

The more sentimental thing that came from this approval is that we are officially recognized now as Ellie's parents in the eyes of the Thai government!  Pattaya (the babies' home where Ellie is) even said in the email to our agency "now that they have received approval they can come get her."  Oh we wish it were that easy!

So we will continue to pray that that crazy Article 16 comes quickly and then hopefully we can be on our way!!!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Well, our little girl turned 2 without us :(  These birthdays apart are hard!  We celebrated 2 of them before Max came home so we were well prepared for the emotion the day would bring with it.  But what we weren't used to was the AMAZING joy that a big brother adds to things!!  Max had a blast celebrating her all day! 

 Max made her the sweetest "princess birthday crown" and card!

 

Max kept saying "I just wish Ellie could be here to see this!"

 

Baby girl, we love you so much and we are rejoicing in the fact that this should be the last birthday we spend apart.  Your presents are waiting, wrapped for you (but of course we happily ate the cake!!!)

Max's new digs!!

 This past weekend we spent our time working on Max's bedroom.  Max has been asking for a "Texas A&M" themed room for a LONG time, so that's what he got!  It so much more grown up than his previous set up....hopefully it will grow with him well.

I borrowed an old school projector from church and used it to get the image on the wall.  A little painter's tape and ta-da!!

One happy boy!!

This A&M picture was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law.

A little DIY project.  We spray painted his old fan maroon and it totally looks great!!

Max got these as Christmas gifts this year.

 Max's great uncle built this and it hung in Stephen's room when he was little.

 This picture is also from Stephen's childhood bedroom.  I LOVE having these special things to pass down to Max.

The room has been deemed a success and we are excited to move on to Ellie's now!!!

So blessed

We had an AMAZING Christmas!  And before I go any further, let me warn you....there are a TON of pictures....truly a TON!!!

Rocking the Christmas Eve pj's!

 Birthday card for Jesus (see the awesome manger scene Max drew?!) and letter to Santa.

 Retelling the nativity story.

 We had planned to be in our new house for Christmas morning but there was a mix up with the needed paperwork so we ended up having to push our closing back a week :(  But, we rolled with the punches and had a fun Christmas morning amongst a TON of boxes.  We dug plates and coffee mugs out and had our traditional cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate while Stephen read the Christmas story and then Max got busy opening his gifts from us.  The fun part about this year was that Max also got to open all of Ellie's gifts.  He loved that part just as much I think!  I have to be honest I LOVE buying girl stuff!!!  I'm going to have to be very careful!!

LOVE the excitement when he first sees the presents under the tree!  And yes, that is in fact our headboard and footboard in the hallway!  Literally EVERYTHING in the house was ready to be moved!

 The sweet gifts Max made for Stephen and I at school.

 Stephen's favorite gift he got for Max.  Instead of "Goodnight Moon" its "Goodnight Aggieland' and teaches kids all about the fun traditions of Texas A&M.  Max has asked to have it read every night since Christmas!

 Max's Santa gift.  Does he look excited or what?!?!  His love for baseball is still strong and he has been asking for a catchers mask since just after last Christmas.  This boy is truly a sports nut!

 Look at all the pink!!!

 Max's awesome gits from Lek and Edmond in Thailand!!

After we finished presents, we Skyped with Stephen's folks so they could watch Max open their gifts.  Stephen's sister and brother-in-law got Max the game Perfection.  Have you ever played that game?  Where you have to fit the different shaped pieces into the game board before the timer goes off and it pops up at you?  Max LOVES it.....it scares him something awful.....but he loves it!  Grandma and Grandpa got Ellie the sweetest doll with her name stitched across the dress!

 How sweet is that?!?!

Then it was off to my folks this year.  We had another "Christmas morning" on the 26th.  It was a ton of fun with all the kids, celebrating my Dad's birthday, playing games, and eating way too much!

Frosting Christmas cookies!

 The SUPER cute ornaments and blankets my mom made for all of the grandkids.

Max LOVED his blanket!

Each year the kids make presents for eachother.  Max made his cousins super hero capes, and they made him monster shoes!  I LOVE this tradition!

The tu-tu "Ellie" made for Hattie!

Wow!

 Testing out one of my dad's Christmas presents, 3-D DVD player!  

 
Just like the Christmas before we brought Max home, this year Ellie had just as many presents under the tree as all the other grandkids.  Its not that I'm surprised, I  know how much she is loved, but there is something so emotional about seeing her name on all the pink wrapped gifts and opening them, knowing one day soon she'll be playing with that princess castle, or cuddling with that baby.  It was so important for Max to see too, he has asked several times throughout our journey to bring Ellie home if this is "how things were before I came home?"  Things like "did you pray for me every night too?" or "did you get my room ready just like this?"  And now "did you have presents under the tree for me when I was still in Thailand?"  It has created such awesome opportunities for conversations.

Sooo ready for dress-up, tea parties and princess castles!!!

 Baby dolls were my favorite as a little girl....she's pretty set in that department!

This weekend my parents came in and helped us settle into the new place.  The guys installed new light fixtures throughout the house while my mom and I had a blast decorating!  Now the only places I really need to focus on are the kids rooms!  Super excited to get my girls room ready for her!!!

Learning to just enjoy

So this holiday season has all the makings to be just plain stressful.  We are in the midst of moving!  We have bought a house in town and we close on December 21st...and yes my plan is to have Christmas morning in the new place!  So that means we have to amend our homestudy (our adoption paperwork) to reflect the new address, and then in turn have to update our paperwork with USCIS (US immigration).  And on top of that a bunch of our adoption paperwork is nearing the one year mark and has to be updated/redone so we're in the middle of that right now too.  Not to mention the normal hustle and bustle of buying gifts and parties and holiday travel.  Well, I found myself lying awake at night stressing out over the most incredible time of the year literally slipping by without Max getting to really experience all the things I wanted him to.  Max knows that we celebrate Christmas only because we were given the most incredible gift over 2000 years ago.  He knows its not all about the presents (although he does enjoy those!)  But there were so many fun things I wanted to do as a family this year that I was worried (I do that way too much...worrying) those things might get forgotten about or pushed aside amidst all the other "stuff".

So this year we made a Christmas count down chain (courtesy of our church's children's program who passed all the supplies out to the kids in class) and each day is marked with a fun activity or service project to make sure our family purposefully takes time out of each day to focus on showing Christ's love to as many people as we can while making awesome memories!  I was also sure to stick some things on there that are just fun traditions that I didn't want to miss.....if they're on the chain, then they HAVE to be done right??

I haven't laid awake one night since the chain went up :)  How ridiculous is that?!  But that's just the type of person I am, I stress about things I shouldn't stress about.  But, I'm so thankful to be making such incredible memories with my family, all while still accomplishing everything on my to-do list!!  Here's just a couple pictures from some of our fun events!

 We even have the 21st listed as "Moving Day!"

 Our annual ornament!  A family of four!!!

 This day's activity said to "Make a special Christmas picture".  Max chose to paint snowflakes!

 Skating Christmas party with our Family Life group at church!

 "Make a Christmas present for someone special".  Max painting an "E" to hang in Ellie's bedroom.  He is SO proud to be a big brother!!

Some of the other great things we've gotten to do "Make a donation to a charity", "Pray that this Christmas season would be all about Jesus", "Read a Christmas story before bed", "Have breakfast for dinner"

Some of the fun stuff coming up, "Have a picnic dinner in front of the Christmas tree", "Sing carols in the living room", "make hot chocolate and stir with candy canes", "Make a special treat for someone" (we are doing our mail carrier and our local fire/police department), and "decorate Christmas cookies."

This Saturday the three of us are also going to be bell ringers for the Salvation Army.  Max is SUPER excited.  He always LOVES to put change in the bucket but now he can hardly believe he gets to be the one to ring the bell and say "Merry Christmas!"  Hopefully it will be a great teaching opportunity on serving too!

I pray you all are having an awesome Christmas season.  We are busy, but still enjoying every minute of it!  And this crazy stressful move.....well its taking us to the home where we will make a room for the most beautiful little girl!!  So I really can't complain about that!

A whole lot of Thanks to be giving!!!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving in North Carolina this year!  We had a great time with Stephen's parents (as always!) and all daydreamed of next year when our sweet girl will be here with us!!! 

Last year when we were there at Christmas, Max planted his very own tree and he was soooo excited to see how much it had grown in the last year!

One thing Max had been talking about the last couple of weeks was how badly he wanted to bake an apple pie.  Not sure where he came up with this little idea, but anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not much of a pie maker :)  I'm great at keeping a clean house, I'm organized and always on time....but boy oh boy, my strength is NOT in the baking/cooking department!!!  So, grandma to the rescue!!!

On Friday, we went to an AMAZING place in Ashville called The Grove Park Inn to see a "ginger bread" display.  I put it in quotes because despite being reassured that everything in these creations was edible, I still can't quite believe it!!  These things were amazing!!! 

Just like when we were here last year at Christmas, Max made sure Grandpa marked the beam in the basement to show how much he's grown.  I know my little man isn't quite so little anymore, but holy moly, I didn't realize he had grown this much!

Hard to tell by the picture maybe, but its seriously like 4-5 inches!  He's getting so big!!!

And Max's face in this last picture sums up the whole weekend!

And now for the BEST time of the year!!!

A whole lot of fun!!

Well between a certain someone turning thirty around here and Halloween, we've been having all kinds of fun!!!  Max and Stephen whisked me off to Chicago this past weekend for all kinds of surprises!!  I was treated to shopping, a massage and pedicure, and a SUPER fancy night out on the town (Max stayed with his cousins) followed by an equally fancy brunch the next morning.  It was CRAZY!!!  If this is what turning thirty is like...I'll gladly do it a few more times :) 

  View from our room!!

 

 Heading out on the town!!

 

 Meson Sabika, the awesome place we had brunch!

Oh how I love this goof!

And of course I have to share picks of our cute little trick-or-treater!!  Max wanted to be a Texas A&M football player this year.  Pretty darn cute don't you think!?

Max is already soooo excited about taking Ellie out with us next year.  He's already declared that she will be a ballerina!  I kinda love that idea, so hopefully she'll be ok with it!! 

Can't believe its November 1st!  Thanksgiving in three weeks?!?!  Is that right???  I LOVE this time of year.  I am always a bit sad about how quickly it seems to fly by though.  I've already started making some of my Christmas gift in hopes of not feeling so stressed and just being able to enjoy my family and this AMAZING season!!