Help Bring Jocelyn Home!!!!

While I was waiting for Catie Beth to come home I spent a lot of time (probably too much time) on the Holt Bulletin Board.  This is an online adoption community that is intended to help adoptive parents connect with other adoptive families.   I met several great friends in this community.  We had the privilege of traveling to Korea with some of these families, forming wonderful friendships.  These are relationships that I hope to keep forever.  A couple of these families have recently gotten sibling calls.  This happens when the Birth mother of their adopted child has given birth to another baby that they are unable to parent.  Korea tries to keep siblings together as much as possible, because of this, they contact the adoptive parents of the first child and offer the sibling to be adopted by that family as well.  My friend Beth has recently found herself in this situation.  As most of you know adoption is expensive and coming up with the money to pay these fees can be daunting.  This family has adopted three children already and were unprepared for another adoption so soon.  They are trying to raise money so that they can bring Joycelyn home.  Please read about them HERE!!!  If you feel led to help them out they would greatly appreciate it.     

Tax time!!

So, have you gotten your taxes done?  If you haven't, its about time to start thinking about it.  If you are in need of a tax professional I have just the professional for you.  My very own Daddy is an accountant and has a website that you need to check out.  He can do your income tax return for you at a very reasonable price or you can e-file your self-prepared taxes on his website.  It is very easy and worry free.  Go visit his site here!!!  (He has no idea that I am advertising him on my blog so go visit him and tell him I sent you.)  

Were back Home....

We arrived back in KS last night.  It was a long drive home.  Catie Beth has decided that she really doesn't like her car seat all that much anymore.  Poor baby...Strapped to a seat for hours.  She will have to do this again in about three weeks.

Now that we are home the work has begun.  We are in *Full Moving Mode* at this point.  We are working on everything we need to get done before the movers come.  You know all of that fun stuff that we as humans put off for another day...Like cleaning out the dog house....And rubbermaid deck box...…Well all that stuff is getting a good wash while the weather is nice.  We don't have to do all the packing...…but, we do have to separate some things out (Steve's work stuff) b/c that weight doesn't count against our freight total.  Any amount of weight that we go over our alloted amount will have to be paid by yours truely.  So every pound counts.  We definitely want to come in under our limit.  Then there are my special delicate items that I just don't trust the movers to pack....I will be packing these items up myself.

Also, since our house is not yet sold we must touch up any imperfections before we leave.  Steve is downstairs right now as I type painting our guest bedroom. It was a nice hunter green color that was actually painted that way when we bought the house four years ago...I never liked it but again it was one of those things we kept putting off.  It is now a nice Almond color.  If anyone has any extra time, come on over and we will put you to work. ***just kidding*** You don't have to come and help us.  Just keep praying that our buyer comes SOON!!!!  We didn't have any showings again this weekend.  It has now been 5 weeks or so since our last lookers walked through the door.  I am now at the point that I have nothing left but to trust that God will take care of this.  The worrying only wore me down and got me sick.  I am feeling much better than I did on Saturday but I still have a long way to go.  I am still coughing like crazy and my ribs hurt quite a bit.  My voice comes and goes...…which I might add the boys think is hilarious.  HA! What are they thinking, I can still yell in my head.

The boys are crazy excited about the move now and they want us to pack up and leave tomorrow.  If only it worked that way.  They will have to patiently wait another three weeks.

Thanks to all of you that have been praying and helping us out in various ways.  We love you all and will always cherish our time in KS.  For, if it wasn't for KS our Catie Beth might not be with us.

Illness confirmed...

As soon as the kids got up this morning we headed out to the ER. I have been diagnosed with bronchitis/pharyngitis. I am now on a steroid to help bring down the inflammation in my throat and a round of antibiotics. I am hoping that I will be feeling better in a hurry.

Can't sleep...

It is after 2am on Saturday morning and here I am wide awake. As many of you already know I have been sick. So sick in fact that under normal circumstances I would be in bed. But, as a mom I have to make this a FUN experience for the kiddos. I think my illness is getting the best of me. I am in quite a bit of pain. We (Steve and I) tried to get me in for a Dr. appointment before we left town but there was nothing available on base until next Thursday. So my only option was to go to the ER. Well, since I am not on deaths bed I decided not to take that route. We went on our way with our plans as usual. Yesterday we tried again to get an appointment here at Scott and again they were totally booked so they told us to go to the ER if I really needed to be seen. But, again I am not on deaths door so I sucked it up and have been taking Tylenol, and Ibuprofen like candy. Tonight the pain is so bad that I guess my only option is to go to the ER. I am trying to let the kids get as much sleep as possible so we will go first thing in the morning. I think I might have tonsillitis. Nothing like personally checking out the nearest ER so quickly in our new home town. Good Times.

Our new house...

We are so pumped about our new house on Scott AFB.  The houses are by far the best houses we have ever seen on any of the bases that we have lived on.  The bedrooms are quite a bit smaller than any of the houses we have lived in but the rest of the house makes up for that.  The house is brand new and was just built this last fall.  We were given the opportunity to choose between two houses that were identical in floor plan.  We chose the house that has a park right across the street and a HUGE side yard.  There is nobody next to us on one side....just an open field that the kids can play on.  This is important with three boys that need to RUN.  The trade off was this BEAUTIFUL orange and yellow fire hydrant in our front yard.  Not exactly my taste but I will take it.  So here you have it...our new IL home.  

After we chose our new house we grabbed some lunch and then found the kids' new school. It is a very nice school that is for all the military kids that live on base. A very diverse community for sure. I think it will be good for the kids to go to school with other kids that know what it is like to live the military life. We are still unsure how the deployment schedule will be for Steve so it will be nice to live around others that *get* the different needs of the military life.

We stopped back by the TLF to get a nap in for Catie Beth then we will go explore the area around the base. Oh how excited we all are. Please keep praying that our KS house will sell. It will alleviate a lot of stress for us to have that taken care of.

We are in Illinois!!

We are excited to be in Illinois tonight.  It was a long day of driving...but thanks to the sweet girls at church the kiddos enjoyed coloring, snacking, and watching a DVD.  It took us about 7 hours to get here.  Of course, we had to stop in Overland Park KS to eat lunch at Chick-fil-a.....YUMMY!!!  

We arrived around 7pm and got checked in to our TLF (temporary living facility).  We then went to check out the BX and got some dinner.  MOM & DAD....You will be the only ones that understand how excited I was that they have a BASKIN ROBINS ON BASE!!!!!!!  We then went on to find our TLF.....lets just say that we are all glad that this is temporary housing.  I am hoping that the Permanent housing is MUCH better.  We will find out tomorrow.  Sorry I don't have any pictures my camera will not keep a charge.  I am going to try and charge it all night long so we will see if it will work in the morning.  

This and That...

Hey everybody,  We are still alive here in KS.  Time is charging on and the movers are coming to pack us up in just under four weeks.  Our house is still not sold and although I know God is in control it is stressful to be waiting on a buyer.  Please pray for the sale of our house.  Also we have all been sick this week.  The flu hit us hard.  Catie, Cody and I are past the worst of it and down to just a head cold.  Caleb and Steve are still fighting the stomach part of the flu.  and CJ seems unaffected at this point.  We kept our crew home from school and work today and this afternoon everyone seems to be on the mend.  Please pray for health.  A week from today we will to traveling to IL to check out some housing options and see our new base.  We are excited and nervous all at the same time.  The kids now realize how quickly this is happening and are starting to understand that this means leaving our friends behind.  They are doing okay but I know it will be hard on them.  It is always hard to hit the *last* of everything.  The last school class party, the last bunco, the last teamkid, the last time we go to our church, these and many others are all very emotional times for us.