Are we ever busy, paper chase watch out!

March has been a very busy month.  Adoption, family, church orphan ministry, and much more.

We are now full on into paperchasing for our third child, a sister.  Due to some changes in the China adoption process we need to have a LID in order to submit a Letter of Intent.  We have been looking for the file of a special little girl, we have yet to find it however, in order to submit a request to adopt her we have to have our paperwork in China.  All of the changes took place at the beginning of the month so we have been very busy getting the paperwork rounded up, doing our homestudy, and Hague training.  We are waiting for our birth certificates to arrive and our homestudy to be approved and then we will have completed the paper chase in record time for us.  This will be our third adoption so we should have it down by now.  Please pray for us that our paperwork process will still continue to be quick and uneventful.

We (meaning my husband) have been remodeling my parents bathroom to earn funds for this adoption.  It has turned out very well so far, just a little more to go.  We are very blessed to have family that supports us in building our family.  We love them all so very much and appreciate all of their love and support.  We have asked my mom to accompany us on our next trip to China as we all are going to travel.  I was so blessed to have her when I traveled for E and we are blessed that she will be joining us this trip. 

We lost our dear old (14 1/2 year old) dog Aspen earlier this month.  His health had been declining quickly over the last six months.  It has been very hard for us all, especially for daddy and M.  We have a new addition to the family in the form of an 8 week old little Corgi named Tri.  He is an absolute doll and the kids enjoy him so much. 

We had a wonderful visit from Aunt CC and cousin G this month.  It was so fun to have them here and the kids love them so much.  Aunt CC watched the kids while daddy and I took a trip to the country to pick up Tri.  We didn't let the little ones know what we were doing and they were super surprised when we walked in the door with him.  It was hard to have CC and G go home but we know we will see them again in the fall when we go to watch T play football as a senior.

We have been doing a lot of extra stuff this month.  We took off for Nani and Papa's a couple weeks ago to work on the fence, the kids and daddy also went to work on the bathroom a couple of days.  It was the first time that E and I had been apart.  I woke up during the night thinking I heard him calling out for me.  It was hard but it was great for them to get to spend a little more time in the farm.  E and M love the farm and it is calving season so they were able to see brand new baby calves.  E is also quite a fence fixer.  He was out there pulling staples and hauling wood right next to me.  When I pulled out a staple he told me "Good Job, your my best boy!"  It was so stinkin cute.  He really loves to help.  M is a helper but she gets distracted and just decided things aren't very fun, which she is right most of the time.  E doesn't need fun factor he just loves being with us and doing things.  He has a servants heart for sure.  Today we had a fundraiser at church for our Women and Children in Crisis team, they are heading off to Thailand in a litte over a month.  He was so excited to stay and help serve potatoes.  It was a very blessed day for our team.

We had our Pure and Brightness celebration yesterday with IFCA.  M and E enjoyed the egg hunt and spending some time with their "China Friends" as they say.  We also took a drive up to N & P's mountain condo to deliver furniture, we are working on reorganizing our house to get ready for another child and the condo needed more furniture.  I was having a really hard time parting with the sofa and now if we when we get a larger home it isn't gone forever.  We still have a lot of reorganizing and possession thining to get done.  I see a large fundraising yard sale in our near future as well as many other fundraising things coming up in the future.  Please keep us in your prayers that we will be matched with the perfect little girl for our family and the fundraising will be successful.