Maas Nursery

There is this super cool nursery in Seabrook, TX called Maas Nursery. I am not sure how big it is but it has to be at least a couple of acres. It has so many plants and trees for sale but also it has a bunch of junk, statues, rocks, shells, water fountains, and several animal habitats. You could spend several hours there and still not see it all. So we spent some time there and did a little bit of walking.

Mostly we have been window shopping. The mall is still really crowded but we braved it to go check out the sales.

No word on any adoption news. We hope to hear a log in date (LID) pretty soon. I am also hoping to put together a Lifebook group for my area.

Here are some pictures from the nursery:

Visit With My Parents

My parents came into town on Monday to visit us for the holidays. We have been having a great time so far. Yesterday we went to Galveston to go let the dogs run on the beach. We ended up finding a lot of great shells. They make great souvenirs!
We also have been playing a lot of cards. Here are some pictures:

Christmas Pictures

Christmas breakfast with our friends Scott and Elisa.







Opening the presents.

The Story of my Life....

It's another night that I can't sleep. I have a rough time falling to sleep anyway, but the last three nights seem to be worse than usual. I don't know if it was the excitement of the holidays, my parents coming in for a visit, or for the sad, sad fact that we have yet another firefighter who was injured in a tanker truck accident and is clinging to life.

I have looked back at the line of duty deaths that I work and it's interesting because I usually start to get really antsy before I am alerted of a death. I really don't know how to explain the feeling I get, but it's like I can't get myself to sit still or concentrate for very long. I almost have a little anxiety. Well I go this feeling the day this firefighter was involved in his accident and since then I haven't been able to sleep very well.

If this poor firefighter does die, and I pray for the sake of him and his family that he doesn't, I won't be able to work it because my parents are in town for the holidays. I feel sad that I wouldn't be able to help right away but I usually end up working with them on the long range. With many families of firefighters who have died in the line of duty, I usually spend an average of 2 years working with them.

Sometime tomorrow I will post all of our weekend pictures including the Christmas Day pictures. My parents are coming into town and I am super excited! I will try to keep posting while they are here.

Is Christmas really over with? Next Christmas I am hoping and praying that we will have our little one in our arms.

Friends Are The Family You Choose For Yourself

It's Christmas Eve!!!! Merry Christmas to you all!!! Christmas has been so exciting this year. This is our first Christmas in our new home and I am so happy to be spending it here. I just love having a place of our own to decorate any way we wish and have lots of friends and family over.

Today I went to the mall to pick up a couple of last minute gifts for John. The mall was actually very nice. I thought it would be torture trying to find parking and battle the crowds. But I found a great parking spot and got in and out pretty quickly. After that I went to one of my best friend's house to spend some time with her and her family. I just love them so much and we usually spend holidays together because John tends to work either Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, or Christmas on any given year. Spending time with them is like spending time with family. We always end up hanging out and eating way too much and laughing a whole lot.

Tonight I volunteered at our church. The church takes family pictures every Christmas Eve, so I helped with that area. We were so busy but it was pretty fun. John had to work so it kept me doing something instead of being at home by myself. After the services I went to another one of my dear friends' house for a late dinner. We had soups and desserts and just sat around the table and talked. Again these are friends that are like family. I just love to be around them.

Tomorrow John will be home and we will be getting the house ready for my parents to come in from California on Monday. My aunt and uncle will come later in the week. So for Christmas we are going to open presents, clean, and eat lasagna!

Anyway, tonight I was thinking about all of my close friends and how wonderful it is to be blessed with them in my life. My family lives far from me and John works 24 hour shifts and sometimes it gets a little lonely, especially during the holidays. It's so comforting to know that I have friends who treat me as a sister. They always have their doors open for me and I know that I can call them for anything at any time. They have gotten me through some stressful times and have been there to celebrate with us during the good times. I also know that when I am out of town working and John is the one that is left at home by himself, these friends take care of him for me. They truly are like family members.

Anyway to my family and friend families I love you guys so much! Merry Christmas and I look forward to the memories we will make in 2006!

More FD Pictures & Wednesday Ponderings

Here we are less than four days from Christmas and five days from my parents coming to visit and I am so not ready! We ran all over Houston today trying to get things to get the house ready. We really aren't doing presents this year, just a couple of small things. We feel that our house, the baby, and our family are all the blessings that we need this Christmas.

Last night we did driver training for fire department training. Our station has the ladder truck, which is pretty darn big. Of course John can drive the heck out of that truck because his work truck (airport fire truck) is bigger. Me? Well I haven't ever driven anything bigger than a vintage fire engine. I was so freaked out about driving that thing. I did it though! I had such a ball. I did kill a cone though. We had set up a driving course in the high school parking lot with cones. Everyone else drove through it without hitting the cones. I just drove forward, made a few easy turns and somehow managed to run one over. I was joking that since I was the chaplain that I should get out and do last rites.

I wanted to share some of the books I am reading about adoption in case any of are interested. I got hooked on reading some of the message boards on Yahoo but they got pretty overwhelming for me and I had to stop reading them. I made a promise to myself and my sister that I wouldn't read the big message boards until I was at least DTC. The rumors and some of the negative talk on the boards made me so anxious. Once I stopped reading the boards I started reading more books and they have helped me regain focus on what we need to do as couple to prepare for our little one. The stories in the books and magazines have been inspiring too. Now that I am DTC, I still shy away from some of the bigger boards but I have found a couple of great ones that are great networks. Anyway here is a list of the books:

Becoming a Family by Lark Eshleman- Highly reccomend and has great info on attachment issues

Born In Our Hearts by Filis Casey and Marisa Casey- Inspiring stories of adoptions. Fast read for me!

Raising Adopted Children by Lois Ruskai Melina- Still working on this one but it has tons of good information on bonding, attachment, identity, etc.

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew by Sherrie Eldridge- Just starting this one.

The magazine Adoptive Families- LOVE LOVE LOVE this! One of these days I am going to get the subscription to it...although it does give me an excuse to go to the book stores!

If you have a suggestion of any good books please email me! I would love to hear about them.

And here are some more pictures from our Christmas activities with the fire department.

Santa Claus, Fire trucks, Trail of Lights and More Santa Claus

This past weekend was so busy! I can't even tell you what I did Friday night. I think I worked on Christmas presents or something. It's so cold here in Houston, I think my brain cells are frozen and I can't remember anything.

Saturday was a big day for the fire department. John got off work from Houston and went straight into doing Forest Bend FD stuff with me. We started the morning off by taking a couple of fire trucks and Santa to a home that takes care of mentally disabled people. The residents really enjoy the visit because they get to run the sirens and honk the horns (my ears hurt so bad!). Plus Santa comes and visits them. They just love Santa. It was so cold and rainy that days so we didn't stay for too long.

Here I am riding in the fire truck with Santa over to Hope Village.


Here is a group photo with the residents. I am the one on the far right wearing all navy blue (uniform) and looking very cold!

After Hope Village we had our fire department Christmas Party. Santa had to be there for all of the little kids. Of course all of us firefighters had to have our pictures with him too. We had a pretty good time and got free food and a couple of Christmas gifts.



After the party we went home to rest for a bit before we did the Santa Rides. John had ordered that cute ladybug baby bedding set for me for Christmas. It showed up and we had to open it! It is so cute!!! It's even better to see it in person instead of in a picture! I just love it and can't wait to get a crib to put it in. I also want to get the matching wall hangings. And there is an Anne Geddes ladybug doll that I want to get to.



At 5:30 we went back to the fire department to go on the Santa Ride. This is the event where we decorate the trucks up and put Santa on the top with a bunch of other firefighters and family members. We drive through all of the neighborhoods with our lights and sirens going and throw candy at the kids. It was a lot of fun but it was so cold it was a little miserable at times. I sat in the cab for a little while and then I got on top of the truck. Our truck is a ladder truck which means we have an extedable ladder on the top of the truck. The ladder causes us to be a taller and longer truck. We sat on the ladder with Santa in the front waving to everyone. Several times we got whacked by the trees. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to go through all of the neighborhoods.





On Sunday I spent most of the day finishing up some Christmas gifts and making my scrap room more of a mess. I am afraid to go in there now! John spent the day studying, although he is getting a little burnt out.

On Sunday evening we went with two friends to Hermann Park in Houston for their Trail of Lights. They decorated the park with all kinds of Christmas lights. The trail is probably about 3/4 of a mile long and you walk through a pine forest and around the lake. It's very nice although we think they had more lights last year.





So that was our weekend in review. I can't believe it will be Christmas this weekend! I have so much left to do before it gets here!!

The Disaster Known as my Scrapbook Room

Pictures just won't do it justice. It just looks like a major disaster hit inside of my scrapbook room...future baby's room. If I were to imagine what Santa's workshop looks like, I am going to say that this room would probably be close.





Of course Deuce has to be in every where I am...so hey if he can't make it messier, nap instead!

I gotta get these Christmas gifts done so I can clean my studio! Wow, studio sounds so much more impressive than room, Scrapbook Room (blah)...Scrapbook Studio (WOW).

Our dossier is in Beijing as I type! WOOHOO! Now we are in the system and ready to go. I hope we get a LID although I heard our agency gets LIDs four times a year. I would love to know when our dossier was logged in to system. But I bet right now, our documents are being translated! So exciting!

And this is what we do during our wait time...go crazy with the camera!

Chief's nose on display


Us mimicking our cat.

John either in pain or laughing. Not quite sure..could be both?

We just have too much fun together.

Baby Bedding

I have been trying to win this ladybug baby bedding on ebay for about a month now. I could never seem to win it. I guess it's a popular set. While I was gone (I had to work another firefighter fatality), John bid on it and won! He was going to keep it as a surprise but he figured it would show up while he was at work. He was also afraid that I would try and bid on it again. I am so excited that he won it! It's been a great couple of days for us. I hope the trend continues!! This will be our first purchase for the baby. :o)



The next thing I am going to try and get is the wall hangings that match the set. Here is a picture of it:

We Are DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!! We are DTC (Dossier to China) today!!! On Monday John went in to take pictures of our dossier so that we can put them in the scrapbook and of course share them with you. Our China Coordinator was waiting on one other family from Michigan to get their dossier to her before she sent them off to China. We were a little afraid that the dossier wouldn't be sent until Wednesday but it was FedEx'd today! Here are the pictures:

John holding our dossier


Our dossier including pictures


Our dossier without pictures


Authentication from the State of Virginia for my birth certificate


Authentication of our dossier from the Secretary of State


The authentication of our dossier from the China Consulate here in Houston


Our really great China Coordinator from our adoption agency


So now begins our official wait until we get our referral. There really isn't a set time but right now the referral times are running about 8 months and then a 4-8 week wait to travel after referral. We are crossing our fingers and praying hard that we will have a referral by August of 2006. We are hoping for an expedited referral since I have an Asian father and Asian relatives. But whatever and whenever God provides will be fine.

To understand the process that is about to take place with our dossier, this website is a great one. And also this one. Click the links for set 1 & 2.

Thanks for all of your prayers and we would be incredibly blessed if you continue to keep us and this process in your prayers.