Hannahbug Tradition Continues

For the past few years one of the United Way fund raisers at work has been face painting. Today, following the tradition began in 2006 when my file went to China, I excitedly wore an adorable little ladybug on my cheek.

Next year I'll be on mat leave so won't be at work to have a ladybug painted on my cheek but that will be just fine as instead my ladybug will be in my arms!!!!!

Mail that Gave Me Goosebumps!!

This first pic dates back to the early summer but due to the awful paperwork challenges my friends in the US were facing I didn't have the heart to post it. Now that the I800/I600 matter seems to be corrected I wanted to share a couple of really exciting pieces of paper I've received over the past few months. Who knew that 'paper' could be exciting?

In July I was advised that Ministry Approval had been granted and I now have until June of 2010 to complete Hannah's adoption. I believe she'll be home long before then but it sure is a great feeling to know that the extension was granted. (When I first started her adoption the provincial approval to adopt was for 18 months so with the delays I needed to update some paperwork and reapply to the ministry twice for reapprovals.) I tell you, there is nothing like reading, 'Once the adoption is finalized, 'ON' legislation recognizes the child as a full member of the adopting family and as such the child is treated in the same manner as all other children of legally constituted families.' Sweet, sweet words during this time of waiting.

Another exciting letter to receive was my agency's recent update letter which always includes a list of families who have their files in China. Check out whose travel group is at the top of the list!! Yes...our LID group is the next one for our agency! Wheee!!! The VERY NEXT time Deborah calls families with their referral calls, one of those calls will be placed to ME!!! It still looks like it's going to be April or May of 2009 when she makes those calls but regardless I'm super excited to see my name at the top of the list!!

Speaking of referrals, the next batch is anticipated to arrive within the next week or so. Bring 'em on!! Friends are very close and will be receiving their referrals this time so I'm ready to celebrate with them!

High School Musical 3!

Last night it was fun for Mom and I to surprise Rebecca and Victoria as we went to see 'High School Musical 3' together. If you've enjoyed HSM1 and/or HSM2 I'd highly recommend this one too! What a great movie with really good morals.

After the movie the girls showed us their dance moves and we laughed as their giggles were contagious. I am SO THANKFUL that the Lord has given them such a precious friendship, born when they were just babies and is as strong as ever 9 years later.

Girls Weekend Away

Back in 2005 Tina invited Liane, Deb and I to her parent's cottage for a wonderful fall weekend of scrapbooking. We had a blast and that very weekend it became an annual tradition. Unfortunately I has to miss last year because of work but was excited to be able to attend again this year. Sadly Deb couldn't be with us this year...missed you Deb.

Friday afternoon Tina (middle in pic above) picked me up and I had a minor freakout when she pulled up in her car. What...a car?? Oh no!! Any of you who have ever travelled with me know that I need a packing intervention. PIPO...HELP! Thankfully we only had to squish ourselves and ALL out stuff into her car until we reached Liane's place across town. Phew! I would have had to do some quick unpacking and it could have been messy. Thankfully it wasn't needed and after filling the entire trunk and back seat of Liane's van with our stuff (ok....mostly my stuff and some of the other girl's stuff) we were on the road.

It was a bit of a rainy weekend but the sun broke briefly at different times and it was warmer than normal. Check out this view!! This was what I enjoyed the entire weekend as the table I was using faced the picture window and this was the view. Ah! God's handiwork exemplified!

What a great way to spend a weekend: hanging out with friends, scrapbooking, sewing, reading, watching movies, napping and of course, eating! Tina's mom and a friend also come along and we're so glad they're there with us. We bring most of the food but these sweet ladies help prep the meals and do all the tidying after the meals so that we can get right back to our projects. Thanks so much Louise and Linda! We're so glad you share these weekends with us.

I had a long-overdue tag toy order to fill so rather than scrapbooking much I decided to fill this order plus make some extras. Sweet Tess, your taggies will finally be in the mail later this week. I really enjoy making these little toys and it was such fun to see all the different colour combinations. Little Miss Makenna doesn't have a tag toy yet but I'm sure that will change soon.

I was also able to fit in some scrapbooking time as well as finally take care of some long overdue paperwork. Life has just been busy lately and work is going to stay that way for the next 6 weeks or so so it feels so good to take care of projects that have been hanging over my head.

Hope you had a great weekend! Ready for some referral rumours and even better...referrals!

Also, praying for D and A as they travel this week to meet their precious baby girl! SO excited for you friends!! Praying for you.

Celebrating 31 Months Closer to Hannah!

Yay! Today I'm celebrating my file being in China for 31 months which brings me another month closer to Hannah! Wheee!!!

It has been an absolutely crazy busy month and has flown by. Work is busy, home life is busy and to top it off I'm in the middle of a small home reno which I've looked forward to having done for years and is finally happening. I teach piano in the evenings and currently my piano is in the family room upstairs which is really just an open concept room with the kitchen, eating area and family room all together. It was going to make things challenging for the babysitter when I was teaching and Hannah was hungry so moving the piano to the basement will be really helpful. (I'll do a post on the teaching studio renos when they're all done.) It's really exciting to be doing something so tangible in preparing for Hannah to come home!! Just moving the box with her crib in it from one side of the basement to the other made my heart beat faster last week. I like to think it was because of the excitement that the box actually contained the crib my baby girl will sleep in but I think a good part of it was also that the side of the box said 'Weight 97lbs' :o)

31 months closer and celebrating! Praying daily for my baby girl who I believe is now living on the other side of the world. May she know love, comfort and so much more as we wait for God to bring us together. Mommy loves you baby girl!

PS: It's now 9:15am and I just returned from a doctor's appt. Can I tell you it gave me goosebumps to book next year's follow-up appt. taking nap time into consideration as I'll be off on maternity leave with my baby girl?!! Wheee!!!

Sh0ck and Awe

Just 9 days ago Sharon, Joy, Chris and I were out for a walk enjoying the sun, fresh air and beautiful fall colours. Sharon and I sat in the sun and read for 4 hours enjoying the 80o temps and catching that last bit of colour before we climb into our winter hibernation gear and slowly turn a gastly shade of pasty white.

This was what I walked out of work to discover today. I was in SHOCK to see it snowing already! My response? AWE no...not yet!! Here's hoping it was just a freak storm and that we have a few more weeks of warm temps before the winter winds blow in to stay.

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration!

Mom and Dad will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on November 8th! Since they're heading to the sunny south for the month of November (smart people) we decided to celebrate with an open house in their honour this past weekend. It was wonderful to see many of their family and friends come and celebrate with them.

They were wonderfully surprised when some family drove over 4 hours just to spend a little time and celebrate with them. (l to r) Uncle Greg, Uncle Gerry (mom's brother), dad, mom, Aunt Elaine and Aunt Marg (mom's sister.) This was the 2nd time that this group surprised mom and dad!


Other family surprises were:
Our cousin Sean. I asked he and Dave to stand closer together for the picture and this is what I got!


Our cousin Tommy and his wife Sharlotte.

Dad's Uncle Bob and Aunt Edla.

Dad's cousin Brett with his wife Linda and daughter Mallory.

Dad's cousin Craig and his wife Jo.

Finally, pics of our gang:
Dave, Trish, Makenna and I with mom and dad


Rebecca with Grandma and Grandpa

Dave and Trish's 3 boys Josh, Noah and Justin (Unfortunately I missed beautiful Laken in these pics as she was behind the camera. Sorry sweetie.)

Grandpa and Miss Makenna. A little out of focus but precious none the less!
Dad being silly with the balloons.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Sorry we're not going to be with you on your big day but Dave, Trish and I are so happy that we were able to share this celebration with you!

Breathtaking!!

Last Sunday I headed north to spend a couple of days with Sharon and Larry at their trailer. Can I tell you how much I love driving in the fall?!! I literally found myself gasping out loud as time after time such beauty came into sight!

Did you know that the leaves on these trees differ from year to year? I just learned that this year. Some years we have very little red in the trees and others there is lots, like this year. I love the red in the trees although if that comes along with the rainy summer we had I hope we don't have too much red most years!

Fall = God's creation showing off!

Please Pray **Updated**

Update Friday, October 17th
Thank you SO MUCH for praying!! It has been a rough week for my friend and she has faced some very scary times but we believe the doctors have a good handle on her situation and she is on the mend. Please continue to pray for them as they deal with the emotional loss of their son and as she continues to heal both physically and emotionally. Thank you!

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who is facing a difficult time and she asked me to share this with you and ask for your prayers.

My friend has recently suffered a difficult loss. She was more than half way through her pregnancy and found out suddenly last week that there was a problem and to save her life they would have to deliver the baby. They were able to hold their son for short while before he went home. Their loss is great, their pain deep and they're asking for prayers.

An additional prayer request is that the delivery of this precious baby boy has still not cleared up the problems she was facing and the doctors are 'perplexed'. They anticipated the delivery would correct her problems so there are additional factors causing trouble that the doctors are still trying to figure out. Please pray for her health as well as the wisdom of the doctors as they do their best to help my friend out.

Love you friend. xoxo Praying.....

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a glorious weekend we have to celebrate Thanksgiving! The sun is out, the weather is warm and the trees are absolutely beautiful!! The tree on the left is in my parents backyard and it's always one of my favourite trees to watch turn colour in the fall. This year it's vibrant and oh so pretty!

Our family enjoyed our turkey dinner this afternoon with those who were able to attend. It was a small group but we had fun. This year we were thankful for the wonderful addition to our family...sweet and precious Makenna! She's 5.2 lbs now but I'm sure will quickly be on her way up the scales. It's funny to see her swimming in size zero diapers although it does make for many clothes changes throughout the day. She's wearing premie clothes and they're a little bit for her but I'm sure they won't be for long.

Here are a few of my favourite pics of the day...

Baby toes. There is nothing like baby fingers and toes!

Noah holding his new baby sister for the very first time.

The proud parents; my brother Dave and his wife Trish

Grandma with Makenna

Grandpa taking a turn

'Everyone' wanted in on the deal. Even Mr. Turkey wanted to pose with Makenna! Heh...our little pumpkin is even smaller than the turkey was even though she's looking unimpressed to being asked to pose with a turkey! Nothing a little nap won't take care of.

And finally, just pics of my precious little niece all by herself, just because she's so cute! Not sure what she was dreaming about here but it sure was good!

Love you sweet Makenna! xoxo

Officially Confuzzled!!

Just dropped by Rumor Queen and couldn't believe my eyes!! Rumour has is that there is another batch on the way.... ALREADY??? So far only people with a LID of February 16th seem to have been contacted by their agency and told to prepare for a referral but still, this is so out of the norm that I don't know what to think! The last batch of referrals came out only last week so new ones this week is unbelieveable!

Is it true? If so, what does it mean? Do we dare whisper the words speed-up??? It might be nothing but RQ is pretty cautious about posting things until shes heard from a few sources and, there is a comment from someone who says she either got 'the call' from her agency or was told to prepare for it soon. It's a little hard to interpret what she's said so I guess we'll just have to wait for more clarification tomorrow.

I have a few friends who are really close to referral: Donna (2/17), OziMum (2/22), and PIPO (2/24). So excited for all of them and this news just makes it much better!!

Ooooo...tomorrow will be a fun, fun day!

She's a Teeny, Tiny Little Peanut!!

It's a GIRL!!! I'd love to introduce you to my precious new niece, Makenna Catherine Jean Ryan. She is named after her 2 grandmother's and Auntie Cathy just happens to share the same name as her maternal grandmother. She was born at 8:04 this morning and weighed in at 5lb 6oz. What a teeny, tiny little cutie!

Here are a few of my favourite pics from the day.

Noah (5) and Daddy waiting for things to get rolling this morning. On our way to the hospital I asked Noah if he would like a little brother or a little sister. He said he wanted a little sister first and a puppy second because he already has enough 'broders.' Heh!!

Little Makenna weighing in at 5lb 6.4oz. Her head circumfrence was 11.8" and length 18" long.

My brother Dave, the proud Daddy!

In Mommy's arms for the very first time.

Daddy putting a cute little new outfit on Makenna this evening. He's a great dad and not afraid of diapers at all. Go daddy!

Auntie Cathy enjoying her first snuggles. Ahhhhh, I'm in love already! I can't help but wonder how my sweet little muffin Hannah is doing as I believe she is born and living in China already. Praying for her daily. What fun Hannah and Makenna will have together!!

Adorable...totally adorable!! Love you Makenna!


Makenna also shares her birthday with some other special little ones! Her cousin Keenan turned 4 today. Happy Birthday Keenan!






The oh so adorable Rose and Marie turned 3 today! Happy Birthday Rosie!!

Happy Birthday Marie!!!

Today we also celebrate sweet Charla's 2nd birthday! This is the first birthday she is celebrating with her family after joining them just before Christmas last year. Charla's mom Dawn and I met while she was in the China line and I am SO thankful that we did! She is a wonderful friend and my life is blessed because she is in it! Happy Birthday Charla!

What a wonderful day to celebrate so many great kids!!!