Memorial Day Weekend 08

David and I traveled to Memphis this weekend to see his grandmother and visit with family. We had a very busy weekend! There were lots of trips back and forth to the Memphis Jewish Home where grandmother is working on her recovery and lots of eating.
David's sister, Alicia and I discussed how hard it was to come up with things to talk about with Grandmother. It's funny how the dynamics change when you take people out of their "natural" environment. So we pray for Grandmother and continue to wish her well on the road to recovery.














Meet the sweetest lady you'll ever meet...Grandmother Baird!















David's Dad, Lowell and our niece, T.G.

















Left to right...Gina, T.G. and Alicia (Sean's wife and David's sister)















The fountain and pond outside the Memphis Jewish Home










David's mom, Sondra and Grandmother blowing out their birthday candles! We celebrated 7 or 8 different things over the weekend! WHEW!

Prayers Needed

Lots of people close to David and I could use your prayers this week. My sister is battling the effects of pnuemonia and kidney stones at the same time. David's grandmother continues to be in the rehab facility following her recent illness with congestive heart failure. Sharon's dad had surgery today. Our pastor, Alex, needs your prayers for his father who is suffering from chronic leukemia. Not to mention the people of China and in Myanmar. We have many people we need to be in prayer for these days.

Vietnamese Adoption Nightmare

I was scanning the news today and found this article. After reading it I am just in shock and my heart goes out to the families involved. I can't imagine myself in the same situation. Just can't imagine the emotions that these families are dealing with. Read the article at http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4845523&page=1

Dog Tired! Strawberries! Small Towns!

This is a picture of my first baby, Bella, for those of you that haven't met her. I got her as a graduation present 8 years ago in August. She is our little butterball and she's quite moody. We don't dare dress her because that would be the ultimate insult to her personality. She is not fru-fru like Roxie.

Anyways....I found this picture of Belle Belle on the computer and I thought....that pretty much looks how I feel tonight. David and I are exhausted!! How is it possible that tomorrow is only Thursday?? It's been a busy week already.

This week is Strawberry Festival in Portland - a great reason to live here - you guys should come up this weekend and enjoy our little small town. Oops...think that's like a double negative. Watch out for us to make news. We are trying to break the record for the largest strawberry shortcake. It's going to be 315 feet long!!!! YUMMY!

Tonight was community choir night and the music was great! I love the small town life even if people do go thru Arby's drive-thru on their lawnmowers! (TRUE STORY!)

MY NEW THING....

Long sigh.....long day. It is fast approaching ten o'clock and I am unusaully tired. Today has been really busy but I need to stay up a little while to get some laundry done. So to keep me going I am snacking on my latest favorite thing - JELLY BELLY Jelly Beans. Odd because I have never considered myself a jelly been fan. However, we went to Publix and I found the aisle where you can choose your bag of flavors and all the colors called my name. So I got some and I am so loving them. My favorite flavor so far is Berry Blue...just so you know. I would also like to recommend you try Stacy's pita chips if you have not tried those. Texarkana hot is a goof flavor and so is Parmesean & Herb but Cinnamon Sugar ROCKS!!!!

So today we met with Bethany's infertility counselor, Sheryl. She was awesome. I had to say that I wasn't looking forward to the opportunity to talk with her. Talking about being a fertility failure isn't much fun and infertility is ugly. It causes you to think irrationally and creates a ton of stress in the marriage. It's like a constant fight to control "mother nature." But I really enjoyed talking with her and she had alot of helpful information so I am glad that we were required to do that.

A few hours after that we returned to Bethany for our Play Group meeting. I just stand in awe of what God has created in the way of families. The way people have come to be the parents they have dreamed of being, the children all so happy and healthy. It was so neat to just sit back and observe all that God has done. It's always amazing to realize that this is real..it's really happening. It's not just about David and Jennifer anymore. We are just about to grow our family.

So...we are at the end of the process. We have 3 interviews with our case worker and then our home visit. After that we await our homestudy approval and will be eligible to have our profile shown. It is my hope that you will continue to be in prayer with us and we thank all of you for sharing our story! I look so forward to the day when we can all join together to celebrate the homecoming of our baby!

Inching closer...

We are inching ever closer! Next week we are meeting with Bethany's infertility counselor. Then we are off to our individual interviews and one joint interview. After that they will visit our home and our home study will be written. Then...finally....our profile will be available to be shown to birthmoms. Please join us as we continue to pray for our birthmom and the child that God intends for us. We are just so excited and overwhelmed with the journey that we are on and we can't wait to bring our baby home. We just pray for God's peace and His guidance to be ever present in the life of our birthmom and her journey, as well.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Alternators, New Clothes & Cakes

Well, today we have been busy! This afternoon we took on the task on trying to fix our Altima. A few weeks ago it started dying on us in the middle of driving! Not good! Not safe! So after some consultations with "motor heads" we decided it was the battery and alternator. We took the battery in for testing - YEP - it was bad. It was under warranty so we got a free battery! YEAH for warranties! So we proceeded to take the alternator off so we could take it to be tested. So we struggled and finally got it off to find out - it's perfectly fine! Errrr! Anyway that was that. The car is up and running and I'm so happy. It's my baby - my car!
We then went to the car wash and we cleaned it out. That was good because I had some french fries under the seat that I couldn't reach with my hands! Gross - I know!

I also got some new clothes today and a couple of pieces yesterday. My clothes from last year are not in great shape, plus I have an interview Thursday so I needed something nice to wear for that. Mission accomplished - found something.

Lastly, we went to Publix to pick up a cake for a friends wedding shower. It turned out really pretty so I was glad about that!

David is busily studying for his CPA exam! Keep him in your prayers!