Camera April 27, 2008

YEAH! We got a new camera the other day. So here’s some pictures.

This is the wonderful and beautifullest Mercy Kate *

This is her again *

This is the sweet and wonderful blue eyed Annie

~Ellie

* yeah, o.k., so she still carries that ba-ba around.

While We Wait… April 23, 2008

There really just isn’t any news about the baby right now. Of course we couldn’t expect any, but… it seems like the time is passing so slowly and yet I am amazed that she will be born in less than a week now (29th, if not before). While we wait we are…

 

Momma and I are re-covering the living room couch to make it more home-with-at-least-9-kids-if-not-more-in-it-most-of-the-time friendly. This fabric will be far less likely to show up chocolate milk and sticky handprints- plus it matches the new curtains Momma mad (another thing we’ve been doing while we wait). I would post photos but I left the camera in a very un-home-with-at-least-9-kids-if-not-more-in-it-most-of-the-time friendly place… and Mercy got it and dropped it on the sewing room floor and… it did not survive.

Well this post would be longer but it isn’t. And that’s that.

Please continue to pray for the baby… 

~Ellie

Adoption Update April 17, 2008

***We got Ben b c. Hannah now has her ssn and all we’re waiting for is Ben’s. More later.

O.K, so you’re thinking “more later. Ha.” But I really have been rather busy. Plus, they changed up the wordpress site and I really haven’t figured it out yet. But anyhow here I am. BTW, Ben’s SSN came about a week ago. FINALLY!

*** If you haven’t read THIS POST on Momma’s blog yet, go there first***

So we think (Momma say’s you’re never sure ’til the money’s in your hand) that we will have the $9800.00 placement fee by the time the baby mentioned in Momma’s post is born. As you can imagine, the excitement of recieving the news that the funds were coming was only excelled by the excitement of actually calling J and telling her (which was done with all speed). J said that the baby is a girl and the mother is scedualed to have her April 29th (we thought at first that it was the 28th, the anniversary of Abby’s birth). 

The people at our adoption agency decided to wait until the day after Baby Girl # 1 is born to show our profile book. That is a little under two weeks, and the waiting is not easy. Daddy is nearly convinced that she is our Baby- J tries not to get too involved but she says we DO  seem so perfect for Baby Girl # 1 and she really thinks that she is ours. She is NOT ours yet. The birthmom will be looking at our profile book and possibly one other family (they have not decided yet) on or around the 30th of this month and she will pick the family.

Please, Please, Please pray for Baby Girl # 1 AND her birthmom, as well as our own family.

For those interested– We have decided on the name “Lydia Hope” for a girl or “Josiah Jackson” for a boy.

~Ellie

Annie

 

Most of my readers have met this amazing little girl so I won’t say much about her except that she is an AWESOME little sister!!!

 

One, Two, WHAAAAHHHHH! April 3, 2008

Things are never dull around here, but if you know me (or have been reading my blog for even a little while), you probably already know that….

Today we took a LONG road trip to visit some old friends in Arkansas. We managed to make it off at 5:00 AM without forgetting anything (or even anyone)- and only one kid was crying (Mercy cheered up when we gave her some fruit-loops and promptly went back to sleep). We made it up there in around 4 1/2- 5 hours, visited then had lunch, then visited more and headed home around 4:30 PM. We stopped and got sandwich stuff for supper in West Memphis, then settled in for the rest of the trip. It looked like we would be back home before 9:00- however, it was not to be.

By the time we got to Southaven some of the younger children were growing a bit restless, and because we don’t have a Target in our area, Momma suggested we stop and go in the Target in Southaven and let everyone stretch their legs (now, Ben does not understand why women would want to go in a store where they don’t intend to buy anything, just to look around. There is a reason, but I don’t know what it’s called). We stayed in Target for about 10 or 15 minutes then headed back for the van. Great. Still all lined up to be home by 9:00. Then it happened.

Us kids were going out to the van a few minutes ahead of Momma and Dad to get everyone loaded up and everything. Hannah and I did the “1, 2, weeeeeee” thing with Mercy on the way to the van (each holding one of her hands, swing her off her feet at the ‘weeeee’ part) until Hannah ran ahead to get in her seat. Mercy decided she wasn’t done playing the game, so she just dropped her feet out from under her while I was holding ONE of her hands. The screams ensued. I looked it over and waited for Momma to come. Momma looked it over and Daddy looked it over, and we found there to be nothing noticeably wrong with it- but she screamed and cried and cried and screamed and said “Mo-Mo arm HURT”, and Mercy never screams and cries unless something is actually wrong.

Dad tried to call Neena- no answer. Mercy screamed. We discussed what to do. Mercy screamed. We tried offering her candy. Her screaming at that point was the deciding factor: we put her in the carseat and drove her over to the urgent care clinic to be looked at. We tried Neena again, then reluctantly decided we needed to have her checked (which would cost at least $150), so Momma filled out the papers. After a few minutes she wasn’t constantly screaming, only when you tried to mess with her arm. The receptionist gave her a sucker and she relaxed in my lap…

We only took one picture before we found out that taking photo’s in the urgent care clinic waiting room is no usual proceedure, and the receptionist as a rule frowns on it. 

By this time, we were really wondering if we had made a mistake bringing her there. However, we really really didn’t want to risk setting her howling again, so we began coming up with various way to try and get her to reach witht the hurt arm. Since she was holding her sucker in the good hand, all we had to do was find something that she would want enough to reach for. “Mercy, want you bottle?” we held it up. “Want Momma to take you?” “Want this, want that, want this?…..” she wouldn’t reach. Finally, a plan formed in my head. I remember how Mercy is obsessed with equality. If you tickle one foot, you have to tickle the other, it you roll one pant leg, you have to roll up the other, if you kiss one hand, you have to kiss the other…… I took her good hand and pretended to nibble it. Mercy hesitated, then held up the bad arm “oth’ one!”. The decision was made. Mercy probably just pulled her arm the wrong way: it hurt for awhile, then wore off. Oh great! we thought we would have to pay the bill anyway, even though she obviously wasn’t hurt and hadn’t even seen the doctor. Thankfully, it was 9 minutes from closing time and I guess the receptionist was ready to go home, because she said she would just shred the papers Momma had filled out. Whew.

We didn’t make it home by nine, but on the bright side it was the nicest urgent care clinic I’ve ever seen.

~Ellie

BTW, Annie’s recent phrase is “for future reference”- as in, “for future reference, when are we gonna get home?”

***We got Ben b c. Hannah now has her ssn and all we’re waiting for is Ben’s. More later.