FFF "Thankfulness"

This week's theme for Favorite Friday Foto is suppose to be about thankfulness. (I'm publishing this a day early since it's Thanksgiving Day.) If you'd like to read and see more about thankfulness, check out Sara's blog. I put some thought into this week's theme. So often I find myself taking things for granted, I get so wrapped up in my life that I don't verbalize very often about the things that I am truly thankful for.

My husband, without him and his love or his true acceptance of me and all of my faults, I wouldn't be sitting here typing on this blog. We wouldn't have our little Tabitha. He had wanted to adopt for quite awhile, but I was scared. Scared I would be told no we couldn't adopt, scared we wouldn't be able to afford it, scared I was too old to raise a child. He was patient, understanding and turned it over to God. It wasn't immediate, it took awhile before I heard God talking to my heart, but Tim was there the whole time trusting God.

My mother, without her love and support (both emotionally and at times monetarily) I wouldn't have my beautiful little Guatemalan princess. You see, Mom helped us with coming up with the money to pay for the adoption.

Speaking of that little Guatemalan princess, I am SO thankful that we have her, she has brought much joy in our lives! I am truly thankful that she is at home here in the USA for the Thanksgiving holiday. Last Thanksgiving I spent the better part of the day sicker than I care to remember---we were in Guatemala and we ALL had what I believe was rotovirus---the worse case of stomach flu you could ever want---not!

I'm thankful for having a job even when it drives me crazy!

I'm thankful for a little sense of humor, it helps keep life more enjoyable.

Most of all I am thankful I was brought up in a Christian home, taught about Jesus, and accepted him as my personal saviour.
I leave you with a few images:













(not our dog and cat, just a cute picture!)***my sense of humor!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Imelda Marcos?

Gee, I'm not sure, but I think Tabitha could easily turn into another Imelda Marcos. She just loves shoes! It doesn't have to be her shoes, it is just simply shoes. From the time she gets up in the morning and I'm getting her dressed she is yelling, "shoes, shoes". The other day a sales paper for the local GB Shoe Warehouse came; Tabitha loves papers and books of all sorts so I thought nothing of her wanting to look at the sales paper. However what I found amazing was the fact that this little girl who can't read, opens up the sales paper and points to the little pair of fur lined Crocs. She kept pointing to the little, pink, fur lined Crocs that were her size. No one had pointed them out to her, she found them all by herself! Of course, Granny had to take her to the store and get her those new shoes. Oh boy, I think she's going to need more closet space!

FFF "For Crying Out Loud"

Today's Favorite Foto Friday theme is: "For Crying Out Loud". We are suppose to post pictures of our kids with those big ole crocodile tears. This was an easy one for me, just look at last week's post of Tabitha during her last photo shoot. My little girl, I hate to admit it, can be such a drama queen, crying and going through the motions (sometimes not a tear in sight) whenever she doesn't get her way. And, since we don't tend to "let her have her way" all of the time I have PLENTY of those kind of pictures! I've posted another one from that shoot plus various others at various stages in Tabitha's life--although most of them seem to be from recent, maybe it's a phase she's going through. Hope you enjoy looking at them. If you want to see other teary eyed kid's pictures, because let's face it they are cute whether they are smiling or crying, check out Sara's blog.

Way back Wednesday

Today was rather chilly for this northern girl turned into a southern girl wimp. It was only 23 degrees this morning when I left for work. It made me reminisce to last year at this time. We were on our pick up trip. If I recall this is about the time that Tim and Tabitha came down with rotovirus. I was spared until about a week later, Thanksgiving last year if I recall correctly. At any rate these are a couple of pictures from our day excursion to Antigua in 2007. It definitely was warmer there than it was here today!

FFF "Blowing kisses"

This week's theme for Favorite Friday Foto is "Blowing kisses". I hate to admit it, but I don't have any pictures of Tabitha blowing kisses. She doesn't really know how to pucker those little lips yet. When you ask her for a kiss she just kind of leans forward toward you for a few seconds. So I have other kinds of "faces" pictures to share! If you'd like to check out some other kids "blowing kisses", check out Sara's blog!

The "I don't want my picture taken" so let's have a fit face:

The messy face look:

The blowing raspberries face

One year ago today.....Happy Gotcha Day!

One year ago today I started my day off by getting on a plane to Guatemala. Our wait was finally coming to an end. We were uncertain about how long we would end up spending in Guatemala, acting on faith we were on our way to be with you forever! The wait sometimes seemed endless, but it was all in God's perfect plan. I remember getting the last medical report November 1, 2007 and being so worried. In the report, it commented that Tabitha had not had good weight gain. In fact she had only gained 7 ounces from September to November. I so wanted to jump on a plane that day and go be with her. My case manager and agency director encouraged me not to do that, to wait at least until we had a new birth certificate and passport. So we did, and when we finally got that news, we were estactic. We found airfare, hotel accommadations and picked a date for travel. I'm not exactly sure how we decided upon November 13th, but that is the day we chose. And as God would have it, that is the day that Tabitha went for her 2nd DNA test---yes, God had a plan.
Your foster mother was very prompt bringing you to the hotel. You were so brave, but your little bottom lip quivered just a bit when she handed you to me. You tried so hard not to cry, but you did just a little. I remember this day like it was yesterday. We love you, Tabitha! Happy Gotcha Day!



Arriving with foster mom


Fighting off tears


And now....smiley girl!

An Amazing Call

A friend of mine sent me this in an e-mail; it really touched me. This video is a call made by a 12 year old boy to a radio station in Houston. I hope that it touches you.

FFF "Favorite Family Portraits"

This week's theme for Favorite Friday Foto is "family portrait". We are suppose to pick our favorite family portrait. We've not had many photos with all 3 of us together, because usually one or the other of us is taking the picture. But, I guess of the ones that we have, my favorite is the one that is from Embassy Day. We knew without a doubt, Tabitha was our's forever! If you'd like to see more family portraits, check out Sarah's blog.

Trick or Treating

Let me preface this post by saying that I have mixed feelings about Halloween, but we did decide to take Tabitha trick or treating. She was so cute, at least that's what everyone said. As I said in my previous post, Tabitha had 3 costumes. She wore the little witch --a good witch, not a mean one, costume to daycare. I decided to have her wear her Tulip Fairie costume last night to trick or treat. I had to put extra clothes on her of course. It was down right chilly here last night after the sun went down. I guess I've become a real wimp now to the coolness of fall. Tim however was sweating! We only went in the immediate neighborhood, but it still was a lot of fun!