Signed!

We have taken a major step and have signed our paperwork! We have a few other small steps to take before we can send the paperwork into the adoption agency, but we hope to do those things this weekend. Nathan kind of chuckled when he had to sign next to "adoptive father." His comment was "Imagine me, a Dad!" Well, I have and I know he will be a great one! I don't worry about his ability at all!

Here is an example of they types of paperwork we had to complete. We had to designate a guardian for our children should something happen to us, we had to prove we were born and married, we had to state what type of discipline we would use with our children, we have to take child and infant CPR and read books about adoptive parenting, we had to complete paperwork that shows our financial situation and we had to have references. This list only scratches the surface. It is a lot of work, but when they hand us that child and say "He's yours," it will be worth it.

Hope you all have a great week!

Anita Renfroe - Women of Faith

Can you believe in one month we will be in Oklahoma City at this year's Women of Faith? I am so excited to be taking a fun bunch of ladies to the conference again this year. We are going to have a blast! I thought I would attach this Anita Renfroe video to get you all excited! This video is very funny - anyone who is a Mom or has a Mom will like this video.

Have a good week.

Showers of Blessings

Well...it wasn't pneumonia!

A week ago Wednesday, I started having the same symptoms that sent me to the doctor for a pneumonia diagnoses on Labor Day. This time the pain was on the opposite side of my back, so my assumption was that the pneumonia was back in my left lung.

We immediately called the pulmonary doctor to see if I could come in the next day, and thank God I could. He did a chest x-ray and requested that I have a CT scan done on Friday. The CT scan revealed that I had pulmonary embolisms (blood clots on my lungs)! The diagnoses earlier in the month was incorrect.

Thanks to God for protecting me!

I was in the hospital for three days of complete bed rest and two additional days of minimum activity on IV and oral blood thinners. I will have to continue the oral blood thinners for six months!

Thank you so much to all of you who reached out to us during this time. You are and continue to be the "hands and feet of Christ" to us. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who have done so much for us! It is hard to express with words how blessed we feel for all the blessings you have showered and continue to shower on us...everything from chocolate, to meals, to visiting us, to magazines, to loaning us your i pod...all of it, no matter how big or small, did not go unnoticed and we are very grateful and humbled by your generosity!

Especially thank you to all of you who prayed for us, no doubt God heard and answered your prayers! Please continue to pray for us as I recover from home.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention what exceptional care my husband took of me. I could not have asked for a better care taker. I know this was hard and exhausting on him, but he was a trooper! I am so grateful to God for giving me such a great companion for life.

"Who am I Lord?"

Under the Weather!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, but I have been a bit under the weather. Actually, that is an understatement! I have had pneumonia! This is the second time in two years. I had the pneumonia vaccination two years ago and I thought I had "out smarted" this thing. Much to my surprise when I went to the doctor for a "back ache" he returned with the diagnoses of pneumonia. I was not thrilled, to say the least! This means a week off work and a couple of weeks of being exhausted, not what I had planned! I have been back at work this week and I think I am almost "caught up" if there is such a thing! Please pray for me as I will be having some tests done to try to determine the cause. This is not such a fun thing that I want to do this every two years.

If that is a picture of me this last week, here is a picture of Nathan...

He has writer's block! It is a terrible disease with which he is unable to write an autobiography! He gave it a start. He said it sounded like a laundry list of his life (born, 1970 to Paul and Doris, in Texas). He read it to a co-worker who at first glance thought it sounded fine, until he read mine to her and then she said "Your's sucks!" Needless to say, Nathan crunched his up and thew it away.

For those of you who don't know, this is one of the steps that we must complete for our adoption paperwork. I think it is to give the social worker something to talk to us about.

Please pray for Nathan that he is able to complete this task. I have tried to start some of it for him, but ultimately, this is something he will have to do himself - otherwise it would be a biography (isn't that right Leigh Ann?).

We are looking forward to Turner and Carter coming for a week long visit. They will be here tomorrow. They will be staying with Nathan's parents as Craig and Amy travel to Virginia to find a house for their next move, which is coming up soon. How time flies!

Please pray for us as it is our goal to finish our paperwork this week. This means that Nathan must finish his autobiography, we need some pictures of our home and us and we have to sign and notarized the "mound" of paperwork. The end to this phase is in sight, please pray that we get past this hurdle.

Have a great week.

Persistance!

We are in the middle of a big push to complete our paperwork! Our goal is to have the paperwork completed in the next week. There is so much required information, so many details, but...we know persistance will pay off.


Hope you all have a great week!

Our House Guest Are Gone

I am just returning home from the airport where we dropped the Bensons off for their long flight home. It has been a great time having them in our home since the middle of June and we will miss them like crazy! It is amazing how you can have so many connections with people who literally live on the other side of the world. Our world is small and thank goodness we have modern communications to keep in touch with. We will miss Payton's little squeal around the house, Luke's sense of humor and Pauline's all around sweetness. Thanks guys for coming to see us and we pray that you will be back soon for a much longer stay. Believe it or not, seven weeks is not long enough. Call us when you get home!

We love you!
Nathan and Emily

Time to Get Moving!

I know it has been a while since I have updated my blog. Thank you to those of you who actually mentioned that you noticed it has been a couple of weeks since a post.

The Aussies are here until a week from today. We have been very busy spending time with them and we dread the day they leave. Our prayer is that this will only be a temporary good bye and that they will choose to move here very soon.

Many of you know that I recently changed jobs. Since we have to wait for me to build up time on the job for me to have benefits and vacation time, we have been purposely delaying the completion of our paperwork. After our guests leave, we plan to get on finishing our paperwork post haste! Jessica - get your notary stamp ready. We estimate that this will put us in line to "get" our baby about a year from now.

The last few months have been filled with ups and downs and we know God is preparing us for the bumpy road we will have until we finally at long last, bring our baby home. We are confident that God holds everything in His perfect timing and He has slowed us down. God knows the baby He has picked out for us and He knows the perfect time for us to proceed!

Thanks to all of you who continue to hold us up in prayer.