My goofy side on our Mini Taylor Reunion

Here are pics of our little Taylor trip with some of my closest friends. I find that as a mom, I often lose this part of me that is very prevalent just under the surface. Life just happens and after enough, "MOM!" comments (because I'm being too weird--and my kids are only 2, 5, and 6!) I just tone it down. But this is the real me, folks. :) Let me explain what's going on in the shots (since, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to put the pictures and subsequent writing where I want to in blogger). Top picture is the whole crew at Meredith's parent's house in Noblesville. We all spent the night here the second night. The second and third pictures reflect the fact that while at Taylor, we visited our rooms for old times' sake (and maybe to introduce ourselves to the inhabitants) only to find that my precious room, Olson 310, was no more because of increased bathroom space (and maybe a storage closet to accomodate the extra pipes, etc.) The shower I'm laying in is app. where my room should have been! The fourth picture is me trying to semi-discreetly draw attention to the guy walking behind me in the red shirt. Any '80's Petra fans out there (the Christian rock group)? Well, that's the founder's son. Then is the shady building we called home (aka the Bomb Shelter) our senior year of college. If you couldn't tell, we're trying to look "ghetto." Lastly, is Julie (she's the brown-haired chic that was brought in from Texas for the Christian Ed. department's series on Women in Ministry--that's what motivated us to get together), Amy, and I with Barb--the dining commons worker that knows EVERY STUDENT'S NAME (2000+)!!! Can you imagine?!? She was wonderful when we were there, and she's wonderful now almost 10 years later :)

Wonderful school, wonderful time, wonderful friends. Just wanted to share............

More terrific, amazing, wonderful news!

Hey everybody! I have been a horrible blogger, but I am still here. Life's pace has just been a little too crazy lately, but incredibly good as well. To give you a hint, I've had overnight houseguests on four different occasions in the last several weeks! All of them were wonderful and worth it, but it's still a lot!!! I also just got back from a wonderful two-day trip to my alma mater, Taylor University, to be with 4 of my 10 most precious girlfriends from college. What a great get-a-way, it's just hard sometimes to return to the hustle and bustle!

We are now just about to move into month three of the waiting game in our "Waiting for Referal (WFR)" stage. While in some ways it seems like we've been on this journey a very long time, it really has gone quickly for us thus far. I feel so blessed at the way the Ethiopian program at America World has been moving. I feel blessed that it took us four months to send our dossier off. I feel blessed that our lives are so full here that I don't have tons of time to "pine" over the "incompleteness" of our family. I just feel so very, very blessed.

I ALSO feel blessed to share that four more families received referrals today! Congratulations to the Ord, Gibson, Cox, and Ducommun families! There are also four families traveling today and tomorrow to Ethiopia--only a couple of weeks after a successful court date! There is so much hope in the air, can you tell? I've done this count like 5 different times, but according to the families I know, we are NUMBER 12 IN LINE FOR AN INFANT GIRL!!! Can you believe it?!? Now, according to my list, it is possible that we could actually be 19th in line for a girl if all those ahead of us that I don't know specifically (aren't members of our yahoo group) have requested infant girls (or either gender infants), but the chances of that aren't great, so either way, that news is just incredible. It makes things seem so real! I'll still plan on a referral somewhere between September through November, but it is possible it could be here earlier.

I really need to get on reading some more books and meeting with a lactation consultant! Anyway, there's a quick little update. I hear the current baby of the family starting to cry (it's 12:22 a.m.), so I better see what's going on! Thanks for sharing my excitement!