December is here!

It is finally chilly enough to wear a coat. Okay, maybe just to work but at least we will get some use out of our coats this year! We have had heavy frosts the past 2 days. It almost looks like snow! Mom, Dad & Aunt Jean made it back to MT and WA. Boy, did we do and see a lot. What fun times we shared. We really appreciated them coming for Thanksgiving. Hope you will consider to come & see what the hype about TX is all about. Well I am trying to get my Christmas cards done in time. I have almost all my shopping done and need to start wrapping and shipping. We don't have plans for Christmas. We will probably just stick around the house and I will probably cook and have some friends over. Lance is still on 4 hour recall. We need to discuss a back up plan if he ends up leaving. I refuse to be alone for Christmas. No new news on the adoption. Seems so far away yet next year we will probably have her! So exciting! We are looking for furniture. Lance thinks she will just be able to sleep in the spare bed we have. He doesn't understand that a 6 month to a year old needs a crib. He will learn fast about all this baby stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was nice having family & friends here. We had a wonderful day. My parents and aunt are still here and we have been on the go everyday. Shopping & sightseeing! So much to do and see in Texas. Yestereday was a highlight though. We drove to Crawford (where the President has his ranch) and they had the street blocked just as you come into town. So we parked on the side of the rode and walked into town. About 15 minutes later, President Bush, Laura and her Mother came and we were able to see them all. What a delight! He waved at all of us standing about 75 feet from him. There were secret service everywhere. We were going for a Bush burger at the Coffee Stop restaurant but he got to eat there instead. What a treat! Today we are off to Fredricksburg to see the Nimitz Museum & also the Pacific Fleet Museum. That should be neat. This town has a lot of German shops and restaurants. So that will be a fun filled day.
Take care and sorry it has been awhile since I have blogged. I will try and update more often.

ALMOST 2 WEEKS

...since my last blog. So sorry. I haven't intentionally been neglecting the blog just busy. We went to Dallas Fri. & Sat. for an adoption seminar. They told us a lot of information about travel, post-adoption, families currently with adoptees who spoke and just basic other useful information about the adoption. There were about 10 other couples there which was nice. We also had a potluck with families who have adopted and were able to meet them and their children. What a blessing to see how God brought them together. We are currently waiting for our fingerprinting to come back and then we can send everything off to the state to be certified and then to Washington DC to be certified and then to the Chinese Consolate. We are hoping to have this done by Nov/Dec.
Please keep my family in your prayers. My 2nd cousin who lived in CA was killed in a head-on collision on Friday. Shawn was 20 years old. Wish I lived closer to be there for the funeral and for the familly. Such a difficult time but God will heal.
Mom, Dad & Aunt Jean will be arriving in Austin this Sat. about 6:30pm. They will be here through the 30th. Looking so forward to having them here. I love Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for.

From President George W. Bush

We had a long night -- and we had a great night. The voters turned out in record numbers and delivered an historic victory. I want to thank our supporters across this country. At every stop I asked you to make the calls, put up the signs, talk to your neighbors, and get out the vote. And because you did your part, we are celebrating today. Thanks to you, we received more votes than any presidential ticket in history. America has spoken. And I am humbled by the trust and confidence of my fellow citizens. With that trust comes a duty: I will serve all Americans, so help me God. I am proud to lead such an amazing country -- and I am proud to lead it forward. Reaching our goals will require the broad support of Americans. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. We have one country, one Constitution, and one future that binds us all. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America.
A campaign has ended, and our cause is renewed. The United States of America goes forward with confidence and faith. I can see a new day coming, and I am eager for the work ahead. God bless you all, and God bless America.

(I received this as an email from GW from being on the Presidential Prayer Team)

Thank you

We have a duty to our country to participate in the political process. See, if you believe in freedom, you have a duty to exercise your right to vote to begin with. I'm [here] to encourage people to do their duty, to go to the polls. I want all people, no matter what their political party is or whether they even like a political party, to exercise their obligation to vote.
--George W. Bush

Thank you to the millions of Americans who voted. Your voice was heard. How proud I am to be a part of such a great country. May God bless America and I pray America will bless God!

www.presidentialprayerteam.com

Blessings,

Shawna

November Blessings

Sunday I received what looks to be my last sunburn of the year. Lance, Simba & I went for a walk and it was so hot and I didn't wear sunscreen, which I know I should have done.
Today it is 52 degrees & rainy. Most have jackets on, which very few Texans have jackets. Guess when we don't see the sun we assume it is cold. And it is.
Check out the article I spoke of earlier on Buckner's web site:
www.buckner.org
It is about the adoption. Hope you enjoy!
Judgement House is all over and we are gearing up for a Marriage Conference Lance is doing at our church this weekend. Then the following weekend we have an adoption seminar in Dallas.
Hope you get out to vote today. Every vote does count and it does matter if you vote or not. Please be in prayer for our leaders.

Bye Bye October

Well tomorrow is the last day of Oct. Novemeber here we come!
I can't believe how time is just flying by. Guess that is how it is when you are busy.
Lance is still on 4 hour recall (DRB). Still no word on him leaving anytime.
We are in the midst of Judgement House at our church. Lance and I are having a great time being actors in the walk through drama. We will run it tonight & tomorrow. We have had about 300 people go through so far. So that is awesome!
We are gearing up for my parents and my aunt from Seattle to come for Thanksgiving. We can't wait! I have made reservations for us to stay one night on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, one of my favorite places!
No new news on the adoption. We are waiting for results from our fingerprinting and then we will send off paperwork to the State of TX and then send it all off to the Chinese Consolate.
Hope you are enjoying the fall weather. It hasn't hit Texas yet so we are patiently waiting for the weather to cool and the leaves to start changing. WAIT!!!! Texas doesn't have trees. So I guess you can let me know when fall hits.

Another week gone

Can't believe it is Friday! Where are the weeks & months going? I really need to start smelling the roses! I have been working a lot since I have to start making up some time I will be off. In Nov. Lance is doing a marriage conference on Friday Nov. 5th & Sat. Nov. 6th. I'll take that Friday off. We have to go to Dallas the next week Nov. 12 & 13 for an adoption seminary. Then my parents and Aunt Jean are coming for Thanksgiving so I won't work at all when they are here. I'll take 4 days off then.
We are preparing for Judgement House at church. It is a walk through drama. Lance is playing Jesus and I am playing a principal of the school. It should be fun. It is running 7-10pm Oct. 27-31.
No new news on the adoption stuff. We are just playing the waiting game to get all of our paperwork certified and then we send it all off to the Chinese Consolate. I'll keep you posted.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and check back again soon for another blog.

Fingerprinting......done!!

YEAHOO! We are so excited. We left about 6:40am this morning in route to San Antonio to be fingerprinted. Going to the INS office on Saturday. We were planning on spending a few hours waiting in line. I brought adoption books to read. We get to the office at about 8:50am. Drove right up to the office because of the navigators awesome job :) (Yes that was me since Lance was driving). ANYHOW>>> we go inside and fill out our forms, which took about 2 minutes. We got our numbers, 12 & 13. They were on number 10. As soon as we sat down, Lance's number was called. Then a couple minutes later, mine was called. We were both fingerprinted and out of there by 9:15am. We were thrilled! They didn't fingerprint us using the dredded black ink. They did it all digitally. We put our prints on just a piece of glass and it was automatically converted onto the computer screen. The prints are sent directly to the FBI so hopefully we will get the results soon. We are hoping the rest of the adoption goes as smoothly as did the fingerprinting. I also called a friend's friend who adopted a girl last year from China. I talked to her for about 1 hour. She shared some great information about traveling and what and what not to take and what to expect when we get to China. It has made me more excited than ever to get our daughter! What an experience we are in for. We are just praying Lance will be here to go with me. The Army said they would work with us but we will just have to wait and see. Well I need to get dinner started and sausage balls made for tomorrow. I am taking a snack for after chapel fellowship. Take care & keep coming to read the blog!

Answered Prayers

WOW! God is so awesome! This week has been quite a busy one. We had a great Tues. evening. We had a wonderful couple over for our Supper Club. The original family who signed up had to cancel so I prayed for God to send another family. He did!
We both had Monday off but didn't do much. The weather is finally cooling off, which is a blessing and an answered prayer.
I also received my passport in record time! They said it would take 4-6 weeks and I received it in 3. I also sent off some applications for some grants. We are in prayer about them and the financial part of the adoption. We know God will provide but it is so hard to be patient and wait on Him.
Tomorrow (Sat) we may got to San Antonio to be fingerprinted. So that will be so good to get that out of the way. We are winding down on our checklist. We are going to Dallas for a seminar Nov. 12-13. It is a 2 day seminar so we will have to spend the night and we'll have to take off work on Friday the 12th.
Take care and hope you all have a great weekend!

Adoption Article

Good day to you all. It has been an exciting week in our life. Lance has been busy with work, prayer breakfast, preparing a sermon and getting a marriage conference together for Nov. So he has been keeping busy. I have been busy with work and getting documents notarized and copied. We also were interviewed yesterday for an article for Buckner International Adoption, the organization we are adopting through. When it comes out, I will post it here. I got the final paperwork notarized today. We will be able to send documents off to be certified by Texas, Maryland & Montana.
Lance has a 4 day weekend and I am not sure what our plans are. He is at home hopefully mowing the lawn. He is also probably playing XBox since he is in full swing in a Maryland football season. Tomorrow I am in in a American Heart Association heart walk. Lance will probably come & bring Simba. Hopefully it won't rain! I also have Monday off so maybe we can take a day trip to a fun town close to home. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Top of the afternoon to y'all

Hope all is well with you. Since you are reading this blog guess you have a minute to catch up on my exciting life! Well I know you are just checking to see if there is an update on the adoption.
Adoption Update:
We have but 2 (two) documents left to notarize before we can send off to the state to be certified. So we are excited! There is a notary at work, which is so convenient. Everyone has been so supportive and interested in this process. It is interesting but quite lengthy and tedious. It will be worth it at the end. We have put down we would accept siblings so if have been praying for one child, you may want to change your prayers to whatever God wants us to have. Two scares me but God won't give me what I cannot handle. I know Lance will be a huge help, especially with 2! Being married 10 years and then adding 2 more to our home??? You may ask are they crazy? No, just doing what God wants us to do. We have been so blessed and can't wait share what we have with children and to start our family.
Take care & thanks for checking in :)

The 10th Month of 2004

I know you are excited as I am that this year is just flying by. It is crazy!
We are now officially accepted to adopt a baby from China! YEAH HOO!
So we are in a mad dash to get certified copies of birth certificates, marriage license and get all of our other documents notarized. I have applied for my passport. We are still waiting on an appointment to go to San Antonio to get our fingerprinting done. We are very excited and are hoping to go to China in April, if we can get all of our paperwork finished soon.
Sat. Lance is running a mini-marathon in San Antonio. Here is the site:
http://www.cowgirlcreativegroup.com/heloteshalf/hh_home.htm
So we will be going down Fri night and coming back Sunday. There is a shrimp fest Sat. night. We are looking forward to that.
Lance is officially on 4 hour recall. He is in the Deployment Readiness Brigade (DRB) which means their Brigade could be called to go anywhere and they have to be at the office in 4 hours when they are notified. They are the "911 call" to America. If something happens, they will be there. They are only allowed to go 250 miles away. So he may be leaving again soon. Hopefully not for a year but you never know. I'll keep you updated on this. He will be in this status until probably early next year or it could be longer but that is an estimate.
Well this blog is done for now. Take care & thank you for your prayers.

Happy Monday To Ya'll

Just thought I would write today since it will be a super busy week for me. Today Buckner will have a meeting on us and all of our information as well as with the Social Worker. She will state what she saw in our home and in our interviews with her. I will post when we hear something from them. Hope you have a wonderful week. Fall is right around the corner......and YIKES!!! So is Christmas! Guess I better get my list made out.

When is fall coming?

It was cooling off quite nicely and then it rains. All my hopes are shot down of the coolness staying. It is hot & humid still. Boy do I miss the Montana weather.
The days are just passing away one by one. It is mid September and my Christmas list isn't started yet nor have I completed my Spring cleaning! I have worked 4 days this week and I am wiped out. Last Weds. the social worker came to our home to make sure it was "child friendly." And we passed with flying colors. How...I am not sure but why should we question. God is in control and we have such peace about the adoption. Thank you for your prayers. They are helping us not be anxious and allowing us to be patient through this long process. This coming week I am hosting a coffee, helping with another coffee, having an open house and getting ready for our church picnic. Lance & I also signed up to be in Judgement House at our church. Lance will be Jesus and I am a principal in a pep rally at the high school. It is a walk through drama about a drinking & driving accident where some high school kids are killed. You see how their families cope and actually see the kids in heaven & hell. It is quite moving. Last year I was in it and it was about some kids that go in the Army and are killed. I had a great time. Almost 1000 people go through it. We are the only church in the area that puts this on at the end of Oct for 5 days.
Hope you are doing well. I don't hear from many folks that read this so I am hoping I get some feedback soon. Just press send a comment at the end and I'll get your response. Or send me a regular email. Let me know how you all are, especially our friends in Florida & Alabama. Take care & love & miss you all! Those of you in Montana, enjoy the cool weather for me :)

Strength At Home

Strength at Home
By BEN STEIN August 18, 2004; Page A10

(This is a letter I wrote to the newsletter of an Army unit called The Strykers, stationed in Iraq out of Ft. Lewis, Wash. The editor asked me what I would say to make the wives feel appreciated while their husbands are in Iraq. This is what I wrote to one soldier's wife.)

Dear Karen,

I have a great life. I have a wife I adore, a son who is a lazy teenager but I adore him, too. We live in a house with two dogs and four cats. We live in peace. We can worship as we please. We can say what we want. We can walk the streets in safety. We can vote. We can work wherever we want and buy whatever we want. When we sleep, we sleep in peace. When we wake up, it is to the sounds of birds.
All of this, every bit of it, is thanks to your husband, his brave fellow soldiers, and to the wives who keep the home fires burning while the soldiers are away protecting my family and 140 million other families. They protect Republicans and Democrats, Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists. They protect white, black, yellow, brown and everyone in between. They protect gays and straights, rich and poor.
And none of it could happen without the Army wives, Marine wives, Navy wives, Air Force wives -- or husbands -- who go to sleep tired and lonely, wake up tired and lonely, and go through the day with a smile on their faces. They feed the kids, put up with the teenagers' surliness, the bills that never stop piling up, the desperate hours when the plumbing breaks and there is no husband to fix it, and the even more desperate hours after the kids have gone to bed, the dishes have been done, the bills have been paid, and the wives realize that they will be sleeping alone -- again, for the 300th night in a row.
The wives keep up the fight even when they have to move every couple of years, even when their checks are late, even when they have to make a whole new set of friends every time they move.
And they keep up the fight to keep the family whole even when they feel a lump of dread every time they turn on the news, every time they switch on the computer, every time the phone rings and every time -- worst of all -- the doorbell rings. Every one of those events -- which might mean a baseball score or a weather forecast or a FedEx man to me and my wife -- might mean the news that the man they love, the man they have married for better or worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, is now parted from them forever.
These women will never be on the cover of People. They will never be on the tabloid shows on TV about movie stars. But they are the power and the strength that keep America going. Without them, we are nothing at all. With them, we can do everything.
They are the glue that holds the nation together, stronger than politicians, stronger than talking heads, stronger than al Qaeda.
They deserve all the honor and love a nation can give. They have my prayers, and my wife's, every morning and every night.

Love, and I do mean Love, Ben.

Mr. Stein, a television personality and writer, is co-author with Phil DeMuth of "Can America Survive," forthcoming from Hay House.

Quite Cloudy

It has been very hot here so clouds are welcome anytime! Yesterday Lance ran a 5K race in Austin called Keep Austin Weird. There were some interesting folks running. It was fun to go and just watch all the people. They wore some of the goofiest costumes. Some had Halloween costumes, wedding dresses, Elvis impersonators, guys in dresses (a lot of these), wigs and just about anything you could imagine was there. We had a good time in the 99 degree heat and that doesn't include asphalt heat and 6000 runners to add to the heat!
Not much has changed on the adoption end. The social worker is still coming to view our home on Sept. 8th. We almost have the money saved to send in the Adoption Petition to the INS. After their approval, we will go to San Antonio to be finger printed. We are thinking of going to garage sales to try and find a crib. We aren't sure exactly what we want yet so we better start looking around.
Hope you had a great week and I'll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sunny Sunday

What a glorious day today! The sun is out and few clouds in the sky. It turned out to be beautiful even though the weatherman said there was a good chance of rain. We had a chapel fellowship that was so fun. The Tex Mex was great! Brisket and grilled sausage was yummy. We attend chapel with some great folks!
Yesterday's first home study meeting in Dallas went very well. It was more like an interview than anything. The social worker will be coming to our home on Sept. 8th. She will make sure our home is suitable for a youngster. After that and her report finished, they approximate the wait to be 6 months. So next spring, if everything goes as planned, we will be traveling to China.
Well that is all the new news here in TX. Hope you all are well. Post a comment! Would love to hear from you. Have a blessed week.

Wowsers

Wow! I can't believe it is Weds. already. Where my days go I will never know. God gave us 24 hours in a day and I just can't figure out why so few but I guess the more we have the more we want.
This Sat. we are heading to Dallas to Buckner International for our initial start to our home study. Patty Brown will then come to our house on Sept. 9th. We are excited to start this because after our home study, we just get to sit and wait on China for feedback on us and our daughter! We also can apply for grants after our home study is complete and that will be great to get those applications turned in.
Well hope you all are doing well and are having a great summer. School starts soon and hope everyone is ready for another fun filled year of school stuff.
OOOHHH and last weekend Lance and I went tubing on the Guadalupe River by New Brunfels. What fun we had! Wish we could go every weekend.

Top Of The Tuesday To Ya

Good day to you! Seems like this year is just ticking away. August already? Hope you have started your Christmas shopping. Only 5 more months.
This week we should get a call from the social worker assigned to us to start our home study. We will meet with her a couple of times before it is completed. Then it should be about a 6 month wait until a child is selected from China for us. So the process is coming along. Hope you are having a great summer. We are excited that my parents and my aunt are coming for Thanksgiving. Take care and hope you have a blessed week.