HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

A little grillin' out......

A little swimmin'

and a little strawberry pickin'

MAKES FOR A GREAT SUMMER DAY!

A little worn our from picking (and eating) so many strawberries!

Hey! This tastes pretty good!

Riley went for perfection on color of the berry, not size!

Jackson finding the perfect berry...

Daddy and Lily enjoying a few in the field

My little monkeys

I hope everyone was able to have a relaxing and restful day! I also hope you took a few minutes to remember those who have made this "free day" possible. It is awesome to think about our military and all they do on a daily basis to keep our country free. They are even willing to lay down their lives for the cause. I can't help but think about the sacrifice that God made for us by sending his only son to die for us. TO DIE FOR US! HIS ONLY SON! Even if I had been the only person ever born, He still would have made the choice to die for me. Imperfect, crazy, sinning me! ...unfathomable....We all know that "freedom" is not free, but "freedom" in Christ is free! By accepting Him, we can ALL have the freedom that is offered in Christ. To live for Him! To know where we will spend eternity! To make sense of this earthly mess! There is a point, and that point is to give HIM all the glory!


Blessings!


Meredith

What's Up Lately??

Riley and her sweet friend Emma

Jackson receiving an award from Mrs. Carole

Riley receiving an award from Mrs. Fletcher

FINGERPAINTING!

John's "new to us" truck- looks eerily similar to his last truck, huh?

3 kids stuffed in the back of the truck

Soccer days- Lily seems exceptionally happy to be there!

Riley on her special trip with Mimi and PawPaw

Lily with her sweet teacher Mrs. Felicia

Boys will be boys- trying to start a fire with a magnifying glass

I have to apologize for being such a bad blogger. Life is just so hectic! I have great intentions to blog about each exciting thing that happens to our family, and then suddenly, I am 3 exciting things behind again.......but I am going to try to do better!

Now that school is out, hopefully I will have the ability to stay a little more caught up!

In a nutshell, this has been our lives the past few weeks:

1- School is out! Enough Said!

2- Jackson's soccer team was runner up for his division in the season finals- YAY WOLVES!

3- John bought a new truck- I mean new to us!

4- I pressure- washed everything we own! (Well, it seemed like it, but maybe it was just the outside stuff!)

5- We have been swimming, sprinklering, and slipping and sliding and fingerpainting all day long....lovin' summer!

6- We received our police clearances for our homestudy, so now we are just waiting to have it finalized!

7- We have been having LOTS of crazy fun at home!

8- My parents took Riley to see "Toy Story on Ice"- a special trip for only her!

Now that you are caught up, enjoy the pics of it all!

Blessings-

Meredith

ADOPTION UPDATE

Well, we have had a busy couple of weeks, and so it has been a while since I posted. Easter and Mother's Day came and went, school let out, and I had a birthday- the big 37!! Man, sometimes I feel old, and I wonder where the time has gone?! I am thankful, though to be healthy and to be surrounded by a wonderful family and precious friends.

Today we had our biometric fingerprints taken for the adoption process. We had to drive to Atlanta to have them done, but thankfully, it didn't take nearly as long as it did for Lily's adoption process. We are currently waiting on the last clearance for our Homestudy to be complete. It typically takes 2-3 weeks, and we are in week 7!! Every week can drive you crazy in this process! Hopefully we will receive this last clearance for this part of the process sometime this week. Then we will have our homestudy complete and add it to the dossier. At that point, we will have to have it all authenticated and certified and apostilled- who even knows what all of that is?, and it will be off to China. I would expect a rough timeline for that to happen would be July-ish. Then we will receive our Log In Date (LID) and hopefully soon after, a referral! I think we are probably on schedule to travel around the end of the year, or early next year. But, in adoption, nobody knows until it happens!
I am going to post our timeline on the side of the blog in case you want to check it out.

Have a great week!

Meredith

Saturday Soccer Days

Jackson at 5 years old- his first season

GOALIE!

Jackson and Riley after a game

Jackson last season- 10 years old

Dad, Riley and Lily hangin' out at the fields...

I never really thought I would be a soccer mom, but here I am smack dab in the middle of spending many Saturday's at the soccer field. If I added up all the hours we have spent at the fields, it would be days......Jackson loves soccer. He has loved it since he was 5 years old and played on his first team. He comes home from school and practices alone outside. Some days, he cons his sisters into kicking the ball to him. He has given up all other sports he has tried in his pursuit of soccer. He plays goalie and some other positions that I don't even know the names of. To be honest, I don't know all the rules of soccer. I know that seems like an awful mom, doesn't it? The truth is, I don't care about the rules. I know the basics, and really, I just love to watch my oldest enjoying himself on the field and watching him excel at something he loves. Jackson is 10 now, and plays both spring and fall soccer. He has played All-Stars and has been asked now to play on the traveling soccer team. I know I am biased, but he really is good! Soccer days are fun days for our family. As much stuff as we take, it seems like we will be staying at the field for a week! Four chairs, Lily's backpack, ringpops for halftime, coffee, waters, etc. etc. Many of our friends are in the same soccer boat, at various stages. We always see friends there, and come to meet new friends who are fellow soccer parents. So, although I never thought it would happen to me, I am super proud to be a soccer mom to my soccer kid.

So, here's to soccer days old and new, many games won and lost, many goals scored, and many more family times like these.

Blessings....

Meredith

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 14 MONTHS MAKES!

One of Lily's "red couch" photos in China. Silly girl!




We are signing the papers that make her officially ours- the day after we met her. See her cute little footprint on the paper??





This is right after we met Lily- in the room where we met her. She had cried herself out and was seriously sweating in her 3 layers of wool clothes! Poor Baby! She is wearing her brand new shoes the nannies bought for her.

I was looking through some old pictures and our "Gotcha Day" video today (which I tried to post, but after it tried to upload for 2 hours, I gave up), and realized just how much Lily has changed in the last 14 months. Not only has she grown taller and bigger, but she is so much more outgoing and lively than she was when she was first home. She has enjoyed the role of "little sister" and learned how to be part of a family. She is such a little helper. She is always throwing things in the trash can, or cleaning up toys! She is the funniest kid I have ever met. She keeps us laughing all the time. She is just such a joy and a blessing and I cannot even remember what life was like before God placed her in our family. I pray that she will flourish here and that we will be the best parents that we can be to her. She deserves that and so much more. Jackson and Riley are such a sweet big brother and sister to her and Riley especially is happy to have a confidante to get into trouble with. They are always playing together, going to "home school" in Riley's room, and trying to sneak candy! I am so blessed beyond measure and cannot believe that at the start of this process we were the ones who were scared of what lie ahead. Sounds so crazy now. We were not the ones who were taken from all we knew by strangers halfway across the world....new language, new faces....new smells, new food..... Wow. How selfish I feel to have EVER doubted God's wisdom.

"For I know the plans I have for you....Plans to prosper and not harm you.....To give you a hope and a future".....

Need I really second-guess HIS plan???

Looking forward to seeing His plan revealed to me daily...

Blessings-

Meredith

Easter Egg Hunting

Lily loves her some egg huntin'!


AFTER THE HUNT...

The first of many easter egg hunts over the next few days.....or weeks!

Don't you wish you slept this soundly??

We had a great weekend! On Friday, the kids had "Jump Rope for Heart" at school. The school raised quite a bit of money, and both Jackson and Riley won a blue ribbon for their jump-roping skills. They had a great time.

My parents came to visit over the weekend, and we had a joint birthday party for John, my dad and my brother-in-law. The kids had a great time, and ate WAY TOO MUCH sugar. They were worn out! It is so much fun to see all the kids together with their grandparents.

On another note, we sent in our I 800 A application, and are now just waiting on our state police clearance to finish up our homestudy. It looks like things may be going a little more quickly in China, so my best guesstimate at this point is that we may have a referral sometime this summer and travel at the end of the year. But, anything can happen between now and then, so you never know!

Blessings-

Meredith