Christmas Time

Christmas with the Holders

Christmas Eve and Christmas at our house

Homemade cinnamon pecan rolls 

Grayson's 2nd Birthday

So I'm so delayed on getting these posted. Grayson had a monster party this! We had a great turn out of friends and family! 

Update on Foster Care and Adoption

As most of you know by now we received a little girl (Montana) the night before Thanksgiving per our request to foster a child. As you can imagine it was quite an adjustment for us. Not only were we trying to get used to having two children but also just trying to get her adapted to a routine, something she has never had. With fostering comes lots of appointments: visitation, CPS caseworker visits, attorney visits, doctor visits, dentist visits, etc.. You name it we've done it. 

Montana has changed a lot since we've gotten her. She's smiling, cooing and giggling. She has also taken her first steps and she has her first tooth! Due to privacy issues we are not allowed to give too much information or post any pictures via the internet so that is why you will not see any in this post. We just wanted to update you on the lastest addition to the family. We are not sure how long we'll have her but should know something definite in the next few weeks. 

As far as our international adoption. Yes, we are still working towards this too! 

Since the last blog about our adoption we've had some highs and lows. Here's a brief update. 

When doing an international adoption you compile LOTS of paperwork for your dossier. The dossier is treated separate from the homestudy but the homestudy is a major part of what makes up the dossier. The dossier side of things could not have gone smoother. We got everything done for this in about 3 months (which is reasonably fast). Then the hiccups came with the homestudy. For this you work with different people and unfortunately this did not go as smoothly as we'd hoped it would. There was a lot of delay on our social workers part and there was a lot of miscommunication amongst the people that were trying to compile our homestudy. All this to say that it took almost three months to complete this part, which is far longer that it should have taken. Nevertheless about two weeks ago we got our completed version of our homestudy so now we are our the last leg of paperwork and are on our way to having the whole dossier completed within the next month or so. 

All that being said today we found out some more news. None of this is for certain, but Ethiopia is going through a reassessment period and there has been some talk that they might discontinue international adoption out of Ethiopia. Like I said, none of this for certain yet, but we would appreciate your prayers during this time. Whatever the outcome, we know God isn't surprised by anything that happens and we trust that there is a plan for us. We'll keep you updated. 

Halloween

This year we decided to go as Gru, Margo and a minion from Despicable Me the movie. It's a kids movie, go figure, but I must say any adult would probably like it. It's very funny and entertaining. It was no surprise that most of the young people knew who we were right away and the older adults had no clue even after we told them! Anyhow, we had fun!

Trick or treating at great grandmas and grandpas

Out at the church event 

Going through the bounce house with dad

GG and Grayson 

Red Raider Game Day

While Grayson is not even 2 yet he is by far one the biggest fans that Texas Tech has. He asks us to read his Texas Tech books about 100 times a day and anytime he sees the double T sign he gets his 'guns up'. So today we took him to Raider Alley before the big game so that he could see all the cool stuff. He had a blast this morning and is now fast asleep as I write this! (our plan worked!)

Will Rogers on his horse Soapsuds. The Saddle Tramps always wrap the statue before a home game. 

Kingsbury look-a-like

The Masked Rider

Watching the 'Goin band from Raider Land'

Grandma Linda and Grayson