Thankfulness & sweet boys!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We all have so much to be thankful for.  At the beginning of November we decided when we do our nightly devotion with the kids that we would all name something we were thankful for and we have written it down each day.  We plan to read over them all today around the table and remember again just how blessed we are.  Our lists were very different between the kids and us but the kids even caught on after a couple of days and started looking deeper than just family and friends.  We have everything from our church, our pastor, friends, family, heat in the winter, a/c in the summer, shoes, a bed, food, salvation, the Bible, families that raised us in church, spouses, the opportunity to adopt,  God, children, health, xbox, electricity, our home, job schedule, good renters, dishwasher, different seasons, clean sheets, Friday paychecks, well you get the point... but I could go on and on!  It really made us think each day and try to come up with something different than what someone else had mentioned.  The boys both mentioned the adoption and the baby several times.  They can't hardly wait for all of this to really happen.
      I have to say that both of my boys have such sweet hearts.  They have been saying for the last few days that they wanted to give some money towards the adoption. We both told them that they didn't need to give their money for that.  They have both been saving for certain things and I like for them to know the value of money by saving and then actually seeing how it's spent ( and how fast it goes:)  Well a couple of days ago, Jaxon asked me if I had an empty jar anywhere.  I told him yes and where it was.  The next thing I know, this is what I see in my living room.

Camden made the sign on the left ( I love it) and Jaxon on the right.  They emptied their piggy banks and gave some of their cash.  We counted and it was $29.55.  They were so excited.  I told them again that they didn't have to do that and they both said "We WANT to do it mama, this is our baby too"  They absolutely melt my heart! I love that they thought this out and knew this is what they wanted to do.  Now they want all of our spare change will go in there so that's what we will be doing.  Great idea kids!
    I know it's a long waiting process for them. It is for us too but we are all waiting patiently and maybe it will happen sooner than we think.  Camden is so excited that when we finally get to take the baby home from the hospital, we will get to stay in a hotel with it.  HAHA!! I'm not sure why that's so exciting to him but he talks about it all the time!  We will have to stay in the state of South Carolina (that's the state we are going through) for 7-14 days until the ICPC is complete.  The Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children is something that controls the movement of a child from one state to another.  Both GA and SC will have to approve the child's movement in writing before you can take the child across state lines.  From what I understand, it can sometimes be closer to the 14 days.  Yikes!!!
After that though, we will be able to bring our sweet baby HOME!!

Long overdue post!

I have been meaning to write a post for the last couple of weeks and have just been so busy that when I think of it, it's so late that I'm just ready to crash.  We had our second home study visit a couple of weeks ago and it went well.  She gathered some more paperwork, made sure we had gotten the fire extinguisher, locks for cabinets, moved medicines out of reach, had working smoke alarms, etc....  Then she sat down with me for about 45 minutes and we just talked.  She asked me to go into a little more detail about some of the questions that I had on my autobiographical questionnaire.  We had a nice visit and the Lord actually allowed me an opportunity to tell her about when my Daddy got saved several years ago.  It's a long story how we got to that.. but it was perfect!! I think we both shed a few tears:)
She will meet with Bobby in the next week or so for their individual meeting and then we will be close to the end of the homestudy.  It will all be sent to our adoption agency to be approved after the meeting. I have been diligently working on our profile book.  No kidding, I bet I have put at least 15 or more hours into it.  There is so much more to it than I realized.  It's been alot of fun to do, just time consuming.  We know it will all be worth it in the end though and we can't hardly wait!!
     I've had a few people ask me about the donate button on the blog and how it works.  As you see, we have a fundraising thermometer there for you to see when we receive donations or raise money through a fundraiser.  If you click the "Donate" button, it goes to a paypal account that we have set up.  After a donation is made, it sends me an email letting me know and then I have to personally go to the account and move the money to a savings account that we have set up specifically for the adoption.  Then I will go in and update the thermometer each time a donation is made!  I have to say again that we are overwhelmed at the amount of people that have been so supportive of this adoption.  We have so many wonderful friends and family that we know are behind us 100% and pray for us daily.  Thank you so much!!!!!!!
     Also, we are trying to get a t-shirt fundraiser together soon.  We wish we were already doing it but these last couple of weeks have been so busy with the last bit of paperwork, the profile book and the education.  We each are required to have 12 hours of adoption education.  We are reading and listening to radio interviews on a website and then taking quizzes for a certificate.  It's all been very interesting and we have learned so much!