handsful

Abbey’s volleyball team (the Storm, in case you’re wondering about the post title…) had their tournament games this past Saturday. They finished their season in 2nd place, so they had to play the first game at 9am. They won that one, so that put them into the championship game at 12pm.

An awesome shot…

They played hard, but in the end they lost. But, we were thrilled that they finished the season in 2nd place – especially since half the girls were first-time volleyball players. Not to mention this being Randy’s first time COACHING volleyball. Thankfully, his assistant coach knew the game well and Randy was free to just do his thing :)

Abbey LOVED her first season in volleyball. So much so, that she’s trying out for another league tomorrow night that starts after the holidays.

I couldn’t be happier. I realized how much I LOVE watching volleyball!

“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” (van talking, here)

Our Yukon XL seats 7 – with Dylan, we’ll be at 8.  We did the math and realized we needed something bigger.  So, we went with something BIGGER. 

2009 Ford E350 11-passenger van.  Yeah, baby.  I nixed the idea of the extended version.  It would have been nice to have the extra storage space in the back, but the thought of driving it (and PARKING it) made me shake in my boots. 

So far, I love it.  I’m sitting up nice and high and it’s actually a tad bit shorter than my Yukon.  Yea, I was surprised at that, too! 

Let’s recap.  We have Dylan’s bed, car seat, his own seat in the van, high chair, clothes, shoes, and toys.  What we do NOT have is our Travel Approval from China.  We kinda expected it by last Friday.  We’re dumbfounded that we don’t have it by this Friday.  If it doesn’t show next week, I may have to get China on the phone myself.  It’s a shame that God has to teach me patience by giving me something to be patient about.  :)

Hope to have GREAT news by next post…

That’s what halloween is about around here. Picking out the perfect pumpkins and collecting the sweet stuff. There are a few too many sweet teeth around here (most of them are in MY mouth).

After church on Sunday, we stopped by a popular produce stand that had lots of nice looking pumpkins. We jumped out of the truck and quickly fanned out…

Marley lost her focus, picked up gourds, and started lifting weights. Focus, child…

As usual, Ethan went for the BIG pumpkins. It’s usually the boys in the family that decide on the carving theme for the year. I let them have their fun.

Lainey stops to smell the…uh…mums.

Abbey and Lainey take time to pose in front of the sign…a quick shout out to our friend, Josh (no relation!).

Back to hunting…

This one, mama!!

and, the BIG one is chosen. Now, home to carve…

The kids chose the cartoon character Domo…we weren’t sure what exactly that was, but it was cute.

Now, to the costumes…

The girls took our new state into account and went with a cowgirl theme. Yee haw.

Now, brace yourselves for the boys.

They didn’t really have any clue what they wanted to do, so we went to the store and just looked around. They found these plain masks and a couple of wigs, added some black clothes and…

…came up with this. I think these masks are CREEPY. You think of scary halloween masks and you think Freddy Krueger, etc. Nah. These mannequin things are just weird. They loved them.

Whew. Onto something much cuter. Lainey wanted to be a butterfly, so we bought some wings and gold glitter hair spray (hard to see, it looked really cute) and voila. As I thought back, Lainey has been a ladybug, fairy, and now a butterfly. She likes wings, obviously.

We took the kids around our neighborhood for a while, and then drove to another neighborhood across the street where friends live. They loaded up…

Happy “How-way-een” everyone :)

We’ve been amazingly blessed by the friends we’ve made so far here in NC.

Hollyn and Anna’s families, for instance. They’re both in my homeschool group, and Anna’s family also goes to our new church. Anna and Hollyn are both from China, and both have special needs just like Lainey and Dylan.

Anna has spina bifida, the most severe form actually. But, her family accepts her as she is and knows that God chose her for their family no matter what might lie ahead. She’s doing great, and has the most sweetest smile.

Hollyn was born with limb differences. She was born missing 1 bone in her lower right leg and has a deformed foot. She received an amputation and foot surgery, and is doing…well, great! She calls her stump “Nemo” – because of his small fin. Her prosthesis is “Dory”. Love it.

The girls perform “Jesus Loves Me” for us. Lainey loved playing with her new girlfriends!

Time to decorate the cookies! Both Anna and Hollyn’s families have older children that our older children are friends with. How cool is that?!

Hollyn had her surgery at Shriners in Greenville, SC…the same hospital that we’re using for Dylan. Hollyn went through the same surgery that Dylan will. Hollyn and her mom allowed us to see her leg, her prosthesis, and answered tons of our questions.

We miss Florida. But, we are so meant to be here in NC. We see it over and over again.

Making friends with others who walk the same adoption road that we do – and that we love hanging out with! That God would care so much about us that he’d line us up with friends that can support and educate us about the road we have ahead with Dylan – amazing. God is so very good!