No April Fools Joke

I know I updated everyone earlier in March that our estimated time for our first trip was going to be more like beginning of May.....well, we just got a call Monday saying that we got an invitation to travel for our first trip, we leave from St. Louis April 9th!!! When our parent coordinator called me on Monday, she wasn't completely sure that it was correct that we were the next family to travel, she was afraid there might have been a mistake, she thought there was another family that was supposed to travel before us. So we weren't totally for sure when we found out Monday, it wasn't until Tuesday that we found out that the coordinator in Russia had told our parent coordinator here in the US wrong when she told her we'd be going probably the end of April-beginning of May, and our dossier,was in fact, there before the other family, so we got really lucky!!! We feel so blessed, God is always looking out for us!! We, unfortunately will not get to bring him home with us this time, so please pray that we will get a court date very soon after this trip, so we can go back the second time and bring him home for good!! It could be anywhere from 1-3 months, but it looks like most families go back in about 3 months from their first trip, so we're praying that we can go back a lot soon than that, more like 1 month! God has answered our prayers so many times throughout this process, so we are not doubting what He can do!

quick update

We have been informed that it will be more around the end of April-beginning of May before we will go on our first trip, according to our parent coordinator. But there still isn't any for sure plans yet, that is just an estimate. We are continuing to trust in God that we will go when He wants us to go. Please continue to pray for us as we wait, we need God to give us lots of patience!!

Update on Adoption Process

Hey everyone....it's been sooo long since I posted on this blog, but we just want to give everyone a little update as far as our adoption. Most everyone knows already, that we have accepted a little 3 year old boy to go meet in Russia. Nothing is set in stone yet, we still can't be completely sure that he is the one we will bring home from Russia, but we can trust God that whatever happens is His will. Our dossier was delivered in Russia on Jan. 31 2011 and we are now just waiting for our invitation from the DOE to travel and meet him for the first time. We've been told that we will probably travel on our first trip around the end of March-beginning of April.....which is right at the beginning of planting season. We aren't worried about it because we know that God is in control and His timing is PERFECT!! We will go when we are meant to go, although we are so anxious and ready to go yesterday....our patience is definitely being tested.

Recently there was a terrorist bombing in one of the Moscow airports, at one of the international terminals and we could have easily been at that airport when it happened if we had been traveling when we wanted to. That's why we continue to trust God that everything will work out the way He wants it to. But right now, we just can't wait to get over there and meet that adorable little guy.
Please pray for us as we wait and as we travel. Pray that we will have a smooth transition when he comes home with us and that he isn't scared of all the new surroundings he will have. Also for our health, that neither the little boy or us get sick throughout this whole process and transition.

I will try to keep everyone posted as things progress, and especially while we are traveling, as long as we are able to find a convenient place to get internet.

But until then, here are some pictures of Reese from this winter....

Reese enjoying her milk in front of the TV


Daddy and Reese


Fell asleep on Mema


All bundled up for the snow

Reese is the Boss

Reese, we think, has started the terrible two's (although, I think everyone says that before their little one actually gets to the terrible two's) I hope it doesn't get too much worse!! haha....She has been getting a lot more teeth lately, and has been struggling through a pretty bad cold....so that probably has a lot to do with it too. Here are some pictures to show you what she has been up to.

Here is Reese being the boss. Last Sunday we stopped at Hardees and she decides to have a complete melt down. She had her own drink, but that wasn't good enough, she had to have daddy's huge cup of dr. pepper that she drank almost ALL of. It was seriously the ONLY thing to keep her calm in the restaraunt...what ever works sometimes....



I caught Reese wearing my sandles one night, it was so cute....later she was wearing Jesse's crocs and she would get mad when they would get turned sideways and she couldn't walk straight, haha



My grandparents came for a visit on their way back to Mississipi. We were so happy to get to spend some time with them after all they have been through. My grandpa had a heart attack while on their trip to Canada and had to have open heart surgery to repair several different things, but he is on his way to a full recovery. You can see in the picture that he is doing awesome!

Reese is growing

WOW....it's been a long time since I updated this thing!! Reese doesn't let me get on the computer much when she is running around playing, so I don't get much time to sit down and do this very often. Maybe one day I'll learn how to put videos on here.
Well Reese is a little over 17 months old now, I can't believe it!! She says so many cute things now. She says "mommy" and "daddy" all the time, "ball" "papa" "mema" and all kinds of jibber jabber that you can tell she is saying something but none of it makes sense yet. She is always walking around and acting silly just like her daddy, haha.

Our family, Reese had to have her cookie too.


One day it rained a lot and Reese wanted to play in it.


She loves to get into the cabinets and get snacks out, I caught her this time with the tortilla chips, I guess she got hungry, haha.



She is already getting on the computer, but then she decides to crawl up on top of the computer and get on the table, she still has a lot to learn.

Easter Sunday '10

Reese had fun on Easter, she got to search for eggs but didn't really know that's what she was doing. She liked to bang the eggs together instead. Reese has been walking now for about 2-3 weeks. She is getting really good at it and she is getting faster!! She says some more things now, she says "baby"(for everything that's small and cute)"cracker" "baby girl" "puppy" "papoo"(for grandpa Walsh) "mammy" (for both grandmas) "mama" and "dada" (for mommy and daddy) "uh...oh!" (just when she feels like saying it) "bye bye"(while waving) and she claps her hands together all the time. When we at church and everyone in the crowd starts clapping, she starts to clap too, it's so cute. She learns new words everyday, she has all of a sudden accelerated in her speech and just started saying all these new words all of a sudden, she is growing up so fast. Here are the pictures from Easter...

This dress was a very popular dress for Easter, this wasn't planned at all

Reese is 1 year old!!!

Yay!! We can't believe that our little girl is 1 year old already. She had a good birthday, but we are going to celebrate this weekend, we will have pictures later. But for her birthday, we went shopping with Grammy Wilson, Aunt Julie, Aunt Cassidy, and Riley. And then that evening we went over to Grammy and Pa's for an ice cream cone, she loved it!!





This is one of her new birthday presents from meema and Paapa Walsh, she LOVED it, she just kept going in and out of it over and over and over.....