My Mom's Birthday

The first weekend of October was very special and the memories will last a lifetime! My dad planned a fabulous surprise 50th birthday party for my mom. It was the first time he ever successfully surprised her in 29 years of marriage.

He found a fun venue in Nashville called Events @ 1418. The band Act IV provided the music. (they also played at my wedding reception:) The cupcakes were baked by Ivey Cakes in Franklin. Raleigh's brother Brandon and Brandon's wife Stacey graciously agreed to be both guests and photographers for the event. Go check out more of their amazing work here!

The night was filled with friends and family from far and near, old friends and new. There was laughter and tears of joy.

Prop your feet up and enjoy the pictures brought to you by Gresham Photography!

To the Future Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill

Over the weekend, my cousin Erica got engaged. I am so excited for her and her fiance Matt. Her ring is beautiful and it was a lovely engagement story.

I have to tell you that I have 2 sisters and 5 cousins that are also like sisters. We are all very close and would do anything for each other.

When I was little, Erica lived one street over from my house. It was perfect. We are 21 months apart in age and loved playing together when we were little. If I got upset about something, I always told my mom that I was going to run away to Erica's house. :)

When my parents and I moved to Nashville the summer after I finished first grade, I cried and cried because I missed Erica.

One night we had to drive to Monteagle Mountain (half way between Cleveland, TN and Nashvillle, TN) just so I could see her.

Erica is beautiful, hard-working, smart, funny, and list goes on. She is a fabulous daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.

Erica,

I hope you enjoy your time of engagement. Treasure all of the sweet moments that exist somewhere between dating and marriage. What a sweet time.

I am so excited for Matt to join our family!

Congratulations Erica!!

Now...let's take a walk down memory lane...

Cousins love to read together!

Silly faces before bed!

Hmm...I sure hope our fashion sense has gotten better with age!

Christmas at Mamaw's house!

Everyone loves Mickey!

Beware...turtlenecks and stone washed jeans! Yikes!

Strollers

Last night after a yummy Mexican dinner (Friday night tradition) we went to look at strollers. We actually looked at strollers last weekend too at a new store in Alpharetta called Buy Buy Baby. It was basically the same concept as Babies R Us and had a nice selection of strollers. Tonight we went to Babies R Us just to see if they had anything different. For some reason I had in my mind that I really wanted to "test drive" a Jeep stroller. My first car was a Jeep Cherokee and I LOVED that car! Raleigh has a Jeep Wrangler, so we thought we might like the Jeep stroller. Unfortunately the ones we tried last night felt really bumpy when pushed on the smooth linoleum floor. I can only imagine that our little treasure would get bumped around a lot! So...no Jeep stroller for us! :)

Then we went on to the more expensive strollers like Phil and Teds and Bob strollers. They did have a great turn radius and easily collapsed.

We are not ready to actually purchase a stroller yet, since we don't know exactly how old our child will be (or if we might be the proud parents of twins) but it is fun to start looking to narrow down what we like.

Ponderings

Here are a few things I'm pondering...

-Will our little treasure be a boy or a girl? (Twins? Unlikely, but possible.)

-When will we get our referral? January? February? Maybe sooner? Possibly later?

-How old will our child be when we see his or her picture for the first time?

-Will our child be home by his or her first birthday?

-Will Raleigh and I travel to Korea to pick up our child or will we use the escort option?
(I don't really like to talk adoption finances, but I think it is also important to be real. We have planned all along to travel, but a couple of weeks ago we got a letter in the mail from our agency stating that our fees had been increased by $2,000. While we still hope to travel, we will just have to take a close look at the timing and expenses. Obviously we can't plan it out exactly, but hypothetically...if we got our referral in January and our travel call 5 or 6 months later, we would be looking at the the summer. Airfare costs to Korea are really high in the summer, so we'll just have to see how it all works out.)

-Will our child be accustomed to sleeping in a crib or co-sleeping with his or her foster mom on the floor?

-Will I be able to figure out what size clothes to buy based on the measurements we receive from Korea?

-What color will I paint the nursery?

-What will I be doing when I get "the call?" (the referral call that is) Will I be at work? Will it be early in the morning or late in the afternoon? If I don't answer the phone, will they leave a message? Will our social worker call or the director of the agency? Will they call me or Raleigh first?

So many fun things to think about as each month brings us closer to seeing our little one's sweet face!

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

I wanted to share a couple of verses from Corinthians that the Lord has been whispering to me the last few days. This school year has come with a unique set of challenges, but the Lord keeps reminding me that His strength will sustain me (and you). When I feel like I cannot go on one more day, I pray that the Lord will fill me with His Spirit.

In Corinthians Chapter 12, Paul speaks of a thorn in his flesh that torments him. The scripture says that he pleaded (not asked, but pleaded) with the Lord to take it away.

But the Lord said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Even though Paul pleaded with the Lord to take away the thorn (which might have been a physical ailment, a sin he kept trying to overcome, etc.…) the Lord chose not to take it away. Of course, the Lord had and still has the power to immediately heal any broken situation, but sometimes he chooses not to “fix” the problem the way we think is best. Sometimes he allows us to face the “thorn” each day and learn to rest in His grace and His power, which are made perfect in our weakness.

It is easy to write and hard to live out day to day, but my prayer is that I will continually learn to not only endure hardships and persecutions, but actually delight in them. For when I am weak, I am strong….not of my own strength, but the strength of the Lord who lives in me.

Diaper Bag

Several months ago I found a diaper bag online that I really loved. It is the Studio Tote made by Skip Hop. Unfortunately, it was always sold out in Atlanta and I didn't want to order it and have to pay shipping.

Over the weekend we were in Nashville to celebrate my mom's birthday, and I found the diaper bag at Pickles and Ice Cream! I was so excited and so I just had to buy it!!

It is sitting in the nursery just waiting to be filled up with diapers, bottles, cherrios, and toys!

Small Adoption Update....

I think we are #4 with our agency in terms of waiting for our referral. I'm pretty sure there is one family waiting from 2008 and 3 families waiting from 2009. We are one of the 2009 families and we know that the other two couples have home study dates shortly before ours. Our friends Ben and Dana have been waiting since June 26, 2009. Blake and Drew have been waiting since July 1, 2009 and our home study approval date is July 30, 2009.

Our First Tol

A couple of weekends ago, Raleigh and I were able to attend our first Tol. A tol (or you might see it written as dol) is a traditional Korean first birthday party.

Raleigh and I have read about and seen pictures of tols, and we were so honored when our friends Tanna and Karen invited us to their son's first birthday party.

The party was so much fun! Tanna and Karen did an awesome job celebrating Isaac's first birthday. Hop on over to Karen's blog to read more about the special day and see lots of pictures.

I will leave you with a few pictures from the special party.

Tanna, Isaac and Karen during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, the guests were treated to delicious food from the Yumbii food truck! This was Raleigh's favorite part because he LOVED watching the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network.

This is a picture of Isaac's Tol table.

Homemade Pizza...Yum

Have you visited the site The Pioneer Woman? It is one of my favorite cooking blogs because she almost always takes step by step pictures of her yummy recipes.

A few days ago, Raleigh and I decided to try a new pizza recipe. We love making homemade pizza because it is fun, easy, and inexpensive.

Click here for the Pioneer Woman's recipe and pictures.

Here is how ours turned out! Not too bad for our first time. I must say that we did not make homemade crust like the recipe calls for, but we followed the rest of the recipe.

Adoption Update

Our social worker came to our house this afternoon to update our home study. I felt like this occasion was worthy of a blog post, but there really is no update. She said our time frame is still looking like 18 months. Our home study was approved July 30, 2009 so January 30, 2011 will be the 18 month mark.

Obviously this timeline is just her best guess, and we could get our referral sooner or later than Jan. 2011.

For now, we will continue to wait and rest in God's perfect timing for our family.

The Eye Chart

Raleigh and I spent 3 hours today at the walk-in clinic. We do not have a primary care physician, so we use the clinic near our house. Last year we went there to have all of our blood work done for our adoption paperwork. Since it has been over a year since our home study was approved, we needed to go back for a second visit.

Fortunately we did not need any blood work done this time. We just needed a letter from the doctor (on the office's letterhead) stating that we are still in good health and able to parent a child.

When we arrived today, the nurses were not really sure which physical to give us, so they chose a basic form and started going through it. To our surprise, Raleigh and I both had to take an eye test. We both wear glasses and see perfectly fine with them on, but I was totally nervous being put on the spot to read the eye chart. I had to cover one eye and read a line and then cover the other eye. It was awful. Ok...not really awful, but not fun.

In the end, we left with our letters from the doctor...so I guess our visit was a success.

Anyone recommend a good doctor in Atlanta? Raleigh and I generally stay pretty healthy so we've just never found a doctor in Atlanta.

The Feel of Fall

Ok...I know that Fall does not officially start until later this month, but I am definitely enjoying the cool mornings this weekend! During the school week I don't have time to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air, but the weekend air calls me outside.

Yesterday I enjoyed putting out new pine straw and mulch around our landscaping and cleaning our patio. I have a love/hate relationship with our patio. Our back yard is very private, which I love. However, we have tried to plant grass twice without success. There is also a beautiful crepe myrtle in our back yard and a few of the branches hang over our patio. The bright pink blooms are beautiful during the summer...but when those beautiful blooms die and fall off the tree, they are SO messy. No matter how often I clean our patio, the little blooms still leave stains! This fall we are going to trim to tree WAY back and see if that helps at all.

I hope you are enjoying the Fall weather too!

13 months

Since this blog is kind of like a journal for me and Raleigh, and a way to document our adoption journal, I just wanted to make note that today marks 13 months since our home study was approved.

Obviously the timeframe for our referral is basically like a guessing game, but each month we are one month closer to seeing our little treasure for the first time!!

Shopping for Baby

Yesterday Raleigh and I went to The Baby's Room in Norcross. I was in the mood to look at cribs and some of our friends purchased their nursery furniture at The Baby's Room in Kennasaw, so we thought we would take a look. I also wanted to compare their prices and quality to other retailers. It was fun to look around and get a few ideas. They were having a one day sale, but their regular prices seem to be comparable to somewhere like Pottery Barn Kids. I did like that some of their cribs could be ordered in a variety of colors.

I'm sure this was all in my head, but it did seem like I was the only girl in the store who wasn't visibly pregnant. I felt like I should have worn a shirt that says we're adopting.

We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around and get excited about decorating the nursery!

Mary Beth Chapman...Choosing to SEE A Journey of Struggle and Hope

I just finished Mary Beth Chapman's book. It made me laugh, cry, and everything in between. God has given the Chapman family a hard story to steward, but He is getting all the glory along the way.

The next book I am reading is The Red Thread by Ann Hood. It is an adoption novel that several families in Atlanta are reading. We are hoping to get together and discuss the book sometime in the next month or so.

7 Things

My friend Dana gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. Fun!

The Versatile Blogger Award works like this:

1) thank and talk about whoever gave you the award

2) share 7 facts about yourself

3) give the award to 7 other bloggers who rock!

So here it goes...
Dana and I first met at a waiting families dinner for our adoption agency. She and her husband, Ben, are also adopting from South Korea and they are about 1 month ahead of us in the process. Since meeting, we have gotten to know each other better. Dana is super talented and makes custom kids clothes! You can check out her etsy store here. I hope Ben and Dana get their referral really soon! :)

Now on to 7 things about me...hmmm...

1. I LOVE aprons. I guess you could say I collect them. Raleigh always gets me at least one new apron each year for Christmas. Anthropologie usually has a fun selection.

2. I hate to drive. My family and friends will all agree. I would rather ride with a friend and pay for gas instead of driving. I do drive everyday, but I just don't like it.

3. Raleigh pumps the gas for my car. Always. Again, this is something that I can do, but I just don't like it. Thanks Raleigh for making sure I always have a car full of gas.

4. I am a vegetarian. It is kind of a weird story, but basically it all started when I had to dissect a cat in high school. See...I told you it was weird. Anyway, I haven't eaten meat in like 12 years.

5. I love the beach. I cannot wait to take our little treasure to the beach one day!!

6. I was in the Gospel Choir in college. It was the only choir on campus that you didn't have to try out for. I love to sing gospel music, but I cannot carry a tune. I don't think Jesus minds if I'm off key.

7. Raleigh says I rush the seasons. I think it might be true. Last weekend, I almost got out our ceramic pumpkin. Raleigh reminded me that it is still August. It went back into the closet. (at least for another week or two:)

I'm passing it on to 2 friends

1. Brandon
2. Christina

Small Adoption Update

Sorry for a week with no posts. The start of a new school year is exciting, but also comes with long 13ish hour days at school. Yikes. I am going to start to find a better balance this week. (at least I am going to try:) Open House is next week so I know I will have at least one or two late nights. It is hard to believe we've already been in school 10 days.

On to the adoption update...
Since Raleigh and I are past the one year mark of waiting for our referral, our home study needs to be updated. Our social worker will be coming to our home Wednesday, September 8th. Our home hasn't really changed in a year, but Raleigh has changed jobs so she will need to make a few changes to our paperwork. Raleigh loved his previous job in health care consulting, but it required a good bit of travel. We knew that we didn't want him gone all the time once our little one is home, so we made the decision to switch jobs. His new company is also great and does not require travel. We are so thankful that he does not have to pack a suitcase every Sunday night. :)

A Great Read

I absolutely loved reading what Adeye at No Greater Joy Mom had to say about celebrating imperfections.

If you have a few minutes, go take a look!

I Won

Yippee! I am so excited to let you know that I won the giveaway over at Plum Tree Studio!

Isn't Finnigan the Fish just the cutest thing you've ever seen! Thanks Dana for hosting such a great giveaway!

Adoptive Families Dinner

Yesterday a group of families adopting from Korea got together for dinner. Seven couples were able to attend. We are all working with Bethany Christian Services and at different stages in the process. Karen and Tanna came with their daughter Kate and their son Isaac, who has only been home a little more than a week. There were two other couples that are in the "2009" group with us- Dana & Ben and Blake & Drew. The other couples are in the "2010" group meaning that they met the 2010 quota and recently began the process.

Unfortunately I did not take my camera, but we did have a fun time! It is always encouraging to share stories with other families in the process.

Plum Tree Studio...a giveaway

My friend Dana is hosting a giveaway on her blog! Go check it out...

Dana and I met because she and her husband are also adopting from South Korea. She designs and creates adorable children's clothing for her shop, Plum Tree Studio.

So prop your feet up and browse her etsy shop. Don't forget to check out her blog for more information about her giveaway!

Sweet Pancakes

Thursday night we made Korean sweet pancakes. Basically, you make dough and let it rise. Then you divide the dough into small balls that you fill with a brown sugar & cinnamon mixture. Finally, you flatten and cook the pancakes. When you cut into them with your fork, the brown sugar syrup oozes out. Yum!! We decided they would be really good topped with fresh strawberries or blueberries.

You can also adjust the recipe and use shredded cheese as a filling to make a savory dish. We might try that sometime.:)

Last Day of Summer

It seems like I was just letting my kiddos play with sidewalk chalk on the last day of school. And now...it's the last day of summer. Yep, I go back to school Monday for planning and then I meet my class Friday. School officially begins Monday the 9th.

Raleigh and I have been spending a lot of time praying for my new group of families- the parents and the kiddos. They really are kind of like your family during the school year. I mean I spend most of my awake hours each day during the school year with my class. I came across this John Eldredge quote from Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul. (Have you read it? It's a good book.)

“A woman of true beauty is a woman who in the depths of her soul is at rest…..she exudes a sense of calm, and invites those around her to rest as well……she speaks comfort….she offers others the grace to be and the room to become….in her presence, we can release the tension and pressure that so often grip our hearts…..Her spacious beautiful soul invites other to come, to be, to taste see that the Lord is good…A woman who makes herself vulnerable and available for intimacy invites others to do the same….in her presence, you can breathe again, you are free to be you….she unveils her beauty and invites you to life."

Oh how I long for this to be a picture of my soul. Especially when you are around children, they really do feed off your energy. When I am calm it truly does invite the children to feel at peace and comfortable in the classroom.

Lord, please calm my heart as I prepare to begin a new school year full of adventure, and reading, and friendship, and tears, and laughter, and math, and band-aids, and puzzles, and songs, and experiments, and discovery. Let me continue to discover You.

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

365 days...52 weeks…12 months…1 year

However you want to break it down, we’ve been “officially” waiting for our referral for one year. We started researching adoption and attending informational meetings in the summer of 2008, but it has been one year since all of our adoption paperwork, known as our homestudy, was approved. Raleigh and I are anticipating that we will hear from our social worker any day about scheduling a home study update. She will come to our home and basically talk to us and update any necessary information in our paperwork. I’m not sure if she will do a detailed tour of our home again, since she has already done this, but we will see.

Raleigh and I are thrilled to celebrate this fun milestone along our adoption journey. In honor of 12 months of waiting, I thought I would make a list of 12 things we have learned along the way.

1. When God calls you to follow him, he really will provide. (Did we have a savings account full of all of the money we would need to pay for this adoption? Absolutely not! Has God provided each time a large portion of the money is due? Without a doubt! There are creative ways to save and raise money.)

2. Supportive family and friends make the journey so much easier.

3. There is a relatively large Korean population in Atlanta. There are lots of Korean restaurants and stores. H-Mart is a great grocery store to buy ingredients for Korean cooking.

4. The Dol is a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea. Hopefully our child will be home by his or her first birthday so that we can incorporate this special tradition into his or her birthday party.

5. Going through the adoption process has opened our eyes to the vast needs of orphans all over the world. We are so incredibly blessed that our child will most likely spend time living with a foster family before he or she comes home. However, millions of orphans do not have this opportunity. Please pray for the millions of children that will go to bed tonight without ever being told “I love you” or “goodnight.”

6. Pororo is a cartoon character that is really popular in Korea.

7. Korean meals are served with lots of side dishes, known as banchan. You don’t have to order them, they just come with the meal.

8. Tae kwon do originated in Korea.

9. Holt International and Holt Korea are two different organizations. Isn’t that confusing? Holt International has an “online guidebook” that I tried to gain access to because I knew our agency works with Holt in Korea. However when I called and tried to figure it out, I realized that Holt International is based in the US and is totally separate from Holt Korea. I was totally confused about this for about 9 months.

10. Kimchi is served with almost every meal in Korea and is the ingredient in lots of recipes. It is basically spicy fermented cabbage. I’ve read that Koreans say “kimchi” when posing for pictures, but I’m not sure it there is any truth to that.

11. Korean babies usually sleep on the floor on a mattress. When our child comes home, he or she will most likely be used to sleeping on the floor with his or her foster family.

12. I am so thankful that I am on this journey with my best friend, Raleigh.

Korean Cooking Night 2

Last night we had our second Korean meal for the week - stir fried noodles and vegetables. It made A LOT of stir fry so next time I'll use fewer noodles. It was very good and I think we will try it again sometime. I might change one thing about the recipe....it has you cook the noodles first and then cook all of the vegetables and meat. I found that by the time everything was ready, the noodles were a bit room temperature instead of hot. I would probably cook the noodles last next time so that they would be really hot when served.


Yummy meal! Tonight we are trying sweet pancakes!

Mandu Update

Tonight was our first night of Korean cooking for the week. We made vegetable mandu, otherwise known as dumplings. We served it with Asian sticky rice and Publix sushi. It is a bit time intensive to prepare the filling, but we have a lot leftover that we will freeze and save for next time. In the end, it was worth the time and effort! We even found some Korean music on Grooveshark to enjoy while we cooked.

(Please ignore my disheveled hair and lack of makeup. I've been working in my classroom all day trying to get it ready for the start of school.)

Approaching 12...

12 months of waiting that is! This Friday, July 30, we will celebrate the one year anniversary of our homestudy approval date. In honor of this special day, Raleigh and I decided to cook a Korean dish each night this week. We got prepared today by taking a trip to H-Mart for lunch and groceries. Raleigh ordered bulgogi and I had kimchee fried rice. Yum!



We also found these cute Pororo tables! Pororo the Little Penguin is very popular in Korea! We didn't buy one, but they sure are cute!


So the menu for this week is....
(each menu item links to the recipe in case you are feeling adventurous and want to cook something new)

1. Yakimandu (dumplins)
2. Bee bim bop (mixed up rice with vegetables)
3. Hoddeok (sweet pancakes with brown sugar filling)
4. Japchae (stir fried noodles and vegetables)
5. Beosoeot Sanjeot (skewered pancakes)

I'll keep you posted as we start cooking!

Closet Cleaning Day/Weekend

We put the date on our calendar (just so we would really get it done before I start another school year) and the day is here...Today!

We have only lived in our house for two years, so the closets are not terribly unorganized, but we still need to go through and get rid of things we are no longer using.

Also, the main reason we are doing this is because the closet in the room that will become the nursery is full. Raleigh currently hangs all of his suits in there. We also have odd item in that closet such as extra computer bags, our scanner (that we don't want to get rid of but really only a couple times a year) and extra office supplies such as notebooks, printer paper, and printer ink.

So...the goal for the weekend is to reorganize the closets so that the nursery closet is empty and the other closets are simplified. Once we are finished, we'll see if we have enough stuff to have a yard sale, or if we need to just take a trip to Goodwill.
Happy Friday!