The Smell of Fall

A perfect Halloween...

~pumpkin bread in the oven

~apple cider on the stove

~soup in the crockpot for dinner

What smells remind you of fall?

15 Months

Since this blog is one way that Raleigh and I document our adoption process, I wanted to note that today marks 15 months of "officially" waiting for our referral. The official waiting started when our home study (paperwork) was approved.

When our paperwork was originally approved (July 30, 2009) our agency was estimating a 12 month wait from approval to referral. At that point, we assumed that we would have our little treasure home by this Christmas. Througout our wait, the timeframe increased to 14 months and now 18 months. We know that these are just estimates and only God knows for sure when we will see our child's face for the first time.

I am so thankful for Raleigh because he is great at reminding me to cherish the time we have together as a couple. Thank you Raleigh for loving me so well!

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!