Shaybear and Homie

Shay and Homie have a love/hate relationship. Shay loves to lay-on, pull-on, kiss, feed, and hit Homie. Homie... well... lets just say he keeps coming back for more. So I'm guessing that most of the time he loves Shay. (He's got that "man's best friend" mentality. If I were Homie, let me tell you, I would have been long gone by now.)

Here are some pics I recently took of Shay and Homie. This is what I deal with all day long with Sammy and Shay. Seems like Homie is learning some bad habits from the boys.

Here is Shay just lying on the floor looking so sweet and innocent--NOT.

Here comes Homie, and he's in one of those moods. Note the rubber bone right next to Homie. I'm embarrassed to say that Shay chews on it more than the dog.

Six-pound Homie is literally pulling Shay because neither will let go of the hat.

Grrrr! Homie's got that look in his eyes. He's going into mad-dog mode.

Homie wins victoriously! He takes his prized hat over to his prized sock that he had won minutes before.

All in a day's work. (Homie suffers from "little-dog syndrome." If he finds out I posted this pic, he'd kill me.)

Favorite (Times) Foto Friday

This is my first "Favorite Foto Friday" post, and I'm already changing the rules. I would like to rename it just for this week to "Favorite Times Foto Friday." We spend a lot of our summers at the river. Some of the best times we've had as a family were at Cottonwood Cove. Shay got to experience his first river trip this last summer. He loved every second of it. The water and the boat were his favorite. Here's a few pics from this summer.

Here we are at the river a week before we picked up Shay from Guatemala.

The boat has this effect on the kids--I LOVE IT!!! They are all OUT.

I love this pic of Sammy. Playing on the beach in the hot sun is such hard work.

"The Daddy" doing his most favorite thing in the whole wide world--WAKEBOARDING.

Shay's first river trip--family photo (minus Robby.) Note to self: Always tell others to take more than one pic, because someone in the bunch might by yawning.

I had to hold on to Shay every second while in the boat. This child has no fear and kept trying to get out of the boat and into the water.

Shay always has a smile on his face when he is wet.

Another great shot.

No News.

Well, I was hoping we'd have something new to report about our case by today, but the only thing we know so far was that the amount for the DNA was charged, but no report as to if or when it was done. In Guatemala, the birthmother can change her mind at anytime. If they do decide to take their child back, most of the time it happens during the DNA test. At the time of the DNA test, the birthmother is required by law to have her photograph taken with her child on her lap. I imagine this to be a heartbreaking moment for the birthmother, and for the child if they are older--as in Josie's case. Giving up your child once has to be the hardest thing a mother can do; but having to do it twice... I just can't imagine. I can't stop thinking about Josie having to endure another painful goodbye from her birthmother. She hasn't seen her since she was relinquished. If her birthmother chooses to take her back, I will certainly understand. But I admit, I will be devastated. My heart is with this little girl in Guatemala. I love her, and I miss her so much already. I wonder if she thinks of me half as much as I think of her.

ON THE HOMEFRONT
Here are some snapshots from the last month of my goof-troop in action.

This is Sammy in what he thinks is a "train engineers" outfit.


Here are the kids doing the "choo-choo train" dance


Uh oh, the train de-railed!


Back up and running again


Off all the many Christmas presents, If I only would have known to get them cardboard, markers, & tape, we could have saved a LOT of money!




My handsome Robby showing off his new, no-sweatshop beanie.

We've Got Big News!

Click play to see what we've been up to! (First, scroll up and double-click on the pause button to stop the music.)

Yep, you heard it right, we are adding to our family once again! I have been dying to tell everyone, but wanted to wait until we knew for sure that we were "locked in" before the January 1st deadline in Guatemala. Some of you already know how badly I wanted to adopt again. Sammy did not feel the same however. He was very happy with the children we had. I have been praying for over a year for the Lord to soften his heart and let us adopt one more time. When I saw Josie's photo on the photolisting, my heart went out to her--I knew that if someone didn't want her, she would be one of the thousands of children left behind. Another statistic. I don't know what made me email the agency, but I did. They emailed me back telling me that there was a family interested in her. I was very happy knowing that she may have found her forever family. It was then, when I told Sammy about her and showed him her photo. The next day, Christmas Eve, I got an email saying that the family had backed out and Josie was available again. We had to act fast if we wanted her, time was certainly of the essence in this case. I tried to give Sammy his space and let him make the decision on his own. (I was praying so hard that he would say yes. I was dying inside imaging this little girl without a family.) Sammy finally said yes!!! I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. I made him promise me that he wouldn't change his mind--he promised. We were supposed to call the agency by 2pm to let them know; I called them at 2:10 pm. We booked our flight for the day after Christmas. After arriving in Guatemala City, we got to sleep a few hours before Josie came. When she walked through the door, it was surreal. She was an angel. I was looking at this beautiful, crying, scared child, and I knew she was my daughter. This was the child I had been praying for. Well, it didn't take us long to fall in love with her. At her age, she doesn't understand much. I think the only thing she really understands is that her bithmother left her and she is waiting for her to come back. I hope that in time she will learn that we love her and want to be her forever mommy and daddy. The adoption will take approximately a year. I hope and pray that in that time she will look forward to her homecoming with us.


Although I had been praying, we certainly weren't prepared to adopt anytime soon. Both Sammy and I feel that the Lord had brought Josie into our view and into our hearts. I had stopped looking at photolistings a long time ago. Not sure what made me look on that day--although I do believe that there is no such thing as coincidence. We do not have the means financially to pull this adoption off. We are putting our faith in God, as it was him who led us to Josie, and we feel that 'if He brought us to it, He will bring us through it.' We will do whatever it takes to bring our daughter home. I have some fundraising ideas that I hope to put together very soon. I will keep you posted.


Please pray for Jhosseline. She has had a rough start; but with God's help, she will soon be with the family that is meant to have her. You can all follow along on our journey to bring our daughter home. Check back often--you can save this blog into your favorites.