Our Journey to Luke

Twenty one years ago, as we waited for our son, Colt, to come home to us from South Korea, I kept a journal. To look at it now, it was somewhat of a primitive journal, but a journal, neverthless. It is written in a stenographer's notebook.....just thoughts from a mother's perspective. Even though I didn't know if it would ever be anything he would be interested in when he was old enough, it helped me.

Here we are tweny one years later, and look how far technology has brought us! We didn't even own a computer back then.....now we have a grand total of five in our home! Although I'm still technically challenged, especially compared to my kids, I've come a long ways!

I've found a place that so graciously lets adoptive parents journal their adoption process online so that family and friends may follow along on the journey. It is a website called Journey to Me. They are passionate about adoption...for the children and the families as stated in their mission statement and beliefs and values:

Mission Statement

"Helping Adopted Children Thrive"

Beliefs and Values

We are compassionate and committed to the unique journey of each adopted child.
We believe every child deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.
We believe every child deserves a family.
We believe every adopted child experiences grief, loss and fear of attachment.
We are dedicated to providing a safe network of support for adoptive families.
We provide educational resources to those impacted by adoption.
We are the premier, comprehensive resource for issues facing the adopted child.


They offer the service of an online journal FREE for one year, and then offer the option of having it printed in book form. Isn't that really kind of them?

So why not just post these things on my blog? Well, I'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things (gasp!), and I liked the idea of having it all in one place (all neatly together in order) where it was easily accessible to all who would be interested in viewing it (and for me). Also, through many adoptive parents, I've heard that blogspot isn't always easily accessible while in China, and may even be blocked, or if it is accessible you have to post a particular way through a phone with access to the internet, etc... Well, I can't depend on me being able to have all that figured out, so I chose the safest way I could for being able to post while we are in China especially. I want you all to be able to share this journey, since you've been with us from day one. So even as we are there, our forever family day (when we get Luke), and the days that follow, my plans are to make a journal entry for everyday we are there! China is 14 hours ahead of us, so it should work out perfectly. As we've completed a day and posted it, you'll all be waking up and reading a new journal entry!

So today, I want to introduce you all to our new journal site which we called Our Journey to Luke.



At the bottom of our homepage is a table of contents of all the entries. We will add to this as time passes. I tried to catch all the posts up to date, since we didn't start this online journal from the very beginning of the process. You will recognize some of the posts as things having been written on my blog here, as well as many "new" things you probably haven't read or didn't know.

I am also posting the link to this site on my sidebar for future reference, so you can keep up with Our Journey to Luke.

So to our family and friends, we invite you to join us and share our joy as we record Our Journey to Luke.

Change is Coming....(A Little Sneak Peek)

The bedroom makeovers have begun, but we're being very pokey about it! However, I do have a little sneak peek to share with you.

All of the furniture (and stuff) from the guest room that will be Joy's new bedroom is moved out into the center of the loft floor upstairs. We took down the border, mudded and repaired the walls, and primed it.

What you'll see today is just the primed walls....the primer is tinted a similiar color to the actual color that the walls will be. These pictures make it look a little more blue, when in person, it is really more aqua.



That's a glimpse of the bed that will be painted white, that used to be mine as a little girl....the one Joy will be using in her new room.



Here's the color the walls will be painted in Joy's room.....Pool House (Valspar from Lowes). It's hard to get the true color of it to show on here...it's one of the exact colors that is featured in her bedding actually.




You saw her bedding in a previous post, but here's another look at it.



Here's a lamp that I found at Gordman's. It was already a great price, and I used my 20% off coupon and got it for right at $11.00 lamp and shade.



Hopefully we'll get more accomplished this week or at least the weekend. I'll keep you posted! I'm ready to get it done!

Snow.....Again???

That's the third time this year....that's really something! If we get one snow a year, maybe two, it's a big deal.....but this is three! This one took us totally by surprise! (You can tell global warming is in full swing here.....)! ;)



We woke up this morning to a Winter Wonderland out our window (to us anyway). We already have about 4-5", and there's supposed to be another front moving through this evening, so maybe more! Bambi was admiring it from her perch....I wonder what she was thinking? :)



Joy didn't have a clue. Jason woke her up this morning and told her to come on in the kitchen and get breakfast "so we could get started on our schoolwork". She dragged out of bed and was very tickled to see the snowy white blanket over our backyard and the trees! Her normally mean ole homeschool teacher even let her off for the day, so we could go play. Although now that I think about it, there's still plenty of time....maybe some Math is in order yet....



And play we did. Actually, Jason and Joy played more than I did. I was official photographer.

There were snowball fights.





More snowball fights.





Daddy and daughter....



And it was a really good wet sticky snow....good for rolling into balls, and perfect for constructing a little snowman friend.



So she and Jason created our snow buddy....meet Boo Boo.





Doesn't he look like a jolly fella?



Joy, honey....you're losing your pants.....(pants on the ground)! (She was wearing some of my old sweats) :)



That's my feet....had to show you the 4-5"! I love the crunchy sound of the snow under my boots!



It's hard to wear this girl down....tire her out.....to make her want to go inside and get warm! Oh to have that energy again! Glad I'll have her around to help with Luke! :)





And of course, I had to capture some snow scenery photos for our picture album.











My mama and daddy's place next door...they have all the trees!



Oh, and the not-so-fun part about playing in the snow.....the mound of laundry!



It's snowing lots more as I type this so we'll see what happens after this front moves through. I can honestly say we've had our snow(s), and spring would be really nice! I can see why all of you folks in the north talk so much about spring and are so eager to send me some of your snow :)



Thank you for stopping by! :)

We Received Our LID! Yay!

Good news!

I really appreciate the prayers AND I promised to let you know after our DTC (Dossier to China), when we received our LID (Logged In Date), so I wanted to make sure I let you all know that on Joy's birthday (yesterday), we got word from Ms. Xiaoqing that we received our LID on 1/29/10! That means the dossier made it to China and was logged in with the Chinese government AND we made it before January's end.....my goal all along! That was only 11 days! The next step will be waiting for the next three little sweet letters.....LOA....Letter of Acceptance)! The timeline for this has been running about 2 months, but you know with God, anything is possible! I think someone recently got their's in 52 days....that's very encouraging!



Every step puts us that much closer to Luke. He turns two the end of this month, so we will send him a care package and have a cake sent to him via a third party, Ann of Red Thread, but I sure wish we could be there with him! Maybe we'll get updated pictures of him from his birthday celebration!

Again, thank you all for the prayers for the adoption process. It really helps knowing there are others out there praying for us as well! Praying our way through each step is what makes it bearable! It really does help planning and preparing the bedrooms during the wait too.

Bless you all! Have a great Wednesday!

**Joy loved all the birthday wishes...thank you for those too!**

Blessings,
Tammy

Our Baby Girl is 11 Today!

Every year, on Groundhog's Day, our Joy is another year older. It's so hard to believe that 11 years have passed since she made her debut into our world. She arrived full of personality and has always been such a blessing! She is the perfect blend between girly girl and tomboy....what we call our girly tomboy.....sweet, but spunky.





I remember before she was born (we already knew we were having a girl) thinking about what she would be like....her personality and praying for a compassionate, sweet, genuine, beautiful (inside and out), loving little girl, someone that other people loved too. Okay, I believe in being specific in prayers and I even prayed for a brown-eyed girl. She is all of that and more, truly.





Jason and I laugh about the fact that I used to wonder what her voice would sound like when she could talk. When we found out, boy did we find out! From the time she could do anything resembling talking, she woke up "communicating" and went to bed talking until she just fell asleep. She once told us at a relative's house when she was quite little, that sleeping was a waste of time! That pretty much sums up this girl. She's all about going, doing, and being bubbly in the midst of it. Her energy and personality brings life wherever she goes. She's a social butterfly.....never meets a stranger, always has a smile to boot. She has a gift for making others feel good whether it is a little one, an elderly person, her family, or someone under privileged.






We're so very grateful that God gave us this special little girl. We don't take the credit for any of this as we know God entrusted us with this special bundle of "Joy" that he sent our way.





Joy, we are very proud to be your mom and dad. We love you with all of our hearts and remember we're always here for you, but most of all, put all your trust in God because He is ALWAYS there.



Happy 11th Birthday, baby! (4 and 10)!

Sleddin'...."Southern Style"

I should have known that things wouldn't go exactly as planned this weekend. The plan was to get up this morning and get started on Joy's bedroom makeover, right after breakfast.

Instead after our chocolate gravy and toast, we went to (plan B)...out to play! Yesterday and last night, we received freezing rain, sleet, ice, and snow. The weather just couldn't make up its mind, so we got it all and it just sort of packed together and mostly we just have packed down icy roads around us with a little dusting of snow over it.

We say every year that we are going to get a sled for that "one time a year" that we do get snow, but we procrastinate and so today, we still hadn't bought our new sled. Instead of worrying about what we didn't have....we just started looking around here, in the storage shed and garage....and Pop's garage. We came up with a political campaign sign that made a great sled and we did find a little round lid type sled that we must have picked up somewhere one year. But the real find was my daddy's little creative sled....his concrete mixer! He and Jason got it all fixed up and attached to the 4-wheeler and....voila....instead sled...."Southern Style".

At first, Joy tried sledding down the hill on the sign.











Then on the little round sled.





That was fun enough.!

But, we discovered the real fun was in being pulled in the concrete mixer sled behind the 4-wheeler. Because of the ice, it was quite the ride!











Even I got in on the fun (although you won't see any pictures of me on it...I had the camera and was having to hang on dearly). Jason pulled Joy and me all through the fields behind our house and down the back gravel roads! We did have a tumble and the concrete mixer landed on top of me with me landing on top of Joy. I don't think Joy knew whether to laugh or cry until I started laughing! Now, I'm starting to get a little stiff and sore.....I may not be able to walk tomorrow and the day after, but it was fun today!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and stay warm! :)

Now time to get to prepping a bedroom to paint......

Planning the Kids' Bedroom Makeovers

Finally! We think we have a weekend that we can actually begin the kids' bedroom makeovers. So far, there's been something going on every weekend, to keep us from getting started. However, there has been a deviation from the original plans. We won't be doing anything to Colt's room. He's decided that he'd prefer to stay put in his room and not do anything to it. Joy is getting the spare (or guest bedroom) and Luke is getting Joy's present room. So that means only two rooms to redo....instead of three....for now anyway.

We are starting this weekend with Joy's bedroom, (at least painting it).

Joy received the bedding she was wanting for Christmas, so the inspiration for her bedroom makeover came from this bedding set. As you can see, it has several colors in it, but we will be pulling out the aqua and brown mostly with accents of pink.



She will finally be getting a full size bed.....the bed I received as a gift from my parents on my 12th birthday! However, we are going to paint it white. It has a dresser that matches it, but she wants to use the dresser she has now instead (which is already white).

For a long time, Joy has talked about having a ballet barre in her room with mirrors behind it, so we are going to try to incorporate that into the new bedroom. We bought the supplies for Jason to make her one.

And this is a piece you probably never seen before. I don't recall ever showing a picture of this armoire on my blog before. We paid $50 for it. My cousin was having a garage sale. It was the end of the day and she didn't want to take it back inside. I convinced Jason we needed it and he brought it home and even hauled it upstairs to it's resting spot. I don't think he's ever liked this piece but I always have. However, I've always intended to do something different to it, because I have never been a big fan of dark wood, really. So now, guess who else loves it? Yep....Joy loves it and asked could she please have it in her room. So it will get a makeover too.



And right now, that's what we have to begin Joy's room, so we'll see where it takes us!

Next on the list is little Luke's room. I've had this bedding picked out since before Christmas, actually before Thanksgiving, I believe. We have been told on a couple of different occasions that he LOVES cars and loves riding in cars (which is a really good thing because he'll do alot of that..lol!). So here's his bedding:



My dad insists that he needs a car bed. I'm not sure if that is going to happen yet or not. That will depend on if I can find one used because they're more expensive new than I thought new and with travel expenses to China coming in the future, this won't be an option. So, I'm on the lookout for a used twin size blue car bed (Little Tykes). If that doesn't pan out, Jason will just build him a twin bed.

I purchased these vehicle/construction prints to frame for his room. I loved the bright colors and thought it went so well with the bedding.



And speaking of frames, I'm thinking red accents (that's his favorite color and they say he loves bright colors). You all know how much I love red, so this made me very happy too! Also Dan of Yesterday Once More (remember his letter giveaway?), got in touch with us and told us he wanted to do letters for Luke's room as a gift! What a sweet thing to do! We thank you so much, Dan!

My sister-in-law, Missy, bought a cute little accent to go with his car/transportation/vehicle themed bedroom right before Christmas, but I don't want to reveal it all just yet, but it's coming together.

I have a few ideas floating around in my head for the rest of his room, but that's exactly what it is....floating around and not concrete yet.....so I'll share more as we get to it.

That's the plan for the makeovers and I'm ready to see them start becoming reality now! So let the bedroom makeovers begin!

Oh yeah, someone asked about how our upstairs bathroom was coming along....it's STILL NOT FINISHED....we just kind of stopped with the holidays and haven't gotten back into the mode of finishing it yet. I promise to share it when we finally get it done!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great Wednesday! :)