Relaxing in Texas

Hello from the great state of Texas! That's right...I am currently relaxing in my home state with no plans to return to Mississippi in the near future. The near future being tomorrow. I will be returning in the distant future (Thursday) as I am beginning to miss my house, my church, my friends, and the repetitiveness of unpacking boxes and hanging things on the walls. Oh, and I miss Mike, too. As my mom says, I get kinda mopey when he's not around.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Mike and I headed to Texas on Wednesday and spent Thursday with his family eating way too much and being entirely too lazy. It was fabulous.

On Friday, I experienced life in a whole new way. For the first time in several (and I mean many) years, I was not among the crowds of people waiting to get into stores at ridiculous hours of the morning. A part of me missed the adrenaline rush. But a bigger part of me was thrilled when my alarm went off at 7 instead of 4.

However, all shopping was not forgotten. One of my favorite family traditions is our annual Black Friday/Post-Thanksgiving weekend trip. We stay at the Westin Hotel, which is connected to the Dallas Galleria, and shop until we drop. Then, we go to our hotel rooms, rest, eat cookies and watch HGTV, and then go downstairs and start all over again. Unless you are a male member of the family, in which case you spend the majority of the weekend lying in a hotel room watching football.

You may be thinking that I am incredibly ridiculous because one of my favorite holiday traditions involves the mall, but I don't care. It's one of the highlights of the year. I mean, when fourteen people and two dogs all get together, hilarity is bound to ensue. Really, though, it is a great time to hang out with family, visit, play, and yes shopping is definitely a part of it. Just ask my mom about the time that things at Macy's started ringing up for 1 penny. It was one of the happiest days of her life.

I planned to take several pictures of the weekend, but I left my camera at home. And when home is in Mississippi, there's no going back. Until Thursday, that is. So, for now I am hanging out in good ol' Texas with my family (Mike drove back to Mississippi Saturday). There is much Mexican food to be had. I'd better get started.

I'm All Shook Up

A few weeks back Mike's dad and sister made the drive to visit us in our new house. They got to come to church with us, look around the town, and Amy and I did our fair share of shopping.

Of course, this trip also had to include a trip to one of Memphis' greatest claims to fame. I don't actually know that Memphis claims it, but I am assuming they do and will continue to do so until I am corrected by their Chamber of Commerce or some other authority of relative importance.

What is this place? Graceland of course! Mike and I are pretty much assuming that from here on out anyone who visits will want to go to Graceland, and we have tossed around the idea of seasons passes. Alas, such a thing does not exist. But we could become Elvis Insiders. I know what you are thinking. The answer is no. You could never be as cool as us.

All kidding aside, Graceland is just one of those places you have to go once. Just for the experience. It is fun to see it all, and we were excited to get to go see it with Bill and Amy.


Mike and his dad waiting for the shuttle. We are ready to start the tour! The guy behind Mike just found out that he can't try on Elvis' jumpsuits. Not a happy camper.


Elvis was a man before his time. King of Rock and Roll? Try King of Awesome...


Gonna need to see this movie. Movie poster worked...I'm hooked.


My favorite thing about the Jungle Room is the koala bear. Or at least some kind of bear...


Awesome.


Fabric room. You know that has to get dusty. And how do you clean it?


By the front door...it's really not as "huge" as you think it will be. Not that I'm going to be living in a house that size any time soon. I could also think that because you aren't allowed upstairs. I'll bet it's super cool up there.


After the excitement that was Graceland we went and hung out at the Peabody Hotel for awhile, and we checked out Autozone Park. It's a minor league ball park in the middle of downtown. I'm sure we'll make our way to a few games as we go through Ranger withdrawal. Mike was super excited to take this picture.

When it was all said and done, we went and ate here:


Any place in an alley has to be good.

Thanks for visiting Bill and Amy!

Goo

I feel the need to report that my entire dishwashing life has been revolutionized. Maybe I was raised this way, but I have always been one of those "rinse the plate completely clean before you put it in the dishwasher" people. Well, no longer.

After some late night dishwashing, I decided to experiment and put some dirty dishes in there. As in, I am tired of cleaning baked on pork chop and cream of mushroom goo, and I just want to go to bed. Put 'em in the dishwasher and walked away. Woke up the next morning and poof. No more goo. The dishwasher had taken it all away. I know this is probably the strangest thing I have ever written, but I just had to let you know.

Life is too short. Stop rinsing the goo.

The Paperwork Continues

Even though we have already "met" Baby McD and we are no longer waiting to be matched, we still have a lot of paperwork to get done before the end of the year. We are in the middle of our homestudy, which includes doctors visits, bloodwork, essay questions, references, financial statements, and on, and on.

Although we have already sent off our FBI fingerprints, we also have to have the county sheriff sign off that we have no record in the county we live. You know what that means. Back to the sheriff's office. Yay. Why am I so happy? Because of this. Notice the sarcasm.

We also have to go to an expectant parent class. I am so excited about this part! We will be learning about bathing, feeding, car seats, pediatricians, and so on. This is stuff I definitely need some help with!

Our home study consultant suggested that we ask to take the class privately, since we don't need the childbirth part. We are very fortunate, though, to have a woman's hospital in our area, so they have lots of classes. This class is completely separate from the childbirth classes. I mean, I love the pushing and breathing as much as the next person, but I am glad to have a class so tailored to what we need.

I think one of the reasons that the home study consultant suggests private classes is to be sensitive to women who have gone through infertility and the fact that they will be in a class with lots of pregnant women. I think that is a very legitimate concern in many cases, and I definitely understand women who would prefer not to be put in that situation. That being said, in our case I am really just not worried about it.

I feel like God has so prepared our hearts for adoption and has led us to such a peace that it is exactly where we are supposed to be. I am so thankful for that! So, tune in mid-December to find out how the class went. I can't wait!

Happy Fall

Outside of our new church there is a ginkgo tree. Since we have gotten here everyone has told us about how pretty the tree will be in the fall, how the leaves will all drop within a few days, and how everybody rushes up to get family pictures, etc. in the leaves. Well, I was driving by the other day and low and behold, it really is a beautiful sight. So...here's a little bit of fall in Mississippi for you. It looks a lot like fall in Texas. But with a lot more trees.

And the Beat Goes On...

We have had family here this week, so not much unpacking has been done. What a great break, though! We have had fun, and we are wrapping up our visit today. More posts to come, soon! Here is just about the only part of our house that looks presentable right now: the front door! Could I use a few more exclamation points?!?

I saw this Welcome sign on Bless Our Nest awhile back, and I thought it would be fun on the black door. I got it from Scribble It...check them out!

Or if you are my mom...spend some time thinking about how you could totally make this with your Cricut.

We Are Going to Be Parents!

We have some very exciting news to share! Yesterday, we found out that we were picked to be the parents of a baby BOY due April 18th!!! We feel so blessed!

It is so crazy to be able to say those words...to know that in 5 short (please be short!) months, we will have a son! We were able to talk to Baby McD's birthmother on the phone today, and we are so excited to form a relationship with her and walk with her through her pregnancy. It was wonderful to be able to listen to her story, tell her more about us, and to share with her how thankful we are that she chose us as her son's parents.

While sometimes I think 5 months just sounds like forever, I keep reminding myself that it will be here before we know it! With all of the craziness and transition in our life right now, I am so thankful that we will have time to get settled and prepared for Baby McD's arrival! We also still need to finish our homestudy and all of the other adoption details. I think that the truth is starting to sink in a bit, but honestly it still doesn't seem very real!

Someday, I want to be able tell our son all of the details of how we found out we were going to be his parents, so I want to record it all here. I may ramble a bit!

Mike and I were shopping for our church's Wednesday evening meal yesterday when I got THE call. Yes, I got THE call in the middle of a Sam's Club. AND I MISSED IT! I listened to the message from our agency asking me to call, but I just didn't think much about it. I actually figured I may have done something wrong...I was worried I was in trouble! I called back, but I was unable to get ahold of anyone. For the next hour, my mind started churning thinking, "Could it be??" but I convinced myself there was just no way.

I went on my merry way, leaving Mike to head out and run some errands. I had just about decided to call the agency back when Mike called and told me the good news...we had been picked! So, I found out that we had been picked walking through the bath rugs at Bed Bath and Beyond! I spent the next 30 minutes wandering around Bed Bath and Beyond in a daze forcing myself not to call everyone I could think of. We decided we didn't need to tell anyone until after we got the call with more information and details.

Later that afternoon, in the middle of cooking lasagna for 50 people, we got that call. We ran to Mike's office and sat and listened as we found out we were going to be parents to a sweet baby boy! We will fly to Pennsylvania in April, hopefully be present for his birth, and then stay with him there until it is time to come home.

We got lots of other information too, but we will not be sharing most of the details. We feel very strongly about protecting our son's story. When he is ready to know all of the details of his birth family, we will let him know, and then he can decide what he wants to share with the world!

We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your prayers! Thank you for all of the support you have given us, and please be in prayer for our baby boy and his birthmother (we'll call her Miss C)! Please pray for health for both, peace and comfort for Miss C, and for us as we prepare to become parents!

Packing Paper Hates Me

Not much to report here this week. We closed on our house last Friday, so we are up to our eyeballs in boxes. I promise to post pictures once it's all done, but that could be awhile!

On the adoption front, our first homestudy interview is Thursday. I had to cancel my trip to Dallas (boo), but I am ready to get all of this stuff done! Hopefully, once we get started we can wrap it all up quickly.

Off to bed...or to unpack just one more box...