The Many Words of Gloria Grace :)

I have certainly not been doing such a good job with this blog. I am going to make an attempt to start blogging weekly, at least updating what the kiddos are doing. I will start tonight, with The Many Words of Gloria Grace. She is becoming quite the little mocking bird :) I told the boys they better watch it, because she would soon be telling on them :)

Here is her current list of words:

• Dadda
• Mamma
• Yes
• Hi
• Thank You
• Hot
• luv u
• Uh Oh
• Eye (as she pokes you in the eye :~P)
• Woof Woof (When you ask her what the doggie says)
• Kitty & Meow
• Ball
• Bye Bye
• Night Night
• Poop -- (I should probably be a little ashamed that one of my sweet little girls words is Poop, but she does have 2 brothers :) & it is really funny to hear her say it :~P
• Stop (Which she has heard me constantly yell at the boys) :~P

She has also said once or twice--baby, pretty, & Coy :)

ICBF Wait List

Here is the new ICBF waiting list for Colombia. This is for families adopting through ICBF, not Casa Privadas--as we did. When we began our paperwork w/Gladney, this was the only option we new about. No one told us that we could submit our dossier to a Casa Privada, until we were ready to send ours to Colombia. When we were ready to submit our dossier, the wait time for ICBF was between 30 & 40 months. We were accepted @ Chiquitines May 2009. Look at this list. We would be NO where near having Gloria Grace home. I love God's Timing, and His plan!!!


Age of Child ------- Date of Application Approval by ICBF

Child 0-12 months ------ Jul - 2007
Child 13 - 23 months ---- Jul - 2007
Child 2 years ----------- Aug - 2006
Child 2 - 3 years -------- Mar - 2007
Child 3 years ----------- Jul - 2006
Child 3 - 4 years -------- Nov - 2006
Child 4 years ----------- Dec - 2006
Child 4 -5 years -------- Aug - 2007
Child 5 years ----------- Aug - 2009
Child 5 - 6 years ------- Nov - 2008
Child 6 years ----------- NOT LISTED ON NEW FORM
Child 7 years ----------- Feb - 2011

2 Siblings 0 - 4 years --- Dec - 2007
2 Siblings 0 - 5 years --- Nov - 2007
2 Siblings 0 - 6 years --- Jan - 2009
2 Siblings 0 - 7 years --- Oct - 2009
2 Siblings 0 - 8 years --- Dec - 2010

The list applies to non-Colombian families adopting through ICBF only. It DOES NOT include special needs children. The definition of special needs are children with disabilities, children over 8 years of age, and sibling groups of 3 or more.

Praying for the waiting families & children.

Happy Valentines Day From Gloria Grace :)

Happy 1st Birthday Gloria Grace

Gloria Grace has had a wonderful 1st Birthday! She started the celebration this morning with her birthday pancakes :) Of course she loved them....she loves everything, well she didn't exactly love getting messy w/her smash cake :~P I will post pictures, from her party soon, but for now---here she is enjoying her birthday pancakes :)

Birthday Pancakes

I can hardly believe that tomorrow I will be making birthday pancakes for our beautiful, sweet, perfect for our family, little Colombian Princess' 1st Birthday!!

As I look back to my journal from this time last year, and see all the talking I did w/God about when I thought he should grow our family, I realize how perfect His timing is, and how He really does know what he is doing.

We will be celebrating BIG, with friends & family tomorrow evening at church. I'm excited to see what Gloria Grace does w/her very own birthday cake :) There will be lots of pictures to follow :)

While we are celebrating, I can't help to think about Gloria Grace's birth mom, "AGB." I wish I could talk to her, and say thank you for giving our daughter life. I can only imagine that the decisions she had to make were not easy. My prayer for her, is that she has no regret. That God has filled her heart with peace.

6 Month Post-Placement---Already?!?!

Seth turned 8 on January 17th, and had a total of 3 celebrations. This is a picture from the 3rd celebration. We went ice skating with friends:

January 27th, Tim celebrated his 41st birthday. His parents & my parents came over for fruit salad. Tim decided he'd had enough cake @ Seth's 3 celebrations :)

I've been so caught up in birthday business that 6 months came & went without me realizing it! I got an email from our social worker the other day reminding me it was time to do another post-placement visit....What? I thought, post-placement visit....we just did that. Well it seems like we just did it :) Then I realized that January 19th marked 6 months, since Gloria Grace was placed in my arms! Oh what a sweet day July 19, 2010 was for our family, and we are currently living "happily ever after."

Next Saturday is Gloria Grace's 1st birthday. We are going to celebrate with family & friends with pizza & cake @ our church.

Sunday after church we will have our second post-placement visit, and send pictures of our sweet daughter to our agency. I think there are 2 more visits after this one.

Here is Gloria Grace modeling her birthday outfit. This is one of the pictures I'll probably send in :)

Happy 8th Birthday Seth

I ♥ this sweet kid.

What a nice weekend we have had celebrating Seth's 8th birthday, and to think it's not over yet :)

He has chosen ice skating for his party this year, and the 2 ice rinks near-by both were holding tournaments this weekend. We will have his party next Saturday, but this weekend we celebrated w/grandparents and Amanda (our cousin) @ Logan's. The waitress let Seth pick any dessert from the menu, and announced to the whole restaurant it was his birthday. He was embarrassed, but loved every minute of it.

We started out today (his actual birthday) with our traditional birthday pancakes. Then tonight we had grandparents over again for Seth's favorite dinner--Chicken Pot Pie. A few friends from the neighborhood came over after dinner, and helped us eat some cake.

Tomorrow, Seth is bringing donut holes to share w/his class, since they were out today for MLK day.
They boys love to spread their birthday celebrations out as long as possible :)

I am happy to let them.