WE'RE MOVING!

I seriously cannot believe I'm typing this...but after only 5 weeks on the market we got a full price offer on our house. A full price offer. It's crazy! Before we signed, our agent called around and made certain our buyer is "strong" and was assured she is....so we signed on the dotted line last night.

It was funny cuz last night our agent had rented out a local theater for a private showing of Prince Caspian. We had already RSVP'd to go with my sister's 3 oldest kids. Our offer came in at 3:30 and we were meeting at the theater at 5:30 anyway..so our realtor brought all of our paperwork to the theater to be signed. :) So we sold our house, technically, at the movie theater. :)

Now we're in a bit of a crunch to find a new house! My parents have graciously agreed to let us bunk with them a few weeks in case we can't find a good house right away...so at least we have a back-up plan! We went out looking today and I was kinda disappointed in what I saw -but it was just the first day and since we had Elizabeth with us we could only see 4 houses (she needed to nap!). We want to buy the "right" house this time around..not one that just meets our needs for the moment..but one we can grow into, so we're going to be more picky.

June is going to be SO busy now! The kids have swim lessons every weekday, we have company coming next week, and now I'm gonna be packing up AND trying to find a new house. :) At least it will make the time go by quickly. :)

SCC'S MANAGER'S SITE

I linked to Mr. Houser's website in the first post I did about Maria Chapman passing away..but wanted to share the link again. I've been glued to his site since last Thursday. He's been gracious in sharing his thoughts on the accident, what happened at the visitation, the memorial service....he's given me just a glimpse of what it's like to be close to this amazing family.

If you look to the right, you'll see the "older posts" -definitely go there and read from the accident forward. The first comment on the "Thank you's" post is actually from the wife of one of the paramedics who responded to the Chapman home -and even in those horrific moments, the Chapmans were a witness.

In one of the posts, Mr. Houser writes about the overwhelming response of love they'd already seen -and as of the 23rd, just 2 days after the accident, over $100,000 had been donated to Maria's Fund at Shaohannah's Hope.

If you'd like to visit his site, you can just click HERE

IN MEMORY OF MARIA SUE CHAPMAN

A website has now been set up in memory of Maria. This is the site -and it has the cutest video of Maria and her daddy on it.

Also, if you want to send condolences, you can check out Steven Curtis Chapman's website here -there is an address listed.

PRAY FOR THE CHAPMANS

I'm sure this news is traveling like wild fire right now..but I just learned that Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter was killed today in a tragic car accident. You can read about it here . Maria was their 3rd daughter adopted from China.

I'm sitting here stunned...all I know to do is pray.

please join me.

**I found the website of the man who I believe is Steven Curtis Chapman's manager. here it is. We can probably stay updated on the situation via this site.**

A BOW GIVE-AWAY!

Do you need a cute pair of bows for your little one?! :) Who doesn't?!

You can win a pair of the cutest little strawberry bows by clicking HERE . But hurry! cuz you need to enter the drawing by this Friday, the 23rd!!!!

If you've followed our blog for very long, you've undoubtedly seen my girls in bows -ALOT!. Pretty much every bow we have is from Sara Beth Bows . They are made with such precision and love and care. I can promise you, you will not be disappointed with them. And best of all -they're "cheap" compared to what you'll find in the stores. :)

So run over and sign up for the give-away!

A POST WORTH READING

Actually, it's not just THIS that you should read...you really ought to bookmark the blog so you can check in regularly. :) Just click HERE to see her whole blog.

Signs of Hope is written by the first family advocate we had at our agency. Her name is Carrie, and she and her husband quit their jobs here in the U.S. to serve in China. They are now on staff with New Day Creations -and 1 of Carrie's jobs is to write articles for them. She is a phenomenal writer and says things so eloquently.

Please make sure you read the post...it's such a sweet story about how God works in such sweet ways.

**and as a side note...the story involves a little guy that I totally fell in love with when we visited New Day before our adoption trip began. :) You can see pics of my time with "Seth" here -he's the cutie in the yellow sweatshirt. :) **

**And as a second side note- we found out last week that Seth should be getting a family soon! Thru a set of circumstances that could only be attributed to God, last week I found out his file had been sitting at a US agency for some time now. John and I started to pray over whether God would have us apply for Seth. The very next day I was finally able to get a hold of the agency that had his file and in just a matter of days they had had 6 families apply for him (thanks to some advocating by one of his sponsors!) and they were going to be meeting to match him with a family that next day. Well, unfortunately, that was just too soon for John and I to make such a big decision like that. In some ways I'm disappointed...Seth is such a sweetie (and if you read that post by Carrie you'll get a glimpse of his sweet spirit) and I would have loved to be his forever mommy...but in other ways I know it just wasn't meant to be. He has a very serious heart condition and with us only being home with Elizabeth for 6 months...it just would have been alot to take on. Whoever Seth's forever family is -they are a very lucky bunch. :) **

WELCOME TO OUR NEW HOME!

Welcome friends and family!

I hope you like our new look. :) It comes courtesy of Keisha at Blogs for Babies -who is, by the way, incredibly wonderful to work with!!! If anyone is considering sprucing up your blog and you're "crafty and techie challenged" like me, you should work with Keisha! AND she donates part of her fee to Love Without Boundaries . How great is that?!

I plan on trying to update this blog at least weekly with what's going on over here...some weeks I might even get time to post more than once. :) My ability to post is ALWAYS dependent on how the week is going with the kids...they certainly keep me hopping!..and of course trying to keep our house in perfect condition now that it is on the market is taking up alot of my time! :)

The reason I started a blog in the first place was to A)chronicle our adoption journey to Elizabeth and B)just give friends and family a place to come see what we were up to. So, for now, I'll just leave you with 2 pics of our 3 little blessings that inspired the name of this blog! :)