HE NEEDS A FAMILY

This is Grady.

He turned 13 years old on June 3rd of this year. On June 3rd of next year, he will age out of China's adoption program and will no longer be eligible for adoption. Sadly, his SWI just submitted his paperwork 2 months ago -which doesn't give him much time to find a family.

You can't see it in this picture, but Grady has scoliosis. It is so severe that is has caused him to be much shorter than he would have been. Apparently he has to place all of his weight on only one of his legs -and we've been told that he cannot feel that side of his body. He walks with crutch like canes....but LONGS to be able to run and play just like other boys his age.

He is living at The Philip Hayden Foundation right now. The people I've emailed with about Grady tell me he is an absolute sweetheart and a great kid. He is desperate to have a family of his own.

I know there are thousands of kids just like Grady, but something about this boy has tugged on all of our hearts here in our home. :) The kids (Andrew and Becca) pray for Grady before every meal and every bed time..without fail. They pray for God to heal his back and for Grady to have a family.

John and I feel the least we can do for this sweet boy is to diligently pray for him and advocate for him. Will you help us do this? Will you join us in praying for Grady? for his back -which will take several surgeries to "fix"? and for the Lord to quickly raise up a family for him?

I'm going to be a bit bold here..would you help us advocate for him too? If you have a blog, would you do a little post about him? or maybe email everyone in your email address list and just let them know that Grady needs prayer and a family? You never know who may see your blog post or read your email and then see Grady's picture and say "oh my! that's my boy!!!"

If you, or anyone you know of, are interested in Grady, please email me at jethalt (@) yahoo (dot) com -take out the parentheses of course! and I can put you in contact with the folks who are in charge at The Philip Hayden Foundation

ELIZABETH GETS HER 2ND HAIRCUT

Today was Elizabeth's 2nd hair cut. :) Back in late April/early May, I took her to one of those kiddie hair cut places. They did a pretty bad job. To their defense, her hair had 100 different pieces to it (from being shaved so long in her orphanage) and it's hard to get things even because the 2 sides of her face aren't equal (you know how they are always measuring your hair according to your jawline?)....but still, it was a bad job.

So, I decided her hair was getting pretty floppy and needed a cleaning up. :) I figured I'd rather pay a few $ more to go to the stylist that does my hair..and know it would be done right..rather than to throw $ away at the kiddie place.

E did great! We got there, she dropped her little purse like a hot rock and jumped right up into the chair. My stylist was shocked! Elizabeth was so well behaved and kept still as much as a 2.5 year old could. She smiled almost the entire time..so excited to have some special time all about her. :)

She officially got bangs too! She kinda had them already but they were different lengths and starting to grow out..so my gal gave her "real" ones. :)

You know the best part?! When I got ready to pay she said "heck -just give me $5 and we'll be good." I argued with her but it was no use. $5 for a professional hair cut!

My stylist and the other gal in the salon were smitten with Elizabeth..she sure can charm the pants off of strangers! :)

GIVE-AWAYS, HOME BUSINESSES, AND CATCHING UP!

I have several friends who have now started up home based businesses and I wanted to give them a shout-out..and to steer you towards their items as they are QUALITY with a capital Q thing. :)

First up:

I've followed Dianna's blog Tuininga Increase for quite some time now and just recently she started up the most amazing little business. She is an incredibly talented photographer and has been able to turn a few of her photographs into cards. You can see them (and order them!) HERE. What I love is the fact that, not only are they GORGEOUS photos, but the cards are blank inside -so you can write whatever you want in them. I showed John the pack of cards and he was pretty impressed (that is HIGH praise!). :)

Dianna is holding a drawing for What's the Difference? Manhood and Womanhood defined by the Bible by John Piper AND a pack of her beautiful cards. Head over to her blog to see how you can enter to win these great gifts!

Next up: Livi Lu Creations

Lynn is a dear friend of mine. I "met" her back in June of last year. Our daughters were on the same SN list at our agency. She has been my go-to person whenever I've needed advice on attachment and bonding since Lynn has adopted 4 precious kiddos!

Recently Lynn decided to take her hobby of sewing for Olivia and expand her talent into a small business. You MUST check out these adorable outfits!! They are absolutely beautiful and to have something like this handcrafted just for you?! Amazing! Go check out Livi Lu!

Lastly, my favorite bow-tique!

SaraBeth Bows, as most of you know, is where I have purchased 99% of the girls' hair bows. They are meticulously made, look amazing in my daughters' hair, very reasonably priced, and to boot -Jeanette is just a joy to work with!

The bow above is the bow being given away for September. Go to Sara Beth Bows to enter and win. Jeanette also has several Halloween Bows discounted if you purchase them before Halloween. Go check them out!

Now -to catching up on us!

the kids enjoying an afternoon in the pool. believe it or not -it's actually getting too chilly to swim..the water, not the outside (as we're still hitting 100 regularly right now!).

Elizabeth is actually getting pretty good at swimming -we just put the floaties on when there's only 1 adult in the pool for safety.

The next few pics are from last weekend. We tried to make moon cakes for China's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. I'm still learning how my oven cooks and I got distracted while they were baking..and instead of checking on them I ended up letting them go 'till the timer went off. They were a tad "crispy". :) Thankfully they didn't come out of the oven 'till the kids were in bed so they didn't have to see their creations thrown away. :)

are they done yet?!

Miss E showing off her apron. :) We bought plain ole kids' aprons at Mich*aels and then I put some iron-on things on them and they colored them with special markers and ...voila! ..they all have their very own unique aprons to wear when they're helping me cook. :)

Finally -a pic of all of us together! Our 1 year post placement report is being done tomorrow (Saturday)...it needs to be on our agency's desk by 11/4 so we had to get it done a bit before the 1 year anniversary. Anyway, part of the requirement is a picture of the whole family together. Well, we didn't have one! I realized this fact late last Saturday night so called up my parents EARLY Sunday AM and asked if 1 of them could quickly snap our pic before church. Thankfully they were able to!

I'm off to iron a few drapes...we're still slowly working on the decorating part of moving into a new home. I'm hoping by the end of the weekend we'll have some progress on that front! :)

THE LAST FEW DAYS

I can't believe it's already Thursday. The days are literally flying by. I'm on my feet doing something from 6am-10pm with hardly a break...though I do take 5 here and there to do email or check a blog or 2. :) "Regular" life takes up most of my day..and what used to be "down time" is now "unpack another box and try to put the contents away" time.

Anyway-here's a little snippet of the last few days at our house:

Tuesday, all 3 kids had dentist appointments. Elizabeth doesn't get a cleaning, just looked at for cavities. The same happened back in March but I had to let her have an appt this time too b'cuz she is SO into doing whatever Andrew and Becca do she would have just been so upset if she hadn't had a turn in the dentist's chair. :) Plus, our insurance totally covers it so we don't have to pay a dime AND with her facial deformities, we're glad the dentist can keep an eye on her jaw line (that will need to be surgically lengthened in a few years, before we start having ear surgeries)

In front of the house...notice Becca's baby cradle? :) she decided Andrew's football helmet made for a great baby carrier. :)
Elizabeth just HAD to be a part of the action! With everything she saw the other 2 getting done she'd ask "my turn? my turn?" The hygenists and dentist got a big kick out of her. :)


Andrew naps in his big boy room everyday..well, he doesn't nap -I just send him in there to rest and usually 1 out of 5 days he'll nap. Anyway, the last 2 days Elizabeth has asked to nap in Andrew's bed...she is so proud of herself for sleeping in a "big bed". It won't be hard at all to transition her full time into that bed! yay!
notice anything different? yep-a pool fence. finally. our backyard is absolutely stunning..the previous owners went all out making it resort-like...but they had older kids and so did not have a pool fence. The 2 doors leading to the backyard have double handles on them -here you can either have a fence or the double handles -1 low and 1 high and both have to be turned in order to open the door...thus making it impossible for littles to open it....but that isn't optimal for us. Not having a fence meant we couldn't let the kids go outside if we weren't right there with them. And even then, you can't see the pool from the grass area very well. So, even though it totally breaks up the beauty of the patio/pool area -we had a fence installed.

Now, with the cooler weather approaching, I can let the kids run and play outside without worrying every minute if they're OK.




Last, but not least, here are my kids dancing to one of their favorite YouTube videos right now. :) You can see the video HERE and if you have littles, I'd highly recommend you do so. :)

take a note at how little rhthym my kids have..and then make sure you notice Elizabeth's version of break-dancing!

BECAUSE HER LIFE HAD WORTH...

you can read this precious little one's story HERE

WE'RE GETTING THERE

Care to jump in?! :) we have been..just about every afternoon.

above was the house last Saturday
and this is it a day or so ago...progress!

we still have a little ways to go...I still have no decorations up and there are still boxes in 2 of the rooms...but we're slowly but surely getting unpacked and settled.

I'll leave you with some pics of Miss Elizabeth. she's quite the character I tell ya!

yesterday morning she pranced into the kitchen still wearing her jammie top, but accessorized with a princess skirt, princess flip flops, and if you look real closely -a ring on her right hand...oh yeah..and this new pout of hers! :)

but then the pout turned into a cheesy grin. :)

and last but not least...my girl LOVES chocolate. LOVES it...as you can see.

I should have learned my lesson from the brownie and frosting all over her hands incident..but no. I gave her some chocolate syrup on ice cream the other day. :)

Now, hop on over to my sister's blog to read her exciting news! :)

WE'VE OFFICIALLY MOVED!

We spent our first official night at our new house last night (Sunday night)!

The storage units arrived Thursday while I was cleaning the house, John and I unloaded most of 1 on Friday night, and then we had a couple friends come over Saturday morning to unload the rest with us.

The rest of Saturday was spent organizing boxes and beginning the ever-fun task of unpacking!

Thank God my parents watched the kids for us all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We could NOT have gotten this far without their help!!

By Sunday I had the kitchen pretty much organized and put away (but still quite cluttered..which I hate!), and all the bedrooms were at least ready to be slept in. :)

Today, Monday, we were able to get more unpacked and even make a run to the grocery store and Lo*we's for some odds and ends we wanted to make the house function better....little by little we're getting there. Thankfully, John has taken the whole week off so we can be completely done with the unpacking by the end of the week.

Here's a few pics of the process

The BEFORE shot:

Becca and Andrew rolling around on the new carpet on Thursday. You can catch a glimpse of the new tile and of course can see the new paint and carpet too in this shot:)

Saturday morning we discovered a new "pet" swimming in our pool..a little frog. :)

the AFTER shots.

what a mess!!!!

this one's a little fuzzy -but gives you a good look at just how cluttered my home is

finally got the kids' rooms set up..not decorated, but at least set up!

our pool was getting scuzzy looking quickly every week..so we had a new pool guy come out on Saturday to show us around our pool a bit (since we've never owned a pool and don't know much about them yet)..he said our pool was getting so dirty cuz our filter was SO clogged up it wasn't able to really catch much....so Sunday afternoon John took on the task of cleaning the filters.

Disgusting doesn't begin to cover what they were like.

You can see how brown they are....and they're supposed to be white!

It took John a good hour or more to completely clean all 4 filters-but now the pump runs great and the pool looks so sparkly clean! :)

That's the news from around here. :)

For those that have emailed me lately, I promise to get back to you as soon as I can-I'm just gonna be slower than usual right now. :)

Oh -and for those that might have emailed us on Friday or Saturday, our email was down as our provider was "moving" our account. I know quite a few people emailed us and the emails bounced back to them...so just resend them. :)