С Новым годом

Happy New Year!! Our little girl is about to celebrate the new year in EE. I'm sure she's tucked snug in her bed and will sleep away as the clock strikes midnight in about an hour.

2010 has been an exciting year for us. John David played his second year in travel ball and did a great job in any position he played. Julianne had her first dance rectital and stole everyones heart on that stage. We embarked on an amazing adoption journey.

I can't wait to see what 2011 holds for us. I can't wait to bring our little girl home. I can't wait to see John David and Julianne as big brother and big sister.

We still haven't decided on a name. I'm sure we'll have one soon. If I can just get Eric to see it my way.

Here's to amazing new year!!!

Free download-able patterns

Homespunthreads is giving away their patterns!!! Click here http://myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com/2010/12/all-homespun-thread-patterns-are-free.html to see all the free downloads. All they ask is that you recieve their newsletter and share the news. My favorites that I downloaded: the pleated ballet slippers and the chef set. Can't wait to sew some of these up.

What's in a Name?

We are having a terrible time coming up with a name for our little angel. Being a school teacher I always have "that" student I don't want to name my child after. Eric, is vanilla, and picks very common names. I want to have a different name; one I don't hear everyday five times when I call roll.

Our first two kids have family names, and I want to keep that tradition, but it's hard when you have names like Rufus and Majory. John David was named after Eric's grandfathers (John, David) and my great grandfather (Johnnie). Julianne was named after all the women on Eric's mom's side of the family (Ann) and my grandmother (Elizabeth)--we wanted to keep the beginning letter, J, too (my sister and I both start with S). So, factor in all those variables, and we don't have a lot of options. May have to rethink the "J" thing. We also had a terrible time coming up with Julianne's name five years ago too. Boy names, I'm good with; it's the girls I'm having trouble with.

Meaning isn't a big deal for me either. I have no idea what the kids' names mean.

We're on the search for a name and are open for suggestions.

Current fundraisers

We’ve got a couple fundraisers going on right now. Still waiting to find one to bring in some big bucks, since that’s what it’s going to cost us to get this little girl. If you own a business or would like to contribute in any way, we would love it. We have to raise between $27,000-30,000 for the entire process. We will give back as soon as we get her home. Our goal is to help bring as many of these angels home as possible (or at least help others to get them home). So, once we get our adoption paid for (either through grants, loans, fundraising, or donations), we will be giving back as much as was donated to us to other families bringing home their forever children into their forever homes.

Fundraiser Number 1:
We are partnering with Wild Olive Tees to help fund our adoption of our daughter from Russia. For every t-shirt you buy, we will receive $7.50-10.00 (depending on how many t-shirts we sell). We only have four weeks to sell these oh-so-cute t-shirts (12/03/2010-12/31/2010). They would make great Christmas gifts.

You  MUST use this code (Family Code: ELLIOTT1203) when checking out to help us track the funds we are raising!  It would not hurt if you mentioned the family code, or your last name, in the comment section when placing their order(though not a necessity! ) Please understand this code does NOT provide a discount on the Adoption fundraiser Tees. The code will be used solely to help us track your sales for our Fundraising efforts to bring our daughter home.
Link to the store: http://store.wildolivetees.com/adoption-fundraiser-tees-c6.aspx


Fundraiser Number 2:
Just Love Coffee
Visit http://www.justlovecoffee.com/ElliottsFamilyStory to purchase coffee for gifts, for yourself, for the mailman. These make great teacher gifts too. Every bag of coffee you purchase, gives our adoption fund $5.00. Just Love Coffee is a local business too. So support your local business while helping orphans and their families.

Number 3 (my personal favorite):
Just donate to our cause at http://reecesrainbow.com/sponsorelliott. All monies donated go directly to her fund to help with all the costs associated with adoption.
Please help us spread the word and bring our daughter home!!!

Home Study

We cleaned and cleaned for our home study visit. At least the house is nice and tidy!!

It wasn't too bad. Kelly asked a bunch of questions: how did we meet, how long did we date, what were positives and negatives about each other, favorite childhood memories, etc. Kinda like a job interview. I think everyone should have to do a home study when they decide to have kids. It does make you think. It made me think about what I want my kids to remember when they grow up. It made me appreciate Eric and remember why we fell in love and decided to have these two wonderful kids.

Now, she has to write it up (as soon as we get her the TBI forms, which came in the mail today; and our physical forms, which we are getting Friday). She said it should be finished in about two weeks!!! Then, it goes to Global to be finalized and translated!!! Every day is a day closer to our girl. I've tried really hard to take it one step at a time. Some days its easier than others. Now, we're waiting on passports so that we can finish up some other papers.