The Gingerbread Birdhouse that wasn't....

We had the best of intentions....

It was on sale, half price.

It would give the kids and I something to do and we had quite a bit of frosting left over in the cupboards that we could use.

It would be fun right?


And after about 20 minutes this is what we ended up with. Not so fun. Goopy frosting everywhere and stale cookies, rock hard frosting and who knows how old the candies were.

Last years stuff perhaps??

At least Jake got a taste. Needless to say, I threw the rest away when the kids went to wash up.

Dresses....

Halter style dress. (fabric not available but style is) This is a backless tie top dress and wonderful for summer.

Fabric choices are as follows, Bigger print is the main fabric with coordinating print the smaller pattern of the two. The "Chinese kids" print is matched with a black Asian writing.

Someone asked if I was still making dresses. The answer is, YES!!!

They are still only $25.00 with free shipping.

We are still short the extras for travel and any dress I make and sell will go towards our adoption travel. We expect to recieve TA in about 6 weeks or so. (fingers crossed!!)

Here is a selection of new fabric samples. These are available in the pillowcase style or the halter style with ruffle.

New pictures and a travel site...

We received a couple pictures of Rachel this week from traveling families. She is growing like crazy. I can not wait to hold her in my arms.

On another note, we have set up the travel journal. The last two times we used China Stork but they are no longer in business, so I chose You Belong. I really like the other sites out there but I don't know anyone who has $150-$200 to set up a journal. (at least we don't) So, for a very inexpensive $19, we set up our site. I probably could have used our blog, but this is something Kerry really enjoys doing while in China and we can have a keepsake.

Visit here to check it our. We are in the "ready to go" section under Christopher.

~ Black and White Wednesday ~

~ Sick Kids ~

All the kids have been passing around a very nasty bug this week. The youngest three have been on antibiotics and breathing treatments. Thankfully we have met our deductible for the year and the meds were $0.00!! (thanks to Gracie's surgery on Jan 6)

I am praying I don't catch anything, at least until after Friday. I have a few tests I have to have done where they knock me out and obviously I can't miss them. Nothing to be worried about, just regular check up things. Prayers would be appreciated though :)

Almost there!!

Thanks to a very generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous we have met our agencies final fees. What we did not know is that our travel was not included in our statement. We have to raise an additional $1500 to cover flight and hotel while in China. We have a Kingdom Kids account and also have set up a Good Wishes account. We are continuing to cut back on expenses and saving every little bit we can. I am also still accepting orders for dresses and will finish my final three bunny orders before Easter.

We would like to thank everyone who has donated in the past, without your assistance our little girl would not be coming home.

Now What?

Some of you have asked, what's next? Well, we wait some more. Aah, the joys of adopting. We did send our I800 application to USCIS and really, now we wait some more. If all goes as planned and nothing happens to slow the process we will get our TA withing the next 6-8 weeks.

I have been busy this week with Sunny being here and just gathering all the paperwork needed. I am also trying to transfer all our airline miles to one account in hopes of getting at least one ticket paid for. If anyone has miles through Delta they would like to donate, we will gladly take them!!

And because a girl always needs chocolate we baked cookies!! This has got to be the best recipe hands down. I got it from the current Martha Stewart magazine but had to change it up to be gluten free. I then realized I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I added crushed Reese cups and vanilla chips. We also subbed regular flour for almond flour. YUM!!