We Love Our Kids Always: January 2014

Wow…It's been a while. There was not much to update in December. We did not move at all in the month of November. It was no fun! December brought only a few referrals. We moved up 3 spots to #40. I was hoping for more than that. December was also pretty uneventful until the last couple of weeks. There has been a lot of talk going around about Ethiopian adoptions. We have known since last Saturday evening. We are really not for sure what is fact or fiction right now. Apparently the Ethiopian government (or a portion of it) would like to end International adoptions. As of right now, we are being told not to read into this too much. It could possibly just mean there will be more changes on the way. We are not sure where we stand right now. It is possible things could change soon or it could take years for the government to get things in place to end international adoptions from Ethiopia. I'm not sure what we will do if that happens. We have talked about it a little but are really hoping Ethiopia will not shut down but just make necessary changes. It may make our process longer. We just don't know. Hopefully we will know more soon.

On a better note….we had a great Christmas! We always do. I just love Thanksgiving and Christmas. We spent Thanksgiving in Houston with my sister and her family. We always have a great time visiting them. I was able to meet my new great nephew too! He is really something special. He was not supposed to be here until December 6th, but made his arrival Oct. 25th. He weighed just a little over 3 lbs. He was home from the hospital and doing great while I was there. I just love him to pieces! He is perfect in every way. Christmas is always great. We spend time with everyone in the family. We had my family over for dinner Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day home with the kids. We were very lazy that day! I spent the next two days cleaning house! Saturday, we spent the day with Jason's family. Jason surprised me Christmas morning and said we could go back to my sister's, so we left Saturday night and drove 15 hours to Houston. It is a horrible drive! We arrived there around 9:30 Sunday morning. We had a great visit. Baby Xander has grown so much just in a month. I couldn't believe it. I forgot to pack my camera, so I have no pictures to share. I was not very happy about that! We left Houston on Thursday and went to Dallas for a night. We did some ice skating at the Galleria and experienced how the rich shop. We only purchased some candy at the candy store and some Auntie Ann's pretzel bites. Thursday night we went to Medieval Times. The kids loved it, especially Kian. He cheered, well I would actually call it more like screaming and yelling, and ate a ton of food. Friday we hit Main Event where we played some laser tag, bowled, and hung out in the arcade. We headed home that afternoon so we could beat this snow storm. Now I am wishing we had just stayed down there through this week too!

Right now, I am sitting it the dark in front of the warm fireplace. We have no electricity and there is probably 10 inches of snow blowing around outside. The temperature is supposed to get down to -14 tonight with a wind chill of -40. Jason is working on getting the generator going as I type. He has been out all day cleaning driveways.