All the "NEW"s- We have survived! What a whirlwind of a year this has been for us. In June 07 we sold our house in Charleston..moved into a hotel for a month...then moved from the hotel to my temp apartment in Kentucky near my family. John left for a five month deployment to the middle east and I'm proud to say that Isabella and I survived the seperation, though it was much harder than I had anticipated. We did get five wonderful months with my family in Kentucky though which kept me from feeling so lonley like I have in past deployments. We welcomed John home on Dec 19th and then spent our Christmas moving into a condo we've rented in Chesapeake, Virginia. We got to spend Christmas morning with my family as we normally do, but I really missed putting up my tree this year and enjoying the memories associated with each of the holiday ornaments that John and I have collected from our travels over the years. We're not sure when our next move will be but we know that we'll be here for at least a year so we're going to enjoy every day of it.
Isabella continues to be the center of our universe and we're still amazed every day by how much love and happiness she brings into our lives. We have always been such a strong and happy couple that we never thought it could get much better than what we already had...but we were wrong about that. Isabella has doubled our joy in life 1000 times over and we are so VERY thankful to God for blessing us so greatly.
Bella is growing so fast and she is currently embarking on the quest to get rid of her diaper! John and I are considering when to move her out of a crib. She is so fearless and we know that she will be a "midnight explorer" once she can get out of bed on her own so we're trying to keep her crib bound until she at least figures out that she can crawl out of it. Her vocabulary is amazing for a 2 year old (don't all parents think this?) and she is obsessed with reading books. She has a great imagination too and makes up elaborate stories to tell John and I about animals, and swimming, and the squirrels she sees in the trees outside her window. It's quite funny to hear how detailed she gets and we really enjoy seeing her imagination grow.
We do music classes and an imaginative play class once a week now because it's right up her alley. She enjoys the social interaction and so do I since I'm starting all over making new friends again. Most of our friends that were here before have already transferred to other bases. We are very happy being back in Virginia though and we're looking forward to some "cooler" summers than what we've had in Charleston the past few years.
Pehaps the most exciting news that we have is that we have decided that we want to adopt from Guatemala again. Right now Guatemalas adoption system is undergoing great changes and our adoption agency seems to think that once things stabilize there the cost of adoptions will be cheaper. We're not sure what "cheaper" means since right now the cost is nothing near what could be considered "cheap" or even affordable, but John and I are praying that we can somehow find a financial path that will allow us to adopt from there again. We would really love for Isabella to have a sibling that she can share her culture with. We're keeping our hearts open to other roads to adoption as well , and we know that the correct road will be made clear to us when the time is right. We are going to start some fundraising very soon though and we will be able to pay off the last of Bella's adoption cost in the next month or so. Please pray that God will open doors for us so we can experience the wonderful blessing of adoption again.
Isabella continues to be the center of our universe and we're still amazed every day by how much love and happiness she brings into our lives. We have always been such a strong and happy couple that we never thought it could get much better than what we already had...but we were wrong about that. Isabella has doubled our joy in life 1000 times over and we are so VERY thankful to God for blessing us so greatly.
Bella is growing so fast and she is currently embarking on the quest to get rid of her diaper! John and I are considering when to move her out of a crib. She is so fearless and we know that she will be a "midnight explorer" once she can get out of bed on her own so we're trying to keep her crib bound until she at least figures out that she can crawl out of it. Her vocabulary is amazing for a 2 year old (don't all parents think this?) and she is obsessed with reading books. She has a great imagination too and makes up elaborate stories to tell John and I about animals, and swimming, and the squirrels she sees in the trees outside her window. It's quite funny to hear how detailed she gets and we really enjoy seeing her imagination grow.
We do music classes and an imaginative play class once a week now because it's right up her alley. She enjoys the social interaction and so do I since I'm starting all over making new friends again. Most of our friends that were here before have already transferred to other bases. We are very happy being back in Virginia though and we're looking forward to some "cooler" summers than what we've had in Charleston the past few years.
Pehaps the most exciting news that we have is that we have decided that we want to adopt from Guatemala again. Right now Guatemalas adoption system is undergoing great changes and our adoption agency seems to think that once things stabilize there the cost of adoptions will be cheaper. We're not sure what "cheaper" means since right now the cost is nothing near what could be considered "cheap" or even affordable, but John and I are praying that we can somehow find a financial path that will allow us to adopt from there again. We would really love for Isabella to have a sibling that she can share her culture with. We're keeping our hearts open to other roads to adoption as well , and we know that the correct road will be made clear to us when the time is right. We are going to start some fundraising very soon though and we will be able to pay off the last of Bella's adoption cost in the next month or so. Please pray that God will open doors for us so we can experience the wonderful blessing of adoption again.
posted by Janine @ 1:39 PM
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