So I think John and I have a name compromise. I wasn't and still am not crazy about Tessa Leigh so I think we are going to compromise with Ariel Tessa. She may be called both or just Ariel or maybe Ariel Tess. I really like the name Tessa and to me she has always been Ariel so joining the two makes sense.
On the Chirstmas front John bought John-Cole a laptop so he should be happy. He and Landi broke up so I'm not sure who he's liking now. Could be Emily or Charlie or who knows. He's such a good kid. He deserves someone who knows what they have when they have him.
I'm hoping to save enough money to get John a membership at the Municipal Golf Course. I just have to stop spending money on Ariel. I've found myself getting back interested in dolls and have bought three more for our collection. They are all 3 Middleton's and are so cute.
Thanksgiving 2007 is almost here and I hope and pray that by this time next year we will be having Thanksgiving with one more member of our family. As always we are praying for our baby girl and can't wait to go and get her!
More later....
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Compromise.......Possibly!
Posted by John and Beth at 1:21 AM 0 comments
Friday, November 09, 2007
Pictures of John-Cole and School 2007 10th grade 1st Half.
Pictures from John Cole's Sophomore Year! I so freakin love these kids! First is John Cole and his gorgeous girlfriend Landi. I just love her! They are so good for each other. This is Homecoming 2007!
Next we have some of our Sophomore Girls. Chelsea, Abbie, Kaitlyn, Allison and Sam!
Here is John and our cousin Holly looking gorgeous just like always. She had the most gorgeous dress I have ever seen. She also made court her first year to be eligible and I have no doubt she will be back on her senior year! Gorgeous Girl!
Posted by John and Beth at 12:56 AM 0 comments
John and John-Cole have lost their mind about our baby girl's name!
Here is a pic of the doll I bought our baby girl for Christmas. Isn't she gorgeous!! Her name is Shu Ning and she is by artist Ping Lau.
I was reading the name boards night before last and saw a name I liked, Tessa. It's feminine, cute and beautiful at the same time. I really like it. So I mentioned it to John. I said something like Tessa, I really like that. You know like Tessa Beth or Tessa Leigh. John screams, "THAT'S IT!!!!!!" I said "What?" "Tessa Leigh, that's our baby, that's her name, that's her." Well John-Cole feel in love with it too and now they won't even hear of another name. It's Tessa Leigh or nothing. Now I love Tessa, I really, really like it. Leigh, however I don't like. I never liked my name being Leigh. It's to masculine for me. Tessa Leigh is cute but I just haven't given up on Ariel. Or even Arielle! So what about Ariel-Tessa, it's cute! It compromises both names! Nope John won't hear of it, his baby is Tessa Leigh. I think he's been around Emily Mobley's daughter Chrislee to long. So I don't know how this is going to turn out. I do really like Tessa so I'm hoping for Ariel Tessa. Then as she gets older if she would rather be one or the other then she could choose.
I got to watch Coach Morgan tonight too and I'm impressed. He's very intense but there isn't a doubt that he knows what he's doing and that's great for our boys. I haven't heard him say anything about staying for a long time but I'm really hoping that he makes the boys the kind of promise that Coach Stompes did that he isn't going to be here a year and then leave them. They really seem to like him too! It almost seems to good to be true that we have a SUPER respected football coach and now the basketball coach seems good too. Heck I even like Mr. O'Rear the new headmaster! So I will say GCS seems to really be going in an upward direction and I'm so so happy. It's really the only thing that I'm going to hate to leave when we move. I would love to take the school with me and have the baby girl go to GCS. I know God will provide a good school for her though wherever we end up.
Posted by John and Beth at 12:34 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Oh I forgot to add.....
Oh I forgot to add that Kevie, our social worker in Oxford retired in order to Home School her kids so we have been moved to Jackson. Peggy is our new social worker and she is great! John and I both really like her! It's been great having two great Social Workers in Kevie and now Peggy.
We do like traveling to Jackson better since it is about an hour closer to us then Oxford was. Of course anything for our baby girl!!
We will have to go have our fingerprints done again in December in Memphis for hopefully the last time! I don't think we will have to redo our 171 thank goodness! Anyway wanted to add this!
Posted by John and Beth at 3:20 PM 258 comments
November
Well it's November! Referrels finally made it into December! Yay!! Right now the CCAA has referred families through December 8th. Thank goodness November is over! It took 5 months to finish November. Praying that it won't take that long with December or January!
Let's see whats going on with us. Football season is over! We had a terrific year and Coach Stomps is just the best! We scored more this year then we have in years and years. Now we are moving on to Basketball which starts this Thursday! I can't wait!
We are still up in the air about names. Our baby girl has been named about 3 times but we are revisiting all the names just to make sure we have the right name. Of course like John says we probably won't know exactly what to name her until we see her beautiful face! Right now some of the names in the running are,
Keira-Beth
Katey-Beth
Karleigh-Beth
Kara-Beth
Ariel-Beth
Alayna or Laney-Beth
Savannah
We just don't know! I found myself looking and browsing name sights. Just anything to do to help deal with the wait.
Of course we know God has our daughter and she isn't ready yet. He has the perfect little girl for our family picked out and in HIS time we will have our referrel.
Oh we added another pet to the family. One night I noticed something black near John's shop and it was a kitten. It was so funny, John rigged the cage for me and I put food and water in there and then we ran a rope into the den and when she went in we caught her. That's been quite a few months ago and she is now part of the family. Her name is Isabelle and she is so mischevious! She can be so mean but then at night she is so loving. We made the mistake of letting her out the other day and she went under the fence next door. Well the neighbor's sheepdog was out and chased her about 40 feet up a pine tree. Of course once she was up that high she was terrified and had no intentions of coming back down. So John had to pull the bucket truck into the backyard and go up and get her.
Back to the adoption, I've had so many dreams of travel lately. I am still so scared of flying for 17+ hours but I know God will get me through it. I'm so ready just to get her and get home and start her life here. I can't wait to see her at the football and basketball games.
I guess thats it for now. As always I thank God so much for leading us to our babygirl! We love her so much and think about her constantly. I know God is watching over her until we can get there to get her. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Posted by John and Beth at 2:54 PM 0 comments
Monday, September 17, 2007
Costa Maya
Oh,
I meant to add that Costa Maya, the place where John and I went on our cruise and also Mama and John-Cole and us in May was destroyed by a hurricane. It's really sad as you can see in the pictures in my other posts below it was a gorgeous place! The sad part was that the entire port of Costa Maya and the little fishing village of Majahual were dependent on cruise ship trade so when the hurricane came it wiped out almost everything. Thankfully it was more wind damage and not the absolute ahnialation that the Mississippi Coast got from Katrina which was from storm surge.
John said we went to New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast (Biloxi and Gulfport) a few months before Katrina hit and then we went to Coasta Maya and Majahaul a few months before a hurricane hit. So it looks like when we go on vacation the place gets destroyed a few months later.........well we went to Branson in August so lets hope that nothing happens there!!!!
Posted by John and Beth at 12:29 AM 0 comments
Update
Wow, it's been such a long time since I posted. The sad thing is there really isn't anything to update. As of today China has referred through November 25th. That's right, it has taken 5 months and they aren't through November yet! There are times when it gets so hard that I want to scream but then I remember God is in charge of this, not me or John. I'm just so ready for our baby girl to get here. John-Cole turns 16 today! We started this journey when he was 13. I feel like he's not going to get to spend much time with her because he is growing up so fast. I can't believe my baby is 16. He has grown into such a wonderful young man. I'm so proud of him. He's just so all around good. He doesn't give us any problems and everything to him is funny. I'm so so proud of the person he is!
We did have a ladybug sighting yesterday. We were getting ready to go to Wal-Mart and John was standing in the door to the van and I was going to drive and a ladybug landed on John's shirt right in front of me. I watched John in the rear view mirror and the lady bug stayed on his shirt until he opened the back door of the van and then she flew off. Maybe that means good things are to come. I'm hoping that December referrals will go much quicker than November. According to everything I have read online December is much much smaller than November. So if they hurry with December there is a small possibility we could have our baby girl's picture by Christmas. That would be so awesome!
We are still up in the air about her name. Right now we are flip flopping between Ariel-Grace, Ariel-Beth and Keira-Beth. Her middle name is Barbara, that isn't changing it's just the first name. So we shall see.
Oh, John-Cole won President of his 10th grade class. After getting all the awards he got in 9th grade (Mr. Junior High GCS, Funniest Freshman, and Nicest) I'm just so proud of him. I think I've said that before, ha ha! I just love him so much!
I'll end as I have in the past just with a small prayer asking God to hold our baby girl in His arms until we can get there for her. God please shower her with the kisses and hugs that we can't give her yet and whisper in her ear that her mommy, daddy, big brother and granny will be there soon and we love her and miss her!
Posted by John and Beth at 12:20 AM 0 comments
Monday, June 04, 2007
More Name Considerations!
Well we are thinking again about changing names. We thought Ariel Grace was going to stick but now we are liking Keira. So as of right now we are thinking,
Ariel Grace
Keira Grace
Keria Elizabeth (Called Keira Beth)
Keira Beth
Ariel Keira
Keira Ariel
So............????
I think when I finally get to see my daughter I will just know who she is if that makes sense.
Nothing really new on the adoption front except that the CCAA is moving slower than Christmas. They are still referring early November so we aren't even sure if we will travel this year which stinks. I am so ready to have our daughter home!
We just got back from a crusie from New Orleans to Mexico. Had a blast. John-Cole is finished with 9th grade and is an official Sophmore now, wow that's hard to believe! He won Friendliest, Funniest, Class Favorite and Mr. Junior High G.C.S. this year. He is such a great child! He makes everyone laugh. I'm so proud of him.
Well I guess that's it. Just wanted to write about the name possibilities and the time frame which is as slow as ever! Still praying daily! God please hold our angel in your arms and tell her we wish we could be there NOW!
Posted by John and Beth at 5:27 PM 1 comments
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Adoption Update!
Adoption Update!
There really isn't much to add right now. Finally February and part of March are out of the review room. As of now the CCAA has sent referrals through October 13th. What does this mean for us? Well it depends, if they keep this rate of referrals I'm thinking maybe September or October. I'm truly hoping that it won't be longer than that.
We actually have an appt. this Friday to get our physicals redone. We also have to get everything else updated for an updated Home Study and then an updated 171. Hopefully after that we are in the home stretch!
I'm so ready to get our daughter home. I was just thinking, I was 33 when I started this blog and now I'm 35. We never knew we would be waiting this long but it will be worth every second when we finally hold our daughter in our arms!!
If your reading this, please pray for us and Ariel-Grace. I know God kisses and hugs her for us and I know He has OUR daughter waiting on us which is why we are still waiting. We have to wait until our daughter, that God means for us to have is ready to come home!
So that's it for now!!!! Hopefully I'll update again soon with more! I can't wait to update with pictures of our daughter!
Posted by John and Beth at 1:03 AM 0 comments
Cruise Part 2.......The Cruise and Ports
Of course I had to take pictures with all of the giant cat displays!
All around the pier is a giant shopping complex with mostly stores that the cruise lines will tell you to shop at. There is also a small beach with chairs set up all around as you can see below.
Overall I can say that for Shopping, Cozumel definitely topped Costa Maya but for beauty Costa Maya had Cozumel beat! I would love to go back to both places! As we left Cozumel you could see the Mayan Pyramid Tulum in the distance. We could have gone here but it would have taken our entire day because you have to travel from the island of Cozumel to the main land (Playa Del Carmen) and then travel to Tulum. I was surprised I could zoom in and get this picture.
Okay so where was I........we had a great time. It isn't Disney because you don't go and do 24 hours a day! You definitely have some relaxation time on a cruise. Alot of people drank and gambled and if you don't do those you might be a little bored. We always managed to find something to do like playing bingo or just going back to our cabin and setting on the balcony. We did take a nap almost everyday! The ports were awesome and I would love to go back there! It was nice that we left from New Orleans which is only a 4 hour drive. So I think we will go back soon, I have to take mama shopping.
Posted by John and Beth at 12:02 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Our Vacation Part One New Orleans!
For Supper we went to Muriel's which is attached to the Hotel. It is also supposedly haunted. The food was fantastic and the decor was even better. They had a room (see below) that is called the Seance. It is decorated in deep reds and velvet. It reminds me of what a bordello must have looked like back in the early days of New Orleans. It was deserted and we were able to wander.
It wouldn't have been a trip to New Orleans without stopping by the MOST HAUNTED HOUSE IN NEW ORLEANS! The Lalaurie House! If you want to be freaked out google it and read the story. Anyway I made John find the house and here is a picture in the daytime. This is the same house where I took the ghost pictures before......I've included those pics as well. Here is a picture of the LaLaurie House that I took when we were in New Orleans before Katrina. Now some peopel will argue that orbs are dust particles or moisture or even bugs but this orb is so huge and has so much detail that I think it's the real thing. What convinces me even more you will see in the next picture!
This is my ghost picture from the LaLaurie Mansion. If you will look on the left side, near the ground you will see the arms and legs of a person falling. They look to almost be hitting the ground. In reading the history of the LaLaurie Mansion it is well known that someone (a maid) jumped to their death running from Madame LaLaurie. Since this is the most haunted house in New Orleans and the history is true I can't help but think that I got a residual haunting on film. The one arm is so obvious and upon closer look the legs and body can clearly be seen!
So that's New Orlenas, all the grace and charm and Ghosts!!!! I would love to go back and just spend time in the city! It's awesome!
Posted by John and Beth at 11:36 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Happy New Year
I will say that yesterday was amazing though. We went to Memphis to look at John's new dog and when we got to the mall and got our of the van the first people we saw was a family with 2 Chinese daughters. Then it seems for the rest of the day there were little Asian girls everywhere we looked. John said there is your sign from God that our girl will be here this year. I hope so. I do have to admit it was amazing to see all those gorgeous girls everywhere you look.
Reflecting back on everything else for 2006, it was a great year for John-Cole. He's thriving as a teenager and loving school and church. He's really coming into his own and I'm so proud of the young man that he is becoming. He still has that wonderful sense of humor but he also has a good heart, just like his daddy. He loves the Florida Gators and wears Florida clothes all the time. He went to the Sub-Deb Debutante dance with Terri Beth at the Country Club a few weeks back. He was so handsome!
Oh I mentioned that we had gone to Memphis yesterday. John has wanted a Miniature Pinscher forever and I found one in Horn Lake. So off we went and I don't think I've ever seen John so excited. He feel head over heels in love with that puppy. We don't have a name for her yet but here is a picture. She is the black and brown baby girl in the middle,
Well I guess I'll end for now. I'll update soon.
Posted by John and Beth at 1:04 PM 1 comments