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.

Of course John has all the kids at the school loving Tessa Leigh too. So we shall see.

John Cole had their first high school basketball game tonight. The Jr. High and High School Girls both won but the Jr. High and High School boys both lost by all of 3 points each. I think if they will slow down and take their time we could really have a good boy's team this year.

Coach Stompes said tonight that he was really going to start working with John Cole with kicking in football. John Cole loves Coach Stompes and it's so great that he is taking the time with the kids that he does. He also is going to put John Cole on a weight program and some protein to help him gain some muscle and some weight. He honestly is about the best thing that has happened to GCS in a long time.

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.

No new news on the adoption front in the last few days since December 8th was referred. It looks like we will be looking for referrals again at the end of the month or maybe the first few days of December. I am going to pay for one of her Christmas Presents tomorrow. It's an Asian doll and it's so cute. I added a pic at the top of this post.

So as always I'll close with a small prayer. Dear Lord please watch over our baby girl. Please watch over our family and keep us healthy. Please be with John Cole as he goes through these tough teenage years. We love you and thank you for giving us this wonderful family.