Homestudy on Wednesday!!!

Our home study is officially scheduled!! The women doing our home study will be flying in from Dallas on Wednesday and will be here at 11. I am really excited, I am really feeling like we're making some progress. Up until now its all been paperwork so its great to be getting this done. I've heard that the home study is a really fun, enjoyable experience but my obsessive compulsive nature is coming out and is freaking out a bit about not being prepared! Last night I begged Jason to please try and appear normal, we all no that will be hard, just kidding honey! Seriously though it is giving me good motivation to finish a few projects around the house. I don't need everything perfect, just nice.

On a different note, did everyone see American Idol Gives Back? Seeing all the precious children really made me emotional. I'm scared at all the emotions that will over come me when I get to Africa. I was sobbing just watching Carrie Underwood's song with all the children. I am going to be a wreck. They are all SO beautiful. It is just amazing to me that there is such a need for medicine there, we are so blessed to live in country where if we're sick we get help, hungry we run to the store, all the small conveniences that we take for granted everyday. Did I hear it correctly that millions are dieing from Malaria when it takes a pack of pills to cure it? I just cant imagine. Where is help? I cant imagine experiencing such tragedy and death in a lifetime, death to them is the norm. Parents loosing children, children loosing parents...its heartbreaking.

Gotta love dads...

There is something amazing about the fashion sense of fathers when it comes to dressing their daughters. Even the most well dressed, fashion forward male cannot seem to put together a cute, even matching outfit for their little girl. Maybe its due to lack of effort, maybe because so many men claim to be 'color blind', I'm not real sure, but WOW is all I can say. So yesterday Ella comes home from school wearing, peach Capri pants, a pink t-shirt that I would ONLY let her wear when playing in the mud which by the way, she has done in it many a times, and then the kicker...her green crocks with ankle socks, yes that's right ankle sock with her crocks!!! Now to his defense we did experience a bit of a cold spell which probably caught him off guard but really, was that the best he could do? Amazing...I guess you just gotta love the effort

Chaos, Chaos, Chaos!

This whole 'blog' thing is completely new to me however after much prodding from my sister I decided I should start one so everyone could follow our adoption story. We started the paperwork about three months ago. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with getting it all done. Somehow balancing Ella (our 2 1/2 year old), my three horses, one of which is being bred, two of which seem to be falling apart, the 10 boarder horses, riding lessons, our new puppy, and just the other normal day to day challenges, has been a bit of a shock. I think I'm up for it though, I figure life isn't life without tons of chaos! So all I can say about how I'm feeling to date is that we are keeping our eye on the prize, a beautiful new addition to our family!

To make life a little bit crazier I did the unthinkable...I went into an Animal Shelter. I went in with the intention to just talk to the director about helping with abused horses, an idea that has come to me after reading Hope Rising an amazing story about abused horses healing abused kids. Like I need any more horse but ya know...So while waiting for the director I thought it would be harmless to just 'look around'. I first headed into the cat area where there were tons a cute kitties, but honestly cats just don't really tug at the heart strings. Then I found myself looking into the faces of tons of adorable puppies. One in particular got my attention, a black lab/hound dog mix. He was four months old, with big floppy ears and feet that are way too big for his body Anyways I know you know where this is going...Virgil as we named him is now the newest member of our family!! Note to self: stay far far away from any stay dogs, animal shelters, pet stores, etc.