Our little neighbor, Ava, is staying with us this school year.  Ava joined her forever family in March of this year and is doing great!  She arrives each morning, giggling behind her backpack, and shouts, "Surprise!"  Ava is three months older than Maddox and, on most days, they are the best of friends.  It is definitely good practice for our little Maddox - the sharing of toys, the sharing of me, the sharing of MK - it can be a bit overwhelming at times for our littlest miss.  But, like I said, for the most part, they are the best of friends cruising around the backyard, jumping on the trampoline, playing on our playset....and belly laughing the entire time!

Maddox Ren, our comedian.  She loves to find a good walking stick and then she will proceed to walk around the yard with this stoop about her saying, "I'm an old lady, I'm a little old lady..."

Maddox is really taking a liking to writing her name and drawing pictures.  And she LOVES to join in school time with MK - she does her "homework" with the most intensity I have ever known a four year old to use.  

MK had her very last soccer game and the girls had a little half-time fun with orange slices.  Though she will quickly tell anyone that soccer is her third favorite sport - swimming and ballet being numbers 1 and 2 - she had a great experience with soccer.  My favorite MK comment from the season was when she said with a very serious face, "Mom, I am just not a kicker girl."  

One more medal to add to her collection....so proud of MK for wanting to try new things!  

Let the waiting begin.
With MK we waited in line for a non-special needs baby girl under the age of 12 months for 10 months.  We realized quickly that the wait would grow....we are still speechless when we look at the timeline and see that we would STILL be waiting for a non-special needs little girl 7 years AFTER completing our paperwork!
But we switched to the special needs program 10 months into the wait.  5 weeks later we were matched with our MK.
With Maddox we anticipated a 2 year process from start to finish.  Paperwork, match time and travel, two years.  We began the paperwork in April, received Maddox's referral in September, and traveled in March...total time = 11 months.
With our current little one, we are swallowing hard this morning after not receiving a referral after the first list release (since our LID) last night.  We all waited by the phone, staring at it, praying for it to ring with happy news on the other end.  Sadly, the phone did not ring and we did not get the news we were anticipating.  So, we will wait.  One more month and another list will be released....maybe our little one will be on there????  And if not, we will wait more.  We are being told to expect a 1-6 month wait time and we pray this is accurate without bumps in the road:)
With all this said, we do have full faith in God's plans for our family.  After all, he has opened door after door during our journey.  Please pray for our baby girl.  We feel she is alive and well and waiting for us to love on her with arms wide open and we cannot wait for the moment when we first see her face!

Our weekend included a quick, spontaneous run through the pumpkin patch at G-Mom and G-Dad's church. 

In true Maddox fashion, she was full-on with her goal of finding the perfect pumpkin....

she found several in all sizes that were just what she was looking for.....

and my little one, who often runs from the camera, was all smiles and enjoyed every.single.moment of being captured by my lens....

and beautiful MK.....this little one had two things on her mind, (1) getting into church, and (2) getting away from my camera:)  She agreed to one quick snap and then she was off to church.  

our little farmer.....

and the tractor driver....

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with G-Mom and G-Dad this weekend....the children were given a bit of extra time with them while we attended the wedding of a very special girl, one of my family of six I grew up babysitting for.  What a true delight it was to see each of the six and their mother while celebrating Kate's marriage.  

The grand finale to our weekend was done by celebrating Emma with family and friends during a bowling bash.  I love the picture above - Colin obviously nailed his shot and the others are watching the board to see just how many points he earned.

Emma had the ultimate form in bowling.....

my girls and their daddy - an intense game indeed.

Hard to believe our baby Emma is NINE years old.  We all adore her and the little lady she is becoming.  She was the first little girl my boys fell in love with and she continues to give them a heads up on what to expect as their sisters grow up!  And MK has a big sister of sorts, someone to admire and look up to.  We are thankful for you Emma and we love you always!

Everyone has crazy days.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are ours.  We are on.the.go from 8:15am until 8:00pm, consumed in school, speech, piano, ballet, swimming, football, co-op, soccer, and everything in between.  Today, though it was a crazy day, we took a moment to just enjoy the beautiful weather.  

 While Colin and Pryce finished up with piano, the little girls and I went to the park.  Lo and behold, the geese were out and about looking for food.  The girls had so much fun tossing bread into the water and watching the ducks race over to get 

And one little girl decided that she would like a snack too!

Then it was off for a night of soccer.  MK made contact with the ball several times which is improvement.  Her team really played well and finished up with a win for the evening.  

Though the pic is blurry, this gives one an idea of just what was happening out on one end of the field while the game was taking place at the other end....MK was dancing and/or cheering.  I love that she is wanting to explore different sports but I am most positive that soccer will not wind up being one of her ongoing favs!

40

Our week began with a bang.  Literally.  We were all excited to have the opportunity to go to an Atlanta Braves game as a family, their final game of the regular season.  The drive into Atlanta was easy and smooth.  The drive into the parking space, not so much.  I plowed right into the parked car that was in the space beside the one I was pulling into.  With Ryan's jaw flinching, my first thought was how much money it was going to cost to fix both cars.  Yikes.  My second thought was trying to determine just how far we should move our car away....I was worried that the owners of the damaged car would make an ugly scene in front of my children.  Luckily, we did not allow this damper to dampen our spirits and we headed into the game for a nice afternoon.  We settled into our seats and then entered the singing chimney, aka the guy seated beside me.  I promise you all that he wreaked of smoke and I am most positive I inhaled second hand smoke even though he never lit up during the game.  And if I didn't inhale second hand smoke, I can promise you all that I was a bit woozy from the stale beer stench that situated itself on this guy.  The most entertaining part was hearing him sing the Indian chant as the fans performed "the chop."  

But alas, this was a game for the children so we put on our best game face, did the wave several times as it made its way through the stands, purchased way-too-expensive drinks without choking on the costs, and really had a fantastic afternoon.  Sad to have gone without my camera:/  We called my Nannie on the way home and discussed the game play-by-play with her.....of course, she had been watching in the comforts of her own home while seated in her recliner.  I must note that I had never heard my Nannie say a bad word until I watched a Braves game with her.  She is intense!  

After the game, we dined at our beloved Cheesecake Factory.  And I may have made myself known when I kindly demanded that my burrito be served with the "white sauce" like it used to be prepared.  After much ado about nothing, turns out the "white sauce" is actually a GREEN sauce.  This will be a memory for Pryce to share.  

And we drove home to begin our packing for a trip that was just not meant to be.  

 I have said all year that I did NOT want to be home the day I turned 40.  So, we planned a family trip to Washington, D.C.  And on Monday, Oct. 1, that all changed abruptly due to the government shutdown, leaving us scrambling for something/anything to do because I refused to be home on my 40th birthday.  

 At the end of the day, after a bit of pouting from everyone involved, ahem, me, we chose home as our place to celebrate my 40 years of life. 

 A pedicure with a best friend, sweet delights from another bestie who knows me very well, lots of cards and Facebook messages, a call from my dad singing his annual birthday song, a call from my "sista" singing her annual rendition of the birthday song, a homemade birthday cake from my sweet neighbor - the best part?  she only put 25 candles on it!  PERFECTION!  

And there was my sweet family.  How I am so thankful each day for the joy they bring to my life.  Pryce made me breakfast in bed while Colin cooked breakfast for the rest; we headed out early to surprise a few dear ones in our life with goodies, a tradition on my birthday; lunch sitting outside at my kiddos' favorite, Moe's; dinner at another local favorite; and the highlight? Family Laser Tag.  I lost.  Maddox won.  And it was played fair.  And the vest was bigger than she was/is.  Hilarious.  Hats off to Ryan who made my day of turning old very enjoyable:)

And then we dreamed a little while walking through a few homes that are currently being built.  To move, or not to move, that is the question???!!!

And then there is Finley....precious little puppy turned 6 years old.  He always makes us laugh when he makes himself comfortable in every single place we encourage him not to!

It's another win for the Greenbrier Wolfpack and we were thrilled to have some extra cheerers in the stands for our favorite football player, Pryce.  My sister and her children made the early morning drive to the game and spent some time visiting with us....so thankful for them!

 P is thoroughly enjoying his time on the field each week.  The added bonus is that his teammates are three of his very best friends and they have all had a tremendous season of tackles and running and just good fun.

 I had to add in this picture....he just makes me laugh because he has inherited his mother's love for sweets and he was caught in the act of eating one of his favorites, a fresh Krispy Kreme donut.

 Following a morning of football, and an afternoon of jewelry selling, our home opened up to all of our adoption friends and their families!  

 Chloe seemed to enjoy every single moment of her time outside swinging and sliding....and, oh the food, she asked for more and more!  Little one has gained 7lbs since coming home one month ago!

 The weather could not have been more enjoyable.  The children played and played outside....jumping on the trampoline, swinging, FOOTBALL playing, sliding and mothers chatting.  Meanwhile, the men were immersed in the many college football games taking place on our little tv inside.  

 And the red couch photo.....so funny that these guys don't even give us a hard time about this anymore....they know the drill....of course, I may have promised a donut AND a cookie to those who came inside for this photo op:)

LID

OFFICIALLY LOGGED-IN:)
As of September 22, 2013, our family is logged-in to the CCCWA in China.  This basically means our paperwork has arrived and we are an official waiting family!  Exciting!  I mentioned to our agency that I have a pretty significant birthday just around the corner and I thought an appropriate gift would be seeing the face of my baby girl for the first time!  Now, I don't think that is too much to ask;)