Happy Birthday Alex!!!

Alex loves his new set of tools that he got from Auntie and Uncle Mike and the rest of the Pemberton crew!

Presents!!!!

I wish I could say I made this incredibly cute cake but I didn't. Thank goodness for bakeries!

Daddy and Alex

It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago that Alex was born! He is such a blessing to our family! His personality has us laughing at all times! Even when he is being onery he is cute! Here are some of the pictures from his birthday party on Saturday.

We Have Been Approved!

I am singing praises! We FINALLY received our approval from the immigration department. What does this mean? It means we are getting close to that travel call. Hopefully within 4 to 6 weeks we will get the call and then leave within a 1 week time. I hope Nia is ready for us! We are definately ready for her!

I Skipped Christmas and Went to San Diego

Mark and David in San Diego

I just realized I completely skipped Christmas! Well, I have already deleted the pictures from my camera so I guess there will be none of those. But Christmas was wonderful! We celebrated Christmas Eve at Mark's mom and dad's house with their whole family and then came home and spent Christmas day at home. It is so much fun when the boys come down the steps and turn the corner to see the tree lit up and the gifts. Their little eyes just light up. Priceless! I will never forget Alex going straight to his new little vacuum and hugging the box. He hasn't stopped vacuuming yet! And Grant's favorite was his remote control Hummer. I think daddy loves it just as much! It warms my heart to think about Nia and that she will be here for our next Christmas. She is always on my mind and she cannot come home soon enough!

The following day we packed up the car and headed to Jacksonville to my mom and dad's house. We had our Christmas celebration with the entire family and enjoyed lots of great food and fellowship.

Last week Mark and I were fortunate to go to San Diego for several days. It was beautiful every day! Sunny and 84 degrees! Here at home it was an awful -19!! We enjoyed our time there with the Ghantous and Santana family. David Ghantous graduated from Marine boot camp. It is unbelievable what these young men and women go through to serve our country! I have so much respect for anyone who volunteers to go to any of our country's armed forces. It was so interesting to hear all of the stories about everything David went through in those three months! We are very proud of him!!

CIS Is MADDENING!!

Anyone else out there ever feel like when you are waiting for your paperwork to be processed that the one person who needs to review your papers must have taken a long vacation or sabbatical?!! Seriously, I am a patient person, but once the given timeline is past I am wanting some information. And yet, it seems like it is impossible to come by. So, we wait! Trusting God's timing and hoping that His timing is SOON! :)

And a big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to our new friends, Blake and Sue who received their referral last week. Their precious little guy is adorable and we can't wait to all get together with our new babies! SO happy and excited for you Blake and Sue!

I Still Have Much To Learn

Ok, so I thought I had been doing pretty good learning this whole blogging thing. Well, for all of my sweet friends who have left comments for me, if you ever wondered why I didn't respond it was because I didn't know there were any comments. I accidently stumbled upon them just now! Who knows what I did or how they came up but I changed my settings and I think I've got it down. So thanks to all of you for leaving comments! I love to hear from all of you!

My Little Watermelon Boy

Another Step Closer!

Great news today! I have been very patient but finally caved and called our social worker to see about our paperwork. We have been waiting for approval from DCFS. And I'm glad I called! We were approved on December 11th. Yeah!!! Another step closer. Now we wait to hear from immigration. Like I said, I have been patient but I am really longing to get Nia home!

So as far as Christmas prep, I think I am ready. As evidenced by the fact that I am posting this at 1:30 AM. I baked 3 batches of cookies, made a lasagna, did laundry and a few hundred other things, just since 2. Hopefully tomorrow will be stress free :) Hopefully I won't fall asleep in my pea soup! That is a story for another time. I'm off to sleep!

Merry Christmas and remember what this day is truly about, Our Lord and Savior Jesus!!!