You Know You Are an Adoptive Parent or Should be When......

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)

8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.

9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.

10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!

13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.



Author Unknown

(copied from a blog that copied it from another blog that copied it from another blog.....)

Did you see it?

I hope that everyone was able to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse last night. My boys watched it for a long time and thought it was the coolest thing! I have to admit that I enjoyed it too and thought it was beautiful! Is it just me or does the solar system and our universe amaze anyone else? I am in awe when I think about what all goes on to keep this place we call home in orbit with the sun rising and setting at just the right time everyday and the moon taking its turn all while determining the tides! Amazing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone from me and my sweet Valentine! We hope that you have a great day celebrating with your loved ones!

I love you, Milledge! Thanks for being my Valentine today and everyday!

15 Months of Waiting....

We never imagined that we would wait 15 months or more for our daughter, yet here we are smack dab in the middle of a much longer wait. There are so many rumors and lots of speculation going on in the Chinese adoption world right now that could be really discouraging if I let myself get caught up in them. Instead, I am trying very hard to remain positive and follow the path that has been laid out for me. I don't understand this anymore than the next person but I do know there is a reason for this heartwrenching wait and once Ruthie is placed in my arms I will know why I had to wait so long and hopefully all the frustration, anxiety and pain will be washed away!

"Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked." Proverbs 4:25-27 (Thanks, Heather!)

Happy Chinese New Year (Gung Hay Fat Choy)!!

The Year of the Rat
Years: 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
Positive Character Traits: Charming and ambitious
Negative Character Traits: Short-tempered and sometimes sneaky
Most Compatible with: Dragon, Monkey, Ox

We can't help but wonder if Ruthie is going to be born this year making her a Rat?? Charming and ambitious sounds good to us but then there is the short temper and sometimes sneaky part??! We can't wait to love her no matter what!!

Please Pray.....

I am always coming across blogs of people that are in the midst of a storm in their lives and are in need of prayer. I so want to get their story "out there" so others can be praying for them as well. So, I have decided to add a "Please Pray.." link to my side bar and keep it updated with families who are in need of prayer. If you read my blog and ever have someone that needs prayer please let me know and I will add them to my list. This is mainly for me to keep up with those families who I feel a need to pray for but it will also be for any of you who would like to join me in prayer for these precious families. Thank You! Here are a few that I am praying for right now.....
My sister made me aware of Tricia and Nate about a month ago and to read their story everyday is truly amazing. You have to head on over to their site and see all the wonderful things that God is doing in them and through them.
Also, please remember little Ayla as she endures her treatments. What a cutie she is!
Right now there are two families who are associated with our agency who are in China and have been stuck due to the record snow that the country is having. They finally made it to Guangzhou but it was quite an experience. You can read about their stories here and here. Pray that everything goes according to plan for the rest of their trip so that they can come home on Saturday.

Star Student Anderson!

Anderson was chosen to be this week's Star Student in his class! There is a different activity for him to do everyday to make him feel special. On Sunday night he had to fill out a questionaire all about him to share with his class on Monday. I just had to share his answers, they were too cute and a couple of them brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to scan his actual sheet and post it here but that didn't work so here they are anyway.

All About Me

1. My favorite color is: Green

2. My favorite book is: Animal Defenses

3. My favorite television program is: The Suite Life of Zach and Cody

4. My favorite sport is: Baseball

5. When I grow up, I want to be: a football player for UGA

6. I am special because: God and Jesus love me

7. The place I'd most like to visit is: China

8. My favorite food is: Bar-B-Q

9. One thing I really want to learn is: other languages

10. The best thing about me is: I'm kind

11. The people in my family are: my mom, my dad, my brother and me

12. I have a pet: dog, cat and fish

13. My best friend is: Bryson

14. The person I most admire is: my parents

15. My favorite subject in school is: P.E

We had no idea that he wanted to learn other languages, how great is that! He knows he is special because God loves him and he admires his parents! Gosh, I love this child! He is so precious to me.

Play Ball!

As soon as fall ball was over, Jon Milledge was asked to be on a travel ball team. This new team has been practicing about twice a week since then and participated in their first tournament this weekend. It was a wood bat tournament which was a little different for the boys since they usually play with aluminum bats but they did very well. They came in second place in the whole tournament which we all thought was wonderful since this was the first time they had played together as a team!! Go Knights!

This travel ball stuff is new to us but from what we gather, we will be playing LOTS of baseball between now and July. They are planning on two tournaments a month where you play at least 2-4 games a weekend. That is a lot of baseball but also good practice! Thankfully, Jon Milledge loves to be on a baseball field and we love watching him!

The Knights with their trophies!

Making the play

My sweet boy with his trophy!

Guess Who Has All A's?

JON MILLEDGE!

His school has a parent/child breakfast every year to honor the kids who have maintained all A's for the first and second nine weeks. Today was the breakfast and what a proud Mama I was! I was beaming as I walked him into the school.

Here are a couple of pictures of the breakfast. There weren't many taken because Jon Milledge was horrified that I would even dream of taking a picture with all of his buddies watching!

Great job Jon Milledge! Keep up the good work!

P.S. Anderson goes to another school that is kindergarten-2nd grade and they only give S's, N's and U's on their report card. He has always had all S's but they don't have a breakfast! :( We are very proud of you too, Anderson!

SNOW!

We had snow twice last week here in the deep south!!! That NEVER happens! Of course, it didn't last long at all, but my boys enjoyed it as long as they could!

Update on my bedroom....

Thank you all so much for your comments and suggestions about my bedroom! We decided on GREEN! The color is called desert grass so as you can tell from the name, it is a brownish, goldish, green.....if that makes sense. I just mean that you can look at it one time and it looks green, the next time a gold and then the next time a taupy color. It's pretty cool!

We only had one mishap....Milledge was trying to catch a flying paintbrush and stepped off the 8 foot ladder wrong on Saturday but didn't tell anyone how bad he was hurting until Sunday night (after the room was finished). MEN! So, we spent this morning in an Orthopedic doctor's office and found out that he tore several ligaments across the top of his foot. Ok....I guess he was hurting! He is now the proud owner of an aircast boot thingy and "crunches"(as my boys call them)! Our bedroom looks great though! Thanks Milledge for suffering for the cause! ;)

I am going to post a picture of a little part of my bedroom. It isn't quite finished yet...I am still waiting on some sham stuffers and a few other odds and ends. But here is a preview!

Can you tell it is green? I can't get a good picture where it looks as green as it really is.

The Boot!

Help! I Need Your Opinion!

Calling all my blogging friends! I need your help on deciding what color to paint my bedroom this weekend. I have new bedding and I want a new color but Milledge and I are not agreeing on what color it should be. This is where you come in. I am posting a (scanned) picture of the new bedding, my room now and a little of my bathroom, and a picture of one of the pillows that goes with the new bedding so that you can see the colors up close. Please give me your opinion on what color you think my room should be. I will post the decision and the new room when it is complete!
So far it has been suggested to paint it a yellow gold, a red or a sage green. One problem I have with the gold is with the bedding being goldish, I think it would be way too much gold. Even though I think a red would look great with the bedding there are a couple of things that wouldn't work. Like, I don't think red is a very calming color for a bedroom and my kitchen and a hall that leads to my bedroom are a completely different color of red. So, red is out. That leaves the green, which is what Milledge wants, but I'm not sure how that will look with the red all around it either. HELP!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and help!

Hairbows, Fingerprints, and, Shots..OH MY!

I am way behind posting about the latest hairbow swap I participated in....better late than never, I suppose! I participated in a one time swap with three wonderful waiting mothers who also happen to be mothers of just boys, like me! So, I think it is safe to say that all four of us are very serious about our need for hairbows when it comes to our daughters. Aren't they the cutest??!

These are from and made by Terri. I love all of them but the little ladybug is just too cute and was such a creative idea for a clippie bow. And what about the Bulldawg bow? How cute is Ruthie going to be in Athens on game day with this bow?! I am so impressed with her hairbow making! I need to come take lessons, Terri! Terri lives here in Georgia and is the mother to two handsome boys who are patiently waiting for their sister Sophia. Thank you so much!!! I love them all!

These cute polka dot bows with a "R" monogrammed on them are from my friend Kelly who lives in Louisiana. Kelly and I have the same log in date and have really formed a wonderful friendship that I know will last a lifetime. She also has two precious boys who are counting down the days until they get to meet Eva. Also notice the little fortune cookie soaps that she added to my gift. Too cute! Thanks Kelly!

This precious snowman bow and Christmas clippie came from Ashley. I just love this little snowman with the feathers and I can't wait to find just the right outfit for Ruthie to wear with this one! Sounds like a shopping trip in the making! Ashley lives in Colorado with her husband and three handsome teenage boys who are all looking forward to the day when they can travel to China and bring Lilly home. Thank you, Ashley!

Milledge and I have decided to go ahead and update our home study so that we can get a new immigration form from the US government before it expires. The paperwork for this is nothing compared to what we did the first time around, two years ago, but there is still some foot work to be done. So far I have: turned in our consent for DFACS to run a check on us, called to get the county to come test our well water, gotten both of our verification of employment letters done and we have been fingerprinted. WHEW! Also, today we went for our second round of Hepatitis A and B shots in preparation for our trip to China. It is nice to be doing something in regards to our adoption besides worrying about it for a change. Hopefully we can move all of this along quickly since the form expires on February 9th and if you apply for it before it expires you can get a one time free extension! We are all for that!

OUCH! Sorry for the nice view of my "undergarment". I thought she would pull my sleeve UP...oh well!


"I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry!" ;) At least she didn't do this to my shirt...that would've been really scary!

Here is Milledge being "booked". There is no picture of me having my prints done because Milledge thought it was ridiculous to be taking pictures at the sherriff's office. The things we will do for a blog post and to document our adoption! tee hee :)

Giving it up...

I won't beat around the bush.....this wait has me frustrated, scared, worried and frankly a little angry. I want my baby home.....well....yesterday. I want more definitive answers as to why this wait has become so long. I want to see Ruthie's sweet face. I want someone to tell me when I will hop on a plane and head to China. I want to know how much older my boys are going to be when Ruthie comes home. Ok, who am I kidding...I want to know how much older I am going to be and if I can really handle a baby again. I want to know if I should update all of my paperwork or let it expire until we are closer to travel. I want to know why you have to redo your fingerprints every 15 months.....don't they remain the same, hence the reason for having fingerprints? Do you see a common word in all of these statements? "I" have realized this week that this whole process has been a lot about me and what I want and when I want it instead of truly trusting God with our adoption, my marriage, my family and lots of other areas of my life. I sooooo want to be in control of it all!
Yesterday it was big news on the China adoption front that the one small bit of information that we get every month from the CCAA, via their website, was being taken away. Don't get me wrong, I am still frustrated about this, but it was just a box! I was all out of sorts and completely stressed over the removal of a box from a website....WHY????! What have I become? I have been telling people that through this adoption God is teaching me patience(and he probably is)however, I am more convinced this week that He is asking...NO....begging me to release my need to be in control and to learn to give it all to Him.
While I am flipping out over "the box", there are two heartwrenching stories unfolding in the adoption world that you can read about here and here. I do not know either of these famililes personally and feel a little apprehensive about posting about them but my heart is breaking for them. I don't understand these things and probably never will this side of heaven but I do know that God is still on His throne and He is good. Please pray for both of these families.
After reading about these two precious children, it didn't take me long to realize that I had the wrong perspective about everything. I have a great husband, two healthy children, the opportunity to grow my family through adoption, and generally a wonderful life. I cannot control the CCAA or the fingerprint thing anymore than I can control the weather so why should I be so worried about when and how this adoption is going to happen? I have decided(at least for today) that I am placing all of this at His feet and letting Him take care of it all. Life is so precious and is meant to be lived to the fullest and I don't believe God intended for us to live in turmoil, stress or worry all the time. My friend, Kelly, sent me some great bible verses yesterday that really helped me to put all of this into the right perspective.

"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord....Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:13-14

"He does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that God will take care of Him." Psalm 112:7-8

"I am the Lord, the God of all mankind; is there anything too hard for me?" Jeremiah 32:27

So, I am giving it all up and placing all of my trust in God. I have always said that He called us to adopt and that he won't forsake us. Now, it is time for me to truly believe that and actually live it. Pray for me!

14 Month LIDiversary!

No profound statements today, I am just acknowledging the milestone. I am extremely down after the last VERY small batch of referrals and can't help but wonder how much longer we will be waiting for Ruthie. I just wish for once during this process, we would see even a small glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. Praying for a better 2008.

Precious Memories

This is a picture of my maternal grandparents with their three daughters, the oldest one being my mother. This photo was probably taken in the mid to late 1950's at a Delta Airlines family day. My aunt Patti, who is the sweet baby in the picture, found this and gave a copy to each of her sisters and to all of the grandchildren this year at Christmas. It is such a precious memory for all of us since both of my grandparents are no longer with us. They were both very sick when they died so it is wonderful to see this picture and remember them when they were young, vibrant, healthy and happy! I miss my MawMaw and PawPaw so very much and wish everyday that they could've known my boys. My PawPaw would've loved watching the boys play ball since he was a baseball player himself. Jon Milledge and Anderson like to say that they got their ball playing from their great-grandfather. :) My grandfather was a mechanic for Delta for almost 30 years and my boys love to go by the airport, find the planes that..."your PawPaw worked on, Mama!"
Thank you, Aunt Patti for this precious memory. I will cherish it forever!

Happy New Year!

May yours be filled with love, peace and happiness!

Our Christmas

WHEW! What a wonderful Christmas we had! We celebrated Jesus' birthday 5 different times with different parts of our family. It was so much fun to get together, visit, laugh, eat, open presents and just be together with family. We started with Milledge's family on Friday December 21st, then my family on Sunday before Christmas, just the four of us on Christmas Day, with my daddy on Friday afternoon and my mother's family on Friday night.
We took down all of our decorations today, which was somewhat bittersweet. I am very glad to have my house back to normal but I love Christmas and all that goes with it, so I hate to see it go....plus my house always looks so bare after a month of all those decorations! But, we have lots of memories to last us a lifetime or at least until next year! We hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday as well!

Merry Christmas......

....from our family to yours! May your Christmas be filled with the true gifts of the season....Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy, all of which we know only come from Jesus, who is the reason we celebrate today!

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

The stockings are hung....

.....on our mantle with care! Aren't these the cutest stockings?! My friend, Caryn, gave me Ruthie's stocking for Christmas. Well, once I received it, the boys stockings didn't match, so I ordered them one as well! :) It is hard to tell in the picture but Ruthie's is hot pink, Anderson's is green and Jon Milledge's is red. I love seeing stockings for all three of my babies on the mantle. Even though Ruthie isn't home with us this Christmas, she is certainly in our hearts. I wonder if Santa will leave anything in her stocking??!


This is a new nativity that I received from Forest and Caryn for Christmas. Forest, aka Dr. Pagett, is the dentist that I work for and his wife, Caryn, is one of my dearest friends. Anyway, we had our staff Christmas party on Thursday night which was full of food and lots of fun. We played all sorts of games that had us in stitches and even had a run to Walmart for a scavenger like game! The nativity was hand made by one of our patients who does amazing pottery, sculpting, and metal work. The detail on it is wonderful. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you Forest and Caryn!! I love it!



This is a picture of our tree that I took today before my family came over for Christmas. I should've taken one when it was dark outside so that you could see the lights better but once everyone arrived, that was the last thing on my mind!

Prayers for Lily....

I have met so many wonderful people through our adoption process. People that I have so much in common with and now think of as lifelong friends. One of those people is Leslie. Leslie has two beautiful daughters...Ella, adopted from Ukraine and, Lily, adopted from China. Lily is having open heart surgery tomorrow to correct a problem that the doctors found once she was home in August. Please say a prayer for Lily and her Mommy and Daddy. Surgery is scary anytime but open heart surgery on a two year old has Larry and Leslie somewhat nervous. Please pray for the nurses and doctors that will be caring for Lily. Also, pray for a quick recovery and healing for little Lily so that she can be home to celebrate her first Christmas with her forever family.

Larry, Leslie, Ella and Lily....Milledge and I are praying for all of you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do from here. I still think I just need to come up there! ;)

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. James 5:15

****Update****
Lily's surgery was a success!! She is in ICU and they are just trying to keep her as comfortable as possible. She is doing so well that they think she will move to a regular room tomorrow if they can remove her chest tube! Thank you for your prayers!Leslie said that they were certainly felt.

*****Update #2**** Friday December 21
Lily was moved to a regular room last night and had her chest tube removed this morning. I just called Leslie and when her cell phone rang she said that Lily started dancing to the ringtone! If all continues to go like it is right now, Lily will be released to go home TOMORROW!! She will be at home with her family for Christmas! YIPPEEE! Thank you God for your many, many blessings!

*****Update #3**** Saturday December 22
Lily is HOME!! She was released this morning and is now at home playing like she never even had the surgery. I talked to Leslie and Miss Lily on the phone earlier this evening and she was running around, climbing and acting like a typical two year old! Thank you all so much for your prayers for this little girl! They were heard and felt by her family.

More Christmas Favorites

This is a nativity that my mother gave me and Milledge as a wedding shower gift before we got married. We love it!


This is our Rudolph that greets us when we walk in the door. The boys have always enjoyed him and fight over who gets to plug him in everyday. They even turn him on and off every morning before school just so they can see him lit up for a few minutes!

13 Months and Believing...

As of today, we have been waiting 13 months for our Ruthie. We would like to say that we have waited those months patiently but that hasn't always been the case, some days are just plain hard! God spoke to me recently in His still small voice and really helped me through one of those hard days. When I was down about the wait, wondering if Ruthie was ever going to come home and basically just having a pity party for myself, I felt Him very close to me saying...."Do you really think I don't understand what you are going through? Do you think I don't know what if feels like to wait? Do you think I don't know what it feels like to be separated from my child? I do understand, I have waited much, much longer for some of my children to come home to me and actually some never do and I know how bad it hurts to be separated from a child. Please just be still and know that I am God and working during your wait".
I had never really thought about Almighty God having to wait on anything. I mean, He is all knowing, all powerful, why should He have to wait on anything? But, probably the one thing He doesn't want to wait on, what pains him the most is waiting on us, his children, to come home to Him. He does understand what I am going through and because I am learning to lean on Him more, He is bringing me closer to Him through this wait! How wonderful is that?! Thank you God for your patience and for waiting on and believing in me.


My friend, Leslie, and her family recently sent us a care package and this ornament was in it along with several other very cute things. This little ornament meant so much to me and made me think about what I believe during this Christmas season.
~I believe that God sent His one and only Son to earth to live and die for my sins.
~I believe that because I believe this and have accepted it, I am a child of God and will live with Him forever in heaven.
~I believe that He has blessed me beyond measure with a wonderful family and great friends.
~And I believe that Ruthie WILL be home some day!

Thank you Leslie! I believe that I am blessed to call you my friend.

Favorite Books

These are two of my very favorite Christmas books. The first one, The Christmas Story, was one that I loved as a child. I couldn't wait for the Christmas season to come around because my mother would read this to us and we would sit listening, anticipating the next page and enjoying the wonderful pictures. My mother moved recently and I found this book in her basement and she was kind enough to let me bring it home. I wonder what two little boys will be listening to this great book in the next few weeks?!



The next one is a newer book that I had not read until a couple of years ago. I'm not even sure how old it is but it is very cute. If you have not read Olive, the Other Reindeer, it is a must holiday read!



Happy Holiday Reading!

Christmas Favorites

I love Christmas! Who doesn't, right?! I love everything about it. I love the cool weather, the decorations, the magic, the good eats, the parties, church dramas, the time spent with family, the shopping, my boys faces on Christmas morning, and most of all being able to celebrate the birth of Jesus freely.
However, even though I love it all, I do have some favorites that I thought I would share here throughout the month. I collect Nativity scenes, Santa's and ornaments so I am sure you will see lots of those. Of course, everyone of them has a special meaning to me and my family and that makes taking them out every year and placing them in their certain spot all the better! I have already put my favorite Christmas picture up on the top right of my blog and I will be playing all my favorite Christmas songs throughout the month as well.
So without further delay here are my first Christmas favorites. By the way, they won't be in any certain order, they will appear just when I see them, read them, or just when they come to mind. Enjoy!


My first favorite is a Nativity scene that Jon Milledge made when he was in 4 year old preschool. It is made out of tiny clay flower pots. Is this not the cutest thing? It gets wrapped up very well every year because I would be heart broken if something ever happened to it.


The next favorite is a new one this year. It is our "Waiting for Ruthie" ornament that I got from Jiinkin Kids. Stephanie is the artist behind Jiinkin and she is also in the process of adopting a little girl from China. She is super sweet and very talented. Thanks Stephanie for adding to our "favorites" this year!

Family Campout, Sunday

With Thanksgiving being this week, I got a little side tracked with my postings about the campout. On Sunday, we all got up and had another huge breakfast together which is always a sight to behold. After breakfast, we made more trips around the farm on the 4-wheelers, did some swinging, the kids fished, the kids did some more paddle boating and everyone began to take their tents down. We then had a big lunch of grilled chicken and quail with all the fixings. YUMMY! After lunch, we made family pictures by the pond(see below)and said our goodbyes so that we could all head for home.
Again, it was such a fun weekend and I can't wait to do it again. Thank you to all the Parkman brothers and sister in laws for making the First Annual Parkman Family Campout a huge success!!! We love you all!

Here are the individual family pictures that were taken:


The five brothers....They have a picture of them as little boys where they were posed like this. They always want to "recreate" the pose when they are together but we keep telling them that we think they are a little too old for it!


Ok....maybe they aren't too old for the previous pose!


Uncle Tommy's family....his whole family was able to make it!


Uncle Richard's family....Krista and her new husband, David, live in California so they couldn't make it and Barrett lives in Beijing, China, not sure why he couldn't make it!! ;) I wish I was in Beijing right now!


Uncle Larry's(my daddy)family....we were all there!


Uncle Leslie's family...everyone was able to make it except their daughter, Wendy.

Uncle Glenn, who is the baby, was there the whole weekend. Mona Beth, his wife, was in and out all weekend and their daughter, Glenna Ruth, was there on Saturday. However, they weren't there for the pictures on Sunday. Also, their oldest daughter, Leigh, and her husband, Brian, weren't there because their first baby, Maggie, had just been born. Their son, Render, is in dental school at the University of Kentucky, therefore, he couldn't make it either.


All of the Parkman grandchildren that were there.


The Parkman grandchildren and our spouses


All of the great-grandchildren minus baby Maggie