A journal entry........

Well there is still no real news to report regarding our little darling. I heard on Friday from our social worker and she said she hopes to have our homestudy report complete by mid-October. That is really it for the news. Well and the other part......we are REQUESTING A GIRL!!!! We were originally not going to specify a gender, but as we have been talking and dreaming and excitedly planning on this and that....we decided to put our request before God. We earnestly prayed for His blessing on our hope for a little girl. Things just started to happen and be shown to us that it is in fact OK to request a girl. So we are. And we are naming her Nevaeh Lee ( pronounced NEV-A-YA). Lee is Steve's middle name and then we will keep her Ethiopian name as her second middle name.

I look forward to having more to report next time. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement and excitment for us.

Homestudy and more tales of summer 2010

I know it has been a while since I have updated the goings on for all things Teunis.I will start by saying that although we wrapped up our adoption homestudy on July1, we are still waiting on the finished report to send off to America World and then to the state of Illinois, so that we can move onto the next waiting phase of this wonderful journey. Part of the reason for the wait, is that our social worker is quitting the agency and he is now handing off our homestudy to someone new, by the way....someone we have never met. Although this is not supposed to be casue for alarm, it kind of has me feeling a bit anxious. I am trying to keep it under control, I know God is in this and He isnt going to allow for one more delay than He sees necessary and that makes me breathe a bit eassier.
We have spent the summer making some fun memories. I fell in love with Shipshewanna Indiana ( a sweet little Amish community and a real treasure of a place). Steve and I spent his birthday weekend in July there. S-L-O-W pace doesnt even come close to describing it.

We moved the kids bedrooms around and gave Zack's new room a makeover, baby's room will be next. I have spent alot of time reading. Lots of time on the porch swing.

We did some swing dancing on the wharf in Mystic Ct, as we caravanned with several friends on a road trip out to CBC (Christian Believers Conference....http://www.cbconference.com/) in Boston. I have been learning to crochet and spending more time cooking and baking.

I guess you might say, I have been making an attemp at being more dileberate in my enjoying the sweet little moments and not getting so caught up in the busy-ness of life.I guess that thought is captured well in the theme song for my summer...America Honey ( I fell in love with that song this summer, it will forever represent  Summer 2010 to me).  

So as school gets back into full swing now, and football season is upon us....Here comes school concerts and crowded calendars and soon enough the snow will start to fly......I am so grateful for the sweet days of summer.

Promises Of God

Watching all of this coverage of the Gulf Coast tugs at our heart, we just discovered this sweet place over Spring Break. We fell in love with it there. We decided very quickly that this was a new Teunis tradition. It was while we were enjoying this gem of a place and unwinding from life, that we decided to add to our family and ultimately to adopt. We so enjoyed our time there, and left for our drive back home, anxiously anticipating our next trip back. We are wondering now, will it ever be the same? Just look at this pristine beach. This world is so full of bad news and disappointment and hurt and devastation, that it is even more and more important to keep our eyes fixed on The Promises of God!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8H5BWY6_M

Garage Sale was a SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

Well, I have to say......the donation garage sale was a smashing success. We had such a great turn out and the rain didnt 'rain on our parade' one bit. We had one good down-pour and our garage was packed with people during the little storm. We found that most everyone was really interested in our story and the adoption journey we are on. We had many discussions about the worldwide orphan crisis and the incredible need out there. We spoke with many people about our church and faith in our lives. It was a very blessed success. We raised quite a substantial little start for the 'Baby Teunis' fund.

In the midst of all of the goings on, I recieved an update on the next fundraiser to come, the t-shirt fundraiser. More on that coming in the next couple weeks. We also are finished with all of the paperwork stuff now, and we are moving towards the immigration form phase, next. Then the long wait begins....That's all for now!

Adoption process update

Tomorrow is the big day.We are having our adoption fundraiser garage sale. No items are priced, everything is donation only. We are hoping the weather holds out and that the newspaper ad and the craigslist ad show some fruitage!!!! I cant wait to post on the success!

Today we had our second homestudy visit. All is moving along and now we just wait for our third and final visit, which is July 1. We are hopeful that by the end of July our report will be complete and ready to submit to the state of Illinois. We know there is alot of waiting ahead of us, we are so ok with that, we are just excited to be moving forward, even if it is baby steps. We know that each one, each day brings us one day closer to our little sweet baby Teunis.

Summers Comin....

Summer temps are here finally. School is out at the end of this week. The kids are all buzzing around with the sweet anticipation of summer break. Camps are soon upon us. Drivers Ed for the first time...we just got a trampoline, so there will be lots of bouncing going on. Looking forward to summer fun, makes me stop to remember what summers were to me as a child. My birthday is in the summer, right by the 4th of July, so I always loved that. My fondest memories were of being in Indiana. One of my first years going there, I guess I was about 11... I learned how to play Canasta and from then on...I loved spending long summer evenings playing cards. I learned that I ws terrified of thunnderstorms ( not so much anymmore), those were all new to this California girl. I fell in-love with the Grease movies and learned every word to every song....Swinging on the porch swing...water balloon fights. There was a small-town theater company called The Nettle Creek Players, they used to put on about 4 musicals every summer and it was my mission to see them all. What a blast....I learned to love musicals from those summers. The real show started after the nightly performance though, as the players were all housed, dorm style, in the house right next to my grandmothers. This made for lots of entertainment. Me and my sweet friend would spend evenings running from one window to the next spying on all of their partying. Then there was the summer we decided to only speak in pig-latin, oh boy....what fun memories.

I hope the kids enjoy summer in ways beyond late night XBOX gaming. I want to encourage them to make lifelong memories that will make them smile and laugh for years to come. I look forward to posting our summer adventures and silly tales. It is time for life to slow down a bit. Maybe I will teach them Canasta......

Coming Soon...