...almost 3 months since a post.

Wow. I have really slacked off on keeping up with my xanga. Work and life are always insane and it is rare that I have time to sit down and "write" about it. Plus, I did hook up with Facebook and that does not take the place of an actual blog, it is a great place to check up on past and present friends. If anyone still reads this and wonders if we have gotten our Haitian daughter yet, the answer is NO. I won't go into details but you know it is a 3rd world country and it's kinda hard to be hard people who can barely make enough money to live. So, we continue to be patient. And, time really does fly when your life moves at an insane pace. Before we know it she will be here and it will all seem like a blur! In the meantime I thought I'd post some pics. Some are recents of Abra. A few are from a materntiy and baby shoot with my friend Katie. And, a few are from a visit to see Obama at Beloit College.

...Request.

O.K. so, normally I am pretty private about personal things (feelings, concerns, worries, etc..) But, I know a lot of you guys would like to know about the progress of our adoption. We have not been worried at all this whole time and have felt that the timing will just be right. I still believe that, but this week marks a year and a month since Erik took allof our paper work to Haiti. We expected it to take this long because of the timeline that our friends Brian and Sara got their son in. It was almost exactly a year and a month from the time they turned in their paper work to the time that they brought their son home. So up until this point, we kinda knew what to expect. Now that we have reached that marker though, I'm starting to get a little worried. Worried because we really want Achley to be able to got to Kindergarten for the rest of the school year so that she will have a better foundation for school next year. Worried about what she must be thinking (like, "if these people really love me, why have they not come to get me.") Also, we are just ready to have our family the way it was meant to be. Wondering if we should be doing more (like try to call our lawyer everyday until he tells us that it will be done by such and such time.). But, really there is just nothing to do. It's just a waiting game, and we are so ready to be done with that part of it!!! Can everyone please keep us in your prayers. Maybe even pray boldly on our behalf that we will get a call like now!!!!

So as to not bum everyone out with my whiney post, here are some more favorite photos that I have never shared:

...New Year.

Just a few more photos of Christmas, and a few of some of my favs from 2007. Hope everyone's 2008 starts out great. Hopefully we will have a new member of our family soon!!! Please keep praying for us!!! Happy New Year.

 Here Are Some Favorites from 2007.

...Late Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas just snuck up on me this year. As usual, our lives were crazy as we were so busy at the preschool trying to finish up contstructing 26 parents gifts (each child made a 12 page calendar using their handprints for each month's pictures,) preparing for the children's Christmas Programs, and getting ready for the children's parties at school. While I LOVE all of the Holiday stuff we did for school, I kinda neglected my own families Christmas festivities. Poor Abra didn't have any presents under the tree from us until the 21st. I did manage to finally bake some cookies with her on the 19th, but never did get our christmas cards mailed out (anyone have any crafty ideas that involve using 31 of the same 4x6 photo?) Eventhough it came too quickly, we had a very nice Christmas Day of just staying home together!! It was wonderful. Plus, all I really wanted for Christmas was a clean house, so I spent all day cleaning on Christmas Eve so that I could actually be happy on Christmas day. Of course I have some pics from our week, but not as many as I usual.

My favorites are from Abra's Christmas Performance at school. She joined the Drama club this fall and had practices twice a week after school for months preparinf for the production. It was so cute and the kids did such a wonderful job. It was called Christmas On Candy Cane Lane. She was an elf and had two different speaking parts and a little "Dance Break" with santa and the other Elves. She was so ecited about the show and said she couldn't wait to be in Drama again! Here are some of the highlights:

Abra with one of the Toy Soldiers.

A couple of her in her costume.

Abra saying some of her lines.

Some from the Dance Number.

More Christmas Photos to come later...

...update (it's about time!)

Man, it has been a long time. I am sad that not a lot of us in the O.G. Central Christian Gang really update anymore. But, I do still come by every once in a while even though I don't take the time update or leave a comment. Anyway, this fall has just been so insane for our family. Sometimes there are just NOT enough hours in the day to get done what is actually REQUIRED of us, and surely not enough hours  to get in much play. Wow, it sounds kinda pathetic, but right now we have no social life. So, this is my attempt to cyber socialize (man, that's even more pathetic!!) For those of you still reading this, sorry for the drab post. Maybe these fall photos will brighten it up a bit!!! Fall in Wisconsin really is something to experience.

We have managed to squeeze in a little bit of fall fun. We did get to our favorite place, Edwards Apple Orchard, twice this year!!!

This is my mom and my 2 nieces at the orchard.

And One last one from Halloween.