Grateful

As each day goes by and we continue to wait, I am grateful.
Grateful for the time with my husband.
Grateful for the love that we share.
Grateful for the love that is growing for our children.
Grateful for the time to prepare.
Grateful for the friendships we have.
Grateful for the continued blessings from the Lord.
Grateful for the hope that we have.
Grateful for our God that loves us enough to chose us for this purpose.

So Much....

to catch up on...

Middle of October to Middle of November my parents were here and remodeled our kitchen... incredible amount of work but SO amazing now. Thanks Mom and Dad! What a tremendous blessing this has been for us. We are almost completely done now.

The kitchen before…

During remodel…

Dad working hard...

Mom making things "pretty"...

For Thanksgiving we were able to get away for the week with The Forresters, The Pendergrasses & The Palmers. We had a great time and even got a little snowed in. Jeremy and I ended up losing our keys at the end of the trip and it was a fiasco but God brought us through but not without a little struggle on our part.

Us at the falls in Maryland for Thanksgiving…Aaron & I carving the turkey…

Thanksgiving dinner…

This is about what Sparky has been looking like for the past couple months. He has a hurt knee and has been milking it for everything he is worth. Can’t go up stairs or jump so is getting carried and getting very, very spoiled. This is him in my electric blanket. Poor guy.

Christmas tree shopping took place when we returned from Thanksgiving. Jeremy and I went to the tree farm with friends but ended up going to several lots before finding our tree. We need a pretty small one so we had to shop around. Everything have been decorated for a while now and beautiful.

Our partially decorated tree... Not sure why I didn't get a picture of the finished product...LOTS of Christmas baking & cooking in general has been taking place at the Pegg home. With the new kitchen, I just can't resist! It is so much more fun and so much easier to spread out, make a mess and clean it all up.

So much room to spread out...

Lots & lots of fudge...

We are having a major snow storm as we speak. We haven't had this much snow since we lived here. They are calling for 14" and I think we just might get that. May get snowed in for the weekend... guess I'll have to do some more baking!
On the adoption front... it is still just waiting. We don't have to update any paperwork until May so we just get to sit back and relax until then. We continue to pray that the kids will come very soon. We appreciate your continued prayers.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I pray that you are all enjoying it and remembering all the blessings God has given us, including the precious birth of his dear son, Jesus.

Happy Birthday!

PS: Happy Birthday to my favorite Father In Law - Duane!!! I hope you have a wonderful day today and know how much you are loved from this side of the United States!!!! Love you!!!

The Long Wait

Hmmm.... I'm not sure which is longer.... you waiting for me to post something new on my blog or us waiting for the kids. I'm kidding obviously but at least you don't have the problem of trying to keep up with my blog! : ) Anyway - once again I must apologize for no updates.

On August 27th (our Anniversary), a letter was written in Colombia approving us and our paperwork to become parents of Colombian born children. We actually didn't hear until several weeks later but it is just like God to have something special like that happen on our Anniversary. You gotta love the way he works. So what this means is we are "officially" waiting for our children instead of our paperwork. Yippee!!! There is still much to do but at least we are much closer!

What is still to do? There will be more paperwork to keep updated as we go and paperwork to prepare to take with us to Colombia. There are still a lot of funds to raise but we are trusting God for every penny. There is another bedroom to prepare. There is Spanish to learn. There are books to read and parenting dvds to help us prepare. But most of all... there are prayers to go up for protection and blessings on our children as they wait and that they will be able to come home as soon as humanly possible. They say the wait is about two years. Lord, please speed up that process!

So for now we wait, prepare, get things in order, etc. God is just making us better people in the wait and I'm so thankful for that!

I will have updates soon on all the activities going on at the house! Parents are here, walls ripped out, dust everywhere, a new kitchen coming soon! Thank you Mom and Dad for this HUGE blessing. We truly appreciate this gift!

15 Years...

...ago today, I married the man of my dreams. I can't even believe it has been that long. Seems like the time has gone by so quickly. I am so thankful for the wonderful man the Lord blessed me with. He is everything I never knew I wanted... everything that I needed and more!

Every day he makes me feel special. Every day he makes me feel loved. Not every day is a great day but I know at the end of it, he will still love me. I'm not sure you can ever really know what it is like to be treasured by someone until you are. Jeremy is such a treasure to me and also makes me feel the same. His gentleness amazes me, his laugh makes me smile, his amazing blue eyes melt my defenses, his voice soothes me, his love captures my heart.

What a blessed woman I am! Jeremy - you are and always will be my favorite boy ever. I love you more than words can say!

Missed you today! Hurry home so I can beat you at Tony Hawk! : )

Translation

I got word from our agency that our paperwork has all been translated. They are now in the ICBF office. We/they don't know how long they have been there but at least we know they are there! So that is good news. Now we just need to pray that they get approved very quickly through this office so that we can be in the waiting stack for our children!

It isn't a lot of news but at least it is good! : ) Thanks for praying!

SORRY

I'm sorry to those of you who read this blog. I haven't been good at keeping it updated and I'm sure that doesn't make you want to read this. I will try to do better at keeping this up to date.

First off - there really isn't any new adoption news. We are still waiting to hear from our agency that all our paperwork has been translated and that it is all OK. Once we hear that, we will officially be in the "waiting" stack for our sweet children. Other than that, there really isn't anything exciting to share.

I do want to give you all an update on the fundraisers that took place for us over the summer. I have yet to give the results of these and I apologize for the delay. There are so many of you who have helped us throughout this process and we are SO thankful!

Thank you Kim & Paul for selflessly sharing your anniversary with us and raising over $500 to help in getting our kids home! We were so blessed that you would remember us in this way! You have been a great inspiration in our lives growing up and again now as we see you love each other and us through your marriage! We are thankful for all of your friends who gave!

Thank you Kathryn & Wayne for blessing us with the yard sale fundraiser! Their goal was to raise about one plane ticket for us and I think we more than accomplished that. We were able to raise around $700! It was a great success! Thank you to all of you who donated items, helped set up, tear down, make goodies and hot dogs and chili! It was so much fun spending the day with you!!! Thanks Mom & Dad for helping with this too! We felt so loved!

Thank you Jamie (my sister) for blessing us with all proceeds of your sales in June with your Mary Kay business! She was able to raise about $125 for us! Thank you sweet sister. I love you dearly and can't wait until you can be an auntie to my kids! They will love you as I do.

More than anyone though, I have to continue to thank God for helping us through this process. The journey is long and can be trying at times but as his word says, he never gives us more than we can handle. The truth in that statement though is we really don't need to "handle" it. He's got it and our part is just giving it over to him. As we continue to do that and wait for our precious children to come home, we constantly thank God for all of you who have loved us and are continuing to support us through the wait.