We will be in front of Walgreens in Conway next Friday and Saturday (November 19 & 20) selling coupon books, t-shirts, and blankets...If you can stop by and see us!!

Last weekend we attended an international adoption seminar in St. Louis. Ethan got to stay with his Meema for the weekend. He hd a great time and so did we. The seminar was great....we really learned lot about what to expect when Ivy comes home. Think we are going to be stressed for a while but it will worth it in the end! I am getting anxious....can't wait fo the wait to be over...when we are all finally settled in and together. Ethan wants a baby sister for Christmas....had to tell him maybe for his birthday in the summer! :( he is ready for her to be here now and so are we. Hopefully the wait will go fast and so will the fundraising. Right now it is the fundraising hodling us up. I will just keep praying and everything will happen in Gods time.

We are planning a winter fest with games, bouncy houses, Santa, and a silent auction. If you would like to volunteer we need around 20-25 people to help! It will be great fun! Hope to see yall there if you live around and can make it....I will post more info later when we have a place, date and time. :)

New Ideas

Well...It has been a really long time since I have updated my page and alot has happened since then. We scraped the game because we couldn't get enough interest. We are now selling blankets, coupon books, and t-shirts. We are very excited about the shirts. My brother Pat designed them, my mom modified them, and my dad colored them! I love my family!! They are all helping us so much.

We are now working on our home study, but are stuck on the financial end of it. We need to raise $3000 before we can go on to it. We have the $ for the home study but not the management fee. We are thinking about hosting a winter or fall fest, but don't know where to do it at! I am going to post the shirts online for purchase and try to setup a paypal account...not real sure how to do that though..hopefully won't be hard! One of the girls at work asked me how much they would have to raise to see my shave my head! Thought about that hard and told her $15000! and I would do it too! I think that they are actually going to try to do it. Told her we would put up a cash prize of 10% to the person who raised the most $$. Thought that was a pretty good prize!! But I won't shave my head for less than the $15000. I work with a great group of people who are so supportive and want to help as mush as they possibly can! I love them all!

Halloween is tomorrow!! and we already have more candy than we need from trick-or-treating at the daycare, the nursing home, and Boo at the Zoo and we still have to go real trick-or-treating!! Hope everyone is having a great and spooky Halloween!!

Been awhile....

Well...It has been awhile since I have been on here! The game is not going very well. We have sold one corner ad on the board and 3 patron ads, but that won't produce the game. We missed the 1st deadline and are working on the 2nd. We have changed the game up several times to obtain interest but people just are not biting. We are still trying but it is getting very frustrating. I was so hoping it would work because it would have generated a large amount of $$. Keep praying for us and our success. We do have other projects in the works such as blankets, dresses, and coupon books for sale. I lost my friends and family letter when our computer crashed and now have to rewrite it from scratch. Oh well...once Ivy is here, we can tell her about all the obstacles we had to overcome to finally bring her home :o)

We received application #2 and I am trying to fill it out, but man the paperwork is mind boggling!! It alone is complicated enough....

I am going to have to have my gallbladder removed next month...during my time off I guess I will have time to sit and fill all kinds of stuff out! My friend at work says that recovery is usually 3-6 wks. So I will have plenty of time...

Businesses involved in game

So far we have sold a few ads. The following businesses are getting involved:

Academy at Riverdale (hopefully buying a corner ad and maybe putting pic on front)
Wilsons Home Improvement (hopefully buying corner ad or sponsoring the $$)
Riverview Healthcare Center (patron ad)
Kicks Active Wear (patron ad)
Blue Ribbon Antiques (patron ad)
Hortons Orthotics (hopefully buying game ad)

We want to thank those businesses for their support and will be posting others as the buy ads.

Love you all,

New Game Title

Ok so we are renaming the game Arkansasopoly so that anyone and everyone can participate! We have sold ads in Little Rock, Conway, and Morrilton but still have a long way to go and a very short time to do it in. We thank everyone one that has made a commitment to buying an ad!! God Bless you all

Selling Ads

I have spent 2 days attempting to sell the ads for our "Little Rockopoly" game and am exhausted. I dropped off approximately 50-60 brochures at various businesses and am awaiting many call backs. I have had several businesses confirm their willingness to participate and others that told me this was one of the most creative fundraisers that they had seen! I am very excited and encouraged by the feedback that I received this weekend. I am excitedly anticipating future phone calls confirming participation and discussion of ad placement and setup. My husband has a friend at work (who also just adopted a little boy from China) who is trying to help us sell the ads and has given us 4 names of businesses that he has already talked with and have said "yes". We definitely appreciate the help. We are very excited about this game and hope that everyone participating is just as excited. We are now this much closer to bringing home Ivy!!-----Love your sister in Christ

Background Info

Reposting this to make it easier to find if you are reading this blog for the first time because you received an email on our "Little Rockopoly game".



I have began this blog to tell you a little about my family and to ellicit some help.

My name is Tiffany. I was born in Mississippi, the 3rd of 4 children and the only girl. All my life I have dreamed of the family that I would once have, never seeing few children in my future. I have always wanted a big family so I was devasted when I ran into infertility problems after getting married. But before I go into that, let me tell you a little more about my past.

I was always a very healthy child, never sick...until my sophmore year in high school. I began to feel very weak and winded. I thought that I was sure getting out of shape..even though I went dancing every weekend and was in gymnastics. I really didn't know what was going on. That January, I turned 16. Like any ordinary teenager, I got to have the car that weekend and took my friends "cruising" town. We had so much fun that night. Little did I know what was about to happen. My birthday was on the 13th. On the 19th, my mother woke me up, told me to take a shower (not to put any makeup on), and to get ready to go to the doctor (again). This was not my 1st visit. This was probably the 4 or 5. We had already been to my PCP and the ENT because of a swollen lymph node behind my right ear that was soo big my friends were teasing me about having a tumor. (Boy did they feel bad later!!)

That morning, I was so tired that I didn't want to do anything. I got up, took a shower, and did what my mom said to do. As we walked into the doctor's office, I could hear to nurses talking to one another. I was so white that they could not beleive that I was walking on my own. This doctor's visit, the doctor took blood for the 1st time and sent us home with iron pills for anemia. I went home and crashed on the couch. The next thing I knew, my mom was waking me up and telling me to get in the car. I was so confused. My dad was home in the middle of a work day and my mom had packed our bags. I was told that we were going to Arkansas Children's Hospital but nothing else. (oh yeah did I forget to mention we moved to Arkansas)

At Children's, the news was finally broke to me. I had leukemia (ALL--acute lymphacytic leukemia). I underwent 2 1/2 yrs of chemotherapy, lost all my hair, and missed 1/3 of my sophmore year in school (however my teachers found it in their hearts to send my work home to me). I tried to be positive through everything even though I occassionally got boughed down by the chemo or by loosing my hair again after it had begun to come back in.

Good did come from this time in my life. I met my husband during this time. I was ball headed and he had just come home from the Army. We had mutual friends and had both stopped to talk to them "cruising town" (on one of the few nights that my mom let me out of the house). We instantly hit it off and have been together for 15 years (married for 11 of those). He has seen me during my worst and best times. His friends use to ask him "who the little boy was riding in the truck with him", but it never bothered him.

Years later after high school and during my last semester in college, we got the news that I was pregnant. We were so excited but the pregnancy was accompanied by appendicitis. Following a appendectomy the doctor said that the baby was fine. We were elated until our 1st miscarriage. I was 4 1/2 months along and devastated. A year later, we got pregnant again. Worried but excited again, I found myself trying to do everything right. At our visit to hear the heartbeat, we found out that I had had another miscarriage at 7 wks. Devastated is putting it lightly. I fell into a pretty deep depression. Crying myself to sleep nightly.

When we decided to try again, I was terrified. I didn't think I could go through it again. I got pregnant again and this time with the help of my doctor (who saw me weekly because I was always frightened something was going wrong), I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He came 3 weeks early and I was on bed rest for 6 weeks but everyday that I look into his face, I know that he is a gift from GOD!!

I couldn't have been happier until my son was 6 months old and I found out that I was pregnant again. Scared but very happy, I called the doctor. This pregnancy ended in disaster too but was alot easier to take since I had my precious little boy.

My son is the light of my life, my little miracle baby, but I still have that desire for a larger family. He is now 3 1/2 and wants a baby sister badly. We have not prevented getting pregnant since the last miscarriage but have not been pregnant since (3 yrs). I really don't want to be pregnant again and neither does my loving husband. In the last year or 2, we have felt a very strong pull to adopt. We started the process last June through DHS but have decided that we want to adopt internationally.

Now I have finally come to the reason that I began this blog.....We need your help! Adoption is a very expensive process and we are now in major fundraising mode. We will be posting ways that you can help us in the days to come and I will be keeping you updated on our progress along with family news and decisions. I am very excited about this blog and plan on trying to write something on it daily. Please keep us in your prayers and check in with us often to see how we are doing. Our goal is to raise $30,000 and so far with our 1st fundraisers (Rhea Lana and Duck Duck Goose consignment sales and blankets), we have raise $1200. Not much but it is a start:)

Well it is getting late and I need to go to bed......Love your sister in Christ

New Addition to the family

We welcomed a new addition to the family this week. It is a 13 week old cocker spaniel puppy!! He is so sweet! I had a cocker spaniel when I was little and knew what good dogs they are. My son loves him (but being a little boy, he is a little to rough with the puppy and we have to get onto him frequently). He is a family dog and gets to stay in the house when we are home. I missed having a dog around....

Updates on the fundraisers. We are currently trying to sell the game ads through email and nobody is biting. Next step is to start going business to business. We sent a brochure to the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce but haven't heard from them either. This weekend is going to be busy as I start to go from business to business by myself with a 3 year old in tow. Maybe we will have more luck face to face. We have to have all the ads sold by June 23rd (I think) so that we can have the game out by Labor Day! I will be mailing out our contribution letter soon to family and friends. Maybe that will bring some $$ in too. Through Rhea Lana, Duck Duck Goose, and the blankets, we have raised over $1200. Small start but still a start. Most the $$ will come from our games (if we can get the ads sold). I am feeling a little stressed out! But we know that in the end God will take care of everything and that we will raise the amount needed to bring home our baby Ivy!

Adoption Update

Well....I finally got our application totally filed out and mailed into Dillon. It has been such a process and I had to type 4 pages worth of questions they wanted answered. I really had to think about some of them. But it is totally done and sent in....so the next step is to go online and watch an orientation and then fill out another application. Oh boy hope it is not like the last!!

I am so excited that the process is progressing but worried about the earthquakes in China!! I hope my baby girl is ok .... I pray for her safety and hope that GOD brings her to us quickly. I haven't heard anything about damage to orphanages but I have heard that a school collapsed. I heard a statistic that there are over a million children in orphanages and foster care in China and only 4% of them will ever find homes!! That is so sad!! They are in my prayers daily!! I wish more people would take adoption to heart.........................

another kind of fundraiser

Ethan is involved in a Trike-a-thon for St Jude Children's Hospital tomorrow at the daycare. We went door to door tonight getting him sponsors for the event. He raised over $100.00. It was so cute watching him try to explain what he is doing. He kept saying he was raising money for his bike instead of for the kids or for the hospital. All he knew was that he was getting money to ride his bike!! even though we discussed what it was for...our neighbors are great!! They all talked with him and told him what a great thing he was doing for such a worthy cause!! I love it that he is getting involved with giving to others at such a young age.. God truly gives us opportunities to grow in spirit and grace from very young to very old!! HE is so good!

Busy, Busy

Wow, I haven't been very good at this lately but been really busy..We have finally set deadlines for our game..have been making blankets and they have been selling like hotcakes at work...and I have been trying to get all out application filled out and our contribution letter written. We are getting down to the line on our game but are trying to find a couple of people to help us sell the ads. Think I might try at church...surely someone will volunteer (I hope).

Well I have been looking for a new car since mine is giving out on me and is way too small to add a 2nd carseat into. We have found a Dodge Journey and I think I really like it. Could get better gas mileage but it has tons of room and lots of extras. Think it may be the one....a very good friend of mine said the name is appropriate for the adoption journey we are currently on. and I agree:)

Well wish I had more funny stories to tell but can't think of any right now..I will try to get better about my updates...Love you all---your sister in Christ

Monster Under the Bed

Last night, we spent the night at my mom and dad's house. At bed time, Ethan gave me such as scare that had me laughing my booty off. As I put Ethan to bed, I performed our usual routine. We changed, read books, I laid down with him for 15 minutes and then left him alone in the room. He got up 1 time and I put him back to bed, tucked him in, and told him that I would be back soon (since we were sleeping in the same room). Well about an hour later, I got ready for bed, changed into my jammies, took my contacts out (yes...I am blind), and retired to bed. Once in the room, I glanced at Ethan's bed to check on him but couldn't see him so I felt around the bed....No Ethan! I thought "that little stinker, he is in my bed" but he wasn't there either. Well I was carrying my phone and shone it around the room....No Ethan! I began to freak out....until I hear a small noise. I listened closely and could hear him breathing. I began to look harder and found him underneath the bed. He had purposely crawled under the bed because he had his pillow, blanket, 2 stuffed animals, and a toy tractor! I couldn't beleive it! I laughed so hard and I had to share my find....so I called my mom into the room to help me try to fish him out. We got him out and he never even woke up. We had a really good laugh but the night was not over yet....

Later that night Ethan woke me up making noises. He was in the act of shoving everything back under the bed! I asked him what he was doing and he responded "Momma your here!" then grabbed a spare pillow and pulled up his blankets and went back to sleep...very odd. When my alarm went off the next morning, I found Ethan again trying to crawl under the bed but this time he was trying to pull out his pillow, blanket and the stuffed animals! I asked him why he was under the bed and his response was that he was playing with his tractor! nothing else.

What I find really weird is that he is terrified of shadows but he can crawl under the bed in the dark!!!

Easter fun

Took Ethan Easter egg hunting in the front yard yesterday..It was so much fun. He gets so excited when he finds one. He has this funny little dance and yell. He made us hide the eggs 2x. We put change in the eggs and after we were done, he was even more excited about the $1.49 he had gotten! So cute....he puts all his change in his piggy bank and when it is full, we deposit it in this savings and start all over again.

When I was logging everything into the computer for the Rhea Lana sale, Ethan found a tractor within the toys that he wanted. I told him that it was for sale so he went into his room got his bank and wanted to know how much. I told him that it was $4.50 and he dumped his change out and made me count out the change. I guess it was his finacial contribution toward his little sister!! I was adorable and a real teaching method about $$.

Well Easter is almost here. HE IS RISEN!! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Hoping everyone has a great Easter and remember that Christ died on the cross so that we may all have eternal life.

Happy Easter---you sister in Christ

Spring is here!!

Spring is finally here!! I love the warm sun on my face! I love being able to go for a walk after dinner and not freezing..or walking in the dark.

Today, Ethan and I decided to take a walk after dinner. He rode his Spiderman bike and I ran/walked next to him (depending on how fast he was going)...well we didn't make it far before meeting our neighbors....everyone had the same idea today since it was such a beautiful day. We have more and more young people moving into our neighborhood and I am so excited because when we moved in, we were the youngest couple by about 10-20 years!! We now have young children all around us! Hope great that our kids will have neighbor kids to play with!! We need to have a block party to meet all the new people in the neighborhood......Maybe we will host one this summer. How fun that would be.

The Grumpy Spider

Ok so this story is totally not adoption material but it has made me laugh all night long hysterically every time I think about it.

My husband was in a lousy mood this evening. The day started out by getting up early, having pancakes for breakfast, and going to church. After church, we went to see "How to Train Your Dragon". It was so cute....but on the way there my husband decided to stop at the Hyunda place and look at a car. After the movies, he stopped back by and we ended up spending 1 1/2 hrs there talking to the dealer! (but we did leave with a car for an overnight test drive which is a good thing since my car is in the shop) But we still had to go to Walmart afterwards to get groceries and fix something for dinner once we got home. Everything put my husband in a foul mood and he was a bear in the store!

I left the store early with Ethan to go to the car and get cleaned up (we are still trying to potty train...got peepee down but poopoo is another story). Once we got to the car, Ethan says, "Daddy's grumpy. Why is daddy grumpy?" and without thinking I replied "something must have crawled up his rear end". Well Ethan rode home with his daddy from the store and evidently he told his daddy that I said something crawled up his butt and wanted to know what is was! He somehow came up with a spider ..... The grumpy spider!

When I got home David walked past me very mad and told me that Ethan had asked what had crawled up his butt. I was shocked but wanted to laugh so hard but the look on David's face said that I shouldn't. All night long, the giggles overtook me and finally after dinner, I burst out laughing. When David asked what I was laughing at, I told him and the whole story came out. David finally admitted that it was funny and as we put Ethan to bed, he began to joke about it to.

So now when anyone you know is in a bad mood, just know that the Grumpy Spider got them!!!!

Spring Break

We had so much fun this past week but back to real life now and dealing with my car!

The hotel we stayed at was having problems while we were there. First the electricity kept going off...they were somehow throwing a breaker over and over again and didn't know why!! That was the first problem...next on the first night we were there, the lady across the hallway decided to smoke in her non-smoking room and set all the fire alarms off at 4:00 in the morning!! Luckily, David was able to make ours stop screaming by taking it down off the ceiling so that Ethan didn't wake up but we were awake listening to all the commotion going on in the hallway and especially when the fire department showed up! I was slightly mad when they beat on our door and asked if we were smoking too!!! The lady that started the whole fiasco was mad and didn't know why it was such a big deal that she was smoking in her room....and she wasn't smoking a little! When David opened our door, the smoke came billowing in and stunk up our room until it finally aired out again! It was crazy! A day later, we came back to the hotel only to find the fire department there again...this time we had no idea why but they were down by the breakers. It wasn't a bad hotel in all but I wouldn't stay there again.

All in all..our trip was great! I really didn't want to come home. The zoo was awesome and we will definitely go back again. We also went to the Pink Palace Museum where Ethan got to see dinosaurs! He was so excited. We walked down Beale St and ate some awesome BBQ and listened to great music. We just took our time with everything and walked a lot.

But back home .... glad I cleaned the house before we left.

I finally filled out the application for Dillon..we have decided to do the Waiting Child Program in China!! I noted in the Dillon contract that I am going to have to make my blog private...so I guess that means if you are not a friend, you can't see it. Not real sure how that works but if you want to keep following us on our journey, just send a request and I will approve you if you are a friend or a supporter.

We are getting ready to kick off our major fundraising efforts and are needing help to sell the ads for our games. If you would like to help, please send me an email at tiffanydpt@yahoo.com and I will let you know place, time, date, and details. If you can't be here in person ...please pray from where you are!

ZOO

I love the zoo!! Watching the bears, monkeys, and other animals and comparing them to people. My favorite was the panda...she was sitting leaned up against a tree and eating cane in the morning and had only moved about 5 feet by late in the afternoon. Sometimes this is how I feel but never get to do!! Some of the other animals were in constant motion which is how I usual am with my 3 yr old who only stops moving when he is sleep. He would fit in well with the monkeys!! In the panda exhibit, we got the feel of China and got more excited about our child to be! In the gift shop, my son bought a stuffed panda and I got a jade hanger of Kwan Yin. Kwan Yin means "One who hears the cries of the world, and comes." The most celebrated goddess in Asia, she is the goddess of mercy or compassion, the protector of children and goddess of fertility. It just seemed appropriate! and it is very pretty!

AHHHHH!

Just when I thought everything was going right....the transmission went out on my car!!! It is going to cost $1308.00 to fix it! Well there goes almost all the $$ we have earned so far......yes I will try to replace all of it but will have to work some Fridays and that takes away from my Ethan time. This really sucks!!! I will never buy another Ford. It has been nothing but trouble since it turned over 80,000 miles and the guy at the Ford dealership told me it was just time for stuff to start going wrong! That just isn't right! Next time, I will buy a foreign car like a Honda or Nissan or Hyunda.

Oh well, just one obstacle in a long process. We will get over it and continue to push forward. Please pray for us...we need it right now!

YEAH!!

We made $477.00 at the Rhea Lana sale. We are so excited and I found out that there is still the Duck Duck Goose sale to put items in!! We want to thank everyone that shopped.

I think we have made our decision. We are going to stick with China and Dillon. I can picture my little China doll named Ivy and am sooooo excited. Now to begin our paperwork. I have everything that I need for our first application. Doesn't look too complicated but I could be wrong. I do know that I will have to make a trip to ACH for my oncologist to write a letter clearing me. I have been cured for 15 years and my last chemo trip was 13 years ago. I was discharged from my oncologist 2 years ago. I was very excited until I talked to my mom who said "doesn't that make you nervous? You won't have your yearly checkups anymore!" I wasn't nervous until she said that!! but was still very excited. I was finally set free!!!!

I still go back to ACH to visit occassionally but rarely know any of the nurses anymore. I love to go back to visit....maybe I can be an inspiration to one the cancer patients one day.

Decisions, Decisions

I never knew it would be so hard to pick a country for our child to come from. I thought we had picked China until today an adoption agency called that I had inquired about. They perform adoptions from Poland. We are very interested in Poland because my great grandparents came from Prussia (Polish Russia). This is a country that I was greatly considering early on because of my heritage but was having trouble finding an agency that did Polish adoptions. I found out that this is because only 3 agencies in the US do these adoptions. After further research, I have found that the stay in Poland is really long or to be broken down into 2-3 trips because they require a bonding time before you take your child home. That sounds great in theory but I don't think I could be away from Ethan that long! I have never even spent a night away from him. We would probably have to take him with us....But wow would that be a looooooooooooong flight with a 3-4 year old and then 2 kids on the way home! I just don't know .......... so stressful just picking out a country. HELP

Allergies, Allergies

How can something as beautiful as Easter flowers cause such agonizing congestion and pain? I was so looking forward to warmth and the beauty of a blooming world....until the last 2 days as my head has become more and more congested and began to pound. I love not being able to breath!! Spring is my favorite season minus the allergies that come along with it. I love the warmth of the sun, the trees and grasses turning green, and the very blue skies. I love seeing animals coming out of hiding and the birds tweeting in the trees.

I got married in the spring for a reason...it is the most beautiful season of the year. We are fixing to celebrate our 11th anniversary this year!! I can't beleive it. We have been together for 15 years (since I was 16, yes so very young). But he stole my heart then and still has a hold of it today....

Work or maybe play

I love interacting with the residents that I work with. They can really brighten up a room but can also sometimes be a real downer. Right now I have one particular patient that likes to recite poems and today this was her poem......

"If you see a frog up a tree, squeeze its tail and think of me."

Hee-hee! Just made me giggle. There is never a dull moment at the nursing home. I love being the patient advocate for the patients I have and don't have (but will one day have, they all come to PT sooner than later) and it makes my day when I hear one of my past patients refer to me as their favorite therapist!! The little things in life are what make it worth living.

Daylight savings time is totally throwing Ethan off. I am trying very hard to get him to go to bed on time and here it is 9:50 and he is still up. Yes in his room with the lights off and in bed but he has now gotten up 2x. He is in a stage that he is afraid of "shadows". We have made shadow puppets on the wall and tried to explain to him what they are (make that 3x that he has gotten up) and that they will not "get" him. He is now in bed with a horse flashlight and a book. Maybe he will settle down and finally go to sleep so that I can make my own way to bed. Daylight savings time is rough on us all!

Cancer Story

I want to say first that we have already raised over $200.00 at the Rhea Lana sales and the doors do not even open to the public till today at noon!! Yeah!!

Last night, I watched "My Sister's Keeper" for the first time. I was not real sure I wanted to because I knew what it was about and yes I cried for the whole movie. But it got me to thinking about my own cancer story. The girl in the movie used humor to cope and so did I because it is either laugh or cry and I prefer to laugh. So I did make jokes that only my dear family and friends thought were funny and I did make light of the whole process because I didn't want to drown in it.

I have a few stories from the hospital that I did not control that I look back on now and laugh at. I do not actually remember a tremendous amount from those morphin induced visits. Some of the stays were fuzzy and I was admitted to the hospital every other week for longer than I wish to think about. Some of these visits were fun and others were because I had mouth sores from the chemo that were covering the surface of my entire digestive system! Those are the ones I don't remember alot about. However, I do remember the balloon that my little brother brought for me. It was a butterfly that was jointed at the wings and when you pulled on the string it looked as if it was flying! Through the morphin, it really did look like it was flying and looked real. I remember thinking that a huge butterfly was in my room and it was soo pretty!

I had roommates at the hospital very infrequently because the smell of food made me puke. But the one time I did have a roommate, she was a blast and around my age at the time. However, she scared the pee out of me one night! It was around midnight and I got up to use the bathroom. I groggily dragged myself to the bathroom pulling my IV pole along with me. I turned on the bathroom light and when I turned around, I screamed at the top of my lungs. Everyone came running. My roommate had taken off her prosthetic leg and propped it up next to the commode. I didn't know she even had a fake leg! It looked so real. She laughed her butt off and so did everyone else. To this day, I think back on that and laugh to. I asked about her a few years ago and found out that she had had a relaps and this time didn't make it. I cried and cried...that could have been me. But GOD called her home for a reason and had other plans for me.

I remember the only night that my mom left me alone at the hospital. It was so cold outside. I had an outside room at the hosital so I had a wonderful view of the capital all lit up at night. I woke up to a freezing cold room. I called the nurses and told them I was freezing. I think I had to call back again to tell them to hurry. When the nurse finally made it to my room and turned on my lights, we were both shocked to find that the window had blown open. I was 3-4 stories up and the windows were not suppose to open! They didn't have screens or anything. If my mom had been there, she probably would have hit her head on the window when sitting up from her uncomfortable little couch bed. They had to move me to another room so that maintenance could come in a fix the window. They don't know how it happened. Only to me would that happen!! My mom never left me there alone again.

My mother stayed by my side the whole time. She was with me for every visit till I went to college and then I went by myself if I didn't have any major procedures. I love my mother dearly. She is my best friend! I learned how to be a great mother by watching her. She is one of the reasons I made it through everything. She was holding my hand through every spinal tap, bone marrow, and the bags and bags of chemo therapy. I couldn't have asked for more. I have been blessed with a wonderful family and support system.

My family is very excited about our adoption and have been supporting us in every way. My oldest brother is designing the "I Support Adoption" t-shirts (he is a graphic designer). Tony and Kim have donated clothing and toys for Rhea Lana and have helped with ideas on promotion of our game. We receive prayers from all.

I want to say "I love you" to my family.

Rhea Lana

This is the first day of the Rhea Lana sale and I am so excited!! Not only because of our fundraiser but because I also shop Rhea Lana and Ethan needs a little table that he can sit at and color, eat, etc. It will be his desk while his daddy is doing his homework so that he can do "his homework" too. They had so much stuff at the sale this year. I know because I was there till 11 o'clock Thursday night dropping stuff off. I was one of the last consignors to leave. I didn't get home till 11:30 to a dark house with everyone already sleep. Oh well..what I won't do for my kids (the one I have and the one to come). Wednesday, I dropped off the 1st batch while the tornado sirens were going off! Was kinda scarey.

At these sales, I also pick up little girls clothes. We have only nephews and I don't have any clothes for a girl so we are trying to get a few here and there..so we don't have to buy everything at once.

Well signing off----your sister in Christ

Ha! Going back over my blog, I realize that I repeat myself in many blogs. HUH....I guess my husband was right I probably do tell the same stories over and over again. HEEHEE..

Our visit with Dillon was very insightful. She said one thing that really stuck with me. She said that adopting internationally was really "a rescue mission". I like the thought of that. I long to give our little girl the love and protection that a family can provide for her. I like to think that my kids will long for nothing. I dote on the one I have now! He is spoiled..I admit it...but I can't help it. I love him dearly.

We set up a Facebook group tonight. I am soo excited. It already has 29 members and has only been online for about 1-2 hrs. We want to thank everyone again for your support. I probably can't say this enough. Love you all!

Game Changes

Well we missed the deadline to have a booth at our local festival so we have decided to make the game for the capital and sell it in the River Market. We are hoping that we can get a major tv station and the newspapers to advertise for us. This way maybe we can sell 1000 games! Now that Rhea Lana is all done (for the season), I can focus all my energy on the production of the game!! We are so excited.

Looked at cars today. Looking to get a car that gets good gas milage and fits 2 forward facing car seats in the back seat easily. Today looked at Hondas. I like the CRV but just don't know. David thinks they are ugly. I will keep looking.

I was trying to think of a good story today but can't think of one. Oh Well. I will get back on if I think of one!!!

Need to do better!

Ok so I know that I am not the best blogger!! I am having trouble finding the time between work, family, Rhea Lana fundraiser, and trying to find enough time to sleep (which I have not been doing a good job of). I have been staying up past midnight for a week trying to get everything ready for the next Rhea Lana sale. I dropped off 1/2 our stuff last night with the tornado sirens going off and will drop off the rest tonight. Tuesday night, we met with Dillon adoption agency and I fell in love with them! They offer so many benefits and are a non-profit, Christian agency (which is important to us). Now we have to pick what country we want to adopt from. Still leaning toward the Asian countries. The LORD will lead us to our child. I have a feeling we will just know.

A sorority and faternity from a local college has agreed to help us raise $$. We are soooo thankful to them and are open to anything that they want to do as a fundraiser. I am soo excited!! It seems like it is finally coming true!!

Well better go and return to work:) HEE-HEE I just made time today to post something. Thanks for all your support!!

Gotta Love 'em

I love how brutally honest kids are and I always thought the story parents told were hilarious until my son hit age 3. I will never forget the day that I took him to work with me late one afternoon to help a friend prepare for a "Dude Looks Like a Lady" contest we were having for Relay for Life. The one man who could have me fire (the director of the nursing home) stopped by to see what we were doing and my son proceeded to pat him on the belly and say "man you have a big one". I couldn't apoligize enough!! I then had to have the "that's not nice" talk with my son. The director laughed it off and looked at Ethan and said "yes I do!" Several days later, he tells me to tell Ethan that he was going on a diet. Ethan's little outburst was his wake-up call. I was mortified!!

Weeks later in the bathroom at the Rhea Lana sale, I sit down to pee and my son begins to chant "Momma I see your big booty!!" very loudly over and over again!! Ok so I am on a diet already!! He did not have to remind me why. KIDS:)

Well adoption wise? We found out we missed the sign up to get a booth for our local festival and it is a lot sooner than we thought it was. Oh well, the booths were $200 each. Ouch! We will just have to find another avenue to sell our games and stuff. The second Rhea Lana sale is coming up fast and I have little done! I will be spending all weekend preparing for it. This next tuesday, my husband and I are attending an adoption seminar given by Dillon adoption agency. I am so excited! I have been researching agencies and countries still. Thing is ....I don't care where our child comes from. Nationality does not seem a big issue for me. I would love a child of any nationality. I do feel as if GOD is leading us all the way and closing and opening doors to fit his purpose. HE will lead us to the right child when the time comes.

Sorry for the break in posts!! This blog thing is a lot harder to keep up with than I thought it would be, but I will try to do better in the future.
Love your sister in Christ

Fundraising

This has been a busy weekend. I have been planning a fundraisers with a GREAT girlfriend of mine. We are making a "Your Town--opoly" game and trying to sell it at our local town festival. We are so excited to see how it turns out and if it works! We sat down for 3 1/2 hours at our local Chick-fil-a and monitized the board spaces while our kids played in the play gym. It was stressful and exciting. We actually sold a spot on the board before we even priced them by a gentleman who approached us!!! We are hoping that this is a sign from GOD saying that we chose the right fundraiser!!!!

We have decided on the name Ivy for our little girl!!! I just love the name. So we will have Ethan and Ivy. The closer we get the more excited we are. We are still looking at the different countries that you can adopt from and can choose an agency from there. So many decisions to make. I can only trust GOD to lead us to the little girl that HE has picked out for us!! I know that everything will be revealed to us in HIS time.

I want to thank ALL my friends that are backing us and routing for us!! We love you all! If you want to purchase a game, let me know! You don't have to be local to enjoy playing, It might even be fun to learn about a new town!! If you would like to pre-order a game email me at tiffanydpt@yahoo.com and let me know! They are $25.00 each. (Can you tell we are excited about our fundraiser?! We are trying to sell 750 games. Hope we can!! Sounds like such a large #.)

Ethan keeps telling us all about the things he is going to do with his "baby sister". And he is detailed about it. It ranges from feeding her to holding her and to sharing his bed. It is so cute. He says that he will sleep on the top bunk and his baby sister can have the bottom bunk. I had to explain that she will be little and have to sleep in the crib in the nursery for awhile. (and yes, our nursery is already prepared with only a few minor arrangements and tweaks left to do.)

We will be attending an adoption seminar March 9th presented by Dillon Adoption Agency and we have been reviewing the packet from Holt. These are our top 2 picks.
I also found an awesome website. It is rainbowkids.com. For those others wanting to adopt internationally, you should check this site out!

Well getting late and I am exhausted from a long couple of days!
Love your sister in Christ

I love being a mom!

As I was putting my son to bed tonight and watching him adjust and readjust himself, I had to laugh as he tucked in each one of his 4 stuffed dalmations next to him under the covers with care......I love being a mom!! It makes everything in life worth it. I love the feel of little arms encircling my neck, of playing the "I love you" game, and of watching him makes new discoveries everyday. I love the looks of amazement with simple things such as a ladybug, a new dinosaur, or of ice cream shared together. I couldn't be happier than when I am spending time with my family. I long to share all we have with another child.

I want to thank all my friends and family for sending helpful sites and tips on where to find financial help. I will definitely be looking into them all. We are so blessed by having such good family and friends!

No new news today. We are still working on deciding what agency to use but I do think that we are leaning toward China as our place of adoption. I will keep you posted!

GOD bless!!

more background

I gave you history yesterday so today I wanted to let you know where we are today.

I am a working mom. I work at a nursing home as a physical therapist. I love my work!! I have worked pediatrics and geriatrics and love them both in different ways. The ends of the spectrum but not that different! The clients that I work with make me laugh. I love the stories that they tell of "the good ole days". You just never know what will come out of thier mouths and sometimes you have to turn an understanding ear when working with dementia patients. I cherish my days off with my family. They are what keep me going and I try to spend as much time with them as possible (or course this means that my house pays for it because it is what gets neglected the most). I try hard to keep everything clean and orderly but if I have to choose between cleaning and playing with my baby boy, he wins every time!

My husband is a LPN at a local correctional facility (yes that means at the jail). He likes his job and is well suited for it. I think that if he ever decided to leave that they might cry. How many male nurses are actual out there? He is currently going back to school to get his RN. I am so proud of him. He is juggling full time work with full time school and he still always makes time for us.

My son is a very active 3 1/2 yr old. He love dinosaurs, trains, dogs, and tractors. He is ALL boy. An older man at McDonald's described him as a shark and said he had one of his own that was grown. It took me a while to understand that comment but I finally got it. A shark has to move at all times or it will die! Well that is my son to the T. He is always moving unless he is asleep and when he is sleeping he looks like an angel! Ethan is so excited about the prospects of getting a baby sister. He talks on end about what they are going to do together. He actually gets very ellaborate. It is sooo cute. However, he thinks we can just go down to the store and buy a sister! He doesn't know why it is taking so long and has actually cried when I stopped to talk with an adoption agency and did come back with his sister that day. Bless his heart!

We are currently trying to decide which agency to use. I think it is between Dillon and Holt. We have friends who just went to China to bring home a beautiful baby boy. They have been very helpful on who to use and who not to use. They said that Holt will hold your hand the whole time and I think that we want that; however, you pay for it. Some agencies maybe cheaper but they are not with you the whole time to help with every step of the way. The used The Great Wall of China for the 1st adoption but stated they felt like they were on thier own while in China to get thier baby and that is when I would think you would need them the most.

We are getting very excited about everything. All the decision and the fundraising. We are in high drive and coming up with all kinds of ideas. We will keep you updated on the ones that we actually try.

Ok again it is getting late and I need to sign off. Have to get up early and exercise and then go to work. Thanks for all the prayers...Love your sister in Christ

Getting started

Here goes....this is all new to me so bear with me till I get the hang of this.

I have began this blog to tell you a little about my family and to ellicit some help.

My name is Tiffany. I was born in Mississippi, the 3rd of 4 children and the only girl. All my life I have dreamed of the family that I would once have, never seeing few children in my future. I have always wanted a big family so I was devasted when I ran into infertility problems after getting married. But before I go into that, let me tell you a little more about my past.

I was always a very healthy child, never sick...until my sophmore year in high school. I began to feel very weak and winded. I thought that I was sure getting out of shape..even though I went dancing every weekend and was in gymnastics. I really didn't know what was going on. That January, I turned 16. Like any ordinary teenager, I got to have the car that weekend and took my friends "cruising" town. We had so much fun that night. Little did I know what was about to happen. My birthday was on the 13th. On the 19th, my mother woke me up, told me to take a shower (not to put any makeup on), and to get ready to go to the doctor (again). This was not my 1st visit. This was probably the 4 or 5. We had already been to my PCP and the ENT because of a swollen lymph node behind my right ear that was soo big my friends were teasing me about having a tumor. (Boy did they feel bad later!!)

That morning, I was so tired that I didn't want to do anything. I got up, took a shower, and did what my mom said to do. As we walked into the doctor's office, I could hear to nurses talking to one another. I was so white that they could not beleive that I was walking on my own. This doctor's visit, the doctor took blood for the 1st time and sent us home with iron pills for anemia. I went home and crashed on the couch. The next thing I knew, my mom was waking me up and telling me to get in the car. I was so confused. My dad was home in the middle of a work day and my mom had packed our bags. I was told that we were going to Arkansas Children's Hospital but nothing else. (oh yeah did I forget to mention we moved to Arkansas)

At Children's, the news was finally broke to me. I had leukemia (ALL--acute lymphacytic leukemia). I underwent 2 1/2 yrs of chemotherapy, lost all my hair, and missed 1/3 of my sophmore year in school (however my teachers found it in their hearts to send my work home to me). I tried to be positive through everything even though I occassionally got boughed down by the chemo or by loosing my hair again after it had begun to come back in.

Good did come from this time in my life. I met my husband during this time. I was ball headed and he had just come home from the Army. We had mutual friends and had both stopped to talk to them "cruising town" (on one of the few nights that my mom let me out of the house). We instantly hit it off and have been together for 15 years (married for 11 of those). He has seen me during my worst and best times. His friends use to ask him "who the little boy was riding in the truck with him", but it never bothered him.

Years later after high school and during my last semester in college, we got the news that I was pregnant. We were so excited but the pregnancy was accompanied by appendicitis. Following a appendectomy the doctor said that the baby was fine. We were elated until our 1st miscarriage. I was 4 1/2 months along and devastated. A year later, we got pregnant again. Worried but excited again, I found myself trying to do everything right. At our visit to hear the heartbeat, we found out that I had had another miscarriage at 7 wks. Devastated is putting it lightly. I fell into a pretty deep depression. Crying myself to sleep nightly.

When we decided to try again, I was terrified. I didn't think I could go through it again. I got pregnant again and this time with the help of my doctor (who saw me weekly because I was always frightened something was going wrong), I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He came 3 weeks early and I was on bed rest for 6 weeks but everyday that I look into his face, I know that he is a gift from GOD!!

I couldn't have been happier until my son was 6 months old and I found out that I was pregnant again. Scared but very happy, I called the doctor. This pregnancy ended in disaster too but was alot easier to take since I had my precious little boy.

My son is the light of my life, my little miracle baby, but I still have that desire for a larger family. He is now 3 1/2 and wants a baby sister badly. We have not prevented getting pregnant since the last miscarriage but have not been pregnant since (3 yrs). I really don't want to be pregnant again and neither does my loving husband. In the last year or 2, we have felt a very strong pull to adopt. We started the process last June through DHS but have decided that we want to adopt internationally.

Now I have finally come to the reason that I began this blog.....We need your help! Adoption is a very expensive process and we are now in major fundraising mode. We will be posting ways that you can help us in the days to come and I will be keeping you updated on our progress along with family news and decisions. I am very excited about this blog and plan on trying to write something on it daily. Please keep us in your prayers and check in with us often to see how we are doing. Our goal is to raise $30,000 and so far with our 1st fundraiser (Rhea Lana consignment sale), we have raise $438. Not much but it is a start:)

Well it is getting late and I need to go to bed......Love your sister in Christ