Safety First

After a little trip to Lowe's, the Kyles are proud owners of

fresh smoke detector batteries,

a lockbox for the gun,

a fire extinguisher rated 2-A:10-B:C,

and a shiny new carbon monoxide detector.

(And, no, we did not already own any of these items. Don't judge.)

Looks like we're all set for our home inspection on Friday.

Okay, well, we still have to move the cans of paint that are being stored next to the water heater and within a child's reach.

But THEN we will be ready.

Moving forward...

Champions

Here is my A-team.

Aren't they cute.

And do you see that little shiny thing in the middle?

That's our trophy.

Our third-place-of-the-junior-high-black-forest-league trophy.

Yep. That's right. We are the (third place) champions.

I've been coaching teams at this tournament for seven years.

This is the first time I've had a team bring home any kind of trophy.

Oh boy, was I excited yesterday. and oh-so proud. very proud.

First Five

Can you guess what these are?

These are our first five shopping bag orders, ready and waiting to go in the mail.
We shipped them out on Friday and hopefully they have arrived safely at their new homes.

So far, we have sold 34 bags to 10 different people in 7 different cities.

Want one? Click here.

What I was doing at this time yesterday

Well, that sounds like a fun costume.

A conversation with my six-year-old niece.

Me: Arlee, what are you going to be for Halloween?

Arlee: Pebbles. Pebbles from The Gangsters.

Me: The Gangsters?

Arlee: Yeah. The Gangsters.

Me: Do you mean The Flintstones?

Arlee: Oh yeah, Pebbles from The Flintstones.

The adoption wall

This is my adoption wall.

This is how I stay organized. This is where I look if I need to know what to do next.

My adoption wall is very helpful.

This is me checking off my "homestudy paperwork" list.

I'm checking it off because we mailed a HUGE packet to our homestudy agency yesterday.

I am so happy to say that our homestudy paperwork is D.O.N.E.

For now.

And this is the little snail onesie that hangs at the end of my adoption wall.

It says "worth the wait" and it helps me remember why I need to do what I need to do next.

My little snail onesie is also so very helpful.

One Hundred Forty-Three Million MINUS One

A couple of months ago, my creative and talented husband came up with the idea of selling reusable shopping bags to help raise money for our adoption.

It sounded like such a simple idea.

Turns out, it was a little more difficult than we thought.

So since then, we've been planning, and working, and writing, and designing....

...and TADA!!!!

The bags are here and ready for purchase.

Throughout this entire process, our desire has never been to save a nation or to change the world. We simply want to change one child. We want to reach out to one little boy and make him ours.

There are 143,000,000 orphans in this world. Too many to count. Too many to comprehend.

But in 18 months, THERE WILL BE ONE LESS.

143,000,000 (-) 1

It's just one, but this one is so important to us.

And I guess we are asking you to make him important to you too.

I dream of the day when we will be able to say to our son, "You matter so much that 100 people worked together to put you into our family. You. are. so. loved."

We have received so much love and support. I get a bit blurry in the eyes when I think of all of the people who are already excited about this little guy. All of the people who are ready to love and squeeze and cherish him.

Thank you. Thank you all for that.

And if you feel so inclined, if you want to move us closer to the day when he will be in our arms, please consider purchasing a shopping bag...or five...or ten.

You will find a place to purchase them in the sidebar on the right.

(Yes, I realize that you can get these for $1 at Wal-Mart...but, well, Wal-Mart is not trying to adopt a baby.)

And please, keep following our story and learning about adoption and praying for orphans and dreaming about our little guy. He will be here oh-so-soon.

This was fun

See more here!

Olympic Training Center

For today's Mad Monday, we got out of the gym

and took a little tour of the US Olympic Training Center.
All was going well
until Bronze became jealous
and hijacked the gold.
Next week's Mad Monday: "How to Graciously Accept Defeat."

You've got to be kidding me

I'm watching The Today Show.

They just did a 5 minute segment on a mother who decided to give up her adopted son after 18 months of caring for him.

She said they "weren't bonding right."

She made the concept of adoption look bad. She made it look like it's not worth it to put yourself out there for the sake of a child.

Then The Today Show went to a commercial break and came back with a 10 minute segment about homeless dogs.

They gave the dogs makeovers.

They told the dogs' sad stories of abandonment.

They encouraged us viewers to adopt the dogs.

DOGS people. DOGS.

Really? Is this what we care most about in this country?

Nevermind that there are thousands of children in our country who need families. Forget about the thousands of children who could share their own devastating stories of abandonment and hunger and loneliness.

No, pay no attention to them.

But please, please, please make sure that all DOGS have good homes.

Good job, Today Show.

Thank you for dedicating 5 minutes to make sure that we all know that the adoption of HUMAN BEINGS will probably have a negative outcome.

And thank you, thank you for dedicating 10 minutes of your show to open my eyes to the dire need of dogs.

DOGS?

Seriously.