Samuel's Baptism!

We had a beautiful weekend. We had the honor of being JoAnna and Collin baby boy's godparents, and his baptism was Saturday night. Then Samuel's baptism was Sunday afternoon. Things all fell into place and it was lovely. 

Samuel screamed through both baptisms.  Haha!

I don't have pics of Peter's baptism yet, but here are Sam's:

Last nap as a heathen. ;)

For this child I did pray, and The Lord hath granted me my petition which I asked of Him. 

-1 Samuel 1:27

7 Quick Takes

Hosted at Clan Donaldson today!

~1~

Wellll, welll, welllll, I tend to get the most traffic on Fridays, so I won't miss this chance to brain vomit all over you all. Please, someone comment so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself!

~2~

ALL of my major errands for the trip are done. DONE! Now it's time to wait. Peacefully. JUST KIDDING! I have 200 things to do. I need to get the house cleaned up for our party on Sunday. Samuel is being baptized and we're also celebrating Tessa's birthday. I also have to do an all about me project with Lily, get both big girls ready for All Saints' Day, and Halloween. Then finish packing... Among the other normal day to day stuff, I feel a little like a chicken with my head cut off...

~3~

Have I ever mentioned on this blog that I've never been out of the country? Except for that one time that I went to Tijuana for a couple hours when I was 18. It was scary and I don't recommend it. SO! I have waited my whole life to leave the United States for an adventure, and I'm pretty sure this is going to be the biggest adventure anyone could have thought of...

~4~ 

Hubby insists he will ask the flight attendant to move his seat to the other side of the plane from me. Since I can't sleep in planes, and I'm sure to be a little obnoxious, I don't blame him. But, too bad sucker, you're stuck with me and my UNO game! Muahaha!!

~5~

The temperature change is going to be refreshing. It is still hitting 80-90 degrees on a regular basis here, and it's full on autumn over there. I can't wait to see all the fall leaves and actually be cool. We don't have fall here, really.

~6~

We bought 2nd hand costumes for Halloween yesterday. The girls happened to find 2 costumes that were exactly the same, just different sizes. We had no clue what they were, but they wanted them. Fire princess? Pumpkin fairy? Sunflower? Nope, I got home and googled and they are goldfish costumes. LOL!

~7~

If anyone has recommendations on things to watch on Netflix, I'm game. I will have a lot of spare time soon. :)

Happy weekend!

Feeling a Little Bit Like Super Mom...

The amount of things I have accomplished since receiving our travel dates is making me pretty proud of myself. But, I give all credit to God, because there is no way I could've done it without the massive amounts of prayers I've been saying, but I am seriously surprised I haven't exploded yet.

The girls and Samuel are doing great, but it has been a little more hectic around here. The amount of junk food and fast food we've been eating hasn't been ideal, either, but we're surviving. The appointments I've had to make and keep have been daunting on top of it all, and the long trek to Tucson was pretty intense, too.

But, shopping is done for the trip, passport is on its way for Sam Fran, and everything is just about ready. Once the girls are packed, we'll be done,

This weekend we will celebrate our new Godson Peter's baptism and then Samuel's baptism and Tessa's 4th birthday, then we will prepare and celebrate All Saints' Day at Amelia and Lily's school on Halloween, then come home and trick or treat.

We will spend as much quality time together as possible, and hubby, me, and Samuel will leave for our long trip across the world soon after that. (I don't want to get specific)

Please know that I am offering up all struggles and emotions for all of you, and that we would appreciate your prayers as well.

Keep an eye on the blog, folks. It's about to get good! :)

"I'm going where?!"

7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

It's a little shocking I'm doing Quick Takes at all this week, since my current To Do list is ridiculously long. But, I think I have a few minutes.

--- 2 ---

I am almost completely done packing. I need to make a trip to Target to stock up on random things like gloves, diapers, and charcoal tablets, but other than that, I just need to pack some stuff for Samuel and I'll be done.

--- 3 ---

I also have all these insane errands to run, like a haircut, eye exam, drive to Tucson to get a passport for Samuel, go to the bank, normal errands like grocery shopping, etc. PLUS, we are having Samuel baptized the 27th and having Tessa's birthday party the same day. I also have to go for my postpartum checkup and do All Saints' Day and Halloween with the kids. Anything else? I hope not...

--- 4 ---

Someone sweet is already 1 month old today!

--- 5 ---

Someone asked me the other night how many days we had until we leave. Until then, I had just been thinking in terms of weeks, because it was keeping me sane, apparently. When I put it into days, I had a wave of anxiety. I hope I can get everything done in time! I have a lot more days notice than a lot of people have had in the past, so I should be fine.

--- 6 ---

When you take a girl who grew up in the desert and suddenly send her to Eastern Europe in late Autumn, it could be an interesting sight. I do not get cold easily, but we had NO cold weather clothes. It was laughable. My sweet mother in law bought us a whole bunch of stuff, so hopefully we're all set, but it amused me how very little prepared we are for cold weather.

--- 7 ---

Please pray for us as we prepare and set out on this journey! Pray for "Colton," my girls, and us. That the Lord will protect us all and keep us healthy and that things will go quickly and smoothly.

Thank you for all of your support, I am so glad it's almost done!!

Happy weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Tickets are booked!!

We leave in a few weeks to meet our little guy! We will be there a while, but we will bring him home at the end!

Pray for us! :)

We Interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Program to Say...

WE HAVE TRAVEL DATES!!!

PRAISE BE TO GOD!

PHEW, TIME TO WORK!

7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

Samuel is now 3.5 weeks old. We were finally able to get his passport photo done, thanks to FedEx Office, and the next step has to wait until we have travel dates, because I need to drive to Tucson to get a same day passport printed for him.

We snuggle a lot during the day

--- 2 ---

The adoption process is one huge test, I'm convinced. One that I am likely failing. I am not doing well this week. Waiting on travel dates is really frustrating when I have so much to do.

This is how I feel. Paperwork in hand and all. 

--- 3 ---

The most stressful thing about this process is that I have to leave my other kids. I have not been able to line up childcare for my youngest ones, yet, and I'm starting to freak out. I know I shouldn't worry, that The Lord will provide, but my momma bear takes over my calm side pretty much every time.

--- 4 ---

Congratulations to my sweet friends JoAnna and Collin. They had a beautiful baby boy, Peter, this week, and he's going to be our Godson!! I am so excited, and so smitten with the chunky monkey. Peter has bilateral clubfeet and has already had his first set of casts put on. Please pray for the sweet guy and his parents as they go through his treatments.

--- 5 ---

It has finally cooled down here and we were able to turn off our AC! This is huge, people!! I was so sick of our crazy high electricity bills. Looking forward to lowwwww bills for a while!

--- 6 ---

I totally need someone to come help me catch up and sort laundry. I am so notoriously bad at laundry, and it's taking over our house again. I need to get rid of stuff and pull out long sleeved stuff for the girls. I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend!!

--- 7 ---

Ok, I'm out of ideas here. Too tired to function.

Happy weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes

1. Happy October! October is usually my favorite month, but I think it's going to be the craziest month I've had in a long time. My to do list is suuuuper long. 

2. Today I'm going to get Samuel's passport app sent out, God willing. This involves a passport photo, a trip to get his birth certificate, and then going to the court house to do the app. All with 5 kids in tow. Pray for us. 

3. I also need to go to Costco today. :-/

4. Samuel's baptism should be at the end of this month. And we'll likely do a birthday party for Tessa the same day. Since it's looking like we'll leave early in November and we're running out of weekends, here! 

5. Samuel was up wiggling from 1-5 am last night. Not sure what he was doing but I swaddled him around 5, he nursed and then passed out. Should've done it earlier but I was too groggy. Oops. 

6. My travel companion will not be able to make it after all, so I've taken the fundraiser down. I will be refunding the money to the donors. So sorry for the craziness. I'm hoping now that the orphanage will let me in with Samuel or I won't be able to visit once Kyle leaves. 

7. We're still waiting on travel dates, hopefully I can update this later and say I've received them today. 

Happy weekend!