New Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep that's us in the picture he is holding!!!! Our attorney printed it off and took to them. Now that is a good attorney!

Hopefully our next set of pictures will be Joseph opening his gifts from us.

It is more difficult than I can say, being without our other baby right now. God is taking care of him and he has a beautiful smile on his face. God loves him and God has put it in our hearts to love him too. I pray that this will be our last Christmas to celebrate without having him in our arms. I can look ahead with joy in believing that 2008 is the year our family will grow from 3 to 4! I praise God for the family he has blessed me with today. I am thankful that Tim, Nathan and I have each other to celebrate with our extended families this Christmas!

Blessings and joy to everyone!

Silent Morning...

I woke up to no voice yesterday morning. Tim was oddly pleased. Luckily I was back to my rambling self before 10:00am. The doc says I have the crud, just in time for Christmas too. Very lovely. Today I'm feeling better and plowing ahead. I got an email from our adoption attorney yesterday afternoon. When I see her name I just get excited, even though I know it's not "the news" I'm waiting for. She was writing to tell me they are looking for the package we sent to Joseph but it has not arrived yet. She also said, please know that everyone here is praying for you and that your case would MOVE quickly! From her lips to God's ears!

Here is just a little Holiday fun of Christmas' past: ahhwww how we've all grown!

It's crunch time people!

As Christmas draws closer, it is getting a little more difficult to be without Joseph. It was an amazing gift to hear his sweet voice on the phone the other day, but it pales in comparison to having him here. Our faith and trust is in the Lord, our savior. We've been reading the Christmas advent book I mentioned before. It is such a beautiful story of hope. That being said, I am filled with the hope of what tomorrow will bring.

Scripture that speaks peace to me today:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 31-39

still waiting...

I have not heard back from the attorney who went to PGN today to check on our file. I did however, call PGN again to check on things. I was told that the woman who answered the phone yesterday was not qualified for the job and was giving out wrong information. She informed me that my file was still in investigation. This is what I was expecting. There is still a small chance that maybe our file has been moved. We will now wait for the final word from the attorney to find out exactly what is happening with our case. This is just how this process goes. I told you guys! It is a constant roller coaster, but you asked to be kept informed. I have a strange peace about all of it, which I know comes from above.

I'll let you guys know!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, we are off to a Christmas party :)

Hop on...

We are on the roller coaster again, want to ride with us? Here we go....

For some reason, I called PGN today. I guess to feel like I was doing something. I have not heard anything from our attorney since early November so, I fully expected them to say your file is on "hold" pending an investigation. Well, instead the lady says "your file is on the second reviewer's desk!" For those of you who don't know, the second reviewer is the director of PGN who signs off on your file and issues final approval of the adoption. I'm not sure what to think just yet and I'm trying to keep my emotions in check. Very difficult to do that though. So, either our file is waiting out the investigation on the director's desk, OR, we are waiting final approval!!! We are certainly hoping for the last one. I've emailed my agency, we'll see what they say. Also, I called our other attorney in Guatemala. He is going to go to PGN tomorrow and check for me. He said the information they give over the phone is not always correct, but if it is then we are waiting final signature!

Oh God please let this be true!!

Enjoy the ride family!

What a sound!

After spending almost an entire day at Vanderbilt, for a heart check up on myself, the day ended in sheer joy! All looks well with my valve, it has been in now for 9 1/2 years and going strong. When I got home I was greeted with an email from our adoption attorney. She gave us the phone number for the foster family taking care of Joseph, and granted us permission to call directly! This is NOT a common practice among adoption agencies and attorneys in Guatemala. So Tim and I called, and we spent about half an hour on the phone with them. Their daughter who is around 16 to 17 years old speaks English, so we were able to talk to her. We got a full report on Joseph AND WE GOT TO TALK TO HIM! Although, all he did was listen and giggle! He laughed and laughed and squealed. It was an amazing sound. They were telling him "talk to mommy and papa". They said that he loves to look at our pictures, and they show him we are his mommy and papa. (sorry PapaG and PapaMax, there may be some confusion there for a little while :) She said he is very happy and loves to dance to music. The daughter was so sweet. She also told us "He really needs you". Words can't even describe what that meant to me. It was an experience to say the least. Overwhelming.

MORE GOOD NEWS TOO....
It looks like the amendment to allow "in-process" adoption cases to continue has been approved. Actually, now it is not an amendment, I think it is just known as a new law. My dad emailed a link to me from Fox News about this, I also read about it on guatadopt.org. I'll put the links to these articles under "we we are now".

Thank you for all your prayers, and don't stop now. KEEP PRAYING! It's all we've got.

Nathan's Jingle Bells!

This one is for the grandparents. It will certainly get you in the spirit, enjoy!

Merry Christmas to you and yours

I don't think we'll be sending Christmas cards this year. It's nothing personal, it just isn't humanly possible to do EVERYTHING on my Christmas list this year. We're talking 7 chocolate Christmas cakes to bake, 2 dozen gingerbread cookies, 2 dozen sugar initial cookies, a foam nativity scene to build, 30 (although it feels more like a hundred) boxes to wrap, school parties, church parties, work parties, and let's not forget 1 birthday party thrown in there. Regular life in the mix somehow as well. Top it off with 3 more presents to come up with, my darling sister's game idea, my crazy game idea and well you've got one 32 year gal who is very close to loosing her marbles. Actually I'm having a blast with it all, but I'm also embracing my limitations. Christmas cards were an easy cut. SO, with no further adieu here is an online Christmas card for all of you who we love so dearly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May the peace and joy of this season find you at Christmas and all year long!
Love,
Tim, Tracy and Nathan

Latest News...

I am determined to not be discouraged. As the Bible says, worry about nothing, pray about everything. As our time seems to keep growing longer and longer as we wait for Joseph, our love for him keeps getting bigger and stronger. I truly have a peace about the situation, I am not anxious. I know our hearts will be sad not to have him with us for Christmas, but the hope that he will be with us next year is enough for now. I appreciate the support of all our family members through all of this!! You guys are awesome! Alright, so here is information I got a few days ago from my agency about more delays in Guatemalan adoptions. Keep praying and petitioning the Lord for our case to MOVE. We are still waiting for the attorney investigation to wrap up. We did find out however, that attorney investigations are much more common than we thought. That is somehow comforting to us. Thanks for visiting my blog! So here is the news:

EXTENDED SUSPENSE DATES

Due to recent events that have caused the State Department to recommend against adopting in Guatemala, it has become necessary to scrutinize more thoroughly each case. This additional scrutiny has caused us to extend our self-imposed suspense goals. The goal for adjudicating the pre-approval for complete and accurate cases has been extended from 30 days to 60 days from date of receipt of DNA results or in abandonment cases from date of receipt and the processing time for complete and accurate final documents to be sent to the consular section for issuance of the immigrant visa interview appointment has been extended from 2 to 4 work days not including Fridays and holidays. Please see the Q&A recently posted at
http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention_3170.html.

Other happenings....
How about I share some cute Nathan news?
He has decided he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. He says that his Dad is going to fly in space with him. He had me tape a tiny little rocket ship toy thing to the back of his shirt, so he could pretend he was flying into space. He spent several hours that afternoon "on the moon with all the panets in pace" You gotta love that kid!!!!

In the spirit of Christmas we have been reading our Advent Christmas book. We turn off all the lights in the house, so that it is pitch black dark. We light a candle signifying the star that was in the sky the night Jesus was born. We find our way to our Christmas tree where we have a little nativity scene set up. Then we read from the book. This has been so much fun! Not only does this get Nathan worked up to hear the true story of Christmas, but Tim and I get just as excited about it! When we get done he always says he wants to play "Noel" which is him acting out a movie that his Mimi gave him, called "The Very First Noel". This game is quite the sight to see.

I hope you all are enjoying your holiday traditions, and getting in the spirit!! Tune in later this week. (that's just fun to say:) I'm going to try to post another short video clip of Nathan in a homemade Christmas performance.

Tracy
P.S. Leave a comment and tell me your favorite holiday tradition!

Praying for Joseph

You will forget your misery;you will remember it as waters that have passed away. And your life will be brighter than the noonday;its darkness will be like the morning. And you will feel secure, because there is HOPE; you will look around and take your rest in security. Job 11:16-18

God does send angels

One guess.


No, no and no you are all wrong.



We had a gas leak!!! This is what was left after the repair. They say "they'll be back". We'll see, I get the uneasy feeling this is the same thing as "the check's in the mail." By the way, Dad, your check is in the mail.

Anyway, that was the drama at our house yesterday. It took about an hour to find the source of the smell, then another 5 hours to get it fixed. Luckily on the city's dime. This is one of those times I'm happy to pay my taxes. God really protected us in spite of our stupidity. We actually smelled a strong gas smell in our garage last weekend, but then it kind of faded so we forgot about it. I know, no comments on that please. Yesterday I see the atmos folks hanging out in my driveway. When I went to find out what was going on, they said that a jogger just called them and gave them our address. The jogger said they smelled a very strong scent of gas and someone needed to go check it out. THANKS ANONYMOUS JOGGER!! Apparently the leak was pretty bad according to the workers. We were smelling it in the garage because the wind was blowing it our way when we had the door open. The busted gasket was towards the end of the driveway by the sidewalk.

Anyway, I'm glad it is taken care of and we are safe now. Unfortunately that was the most exciting thing that happened yesterday. Sorry guys, I'll try to do more adventurous things so I'll have more to entertain you with. Now accepting ideas! Except you Tim, because we all know what you are going to suggest. I am not running naked down our street ever again!!

Hee hee, you all know I'm kidding right?

Love ya,
Tra

It's Official!

We have entered the crazy season. At our house that happens every morning when we wake up but that is an entirely different subject, so let's move on. The wonderful, beautiful, joyful, spirited, silver bells, baked goods, laughter, wrapping paper, music, acts of kindness and of course.... SHOPPING season has officially begun. WHHHAAA WHOOOOOO!! Bring it on!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was nice. The Goodwins had a great time here at home. I made a feast to feed 12. No, it was just the three of us. Only 2 eating adults to be exact. It's the old adage if a tree falls in a forest with no one around does it make a noise? If you cook a feast to feed 12 but there's only 2, does it disappear?

It doesn't matter anyway because I had a blast making it, and my table looked beautiful thanks to my darling husband and son. Here are some pictures, because a blog without photos is boring. You don't see the homemade lemon ice box pie I made. (thanks mom!) yumm!



I have to say Black Friday rocks my world. I was up at 3:45am, I got amazing deals and I'm done with almost all my Christmas shopping. Now I'll have more time for baking :) OH... and I didn't even get cranky until about 3:00 in the afternoon, NOW that is something to be proud of.

Love you guys!

Tracy
PS- Here are some pics from the Prince and Jones family visit. We went to see the Opryland Hotel lights.

Ginny, Kaitlyn (the big ones, my sister's kids) Broke, Braddock (the little ones, my brother's kids) and Nathan (mine!).

All of us.
Daddy and Nathan sent an email to Santa. I hope he gets it!!


This one is of Nathan saying "merry christmas" in his funny voice. Very entertaining.


OH...one more thing, I added a link at the top left side of the blog titled "where were are now". If you click this it will take you to a quick summary of where we are in our adoption process. As new things happen, I'll post it here but I will also update the "where we are now" link.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Almost Turkey Time!

For those of you searching for the perfect Turkey baking recipe, may I suggest Nathan's how to cook a turkey....

Get a big pan.
put some toast and rice in the pan.
buy the turkey.
put it in the pan with some cookies.
put on some curry and paprika.
put it in the stove and cook for 10 minutes.
then we eat it!
throw the rest in the trash can.

I can't think of a more perfect recipe. Enjoy!

Guatemala

Last night our church did a little video on another couple adopting from Guatemala. They showed footage of the country and it's culture. It was so nice to see some familiar sights. They also showed footage of children living in an orphanage. That part was overwhelmingly heartbreaking! It just made us want to go get Joseph, and many more, and bring them home! Although Joseph IS NOT in an orphanage - PRAISE GOD!!! Joseph is well taken care of and hopefully is being loved on. We also have put that part in God's hands and fully trust in that.

So, on to other happenings. Did anyone see the meteor showers this weekend? Tim and I tried last night, at the supposed peak time, but we were unsuccessful. Here is a link to some pictures of what others saw this weekend.

http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/51797/leonid-meteor-shower-november-17-19

I'm off to go play with Nathan. He's getting restless.

P.S. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE PRINCE AND JONES FAMILIES THIS WEEK!!!!

Hijacked

Tra has taken over the blog! When I first set this thing up, she didn't think it was all that great. I figured I was on my own with this thing. Maybe that is why it has been updated so infrequently. Yesterday she decided to jump in and boy did she ever! Changed the look, added posts, added links, added pictures and youtube video! She rocks.

Tim

Halloween07 take 2

Here is Nathan decorating his pumpkin before trick or treating.

halloween07

Here is a little video of Nathan on Halloween!

The sun is shinning bright!

Wow! We haven't posted anything since August!! How do you guys put up with us?? Well, I'm here to ramble and bit, and give a little update. I do mean tiny little update. I got an email from our attorney this morning telling us we are permitted to visit Joseph again :) Yeah! Tim and I are very happy about that. We will probably make plans to go sometime in January. In her email she also wrote that Joseph is a happy little boy, and loves to dance to the music that plays on the toys we sent down to him. I titled this little entry the sun is shinning bright for a reason. On this journey I have endured some very dark days. One thing that is always constant, and the one thing you can always count on, NO MATTER the circumstance, is that the sun will rise in the morning. I have been asking God to let me feel joy again. He is doing that, and I give him praise for that. I am feeling encouraged today and looking towards what God is doing for our future.

This weekend our church is going to be talking about adoption in Guatemala, as there are others who are in this uncertain process too. They will be praying for us, please join them in praying.

I'll leave you with the latest pictures of Joseph. Thank you God, he is finally smiling!!!! And, what a smile, right??





And here are some of Nate the great, just because he is pretty awesome too!!!! These are from our vacation.

This is his first time on the airplane, and he couldn't have been happier!



There was a lot of walking in the airport, Nathan saw an opening and jumped on!


The computer is being a little slow. I'll post more Disney pictures later.

Love you all!!

Tracy

Some good news

Well, it has been a while since I posted here. I guess I have been using the old thought, "If you have nothing good to say, just don't say anything." Investigation, waiting, irritation, no news, etc., etc. Now, there is some good news!

We are out of investigation! Wait, let me type that again. WE ARE OUT OF INVESTIGATION! I can barely believe it. It has been a long, hard road, but now, the end is in sight. We are back in PGN (the Guatemalan version of family court/office of the Attorney General). Now, we simply go through some final steps there, get a director's signature, and on to the US Embassy. There we will be given our pickup date (our "Pink") and away we go! It is really hard to believe. Of course, there could always be a stubbling block or two, but we are preparing ourselves for that and just hoping they don't happen.

The not so great part is the cash. We are low. We had a fundraising event and raised about $7000 and have gotten a loan to cover part of it. However, this thing has gone on for a while and we have had to pay some extra money during the process. So, I have setup a PayPal account to accept donations. We have about $5000 to go to get him. I know we can do it. Some will donate. We will sell some stuff. It will happen! If you do want to donate, click the "Make A Donation" button to the right. Thanks!

I just love good news.

Joseph's first birthday

Today is Joseph's first birthday, and I am much sadder than I thought I would be. Tra and I haven't really talked about it yet, but I am sure she is feeling the same way. This morning we told Nathan and he asked if that meant that Joseph was coming home. I almost cried right then.

We both thought about sending somethings down for him, but individually decided not to. Maybe we are subconsciously just wanting him to enjoy those things when he gets home.

We have been in PGN now for 14 or 15 weeks and I am starting to lose my patience. Nine months of knowing and loving this kid and yet we still have no word on getting into our home. It is a little like pregnancy, but there is not a delivery date just around the corner. We only had to wait 8 months for Nathan!

I guess that is it for now.

Tim