It's better to keep busy, right?

I haven't posted since we spoke with our attorney in Guatemala, because I still haven't heard anything. It can be maddening. I do my best to keep my mind occupied with other things. As it turns out, there are MANY things to occupy my brain space. Too much to go into. There are also just as many things to occupy my hands. Which leads us back to why I haven't posted in a while. So, here's a little catch up of what we've been up to the last week:

I have been completely re-organizing my kitchen. Cabinets, drawers, pantry, even the fridge got a revamping. If you've been to my house you understand and our happy for us!

We spent last weekend in Atlanta visiting my sister and her family. We had a blast and LOVED all the snow they got there. Pictures are below. While in Atlanta we visited the Ikea store. I was in awe. We spent the whole day there and I felt like it was only 10 minutes, I was not ready to leave! Really cool stuff there, but I did find out why their prices are so cheap. POOR customer service and God help you if you have to call them. Anyway, off subject there for a minute. While there I bought some new shiny things for my kitchen.

When we got back home, our shiny things looked nice in our kitchen. Just not nice enough. We decided to paint the kitchen. Then our dinning room which is basically in our kitchen, looked awfully bare. So, it got a color bath also. It's amazing what a little (or a lot in our case) color will do. All this to say that this past weekend we spent the entire time painting. I use the term "we" very lightly. Only because Tim says he'll end up in jail if I paint with him. I'll let you read between the lines there. We are just not good painting buddies. I can't wait to post pictures for you guys. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow. I will forewarn you, it's bright! We are colorful people and our house certainly reflects that.

Here are some pictures from our time in Atlanta. Also, please keep petitioning God on our behalf about our adoption. Thank you!

Ginny and I had to "roll"/ push the belly of the snowman up the hill.


Oh it's coming Mike!

Nathan had lots of fun throwing snowballs at Dad!

Of course we couldn't leave Atlanta without Nathan sustaining some sort of crazy 4 year old boy injury! He was running and chasing and smacked the corner of their kitchen island with his eye. It blacked up for a couple days. He's good now.
Ginny and Tim had a lot of fun picking out songs together. Although I really got sick of hearing the same Jack Johnson song over and over and over. Sorry guys! Nathan on the other had LOVED the microphone. He was born to sing and dance. Actually I think he was born to preach! I wish I had it on video. At one point it was just Nathan and Ginny in her room, and Nathan started preaching a sermon. He said "God is the only one who can give eternal life", and he said "God is powerful". Then he started singing praise songs. Ginny and I looked at each other and our mouths were on the floor! I know the God is powerful part is in one of his memory verses at church. The eternal life part, I have do idea, but I'm proud!

Panic turns to PRAISES!

We were out of town and received an urgent email from our adoption agency. The agency stated that our attorney was trying to get our case registered at the civil registry and needed our passport numbers. For those who aren't aware, all cases that are being processed in Guatemala now MUST be registered through the new civil registry before they can proceed with their adoption. There is a deadline to get these pending cases registered. Which is where the panic set in. I'm 4 hours away from my passport. I called the agency, no answer. I decided to call a neighbor who was able to get into my house and get the passports for us. I quickly emailed the info to our agency and asked for them to let me know that they got it. NEVER got a response! I spent the whole day in knots wondering what was going on. All of this happened around 11:00am this morning. Fast forward, it's almost 9:00pm and we are just getting home. Tim turns on the computer to check our email. The director of our adoption agency had written back and said, she was not at home due to a medical emergency. She obviously had not gotten the needed info to our attorney. I told Tim that I was going to take a risk and call the attorney tonight. I looked up the number and had her on the phone in a matter of seconds. She was so friendly!!! I apologized for calling so late, and she said NO I am so glad that you called because I have good news for you!! At this point, I'm already in tears! She said the signatures were a match and my investigation is OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Praise you Jesus! She is taking all the necessary information to PGN tomorrow and we'll see what they say! We may be starting over from the beginning, but starting over never felt so good! On the other hand, we may be able to get final approval and not have to start the approval process completely over. We won't know until after tomorrow! Keep praying, God is listening. The attorney told me, you hang in there Tracy! She also was able to take the passport information from me directly and we will be registered tomorrow with the civil registry.

Thank you God! Glory to your name!

No words....just a full heart

These are him opening all the packages that Tim and I sent to him. I also see the things that my parents and sister sent down, thanks again guys! The foster family said he LOVED everything and is having a lot of fun playing with all the new things. When we called to speak with him, he unfortunately was not in the mood to talk! He is definitely our child.

today's lunch

OK. So that is how many of the conversations about my day goes. Today was different. I even called home to tell her about my lunch. Today I had lunch with the one, the only, the legend, George Jones. Well, I didn't really have lunch with him as much as he sat at the table next to me and we struck up some conversation. I will say that we were closer than I have been to people at other restaurants with big booths. We do live in a city with many celebs and we see them out fairly often. This is the first time I have had a conversation with one. Had anyone else sat down, I probably would have just sat there and not cared, but I really like George Jones' music. His influence can be heard in many of the artists I like. It went something like this (sitting in meat & three, near the door, on a cold day):

G.J.: This place should be bigger. (That's right. He started talking first.)
T.G.: I know. It would be really great if that door was further away.
G.J.: We wouldn't be as cold that way.
T.G.: Good food though.
G.J.: I think they could have moved that wall further out more.
T.G.: With food like this they will have to be in a bigger space soon. Bacon in green beans is a wonderful thing.
G.J. (speaking to both my lunch companion and me): I like this kind of food. You guys may already know about this, but you should try "Old Glory" greens. They are seasoned just right. The best greens in a can.
Lunch companion hops in and talks about them. He has had them quite a bit before. In my head I am screaming that I cannot believe I am sitting talking to George Jones about greens!
G.J.'s wife: He is on blood thinner and has to stay away from the greens, but he cheats.
T.G.: My wife is on it too, but she cheats. Her problem is that she self medicates and figures she can just adjust her meds.

The conversation went on for a little while more. Very nice and down-to-earth folks. Normally, I would not be this excited since famous people are just people, but it is George Jones after all.

How was my day you ask? Fine.

ramblings....

Conversation with Nathan:

Q: How was your day at school?
A: good.

Q: What did you play at school?
A: I don't really know.

Q: Who did you play with at school?
A: No one.

Q: Did you have fun?
A: yeah.

Q: Did you paint or color?
A: paint.

Alright, by this point I realize that nothing life shattering happen to this child at school and we should just get on with our lives. Everyday it's like pulling teeth to get him to tell me about his day! Unless of course something big happened, I hear all about those things. In great detail actually. So is this just the male gene or what?

Conversation with Tim:
Q: How was your day?
A: fine.

Q: Did you talk to anybody today?
A: what do you mean? I talked to people, of course, but nothing worth mentioning.

Q: Where'd you go for lunch?
A: Wendy's.

Q: Did you go alone?
A: yep.

Q: Did you have a good day?
A: yeah, I guess.

Alright, this is familiar. I now realize that nothing life shattering happen to this guy at work and we should just get on with our lives. So like I said, it must be the male gene. Isn't it funny that with girls, these questions would take us at least 20 minutes to answer?! I'm sure Tim will have a comment about that statement! This was actually our conversation yesterday. Today Tim had a pretty cool lunch. He'll be posting soon.

Stay tuned!

Buenos días, buenas tardes, mi nombre es Tracy

Hola! I have fallen in love with my ipod all over again! Love is such a wonderful thing isn't it? I am just now starting to utilize all the things on itunes. I signed up for Spanish lessons FREE which is the best part. I'm trying very hard to be able to communicate with my little Guat some day soon! I've also subscribed to numerous podcasts, that I'll probably never have time to see; but they are there! It's just the coolest thing ever. Now at 6:00am when I'm on my eliptical, that's right, I can listen to NPR, watch a cooking show, watch a Hollywood fashion show, or just rock out. I'm lovin' it!

So, those of you who were in the BIG STORMS yesterday, was that fun or what? Tornado watches, tornado warnings, flood warnings, thunderstorm warnings, you name it we had it. It hit here about the time Nathan was having "quiet time" in his room. So he was more than happy to get out of his room to hideout in the downstairs bathroom. Luckily we didn't have any damage or a tornado touch down. When it was all over and all was calm, I said come on Nathan let's get out of here and go play in the living room, he said: "I'm not coming, I'm staying I'm having FUN in here mom!" I was glad that he was completely oblivious to what could happen in a storm like that. Sometimes I think that is what God does for me too, he keeps me happily distracted with other things, so I don't see the darkness that lurks. Seeing it only hinders me from keeping my eyes on the Lord, and resting in the truth that he's got me.


...you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. Isaiah 30:19-20

Happy New Year!

I apologize for the long delay in posting, it is good to be missed though! Thanks for the emails from everyone. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break. We had an amazing time and were not ready to come back to regular life! Ginny, if you're reading I have to tell you, Nathan constantly sings "ho ho ho who wouldn't go." Speaking of Ginny, notice the picture above. Ginny took plastic cups and duct tape to make binoculars for all the kids at Papa Max and Granna's house. Now that's what I call creative and cheap, I love it!! Too bad she doesn't live here! This was such an awesome year to celebrate Christmas with Nathan. He was able to participate in some of the games played at the Jones house and BOY was he ready for Santa! He was a good boy this year so Santa left him some wonderful toys. I must have been a good girl too!

Like I said it is been hard for me to get back in the swing of regular life. Nathan started school yesterday and I felt so sad! He's already right back in the swing of things though, he didn't miss a beat.

So, let me share with you how we spent the New Year.....

Current coffee maker died..... it was a sad sad sad day. We're still in mourning. She'd been good to us. It wasn't her fault, many before her haven't made it through the Goodwin house past the two year mark. May she rest in peace. Onward we must go! Tim and Tracy MUST have their cup of Joe in the mornings. It's vital to the success of the marriage. So, we were in hot pursuit of the "perfect cup of coffee."


There was actually another contender that got taken back to the store. It was before we started to see the humor in all of this and thought to take photos. As you can see above, we conducted a very intense and precise taste test. We set up the coffee at the exact same time, we hit the "go" simultaneously. We had our cups sitting out, with colored spoons to tell which cup came from what machine. Then, we drank. We looked at each other, we drank again. We both looked at each other and smiled, we had our new family member!


Ding! Ding! Ding! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
So what made this one the winner you might say? We were absolutely AMAZED, by how they tasted EXACTLY the same. This one won because it was the cheapest of the three we tried! HA!


I'm still laughing about this! You just should have seen this production in person. Anyway, it was entertaining I guess.


Here are some Christmas pictures from our time with family.

Christmas morning

Sorry Mike, I had to post this! Please don't be mad! You are too funny.







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