It's NEW YEARS EVE!!!

HAPPY ALMOST NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Today was a great day! Gina and Joe invited us to come up and have a New Years Eve dinner with them and another couple and so off we went this afternoon! We had a great time hanging out, had a great dinner, and just enjoyed watching our kids play and have fun together. What a WONDERFUL New Years Eve to finish off the year! Thanks Joe, Gina, and Christian for having us over tonight...we had so much fun:-)

Last year on New Years I was a REAL downer. Wow what a change a year can make. This is my post from my blog last year on New Years....

Welcome 2007!!!
See ya 2006!!

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it is that time of year again? It is the time of year when we put the past behind us and the future in front of us. I know for us 2006 was a very, very challenging year. It started off in January when Kris and I found out we could not have any more children. We started the adoption in February and by the end of March we were well on our way. We finished up our dossier in May and in June Mikayla Faith was born into our hearts and lives. In August Alec turned four years old and we flew out the following day to Guatemala to meet Mikayla. We came home in September to find out that our DNA was a match and we were finished with Family Court. In October we got our Pre-Approval after a month wait and entered PGN on October 12th. We had to cancel our 2nd visit trip that would have been over Halloween due to security issues and then found out on November 2nd we were kicked out of PGN because of THEIR error. November flew by, Christmas came and went and now here we are...entering the New Year. How was that for 2007 in a nutshell? This year was about joy and pain, a lot more about faith (hence Mikayla's middle name) and even more about growing as individuals. There is a saying that God never gives you more then you can handle. Well I am hoping He knows I am at my limit.

I am trying to remain optimistic knowing that no matter what...this YEAR Mikayla will come home. I don't know when but she is coming home in 2007. So goodbye 2006 because I am more then ready for 2007. This past month has been the hardest yet and Kris and I are ready for new beginnings, renewed hope, and hopefully no more challenges...we deserve the year off in that department. LOL.

So as we move into 2007 I want to forget about the painful times that 2006 held for us. We are going on almost 12 weeks in PGN. Twelve weeks of sitting here not knowing if that phone will EVER ring telling us we are OUT of PGN and Mikayla is finally ours. But I am hopeful that soon, very soon we WILL get that phone call. I know it WILL come. It will. For the sake of my sanity I sure hope it comes soon.

So God bless 2007...because this is the year that our sweet girl will finally be home and we will finally be a family. It will be filled with memories of my children playing together, a first birthday, a fifth birthday, first steps, first words, and much, much more.
Please continue to pray for Kris and I and this adoption. We will be getting an update on our case this week that is very, very important. Pray that it is a good one.
Happy New Year

Reading this post brings back a flood of memories for me. I was really beginning to fall apart. Not really, I HAD fallen apart. Just ask Kris. I truly didn't think I could handle the wait of the adoption anymore and I can FEEL my own pain when I read that post.

Please note that I wrote that post on January 1st, and on JANUARY 2ND WE GOT THE OUT OF PGN CALL!!! Is that not crazy or WHAT. So God DID know that I was at my limit. That sentence has now become "famous" between me and close family because of how ironic it is. If only I knew that night, when I wrote that post, what I now know. If only I would have been able to just find peace. But I couldn't. But now I have it, my family is complete, and tonight, we enter into a NEW year full of memories awaiting to be made, and we will do it as a family four, a complete family for the entire year...

WELCOME 2008! I am more then ready for you!

Happy New Years Everyone!

~From Mikayla, Mindy, Kris, and Alec~
OK mom...load me into the van and let's head to my boyfriends house! I am all dolled up and ready to go!
Yup...this is the boyfriend I was talking about...I love you Christian!
He has the BEST toys..
Mom...no pictures please

Alec wanted to ride on this Zebra toy ALL night
Hiding behind Joe's leg
Riding on the Zebra Toy...she LOVED it
This is FUN!
No Alec, you can't ride it... it's MINE tonight!

Kris with his two favorite Guat-Tots
This was the ONLY picture Alec would allow me to take of him
Hey Christian...want to go shopping for hot dogs and cookies?
Just a candid shot
On the go....as usual

A two second break
This is the only picture Christian would let me take of HIM!
OK...I snuck this one in too:-)
Christian, Alec, and Kris were playing with this couch and Christian was laughing SO hard!
Look at the SMILE!

OK....these pictures below are SO funny. Mikayla followed Christian into the kitchen and they were totally carrying on a conversation in Guat-A-Talk. It was soooo hilarious. These two are TOO much together. They are like old friends now.

That's all everyone! Have a GREAT New Years and we will see you in 2008!

CHRISTMAS

Hope everyone had a FANTASTIC Christmas. Ours was amazing and I put together a video of it all. The video is ten minutes, but please watch it if you want to. If not, I posted below a few pictures of Christmas:-)

HUGS TO ALL!

All the gifts...ready to go...the time? It was 3:00 am:-)
The Christmas Tree

Mikayla and her Care Bear
Posing...
Alec and his Stocking
Gift Break
HAH...love this pic!

All smiles Christmas Morning
Mikayla and her Build a Bear from Grandpa Mike and Grandma Diane
Vicki, Alec, and Maggie...we were on our way to see the Drive Through Lights at the fairgrounds
Winter Princess at Kris' mom and dads
Isn't this photo sweet?

This is Papa's boy:-)
Alec was SO ready to open this gift from my mom and dad. It was a Smart Cycle and he LOVES it!
Ticklish Princess
My parents and us
Family Picture!

Mama and Alec
Me and my mom
Mommy and Kayla

Christmas Eve

Dear Heavenly Father,
Tonight, on the eve of your birthday, I want to thank you for all of the blessings that you have bestowed upon my family. I am so thankful for my husband, my beautiful children, my family...my LIFE! It is so easy in the chaos of the season to loose track of the important things and let the little things get in the way of our joy. I want you to know that never have I forgotten this Christmas Season what you have given to me, to us. I love you Lord, thank you...thank you for ALL that you given to me and for your saving grace that has blessed this world.


This past weekend was full of amazing and incredible memories that will last a lifetime. Being with our families this weekend was just completely a wonderful experience. The joy that it brought to me and my family in indescribable and truly, this is one of the most amazing holidays that I can remember. Being with my mom was something that I needed and SHE needed and it was just wonderful to be together and watch the children enthralled with the wonder of Christmas. Their innocence and sweetness will never be forgotten this Christmas. We took so many awesome pictures this past weekend, five hundred of them to be exact, and I have decided to make a video presentation of the holidays as a whole rather then post just a few pictures on my blog. But I am going to post pictures of tonight.

My mom and dad always come up and celebrate Christmas Eve with us and this year was no different. I am so thankful beyond words that we were all healthy to be able to spend all this time together. So, so thankful!! I always make the same the Christmas Eve dinner with the same cookies, I am all about tradition! We hang out, play with toys, and just be together. After my parents left the kids and Kris and I made cupcakes for Santa and danced to Christmas Music. We got the kids dressed in the Christmas Eve PJ's, set out the cupcakes, read them the Christmas Story, said our Christmas prayers, and tucked them each into bed...so blessed...I know I say that often but I can't help it. I really know that I am blessed to have them!

I just can't begin to explain how much this Christmas means to me....in so many different ways. This is the first Christmas that I feel complete with my family. I feel like we have it all and couldn't even begin to ask for more. These past few days with family has just made me appreciate it all so much more. I love my family so much. My mom and dad are both such an inspiration to me and we are so close. Being apart these past few months while the kids were sick and my mom has been undergoing her Chemo has been very tough on me. But this past weekend renewed me and I feel so happy. Christmas is a time for memories and family. Last Christmas I tried so hard to make it wonderful, and it was, but my heart ached for Mikayla. She is here, we were all together, and I couldn't be more happier OR more thankful. My husband, my children, and my family are everything to me.

I hope that all of you have a very blessed and wonderful Christmas. Please, be thankful for the blessings in your life and remember to relish in every single minute because life it so short and memories should be made when the opportunity to make them is HERE. And remember in the craziness of gifts, cookies, gatherings, and dinners to stop and thank Jesus for his loving grace, his faithfulness, and his forgiveness...for it is HE that we truly celebrate tomorrow!

Many Christmas Hugs
Mindy

My beautiful son
and my beautiful daughter!
Papa stealing kisses
Look at her...she is so beautiful...I can't help it...
Papa and his grand-daughter
Thank you Aunt Zell for sending this to us!!! I love it and we got it yesterday, well, Saturday but we weren't here so it was waiting for us when we got home!!! It has smelled up my ENTIRE dining room and I can't begin to tell you how much it meant to us that you made this for us and sent it here! Alec was SO happy to get Candy Canes, he has already eaten most of them and will probably steal Mikayla's too! THANK YOU! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!

Me and my mom before bringing out dinner
My mom is SO amazing and SO beautiful!!!!
I love you dad!!!
Look at my sweet son, he is a trip let me tell you! So full of life! Here he is posing by his science lab that he got for Christmas from my mom and dad.
Here they are in their matching pajama's! Did you expect anything less from me? I looked for over FIVE weeks for the perfect Christmas Eve PJ's

Take Two
Bells will be ringing....
Loving this bell...she didn't want to give it up before bed!

Daddy and Alec
Mmmmmmm.....
Daddy and Kayla
Oh yeah?
Silly boy! Collapsing after dancing to Jingle Bell Rock

Almost time for bed daddy?
Look how sweet this nightgown is! It's her FIRST one!
Hello? Is someone calling me?
Alec hanging his special Christmas Eve ornament
He said he needed to put it up high with the rest so Mikayla didn't try to eat it. LOL

Kisses from DADA!
Mommy and a squirming girl
Awwwww..... I love it
Sweet baby girl
Mommy and Daddy...Good job photographer Alec!

Part one of making cupcakes....the mixing stage!
Daddy getting in on the fun
Part two of cupcake fun...ICING!
Will Santa love it??
I think he will!

~Goodnight~