What a year! Full of blessings and trials. Our Elliott is in his final semester of High School. We are so proud that he has decided to go to Mississippi State University in the Fall. He has been accepted into their Honors program and dormitory. His Spanish III class has been planning a Senior trip to Mexico for over a year now. He's will be going on an 8 day trip to several cities in April. Mostly he is excited because it will be his first time to fly! This summer will mark his fourth year with the Mississippi Baptist All-State Youth Choir and Orchestra. He plays the piano for our church youth band and also fills in for our worship services. We are so proud that he has such a passion for music. He's grown up so fast.
Ethan, who turns fifteen in February, has found more favor with his older brother this year as he has joined him on the Math and Science team at school. Eliott actually has discovered that Ethan does know this trivia (we all thought he made up his "facts")!Ethan is busy writing a novel - something to do with the Roman Empire. He is busier now than ever as Santa brought him a laptop. Already he has settled his mind to attend a Christian College close by - maybe William Carey but probably University of Mobile. He's still a little fickle. So time will tell.
Our little Michaela has grown so fast! She is reading extremely well but has had a challenging first grade year. She would rather work at the store with her Daddy and Nana or help Mamaw cook and sew. Michaela absolutely loves babies and is really good help for me every Wednesday night in the Church Nursery. She is so excited now about being a big sister. Maybe she'll even learn to sleep in her bed!
As many of you already know, we're in the process of adopting from China. During the last week of August we completed the last of our "paper chase" (quite a grueling process), and sent our dossier to China (via America World Adoption Agency in McClain, VA). It was mailed to China the Friday before hurricane Katrina hit. That was a miracle alone that it was able to get there before the storm. If it had not we would have been delayed much longer. As it is now, we are waiting. We know that our child is most likely already born and either in an orphanage or in foster care, but we do not know her identy yet. If everything keeps moving along like it is now we should have a referral (consisting of a biography, photo and health information) in April or May. Upon our acceptance of this referral, Mike and I both will travel to China some 6-8 week later to bring her home. We are praying that our travel will be in June but it could be later.
This has been and will continue to be a demanding and yet rewarding process. When we receive the referral, we will most definitely want to share our excitement with you. We're so grateful for everyones support and encouragement and we await Mia.
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