Vacation Bible School 2007

Well, I can't believe another year of VBS is here and gone! Last night was Charlie's recital for Vacation Bible School and boy was he ever a star! Both, Jeff, Grandy and I sat there and watched him take the stage, and sing and dance his heart out, no fear whatsoever, such a little ham! And then the three of us said, "hmmm who does Charlie take after getting up on that stage and being such a little show off????" And we all had one answer: UNCLE CHRIS!!!!! And now most of you will know why that is so funny!! He's all you Uncle Chris, hee-hee!!!!!!
And once again I have to post, you better be here with us watching your big brother next year at VBS my sweet baby girl.....oh, and I think we have finally found a name that all three of us absolutely agree on.......Sophia Ruth Rogers....and Charlie said he wants to call her baby Sophie.....
We'll see, as you all know me, nothing's set in stone yet!

Adoption poem for our daughter to be

I found another poem, and again no author known, but loved it and wanted to journal it for our little girl! Also, the pic posted is from a wedding we attended last weekend, July 14th 2007. So here's the poem:

Once there were two women, who never knew each other.

One you do not remember

the other you call mother.

Two different lives, shaped to make yours one.

One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first gave you life, the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name.

One gave you the seed of talent, the other gave you aim.

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile, the other will dry your tears.

One gave you up......

It was all she could do.

The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears, the age old question through the years-

Heredity or Environment...which are you a product of?

Neither my darling daugther, just two different kinds of love!

We love you so much our baby girl to be!!! Love, Mommy

The July Stork has arrived

Congrats to all the precious waiting families that are seeing their babies faces for the first time this week! The November families that were logged into China through November 14th 2005 have been matched! Although I am a bit sad that they are STILL on Nov 05....at least they are still moving along and matching families. So all those families have waited 20 months....I feel for each and every one of them, we've been waiting 16 months since we were logged into the Chinese Gov. Match Dept.(and actually 20 months since the day we applied to adopt)

So right now, the "rumor" is that this wait will probably reach two or more years...meaning we are not expecting anything until late winter/early spring. Unless, there is a miracle and China starts matching the months quicker(which is not out of the question, it CAN happen so please pray with us), then maybe we will hear something sooner than winter.....

So for now Gods blessings to all those families that can say they are FINALLY done waiting and can now start their journey home with their new babies!!!

And to our sweet girl, we know that stork will be carrying you home to us one day very, very soon....we will wait patiently with open arms, and we know without a doubt this wait is going to be worth every second just to get to you! We love you! Mommy, Daddy and Charlie

Fair on the fourth of July and fireworks with the Ruldolph family!

Charlie went on his very first fair ride at the Orange County fair on the 4th. Of course mommy had to go with him, and boy has my stomach changed over the years, I could barely keep my eyes open from the dizziness!!! Charlie loved it!
We then had dinner with our dear friends, the Rudolph family, and went to see fireworks afterwords! We are so very thankful for the friends and family in our lives and for this wonderful country we were so blessed to be born into! Happy Birthday America 2007!!

Pre-Fourth of July celebrations and Parade!

The night before the fourth we went to a friends for dinner and kicked off the holiday with sparkler fun! Then on the fourth in the morning we went to our town parade and had a blast! Charlie caught so much candy he said it was like halloween! Oh baby girl, you better be here with us next fourth of July celebrating! We love you already more and more each day!
More festive pic's to come!

Happy Birthday Daddy 2007

happy birthday daddy! We love you sooooo very much and hope you have a very special day today to celebrate you! We are so proud to have you in our lives and love you more than you can ever imagine! Love Amy and Charlie!

New tree planted for our baby to be

Okay, so the old weeping cherry tree we originally planted for our baby girl had to go.....we jumped the gun planting it way to early and it didnt make that April frost we had!

But not to worry, we have a new one for her, not a cherry tree, but a crabapple tree. Which still will produce baby pink flowers in the spring(which is all I cared about), and is still a fruit tree(which is all Jeff and Charlie cared about)!

Sorry this pic is sideways, but you know me, I can't figure out how to turn it, so you'll just have to tilt your heads!

No news yet on the July baby matches....I will post as soon as we know. Please pray for us that they have either finished matching the November families, or are almost finished so they can move onto December.....and then move along to us in March!!!!

We love you baby girl(notice we still are not set on a name......maybe Miah, maybe Chloe, maybe Sadie.......too many cute girl names out there!!!)

Blessings to all!

Happy Fathers Day 2007

What a super lucky boy Charlie is to have such an awesome daddy! We had so much fun for fathers day weekend, poolside at poppie and grandys! It was hot, hot, hot, so we were glad to cool off! We pray next year daddy will have two little ones to hold and love for fathers day!
What a lucky little girl she will be to have him!

Hanging out with Grandy!

Well, another new month is here, and China has not matched up very many people with babies again. They are still working on matching people logged into their system, November of 05....(remember we are 4 months later, March of 06). But, they only matched through the 6th of November. We were praying they would finish November and then in July be on to December....but didn't work that way.

So, we are still waiting, and still praying and missing you our baby girl every day.

Maybe next month will be better, but no matter what, it WILL bring us a bit closer to you!

Thanks Grandy for coming to visit with Gramma Ruth! Charlie always has so much fun with you!

A poem for our sweet waiting daughter

This picture is from this past December 06 at a candle lighting ceremony for all the waiting families adopting from China.
This poem I am going to write I found awhile back, author unknown, and I love it, and dedicate it to our soon to be baby girl!
Kisses in the Wind
We hold you in our hearts, and touch you in our dreams
You are here each day with us, at least thats how it seems.
We know you wonder where we are, and what's taking us so long,
But remember child we love you so and God will keep you strong.
Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin, b/c tonight, just as always, we are blowing you kisses in the wind.
May God hold you in his hands until we can be with you.
We promise you, our darling girl, we're doing all we can do.
Very soon you'll have a family for real, not just for pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, we're blowing you kisses in the wind.
May God wrap you in his arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that we send to you each and every night!

We love you so very much already sweet baby Rogers, and are counting down each day...b/c each day we are getting closer to you!!!!
Love, Mommy!

Weekend at the track for Kentucky Derby 07

We had soooooo much fun at Grandy and Poppies this last week with Auntie Kim, Uncle John, Ashley and Austin. We traveled there for the Derby. Auntie Kim, Poppie and I won a couple different races, it was so exciting. Uncle Dougie also flew in for the festivities, and Auntie Kim and I had so much fun with him and his friends. Grandy is such a fun Gramma and spent lots of time playing with Charlie, Ashley and Austin. Can't wait for next years Derby and hopefully you'll be there with us my sweet baby girl

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer -Matthew 21:22

As you can see, our baby girl will definetly not go without clothes(and that's only half of her closet)!! I am having a problem here....it's way to fun to buy baby girl clothes....so fun that even Big brother Charlie will see cute little dresses and say, "oh mommy we have to buy that for my baby sister, she will looooove it!"....I know, 'apple doesn't fall far from the tree'...can you tell he's with me all day every day!!!

At least we know whatever season it is that our precious girl comes home to us she'll be prepared with many cute outfits! Especially this cute onesie that Gramma Jean bought for her, if you can't read it well it says, "Worth the Wait"....how appropriate, thanks Gramma Jean!!!

We love you our sweet baby girl and KNOW without a doubt, and BELIEVE without a doubt, you will be home with us someday very soon! Love Mommy xo

Getaway trip to Wisconsin April 2007

Planting a tree for our baby girl...and Charlie too!

We planted a weeping cherry tree in our yard this weekend in honor of our baby girl! It will bloom baby pink flowers every spring! We pray that next spring, Sophie will be here with us, enjoying this special tree! We are assuming at this point she has probably recently been born (or is soon to be born), and she's been on our mind so strongly lately. We ask for you to pray along with us, that as she enters this world, that she and her birth mother can be touched by our Lord with a sense of peace and a sense of who we are, so that when we are matched w/her, and then see her for the very first time, the Lord will have put an image of us in her heart, so she will recongize us and know we are meant to be her forever family! We also pray daily that she is held as much as possible, fed and loved every day until she's with us. We love you so much already sweet baby girl!!!

Meeting our new cousin Kai Babet!

This past weekend, we took a trip to visit Gramma Jean in Cleveland. While there, we were able to meet for the first time Kai Babet! He was adopted from China by Jeffs cousin a couple weeks ago! He is the cutest, sweetest little boy, with such a great sense of humor! It was such a blessing to see how happy both he and his new family are! Although he only knows a few words in English, that didn't stop him from getting along with all of us, and seeming so comfortable and secure with himself! We are so happy for Mike, Debbie and Jack and loved hearing all about their trip to China! They seemed to have had an awesome trip with no compliants, which eased Jeff, Gramma Jean and I, since we'll be next to go to China!
We love you baby girl and are thinking about you every day!

Well, today is our one year anniversary of being logged into the Chinese Government! Last year on this day, we received the phone call from our agency telling us that China offically looked at and recognized our dossier(all the paper work we sent them)and we were "logged into" their computers! Now, we are known by them as: LID-3/15/06!

I can't believe it's been a year....time sure does fly, and in this case, I'm glad for that!

This is a recent picture of Charlie from last month, he is eagerly awaiting his baby sister, and doesn't go to bed one single night without praying for her and asking God to bring her home quickly! He also says goodnight to her, when it is morning for us, b/c he knows as the sun comes up here, it will go down there in China for her! We love you baby girl and think of you every day and know you will be in our arms soon!

Our Ultra Sound!

our new blog!

Dear Family and Friends,
We have decided to keep a blog to currently update you all on any news we get during this wait for our baby girl! We also plan to post during our entire trip to China this coming fall/winter, so you all can share in this awesome experience with us!
So far, theres nothing new that most of you don't already know. We were passed through the CCAA review room last month, which is something new and exciting b/c it means that they guarentee us that they have reviewed all our documents again and approve us for a baby! They are almost through matching people that are about five months ahead of us(Oct. 2005). We are being told "about" nine more months to go! The pace at which they are matching waiting families with babies is completly unbeknownst to anyone, it has been taking them 2 months to match up 1 month's worth of waiting families..........it's the question that boggles all of our minds here in the world of Chinese adoption.....WHY IS IT TAKING SOOOOO LONG?????
But....as in many things in this life, there is absolutely nothing we can do but wait patiently and trust in our Lord that he has a plan for all of us waiting to adopt! And only when the most perfect child, that's meant to be matched to each one of us, is hand picked by him, is then when we will know why it took so long!!! Trusting God during this emotionally, sometimes fretful, and at times, hopeless feeling journey, is what fills my heart with patience and understanding and willingness to keep my chin up and moving forward!!!!

For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray and I will listen
-Jeremiah 29, vs 10-13
Thank you Lord Jesus for being the rock we need to lean on!!!!!