Wednesday, March 31, 2010














Meet Justus Alazar Eubanks
Born March 31, 2010
8 lbs 4 ounces of sweet baby-ness

A miracle from conception - being told twice that he likely would not survive in utero - and now - perfect and precious and ready to conquer this world :)

Friday, March 26, 2010

the hat....
only lasts a few minutes at a time, but oh so worth every single penny :)

Today marks 30 days in a row for Nate staying in the "blue zone" at school, the zone you want to be in. We are celebrating tonight at the dollar movies and Wendy's - his choice.

Looking forward to a great weekend. Joel is training for a mini-marathon and has a big run tomorrow, then we are off to celebrate a good friend turning the big 4-0!!!!!!!! Looking forward to that. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, March 25, 2010


LID 3.25.10

Whoo-hoo!!!!!

This little guy is just months away from having another sweet sister...and only days away from celebrating his birthday!!!!! Those eyes....so sweet.


Wednesday, March 24, 2010


We are hopeful
....that today is our LID (log in date) in China. After watching families who have gone before us, we are calculating that today should be the day. We may not know for a few more days, as China does not contact us to let us know - our agency calls them to confirm. Once we have LID, the official wait and countdown begins. Looks like about 70-ish days from LID that we will got our Letter of Approval (LOA) then 2-6 weeks from then our Travel Approval (TA), when we start booking flights and making arrangements!!! SO, about 4 months from LID we are hopeful to be ON A PLANE......August-ish.

It's a beautiful day today. As I type, the windows are open, the birds are singing and Naomi is doing her best to fall asleep for a little rest before we go get Nate from school.

Doin' a little spring cleaning today and it was kind of fun to think about the fact that when we bring all our winter coats out again next winter, NORAH WILL BE HOME......:):) My heart is smiling.

Praying today is another step closer to Norah Lei.....:):)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010


Sweet moments need not a word.........

Wednesday, March 17, 2010


Happy Saint Patricks Day!!! Wish I could say we have spent the day making green pancakes and donning our best green outfit; however, Nate has come down with a bad stomach bug and we have spent the day caring for him and making sure he has all he needs. Thankfully, this evening he seems to be perking up a bit and even has an appetite.
I love this photo - Joel's sister, Kelly, took it several weeks ago. Sue Sue loves her kiddos with all her heart - can you tell?? We are actually missing a few additional cousins here. Someday we will attempt a photo of her with 6 (almost 7!!) of them.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Monday, March 15, 2010


And now the waiting begins.....
Now that we have our DTC behind us (Dossier - paperwork - to China)....the wait officially begins for us - a HUGE sigh of relief. We now are waiting for all our paperwork to get logged into China's system, and we estimate an LID (log in date) of March 24. IF we then get a LOA (letter of approval for Norah) 75 days later, that would place us in early June and then a TA (travel approval) mid-late June and travel shortly thereafter....July/August. I know lots of letters and dates....we count down from one to the next with minimal paperwork before we travel. SO, lots of waiting, praying, dreaming, matching-clothes-shopping, celebrating each milestone :)
Just this past week, the referral system for special needs changed once again and you now have to have a LID (log in date, which we do not have yet) in order to receive a referral. God's perfect timing once again - assuring us that we started the process in time to receive Norah, even though we are still not logged in. WHAT A BLESSING and we are so thankful. Though it has been a much, much more emotional journey of getting our paperwork completed, the total amount of time for the whole process (application to travel) will only be a total of 9 months (at the most). What else is the gestation of 9 months - yep that's right, a pregnancy. God knows I could not have waited much longer than that. :):)
Norah, we love you sweet girl.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

DTC!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 12, 2010
:)

Monday, March 08, 2010


WE GOT THE PAPERWORK!!! Are boy are we thankful!!! 8 weeks to the day after we filed for this government document, we received the approval! I headed straight to our state capitol this afternoon and it is already on the FedEx truck on the way to be authenticated. We are hopeful that our complete dossier will be mailed to China this Friday!!!!!!
Gotta run - kids needs baths, books and bed :)
Our God, He moved mountains today.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Yes, my friends, this is another bath tub picture. Want to know why - 1. The kids are in one place, with nowhere to go. 2. The tile and ceiling are white, which my flash loves and 3. The smiles and laughs we get while playing in the tub are like none other.

In other news - WE GOT APPROVAL for our 800A- our final document needed to send it all overseas. We are still waiting on the actual document to arrive (I am typing this at our dining room table with the front door open so I can greet the mailman and hopefully get it today.) If we get the document today, I will drive straight to Frankfort, KY to have it state certified then it's off to Wash, DC for authentication and then to our agency for our final overview then OFF TO CHINA. THEN the countdown begins. We started this process a little over 3 months ago and are thankful to be taking a big deep breath here in a few days - we plan to celebrate, just not sure how quite yet.:)

Nate had his parent-teacher conference last night . It went great. His teacher is so wonderful in so many ways. Nate adores her and respects her and that makes my world of saying goodbye to him each morning a little brighter. He is doing great and right on track with his reading level, math skills, science, social interacting and story writing. What a huge blessing he is to us. The joy he brings and smiles he gives - we are speechless.

Better get off here and go stalk the mailman. Maybe if I wait closer to the door, he'll come a little quicker. Maybe not, but I'll feel better.

UPDATE 2:23pm - it did not come today. Hopefully tomorrow.