Summer 2016

Fun with sidewalk chalk and bubbles!

While we don't have much to report on the adoption front, I do want to be able to look back some day and reminisce about what we were doing while we were waiting. While we haven't exactly been sitting around feeling blue that we aren't quite where we thought we'd be this summer, we did feel like we needed to be intentional about adding experiences and making our summer as meaningful as possible. Avery has been waiting for a sibling for as long as we've been wanting to give her one and she's old enough that she's going to remember this time in her life so we are trying to make it a summer to remember - and possibly (hopefully!) her last as an only child. She loves coming up with names for her future sibling - the names right now are all "Harry Potter- centric."

We kicked off our summer with a Memorial Day 5K/10K. We walk and run at least 5 days a week so I thought it would be fun to do a family race. Shawn was less enthusiastic but he went along with it and he and Avery did a fantastic job on their first 5K race! I signed up for the 10K - my first- and I thought for sure I had made a huge mistake once we drove the course and I realized it was going to be a lot more hilly than the greenway we usually run. Shawn and Avery were my constant cheerleaders and my brother, Justin, was a pretty fabulous long distance coach. I was pretty proud of our accomplishment.

A ride in Nana's mustang never disappoints!

Shawn's grandmother passed away so we drove up to northern NY at the beginning of June. Although the trip was for a sad occasion we made the most of it by stopping in at my parent's in western NY and visiting our old stomping grounds in Syracuse. Shawn and I spent our first year of marriage in Syracuse so it was fun to check out all of our favorite spots. It's always funny to us to visit our first apartment - we had a 2 bedroom townhouse that had just been remodeled and we thought it was just the greatest. I'm sure it's gone downhill a little in the last 14 years but I'm pretty sure we were also blinded by love back then too. 

Shawn and I celebrated our 14th anniversary on June 15th. Our friends, Courtney and Wade, watched Avery for a few hours and Shawn and I enjoyed checking out Ponce City Market and a kid free meal. Avery joined us on our actual anniversary for lunch at Fickle Pickle.

Towards the end of June we took a long weekend and went to Jacksonville Beach, FL. On spring break we discovered that because Jacksonville isn't super touristy, the beaches aren't very crowded. We had two great days at the beach and we can't wait to go back. 

I took Avery for her first pedicure before we headed for the beach. She thinks we should go every week now since it is "so relaxing!"

Avery FINALLY learned to ride a two-wheeler!

On July 16th, Avery turned 7! I can not believe we have a 7 year old! On her birthday we went to a rescue zoo in north GA and toured a goldmine in Dahlonega. She chose to go out to a Ichiban for a fun hibachi supper. She is really into Harry Potter right now and is reading the 5th book so we knew she'd be thrilled with Hermione's robe and wand - her reaction and joy did not disappoint! We also spent some time the night before her birthday texting with Avery's birthmother. We are thankful every day that she chose us to be Avery's parents. Here are the pictures from when we met Avery for the first time. This was at 1AM after driving 11 from Charlotte to St. Louis with only 2 stops. :-) My goodness...we look like kids ourselves. :-)

We've still got a few weeks before the full madness of the school year begins so we hope to make a few more trips to the lake, the splashpad, and maybe some hiking. 

On July 1st our adoption liason retired. While we enjoyed working with her, we are looking forward to having someone fresh on our case. Our new contact person is the owner of the company so we are hopeful that her expertise will get us some traction. At this point, I think we are ruining their match time statistics. 

We have started a Facebook page and we're doing everything we can to network, in addition to the marketing efforts of our agency, but for some reason we just haven't caught the attention of any expectant moms. We've had a few friends send us adoption situations that they've seen posted on Facebook and we are so appreciative for these leads and we are checking each one out. Please continue to pray for us and share our story. We never imagined we'd be waiting this long but we are still confident that we were called to adopt again and we have faith that everything will work out just as God has planned. Thanks for sticking with us!