can she really be 5!?!?

I think that is what I kept saying all weekend long. Is it really possible??? My baby, 5??? David and I decided quite a while ago that we were going to do something really special for Taylor's 5th birthday. We found cheap flights with Southwest and David had free hotel points, so we decided we took her to Chicago to go get an American Girl doll. She was beyond extatic. We told to her about it several months ago, and she has talked about it constantly since then. She didn't care that she would not get a party, she was getting to ride on a plane (she has been on them before, but none that she remembers) and go get an American Girl doll! The weekend finally arrived and it did not disappoint!

David and Taylor walking to get her doll! I think she bounced all the way there...

Meet the new member of the Whitfield family, Casey!

Group shot in the store. She asked me if she could stay as long as she wanted in the store and I told her we could stay until she had seen everything that she wanted to see. We were there for 41/2 hours! The store was HUGE and we had reservations to eat lunch there as well. It was really cute, they had special chairs for the dolls and they got their own cup and plate!

Here she is with all her loot. Family members gave her money for her birthday present and she bought several outfits for Casey with it.

1. 

On Saturday, we went to Shed aquarium and spent the day there. The entire aquarium was great, but this face painting was amazing!! The lady spent maybe 2 minutes on it, and it was unbelievable. she was soooo talented. David and I just stood there in awe!

This was on her actual birthday, I had to take her to do something special. She got her first pedicure and thought it was pretty great...

wooohoooo!

Drumroll please.....I sent the dossier to Washington DC today! Yay!!!

We were out of town this weekend for Taylor's birthday (more on that later) and I hit the ground running when we got back! I picked up the completed home study tuesday and went immediately to get the Williamson county seal on my dossier. Tennessee requires an extra step compared to most other states in that we have to get a county seal, then a state seal, and then the Great Seal in Washington DC. After getting the county seal, I dashed off to church to make 5 copies of the entire document, which was a whole lot of pages! then I went to Kinkos to mail off the I-600A. The I-600A approval is the I171 (confusing, right?) and basically says that we are fit to immigrate a child into the country. This process can take several weeks and includes us going to get fingerprinted when they tell us to.

So today, Callie and I started on our adventure to get the state seal and then get that dossier to DC! I was really nervous because I didn't want to mess anything up (and am still nervous because they won't get it until tomorrow to tell me if I messed it up), but we did it! Callie was a trooper and kept telling people that we were "sending a note to baby brother"...close enough.

I am so grateful to be at this point! We would covet your prayers as we now wait to get a call that they have placed us with a baby boy. It should be several months before that happens, but we are praying that our baby is being cared for by loving people until we can have him...

the next chapter....

for the Whitfield's is to add another to our family by adoption! I feel like it is really old news at this point, but i need to start talking about it on this blog...so here it goes!

We had felt like there was another Whitfield for our family, but just didn't have the picture of what it was going to look like. After much prayer and consideration (and overanalyzing like we do best), we decided this was where we were called and could not be more thrilled about it. We are in the process of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia! This is a completely new experience for us and we are learning every step of the way. The process is very tedious and requires much more patience than I will ever have, but we are getting through it.

So where are we in the process, you ask??? We have completed our home study and are currently waiting (not patiently) for it to be finalized, and then we will send the dossier in! I have every piece of paper collected, typed, signed, and notarized to be sent to Ethiopia. The dossier is the huge collection of papers that tells everything about us. It will go to Ethiopia and then we will get a referral, which is where we are placed with a child. After that, we will travel to Ethiopia two times and then come home with our precious baby!

It feels so great to be doing exactly what God wants us doing, and really confirms all of our thoughts. The girls are beyond thrilled and pray for "baby brother" every night. We would love prayers as this process continues, because it is far from over. The cost of an adoption is between $26,000-29,000 and that is a really scary amount. We continue to pray for God's wisdom as we try to fundraise for our baby. David (the one in charge of ALL the finances in this house) feels such a peace that God is going to provide the needed funds, which is comforting...but its still a little scary.

I won't make any promises because I am bound to fail, but I will try to update the blog often with steps of the journey so everyone can keep updated. But most of all, we would covet prayers as our baby boy is in a far away country. I keep praying that precious people are loving and caring for him until he is home with us...

Fall 2010

Several things have been happening this fall, but here is a very quick recap....

The girls started school....

Taylor played soccer! It was sooo much fun to watch, although she does not seem to have a competative bone in her body...

We went to the beach....

Taylor scored her first round of stitches. She fell while on the playground at school, but was so a champ while getting the stitches.

We had our annual Sciortino/ Whitfield pumpkin carving. the kids are way cuter than the pumpkins, so that's why you are seeing this picture!

We had a great halloween. Taylor was a flower and Callie was a butterfly. Here they are with some of their best buddies...

that's enough for now, more to come (hopefully in a more timely manner)!!!

summer 2010

We had such a busy summer, here are some pictures in no sort of order!

I just couldn't resist this picture, it is so funny to me!

Callie's first shiner...

playing in the rain!

these sweet kids have so much fun when they are together!

family picture at a 5K most of us ran in downtown franklin. this picture amazes me because every one of us is looking, i don't think it will ever happen again!

Blair turned 1!! the girls love their cousin soooo much!

4th of July. Both of the girls had 103 fevers here, so our celebration was pretty small this year!

We went to knoxville to celebrate Nene's 90th birthday. Nene is my grandmother who the girls adore!

Projects at Lowe's with daddy!

Look who's wearing big girl panties!!!

and doughnuts make any day better....

callie's birthday!

Callie had a great second birthday (even though it was almost 4 months ago!) here are the highlights....

she had her breakfast of choice, blueberry muffins, on the front porch with daddy and baby. notice the baby bib she is wearing, that is from one of her dolls, i promise i don't make her wear them still!

"i'm two!"

happy girl eating her cupcake

this is what happened most of the party...hanging out while the kids played in the water! i thought it would be find to have her party outside since the average high this time of year is 82 degrees. on this particular day however, it was 182 degrees.

family picture on callie's big day. we love you sweet girl!

i'm gonna do better, i promise

i am going to attempt to update this blog every week until i catch up to real time (and then probably take another long break), so enjoy this while it lasts!

the first week in may, david and i escaped the country with some great friends and found ourselves in the most beautiful location! the views were great, relaxation better, and time with friends...amazing!

on our way to the 14 hour tour of the island

we have no idea right here that this was going to be a looong adventure!

muddy couple #1

muddy couple #2

(just a side note...david and i opted to ride the 4 wheelers which looked way more boring at the time, but we did not get covered with all the mud!)

the whole crew

this is what we got to look at all week long

or this view....

However, while we were doing a bunch of nothing, Nashville was falling apart. We saw the clouds coming in as we flew away to paradise not realizing that the flood was coming. So many friends and family stepped in for us to take care of our house and all we can say is thank you!!! I dont have many pictures of the house because 1. we were in another country, and 2. everyone was evacuated by boat, so no one could take pictures at its worst. thankfully, water stayed outside of our home by about 4 inches and we just had to fix the outside stuff (car, air conditioner, duct work). we were to grateful to have been spared, but feel forever grateful for friends and family.

this news piece is about someone who goes to church with us, but has a picture of our house before the evacuation (about 42 seconds in).

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/09/wolf.storm.comedy.cnn?iref=allsearch

and this is what we did when we got home!