Wordless Wednesday:Somebody's Been To A Garage Sale Recently

A New Sibling For Shiloh

Yep, Shiloh is going to be a big sister! We learned last week that Kim (Shiloh's birth mom) is pregnant again. This isn't quite how I imagined Shiloh gaining a younger sibling (half sibling), but it's still kind of neat. I'm anxious to see what this new little one looks like compared to Shiloh, since Shiloh obviously looks more like her birth dad. With Shiloh ending up with blue eyes and blonde hair, it will be interesting to see if this baby takes on Kim's asian features. Anyway. I just wanted to share the news.

Forget About Cautiously Optimistic

...trying to remain optimistic though. Our old house is not under contract. We received the news earlier this week. I don't really feel like going into all of the details. I'll just say that I'm not suprised considering how the negotiations went. Anyway. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated. This was the third time we've been in negotiations with someone, and the second time we've reached an agreed upon price only to have it fall through.

Andrea And Austin Are Visiting

Austin's first time in a pool

Trying to swim to the stairs...getting frustrated Bedtime stories Taking a break to have some lunch in the shade while at Stone Moutain Top of the moutain
Sleeping on a bench at the top of Stone Mountain

Cautiously Optimistic

Tomorrow Shiloh and I will be traveling to Athens to sign a contract. That's right. As of tomorrow our old house will be under contract, again!! Considering the roller coaster ride that's gotten us to this point I'm finding myself feeling cautiously optimistic. I'm so thankful we've found another buyer, but I'm going to be a little nervous until the closing date (July 23rd) has come and gone. We're also taking a little bit of a loss with this deal (the realtors each cut their commission by a percentage and we're covering the difference), but we've decided it's worth it to be able to wash our hands of the house.

With the house (almost) under contract again, Rich and I have begun discussing what we are going to do regarding the original buyers who backed out. If you don't remember, we originally had the house under contract back in February with a closing date of March 28th. One and a half weeks before the closing date, with everything ready to go, our buyers backed out of the contract saying they found a larger house for less money....not a legal reason to back out. At the time there was nothing we could really do to stop them, but a friend's attorney informed us that when we did sell the house we could turn around and sue them for our losses. Fueled with anger, Rich and I both agreed that upon selling the house our first move would be taking them to court. Two and a half months later I'm not so sure how I feel about that option anymore. Rich still seems pretty sure of what he wants to do, but I just don't know. I feel like God has blessed us so much during these last few months. I was absolutely terrified by the thought of paying two mortgages, but, by the grace of God, we've been able to deal with it without much stress. Also, we had come to an agreement with our insurance company that they would not raise our insurance to "vacant home" coverage until this month. They were willing to keep our coverage the same and said in June we'd talk again, but if we had yet to find a buyer they would have to raise it. Well, here we are at the deadline and sure enough we have a buyer! Like I said, God is blessing us. I guess I'm struggling because I don't want to seem ungrateful regarding all that we've been given. On one hand, we have a legit reason to sue. Due to the fact that we're losing money on this deal and we will have had to pay 4 extra months of mortgage payments by the time the closing date arrives, we are out a decent amount of money. Just to give an idea....it's an amount that would have paid for Shiloh's adoption with a little left over. Then I go back to all that God has done for us during this time and I try to think about what he would want us to do at this point. And that's where I'm lost.

Loving Our New House Even More

We have access to a pool!!!!!!!!

You have to leave the neighborhood to get it....doesn't make much sense to Rich and myself, but I'm not going to complain because we have a pool!!!! We took Shiloh swimming in it for the first time this weekend and had a blast! She adores the water so much which makes me so thankful for this ability we now have!

Before swimming on Saturday I went to Wal-mart and bought Shiloh a pair of floaties to try to give her more freedom while in the pool. They may have worked, but daddy would not let go of her so we could find out. He said for now we would just use them as an extra precaution while she is in the pool, so when we went back Sunday I didn't even bother with trying to put them on her. Anyway. We had a great weekend and Shiloh had a blast swimming and getting out of the pool and jumping in, getting out of the pool and jumping in, getting out of the pool and jumping in...you get the idea.

Sunday evening we invited our kind of neighbors, Brandon and Bobby, over for dinner since Rich was trying out his new smoker. Dirty Uncle Brandon, as he goes by, and his girlfriend spent the weekend in Savannah where they bought Shiloh a little gift....now she just needs a little motorcycle to ride while wearing it...hmm.

She's putting a sticker on her head because that's where they go, duh!

Adoption Picture Book

I pulled out a children's adoption book the other day to read to Shiloh for the first time. She wasn't interested but I continued to lay there on the floor and read it to her anyway as she played with her toys. After I finished reading it I realized that, although it's the only adoption book I could find similiar to Shiloh's adoption, it just didn't seem right. It wasn't the message I want to give Shiloh. It was too much. Sure it was a great book. It is about a mother bear and son bear and the son is the mother's "wish come true", which is great, but I guess when I read an "adoption book" to Shiloh I want it to be HER story.

I'm having trouble putting into words what I'm feeling/want to say regarding the above topic...that paragraph is the best I could do....moving on....

I decided today that I am going to make Shiloh her own book about her adoption with her pictures. It's something I've thought of doing since she was born, thanks to a friend of my mom's who adopted. What has always stopped me was the words. First of all, I tend to use way too many words/give too much info when describing something or writing about something. Second, what do I write?! Of course, I want to keep it simple for when Shiloh is first able to understand adoption, but I want it to also be relevent as she gets older.

Well, today on a particular adoption website I frequent the answer was given to me! A picture book! A girl who was adopted wrote about a book her mother made for her with only pictures. Pictures of the hospital she was born in, the flight from the state she was born in to her home state, and pictures with her family. It also included little momentos such as locks of her, lost teethe, etc. It was something that was just all about her! The girl said, it had no words so it was like a different story each time her mom read it to her and as she got older she was able to "read" it herself. It sounds like it became a way for her to express herself at times regarding her adoption. Her mom left a few pages blank at the beginning for pictures of the girl's birth mom. When the girl was older (7, I believe) her mom gave her pictures of her birth mom and she put them in the book and decorated those pages herself as another way to express what she was feeling.

I have pictures Kim had given me during her pregnancy that I can use, but considering that we have an OA I think I'll put the pictures in her book myself. Shiloh can still decorate it if she chooses to do so, but I see no reason to hold back on those pictures since Kim is a part of her life.

Anyway. I just wanted to share. I am kind of excited about the idea!

Wordless Wednesday:One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other