The Fanning Four

Hours and hours and hours of paperwork for these sweet words: " Mr. and Mrs. Fanning are approved to adopt one male child, between the ages of 0-3 years of age from The People’s Republic of China. It is my pleasure to recommend that The People’s Republic of China place such a child with the Fanning family." Now let's hope the US Customs and Immigration Office agrees! In other news.... Our last few days have involved being locked out of our house for three hours, missing our volunteer duties at church, a dead car, and a new round of breathing treatments for Miss Bethy. But God's grace abounds in it all and I am still smiling!

Today when I picked Bethy up from school, she wanted to give a friend a hug before we left. The teachers said she had been hugging everyone before I came and giving quite the tight hug. So, In the car I mentioned that she needed to be gentle in her hugs. I majorly hurt her feelings by telling her that. She covered up her face and started to cry. I almost cried because she was crying. I backtracked and told her she was a good friend and sweet for giving out hugs. She can learn appropriate hug squeeze strength another day.

I received our certified birth certificates two weeks ago from the FL Vital Stats office. But no certified marriage cert. which was ordered at the same time. I gave it another week and then emailed the office to ask about it. I received a quick response that it had been emailed a week ago. Hmmmm....before I could even figure out the best route to handle this I received another email saying that a new copy had been placed in the mail today. Prompt, efficient, helpful. Refreshing! Bravo FL! Remember how Bethany called me "daddy" for months and months and months? Even though we knew she knew I was "mommy" (proven by asking where is mommy and she could point to me), she continued to call me "daddy". Well now she thinks everything is blue. Well, she doesn't really think that because if you ask her to hand you the red block she will get it right most of the time- same with yellow, green, black, white. But if you say, "Hand me the red block", she ...

Hey there! Anybody out there? We've been busy unpacking, going to preschool, playing, swimming, fighting sickness, and filling out paperwork! How about you? Tonight is our last visit with our homestudy social worker (we love her!). This is the home inspection part of the visit and she'll also be meeting Bethy for the first time (at bedtime, help us sweet Jesus). If I did not yet have children, I am sure I would be home scrubbing toilets right now. But, I have a two year old. So, there's blocks under the couch, toys on the porch, a few more cluttered areas than I would like. And that's okay with me. All you have to do is see her give us kisses and hugs and say "Love you" and you'll look overlook the mess in the corner of the closet, and say, "Yup, they're going to do just fine." At least that's what I'm telling myself right now. I have a few more pieces of paper to send to the agency and I am waiting to hear if all of our backgro...

In the world of adoption, they call this phase "paper pregnant". And we sure are up to our eyeballs in paperwork! We're getting ready to send a boatload of it to the adoption agency on Monday. Because it's finally here, it's time to start the adoption process! What we're submitting on Monday is our formal application for the agency along with the beginning of our homestudy documents. What's a home study? "Home Study: A home study is sometimes called an "adoption study," and is a written report containing the findings of the social worker who has met on several occasions with the prospective adoptive parents, has visited their home, and who has investigated the health, medical, criminal, family and home background of the adoptive parents. If there are other individuals that are also living in the home of the adoptive parents, they will be interviewed and investigated, if necessary, by the social worker and included as part of the home stu...

Here are some of the things are cute two year old has been doing lately- She has started "reading" books to us. She says, "dee, dee, dee, dee" with occasional actual words thrown in and then turns the page and starts again. She points to the words on the page as she reads and when she gets to the end she says, "The End!" It's SO cute! Bethany loves playing "Momma" with her baby doll. She feeds and changes the baby and will give the baby things and say "Here ya go." Bethy likes to pretend cook. And before the "meal" she grabs your hand and says "Pray". And she can repeat after us and say, "Dear God, Thank you for the food. Amen." Went to the doctor yesterday for her two year check up and she is 34 inches, 23. 2 pounds. Doctor says she is very healthy, just petite.  :) And she's a bundle of energy so I see gymnastics in her future! She is every bit a two year old complete with really great m...

Hey folks! I know it's been a while. To be honest, I've just had no energy for blogging. I have kind of gone into a survival shell and am just emerging out. In the past few weeks we closed on our house, moved into the new house, celebrated Bethy's second birthday, send Tom and the team to Nicaragua, and lost my step-grandfather. I had to take a deep breath after that sentence. We're doing so well though! Tom is having a blast in Nicaragua and although I wish I could be with him, I am enjoying time with my mom and Bethy. She's been teething and having a bit of trouble adapting to life in a new house and with daddy being gone. But I think with some rest, she'll be feeling better soon. Her language is really blossoming and it's fun to hear what she has to say. She said "love you" yesterday for the first time. It was prompted but still sweet. One week until we start the adoption process. Crazy right? So, please pray with us and for us. I have a b...