Big News

Some of you already know this but we have an official announcement. We are going to be adopting a baby. Before we got married we talked about what we saw our future family looking like. Naturally that included children. We took for granted that when we were ready to have them, that we would simply have them. Ha ha! Not so. After we were married we talked about having children and had a very "if it happens, it happens" attitude. Well, it didn't happen. And it kept not happening every month. After several months of unsuccessful attempts we sought the advice of a doctor. The treatments we went through were also unsuccessful and quite frankly, our hearts were not into it. We began to focus our prayers on what God would have us do, and He began speaking to us about adoption. Once the Lord began speaking to us about this we met four couples in our church in a matter of a couple weeks who all had adopted children. It seemed as though God was trying to tell us something and He wasn't particularly discreet. We got the hint.

We began searching the multitude of adoption agencies for a good fit. Initially we settled on a local agency called Christian Adoption Services. The preliminary application was long but we muddled through it. This was followed by the formal application which was even longer. After reviewing their formal application we noticed several red flags that caused us to put the breaks on the entire process. We were both so discouraged and began to lose hope.

Several weeks later Kelly was talking with her cousin, Sarah, about how difficult it was to walk away. Sarah encouraged us to do a little bit more research and try to find an agency that was a better fit. That's exactly what we did. Kelly came across Adoption Network Law Center (ANLC) and contacted them immediately. Their application process was more streamlined and the people there could not have been nicer or more helpful. We knew this was the way we wanted to go.

Within the past week we have submitted our application and fees and contacted the home study people for an expedited home study review. This process should be completed in the next two weeks and we will begin what we anticipate to be the most difficult part, waiting for a birthmother to choose us. In the meantime, we have been asked to get ready for a baby as the process to be matched could potentially be very short. Couples like us who do not specify a gender or race can be matched within a matter of days. Although we don't necessarily think that will be the case here, we do want to be ready when it comes.

Each day seems to bring yet another challenge in the form of paperwork or money or questions. We have been encouraged by the support of our friends and family and just ask for your continued prayers as we move through this process. We are both so very excited about what the future holds for us and evn more excited to see what else God has in store for us.

Trippin

We just got back from the long car ride from NJ and I must say that we are spent. But I just wanted to say how great of a time it was (but still too short). It was the best trip to NJ since we left two years ago by far. We got to see Grandpa Walter, Melody, Grandpa Price, Karl and Laura, Mom, and maybe the best of all...Evan and Aubrey. Kelly and I just had so much fun with everyone. Grandpa Walter and Melody were so nice and happy to see us. Grandpa Price was happy (so much so that he gave me a whole bunch of his clothes!), it was great spending an old night at the diner with Karl and Laura. And dinner and lunch with Mom and then Evan and Aubrey was great. I just feel so thankful to have such a loving and supportive family.

Thanks so much for a great time! We love you all and miss you!

The Thrilla from the Grilla

In my life I've done many things and been through many experiences. But today was a very special one. I did something today that I have never done alone. I grilled (or tried to) a steak. Yes I know that it is quite astonishing that a 31 year old man has never used a barbeque grill and there are really no good excuses for that. To the world of manliness I apologize.

A few months back we bought a nice grill and Alex showed me how to use it. I was all excited about grilling and then the winter set in and the grill went to the shed. With the 80+ degree weather we've been having I decided to bring it out and start the season off right.

I lit the grill (successfully!) and put the two steaks on and we were in business. I let them sit on high for about 10 minutes or so, flipping them a few times. After 10 minutes they seemed to be done. I put the steaks on the top rack of the grill and set one burner on low to keep them warm. The other items were making took a little bit longer than expected but I figured the steaks would be fine.

Boy was I wrong, after 10 more minutes they turned from medium to well done to beef jerky. They were definitely a little tough to eat but I finished the work I began and ate them like a champ. Needless to say I'm feeling pretty good right now. I wish I could have those steaks back but alas lesson learned. To the world of manliness...redemption will be mine!

EIGHT is Enough!!!

Hey all! After lots and lots of talking and thinking and thinking and talking we have made a big decision. Chris and I have decided to get a new puppy. This dog makes three and brings our critter total to a whopping 8! But eight is enough. After we got Obi Wan (our little orange kitty) we both knew that we were done bringing cats home. Even me, who can't stand to even watch humane society commercials on TV feels quite comfortable that Chris and I are doing our part for the homeless cats of the world. However, we have known for a while that we would probably end up with another dog. We were right about ourselves. Ha! Christian and I have a new puppy. He is yet to be named but he is gonna be a big one. He is 3/4 great dane and 1/4 mastiff. He's called a great daniff. The daniff's are one of the new mix breeds that are being recognized as an independent breed. Daniff's are big and wide and have a dane's temperment and the health of a mastiff. This mix breed has reduced health problems as they age thanks to the mastiff in them but they are known as "gentle giants" thanks to the dane in them. We anticipate our little guy to get upwards of 150 pounds full grown. When we talked about a 3rd dog temperment was the most important factor. We wanted a dog that would be low maintenence and very easy going.

Baby Daniff is only 3 weeks old right now so will not be living with us for a few more weeks. He has a scar on his right side because his mother accidentally stepped on him resulting in stitches. He has a recovered but as I said, he will have a scar. We couldn't care less about that. Please, we have a one-eyed cat. A scar is nothing. He is a harlequin which as you can see from the pictures means he is white with black markings. Like I said, he isn't named yet. Chris wants a Dukes of Hazzard name to go with our Daisy May and Bo Duke, so Chris likes the names Rosco, Hazzard and General Lee. I don't care much about Baby Daniff being named after that. I like Diesel and Tank. We are going to go see him on Saturday. He's in Ridgeville, SC just outside of Charleston. After we get a chance to meet him in person he may name himself. Duke and Daisy did. We will see. In the mean time here are pictures of our new little puppy.

Life lessons in modelling

Hello all,

I have recently begun a new endeavor in the hobby world. A few weeks back Kelly's mom was visiting us and she absolutely loves antiques. If you know anything about North Carolina you know that we are one of the antique capitals of the world. So, we went to some antique malls out in the country one of the days she was here.

Now some antique malls actually have antiques and some just have people's old junk and we found one that just had people's old junk. But there are always treasures in jars of clay. One of the booths had some old NASCAR 1/24 scale models and I remarked how Dad and I used to buy those and put them together back when I first got into NASCAR in my middle school days.

Of course I had no idea what I was doing and Dad, with all of his model assembly expertise, did most of the work on them. But I felt like I was accomplishing something nonetheless. Anyway I digress. Kelly's mom decided to buy me the models. I was so excited and surprised. Yet another project to add to the list!

I started putting together one of the cars a few weeks ago and all of those old frustrations came out. Paint not sticking right, parts not gluing together well, the noxious fumes of enamel and paint thinner stinking up the garage (and the rest of the house!) etc. etc. I guess all of these difficulties make me admire my dad and his talents even more. He had incredible patience and grit to do these models without completely going insane. Having a steady hand helped too! These traits I do not possess.

As usual I find myself gleaming a whole bunch of lessons from putting together these dumb models. One is how we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The model comes disassembled and unpainted and you have to put it all together to make it look like the cool picture on the box. I suppose that if you took all of the model parts and just threw them up in the air, they might eventually (after maybe a billion tries!) make a car. But (as frustrating as it can be) I think that I'd rather follow the instructions and do it myself the right way.

Following this logic, how can anyone believe evolution? That we are a just a random conglomeration of different cells that have come together and evolved over time seems pretty absurd when looked at logically and rationally.

"The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that 'a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein'."
Sir Fred Hoyle-Cambridge Professor of Astronomy