A really special prayer request

This is our pastor and his family. David, Cathy, Ashley, Alicia and Alyana Gale. These people are our family, they are our heart and soul and we love them very much. Could all of you please say a prayer for Cathy she is having some pretty serious health problems that I know God will bring her through, like Psalm 71:20 says,

"Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again."

Please keep Brother Dave in your prayers also, he carries all of this on his shoulders and I get worried about him. The guurrrrllzzz like he says are great they are a close family, please keep them all in your prayers. Thank you and God bless all of you.

Our Anniversary!!!

Today is our anniversary for month 21!!!! And regardless of how long the wait is, you have to look at it positvely, WE are 1 month closer !!!!! So I am gonna have a good day anyway, besides look on the bright side, 21 months ago I thought by now if I was still waiting that I would be in a drug induced coma drooling all over myself, and believe it or not I am doing ok today!!!!! Franceska will be home soon.

You are on my mind and in my heart forever Martin Luther King Jr.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!

Megan with her funny hat!!!! Isn't she cute!!!


I told you we had a "Special Guest"!!!


Megan and Steven!


Megan blowing out her candles!!!


Astrud and Megans nephew Blaine (he's a cutie)


Frank and I

Last night Frank , Astrud and I went and had dinner with Megan and her family for her 21st birthday!!! Afterwards we went to her house for cake and we also had a special guest at the party.... Steven was there via the internet and webcams. It was so much fun, as she was opening presents he would hit certain audibles that make noises like : awwwwwwwww!!!!! Or a crowd cheering , it was almost like him being there, but not quite, but hey we will take what we can get!!!! My Granny would have probably really appreciated the technology back during Vietnam when my Uncle Bill was there. They used to go weeks and weeks without any word. I would have lost my mind. Anyway Happy Birthday Megan, we love you and we are so blessed to have you as our daughter now!!!! Our future is just so full, our cup runneth over!!!!!


I would also like to say Happy Birthday to my Grandma, she would have been 94 years old today. Happy Birthday Grandma we miss you very much and love you more than words can say.

It's late , but I just have to tell yall!!!!!

Tonight after eleven something Megan text me and wanted Frank and I to get online so we could have a webcam conference with her and Steven. They were really struggling with should Steven reup or not in the military. He wanted a Non parent point of view,.... RIGHT????!!!!!! Well after weighing all of the pros and cons, gi bill, versus student loans, not having student loans, having a tax free bonus, not having one, being deployed again in 4 years, not being deployed, etc. etc. etc. we decided as a family for him to not reup!!!!!! I can't tell you how much of a relief this is to Frank and I, and I couldn't wait to tell all of yall!!!! Now if only it wasn't too late I would start calling family, but I guess it can wait until after church tomorrow. We know he has done his part, and this was not an easy decision for him to make , he is very loyal to his country but we feel it is time so let's bring him home people, only 48 more days!!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!

Happy Birthday Christopher!!!

Sunday was Christopher's 28th birthday , so after church we had lunch and then cake and ice cream for him and Astrud. Megan's birthday is January 21st and next year we are going to start having one big January birthday party!!! And then on sunday night all of us went to the SA Rampage Hockey game and had a blast!!! Go Rampage!!!

Happy Birthday Christopher, you make us so, proud of you. Your perserverence is like no other,you love your God with all your heart and we are so proud of the kind of husband and father you are. You are an extraordinary son and brother. Just like I told you the other day YOU MAKE OUR HEARTS SMILE!!! We love you so much and I am so thankful that God put you in my life when he did because I can not imagine my life without you. I love you, Your other Mother!!!!

I GOT A BLOGGER AWARD!!!

I was awarded a Blogger award by a very special lady that is also a "Waiting China Mommy", her name is Pug Mama and she is awesome!! She is passionate about Breast Cancer Awareness and about all dogs , well all animals in general. I think that she is the "Blogging Diva" of the WORLD!!!! In my list of other blogs she is Life Scatters, so go and meet her, she is awesome!!! Thank you PugMama!!!

Here are the rules:

1. Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award

2. The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose

3. In your post about the award, you need to link back to the original entry.


So here are my picks.... I don't know if they have ever won this award but they are my picks!!!

1.(CHRISTIE) : She is from Mississippi, and she has become so special to me, and she has a great name too!! Her and Eddie are wanting to adopt twins , and they have never flown before so their first flight will be an international one!!! She is an awesome lady and I am proud and honored to call her my friend and she is always there to pick me up when I am down or discouraged, she is just so darn smart!! She will be my friend and in my heart forever!! I love you Christie!!! On my list she is: Our Red Thread Journey

2.(Robin): Even though her and her family are Buckeyes and we are Longhorns, I just love this lady!!!! I really got to know her as I followed their blogging journey to China. She has a beautiful family and I admire the heck out of her. She and her husband are also starting all over like we are and they have grandkids too!!! I would just like to thank Robin for always saying such encouraging things to me and for all the prayers for Steven. So many people in the blogging world pray for Steven and all of you will never know how appreciated that is. Robins journey with her new precious Angel encourages me and reminds me that it is going to happen. I love you Robin, thank you so much for becoming my friend. On my list she is : Buckeyes and Eggrolls.

3.(Rachelle): What can I say???? Rachelle is my sister in Christ,my confidant, my laugh partner, my partner in crime, my prayer warrior, but most of all she is my FRIEND, and I love her. Her and Troy have 3 beautiful boys, we all go to the same church, and we are more than all of this, we are FAMILY!!! She gets so on my nerves and she can be such a GUNCH, (HEHEHEHE), but I love her so so much, thank you for always being there for me , well you know on the days that you are not ailing!!!!! hehehe!!!! On my list she is: The Guys and Me.

4.(Kathryn): She is my friend from Staten Island that is what I would call my Soul Sister!!!! She has become so important to me. She does not always do to well with this "wait" thing and I always, always do my best to pick her up because anyone that has a heart like she has needs to be happy all of the time. She is a beautiful woman with a beautiful son and I must say that her husband is just AWESOME!!!, because he loves ELVIS!!!! A man after my own heart!! I love you bunches Kathryn. On my list she is : Journey to Emma Rose.

5.( Rebecca Lynn): This lady first of all has a great middle name, me being Kristy Lynn and all,but she is such an awesome mom, her children are gorgeous and she always has the most amusing things on her blog, but the heart of this lady must be the size of Texas, you can just tell by the way she talks about her family. She is always so sweet and friendly and just what I would call an All American Girl. Love you bunches too Rebecca Lynn. On my list she is : Mother of two , wife of one.

There you have it, out of all of these ladies I only know Rachelle like in real life!!!! My wish is to one day meet all of these ladies in person because my life has been touched by each and every one of them. None of the three waiting mommies and us have the same lid date so that means we won't be traveling together but I pray that these people are always in my life. If I could have, I would have nominated all of my Blogging girls because all of them are so unique and special in their own ways. P.S. AMY IF YOU WOULD EVER START YOUR BLOG, I COULD DO THIS FOR YOU GIRLHEAD!!!!

Steven gets to see SNOW!!!

Steven and Astrud have never seen snow, yes I know we are horrible parents they are 22 and 15 years old and that is probably pretty pathetic!!! Oh well WHATEVER!!!! Anyway Steven finally saw SNOW, he had to go all the way to the deserts of Iraq to see it!!! Can you believe that??? Megan said that when he called her ,he was so excited that he sent her some pictures. It might not be alot but now he can finally say that he has seen snow!!!!

Happy Birthday Astrud and Elvis too!!

Today is Astrud's birthday. I just can't believe how time just flies by. One day you wake up and your baby is 15 years old. How does that happen? She still likes to occasionally fall asleep with me and I can remember when Frank would take her to bed and her legs barely dangled to his waistline and now it is quite comical since she is as tall as me he still thinks he needs to carry his baby to bed and I just know that one of these days one of them is going to get hurt by losing a limb , an eye, or with Astrud gettting a concussion because her head got whacked on the dooframe!! Ok, I'm going to be one of "those" moms ok?? The last 15 years has been absolutely without a doubt such a blessing , and so so much fun. Now don't get me wrong she's an angel ,but those wings get a little crooked at times,and she can be a BRAT, but she has such a big heart, she loves God , and she is truly our Heart and Soul, and I thank God everyday for giving her to us. Happy Birthday Angelbaby!!

Today is Elvis Presley's birthday too, and all who know me, knows that my Mom raised us three girls to love him, so Happy Birthday Elvis!!!

Here are some of my favorite's of Astrud's day to day life!!!

Prayer Chain

Hello everybody and Happy Sunday night!! I have a favor to ask of all of you. Alot of us "Waiting Mommies" have decided to start a prayer chain all around the country for Wednesday, January 9th starting at noon. We are just trying to get a whole slew of people to pray at the same time for the speed up of referrals !!!! The CCAA in China is almost finished with December of 2005 and time just seems to have stopped. So can you please pray on wednesday for things to speed up and so sometime soon we can go and bring our babies home. THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER, SO PLEASE TELL YOUR CO WORKER SITIING NEXT TO YOU , OR YOUR MOM, DAD , YOUR SISTER, BROTHER , BEST FRIEND, ANYBODY THAT BELIEVES CAN PRAY. We really appreciate this and truly love you for it. Thank you and may God bless you and your family.

Dear Franceska

Hi sweet baby wherever you are on this last day of 2007. I would really like to think that you are already born and somewhere in China. My prayers are that your birth mother is doing well physically and emotionally, I don't know if I could ever in my life be as brave as she has been, I pray that she has been excepted back into the arms of her family, I pray that she knows that there is a God who loves her no matter where her life may lead her, and last I truly pray from the very depths of my heart that somewhow she will find peace knowing that the baby she left somewhere is going to be loved and taken care of like she could never have imagined. And that she knows that there is a Mommy, Daddy, brothers , sisters, aunts, uncles ,grandparents , cousins and lots and lots of friends all over the place, that will be forever grateful to her for giving us this precious gift. I want her to know that although you were born from beneath her heart , your were born from within my heart and that I already love you unconditionally and will cherish you until the day even after forever!!

My prayers for you is that wherever you are that you know how loved you already are and that we want to have you home so bad it hurts sometimes, I walk into your room and can almost imagine you standing up in your bed with your arms out to me calling "Mommy"!! I can't wait to just see you,to smell you, and to touch you. I daydream all of the time what exactly you will look like , if you will love me right away or not, I wonder if you will take to your daddy first since he looks a little asian even though he is not???? I pray that you learn right away that we are your mommy and daddy and that you can trust us completely. I know that you will just be flooded with love from your sisters and brothers and everyone else, and I also know that you are going to flourish in all of that love.

I pray that you make it home in time so that your Nonny which is my momma will still know enough to know that you are Franceska and that you are finally home!!!!! Little girl you are already the air that we breathe, it is you that is our inspiration to be healthy and to love life so we can be there to watch you grow up. We love you so much our sweet babygirl, we will be there soon to bring you home, it is all in God's plan and it is his timeline but I know that it will be 2008 that we become a forever family and a complete family. You are our HEART!! Happy New Year sweet girl, we love you.

Blessings, Blessings, and Blessings!!!

Hi everyone!!!! I pray that all of your Christmas's were blessed and as you dreamed them to be. Ours was great, all of our kids except Craig and Kellie were home and we missed them so, so, much. And of course our little Franceska , but hopefully she will be here next year, I can't imagine going a fourth Christmas without her!!!!

Steven was home from Iraq which proved that God does listen and that he loves us very much. Christmas was awesome!!!!


BUT I HAVE EVEN GREATER NEWS!!!!!! Steven will be home for good sometimes in the very near future, I hope soon because him and Nonny have a birthday coming up! Praise and Thank God!!!!! I am so excited that I could just pee in my pants!!!! God is so good to us and we are all so thankful.

I know that this is going to sound quite odd, but with Steven being gone and not knowing when Franceska will be coming home, I always feel a little disorganized and out of sorts so to speak, but knowing for sure that Steven will finally be coming home and staying home, it seems that a little bit of organization will be put back into our lives. Sort of like one down , one more to go!!! Does that make any sense at all to any of you??? Maybe it is just my OCD coming out , but whatever it is, it makes me feel a little better. It is PROGRESS and I will take it in any way I can. Thanks for listening to me ramble on.

My prayers for all of you are a very blessed 2008, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS AND MAY WE BRING OUR BABY'S HOME ALOT MORE SOONER THAN LATER!!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!

Well we made it to #20!!!

Today is our 20th month of being logged in . I can't believe the wait has gotten so long and that we STILL have a while longer. But the thing I really can't believe is that I have not lost my mind while waiting for our baby.

I really try everyday to keep in mind that though I may be unable to change this situation, I still have control over how I will respond , I try to take a deep breath everyday and remember that while God makes us wait I have to be willing to listen for the lesson that he is trying to teach me. And through this process I do believe I have learned more patience and I really pray that I have gained more wisdom about life in general. God does not put us through anything good or bad just for the heck of it, there is always something that he wants us to learn, and I pray I am doing right by him, for I know the plans he has for us are far greater than we could ever anticipate. And I know he has the perfect babygirl for us and when he is ready for her to come home , she will.

PRAISE GOD!!! LOOK AT OUR SURPRISE!!!

Hi everyone, SURPRISE!!!! Look how good God is to us. I will never know what I have ever done to deserve the way the Lord above loves me , there is nothing I could ever do or say to be worthy of this great love, our God is an awesome God!!

STEVEN IS HOME UNTIL THE 27TH OF DECEMBER!!!!! HE CAME HOME LAST TUESDAY and Christopher, Chas, Megan, Frank and I and also a co worker of Chas's was there to meet him. It was incredible to see him , when I saw him I screamed loud like an idiot, and I know he was thinking: "Mom , Mom , Mom"!!!!! Why so loud!!!! I don't care it was awesome, there is nothing a parent can say to explain what it feels like to see their child come home, I can't even type about it without crying , I love him so much!!!! Thank you God.

This is going to be a long post because there is so much I want to share with all of you so here it goes. I'm so happy!!!!

Here is Astrud's surprise at school!!

We went to the high school , well actually there was an entire entourage to surprise Astrud at lunch, and then we went to the elementary to surprise Jade where they called her into the principals office and you will see on the pic that she is scared to death since she has never been in there before, and then we went to the primary to surprise Lily, and earlier that morning the surprise was for Rayn , and my momma and daddy (nonny and poppy). My momma is in the middle stages of Alzheimers and cries alot because Bubba is gone to Iraq since she really can't rationalize things and let me tell you she was so excited as all of us were. It was all priceless and there was lots of tears and phones ringing in La Vernia,you can even see my daddy in the background all choked up, we are so blessed. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I wish I knew how to put the actual movies on this thing but the pictures tell quite a story.

Joshua and Rayn see Santa!!!

My sister Kerry, my DIL Amy ,and myself took Joshua and Rayn to see Santa and afterwards we went to Build-a-Bear, and we had so much fun!!!

Our Princess turns 30!!!!!

Sunday Chastity turned 30 years old!!! On Saturday we had a party for her and here are some pictures that I would like to share with all of you. Chastity Brooke we are all so proud of the kind of woman you have become, we love you so, so, very much. We are so proud of your relationship with your Father in Heaven, the way you have learned to trust in him and how you are learning to LET GO AND LET GOD!!!!! You are a beautiful woman, keep praying, keep dreaming , keep believing in yourself and know that you too one day soon will find your Prince, and always remember how much WE LOVE YOU!!!

LADYBUG'S ,LADYBUG'S AND MORE LADYBUG'S!!

Yesterday Frank and Christopher were outside putting up Christmas lights and there were ladybugs everywhere and I mean everywhere. I know this is not a very good picture since the little critters will not pose for the camera but even when I was trying to take pictures they were crawling and flying all over me!!! On my nose , all over my clothes just everywhere!!! I had to laugh because when I walked outside my son Christopher said to me, "I never knew I was such a Ladies man"!!!!! Maybe it is a sign that things are gonna start speeding up!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!

Franceska's Special gift!

My three older children Chastity, Christopher and Craig's mother Stacye gave Franceska this bible on Saturday night. This gift really touched my heart in a way that words cannot express. This lady completely excepts her childrens love for me and the love I have for them also. She makes sure that I know they are "MY" kids too!!!! When I met my husband it was like a gift to me that he had children because I wanted lots of them , although the road has not always been an easy one, thru the last 13 years or so , we have became a true family. I love my kids and they love me and they also have a great Mom that they love so much, and I really think that the blessings are very many because not many people can have this kind of relationship. Steven and Astrud love Stacye also , so we all share these kiddos and I look forward to sharing Franceska with her also. Thank you Stacye for this precious gift , it means so much to me.

Our weekend with the Gray's!!

Rick,Amy,Garett,Kyndall and Zane
Silly Kids!!!
Amy, Me, and Kerry
Aunt Kim and Zane reading!
Frank and Zane being silly!!


Last weekend Amy, Rick, Garett, Kyndall (Lauren), and Zane came home from Virginia for Thanksgiving and we got to spend the whole day with them on Saturday!!!! The kids have all grown so much, but all of our kids just resumed where they left off over a year and a half ago, it was great!!!!! And God willing Rick will retire from the military and they will be home for good this summer, hopefully in time to bring Franceska home!!!! Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy them!!!

I'm Back!!!!

Hi everybody, after several CT scans and x-rays, enemas, gross drinks that taste like glue, I think my "pooper" is going to start working correctly. This has just sucked!!!!! But I think I am on my way to total recovery and I am so glad to be back blogging. Thank you for all of your well wishes, I can't wait to connect with all of you again. Love and blessings to all of you.