Merry Christmas

Wow... in a nutshell... our year is ending with a bang! We are hosting a little girl from a Russian orphange for a month... two weeks down and two weeks to go. It happened rather fast... found out one day and she was here the next. She has numerous health issues and so we have spent the last week and a half making and executing numerous doctors appointments.

So far, she has gotten glasses and has some very special lenses on the way from Japan to help her vision. She has her second cast on one of her feet to stretch the foot for braces that have been ordered and will be here just two days before she returns home. She gets her third cast tomorrow.

She speaks only Russian and so you can imagine that it has taken some adjusting for all of us to get into some sort of groove. But we are blown away with how very brave she is and how much God has sent in the out poring of gracious doctors who are helping her free of charge. I have also made about three pages worth of Russian words and phrases I have been using and so we have some rough communication! But we also have two Russian speaking friends who spend time with her and she loves it and them very much.

We are being stretched but feel so very blessed to be God's hands and feet for this little one. We pray that God will continue to guide us on this journey and bring her a family soon.

Christmas cards did make it out, although gifts are still piled in the guest closet, waiting to be wrapped and boxed and shipped... New Year's gifts this year!

I am highly considering selling Georgia Jewels and have already listed it for sale in one venue to get an idea of some feedback. I need my time and mind back. This is the short version... more maybe to come.

We are starting Abby in a 12 week brain therapy program in January. After some initial testing and evaluation, she is testing on a 4 year old level and her cerebellum is way under developed. We are very hopefull that this will open up some great new opportunities for her in learning and just daily living. She will probably need two 12 week programs. More to come on this for sure.

Lastly, I am considering making my blog private. After watching a news report on privacy issues and just the vanity of our "hey look at me" society... I am feeling that the information we share here should remain among family and close friends. I have given it much thought and discussed it with Don and we think rather than erasing and stopping our blog... making it private will be the best option. I don't want just anyone having access to our private life, comings and goings and photos.

SOOOO... if you would like to continue to read our blog, please email me at

allfromhim@bellsouth.net and I will make a list of people to email with the information once I make it private... probably next month since I put our address on Christmas cards.

Thank you, as always, for your cards, your prayers, your love and your friendship. We look so forward to what God has in store for us next year... and the arrival of Caroline!!!!!

Love to you all... very Merry Christmas and Happy Blessed New Year!

Dawn

Buy Handmade! Shameless plug ahead...

Send a Christmas gift that packs a great big punch of love... BUY HANDMADE! Everyone loves to get a handmade gift. Not only was it made with careful attention, it often is unique in some way. I've bought many of my gifts this year from etsy.com and still have a few more to go. So please show some love to some artisians (I did leave out "starving") and BUY HANDMADE this year!!!

Visit georgiajewels.etsy.com and receive free shipping... for friends until Christmas!! And if you are local... just call me and pick it up. I am even offering FREE giftwrapping! I will be posting gift wrap OPTIONS tomorrow on my site!

Turkey Day Breakfast

It's a day to bask in thanks, family, and tastebuds! Need I say more? But of course...

MANY THANKS GIVEN...

Wow, what a year full of thanks and praise to be given to our gracious and ever loving Father in heaven! My family over flows with blessings and I absolutely LOVE the holiday of Thanksgiving. I love traveling HOME and having family gathered to play, relax, and EAT! We played games for 4 straight hours on turkey day. Soon after confessing that I cheated by eyeballing the "I" in the scrabble bag to make my triple "q" word... I was pretty much fried!

This holiday was wonderful as always but we missed several family members... including Don who ended up flying.

Abby and I left to go on Tuesday. She had fallen last Saturday off of the deck onto the fence... yes... stradled it and had a very bad injury. I was afraid our traveling would be delayed but we found a donut for her to sit on and it worked out great!

The girls, (my mother, sister, and Abby and I) had a portrait made on Wednesday. That night mom and I went to the auction. It was the greatest entertainment I have had in months!

We spent five hours people laughing to death and left with great stories and some really great buys!

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful. I LOVE turkey and cranberry sauce. I love laughing with my brothers and sisters and playing games, watching movies and just hangin. I love the chill in the air and the hint of Christmas around the corner. I love the pumpkin cheesecake and left overs! I love being home. Abby loves being with everyone too and its always just a treat.

Oh Christmas Tree...

Friday the Christmas tree was bought... cut... measured... recut... and then put up! The smell is so perfect and is the most wonderful thing to start the holiday off with (along with the first official glass of eggnog and shuffle of Christmas cd's)! Mom and Dad always have the most beautiful tree... there are enough lights on it to light a small city.

Fear the Spear!

The best part of Friday was David's high school football game that night. Sherando High School has won the past 20 something games and played for the regional championship. It was 32 degrees and there we sat... OUTSIDE on bleachers! But boy were we prepared! We all had on about three to four layers of clothing... sat on folded comforters... had two huge things of coffee and another of hot chocolate... a bag full of food and candy... hand warmers for our gloves... and much energy for yelling! The warrior on the gorgeous and majestic horse came out and ran down the sidelines (always just an amazing sight) and Abby wasn't sure what to think. When Sherando quickly scored and the fireworks went off... she was very happy about being there.

The warriors won 38 to 0 and became regional champs! It was such a fun time and now they are off for the semi-finals next week for state! Go SHEEEEEEEE-RAN--DOEEEEEEEEEEE Warriors... or simply, "Fear the Spear"!

Going back to Georgia...

We came home yesterday and Don was waiting for us with Dusty and snacks in the car. We are glad to be back home with daddy and also glad we get to go back to Funchester (Winchester) in just four weeks. After days of going full throttle, staying up late and being much of the entertainment, my precious girl (who is almost healed) fell asleep before we got off the runway and slept the entire flight home. When I woke her up after we landed, she looked up with very droggy eyes and said, "Can I have the cookies?" I had told her when we got on the plane that after we took off, our flight attendant would bring her some cookies. You should have seen her face when I told her she'd slept right through the cookies!

My Georgia Jewels

Please visit my new jewelry blog!

mygeorgiajewels.blogspot.com!

Thank you! You should all buy hand crafted for Christmas! I have free shipping through the end of the month! In December, I'll be offering 20% off to all friends! Come and play!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I totally love Thanksgiving with my family. It's my favorite holiday with Christmas being a VERY close second.

What I love about Thanksgiving is just the feeling of love and thankfulness that saturates the entire visit and day. My family has SO many things to be thankful for and we really celebrate them... together. I love the smell of burning leaves, the warmth of a great sweater, the crackle of a fire, and the smell of a roasting turkey! Add in permission to play Christmas music, the anticipation of buying the tree that weekend, the yearly family photo, laughter and lots of games... you've got a perfect holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my precious friends and family. We love you and pray you are blessed with many blessings. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A moment with Daddy and Abby

Our camping trip was such a joy. To watch Abby run up trails to the top of a mountain was just a blessing. We just smiled the entire time. We hiked a trail to a waterfall. Poor Georgia is almost dry of water and so the fall was more like a trickle but at least it wasn't dry after all that climbing! We saw deer (reindeer as Abby calls them) on the way up too.

A fellow camper told us of a trail that led out to a swinging bridge... one of the largest in the country. It's on the Appalachian trail and was just beautiful. Abby and Daddy were admiring the river below it.

Our journey for Caroline continues. We are almost done with the homestudy and then can move on to the last piece of the puzzle before getting our dossier done. We are hoping to be done with the Dossier by the end of December and maybe travel late spring or early summer!

Hello Friends... been a while

I am sorry I have been gone for so long. So much has happened and it's just so hard to get caught up! We had a trip to Virginia to visit my dear friend Karen and her new and third baby, Rachel. It was a wonderful visit.

We had a camping trip to the mountains and had a blast. Abby is our adventurous camper girl. Her favorite part was peeing in the woods... of course! I took lots of photos and this is one of my favorites! I LOVE TREES.

We bought a new car for mommy... a Toyota Solara CONVERTIBLE. So much fun and we even had two warm days this week to enjoy it! Abby just sits in the back and smiles from ear to ear... she just giggles when the top goes down... too cute.

P.S. Blogger is being a BUG and it has taken me 5 attempts to get this photo!!!! ughhhh

make it 6...

PTC's 1st Annual

Dragon Boat Race

And the winner is... What a fun day we had last Saturday as Daddy and many of his friends raced in a dragon boat race. It was at a festival here in the Peach City and was so very cool. The boats were fun, the competition was even more fun, but the huge little boy smiles on big boy faces was the funnest! (yes, I know that's not really a word) AirTran sponsored a boat and they ended up coming in third place! There were about 19 boats in the competition and they raced all afternoon. This is a picture of the final race with the top six boats. Don's team was in boat #5... and they had the best time of the day, and won third place! The two teams that won first and second are teams that compete on a regular basis and the winning team was one made up of many breast cancer survivors who meet and row for support... VERY COOL! I think we may be doing this again next year... although they are going to have it in August... Georgia, in August... what are they thinking!?

Daddy's Girl

Abby was so excited to see her daddy race. She squealed and jumped around and was so happy to see him... before I could stop her, she was running to him for the winner's hug! It was too cute.

Pilots, Pastors, and Postman... Oh My...

Poor Don was on the phone for about 72 hours before this race trying to be sure he had 21 guys! Pilots did not answer the call from the crew lounge and so Don resorted to every directory and phone book we have in the cabinet. We ended up with a STELLAR group... pilots, pastors, and yes... our postman! Throw in my dad (who was visiting from Alabama) and a few others and you have our award winning team... and a lot of fun!

21 guys... check. Life vests... check.

The guys getting ready for their first race. What a great job they did. They seriously were looking like professionals... WHO KNEW? They did... just ask them!

The greatest blessings...
Tonight, as I prayed with Abby, this was the first part of her prayer... "Dear Lord, thank you for me... for my mommy... she's my best friend... my bestest buddy in the world, I love her and you made her and she's my best friend..." THAT, my friends... is the best moment in the whole world. I might add she was playing with my hair as she prayed this. It doesn't get better than that...

Home Sweet Home

I went to Virginia this past weekend to see my brother march in his high school band. He is a Senior and I have never been to one of his games. His band is award winning and he also plays in the jazz band, also award winning, and so I wanted to go. Well... it had rained the two days before I got there and so wouldn't you know it... Friday afternoon their band director decided they weren't going to march since the field was way muddy and they had competition the next day... didn't want to compete in dirty uniforms! Ughh... anyway... it was still way fun and I at least got to hear them play.

It was also just a great weekend to be home. I miss my family so very much. I went alone and so I was able to just hang out and relax... it was great. I got to play and laugh and rest... very much needed. I also got to spend a lot of time with my nephew Christian, my sister-in-law Rachel, and see my sister's new apartment... adorable... go Cynthia!

I had a great time laughing with my mom (much laughing) and I can't wait to go back again for my favorite holiday... Thanksgiving! I love you all!!!!

Friday Night High School Football...

Sherando vs Handley... GO Sheeeerandooooo!

Wow, I think I aged about 10 more years after being at my brother's high school football game. I honestly haven't been to one since mine... high school anyway. Whewww, what an eyefull! But it was super fun. Right before the game begins... Sherando's beautiful horse comes running out, with the warrior on it... who carries the spear. It charges full speed down the edge of the field, hits the corner and then tunrs and heads to the middle of the field where the warrior throws the spear into the ground and the horse reers up on it's back legs... what a wonderful way to start a game!!!!

And, what a way to play and end a game. Sherando won it's 20th consecutive game that night against their biggest rival, Handley High. Yeah... I am so glad I was able to come. I love you David!

The Majestic Mascot!

What a wonderful way to start the ballgame... very dramatic for sure! Fear the Spear!

Saturday Morning...

It was so much fun to get up on Saturday and everyone met at the apple orchard for fresh pastries and coffee. There was a chill in the air, the air where dancing pastries lingered and frolicked... tempting your very last wisp of will!!!! The sun was warm and it was a wonderful morning. We took a little bus ride and Christian very much enjoyed playing on the ark!

Cyntee and Brutie!

My parents dog Brutus is just a hoot! He is so precious and of course, just wants to play. So Christian was getting all the attention and so he went and found this rawhide and just walked around with it... over one eye... looking for a play partner! So Cynthia played dress up with him and got him ready for Halloween. Don't think he'll make it home with the treats!!!

Giving Back

I give back a portion of sales from georgiajewels to various charities. This month, I have sent 50 bibles to Asia though sendbiblesnow.com You can send a Bible for just $4. It's amazing what people do in countries like this... taking pages out of a bible and passing around in neighborhoods and villages just so people can read the word of God. PRAISE HIS NAME! So if you have a few extra bucks and want do to something special with it (I don't mean a manicure either! :0), then check out this website. You never know how many people may come to know the Lord through a bible you paid for and had sent! How powerful is that!? Even more powerful, you will be able to know in heaven!!!

And We Are Off Again!

Yeah... our journey to Caroline continues and we are fast moving on the path! We are back with our adoption agencey we used for Abby's adoption, World Partners Adoption, and we are so very very excited that we can return to Kazakhstan! Our application was accepted yesterday and I have already started on the dossier.

Abby is thrilled and is so very precious. Her favorite nickname has been "Scooter". If we said, "OK, honey"... "that's fine precious one"... she'd reply, "I'm Scooter."

So the other day, we were talking to her about the process and stuff and Abby declared, "I'm going to be "chicken wing" (one of Daddy's nicknames for her) and let Caroline be "Scooter".

How precious is that!!!! So now... everytime we slip up and call her "beautiful, precious, honey, or little one" we now here... "I'm chicken wing and my sister Caroline is Scooter!"

This is our official family photo with our application. I thought it very appropriate they wanted Abby in the picture too. We will be in Kazakhstan for 5 weeks when we go to get Caroline and Abby is coming with us too. We are so very excited we can take her back to her country... maybe even to some very special places if we get to go to Almaty again! Hopefully we will be going to get Caroline in 8 to 9 months!

So anyway... that's the latest on the adoption journey... very exciting stuff!!!!!!!