14 Year Old Girl Looking for a Home...

Check out this blog. Here name is "Santa" and she is spending the summer with a host home here in the US. The program allows host homes to host them for the summer in hopes that someone will meet them and want to permanently adopt them. The kids are from Russia, Ukraine and Latvia. Santa is from Latvia. She is 14 and a 7th grader. Once they turn 16, they age out of the government program and are no longer cared for by the government. On there own after that I think. Horrible. New Horizons for Children is a christian organization that this host couple is working through. If you want more information or have questions, you can read about it on Amanda's blog. Her blog address is...

philipamandashababy.blogspot.com

How exciting!!! If you know of anyone looking to adopt an older child (or even if they are not looking...you never know what God may do...) Pass her blog on if you want...

Watch this Video and Consider Foster Care...

http://vimeo.com/6576611

Adoption Phone Call, Baby JACK, Florida Vacation and Showing Sweet Holly...

The ADOPTION phone orientation went really well and we were able to get tons of questions answered. The next step is to send in an application for the "big" application. I know...crazy...but it will all be worth it. Even though this process is just beginning, I can tell already that it will be easy to get bogged down in the details of it all. But...in those moments I will just remember that next year we will walk into a room full of babies and give 1 child a forever home. That thought shatters all annoyance of lots of paperwork. What a cool opportunity...to change a sweet child's destiny forever. What could be better?

In other news, our nephew was born several weeks ago.

JACK BAILEY FLOYD

precious...

FLORIDA...was a blast! We were gone for 2 weeks. We did alot of swimming at my parents house. Reese loves to swim...wears her floaties...jumps off the diving board. Brave girl!

My parents watched the kids while we went to the Southern Baptist Convention.

The convention voted to pass the GCR (Great Commission Resurgence).

We are happy. Basically it was a team that looked over how Southern Baptist are spending money and how we can more effectively funnel our money to reach the lost. As a result, we will hopefully be targeting the larger metro cities...especially in the North and West. Also, sending more missionaries overseas. The GCR was 7 recommendations brought before the convention to better reach this goal...that is what was passed.

These are our sweet friends Ryan and Rachel Blackwell.

Night the vote passed.

Nick's parents.

We took Reese to Disney after the convention was over since it was right there in Orlando. Both of our parents went with us, plus my sister Abby. We had a great time...

but as you can see it ended up raining...pouring I mean.

We were not going to let the rain stop us!!! We had to get Reese on a few rides.

We look so cool here in our ponchos...seriously. I especially look extra cool.

Not sure what my Dad has going on with his??? ha.

Our sweet Reese...getting so big.

Beck "kind of" watching the parade with Nick's Dad.

Everything was a little overwhelming for both of them at first.

Handsome little thing.

Ok...so this was the highlight of the day. I booked Reese an appointment at the

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Cinderella's Castle. Oh my, it was so great.

Totally worth the money. The funniest part about the whole deal is that I had only scheduled for Reese do the cheaper package that was around $55.00...nails, hair and makeup. But...when we walked in and were waiting...Reese saw all of the dresses and asked me which one she was getting...ha. Poppy overheard that conversation and told her to go pick one out! So, she did....a few seconds later she spotted the matching shoes..."I need some shoes mom"! Are you serious you little stinker? Yes, she was. So, needless to say she went home with the whole Sleeping Beauty outfit thanks to her sweet granddaddys footing the bill between the two of them.

Thank you Poppy and Bobo!!!

Finished product!

My mom's parents came down to see the kids for 1 night.

Clyde and Polly Fleming

Well...here's a story for ya!

Nick INSISTED that I accompany him on the airboat ride that my Dad was going to take him on. I told him no a million times and then finally gave in. I didn't want to go b/c I was afraid we would get stuck. Here is Nick sporting my Tommy jacket from 6th grade!!! ha

Tommy Hilfiger was SOOO cool back in the day. I can't believe he even found that in our house. Hilarious.

Well, my fear was realized! We got stuck near the bank b/c it had dried up since my dad was in that area last. The good thing is that we were close to the bank and the water was not that deep. The other good thing is that Nick carried me on his back to the bank. Nick and I had flip flops on. Nice. Nick was just sure an alligator or a snake was going to get him. ha. This kind of getting stuck I can handle...close to the the bank...not a lot of water. I just didn't want to get stranded in deep water...that lake has a lot of alligators. That would be horrible!!!

We had to leave it there and walk back through the woods and down our pasture line.

They went and got it the next day. Crazy.

The last few days with my family we went to Anna Maria Island to stay at the beach for a few days. It is on the Gulf side next to Siesta Key. The water was beautiful!

Aunt Abby

We would sit and watch the sunset. It was so relaxing.

This island was so quiet and had tons of character. We rode our bikes down to a cute shop. It was a cafe and antique/gift store. It was soooo cute.

Mom and Abby

Uncle Brian and Beck

Today we gave my friend Holly Thomas a baby shower for her little Taylor arriving soon.

Me, Kari Beth, Holly and Rachel

Love you sweet Holly

Blog Under Construction

Pardon my ugly blog tonight...I am trying to get a new template and layout and it messed everything up!!! So sad....but Nick is making me turn the computer off. It is late. Perhaps tomorrow...

Adoption stuff...

We have found out some more info about the adoption this week.

FYI: The agency we are using is the "Gladney Center of Adoption".

http://adoptionsbygladney.com/

I found out that our baby will be coming from the "Home of Hope" orphanage in Rwanda. Evidently this is the only orphanage that people can adopt out of in Rwanda from what I have been told. Only 2 agencies have ever actually completed a placement from Rwanda. It is a catholic orphanage run by nuns. I found this picture from someone's blog...ha. Blog picture stealer I am...It is from this particular orphanage I believe. Are these children not precious...oh my...I cannot wait to go and get our little one. Can you imagine??? oh my...

The next step for us is a phone orientation with a Gladney staff member...next Thursday @ 2. It takes about an hour. They go over the entire process and answer any questions. After that, I believe we begin filling out our real application and lots of other ppw.

I will find out more next week.

Excited.