Baby update

No, there is no baby yet. Well, there are lots of babies somewhere, but none at the Aubry house. We finished our home study, though (everything came out good on that). Cheri made us up a profile to present to prospective birth parents, and we've started sending those out. We applied to Mother Goose Adoption and Heart to Heart, both in Utah, and then Adoption Connections in Kansas. Kansas and Utah both have adoption laws that are favorable to the adoptive families (once the mother signs over her rights, that's it-there is no grace period). So now we just watch their websites and do a lot of waiting. Actually, we've already been presented to one mother through Mother Goose. The gender is unknown, which is fine with us, and the mother is in Virginia. I doubt we'll match, but at least we're being shown. It's a start. When the right situation comes up, I know that God will work it out. We'll just have to be patient and wait on His timing.

home visit

Cheri, our adoption counselor, came to the house today. She has to make sure that we have a safe environment to bring a baby into. Everything seemed to check out ok, except that I need to bring home some fire extinguishers. Other than that, I think she was pleased. She gave us more questions to fill out. A lot of it is the same stuff we've already answered, but that was for her to do the home study. These are for our profile that the prosective birth parents will look at. We had to provide lots of pictures, too. She'll take all that once we finish our questions and put together a DVD or booklet, or maybe both (I can't remember what we decided, or if we have yet). Anyway, we're moving right along. We changed our preference today for gender to no preference. We'll just take whatever God wants us to have, just like when we were pregnant. We (really I) came to some sort of epiphany or something while talking to Geoff while we were in Virginia. I thought about the different relationships moms and dads have with each gender, and realized that I might be depriving Jolynn of having that mother-son relationship. I'm not ready to just say we only want a boy, but if that's what we're supposed to have, then we're open to that. It was just over 4 years ago that I never would have entertained the idea of having a child at all, until God placed it in my heart to want one. A lot of it, I think, was fear of not knowing what to do with a child and that I'd really mess it up somehow. But I've relied on God to help me be a good parent, and I guess I'm doing ok so far (I guess I'll find out as Bekah gets older). Part of my concern with having a boy is that I wouldn't be a good male role model, or that I won't be able to help with typical 'guy stuff', since I don't think I'm really a typical guy. (I'm probably as in touch with my feminine side as my masculine side.) Anyway, I've decided to just push through my fear and welcome the possibility of a son. If that's what God wants us to have, I know that He'll be there to guide me (as long as I let Him). He's been right there with me the whole time we've had Bekah, and I know that this wouldn't be any different. And Jolynn is really excited about the possibility of having a boy (or maybe she's relieved at the possibility of not having 2 daddy's girls). So please continue to pray for us as this process continues, and pray for God's will, whatever it may be, to be allowed to be done.

note: it was VERY difficult trying to capitalize this post-love you Quinnie!

the adoption process

we had our first meeting with cheri from hope for adoption last saturday (dec 11). we drove up to atlanta and met her. i think the meeting went very well. she seemed pleased with jolynn's o/c organizing skills and how well we had everything prepared. still waiting on a form from our local dfacs. seems to have gotten lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, but she faxed the form back to them, so hopefully they'll get it turned in soon. she's going to help us put together our profile so we can start getting presented to prospective mothers (assuming we pass our home study). our next visit with cheri will be january 3rd, and she'll be coming to our house for this one. gotta make sure we have a safe environment and all that. anyway, wheels are in motion and all, so hopefully we'll be adding to the family pretty soon. keep us in your prayers.

construction

we (and when i say we, i mean the contractor) started construction today on our garage/bonus room in back of the house. (thanks, grams). its going to be a 2-car garage with a room above, where we'll move our workout equipment. this will open up the extra bedroom in the house, which we can then turn into a nursery. we're hoping to need it soon. i think we may even have enough room in the bonus room to put some sort of guest room, but its hard to tell until you get walls up. i guess i ought to be taking pictures of the progress. maybe i'll do that tomorrow.

ACC championship

we drove up to charlotte this past weekend to watch our beloved 'noles play for the acc championship. i knew it would probably be a bit cooler up there than our weather here, and i checked the weather channel last sunday to see what the forecast was. sunny, no clouds, high in the upper 50's, lower 60's. not too bad. about wednesday or thursday, jolynn said it was supposed to be kinda cold up there, possibly rainy. i thought she was just misinformed, but i checked with the weather channel again anyway. sure enough, the forecast now called for like a 30% chance of showers, high in the low 40's. what we got actually got by the time we arrived was a high in the low 30's, with rain, sleet, and just a little snow. we had packed for cold weather, but i'm not sure we were really expecting THAT. luckily, most of the precipitation passed by kickoff (there were a couple of brief sprinkles during the game), but it was still COLD! i had on 3 pair of socks, 3 pair of pants, 5 shirts, 2 hats, and a pair of gloves. and i was still a bit chilly. it really wasn't too bad, but my feet were like blocks of ice. didn't help that we lost the game too. actually, though, that worked out better for me & jolynn. now fsu will be playing their bowl game in atlanta instead of miami. (there's always a silver lining).

we took a little detour on our way home and visited our friends greg & noel williams and their 3 kids, so that made the whole trip a little nicer. couldn't get over how big their boys are getting. and we finally got to meet julieann. she seemed to be a bit of a daddy's girl, but, not having any real experience with that sort of thing, i can't say for sure. we even got a great deal on a train table while we were there (it will probably double as a play-dough table).

disneyworld

we went to the ace hardware convention last week in orlando. it was pretty decent. we also used the time to take a little family vacation. not much to do in orlando, but we found this park that rebekah seemed to like :)

she got to meet sleeping beauty,

cinderella,

belle,

ariel (i think she was bekah's favorite),

and tiana.

meeting all that royalty really takes it

out of a toddler.

the next day, she got to meet snow white.

princess ariel in front of the castle

the villians

she got to meet snow white's queen

malificent (from sleeping beauty)

they had the first 3 princesses together in one tent, and i thought rebekah would bust something as excited as she was to see them in person. she just kept squealing until she got her turn. and right now, ariel is her favorite, so that was a big treat for her. but it seems that her favorite part of disney came the second day, when the villians came out during the halloween party. she got to see the evil queen, captain hook, the shadow man, a few other bad guys, and the highlight of the trip-malificent. i'm kinda worried about this kid. that's all she's talked about since we got back was getting to see malificent. if anyone asks her what she did at disney, that's the first thing she mentions. she still loves her princesses, but those villians really made her day.

we all had a good time. didn't really ride much; we all rode 'its a small world' and jolynn rode space mountain. we caught a few shows. other than that, we mostly just went around looking for princesses or browsing (and shopping) in the stores. we definitely want to go back when we have some more time, maybe bring some siblings, nieces and nephews.

jolynn's new hobby

jolynn has made each of rebekah's birthday cakes. this year's theme was dora the explorer. this was a practice run earlier in the year. as you can see, she had a little help with it.

lo hicimos!

(we did it!)

a couple of months ago, jolynn took a wilton's cake decorating class. she really enjoyed it. so did my guys at work, since they got to eat all her classwork. they have i think 2 more sessions, which are about 6 weeks each, once a week. jolynn wants to take them. she's doing very well so far. she's even had a job already, for a baby shower for a co-worker.

the baby shower cakes

one of her assignments