Josiah says, "Merry Christmas Everyone!"

A few Christmas party pics

Our family Christmas Devotion to LifeWay

One of my recent projects at work was to gather 12 Christmas devotions from Christian authors and artists to put together an audio CD for all LifeWay Christian Store Employees across the country. I had received the last devotion by Max Lucado, but at the last minute discovered it was damaged and he had not sent it via email nor had he saved it. So, late that evening, Ed, Josiah and I recorded this devotion. Ed's playing the music of course. Although the message is to our LifeWay friends, we thought you would enjoy it, especially Josiah's contribution! If I could figure out a way to post an MP3 file, you could listen. If you're interested, please comment and I can email it to you. If you know code to post a mp3 file to this blog, please advise! (I'm html illiterate!)

Ana's Referral Update

We received word from our adoption agency last week that it is apparent that referral time is lengthening because of the large volume of dossiers being received at the China Center of Adoption Affairs. Waiting families will now have an approximate 8 - 9 months wait from log-in date to referral.

We received our Log-in-date on June 20, so it now looks like it will be at least mid-February 2006 before we receive Ana's referral which will contain her photo, birthdate, and location. We will probably not travel to China until April 2006. As much as we want Ana home with us, we know that God is in control and His timing is perfect. The bright side? More time to save $ so Kris can take 4 full months off work, the weather will not be as cold in China so packing should not be quite as challenging, more time to prepare, and yes, more time to shed the holiday lbs!

Fall Festival Time!

To Infinity and beyond!

Another yard sale

We had another yard sale to raise more funds for Ana. This time we raised almost $400. Not bad. It's a lot of work but worth it. We've decided to take the left over "stuff" to charity. Thank you all who donated and stopped by to make purchases!

Family Beach Vacation

As we wait for our photos of Ana, we're trying to keep busy. We're still hoping to receive them by Christmas.
We finally got to take a mini family vacation. Our original plans were reservations at Gulf Shores, but our condo was damaged by Katrina and the beach was closed. We changed plans the day before arrival and went to Panama City Beach. JT was a great traveler. It took us 10 hours with snack and bathroom stops! JT kept busy playing his drum pad to music and then watching movies. The beach was nice and Josiah had a great time playing in the sand and at the pool. Most of the guests at the hotel were evacuees from New Orleans and Mississippi. Many of them also had their dogs with them which Josiah also loved. God gave us a beautiful sunset every night. Ed and I enjoyed that for sure!

Josiah turns Four!

Not much to update you on our wait for Ana so we thought we would post Josiah's big 4th birthday bash. He's growing up so fast. He prays that "God will protect his little sister all the way over in China" every night, and more often than not, asks why we can't go there yet.

Josiah Thomas turned 4 on July 30. He had friends over for backyard water fun! The highlight of his gifts were his new sandbox that mom and dad bought and papa built, his new loader from nana and papa, new backhoe from Grandma and Grandpa, and of course, new drum sticks and a new drum instructional DVD. Hope you enjoy the photos.

JT's Birthday Party pics

Josiah's Bob the Builder Birthday

Another Benefit . . .

We held a benefit yard sale on July 8 & 9. Thanks to many friends who donated and showed up to find new treasures to purchase for themselves! A special thank you to my special friend, Amelia. She donated a huge portion of her sales. Also a special thanks to Megan who sold drinks and delicious cookies. She raised $50 for us! We were able to raise $1000 as a result of the yard sale. Again, we were blessed. God is so good!

Paperwork and milestone dates . . .

We finished and released all of our paperwork in May, 2005 and were DTC (Dossier to China) June 6, 2005.

We received our LID (log in date), which is June 20, 2005.

Now we begin to count the days, the weeks, and the months. We're told it will take six to seven months before we receive the referral which will include photos of Ana and information about her and where she currently lives. We are praying to receive her photo by Christmas. As you read this, we ask that you pray to that end.

Benefit Concert with Groove33

The Groove33 Benefit concert was held on June 10 and was a blast! Thanks so much for those of you who came out to support us and enjoy the time together. The highlight of the evening was Josiah playing his drum set along with the band on the last song. He rocked the house and got a standing ovation! It downpoured that evening but didn't keep our faithful friends from showing up or others with simply a fond heart for adoption! We were very blessed! The concert raised close to $2000.

Josiah playing at the Concert

Josiah plays like a pro and then takes a bow!

More Kozibean photos

Benefit Concert at the Kozibean

Hello. We're Ed, Kris, and Josiah. We would like to share our journey to bring our daughter, and JT's little sister,home from China. It all began in the spring of 2005 when God told us to "go to China" to add to our family. Josiah came home from preschool a few days later to tell us that his little sister was going to be named Ana (that's Ah-nah, not Anna!) So Ana it is!

On June 3rd, Ed's band, Groove33 played at our favorite coffee house. It was great fun. We had a packed out crowd and raised some money to bring Ana home.