monday at landlife

it's late and i am tired, so please forgive my lack of caps.



today was an interesting day as the governor of tennessee and mayor of nashville encouraged people to stay away from downtown. lifeway was open, so i still went to work. seeing some of the flood waters with my own eyes was a bit surreal. we are really blessed to live in a town that has been spared most of the the midstate's natural disasters in the past five years.



reed didn't enjoy a weekend full of staying in, but he did enjoy the fact that lola and pop were here. today, he was dying to go outside in to his backyard.



after nap, reed was thrilled to get to go outside. he, of course, went worm hunting as soon as he got outside.



the boy loves worms and bugs. he is so going to love teaching his brothers all about worms and bugs.



tonight, abbey and i have been working on our adoption education. it is a little odd, as we have already completed one international adoption, so many of the things we have "learned" about we have either experienced or didn't experience at all. i must say that our adoption of reed was incredibly smooth. we can pray that this adoption would be only half as smooth and we would still be amazed. but, we can trust God that He will make all things right.



tonight, the batson's came over to hang out for a little while. i think that britty was getting a little cabin fever as well.



paityn was looking especially adorable tonight as well.



we are continuing to pray for our little boys over in taiwan and appreciate your prayers too. we are unclear about the photo policy, but it looks like we are not going to be able to post photos on the blog. we might not be able to do "flat" boys, or we might have to blur their faces.


pray also for the people who have been affected by the middle tennessee flooding.

we are blessed.

Abbey's 30th Birthday Party

Reed is still finding it hard to believe that he now has 2 brothers! And ... so are we. But, the more we look at those precious pictures, the more in love with them we become.



Abbey's birthday party was supposed to be "sophisticated country" or as Manya told me, "Shabby Chic."



We had arrangements of Lilies, fern, sweet william, curly willow, and some wild looking viny stuff that I can't remember the name of. The smaller arrangements were in mason jars and the larger ones were in tin buckets.



We were happy with the results.



Friends and family have enjoyed our Keurig Coffee bars we've had at our last few parties. Thankfully, Manya always let's us have use her Keurig as well as ours.



We had the party in our neighborhood clubhouse which was originally built as a residence, but is a huge log cabin.



Our guests enjoyed wonderful cupcakes from "The Cupcake Collection" in downtown Nashville.





Sweet little Paityn was at the party. She has thrush, so that's why her mouth is purple (from the lavender).



The meal consisted of some of Abbey's favorite things: BarBQue from Famous Dave's, Potato Salad from McAlister's, Rotel Dip, and Baked Beans.



I love the fact that my friends from work are also some of Abbey's friends. Trudy, Nelson, Miss Candace, and Uncle Bill were there.



The Batson's and Ballard's were there to celebrate. Jodi and Todd had come from a Derby Party. Jodi doesn't normally dress up so much for parties in log cabins.



Danny and Megan were there with their little baby girl (still to arrive).



Manya used her spiritual gift of writing to label the food selections.



Paityn got a little sleepy.



Reed was glad to play with his best bud Britty.



Manya was a great help!



Caramel Apple Cupcake's from Cupcake Collection.



Jodi was being silly in her hat.



Todd said he can't be responsible for his wife.



We find out on Tuesday if Jodi is having a boy or girl. Needless to say Will and Nash are going to have a lot of new friends.



After the meal, we played a fun game called "What's Yours Like?"



Abbey got some neat gifts from friends. Never can go wrong with Vera Bradley.



Thank God for good friends.



Lola was an amazing help! Thank goodness for her!



Trudy is always so much fun!



Pop and Manya had fun chatting it up.

2 ... 3 ... 5????

Jane and I (Abbey) spent the day together on Thursday (my birthday). I made the comment that I was going to post on facebook as my status: "Dear Adoption Agency, It's my birthday, and I know it's not really possible, but I'd love a referral today, k? Thanks" We laughed and then Jane made a comment about her patio furniture being delivered too (which was ordered in early Fall and still hadn't arrived). We laughed, and moved on.

Jane and I picked up Reed from Mother's Day Out. She was dropping us by the house when my phone rang. Jeff: "Remember what you wished would happen on your birthday? Well, it might. The adoption agency called, and there's a possibility of a referral. It's a little different, and I told them I had to check with you to see if we'd consider it." I'm thinking, why would we even have to discuss it? Maybe because the possibility of having a new child just doubled!?




Fast forward: We are talking with one of the very helpful adoption agency people. She explained the situation to us. We were shocked. We promised to talk with to each other and get back to them as soon as possible. Really, we didn't have anything to talk about, we just didn't want to seem silly to the adoption agency!



We are now the proud parents-to-be to Nash Fisher, born March 10, 2o08....and another little boy named William (we will call him Will) Arthur, born April 29, 2010 - that's right, he was born on my birthday! Yes, our world has been rocked, but in a very, very good way. We are so excited about our family, and so blessed by what God has done for us!


So, don't get used to the picture above...because there will soon (hopefully in 4-6, or faster if God chooses to prod the judge) be 2 more precious, beautiful, loved Taiwanese boys added to the family. We cannot wait to share pictures, but we aren't sure if we are allowed to do so yet. Jeff is checking with the agency to confirm we can post them. If you know us well enough to have our email address or can find it, we will share our pictures with you via email.

P.S. Jane's patio furniture arrived as well. Apparently I was speaking things into happening on Thursday! 

Another Weekend: gone

Reed was so thrilled to get his birthday party invitation for Britton's 3rd birthday party the other day. Today he wanted to take the invitation to Britton at church. Those boys would be completely inseparable if we would let them.



Abbey went to Jacksonville this weekend to teach a conference for the North Florida Baptists. Lola came in on Thursday to keep Reed since I had to work and Abbey was on a plane. It was good to have her here.



We have a busy week coming up. Someone is turning 30 on Thursday! I'm not going to tell you who, but it isn't me or the cutest little Asian. So this Saturday we're having a fun birthday party!

Zoo and Important Update

Today, Reed and Abbey went to the zoo. They had a great time looking at the animals with the extremely beautiful weather.



So, we've been holding some information from you our beloved blog readers and it is time to come clean. We switched adoption agencies.



As you know, our agency JOH's program, was on an indefinite hold and we were nowhere near close on the list. It was going to be 2-3 years before we got our little girl. You know that we considered the Marshall Islands and during that process realized that we really have a heart for the babies of Taiwan.



We also realized that it was important to us that Reed had a sibling of his own nationality, so after really thinking we had a great lead on another Taiwan program and it fell through, we decided that we would be patient with the JOH program and just enjoy the ride.



(the picture of the speakers above is on of Reed's favorite things about the zoo. He loves the speakers. Don't ask us why. We have no clue.)

So, while we were enjoying our ride, we heard about another Taiwanese program and just made an inquiry. We were told that they were not taking applications at the time and to call back late summer, early Fall. So, once again, we were enjoying the ride ... but only for about a week!



We got an email from the agency that said they wanted to talk to us about their program. We were thrilled, so we talked to them and found out that currently their program is by invitation only as it is still rather early in its life.

One thing led to another and two days ago we made the official jump to this new agency. That is scary, but we really have a great feeling about this program. It is definitely a Christian agency and they do lots of missions for the countries that they serve. We LOVE this about the new agency.



(Another of Reed's favorite "animals," a CAT.)

So, tonight we had our orientation call with our caseworker and found out all of the information we need to know. This agency is very much intent on spelling everything out and has clear guidelines for required communications. We liked that we know we will hear from our caseworkers on a regular basis.



After our orientation call, our friend Jerry, who is Mei Mei's daddy, went to his office with us and notarized a gazillion papers. Tomorrow we will overnight them so that we will be officially on the list (which is short by the way). We'll have to get our homestudy updated a bit for this new agency's requirements and then we'll also have to get the dossier together.



They say to anticipate a 6-8 months wait for a referral, but referrals have been coming at a much faster rate. So, we could feasibly be getting a baby by the end of the year!

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that this new program is a birth mother program, so she'll choose us. That means NO specifying gender, so we might be getting another boy. We're totally okay with that.

So, please be praying for us as we continue on this journey of growing our family. We'll keep you updated, we promise.