Picture update. 23 months old. Andrew's first hair cut. He did excellant! Never cried or fought to get down. I hated to see all the curls go, but it was getting really long. Now he looks so much older! :o) We went to a pumpkin patch and walked the fields. He really enjoyed finding the pumpkins. That's all he babbbled about on the way home.

Before, long and curly in the back

After, short, no more curls :( but you can see his ears now!



Pumpkin Patch Pictures






He is not a baby anymore :(

We have to say congratulations to our friends, Ford and Alyson, for their beautiful new daughter, Alysabeth An. Those eyes!!! Just Beautiful!!!!! We will be following your trip to China and home. Hard to believe it has taken two years (for a original 6month journey) hahahaha

We are still in Tennessee. Tom is taking night classes and I am taking classes at the local community college. Andrew is growing, 21 months old now. His vocabulary is growing every day. He is also using a lot of sign language that we have taught him. It is so nice to communicate with him when he doesn't know how to say something he wants, like apple, banana, shoes, he just throws that sign out and we understand. Sometimes he does a sign that I have not showed him in months, like friend, and he does it and I am so surprised by it! I love this age, everything is new and I see things in a child's eye again. At 40 years old, you tend to forget what a child sees. It is the simplest things, a bug, a tractor. He is absolutely amazed by everything. :o) I can go on and on about Andrew...

As far as where we will be in the next year or so...We are going to able to start looking for another job sometime in April next year. I am literally counting the days. I like it here, but it is not home. We are wanting to get back down to Florida and we think that Tom will have a better chance at NAS Jax, or Mayport for a transfer. We are looking at maybe finding some place in Atlantic Beach or back in the Argyle / Orange Park area again. It is going to depend on where Tom gets transferred. Or if they can get him down there. We will have to wait and see. So, Ford and Alyson, what do you think of Atlantic Beach for a place to retire???? We don't know much about that area. Just curious as to your point of view. Or would you recommend another area to look at??? We wouldn't mind being close to the beach, maybe a ten minute drive or so....I am thinking of schools as well. I want Andrew in a good school system, KWIM?

Here are a couple of pictures. Andrew is 21 months old in these. His hair is getting long and curly. Getting close to having it cut, but I sure do love those curls!! Hate to cut it off :o)

Oh yea, Ford and Alyson, you will appreciate this....We have taught Andrew how to yell, Junioorrrrr! LOL It is a riot to hear, and he knows Jr. when he sees him. LOL

Andrew 16 months old.

First thing I want to say is, WOW, our LID is almost here...If we were still adopting that is. I still look to see how everyone is doing and I keep up with where everyone is in their dates. And yet again, it has been a long, long time since I have written on our blog. Sorry about that. Since the last time I wrote, I got a sewing machine for Christmas and I have taken up quilting. Oh yes, and I LOVE IT. I quilted our 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is not as big as everyone else's, but I did it any way. Oh, I did add a few different things to it as well. You will see...


Andrew loves the blanket! But we are going to hang it on the wall. The photos of all of us on it will not be good to wash over and over again.

Yes, again, it has been a while since we have posted. I do, however, keep up with reading the blogs and see where everyone is at in the wait for their daughters (or sons). Congratulations to Shannon on her new baby girl, Kayla!! She is beautiful. I have been following her blog since she has been in China. Looks like little Kayla is fitting in just perfectly. I am keeping my eye on Ford and Alyson's blog as well. Not much longer for them either. As far as how we are doing...Tom is still working at the Meps in Memphis, TN. He likes it pretty much. I am staying home with my son. I can not believe he is a year old now! He has grown so much. He is totally on the move now, walking every where! He decided on November 13th that he could walk with out any help from his mom and dad. Of course, we are very proud. :o) And here are a ton of pictures of Andrew: Andrew loves Elmo stuff. He just dove right into that cake. This is one of those tents, it has tunnels that he can crawl through. Andrew's first car and he loves it! First Trick or Treating. We went to the Memphis Zoo, they had a great trick or treating thing going on there. He was pretty tired that night. The professional picture :) Look at that great smile!

I see we have not posted in several months. I am sure this will come to a surprise to everyone, but we have decided to withdraw from our adoption. We decided this back in April. It was a hard decision for the both of us to do and we cried over our decision. But for us, it was the right decision. Andrew is now almost 9 months old and he is the joy in our lives. We are going to focus on the three of us and we are very happy with the choice we have made. We do keep tabs on the Rumor Queen and everyone's blogs we have listed on ours. We like to see how everyone is doing and how close you guys are to getting your new daughters. And we see that it is very close for some of you (Shannon!!!)

Here are some updated pictures of the wonderful little man we have in our lives.








He now has 4 teeth, and a couple more are coming in!!! He is 22 pounds 9 1/2 ounces and 28 inches tall. We have a big boy on our hands :o) It isn't going to be long before he starts walking, too.