Update

I have posted on here a few times about a potential situation where Mike and I might get to adopt a set of twins due in April. Well I had just recently posted that I had not gotten any news lately about the situation. My contact person, Lindsey, has moved away from where the birth mother, Autumn, lives, so she has not talked to her much lately. Tonight I was surprised to have a message from Lindsay when I got off of work. She was upset though, and asked me to call her. I did, and I got some very sad news. Autumn had found out that the babies are a boy and a girl, which is what we were hoping for. However, the baby boy just died. It was due to a genetic disorder that is inherited, and apparently runs in Autumn's family. Lindsay was not really clear on all of the details, but it has something to do with extra fluid building up. It is something that usually goes away as the baby develops, but in some cases, as in this one, there is hemoraging, and the baby died. As far as they know the baby girl is OK and continuing to develop well.

Autumn and Lee, her husband, are pretty torn up about this, as I am sure anyone would be. I am pretty upset about it myself, even though these were not my babies and there was not a final decision yet about an adoption. Please pray for all involved, and continue to pray for the decision that they need to make as far as actually choosing adoption or not.

Stuggles

I want to write to ask for continued prayer for Autumn, her husband Lee, the babies, Lindsey, and myself. Things have pretty much stopped as far as the potential adoption. Basically, I am getting no communication from anyone. Lindsey, from what I understand, is getting back with old friends........you know, the kind who get you into trouble, you end up in rehab, and then get yourself clean, and vow never to go back to them, but you do anyway? So, I have tried and tried to get in touch with her, but she is not answering and not returning calls. I have heard about her getting back with her old friends, and back into drugs from her brother, who asked for me to pray for her. She has also pretty much moved back to this area, which is where those friends are, so she is no longer around Autumn. So, my prayer for her is that she wakes up to what she is doing and gets out before she completly brings herself down again.

Now, Autumn and Lee do have my phone number and have called me once. However, I tried to call them, left a message and they never called me back. I therefore cannot call them again because that would be like I was pushing them to talk to me, and I will not do that. My prayer is that they continue to think about the well being of the babies, and continue to keep Mike and me in mind as far as adopting.

I ask for prayer for the babies, that they grow, develop, and are born healthy when the right time comes.

The prayers that I ask for myself are that I will have peace for this whole situation. When the lack of communication first started, I did not handle it well. I started having anxiety attacks, and was so upset trying to figure out what I could do to make this happen. Then I finally prayed about it, and gave it BACK to God, and asked him to help me deal with this, and to give me peace. So far, I have done pretty well since then. I still have had no communication but I am doing a better job of allowing God to handle things.

Please pray for these things. I do appreciate all of the prayers that I know have gone up on behalf of this situation, and also the words of encouragement.

Fun Times!!

Last Saturday evening was our Bonfire/Costume Party, and from what I can tell, it was a sucess. We had a pretty large group of people from around 3 years old up to............well I am not sure, but there was a large, diverse group, and everyone seemed to have a great time. A lot of people dressed up and I was so glad and thankful for those who dressed up. We had a contest and here are the results. Best overall costume was won by a landslide by Sam Fanning. He was dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and his costume was awesome. For the most creative the winner was Thomas Fanning, who dressed up as Elton John. Mike ran away with the votes for the funniest, but since Mike and I did not want to take our own prizes, we checked on second place, which was Thomas Fanning once again. He already got a prize so third place was tied between Patrick Fanning, my brother Doug, and myself. We decided that the prize would go to Patrick, who dressed up as the Middle Man...it is a TV show character.

All in all, I think that things went well. We had a "sit-in" movie theatre set up on the side of the house where we showed Cars, and the classic Frankenstein, we had a Guitar Hero area on the other side of the house, game area, pumpkin carving area and the bonfire. We had some great pumpkins carved, as you can see in the pictures below.

Thanks to all of you who came out and spent the evening with us. We just might have to do this again next year for those of you who missed out, and for those of you who came to come again and have fun.

The hotdog and hamburger cook of the day!
And here he is again, with his alter ego coming out!

Sam used his creative side to help make the signs for the party.
Patrick used his knife and hatchet skills to make stakes for me.

Mary Popins meets Captain Jack Sparrow meets.......um girly man!




My Aunt Marci and her friend Rusella. They are from Madison/Hanover.

The two cutest pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.


The "road" and the bunny. Pumpkin carving cowboy.

Lynn concetrated on this pumpkin for a long time! Hers is the tree that is supposed to say Happy Halloween on it.
Michael enjoyed watching Cars. I knew that it was one of his favorites, which is why I chose to show it.
Wow........brother and sister love.
My parents.......I think Pop is scared by the lion, although he was dressed as lion tamer and had his whip and chair along with him.


I am not exactly what to title this one but I was glad that Ash came and brought along her friend and that they dressed up.

Captain Jack Sparrow and his buddy Will Turner. I guess this must have been when Jack switched sides. You never really can tell who's side Jack is on!
Strike a pose!
Guitar Hero is always a hit, even among pirates.
How sweet. My brother, the road, along with his daughters Hannah the cat and Faith the pumpkin.

Here kitty kitty kitty...........
Cheyla was dressed up as a man-woman, and Carly was dressed up as Sam Fanning. Notice the bracelets on the arms.
It might be hard to figure this one out, but Evan was a gangster. His pants were sagging....and his hat was on crooked but it was making his cross eyed so he straightened it up!

Miss Mary Poppins was lovely. She also brought her date, Dick Van Dyke who you can see below. He did not bring his chimney sweep with him though.

Here he is....the love of Mary Poppins life!

Mr. Middle Man.........you will have to watch the TV show to learn more about his. It is still a bit of a mystery to me. I have seen clips though.............a funny, crime fighting guy. Mr. Elton John is in the yard! Complete with the leopard print shirt, the red leather pants and the crazy sunglasses!
The scarecrow from OZ.........

Pumpkins that were carved at the party.........and a few the night before the party.

This is my pumpkin....