Sarah Mei is 3 and our 2009 Snow Day

We celebrated Sarah Mei's 3rd birthday at the end of January. It's hard to believe she's only been home 1 1/2 years. She is SO much a part of our family. Life just wouldn't be the same without her sunny personality and her charm!

Here are a few photos of our Chenzhou (her birth town) girl dressed in a traditional Mandarin dress that was given to us by our adoption agency. (She also had to put on the requisite princess tiara and jewelry to complete the ensemble.)




Just days after celebrating Sarah Mei's birthday, we were surprised with a snow day. It snowed about 2 inches, enough to make snow angels and sled in, and it was also enough for the local schools to close (including the school where Phil is the principal.) We were looking forward to a relaxed day by the fire; however plans changed!

The 3 girls (Torie was at college) headed out to our neighbor's house to go sledding. A 1/2 hour after their departure we got a phone call saying that Sarah Mei was hurt and we needed to come get her. While Michaela (13) and Sarah Mei were sledding down the driveway, they lost control of the sled and went head-first into a tree. Michaela was fine, but Sarah Mei broke her nose...yikes! After spending several hours in the ER, we were released with instructions for giving her pain relievers, keeping ice on her face (have you ever tried that with a wiggling 3 year old?) and following up with a plastic surgeon next week. She was a trooper at the hospital but her face is pitiful!!

We returned home, after our ER odyssey, and just minutes later AnnaGrace (our stoic, I stepped on a nail but it doesn't really hurt, child) said ouch and held her wrist. I asked her what was wrong, and she told us that she had fallen on the ice earlier (before the sledding episode) and hurt her wrist. Wait a minute...if AnnaGrace says something hurts...it HURTS. We looked at her swollen wrist, called the orthopedist office and Phil made the trek back out. Yes, you guessed it, her wrist was broken...



It won't be a snow day we'll soon forget!!

Adoption Update, Life on the Farm & Volleyball

The last month we've been busily putting together our adoption dossier (all the documents that must be sent to the Ethiopian government for approval for our adoption.) I've become very adept at filling out forms with ALL of our personal information on them...salary, net worth (are we supposed to have a black number for that one???), monthly expenses, personality strengths and weaknesses, etc. While I've been filling out this paperwork, special friends have been filling out references ad nauseum. Not only do we have to have references x 3 for our dossier, but we also have to have references x 3 for our home study and references x 3 for each of the grants and adoption loans for which we are applying. Special thanks to Lisa Barna, Mike & Iris Wallace, Lisa Cernuto, Malcolm & Krista Williams, and especially Wade Malloy, our pastor, who wrote a reference for EVERY agency - that's 5 references, to date, ugh!

While I am filling out paperwork, the girls are busy keeping the farm running. Below is a picture of one very cold morning last week. Although we have freeze-proof water pumps, one of them froze anyway. This necessitated multiple trips from the house to the horse pastures, a wagon in-tow, with buckets of warm water. For such big animals, horses can be rather fragile. Our oldest mare (age 26) won't drink water if it is too cold. I know, I know, some of you are saying...just let her get thirsty and she'll drink. Unfortunately, if she doesn't drink enough she develops colic (a severe horse stomachache) which can require a vet visit and in extreme cases, surgery. Needless to say we don't let it get to this point; thus, the girls with their wagon and buckets of warm water. I have to admit, I was quite content to sit by the fire and fill out adoption paperwork while the girls braved the cold.





One of the reasons we love living on a farm is because of the responsibility it instills in our girls. Horses must get fed whether you feel like it or not. However, we'll be adding laying hens and meat hens to the farm this spring, and the girls have unequivocally informed me that the hens will be my "job." They are not enamored with the feathered friends!!

On another note, Michaela is playing club volleyball for the 1st time. Last weekend was the first tournament. She had an impressive string of serves and did a great job setting.






After enjoying the volleyball tourny, it was back to our adoption dossier. It is now complete except for 1 form that the state must mail to us. Upon receiving that form, I'll drive the dossier to Raleigh to have it authenticated by the NC Secretary of State. Then the packet will be overnighted to a courier in Washington DC who will hand-carry the precious cargo to both the US State Dept. and the Ethiopian State Dept. for authentication. After these 3 steps, the dossier will be submitted to Ethiopia for translation and approval. Once our dossier is on the way to Ethiopia, we will be officially placed on the waiting list for our agency. We have requested one or two girls under the age of 4 with or without special needs. But we are praying for God's leading as the agency matches us with our daughter(s). The average wait for referral is 6 months or less. After we're matched with a child, the agency will order a 2nd medical report on the child and our documents will go to court in Ethiopia to make the child(ren) our official daughters. We will travel five weeks after a successful court date. In my best human estimation, our daughters will be home for Christmas. What a great Christmas present that will be!

Pray with us that God will provide the finances needed to submit the dossier to Ethiopia, and that He will begin preparing the hearts of our daughters in Ethiopia to join their forever family.


"One adoption won't change the world but it will change the world for that
child."
(I saw this quote on someone's e-mail tag...not sure who to give the credit to but I love the quote!)

Acacia Village Fundraiser

Many of you have been keeping up with our fundraising efforts via e-mail updates. Our goal is to raise $10,000, via our blog and e-mail loop, to donate towards the building of a children's home in Ethiopia.
Christian World Foundation, an arm of Christian World Adoption, is committed to providing humanitarian aid to the countries where they have adoption programs. One of the greatest needs in Ethiopia is a place where children can live safely, be provided with adequate food and medical care, and be prepared for their adoption to the states. The 1st phase of Acacia Village is a children's home that would offer hope and shelter for the needy children in Ethiopia.

At the beginning of 2008, Phil and I began praying about what we could do to help the children in Ethiopia. God laid on our hearts to begin fundraising for Acacia Village. We realized that our contribution, alone, wouldn't make an impact, but "our" combined donations could make a difference. We sent out our 1st e-mail to 100+ contacts in our address book and have been blessed to see over $6,000 raised for this effort. We need to raise $3,590 more to reach our original goal of $10,000. If you haven't made a donation or if you have made a donation and would like to contribute again, please consider clicking on the Chip-In button and making a donation large or small. Each donation is fully tax-deductible, and you will receive a tax donation letter from Christian World Foundation.
Following are a few photos of the beautiful children that Phil met when visiting Ethiopia in January, 2008:




Please help us help them.

Adopting AGAIN!!..this time from Ethiopia.

We are requesting 2 girls under the age of 10 (preferably one will be an infant/toddler...but we'll see who God has planned for our family.) It's so exciting to know that God had our daughters picked out for us before the foundation of the earth!! We can't wait to meet them.

Now comes the paper pregnancy...the updated homestudy, the I-600a, the fingerprinting, the ordering of birth certificates, marriage certificates, the divulging of tax returns and bank statements and the months of waiting. Praise God we're veterans now at the paperchase, so it doesn't seem so daunting. (Remind me of this in a few months!)

Please pray with us that God will protect our girls in a country that is in the midst of another famine. Pray God will prepare both our hearts and ALL of our girls' hearts as we prepare to expand our family. Pray for God's provision of the necessary finances to pay for this adoption. After an international adoption and 2 open-heart surgeries, in the last year, the finances seem a bit daunting and yet we are at peace that God will fund what He has called our family to complete!!


No this isn't a photo of one of our daughters. This is just a sweet baby that Phil had the privilege of holding when he visited Ethiopia in January of this year.

Gotcha Day, A Birthday, and a Trip to Visit Family

Just when you think I've given up blogging completely....I'm back!! Our computer crashed several weeks ago. Despite repeated reminders to myself that I needed to back up our computer which holds not only all our important documents but also ALL of our photos from 2007 and 2008, I didn't back it up. So yes I was in crisis when a storm took our computer down. Thanks to a wonderful IT wiz at Phil's school, all of our data and our computer are recovered. Thank you Joyce!!!

While off-line we celebrated AnnaGrace's 7th Gotcha Day. (A celebration of the anniversary of the 1st day a Chinese nanny put AnnaGrace in my arms!) In honor of the celebration she picked Chuck E. Cheese as her restaurant of choice. We gave her a Jade cross necklace, from China, to remember this special day.




We also made a quick trip to South Carolina to visit Phil's family. Sarah Mei remembered Uncle Joel & Aunt Penny from our summer beach trip and exclaimed "yippee" when they walked in the door. Somehow we left the beach without a photo of Aunt Penny and Sarah Mei together. We rectified that oversight on this trip!



AnnaGrace posed with Uncle Sydney (Phil's dad's brother). Uncle Sydney will be celebrating his 90th birthday this week!


And in October we celebrated Michaela's 13th birthday. It's hard to believe we have another teenager in the house!! Her birthday was complete with the requisite Disney princess on her Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

Beach Time

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Ps. 19:1


Our family had a great time at the beach last week. We didn't check e-mails, didn't answer our cell phones and didn't keep up with the latest election news. It was blissful!

One of the special things about this vacation is that my parents spent 4 days with us and Phil's youngest brother and his wife spent 2 days with us. Our girls loved sharing beach excursions with extended family.

Enjoy the photos of the Horton family on Holden beach...

My mom and AnnaGrace loved searching the beach for the perfect seashell.

Uncle Joel spent time building a sand castle!

Sarah Mei loved playing in the surf.

Michaela, an amazing big sister!! What a blessing she is to us.

Sarah Mei's contribution to sand castle building.

My dad and Sarah Mei shared some wading time in the surf. Sarah Mei is SURE my dad hung the moon!!

AnnaGrace and Sarah Mei share some play time.

AnnaGrace helped with the sandcastles in between seashell hunts!


The only thing missing from our trip was Torie. This was our first family vacation without her, and she was sorely missed. Following is a photo of our college parent day visit. Torie is riding on the equestrian team...thus the photo.

Random Photos

It's hard to believe it's been a month since I updated the blog!! Life at the Horton home continues to run at warp speed. Despite the fact that we try to keep our life simple - limiting our commitments to outside activities, not watching t.v., holding fast to eating dinner as a family in the evenings, etc. - the speed of our life still seems to accelerate proportionally to our age. We're holding on for the ride.

Michaela is thrilled that SLCA (Phil's school) is in a league which, despite the fact that she's home schooled, allows her to compete on the school J.V. volleyball team . After almost 20 years of coaching at the Varsity level, Phil now coaches the Middle School and J.V. teams. He loves teaching the fundamentals of the game AND coaching his own daughter.




Last weekend Phil and I "escaped" for a night away...only our 2nd since Sarah Mei came home from China. Torie came home from college and babysat for us. It was a win/win situation. Our girls were thrilled to spend time with their big sister, and Torie was thrilled to earn some money for babysitting. Sounds like a college student doesn't it!

While home, Torie snapped a few photos of Sarah Mei. The significance of these photos is really the sweatshirt. Phil & I met over 22 years ago on the mission field in Australia. Phil purchased the sweatshirt on that trip. After returning from Australia and deciding we were going to get married (it's a long story!!), Phil gave the sweatshirt to my little sister. She wore the sweatshirt for years and then gave it to Torie...then Michaela...now AnnaGrace and soon Sarah Mei. I think he got his money's worth with that purchase.



Thanking God for my life today and the blessings in it...

"Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples. For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord." Ps. 117:1,2

She's Off to College

Torie with her college roommate...notice the custom window treatments on their dorm window...those are thanks to Torie's roommate's mother who is a gifted seamstress!

It's been almost a week since we dropped Torie off for her 1st year of college. Move-in day was an adventure. Being an avid reader, like her mother, Torie insisted on packing almost her entire personal library. Needless to say not enough bookcase space was available in her dorm room. This issue elicited a mid-week trip, by Phil, to deliver two more bookcases to her dorm. Just another reason we're glad she's only 2 hours and 45 minutes away.

Torie is loving college life, and we're slowly adjusting to having an empty chair at our dining room table in the evening.

Sarah Mei "helped" Torie unpack the boxes in her dorm room.

Michaela and AnnaGrace's favorite part of move-in day was trying out Torie's lofted bed.

Sarah Mei's favorite part of the day was riding on her daddy's shoulders!