We have been "favorably determined!"

What is "favorably determined" you might ask? Well, yesterday we received a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to notify us that they have "favorably determined that we are able to furnish proper care to an orphan as defined in Section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act." This is a huge deal and we are so glad that we have this important documentation! It was the only thing we were waiting on (in terms of paperwork) and we must have it in order to accept our referral! (Which gets closer each day!) As far as we know, we are still sitting at #12 on the waiting list for our son! This important piece of paper cost a lot of $$ and a trip to Atlanta for fingerprints, but it is all going to be worth it when we get to see our little boy's face! Just wanted to share our good news and keep you updated!

I am so humbled when I think about how I have been adopted into God's family, not because of anything that I have done, but because of His glorious grace and amazing love. I know that God has so much to teach our family through this adoption and I anticipate each new lesson with great expectation. I want to share a verse that I was recently reminded of that speaks so beautifully to how believers have all been adopted. John 1:12-13 says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will, but born of God."

Thanks for your continued prayers! We are so honored to be joining God on this journey as we walk out His plan for our family!

Just a Couple of Pictures!

I had not updated our blog in a few days, so I thought I would add a couple of pictures that I took of the kids today. Helen LOVES strawberries! Here is a picture of her as she enjoyed her strawberry snack this afternoon. This was after she had just had a big bowl of blueberries! Glad she loves her fruit!
Here is a picture that warms my heart. Beckett is finally choosing to read when he has free time! He is really into The Magic Tree House books and now I will find him reading when he hasn't been asked to! Here is a picture of him reading "Sunset of the Sabertooth" and enjoying a strawberry snack! It doesn't get much better than that!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Beckett Met a Famous Author Tonight!

You probably don't know this lady, but she is a wonderful children's author. Her name is Mary Pope Osborne and she writes The Magic Tree House series of books. I began reading these chapter books to Beckett when he was four years old and he is now reading them to himself! Beckett and I had the opportunity to meet her at our local Border's book store tonight and he had his picture made with her. It was a great night! Check out Beckett's blog, "The Slam" to find out more about our evening! (Just click on "The Slam" and it will link you to his blog!)

Before and After

I've had a couple of comments asking about Beckett's hair, so I thought I'd share the before and after pictures. He REALLY wanted to grow out his hair, so we have been working on it all Fall and Winter. I've mentioned before that he has a "chia head" and his hair grows straight up in the back around his crown. Once we made it through that stage and it began to lay down, it was looking pretty nice. However, I'm just not used to Beckett with all of that hair, and Sean couldn't stand it! Sean nicknamed him "Sonic the Hedgehog" because of the way his hair looked every morning when he woke up. It stood up all over! It was definitely much more difficult to manage. Sean says that whenever you have to put gel on a boy's hair and use a hair dryer, it is too long. (No, he isn't very opinionated! Ha!) Anyway, last Thursday, I took Beckett and Helen to Target to have their 7 and 4 year old pictures made. Beckett had his picture made "with hair"! We left Target and went to straight to see Will, Beckett's new barber,and let him cut it all off. I think Beckett felt a little naked for a couple of days. He wanted to keep his toboggan on all of the time but I think he is getting used to it now. I love it! He looks like himself again! And it is SO much easier to take care of! So, enjoy the before and after shots!

WITH hair......

WITH VERY LITTLE hair......

Leprechauns and Rainbows

Last night for dinner, we had loaded baked potatoes and salad. We were reading about why potatoes were so important to Ireland and about the plant disease that attacked the Irish potato crop in 1845 that eventually led to the famine. So during dinner, our doorbell rang three times and the kids answered the door to find no one there. This has happened for the last three years on St. Patrick's Day! They found a note from their friend the leprechaun and some magic powder. They were instructed to add magic moo to the magic powder and it magically makes a green yummy treat! Here is a picture of Helen after she shook up her magic powder and magic moo and another pic of her tasting the green treat!

Yum!

I made a new St. Patrick's Day treat for dessert last night. It was a rainbow cake! This was SO fun and it turned out pretty cute! Here is a picture of the sliced cake and another couple of pics of a slice of the cake, including one with a "cloud" of Cool Whip! I thought it turned out so pretty!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We love St. Patrick's Day here at the Harper Hullabaloo! Hope you all have a happy day! Beckett and Helen are waiting for their special leprechaun friend who visits every year with a little "Magic Moo" surprise! They never see him, but he always leaves a little leprechaun magic to keep them guessing!
Beckett has been taking the Stanford Achievement Test for the last two days at our umbrella school, CAK. He finished testing this afternoon at 1:00 and we went to the park with a whole crew of our friends who had been testing also! What a beautiful day and what a great way to end two successful days of testing! :)

March Madness

I guess that this is some type of rite of passage for little boys! Beckett is SO into the NCAA basketball tournament this year! He was so excited to fill out his brackets with his dad last night! I had fun watching and listening to them make their picks. Here is a little clip of a few decisions being made! Have you filled yours out?

And our new number is..........

Are you SERIOUS? We are number 12 on the waiting list for our son? GET OUT! We got a call this evening from our case manager and she said that there has been a lot of movement on the boy list from our orphanage and we have moved from number 21 last month to number 12 this month! (It has actually been less than a month!) "A lot of movement" means that there have been many referrals of boys in the last month. I don't think that it normally moves this fast, but we are thankful that it has! We just pray that it keeps up! To think that our son is almost ready to be born, may have already been born or could possibly be there in the orphanage is amazing! I promised myself that I wouldn't get caught up in the waiting list numbers, but it is exciting! We will wait and rest in the truth that God has a plan, His plan is good and this journey will continue to unfold in His perfect timing!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Ready for the week so we can rest!

It has been a busy weekend here at the Harper Hullabaloo! It all started on Thursday night as we celebrated Beckett's birthday. He requested chili for dinner with brownie sundaes for dessert! Here is a picture of our seven year old with his brownie "cake"!
Then on Friday after we picked up the van, we headed to the Winter Jam concert in Knoxville. This was Beckett's birthday present and he had a blast. We all had a good time! He took a friend and we also met some friends there. Here is a picture of Helen wearing her Toby Mac toboggan and acting silly before the concert. They boys were having fun giving her rabbit ears!

Will, Beckett and Tristan. They "got their dance on" when Toby rocked the house!

Beckett's friend Will spent the night and we all went to Home Depot on Saturday morning to make race tracks. Beckett had been looking forward to this since last month when they made the trinket boxes. He was really wanting to make something that was more "manly"! It was fun! After that, we went to Beckett's basketball game and then played outside all afternoon!

Beckett had his first baseball practice on Sunday after church. I loved how dirty he got, so I had to take his picture. (I put it at the top because I forgot to put it here in the correct sequence of the weekend!) He wore his new Old Navy shirt from his cousins Ty and Marley to practice. It is very cool. He is playing in the machine pitch league this year and of course, Sean will be his coach. He had fun at practice, and then came home for Growth Group! I hung out with the kiddos this week and we were all glad to be outside since the time changed and the weather has been warmer! Here are a few sweet and silly faces of some of the kids in our group!

*I'm hopeful to hear from our case manager within the next day or so to give us an update on our adoption waiting list number! I've been prowling around on the Yahoo list serve for our agency, and it looks like we might have moved down the list a few numbers. We are anxious to hear about our official number! I'll update as soon as I hear! Have a great week!

Welcome Home!

Just under two months ago, (well, 7 weeks and one day to be exact) we took our Nissan Quest to the Tennessee Collision Center to be repaired. Our rental car was a Buick Lucerne and we fondly have referred to her as "The Lucerne". (pronounced with a special accent) We were beginning to wonder if we would ever get our van back. But today was the day! The van was finally finished! I won't reveal exactly how much money it cost to have the van repaired, but let's just say that we are thankful that the man who hit us from behind had excellent insurance! We are all so glad to have our van back, but I guess we will miss "The Lucerne"! We drove her hard! :) Welcome home Quest!

Beckett really wanted to get the van back yesterday so he could sing the song from the insurance commercial with the "Mini Me" guy from the Austin Powers movie.....It's my birthday, got my car fixed!" But it was a day late!

Seven Years Have Flown By!

My baby boy turned 7 years old today! I just can't believe how quickly time flies by these days! Beckett has brought such happiness and joy to our lives and I am so blessed to be his mom. He is such a fun boy, a super son and a wonderful big brother! We love you Beckett and we look forward to all that God has planned for your life!

Here is a picture of Beckett on his first birthday!

Here is a picture this morning......his seventh birthday!
I'm always looking for a bargain! I found out that Chic-fil-A was offering free chicken biscuits this morning if you brought in a "box tops for education" box top. Well, I save those and give them to our umbrella school, CAK. But today, I took a zip-loc bag full and got us each a free biscuit to celebrate Beckett's birthday! I "donated" the rest of the box tops, and they let the next few people in line behind me get free biscuits with all of my extra box tops! They were happy! We enjoyed our biscuits and then Beckett and Helen played for a few minutes on the playground before we left!

Beckett's gift this year is to attend the Winter Jam concert tomorrow night which is featuring his favorite artist, Toby Mac! He has posted a little bit about it on his blog, The Slam and he will blog more about his birthday in the next few days!

Happy Birthday Beckett! We love you!

Road Trip!

We had an appointment in Atlanta at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office last Thursday morning to have more fingerprints taken. This was one of the final steps that we had to take for our international adoption. We decided to drive down on Wednesday night so we wouldn't have to leave early and be concerned about morning traffic in Atlanta. The kids were fired up to get to stay in a hotel! (We don't get out much! Ha! :) Anyway, we stayed at a great Courtyard Marriott and got a nice discount! (Thanks Windy!) On Thursday morning, we found the US CIS office and our appointment went smoothly. We were only 3 miles from IKEA, so I had to stop there and shop for a while! The kids requested The Varsity for lunch, so that was our next stop! We had been there about a year ago with Susi, so they were looking forward to the "naked" dogs and fries! After that, we shopped around a little more in Atlanta, then headed back up to Chattanooga where we stopped to visit and eat dinner with Josh, Kathy, Ty and Marley. We had a great visit with them and then headed back to LC around 8:00 that night! Here are a few pictures from our little vacation! This first one is of Beckett and Helen trying out the bed in the hotel room!

Pictures from IKEA! Helen loved trying out every bed! She loved this kid-sized bed with the netting all around it! Another pic that was taken in front of The Varsity after lunch!

This is a picture of the kids with their cousin, Ty. They had a great time playing outside on a warm afternoon!

The "gulls". Marley and Helen!