Getting Scared & Giving Thanks

Happy Halloween, Everyone! The kids had a great time this year. Tyson was Jack Sparrow, Chase was a cowboy, and Cambrie was an adorable Rainbow Bright. All the adult women we saw just loved the Rainbow Bright costume. There is nothing like nostalgia. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat and the kids got way too much candy. We had a fun hot dog dinner with lots of yummy treats everyone had brought.
On Halloween night, Dad took the kids over to friends' houses in two of the neighboring communities and then came home to walk the streets and knock on doors. Chase followed in his big brother's footsteps by trying to enter several homes and stay for a visit. All in all, the kids had bags and bags of candy, but most importantly, they had loads of fun!

For Thanksgiving Day our friends, Shelley and Darren Nielson, invited us over for an early dinner. They were so brave to have all of us in their home. We ate plenty of traditional Thanksgiving fare and lots of pie. The kids had fun playing with the Nielson's dogs, a lab and a bulldog. The next morning, I took Shelley Black Friday shopping for her first time. We got up at 2:30am and I picked her up at 3am. We were not shopping for major items, just Christmas presents, but we had a lot of fun. Black Friday shopping has been a tradition of mine for the last five years, and it was fun to have company this time.
Eric and I are extremely grateful for all of our blessings everyday, but especially during the holiday season. We are also daily thinking of our new little girl, and praying we will find her at our upcoming appointment in January. We are so grateful to be at this stage with an appointment in hand. We know it is a miracle whenever someone can make it through this process. Everything has to time out perfectly and we feel greatly blessed to have gotten our dossier accepted last year before new rules are applied, making the process even more long and difficult. We hope that everyone will keep us in their prayers during the next two months. We are in the packing stage now . . . yes, almost two months early. We haven't put anything into suitcases yet, but we are gathering what we have and purchasing new things we need. We are blessed to have friends around us who have also adopted in the past, and new friends I have made contact with who also have appointments with Ukraine to adopt in January and February.