Thanksgiving in a Tuscan Castle

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I truly do NOT enjoy cooking. So when I saw an opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in a castle in Tuscany I thought WHY NOT? We decided to take a USO tour that will drive us very early in the morning to a castle in Tuscany where they will serve us an Italian version of thanksgiving dinner. WOW! Now that's something to be thankful for!! The tour includes one overnight in the castle, the Italian dinner, and guided tours of two cities in Tuscany--Siena and San Gimignano. Also, we will stop at a winery in Tuscany for a wine tasting (with the option to buy the wine, of course!!!!) I am so excited about this trip. Nothing to plan, no getting lost, no worries about the language. All we have to do is show up at the appointed time and let them do all the work.

It's been a long week for us...everyone in our family has been really sick with the flu. It started with Tara (hers turned into pneumonia) and then we all passed it around. Alex has missed school all this week, and he is still not feeling great, but I told him we have to take this trip because it's already paid for and non-refundable!! I think he will be ok though...he is feeling better. Now we all have really bad coughs, but I think the worst is over. (I HOPE!!)

Last year at our Thanksgiving meal we prayed for all that we were thankful for, and I remember praying that I was thankful that this would be our last Thanksgiving without our daughter. NEVER did I dream that a year later we would still be waiting to bring her home. This year we will pray again and be thankful that THIS is the last Thanksgiving we will have without our daughter. We have so very many things we are thankful for, and we will forever be thankful that God led us down this path and opened our hearts to adoption.

November referrals

The latest set of referrals arrived from China a few weeks ago. The cutoff date for this month was December 8. We are getting so close now, and remain hopeful that we will receive our referral in February or March with travel to China in April or May.

Happy Halloween!

Tara wanted to be a Chinese princess this year for Halloween....I wonder where she came up with this idea??? She wanted to wear a kimono. I told her that a kimono was really a Japanese dress, but she still insisted on being a Chinese princess. So a Chinese princess she is. She is certainly beautiful. A big thank you to GeeGee for sending the costume. She absolutely loved it.

It rained here all afternoon and then stopped for exactly two hours--just in time for trick-or-treating. I had purchased 12 bags of candy and started passing it out at 5:30. I was out by 6:15!! We have LOTS of kids that live on the base. Tara had a great time and came home with quite a load of candy!

Alex wore a mask of Freddy Kruger, so I didn't even take his picture. Imagine Freddy Kruger, and you have Alex. He also scored big in the candy, but I think he also enjoyed scaring all of the little kids. He is such a 12 year old boy!!