Wooo hoo, it's wonderful to post!

I am overwhelmed with emotion to post that my girl Em' and family has just received a referral for a little baby boy!!!! If you could hear me scream and cry you'd be sorry! To say he is yummy is an understatement! Check out their new post -

Also, and not second, my other gal friend Tiffany and Dan just received a referral for a little boy - he is just precious and we can't wait to meet him as they live right in Maine!!! Yay!

Awesome week of miracles.....

Other goings on...

These two pages are actually side by side in the book for easy follow along!

Thanks to Julie for posting this book/cd suggestion on the yahoo group! I ordered it right away and it's awesome. The book is totally geared for adoptive families and includes a CD to follow along. It's fantastic because you can hear the emphasis on various words and I've learned that "R"'s are always rolled and "H" seems to always be silent! Nicholas begs me to play it in the car and repeats the sentence or word almost perfectly (which is better than MP or I)!

Here's the best part, I've taught Snoopy his commands in Amharic and he picked it up right away! I don't even need to do the corresponding hand signal for him to know! We've only got him doing these commands right now!

Come
Sit
Stay
Are you hungry

I'm also working on putting sticky notes around the house with one word on each in the appropriate place. Like in the bathroom (pee pee/poop) - Water - Milk - Snack - Juice -

Of course, the first thing we learned is... I love you!

Weekend with Lori and the gang...

EDIT; THIS TINY BODY ABOVE DOES NOT BELONG TO LORI, IT'S MY RUNNER SIS, KIKI!! I'M SLOWLY GETTING BACK TO MY BETTER BOD, BUT NOT THERE YET!! :)

And lastly, a picture of me enjoying some white wine on the beach out of a plastic cup! Love life!

Itinerary;

Friday night - Mexican Food (my big cheat for the week)

Saturday - got all of the annuals for our window boxes and other planters

Sunday - went to the lake for a day of sunning and cookout for Kiki's b-day

Monday - the three of us went to Canobie Lake Park (local amusement - awesome)

Happy 40th Kiki!!

My dear sister turns 40 today!! We love her very much and can't wait to spend the next 40 together! By then, we'll live in a three tenement house with she on one floor and I on another. And a family member in the third!! (inside joke) :) Nobody on the planet will ever know you as long as your siblings will, they've been there from the start!

When we all went to Napa/Sonoma 1/06... mustard seed.

No explanation needed, she's obviously the bigger and older one.

Universal Studios Florida 4/03... getting our glasses on for the Spiderman adventure!

Vegas 5/07... headed out to dinner at a fabu steak house!

Long time ago at the lake w/Dad and Max...

Kiki, Nicholas (one week old) and Dad at Thanksgiving...

Got Mulch?!?

Our weekend mulching...

I'm too peeved to post right now for reasons unrelated to my blog, so I'll leave you with these pictures/video from our weekend! This was our entire weekend other than our neices 16th birthday gathering and a belated Mothers day gathering with our Moms...

A gigantic shout out to Jamie and Mike and Brooke and Joey for getting their referrals!! :)

Fresh look!

I'm posting an article here now; it's from the New York Times please read through it, it's heartbreaking at the very least to hear of what's looming for our lady Ethiopia and other African countries neighboring her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/world/africa/17somalia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Please take the few minutes to read this...

Still waiting~

Yes, we are still waiting! While I had been on pins and needles recently every time the phone rang, that has gone and I'm back to knowing it will be soon, but not feeling it immediate~

Yesterday marked three weeks since changing our request, time flies. And we've overall been at this thing (dossier sent) for 37.5 weeks. So, if I do the math in pregnancy terms it will be soon. I gave birth to Nicholas 10 days early - so that would put me at the 23rd of May to BE delivered our gift of a referral (if we're talking 10 days before the 40th week). How many weeks are there in a year?????? We're getting up there!

I really don't have anything to write, sorry.

If you're part of the adoption community then hopefully you've checked out Soli Deo Gloria's blog recently and put them in your thoughts and prayers, if not, please do so.

Ciao~

Phone numbers...

Ok everyone... the time is soon approaching and I need some help! I would like to speak in person with the Parker friends when we get the call! I am hoping that some of you will want to get the news first hand by none other than "little miss parker"! If you're interested, please forward your email address in the comments or send it through blogger to mine and we can exchange phone numbers that way... If you're not comfy with the thought then you'll be one of the millions checking and checking for "the call post"!

xo Lori

I cannot get enough of this, especially now!

We are sooo close and every time I need a "pick me up" adoption wise, I re-watch this!! Many of you will recognize this family.... she gave me permission a long time ago to post it on our blog and I never did (thanks Julie)! This get's me so jacked up it's not even funny! Get me on that plane already!!! Oh, wait, we still need our referral! Soon chica's, very, very soon! :)

Fun, rain, and FORTY??

** why won't blogger separate my darn paragraphs!!** Sorry!

Hi there! What a fun night we had! One of my girlfriends from waaaaaay back (Cindy) had a surprise birthday bash for her husbands 40th! She planned a harbour cruise in Portsmouth which is a lovely typical seaside bustling town complete with cobblestone sidewalks and boutiques galore! It's very quaint (until the wee hours when the town is crawling with the pub kids - trust me, we saw plenty)!

A few of us went for a casual dinner on the water and walked around the corner to the boat where about forty of Ron's closest friends and family were waiting to yell "surprise" when he entered! He really seemed surprised and that's just very cool!

Soon after on board MP and I started mingling and it was probably an hour later that I said to my sidekick Rhonda, "I better go find MP"! It was just one of the parties that you get sooo lost in time just cracking up and having fun that the few hour cruise went by in a snap! I hardly get to see "my girls" these days so whenever we get together it's shear childish abandon. Inappropriate jokes, mocking one another, and really goofy dancing (we end up ignoring our spouses - which is a nice retreat for them to catch up too).

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time... I wish that my little tiny glasses of white wine hadn't prevented me from remembering to take pictures throughout the evening, but I did get a bunch of the first few hours. There are many more friends that I so wish I took photo's of, but you know how it goes. Once the camera is out of the purse, you snap about 20 and put it away for the rest of the night! Drats!!!

Rhonda & I (cold and rainy)

Lynnie & Rhonda



Cindy & I

Awww...

Here's hoping that the first week of May be one for the record books.....

Hey Em and Julie, tomorrow is 5-5!!! I'm thinking that the exclusive 4 night 5 day trip to the Bahama's won't be yours to enjoy! ;)

This is uplifting, I hope it gives strength to those struggling w/court..

Real life heros....

Click on the video link and also Extra 1 and Extra 2 on the left side bar!

I HAD to take a minute to post this!

Hillary vs. the coffee machine! Too funny!