Lets Get It Started!!!

I received an email yesterday from Region III Adoptions letting us know they received our paperwork. So what is the next step....attend an Adoptions Orientation, get fingerprinted, and turn in LOTS of paperwork. We are heading to our orientation tonight and we are both pretty excited--probably because we have no clue what we are in for!!! I know this is a short update but we told you we would keep you in the know and wanted to stick to our promise. 

This comic from Family Circus makes my heart smile....

Update within the Update (ha ha ha!): just left orientation and I am a little overwhelmed but Rob is excited. Lots of paperwork to complete!

Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. 


~Jill

Our Heartfelt Calling....

“So, when are you going to have a baby?”—oh how I dread hearing those words. I love children and want to have a house full of them but you see, for us, the road to get there is going to be bumpy, hilly, and may sometimes have a detour or two. We were told recently that our chances of having our own biological children are SLIM TO NONE---not exactly the news you want to hear EVER!!! You see, Rob and I had BIG plans to have three to four children and even have their names picked out. We want to hear the pitter patter of little feet, the words “mommy and daddy”, and also deal with the spit ups, diaper blow ups, and hissy fits. But now, we just have to take a detour to get there. Grant it I was pretty darn upset when we got the news but Rob always makes my gloomy, gray skies turn into the brightest, sunny day. We cried together, laughed together, and he held me forever. Being that I am a girl, the emotional roller coaster I have been on the past year has been TORTURE!!! Having to go to the doctor’s office and see pregnant women or even see my friends rejoicing online about their pregnancies always made me envious an angry----I really wanted to be happy for them but I always said “why can’t that be me”. Every step of the way though, my husband has been by my side. He told me that no matter what we would have our family—he also said “you know you always get what you want” :O)—I will take that as a positive instead of a negative statement honey!!!!

Rob and I talk to each other about everything; there are NO secrets in our household and we love it like that. I tell Rob all kinds of things and I am sure at times he probably wishes I would have kept it to myself. Through the past year we have talked about “options” a lot. Do we want to take the “pill” to jump-start pregnancy, do we want to have IVF, or do we want to adopt. For those of you who don’t know, I have always wanted to adopt children since I was a small child…might be because I have two pretty awesome cousins who were adopted!!! Luckily, my husband feels the same way. We decided this month, October 2013, to begin the process of adoption. We have received packets of information from three agencies thus far and have chosen to go through SCDSS Heartfelt Calling. 

On October 2, we received the application in the mail. Of course immediately we started filling it out. Rob has an assignment on October 3, to measure our windows and then on October 4, we prayed over our application and placed it in the mail. We are not going through this journey alone, we KNOW God is with us. We want God to choose our children, not us. We understand the process can take at least 6 months or even years to complete but we are ready. We have a HUGE family and friend support system who are praying for us each step of the way.

The one request we would like to ask of you is to pray with us. We always heard “it takes a village to raise a child” and we feel this will be the truth when it comes to our children. Thank you for partnering with us on this next step in our life. We will be documenting everything as we go. 

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

From June 2012 to January 2013

Wow,  I cannot believe I have neglected by blogging for an entire six months!!! So sorry!!! I guess I need to catch the world up on what has been going on in our lives....

In July, we made our house a home and put all the finishing touches on our new house. We absolutely love living here and could not have asked for anything better. 

In August, we did do much that I can remember...just living life to the fullest!!!

In September, I turned 30 years old!!! YIKES is how I thought I would feel but to be honest with you I am loving it. Thirty is really where I feel I will be the best person I can be....thirties are the new twenties! :O)

In October, we had our first trick or treater's in our new house. It was so cute to see the children dressed up---we only had eight trick or treater's but they left with LOTS of good candy.

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our families. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and it was lots of fun. We had great food and fellowship.We went to DISNEY WORLD too!!! We had the best trip, just the two of us, enjoying all the rides, food, and fun. Hubby and I will be going back very very soon!!!

In December, we had a great Christmas and LOTS of family time. We celebrated my pastors retirement too. Preacher Doug has been an amazing pastor for 25 years at PGBC and he is going to be missed up in that pulpit.

So now this bring me to today, we celebrated with the Moak crew by enjoying the normal food for new year---black eyed peas, collard, pork, green beans, sweet potato casserole and hog jowl.....my belly is super full and I am excited to see what this new year has to bring for our family. 

Hoping to keep you update on life better this year than last....


J-Tru 

  

Vacation 2012....

SO this month has been busy,busy, busy. We have been in our home for two weeks and now its time for the annual beach trip. We headed out early Saturday Morning and headed to Pirateland. We arrived and unpacked into our beach house and then decided to go play Putt Putt. This was the first match of our trip. It was a great match and we TIED so we had to play a second round. On this second round I lost, so Rob was up one round on me.

Sunday: We went to Chapel at Pirateland with Daddy, Bubba, and Uncle Jackie. It was great to see some of my fave men just hanging out. After church we went to the indoor flea market and walked around. It was not as full as last year was but it was nice to walk around and see things. We just lounged around after that and hung out with the family.

Monday: Rob and I went to Pirates Voyage to pick up tickets for the show this evening and then walked around Broadway at the Beach until it was time to get Kaitlin to go to the show with us. The show begins in a village area and there are two pirates who sing and get the kids involved. When it was show time we were allowed inside the arena. It was awesome. Two pirate ships were in the arena and a HUGE 16 feet deep pool was were the horses use to run. The show is about two pirates and .....I am not going to ruin it for you, you have to go see the show!!! :O) The food was yummy, the soup was my favorite!!!!

Tuesday: Today was shopping day with Kaitlin. We left around 10:30 and went to the Outdoor Flea Market. I got three new garden flags--YAY!!!, a new care decal, and a phone cover. After the Flea Market we headed to Broadway at the Beach. We went into about every show store looking for Toms for Kaitlin but when we found them they were WAY to expensive. We went to eat a simple lunch at Sweet Carolinas and it was delicious. They have ICEE's as a drink choice and you can have free refills all day long!!!! AWESOME!!! After eating we walked more and more and more around Broadway. After shopping we ate supper at Rioz Brazilian Restaurant. It was heavenly, lots of meats to try and an awesome salad bar. I would definitely go back and eat as much as I could!!! :O) After Rioz we went to play Putt Putt at Mt. Atlanticus. Rob and I tied AGAIN and this one didn't count in our tournament. After playing it was time to head back and get some sleep.

Wednesday: Today Rob and I headed towards North Myrtle to Barefoot Landing. Before we went shopping though we decided to play the second round of our Putt Putt Tournament at MayDay Miniature Golf. I was determined not to pout and to make this a good game. I came out the winner!!!! So that means a play off will be held on Friday to determine the winner!!! After playing we headed to Barefoot for a little shopping. We got some ICEEs there too and some taffy. Rob loves taffy. We also found an Owl for the house and bought a framed and matted piece of wall art from blessyourletterart.com. I will have to take a pic and post it. After shopping we went to House of Blues. We were disappointed due to a new menu. No more catfish and spicy tarter sauce....sad, sad, sad. Oh and my awesome banana bread pudding was different. After eating we went back to Surfside and the family was playing corn-hole and making homemade ice cream. Oh life cannot get any better!!!

Thursday: We decided to be bums today and we went to pick up our tickets early for Medieval Times. We then went to the Coastal Grand Mall and just walked around. We ran into my mom, dad, patty, patti, and wayne while shopping. We bought a little bit of fudge, ate lunch, and headed back to the beach house. We got ready, picked up Kaitlin around 4:30 and headed over to Medieval Times. IT WAS PACKED TO THE CEILING. There were tons of people there but the SHOW WAS AWESOME!!! The new show was really good and worth seeing. I highly recommend going. It was around 8pm when we got out and headed back to the campground. We hung out with the family a bit longer and then decided to head to bed.

Friday: Today was our final day on vacation, it flew by. We went back to Broadway to Ridemakerz for Rob to make his new remote control car. It was really neat watching him put it all together how he wanted it customized. We also ordered me some new shoes, skeletoes!!! They are to cool. We also bought some tervis tumbler coffee cups. After shopping we went to eat at Nacho Hippo. They have really yummy burritos. We then had to go to Wal-Mart to get a new tail light due to mine going out. Dad fixed it for me quickly. We ate supper at camp ground--Salads--this was the first healthy meal all week. We had been having grits, bacon, eggs, sausage, etc. each morning and then just eating til our hearts were content when we were out and about. After eating we headed out to play our last round of Putt Putt. We played and I won!!! I had at least two holes in one. Rob played a good game too but this was my year!! The trophy is now on my side of the bedroom. :O) After playing it was time to get our Krispy Kreme, one dozen of original and then one dozen assorted. We headed back to the camp ground afterwards and started packing up the car.

Saturday....today we headed back home....:O( oh well we will be back next year!!!

***we did go to the ocean, put our toes in, and got to play a bit***

Love vacations with family!!

J-Tru

Moving Day...

Today is the day to move us in our new home. We had a GREAT team of people who were helping us. We would like to the Wise, Thornburg, Bruner, Addison, Jeffcoat, Allen, Moak, and Truesdale clans for helping us get everything in our new home. Y'all are the absolute best family and friends we could every have. We started the day around 10am and it was no stop until about 2 pm. Then our living room furniture was delivered at 3pm and it was perfect in the room. So warm and inviting. Mom, Rob and I got to work quickly cleaning and getting things in their places when daddy left for a wedding. We got so much done and mom even finished painting a room for us. AWESOME!!! We enjoyed our first night in the house and slept like babies. 

More setting up of the house to come and LOTS of pics will come soon!!

J-Tru

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!!! :O)

Today is the day. We met with our Realtor, Manny Andre, at the house and completed our final walk through to make sure all was intact. The house looked fantastic and we are so excited to sign the paperwork. We got the to attorneys office around 10am and left at 12pm as homeowners!!! WAHOOOOO!!! Yes we have signed our lives away for the next 30 years but its worth it. We decided to go eat lunch and then do a little shopping for the house.

We bought our new furniture--living room set, lift top coffee table, and dining room table with six chairs.

We bought new locks for the house and a new rug. 

We are so super excited to move in tomorrow and cannot wait. I think we may be in the house all night just because its our house!!!

YAY to debt!!! :O)

J-Tru 

House News

We found out last week that we have been approved for our first underwriting process. There is one issue that our AWESOME realtor is working on in reference to the sewer system. Nothing is wrong with it but the FHA underwriter would like for the sellers to hook into the city sewer line. At this point we are thinking it wont happen due to money and also not line is available so the city would have to agree to take on the project of doing this expensive process. Like I said, our realtor is working on it.

We got another great peice of news today!! The State Housing Underwriting was approved!!! WAHOOOOO!!! So we are in a good spot and just waiting on the sewer info. So excited!!!

My next step is to determine who to go with for Home Owners Insurance.....that will be done this week!!! :O)

and the process goes on...
J-Tru