Birthdays, Thanksgiving crafts and paperwork

First of all, Tuesday was Daryle's birthday. Happy Birthday Daryle!! Since I had class on Tuesday night we decided to celebrate as a family on Sunday evening instead. Here are "the boys" licking the beaters from the first cake. (Yes, yes, yes, something happened...maybe I forgot the eggs...and the cake was like a crater!! Thank goodness Target is close by my house now!!)
Here is the second (and final!) cake. It was yummy and turned out pretty good. Good thing we didn't actually put 38 candles on there...we could have set the house of fire!!!

Today at school Travis' class had a "feast" of fruit salad, homemade butter and crackers and popcorn. He also made a Pilgrim hat and a Native American headband (notice the pattern on the headband!). Here he is modeling for you all (and I can't forget to mention "Spikey"... his webkin!) Here he is looking like his normal angelic self!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

And for the never ending paperwork....I had a call this evening from our agency that we needed to redo our intent to adopt form. I had to handwrite this letter and the poor gal put the wrong stamp on the back (it has to do with notarizing and apostilling) and so she called and asked if I could redo it and send it down to Tuscon right away. She was so apologetic...I said no problem that it was the least of our worries! Those of you who went through the adoption process before know that this is really no big deal! I got off the phone, wrote the letter up, stamped it, and it will go out in the mail tomorrow. It will probably get to Tuscon on Saturday. She also told me that our paperwork was being sent to Moscow next week! She said the papers from Colorado were on the way and should be there next week. WooHoo!!! Now we just have to wait.... patiently.... for "the call" about our baby!! Sometimes I have to pinch myself, I can't believe this is all really happening!

I want to wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for so much, especially for our family and friends. ;-)

One step at a time

I heard from our coordinator today. She e-mailed me and said she talked to our contact in Moscow and that person told her that we probably would not be traveling before Christmas...however, it was probable that we would at least be matched with a baby before Christmas! The region shuts down from Dec. 31-about Jan. 9 so that means things will come to a stand still during that time period. So, from the looks of it we will more than likely be traveling in January if all goes well!! (Can you say BBBRRRR!!!???) With all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays I am sure time will fly by! Things in this region seem to move quickly from what I am seeing with other families. From the beginning I was told that this region moves fast, except for the summer and when they go on "vacation". For now, we just sit and wait for our baby to show up...literally!!! I can tell that day is getting closer!!

Last night we were watching The Race and they were in Moscow!! All three of us were glued to the screen to look at the buildings and the sights. We told Travis that his brother or sister was there right now waiting for us....I don't think he gets it but it sort of blew our minds just thinking about it! How amazing!

Quick Update

We found out this week that we are now waiting for some papers to come back from Colorado. Once we get those, then all of our papers will be forwarded to Moscow. At that time our coodinator in Moscow will match us with a baby!! We were told that it could take "a few weeks or sooner" to get the papers from Colorado! We could be traveling around Christmas!! It is so exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. So, it isn't really great news, but it is the news we have for now. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, along with our baby who is out there somewhere in Moscow waiting for us to bring them home!!

Casino Night Fun!!

Casino Night was a huge success!! Thanks SO MUCH to all of our family and friends who came out and helped us raise some money to bring home our baby! We couldn't do any of this without all of YOU! Here are a few pictures to recapture the fun evening. Also, thanks to all of the donors who donated prizes as well as to the Elk's Lodge for allowing us to have this event. Everybody who came had a FABULOUS time!!

Here I am waiting for our guests.

Here is the big table of raffle prizes....I would say the biggest hit was the $30 Target gift card....but I think everybody else was happy with their prize too!! A lot of people will be eating out at some nice restaurants very soon!!

Here is my dad.... the "Bar Maid".... he brought people drinks all night long! Good job, Grandpa!

The rest are just some pictures I took of our family and friends. From all the BIG smiles I would say a great time was had by all!!

Look! Even Grammy took some time out to learn a little bit about roulette!

WOW!! Looks like Cindy broke the bank!!!!

Here we have the "rowdy table"!! Somehow, they won a LOT of prizes!!! Congrats!

Thanks again everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cookbooks are in!

Finally!! The cookbooks are pretty much finished. I went down and picked up 52 of the 250 books. The rest will be ready by Thursday. They turned out really nice! I will be selling them at the school boutique on Saturday and I will also have them for sale at Casino Night. If you would like to buy one, please let me know and I will be more than happy to send you one. We are selling them for $20 each. The book is 232 pages filled with favorite recipes from our family and friends all across the country. It is so exciting, I can tell we are getting closer to Russia already!!

Great News!

Today in the mail we got our approval from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services!! (This is the I-171H!!) This means that we will be able to go to Russia as soon as we get and accept a referral!! We are so excited! I was prepared for that to take at least another month, so this was really happy news!

I sent the complete cookbook to the printers this evening....hopefully they will be ready by the end of next week. Yeah!

Don't forget, Casino Night is fast approaching. We have 20 raffle prizes now and it seems like we will have decent turn out. It should be a lot of fun, we can't wait!!

Hawes Family Casino Night

November 15 is fast approaching!! This should be a fun-filled evening!! Don't forget, if you want to preorder you need to do that by November 8! We would like to get a head count so we know how many people to plan for...we need to have enough food and prizes! For $30 a person you get $500 in play money (or $600 if you preorder!) with a raffle to end the evening. If you want to come, just let me know!!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Halloween!

On Thursday night Daryle and Travis carved this year's pumpkin...they did a pretty good job! Travis always tells Daryle what kind of "face" he wants and they sketch it out before hand. After much protest, Travis finally did stick his hand inside the pumpkin and pulled out some "guts"! He found he sort of enjoyed it, I think.

Travis was an astronaut this year...he came up with this pose himeself! He is so funny!

Look at that face....is he ready for some trick-or-treating or what??!!

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween too!!