But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto our children's children. Psalm 103:17

(Sometimes I just need to be reminded that God's mercy is everylasting. Right now is one of those times.)

I thought I would post a cute picture of my little pumpkin, Jake, next to an actual pumpkin that is about 4 times his size, but my slooooowww dial-up is preventing me from uploading it. Dial-up is pretty much the only thing I don't like about living in the sticks. I would be perfectly content to live in a one room cabin in the mountains with my beautiful family as long as I could have a superfast internet connection and a Wally World not too far away. I suppose I should try to be more like Paul and be content with my situation. At least I'm not imprisoned in Rome, right?!

We haven't heard anything new on the adoption front. We still expect to hear about our G&R date next week and hopfully leave for Vietnam within the next 3 weeks or so. That's what we're praying for! We found out yesterday that because of the upcoming holidays, airfare to Vietnam is going to skyrocket. The tickets that we thought were going to cost about $1000 per person are now looking like they will be closer to $3000 per person. We're not sure how we're going to swing the extra expense, but we know that God will provide. On top of that yesterday, we took the Explorer in to be checked out. It started making a weird noise Thursday night. It turns out that we're going to have to replace the ENTIRE ENGINE. At this point, we're just laughing. If we didn't, we'd cry. Yesterday was a wild day. Jake and I were in the deer stand yesterday afternoon when the biggest buck I've ever had a shot at walked out. Jake was being so good and quiet. I got him out of my lap and standing up, got my gun up with the crosshairs right on the buck's shoulders and - - - - - - click. (For those of you who don't hunt - the clicking sound is NOT good.) My muzzleloader wouldn't fire. HOLY COW! Tried the second time ------- click. The deer didn't stick around for a third try. It was for the best though because Mike ended up going through nearly 20 caps before he finally got it to fire last night after we got home. I was LIVID. I don't know the last time I was so mad. If Jake hadn't been with me I probably would have just thrown the gun at the deer. I was so angry. Sweet Jake - he was just happy and content to have been there to see the deer at all. He teaches me lessons every single day.

Speaking of Jake and his sweetness, he is very excited about staying with JuJu while we're gone to bring Olivia home. Mostly because there is a huge box sitting in Olivia's room right now with 25+ wrapped gifts in it just for him! He'll be able to go to the box and pick out a present everyday that we're gone and if he's having a rough day, perhaps he can have two. He's such an amazing boy. We are so incredibly lucky. I told Mike last night that if God had let me make a list of everything I wanted in a child, I couldn't have even come close to describing how awesome Jake is. God had a bigger vision than I did! Jake is everything we could have ever hoped for in a child and so much more. He is a kiss straight from our Father. I'll hush now. I could go on and on about my baby boy. He's going to be a race car driver for Halloween. He'll be driving around in his Lightening McQueen car. He's VERY excited. I wish Olivia were here to be Tinkerbell. I'll just have to dress her up after we get home and take them around for Thanksgiving! Perhaps someone would give them a turkey leg. Hmmm.

I had hoped very much to have pictures of Olivia's room up for everyone to see, but like Jake's pumpkin pictures, it's not possible right now. I suppose you all will just have to come see it in person!