It's Been 6 Weeks Since We Met Haylie

It was 6 weeks ago today we met Haylie at the orphanage. In some ways those weeks have flown by, but they have also been interminable waiting to get our court date so we can go back and bring her home. Every night Rich kisses her picture on the refrigerator and says "Booster, come home!!" several times--it is so cute. Is this really my husband who really wasn't too sure about kids just a couple of years ago? He is over the moon in love with Haylie. I guess I need to tell you my family is crazy about nicknames. Just about everybody has one, and Rich started calling Haylie, Haylie Boo. From there it went to "the Booster", and now the poor child who isn't even here yet has the nickname of "Booster".

I sent the last of the apostilled documents in to Adoption Ark last week, and supposedly a couple who left for Russia on Saturday hand carried our documents over as they went. Please pray they get there safely and that they haven't lost the ones we took when we went. I'm a little concerned taking them in 2 separate batches that something will be missing and it will delay our court date. I just saw on the Kemerovo webgroup I'm on, that a family who went for their 1st trip 2 weeks before we did got their court date for the middle of November!! So with any luck, we could be 2 weeks behind them, which would be right around Thanksgiving. That would be SOOOO awesome. They are using a different agency than us, but I'm sure going to keep my fingers crossed.

Because there was another home UK football game, we still didn't get a chance to get the nursery put together. Next week is out too because our church is having a Ladies Inspiration Day all day Saturday. So maybe one of these days I'll be able to post pictures of the nursery all put together. For now, it's still in boxes sitting in the middle of the room. So here are the "before" pictures, with the "after" pictures to follow in a few weeks.

I Have The Best Mom In The World!!!

Mom and Julia

This is my mom, Meleta and with my neice, Julia. She is the absolute best mom in the whole wide world (at least to me!!). She is so excited about getting Haylie, at times I think she is even more excited than we are. She should have had about 20 grandbabies, but none of her 3 daughters were fertile. She only has one precious grandchild, my neice Julia, now 11 years old, who is also adopted. We have all about loved Julia to death since we got her at 3 months old. Now with Haylie coming, Mom will have another baby to spoil. She has already hand-knitted her 2 beautiful sweaters (one with a hat), an afghan, made a handmade cover for a shopping-cart, and put together a fleece coverlet to use as a floor cloth. She also has bought Haylie her first shoes. In addition she is going to help me assemble the crib and dresser, which we finally bought last week (since Rich has no apptitude for anything remotely resembling a handyman!!). Above are pictures of the beautiful sweaters (one white, one yellow) and the afghan she has made.

I can't wait to see them on Haylie--she will be an absolute doll!! We're going on 5 weeks now since our first trip, so hopefully we will hear something about a court date within the next month.

Go Cats!!!

We had a great weekend this past week. We are long-suffering University of Kentucky Wildcat football season ticket holders, for the past 12 years. As most of you know UK has not been a powerhouse in the SEC, and that's putting it nicely. We always go to every game and tailgate with a bunch of friends from my church. We always have a big time, even when Kentucky looses, which is normally often. This year however, has been different, as Kentucky is now 6-1 (an amazing record for us poor KY fans!!)

So last Saturday, we played LSU, who at the time was ranked #1 in the country. We were hopeful, but nobody really thought we would win. Well, hallelujah we actually won after 3 overtimes!! It was so much fun, probably the best time we've ever had at a football game. The whole day was great starting with the tailgating...we had smoked pulled pork sandwiches which were fantastic. One of the guys uncle from church actually makes it himself, from his own pigs. It was a gorgeous October day and we had a crowd of about 40 people tailgating. These folks go all out, with 3 tents set up, a flat screen TV, even heaters when it gets cold. Above are some pictures of our tailgating extravaganza and some of the game after we won.

It's the Hill Family Birthday Week

It's been a busy week as we celebrated birthdays all week. BOTH my mother and father's birthday is October 10th and mine is October 11th. Because of everybodies crazy schedules, to be able to get everybody together, we started celebrating last Saturday the 6th. We officially celebrated Mom's birthday on Saturday (unfortuneately my Dad passed away 3 years ago, so even tho he's not here in body to celebrate, we still feel he's here in spirit so we still celebrate both of their birthdays!!).

We started with lunch at the Garden Cafe at the Flag Fork Herb Farm. They have a "Birthday Thank You" that you sign up for and they send you a free lunch for your birthday that you can use anyday of your birth month. We REALLY took advantage of this with both Mom and I using ours, plus my sister Marcia who's birthday is October 1 used hers. So we got 3 free lunches. You do have to have one paying person with you to get them free, so we also took Julia, my niece; Lisa, my other sister; and Betty Schlarb, my mom's best friend who lived next door to us growing up, so she is just like family too. This restaraunt is really fantastic and does a great job with homemade soups, salads, & sandwiches. It's really such a "girlie" type of place (but Rich loves it too!!--he couldn't go because he had to go to the annual Kentucky Teachers of History Conference--fun, fun). There is also a really nice gift shop attached to the restaraunt so of course we had to shop after eating. I did buy some really nice silk scarves to take as gifts when we go back to Russia.

After lunch, Mom and my sisters and Julia went to check out the new Hobby Lobby that just opened here in Lexington. We were soooo excited to have one here since the closest one before was in Louisville and we are HUGE Hobby Lobby fans!! After shopping all afternoon, we then went and picked up Betty again (she didn't want to go shopping) and then went to Bonefish Grill for Mom's Birthday Dinner--Lobster Yuuuuummmmyyy!! Rich met us at the Bonefish and we had a great time.

Sunday, we then did the family celebration for my birthday. My mom has always made our favorite meal for our birthdays as long as I can remember. It's a great treat since my mom is the worlds best cook. I always ask for her to make her homemade pizza--it's the best!! So after church we all went back to her house for pizza. She also made me her banana nut cake--from scratch!!! It's delicious, and I know how much work it is for her to make, so I really appreciated it. It was the first time Rich had ever eaten it, and he freaked out over it--said was about the best dessert he'd ever had.

So, after all of that partying, we also got together on my mom's actual birthday for dinner prior to Wednesday night church. Her favorite place to eat out these days is a little Chinese place called Chopstix (this is a woman who REALLY does NOT like to eat out at all!!) So we ordered and had dinner delivered to her house and my sister Marcia, Julia, and I ate with her before we left for church.

Then yesterday was my birthday!! I had to work (boo!), but my boss and a couple of girls from work took me out for Thai food for lunch, which was yummy. For dinner, just Rich and I went out for a nice quiet dinner at Le Deauville which is a swanky French place in downtown Lexington. It was delicious--maybe the best steak I've EVER eaten. We figure it may the last time we'll have an opportunity for a "swanky/romantic/quiet" dinner for awhile, once we get Haylie home!! It's been a very nice birthday week. I could just kick myself because I didn't take ANY pictures of any of this. I've gotten out of the practice of taking a lot of pictures. I used to take tons, but as we've all gotten older, the adults whine "don't take my picture--I'm so fat!!" But we're going to ratchet up and start taking LOTS of pictures once we get Haylie.

I have made some progress on the nursery front. My mom and I went Tuesday night and actually bought a crib and dresser. Problem is, we've been so busy birthdaying that they are still in the boxes in the back of my car!! Hopefully we'll make some progress this weekend and I'll post pictures. Of course, they have to be assembled and Rich just doesn't have the "handyman gene", so my mom and I are going to put them together--we are actually pretty handy, which of course we have to be since we don't have any men around that are!! I've also finally finished ALL of the documents for court and Rich went yesterday and got them apostilled, so I'll mail them in to AA today. With any luck, we'll get a court date by the end of November. Keep your fingers crossed and say lots of prayers it's soon.