This is Katie Stiles. Her and I met through my cousin, Shannon, just like Ashley and I did. You know, the more I post on this blog, I am realizing Shannon has a lot of connections here. She gave me that book that God used to start stirring in my heart about adoption and she's connected me with some super cool ladies that are supporting our adoption. Yep, she's pretty awesome!
Anyway, Katie is super sweet and super cute. I enjoy getting to hang out with her on occasional girl's nights and at kid's birthday parties. I love that Katie sent me her picture and said these words, which I soooo relate to: "Sorry I didn't get to take one in front of some kind of landmark. My home seems to be the landmark I frequent the most. So here it is." Girl, you aint kidding! While yes, our home is our haven, all of us mommas need time away sometimes. I may even be clawing at the walls on occasion. Anybody else? Katie and her husband, Seth, have 2 beautiful girls, which means she is a hard working momma. Thanks Katie for showing the love by buying an adoption tee. I'll see you at the next girl's night out. The good Lord knows we need a new landmark, if only for a night!
These 2 handsome dudes are my brothers (1/2, but full in my heart), Daniel and Dayne. You may remember Daniel from this previous post, when I baptized him and talked about his adoption through Christ. These boys are so special to me. I have seen them grow up over the years and lived with them for a little while, in my college years. Daniel and I are 13 years apart and Dayne and I are 20 years apart. WOW, that is nuts to me! I still like to think I am their cool older sister, but I have a fear that is not the case. Oh well, I will continue to believe it anyway. Ignorance is bliss right?
We get the chance to hang with these guys every so often when they spend the weekends at our house. My kids LOVE their uncles and I know our son will love them too! They are excited about having a new nephew. I am thankful that my boys will have great examples to look up to in their uncles. Love you Daniel and Dayne! I couldn't ask for better brothers.
These lovely ladies work with my beautiful momma (the one in front). Egan Home Healthcare and Hospice is definitely representing for the Mcginty Adoption. There are a good handful of people who bought our shirts from Egan, but these lovely ladies sent in their picture, so thank you...we LOVE seeing the faces of our supporters! Here is Nancy, Roby and Cheryl. I must say, these women are rocking their tees! THANK YOU so much for being a part of our adoption story ladies. We appreciate it, and I know my momma appreciates you helping to bring her grandson home.
Now let me say that my momma is AWESOME! She has been on board with this adoption from day 1. She has promoted our fundraisers, reposted our blogs, talked about it to anyone who will listen and called this baby her grandson since we started. I am so beyond blessed to have an amazing mom and "Nanny" to our children. She has taught me so much in my 31 years. She has shown me sacrifice, love, and compassion. She is so much fun and now an amazing friend who I can talk about anything with. She is also always that person that I want when I am sick (because no one compares to your momma) and her cooking always sends me back to a place of comfort. I am just so thankful for her. I am thrilled for her to love on our son one day and give him a wonderful grandma. I know that he will adore her and vice-versa! And yes, that IS my mother. I know I know, she looks young enough to be my sister. Hoping the genetics are passed down.
I LOVE when I get pics like this of whole families wearing our tees. This is my cousin Jena, her husband Josh and my 2 cute nieces, Brooke and Kennedy. We are super close with these guys, in fact, they live right down the street from us, sure makes it easy to ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar. Jena is one of those cousins who is like a sister, hence why my 2nd cousins are called my nieces.
I got the chance to live with Jena before Evan and I married. She was in high school and I was teaching at the time. Our relationship consisted of me going into her room every 5 minutes to wake her up for school. Most days, I wasn't successful....not gonna lie..she was a bum (love you Jen!) I would have never thought that just 5 years later Jena and I would be so close. We hang out at least twice a week with our kids, we both homeschool, go to the same church, and are in the same small group together. Needless to say, we see each other A LOT, and the truth is, I NEVER get sick of her. There is something to be said for that. Our husbands are now great friends, who encourage each other to be great dads and husbands. It is so much fun doing life with these guys. We love you Norris Family! Thanks for helping to bring your nephew home!
So today I am going to feature 2 adoption tees on 2 awesome ladies.
The first one is my girl, Ashleigh. I met her through my cousin and it turned out that we lived in her grandfather's little garage house when we had Dixie. I also worked with her mom when I taught..lots of little connections here. Ash is CRAZY FUN, always doing a new awesome project around her house (she is crazy creative) and her FB posts about her kids give me my daily ab workout from laughing. I loved this pic of Ashleigh "representing" our adoption tee. Oh Ash, I love you so much! Thanks for your support throughout this process and for always making me laugh.
This next lady is an inspiration, and her picture proves it...she is always busting tail. This is Juli. Juli and I worked with the Youth at First Baptist Church before we were married and always had fun together. I enjoyed watching her meet and date her now husband, get married and have some adorable kids. I see her running down the street close by my house sometimes and always think "You go girl...I should totally do that" (but I don't) She works hard, so it was only fitting that she wore our tee to her workout class. LOVE IT! Thanks Juli for supporting the cause while you sweat! Love seeing our shirts get a good workout.
It has been a while since I have updated you on our progress. I have been lost in t-shirt land! BTW 138 people are supporting our adoption through buying and wearing our shirts..WOO HOO! THANK YOU GUYS! I am still waiting on pictures from some of you, so be sure to email them to me. We also still have shirts available if you still want one.
As far as paperwork goes, it is moving slow. We are trying to complete our paperwork this week and send it off to our social worker who is typing up our homestudy report. The goal is by the end of June our entire homestudy packet will be complete and approved and we can send off our I-600 which is our immigration approval (allowing us to adopt internationally). This will take a few months to get back approved.
I seriously have never been so excited about and dreaded paperwork so much. Excited because each form brings us one step closer to our son, dreadful because some of these questions are honestly, just ridiculous. The one form we have put off and put off is the Inter-racial questionare. I totally understand the reasons for us needing to think about and work through some of the issues that will arrise from us having an inter-racial family. There will always be stares, questions and some people who just don't approve. Our son and our bio kids will likely get made fun of at some point by a cruel, curious or uneducated child or even adult. Our son may go through times of feeling like he doesn't quite belong due to his skin color. These are all things that we have thought about and prayed about and will work through as a family in an age appropriate time and manner.
The form is about 8 pages of questions, scenarios and drawing your family and community tree, while marking anyone who may be against us adopting a child of another race and explaining where we have connections to people of our child's race. It's A LOT! Some of the questions I just want to write "Seriously, who came up with this?"
When we were considering adoption, the thought really never entered my mind of what RACE do we want to adopt? It was, there is an orphan crisis in the world, God has laid this on our hearts and he will show us where to adopt from and he did. He chose Ethiopia and we were excited. We will love this child and any other child that may come into our family later, regardless of their skin color. Color doesn't create or negate love. This child will be just as loved as my other 3.
Having to answer questions as to when I first realized I was a white American are just kind of silly to be honest. Like I said, I get it, we are being evaluated on every level possible. But geez! Either way, it is a requirement, so we press on and answer the questions, silly or not.
Thanks to this form, this song has been in my head all week long. Which hey, I can stand a little MJ going through my head.
So, keep us in your prayers as we press on and finish the paperwork and getting forms notarized. Pray for our social worker, as she has a lot of families she is over right now. As always, pray for our son and his birth parents.
Oh and don't think I have forgotten about our puzzle. We have still had people sending in donations for puzzle pieces, we just have not had time to update it yet. Thank you guys for being so faithful! Once we are through the paperwork, it is back to the puzzle. You can still buy a piece/pieces for $10 each.
Thinking about where these tees landed makes my mouth water. Meet Ben and Kellie Doolittle, owners of the AWESOME new restaurant, Blue Hickory Blues and BBQ in Covington on HWY 21.
Kellie and I went to high school together back in the day. I ran into her last year and found out her and her husband were opening a new restaurant in town. Once I started seeing the pictures of the AMAZING food on facebook, I knew that I had to get over there and try it and let me tell you something, I am still salivating over that meal a week and a half later. Here are a few pics of some of their dishes to give you a little tease. You can check out their full menu on the link above.
BBQ Benedict for Sunday Brunch
BBQ Cobb Salad with homemade ranch (MY FAVORITE)
Pulled Pork Tacos with Roasted Green Chili Salsa
With it's quaint family atmosphere, delicious food, and unbeatable customer service, this is one BBQ joint you HAVE to try! They EVEN have a drive through for all you moms out there who don't want to unload all the kids out of the car. Here are some other great things about Blue Hickory Blues and BBQ:
The are a locally owned business (skip the chain restaurants and support these guys)
All of their ingredients are fresh
They cater
You can call in your orders
$7.95 lunch menu
They sell family packs, perfect for those nights when you just don't feel like cooking
They have daily specials
They serve Sunday brunch complete with mimosas and live music
Healthy options (my favorite the Cobb Salad)
They make all of their own sauces and dressings. I am a sauce girl and these guys had me in sauce heaven! So many options and flavors.
Tuesday nights are now FAMILY night ( after 4 pm), which means, with every entree purchase you get a free piglet meal for kids 12 and under.
So thank you Kellie and Ben for your support of our adoption and thank you for providing top of the line BBQ to feed my belly. I am already trying to decide what my next meal will be off the menu.
