New List

Rumor has it a new shared list from China was posted last night. Praying for the possibility of getting a referral today or tomorrow!! I will keep you posted as I patiently wait..

Arron had his second cross country meet last Friday. I didn't get to go since it was Friday and the rest of the kids were getting out of school early. I don't have any pictures to post but Arron decreased his time by over 2 minutes running 3.1 miles. We are very proud of him and can't wait to watch him at the next meet!

My Cheerleader

Myranda is a 7th grade cheerleader this year. She is on the Aggies cheer squad for her school. This made her happy since her dad went to A&M and she considers herself an Aggie too. She had her first football game to cheer at this past Saturday. I didn't get any pictures of her on the field because it was raining. Actually she only cheered for about 15 minutes and they called the game off due to the weather. This weekend I will get some of her on the field.

She has done so well balancing school, playing tennis at school, band, cheer, youth group at church, AWANA's and her most favorite sport of all-SOCCER. She is such a great daughter and we are very proud of her.

Shayle's 1st Day Of Kindergarten

Shayle started to school last week on Tuesday, September 8th. She is going to a half day program at Kids Central, where I taught for the two years before we travelled to China to bring her home. She went there in the spring 2 days/week. She had a good first week of school, but I think she would rather be home with mom. When I told her she was starting to school, she asked, "Is mommy going to school too?" When I told her no, she then held up two fingers and said "two days". I said no, you have to go five days like your brothers and sisters. She then replied, "Aw man". This is her new favorite phrase, learned by one of her older siblings.

Labor Day Fun

We celebrated Labor Day with some good friends of ours. They came over and we rented a water slide for the kids to play on. They had a ball. Myranda and Payton both had a friend come over the night before. The four of them, along with Shayle were outside at 9am when the slide was delivered and began playing on it as soon as it was set up. Jacob soon woke up and began playing too. They ended up playing all day, only taking time out to eat lunch. All together they played non stop from 9am-7:30pm. This made for one tired and sun burned group of kids.

Payton with her friend Lauren

Eating Lunch

Shayle with her friend Kaitlyn

Payton asleep at the end of day!

Cross Country Meet

Saturday, we travelled to Tyler to watch Arron in his first cross country meet this year. He did well and the kids all cheered on their big brother.

Wildcat Football

Shayle went to her first home football game Friday night. Our high school won the state championship right after we got home from China last year. She really enjoyed going to the playoff games at Texas Stadium last November - December. One of her first words after getting home was "football" and "Go Wildcats." The wildcats did win their second game of the season Friday night, Go Cats!!!

Play Date

Last Friday Shayle and I had the opportunity to finally meet a family who has been close to my heart. We had lunch with my friend, Sharon and got to see Hudson for the first time, in person anyway. I have seen him in many photos over the last 18 months. Sharon adopted her son through the same agency that we adopted Shayle through. While we were waiting, a secret sister exchange began. I was given Sharon's name, who I had already met at a previous adoption seminar that she spoke at. I was very excited to be able to take part in praying for her and her family as they travelled to China to bring home Hudson. It was so nice to see him face to face!

Homestudy Approved!

Last week our homestudy report was completed and went through the final review stages. Our adoption agency e-mailed on Thursday to let us know our homestudy is now being finalized and we should have a copy in the next week. This is great news, now we can begin our immigration phase. I have completed our application to immigration and will be mailing it this week. The next step will be to be fingerprinted in Dallas. Due to China being a Hague country, our immigration steps will be completely different with this adoption. We now will receive a pre-approval from immigration to bring a child into the U.S. whereas with Shayle, we received our final approval to bring her home. Once we receive our RA, referral acceptance, from China we will then have a large amount of paperwork to fill out to obtain final approval to bring home a specific child. This is a major change since our first adoption. Please be in prayer for us as we begin waiting for all of these approvals to fall into place.

We are expecting to see a shared list come out this week! We are excited, since we are open to adopting a boy, the wait time for referral is very short. We may be getting called with a referral off of this list. We are asking for prayer as we will have to make a quick decision. Ultimately, we want God's will to be carried out.

Summer Fun

Shayle with her friends:Mali, Vivi and Max

These photos were taken during Shayle's swim lessons back in July. She took lessons with her friends who have also joined their forever families from China. She did very well for her swim teacher but then the very next week would not do anything for me. Jacob and Payton have taken lessons each summer to keep advancing their skills. This year they took diving lessons.
I am so thankful that Shayle will get to grow up with Mali, Vivi and Max nearby. They are close and have already created a special bond that will last a lifetime. What a blessing from God!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

These sweet girls wrapped up a gift for me! So sweet.

First Day of 2nd Grade

08/24/09

First Day of 5th Grade
08/24/09

We have been very busy in the Pierce house this summer. Now that the kids are back to school, I hope to get back to bloggy world! The kids have had a great first week back to school and all seem to like their teachers and classes. Shayle will start kindergarten the day after Labor Day. She will be going until noon to allow time for rest & speech in the afternoon and some time with mommy. She is doing very well and progressing every week with her speech. We are very proud of her. She is excited to start to school. Everyday she asks if she's going today since all her siblings are away at school. When I tell her not today, she replies, "Awe Man". Wonder who taught her that.

I have a good excuse for not blogging much the past two months. We have some good news to share with you. WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!

Paper Pregnant that is......................Yes, God has been speaking loudly to us as we spent several months in prayer over adopting again. We have officially finished our homestudy and are anxiously awaiting a referral from China's shared list, which should come out in the next 7-14 days. The earliest we think we would travel would be late spring or summer 2010 if we receive a referral in the next 2-3 months.

Just a few of the documents we have been filling out over the last six weeks

WE ARE EXPECTING, another child is on the way from China!!!! We will no longer be a Party of Seven, now we will be a Party of Eight. We are very excited to see who God brings into our family, most are voting for a baby brother except for Shayle. She wants a mei mei, a little sister. I will keep this blog updated as we move along with this adoption journey. We hope you will join us as we pray for God's perfect will, God's timing and God's all sufficient Grace as we know there will be times of frustration along with times of joy as we seek His will.

More Disney Photos

It has taken me awhile to download pictures from our vacation. We have been busy since being home with VBS, speech, and just enjoying summer. I will post when I can over the next few weeks, as time allows with five kids at home right now. Next week, I will have two away at church camp and Shayle will start swimming lessons. Payton and Jacob are going to take a diving class to try to cool off in this Texas heat!