Wow, I haven't had the time to blog in a while! Things always seem so busy in my life! I say this now, but things will just be even more busy once we get our little cutie! Yesterday, I painted my fiftieth painting! God has been so good to me. The orders keep coming, and I'm not even doing anything to promote myself! I am so thankful for each and every order, and also thankful for the people who have donated money for no painting at all! There have been some very generous people, and I am thankful, thankful, thankful if I haven't said it enough already :o) It's VERY hard to fund-raise, in many ways. The most difficult part of it for me is taking money from family & friends. Especially if they could use it themselves. But I know I would do the same for them.
So, Chris and I have been waiting about 18 months now. The wait is not easy, and truly, only another waiting mom (or dad) can really understand the wait. The emotional ups and downs. The comments from people who mean well. About a month ago, we read an article that made us believe that things were possibly slowing down even more than they already have. This was very frustrating and upsetting. Chris said to me, "That's it! We are taking a vacation!" That's exactly what we need...something to look forward to. Something that we knew would happen soon, and something we had control over! So, I was thinking something on the cheaper side as we are saving & raising money for the adoption (and also the fact that Chris has turned me into somewhat of a skinflint when it comes to spending money on things that are not necessary!)....maybe a stay-cation. Nope....we are going to JAMAICA! I am feeling really guilty and irresponsible here! AND, I want all the people who bought paintings/donated to know that not a penny of that money is being used for our vacation! That money is in a separate account, and I actually took money out of an old IRA I had just sitting there in order to do this. After being together for 12 years, we have never been on a vacation. Not even a honeymoon! It's always work, cleaning & errands over and over again. So, this might be our only opportunity to do this!!!!! Shortly after we planned our vacation, we received our update numbers...we have made more movement than expected, so I am hoping that things will actually speed up, and that we hear something within the next 6 months. But, I hang onto the fact that each month, we will always be One. Step. Closer. 
