Tuesday, October 31, 2006

All the Kids

You saw Chloe yesterday (or the day before) but we also have one of the four kids together - this has got to be our favorite tree for fall pictures - it is gorgeous!!! Enjoy a Fall Photo on this chilly fall day!!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Conversational Chloe

For all of those well-meaning people that catch me in the mall, at Wal Mart, etc. and ask me how Chloe's English is coming along (which always makes me chuckle) here are some tidbits to show you she is JUST FINE...... (sometimes we wish she didn't know as much as she does!!! It's not quiet at our house.)

Instance #1 - Yesterday I asked Chloe to do something - pick up toys or something - and she looked at me - held up her pointer finger and said, "Five minutes, Mom." (This from my two year old!!)

Instance #2 - I asked her today why she was standing on her chair - she looked down (because she was standing on the chair) and said, "Cuz I watching Elmo." Anyone could see that the tv was on in the other room and Elmo was on - and she couldn't see unless she was standing up - Duh, Mom!!

Instance #3 - She came to me yesterday and asked for two M&M's - I looked at her "chocolate mouth" and asked her if she had already had M&M's - she looked up at me (with her puppy eyes - as the boys call them - you know, the ones you can't say No to!!) and said, "Uh, huh Mommy - two M&M's now too??" (Hey, I give her credit for honesty!!!)

Instance #4 - (Got to be the cutest but also the most irritating.......) Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, Chloe constantly asks, "What doing Mommy?" I am trying to remember how long this question phase lasts - FOREVER???? But I must admit - it is cute seeing her try to make conversation - yes, God definately put her in the right family - we like to talk. (Bring back any memories, Mom???)

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Dad At Work

As a disclaimer - - this is NOT Becky - Joe is blogging today..... ENJOY!!!

Okay, so I am not the blogger, but I thought I had better be the one to tell this story since it is indeed my story. This is for all the adoption dads.

For all of you out there that think there are no labor pains in adoption -- it is not true. The labor pains are simply moved from the adoptive mother to the adoptive father and the following pictures are proof.

My labor story….

It started early on a cold, October, Saturday morning. I awoke feeling that something just wasn’t right. There was almost a sense of foreboding in the air as we all started the day. I had been preparing for this day a long time. I had taken the classes and even researched on the internet all the necessary information I would need to create an opening in the wall of our basement.

I knew that in order to get the egress window installed there would have to be opening where no natural hole had been before. Things started out pretty easily but after a few shovels full I knew it was going to get worse. With each heaping shovelful the pains started to creep up my lower back. I wanted an epidural but was told that Bengay would have to work. After opening up one centimeter, I mean one foot, things were not looking so good. It was slow progress from one to two but with perseverance I knew it would eventually come. Centimeters, I mean, feet 3 and 4 seemed to last for hours but there was an eventual breakthrough and I had finally reached foot number 5 only to find out that it wasn’t real labor after all only Braxton Hicks.

I guess this was just a practice run. We will keep you informed as the birthing process continues.



Ok - Becky's back here now - I have to say Joe has worked extremely hard - always does - he is NOT a slacker!!! However - ask him how much paperwork he's done ?!?!? I know what he'll say - that's not HARD LABOR - OK, he's right!! :)

Friday, October 27, 2006

God At Work

I would be remiss not to share this - with those that pray for us - and for those that may follow our adoption journey #2!! As many of you know - we've been praying about this whole fingerprinting thing - lost papers for almost three months - an appointment that they tried to reschedule and we begged them not to, etc., etc. Well - when we went for our appointment we shared with the fingerprinting lady that if we could get these prints and I171H back in a week we may still qualify for a grant we had applied for - after that, they would basically scratch our family since we had waited so long on the fingerprints and then give the grant money out to other families waiting in line - (don't get me wrong, we totally understood why the grant group would have to do this - they had waited on us for quite some time) but we explained this to her and asked how long she thought it might take (mind you, this time frame gave them basically one day less than a week to process us). She said she wasn't sure - SO we left there and started praying. We just prayed that God would expedite everything so that this might be possible for us to still get our paperwork in for this grant. The following morning after our fingerprints - I emailed the Des Moines headquarters for fingerprinting and just asked that if our papers would come back from Sioux Falls by that following Tuesday, could she email me and let me know so I could run to our agency and get a copy for this grant meeting?? Des Moines emailed me back almost immediately and said that we had been cleared and our I171H was faxed to Bethany that same day. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING - only those who have gone through an adoption would understand that NEVER, NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS would you get clearance and your I171H processed OVERNIGHT - It could only be God!! I had talked with others that said it would be more like 2-3 weeks to get that paper. Wow God - you did it again and we praise you for that!! SO - we still don't know if we got the grant or not, but we have the paper we need AND it was the last step in our Dossier prep. so now we are basically ready to send it all to Bethany in Grand Rapids and from there it heads to China!! A little longer than I had thought it would take, but God still amazes me again and again and shows me His plan and how He is listening when we pray. We stand in amazement - this is so good for our boys too - they had been praying with us for this paper and when I showed it to them today they were so surprised - it's a good lesson - NEVER be surprised at God!!!!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Favorite Photo Friday

The Bilby Boys Bulk-Up!!
I may never understand that male testosterone, but it does make me laugh!!!!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I Can't Believe It - - - - - -

I actually did this thinking there was no way there was another Rebecca Bilby out there - I am in amazement!!! So if it's you - come forward - we can form a support group - Becky Bilby should be a blonde name!!! I love my husband, but I did think this was a great reason to keep your married name!! :)


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
3
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?


Just as I thought - there are no other "Becky Bilby's" out there - I did the second one only using Becky instead of Rebecca - I thought so - hmmmmmmm,


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Monday, October 23, 2006

Chloe the Explorer

We are all getting ready this morning and here comes Dora, I mean Chloe - backpack, necklace, hat (don't know where that came from) and pajamas - ok Dora doesn't usually wear those either!! That girl keeps us laughing - she then wanted to know where our backpacks were - I mean REALLY - if Dora has one and Chloe has one, shouldn't we all have one?!?!?

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Thanks Dad

My Dad does all sorts of fun stuff with pictures - I just love to see what he comes up with and I wish I knew how to do what he does - here's one to share with you (Just in case you didn't know - there was no Meerkat in the picture originally!!!).

Friday, October 20, 2006

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Fall Tag

Jenny had this tag on her blog and thought I'd play along:


5 Things I love about Fall.... (ok 6!!!!!)


1. I don't have to go sit at the pool anymore!!



2. Brisk mornings with coatings of frost.



3. Finally comfortable in bed at night - it's the beginning of when I'm not hot all night long!!!



4. Chili, Baked Potato Soup, ANY soup!!



5. Fall Candles burning all day long!!!



6. It means Winter is right around the corner!

SNOW and FINGERPRINTS!!!

We woke up to snow this morning - ok, they promised 4 inches - we maybe had less than one but I'll take it!! I am a snow freak so we partied over here. Chloe was thrilled too when her brothers pointed it out to her - she said, "No, No" - that didn't mean No like we know it - that is "snow" with the "S" left off!!! She kept running to the windows to see the "no"!!


AND - the other good news - we got our fingerprinting appointment - it is next week - and we are just glad it all got worked out. It seems to be taking forever to us but we were reminded again how important it is for us to do this. We have been having to attend weekly meetings through Bethany, our adoption agency. These meetings are something new they've started - we didn't have to do them last time - but they are so good - we are learning a lot. Anyway - last night's was about orphanage conditions, etc. and they showed a short video of the babies in China. Again - I was reminded of how Chloe spent the first 9 months of her life - no one to pick her up and rock her, sleeping with two or three other little ones in a bed, bottles propped up on blankets to feed them, barely ever leaving the cribs, no baths, etc., etc. I was in tears as I watched it - I know, I've been over and over it in my head many times and it had to happen before we could ever get her, but I am so sad that little ones have to live like that. And yet, I do think that most of the orphanages are doing all they can. Really - who could take the time to rock, hold, feed, etc. literally hundreds of babies?? It just makes me so thankful God has allowed us to help one more little one - they need arms to hold them and the blessings we get in return are immeasurable!!

Monday, October 16, 2006

China News


Just found this interesting article - they are still trying to keep the population under control in China - it is a wonder to me that moms even deliver babies when abortions are free and legal. I am sure thankful that Chloe's birthmom made that decision though!!

One more thing - check out the blog link on the side that says Ryan J Hale - they are in China right now (I found them online since they are also using Bethany as their agency) - they had "Gotcha Day" today after waiting over a year for a referral - God is Good ~ yet another China bundle placed in loving arms! And if you don't "get the vapors" (as our friend, Mr. Brian calls tears) then you need to watch it again!!!!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

It's Been A Week

Well - my posts have been near to 'nil - I realize that but my life has seemed a bit out of control. I caught a cold last Friday - horrible sore throat - battled that for four days and then thought I was "in the clear" and then it hit - runny nose, sneezing, coughing and NOW SINUS INFECTION!! I have felt like I've been living on another planet now for three or four days. AND - in the midst of all of that - I had to attend a conference last Thursday and Friday for the library - whew, hope I got something out of that!! So that is why I haven't posted - -



Other news - our paperwork IS STILL IN LIMBO!! I am about ready to scream but that wouldn't do any good - the only ones that would hear me would be my family and they've all heard me scream before so it wouldn't accomplish it's purpose anyway!! NOW - (get ready, this just gets better) the gov't office says they have either lost, or never received, our homestudy to process our paperwork so we can't even be scheduled for a fingerprinting appointment. Goodness gracious - I never would have thought it would take THREE months just to schedule a fingerprinting appointment - that has to be a record!! Anyway - we sit and wait and remember that God must have a reason for us to keep waiting - needless to say - the waits aren't getting any shorter on the China end - we are still looking at a year to a year and a half wait once our papers FINALLY get to China - so we go from hoping our papers would be to China in August of this year to now just hoping we can get them there before January!!! (Ok Lord, I'm trying to learn - can't we just cover this lesson and move forward!!)
Well - that's the news from the Bilby's for now - we are still alive (just barely with these crazy sinus problems) and it's almost time for a new week - where does the time go???

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Favorite Photo Friday

Mom said, "Smile!!" Sometime you have to "help" the smile along!!

Monday, October 09, 2006

New Trend

We're trying it - we'll see how it goes - how do you like it?? The latest in painting your house! It's a textured look - you can only accomplish this look by: 1) being very busy and getting a few hours in each Saturday and 2) not worrying about what the whole neighborhood thinks!!
I don't know - it doesn't seem to be "catching on" around us yet - but hey, new trends take time!! Between hockey and painting, this is what Joe spends his Saturdays doing lately. Now, if only his wife knew how to paint and could help him. Well - I would be willing to try but Joe is somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to painting (to put it mildly) oh yes, and when it comes to Christmas Trees (this is the man that lets his children decorate the three and then, when they are in bed, moves all of the decorations around again so it looks more symmetrical!) Hey, he's right - it does look better when he's done!! Oh, and so you don't feel too badly for our kids - they have their own trees now in their rooms that they decorate and Dad doesn't touch!! All are happy!!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

At Pumpkinland


We made our yearly trek to Pumpkinland yesterday ~ that is always a fun trip.
We ran through the corn maze, sampled some treats, picked pumpkins AND took lots of pictures!!
So here they are......

Can you believe this is the same girl as last year ? Click here to see last year.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Autumn Moon Festival

We had our festival last night - it was fun. We learned a lot, enjoyed our time together AND decided we would NOT be ordering Mooncakes again!!!! We ordered from two different companies and we didn't really enjoy either - but then we weren't too surprised - there weren't many desserts in China and the ones we tried weren't that great either!

Now for some pictures:
Making our Moon Papers to hang by the door - we didn't follow "China" tradition, but we did talk about it with the kids and then decided to paint things we were thankful for. Micah chose to paint a cross.





















The famous Mooncakes - they were very interesting....it reminded us of being in China - in the books we were reading, it said the yolks inside were duck yolks - we were hoping they were chicken yolks!!!!




Burning our "Moon Papers" ~ Reminded us of what we are thankful for......



Friday, October 06, 2006

Autumn Moon Festival

It is the day of the Autumn Moon Festival and we are celebrating ~ Chinese-style!! I thought it would be fun to plan our own celebration but once I got looking for info. on this festival I was surprised how much was out there. So - now the problem of scaling it down! We want to make Moon Papers to hang by the front door - with what we are thankful for painted on them. We plan to read The Moon Festival and eat our mooncakes - but cakes filled with red bean paste, winter melon paste, and white lotus paste - hmmmm.... all I have to say is we better like them - I had to order them from California!!! Maybe our Dutch Bakery should take up the calling to make mooncakes. Here's a fun article on mooncakes - wonder if ours will have any watches in them!!!
A little background on the Autumn Moon Festival. We don't plan to go out and worship the moon - but we are going to read some verses in the Bible that tell us how when we look at the moon - there are some things we can remember. Then, we'll burn our moon papers around our fire pit and thank God for what's He's done for us. We've got the Chinese lanterns hanging, candles will be burning, the sticky rice balls ready to go, green tea will be brewing and yes - the crab rangoons as well!! Have to make a run for the chopsticks yet and we'll be ready to go ~ that's more for a good laugh than anything else at our house! Oh yes, and according to Chinese tradition, I have to clean the house from top to bottom - hmmmmm - do we have to follow all the rules?!?!?!?!?!
Where I got most of my ideas.

Favorite Photo(s) Friday

Tiptoe - through the Foxglove.......
Ok - I give up - you aren't tiptoeing!!!!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Fundraising

We knew it had to happen at some point - our children would have to do a fundraiser!! Being homeschoolers, we don't usuallly have to worry about those, but being in a growing Hockey program - now we do! So - I am going to throw this out there - maybe many of you already order from a Schwan's man - maybe you don't usually (like us) - either way - ANYONE can go online and order and then that order is delivered right to your door and the Bilby's get the credit! What a deal, huh?!?!? We are hoping someone thinks it is otherwise we have to come up with $200 in Schwan's orders in two weeks - hmmmm - ice cream bars?!?!? Not a bad thought!!

I'll explain it so if anyone is interested you will know what to do:
From Oct. 5 to Oct. 19 you can go online to www.schwansfundraising.com and place an order. You do need to enter campaign number 1002285 for the Sioux Center Tornadoes Association. Then - all you do is shop, pay by credit card, and anywhere in the U.S. - Schwans will deliver to your door. (Now, if only they cooked it too!!!) One more thing.......if you feel so led and you do want to order - we just need a quick email telling us that you ordered and the approximate amount of your order. We only need this because if we don't sell $200 by the 19th - we have to order that amount ourselves by that date.

NO PRESSURE ANYONE - just throwing it out there in case you enjoy Schwans and want a reason to order some yummy morsels!! If not - no problem, you can just be thankful your kids aren't in hockey!!! :)

First Haircut

Yes - we did it - we broke down and took Chloe in for a trim - mind you, we said "trim"!!! (Dad didn't want too much cut off!!) She sat up perfectly, didn't make a peep, and she didn't want to be done - - - - I think it's on to pedicures, manicures, and spa treatments for this girl!!!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

New Book Blog

What can I say - it's chilly (finally after 80+ degrees for three days!!) and overcast and school is wrapping up for the day so I built a new blog! Before you think I'm bored over here - I'M NOT!!! Just took a minute and started this new blog, called In The Pages . I did it so that when people ask me what's good to read - I have a place to send them - this is probably my most-asked question at the library - besides "Where's the bathroom?". So - I started this blog so keep track of what I am reading and post notes about the books. I buy books for our library for almost all of the ages represented so I will try to keep the books in categories (children's, teen, adult).

My only disclaimer is that I may say I'm reading a book but that may not necessarily mean it's totally free of any offensive material - I hate to even say it - I try to read only "clean" stuff, but that is a challenge these days! Sad, but true. So I'll try to make a note of really offensive stuff - other than that - I will say in advance, I am sorry for any "crummy" stuff - it's just so hard to find even Jr. High and Teen stuff without any offensive material in it - that's my commentary on our society!!

I'll sign off with my cup of pumpkin spice coffee (stop by, I have plenty!!) and a few pictures I took today - I was really in that "Fall" mood!!

When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don't go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans and widows. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.
~Deuteronomy 24:19

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