Happy New Year ! ! !

Well, Thanksgiving and Christmas were a blur. And even though the boys (all three of them) are still bouncing off the walls, things are starting to quiet back down...relatively speaking. We had an amazing Christmas and thank God for the many blessings which were bestowed upon us. And the neat thing was, we stayed focused on the real reason for the season...the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now, it's 2009, and we wanted to take a moment to reflect on a few of the things that stick out in our minds from 2008...pardon the random rambling, but it's what we do best. Brandon turned one and Trevor turned six (and a first-grader to boot)...Marcie turned 30 and Kevin hit 40...yikes...and our marriage turned eight. No more trips to Vanderbilt Pediatric Gastro Dr...yay. We discovered the City Museum in St. Louis...and Kev barely survived it. Saw our beloved StL Cardinals lose up close and personal...twice. Marcie went back to shool...no not like that...she became a preschool teacher for two-year olds. Came to the conclusion that Brandon may never get his hair cut again. Mourned and celebrated Grandmommie's going home. Saw Disney through the eyes of a six year old (highly recommended). Watched Trevor learn to ride a bike without training wheels. Watched Brandon's personality blossom. Discovered that Wii injuries are real (see age discussion above). Followed God's path and began the process of adopting our little girl from China...now that's a pretty big one. All in all, it was a great year...and while much more happened, these were a few of the things that stuck out.

As I posted earlier in November, we went to Nashville to get fingerprinted as a part of our Department of Homeland Security USCIS approval. It went well and there haven't been any agents knocking on our door since...so we must have passed. :) Once that application is approved, maybe in February, our Dossier should be ready to send to China...and then we wait. Months or years, we are not real sure...but as we know...God's timing is always perfect. We continue to pray for our little girl's birth families and their individual situations and know that He has his arms wrapped around the entire process. He is a good and loving God and to Him goes all the Glory!

Happy New Year to each of you and your families.

November 28th is a very special day...

As the title indicates, November 28th is a VERY special day in the Peck family. No, it's not just the day ABF was born (happy almost birthday ABF!), it also happens to be the date of my and Marcie's second first date...the one on which we fell head over heals in love and our REAL relationship began. That was 1998...now, 10 years later, we are set to take the next step on our adoption journey. As part of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services approval process, we have to have fingerprints taken...and we got our notice in the mail yesterday...report for "biometrics" at the Nashville USCIS office on: (insert drum roll here) November 28, 2008. :) What a way to spend the 10 year anniversary of our relational roots! God is so awesome! His schedule and timing are always perfect, but the little breadcrumbs He leaves along the way (or Godicidences as I have heard them referred to) make it all the more overwhelming. So, while we will be sans leftovers for the first half of leftovers day, we will be crossing off another item on the journey to China to-do-list. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let us again say how thankful we are for your love and support...nothin' beats family! And to the member we have yet to meet...we're one step closer baby girl. :)

The gifts keep coming....

First the United Tour and Cinderella t-shirts...now homemade soup! That really is almost too much to comprehend in one day. It really must be getting close to Christmas :) . I'm not sure this can be topped very easily, but today has been another day full of God's blessings...and there's even a little bit of it leftover in the fridge. Sorry you had to miss dinner KeeKee and CaCa (snicker under my breath), but a little birdie told me you all would partake tomorrow night...I'll try my best not to rearrange my schedule so I can be there (snicker under my breath again).

Trevor decided sleeping in a fort is pretty cool...especially forts constructed by daddy...so at this late hour he is watching Power Rangers from deep inside his secret hideout. I better go and get him settled down for the night so he won't be grouchy tomorrow...big day since he gets to go celebrate cousin Trey's birthday. May God richly Bless each of you!