November!

Holy cow! How did it get to be November already?!?!
November is a busy month for us.
Fund-raising is still going strong:
Sarris candy bars have been a big hit. I get to place another order on Monday and I'm going to have them deliver this bunch. Oh! the joy of the candy truck coming right to my house! *sigh*
The Longaberger Basket Raffle is in full swing, now. We have the tickets and have been distributing to friends and family who are (THANK YOU!) assisting us with the sale. If you haven't gotten your ticket yet you can make an online purchase by clicking the link on the top right of this page (Smith Family Adoption Mission) or send me an email.
We are also starting a Tastefully Simple project this month. My mom is a consultant for Tastefully Simple and has graciously offered to donate her profits this month to our adoption fund. We are having a couple of parties and I'm going to set up an online ordering system, too, if anyone is interested. It's tasty good stuff and would be perfect to have on hand for the holidays or for gift-giving. I'll let you know more about that later this week.
In addition to all of this fun stuff I've been trying to get motivated to start Christmas shopping. I know, Halloween is barely over. I, myself, don't love it that all of the stores are already fully decked out in Christmas stuff. BUT, I do like to start shopping early. Earlier than this, really, but it just didn't happen. December gets so busy with fun holiday stuff that I have a dream in which I am done with the hectic stuff before St Nicholas Day. It's good to dream, right? It's never actually happened, though.
Adoption-wise... no news. Still waiting for the 171. In the meantime I've been reading as much as I can on older child adoption, transracial adoption, Ethiopian culture... there's so much good information out there! I'm just trying to wade my way through it all. And think about where our kids will go to school. And what will I do for childcare 1 day/ week when our kids total 3? And how should I re-do the back bedroom? And And And........ There's no lack for things to do around here.
How can I get much of anything done when I just want to play with this cute girl all day?






Eliana had fun shopping today. We saw lots of babies (babies), babies (stuffed animals) and babies (real animals). Her vocab is up to 3 words: baby (and its many meanings), bye-bye and Dada. She also consistently shakes her head for 'no' and stares intently at you for 'yes.' She's a genius!