SHE'S ALL OURS!!!!!!!!

We are so happy to announce our favorite Christmas present this year. The little girl we are adopting had her court date on Christmas Eve and (praise God) she passed. That means she is officially and legally ours! That also means we can share more about her with you...

HER NAME:

Tarikwa Teka Dunn
We will call her "Tarik" (pronounced tar-ick)
It means "she has a story that He has replaced"
The meaning of her amazing name kind of strikes at the heart of why we decided to adopt in the first place -- we wouldn't dare change that!

OUR PLANS:

Everything will start to happen pretty fast from here. We will be traveling four weeks from this Saturday (12/27) -- that means we will be over there the last week in January. Pretty soon! We'll be in Ethiopia for about a week.

Her birthday is in early March which means she'll be 11 months when we get her and was 8-9 months old in these pictures. Thank you all for your prayers, support, etc as we have been going through this life changing process. Please continue to pray that all will go smoothly. We will keep you posted as things come up. Finally, we thank God who has graced our family with this little girl.

SNOWMAN! ...KIND OF

The year's first snow! We did what we could.

OUR LITTLE ODD-BALL

There are often no words for Adeline. She is our little clown that keeps us laughing. On this night we went to check on her before we went to bed and this is how she was sleeping. We're not sure where she found the gloves and why she thought she needed them. But that's Adeline...

JENNALEE

When we get a great picture we just feel like we should post it. Here is a great one of Jennalee.

OCTOBER IN MOUNTAIN VIEW

Well, we went on this vacation in October... We had a great time but for some reason forgot to share pictures of it. Here is a sampling of what all went on.

Here Jennalee and Adeline are drinking tea and actually involved in a gripping conversation. They sat like this for a long time. Adeline did most of the talking... as is typical, she was spinning some tall tail. In the picture it looks like Jennalee is making an objection to the believability of Adeline's story (another typical occurrence).
It got down in the thirties at night on this trip! But we were toasty in our sleeping bags.
Here Jennalee is playing with a local. She played her violin (fiddle when we're in Mtn View) several times and ended up making TEN DOLLARS!
We went for the Beanfest and Outhouse Race. The Parade of Outhouses was hard to get a handle on...

We really enjoyed the camping, but the town was not the sleepy little music/mountain town that means so much to us. This festival brought people from all over the nation and it was pretty crowded -- tough to corral two preschoolers and a dog. When we go back, we will probably not go for a festival. We like the peace and quiet.

GIVE AWAY

We're not giving anything away here, of course, but you should check out www.bloggygiveaways.com. My good friend, Heather, who started making nursing pillows is featured on Bloggy Giveaways until Dec. 6. Her "nesting pillows" are useful in more ways than you'd think. We have one--the girls sleep with it nestled in between them and we have actually been up less in the night since they started using it. You can also check out her websight at www.blessednest.com.

AMAZING GRACE

Here is Jennalee's fall recital. She typically plays this song better than she did on stage -- she was pretty scared while she was up there. We are proud of her for being so brave! If you listen closely you may hear someone humming along -- that is Adeline.

The next day she played the same song as an offertory at church. She played really well and it was really sweet to see her using her gifts in such a way. Enjoy.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I've got socks on so I won't get an ulcer, you know." ~Jennalee

COURT DATE!!!

We just found out that little sister has a court date scheduled for December 24, 2008.


Merry Christmas!!!!!


If all goes well (please pray that it will!) we will probably be traveling early February.

ADOPTION UPDATE

If you are wondering why we haven't had any news about our adoption, it's because there hasn't been any. In fact, today was kind of a hard day around the house. We are getting tired of waiting. A few people we know have recently had court dates, and we haven't even gotten a second picture!

You know how great it is when you first get engaged after you've been dating for awhile? And then you realize that being engaged really is pretty awful -- it's awful because in your mind you have committed yourself but in the real world you aren't any closer to being married. Well, that's where we are with this adoption. It is wonderful to have a picture of this little girl and know her name, etc. But it is also more difficult because we actually have a picture of her and we know her name.

If you think of it, please pray for her and us. Pray that we'll wait well. Pray that God will keep this little girl in the palm of his mighty hand. Of course, we will share more when we can.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It was a smelly Halloween at the Dunn house this year. Both girls talked about being butterflies, fairies, princesses, unicorns, etc. But for some reason, they decided to be skunks. We're not quite sure where that came from but it was super fun. If I can brag for a second... Lee Ann made their costumes without a real pattern!



Like many rodents, skunks are hard to get a good picture of. Here is an action shot as one skunk darts through the bushes.

Oh, and Frank was a zebra.

Holy MOLE-ee!

Tonight the girls and I went for a nature walk... they have been watching a show about baby animals and as we gear up for a camping trip the animal craze is hitting a fevered pitch (as an example, they will both be skunks for Halloween). So we go on this nature walk and on the way I meet an old man who was a delight to speak with. For the entirety of our conversation, the girls were playing with something that I couldn't see. After about 10 minutes of playing, they come up to me with a dead baby mole in their hands -- a DEAD. BABY. MOLE. It was probably about two to three inches long. I knew it was dead because it wasn't breathing/moving, and because the mortal wound was there for all to see (and hands to touch). Meanwhile, that dear older man was sharing some spiritual experience that might have led me to talk about Christ, but I simply couldn't get over the horror of the dead mole, my two girls, and an empty bottle of Purell in the van.

I am not sure how we got everything straightened out. I do know that I officiated my first funeral and both girls prayed and sang as we buried the dead mole by the trail. Both girls prayed earnestly for God to heal the baby mole, so I felt a little bad burying it immediately following their prayers, but, I assume, if God can bring the baby mole back to life he will also be able to pull him from the two-inch deep grave.

In case you were wondering, this is about what the little mole looked like.

LET'S HOPE "THEY" ARE RIGHT...

Are dogs' mouths really cleaner than humans?
They say so... and we hope so.

Tonight we saw Adeline use her own toothbrush to brush Frank's teeth. And before we could get her toothbrush from her she proceeded to give her own teeth a once over.

CUTE PICTURE

The other day we walked into the girls' room to find that Adeline had lined up a few of her favorite animals on the bed... when we asked her to be in a picture with them, well, things just got too cute.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today Jennalee turned 5! We are so proud of her. She is definitely growing up... she is working hard on her violin, she is going to preschool, and she has a crush on Ethan Hawke of all people -- she recently watched the movie "White Fang" as part of her obsession with the poem about Sam McGee.

One of the most intriguing things about this little girl is her mind. On this birthday we thought we'd share a little bit of her perspective with you -- the following are all pictures that she took. Taking pictures with our old camera is one of her favorite pastimes and we must have hundreds of these priceless pictures. She is the consummate observer (one thing she wanted for this birthday was a pair of binoculars).

GOOD ADOPTION NEWS!!!

The courts reopened today!!!! We were expecting them to reopen mid-October and for some reason they opened early!!! This is good news because we should find out soon (I'm thinking a few days) when little sister has her court date. After she passes her court date (please pray she will pass on the first go-around) she will officially be ours and we will then book our plane tickets to go get her. We are so excited and just can't wait to bring our sweet baby home to her family. She is so beautiful. She looks just like a Dunn. :) Once she passes court we'll get to post her picture--so stay tuned!

MINATURE EARTH VIDEO

SAM MCGEE

A picture of the Chilkoot Pass during the Klondike Gold Rush -- a backdrop for the poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee

Back in the day I was a fairly tough outdoors guy and, as part of that, I went on a thirty-day backpacking trip through the White Mountains of Maine and New Hampshire. On that trip I had the chance to meet Paul Petzold. He is, undoubtedly, the most influential man in all of American Mountaineering. He was 88 years old when I met him and he had recently climbed the Grand Teton in Wyoming!

At some point on that trip, I was talking to a friend and starting reciting to him the poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee -- one of the most famous wilderness poems. Low-and-behold, as I recited the poem, Paul Petzold comes around the corner and jumps in on the retelling... So there I was, deep in the mountains of New England, trading stanzas of Sam McGee with the great Paul Petzold. You know those few moments in your life when you could easily be playing a part in a movie? ...One of those classic moments that may never happen again? Well, this was one of those moments for me.

That poem has always been part of my world. I told it to kids at camp as we sat around the fire on kayaking trips in the Ozarks, and to other kids as we sat around the fire in Colorado. Once I even told it at a Campus Crusade bonfire -- mostly to impress a hot coed named Lee Ann. But nothing would ever come close to swapping stanzas with Paul Petzold... at least till now.

Tonight, Sam McGee came full circle; I sat in a chair and explained the story to Jennalee. I used to tell it to her every night to get her to sleep (before she could understand the words). But tonight she wanted to really hear it. I hadn't told it to her in years. But there I sat: in the air-conditioning, in the ugliest town in the world, with the mini-van in the garage, a six-man "bubba-tent" in the closet, telling her about the "strange things done under the midnight sun." It is a world away from Joplin, that's for sure. But the slight thought that my little girl hears the beat of that drum is so wonderful, I could never explain it. Because of that, this may have been the most meaningful recitation of them all. Even bigger than Paul Petzold. It was one of my favorite moments.

I will close this mushy blog post with words from a differen poem by Robert Service, but they are the words I had to tell Jennalee after we finished Sam McGee...

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase
you're a credit to their teaching
But can't you hear the wild? -- it's calling you.

Let us probe the silent places,
let us see what luck betides us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind,
there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the wild is calling, calling... let us go.

ITCHY MATH

Here is the math Jennalee is learning... Preschool doesn't teach this stuff!

2 days at the lake + 0 bug repellent = 45 chigger bites!

At the height of her itching, Lee Ann convinced her she was just being a really good Momma Chigger and those were all her little babies. Surprisingly, that helped a whole lot.

LITTLE SISTER!!!!!!

Well, today we got THE call -- the call that has taken 7 months to get... WE GOT OUR REFFERAL!

We know almost nothing else. All we know is that she is 6 months old and now waiting for us in the orphanage. If all goes smoothly, we could be traveling to get her by the end of November. We will post more details as we are able. We really don't know much more than we did yesterday, but the one thing we do know is overwhelming -- that there is a certain little six month girl that now has a family that didn't the day before. And we are that family.

Praise God for answering our sometimes impatient prayers. And thank you for all your prayers. We covet them even more now that there is a little girl we are actually praying for.

MUSICAL HEART

We were returning from swimming at the Y last night and listening to a beautiful CD -- Mark O'Connor and YoYo Ma's Appalachian Journey. Allison Krauss (one of Jennalee's favorites) sings the sweetest lullaby at the end of the CD. During that song, I turned to see HUGE tears streaming down Jennalee's face. She cried through the song the first time around and then asked to hear it again... I had to turn it off half-way through the second playing simply because she was wailing.

If you are curious, here is the culprit of all those tears. Try to maintain your composure...

GO HOGS!

SHE DID IT!

Jennalee had her first day of school. She was so excited this morning. She and Adeline woke up at the same time and both came and got in our bed. I'm laying there, sandwiched, and I hear Reed say, "Jennalee, do you remember what today is?" Then Jennalee sits straight up and yells, "the first day of school!" The whole morning was happy. Even Adeline was glad Jennalee was going to school (she knew she was going on a "Momma date" to 'Shucky Sheese').

Here's the official "First Day of School Photo":
(Jennalee picked out her shirt, by the way)

Okay, so my Mom taught preschool for years and years, and I remember her always talking about the funny smiles she would get on picture day. Well, here we have one:

Adeline gave her big sister a sweet little hug before she went into her classroom:

This is how we left Jennalee, working at her table:

Jennalee had a GREAT first day, but she was also REALLY happy to see us waiting on her in the hallway:

GETTING READY FOR PRESCHOOL

Our little baby girl is starting school. It's hard to believe she's not so little anymore, although she's still only 29 lbs. I have bittersweet feelings toward this new phase of life--She will LOVE preschool, but I'm not totally ready to let her go! It's comforting that she will only be there two days a week. :)

Last week she got to go to an Open House to get settled in. Here she is turning in her school supplies to Miss Melinda:



She got to go on a scavenger hunt to find things around the classroom, so here she goes on her big adventure:

She found the books!

She found the blocks!

She kept migrating towards this chair in between her scavenger finds. I bet she'll spend a lot of her free time reading and relaxing in one of these chairs!

These are Jennalee's favorite shoes:

Her school had an "astronaut" theme going on--Jennalee was the only one who really got into it. She found this costume in the room and decided she would play the part for a while.

Despite what it looks like, she IS normal. :)

ART WEBSITE

We have been working to get Lee Ann a website for her artwork. We finished it and feel pretty good about it. Go take a look...

www.leeanndunn.com

BIRTHDAY PARTY

We have lot's of pics from Adeline's birthday party. Thought we would share some with you.

On her actual birthday we gave her our present. Just in case you wondered what we got her... She got two fire-bellied toads; they are actually really sweet and both the girls love them (we were shocked to see Jennalee handle them).

Here is Lee Ann's amazing cake. Of course, she did this without anything other than her imagination -- notice the mint for the giraffe's eye! Adeline loves giraffes so Lee Ann did this for her.

She got a lot of help opening her presents!

Here are all the women of the party. It was nice to have all the family together in one place.