Happy Halloween!

 

The kids all changed up their costumes last minute. Yesterday the girls were something totally different-lol. Guess that is the fun of Halloween. As you can see, we all had fun tonight. Hope you had fun too!

Papaw's Pirate

 

Getting Ready

It's almost time for F's favorite holiday!! The kids have their pumpkins carved and ready to go. I am loving the beauty of having some teenagers around to do some of "helping" with the littles. Pretty sure they enjoy it as much as the littles do :)

Fall Fun

 

 

The girls are rockin some of their new winter clothes we pulled out today. It was a great day to be out and about.

We dropped over to E's school for their fall festival. Took the girls picture with the best pre-k teacher ever! We have been blessed to have Ms. Nora teach all three girls during their pre-k year. She is such a wonderful teacher.

Found Money

I was recently doing some research, and thought that I would share some valuable info with you guys too :)  It doesn't take long, but you might find some unknown money just floating around out there for yourself.  Go check it out.  I found 3 different claims for my company already!

I got this info from this blog:  http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/07/26/how-to-find-unclaimed-money-and-unclaimed-property-online/#

Here are the methods Consumer Reports recommends for finding and reclaiming lost property (along with a few tools I found on my own):

• For property held by states, use MissingMoney.com. (Or just scroll down this page to the list I’ve put together that links to each state’s unclaimed property department.)


• For unclaimed U.S. savings bonds, visit Treasury Hunt at the U.S. government’s Treasury Direct site.


• For accounts at a failed bank, visit the FDIC unclaimed funds site. For accounts at failed credit unions, visit the NCUA unclaimed funds site.


• To track down an abandoned defined-benefit pension, check out the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp missing participant database. If the plan is still active, you’ll need to read this PDF on finding a lost pension. (The Money Adviser article has more info on this subject.)


• To find an unclaimed 401(k) plan, visit the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits. You may also want to read the afore-mentioned PDF on finding a lost pension from the PBGC.


• For missing life-insurance proceeds, try MissingMoney.com. The American Council of Life Insurers has some tips for finding a missing policy.


• If you think the IRS owes you money, head over to its website and use the Where’s My Refund? tool.

The U.S. government also has an official government may owe you money page where you can check for unclaimed property, mortgage refunds, and more. Also, my buddy Jeff Rose recommends visiting GovBenefits.gov to see if you qualify for any government benefits. (DisasterAssistance.gov lets you see if you qualify for disaster-relief programs.)
The Money Adviser article provides more information about working with each of these sources. And, of course, the individual websites have detailed instructions for locating unclaimed money and other assets.

Search for unclaimed money by state

In addition to those national searches, each state has a department for unclaimed money and unclaimed property. I found a page that linked to all of these different resources, but the site was woefully out of date. So, I spent a warm Sunday afternoon in my non-air-conditioned office tracking down the current locations of each state’s unclaimed property office. (And I’ve included some info for Canadians, too.) Please let me know if you spot any errors or broken links!

Alabama	Alaska	Arizona
Arkansas	California	Colorado
Connecticut	Delaware	District Of Columbia
Florida	Georgia	Hawaii
Idaho	Illinois	Indiana
Iowa	Kansas	Kentucky
Louisiana	Maine	Maryland
Massachusetts	Michigan	Minnesota
Missouri	Mississippi	Montana
Nebraska	Nevada	New Hampshire
New Jersey	New Mexico	New York
North Carolina	North Dakota	Ohio
Oklahoma	Oregon	Pennsylvania
Rhode Island	South Carolina	South Dakota
Tennessee	Texas	Utah
Vermont	Virginia	Washington
West Virginia	Wisconsin	Wyoming
Puerto Rico	Canada	Quebec

Been Too Long

It's been a long time since I've been able to hang out with my brother and nephew. Wishing we could get together soon...sigh. I guess I need a private jet!

An Adult Adoptee Shares

I urge you to click here: Stinky Tofu and Other Things: Thirty and go read the entire post from this adult adoptee.  Powerful words from a grown man...

"My two older sisters and I were abandoned by our biological parents.  I don’t remember how old I was, because I don’t remember a time when they were there.  We knew what it was like to be hungry, dirty, cold, and without clothes or blankets.  We were left in our apartment by ourselves all day and all night . . .  every day and every night."

Chop Chop

We ventured out to C's favorite restaurant after church on Sunday. We don't go very often anymore, so kids really LOVE it when we do go. We were able to get our favorite chef too! This is Julio, best Japanese entertainer in the world (yes we realize he isn't really Japanese-lol).

Julio has been cooking for my family since C was just a baby. C used to even pretend he was Julio in his toddler kitchen by banging around and throwing salt shakers in the air HA! Needless to say, we love Julio and he does a great job entertaining all the kids. He calls them all by name and really makes the meal great.

Julio always does the traditional "big fire" and the flaming volcano for the kids. He flips the scrambled eggs right into their mouths every single time. This time Julio wanted to give C the grown-up entertainment I suppose. And well you can see that for yourselves. C was definitely embarrassed, which was Julio's goal-lol. It was a great afternoon spent with an old friend :)

Sam is Coming Home

One less!!  Alison finally has her new little in her arms.  You can read about their journey here:  http://dri-style.blogspot.com/ . 

I met Alison casually thru Lucy.  Lucy is like the ultimate "possible adoptive parents" finder ever.  Lucy is known for catching them, and sends them to me to clean em-LOL.  Well Alison found her way to this sweet little boy in China this week!!  I can't wait to squeeze him.

Closure, the Documentary

A documentary about a trans-racial adoptee who finds her birth mother, and meets the rest of a family who didn't know she existed, including her birth father. A story about identity, the complexities of trans-racial adoption, and most importantly, CLOSURE.

This email is from Families First in Atlanta about a documentary they are showing on November 12th at 6:15PM.  Hope you can make it!

Hello Everyone!
Happy Monday! We are very excited to announce that we will be starting MOVIE NIGHTS every other month!!! (Dates to be announced in the future.) The first movie will be shown on NOVEMBER 12th from 6:15-8:15pm at the Families First Auditorium. We have the opportunity to screen the new documentary "Closure. A Documentary About Adoption" for the first time in Atlanta. Here is the link with a trailer for you to preview: http://closuredocumentary.com/

We are so excited to have the opportunity to present this movie to our friends in the adoption community. After the movie, we will have a discussion so let's be prepared to share our thoughts!!!
We will be providing light refreshments.  We are also asking everyone who plans to attend to bring a snack or finger food to share with the group.

Rachel Anderson, LMSW
Georgia Adoption Reunion Registry
Adoption Specialist
(404) 657-3587- office
(404) 656-2463 -fax

Families First
1105 West Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Main Phone: 404-853-2800

DIRECTIONS FROM THE NORTH (I- 75 S)
Take I-75 S to Exit 250 (16th/14th/10th Street).  Follow signs to 14th Street.
LEFT on 14th Street.  Go through 2 lights.
RIGHT on Crescent Street.  Go to the stop sign.
RIGHT on 12th Street
RIGHT into Families First’s parking lot (after the shed)
Park in any available spot in either lot.  Enter at the door on the left side of the parking lot.

Hope to see you there!

Preview

 

 

A bit of a dress rehearsal for Halloween :)

Candy Fest

We were parade side on Friday cheering on T in the homecoming parade. Of course we all had our bags ready for the real attraction at the parade...CANDY!! The kids all had fun collecting as much sugar as possible. And T had fun throwing it all out to "his" fans. Everyone knows this mom loves her some parades :)

CongCong's Memory

Some of you may recall my posts about CongCong in the past.  He was a young orphan in China who was fighting for his life.  You can read more about him here on the blog I created for him then:  http://congcongscare.blogspot.com/ . 

 

CongCong lost his battle here on earth this past weekend.  Kobe was such a dear friend to him.  Kobe taught him about Jesus before he died.  CongCong pledged his life to the Lord during his illness and was passionate about learning more about Christ. 

 

I hope others see through CongCong that it is NEVER too late to commit your life to Christ and trust in Him.  CongCong will live forever in heaven because he believed and decided to follow the Lord all the way to heaven. 

Nana's Day

 

 

Happy happy birthday Moma!!! Hope you enjoyed your special day celebrating :)

Big Changes

 

We received word today that our prayers have been answered...in our favor!! Will post details soon (don't worry it isn't another child;). I am very proud of my man and the hard work he has put forth making this a reality. Can't wait to see what God has in store for our future!