One Step Closer...

Hello, everyone! Oh, and happy National Adoption Month!

Well, it has been a while since our last update...life has been crazy busy around here. I'll try to make it short, but you all know how wordy I can be, so...

First, Stormy has been feeling pretty well overall. We put him on medication for Cushing's Disease, but the dosage was too strong, and he got to the point literally overnight where he could not get up or walk, he didn't eat, and he vomited twice. So we rushed him to MedVet and they said we had suppressed his adrenal gland too much. So we put him on a steroid for a month and he slowly got better. We weaned him off the steroids two weeks ago and now we need to try to get his adrenal gland and his kidney levels checked again next week. We are still keeping him on a strict diet and he is drinking only distilled water. We have also been keeping tabs on his blood pressure, and thankfully, that is doing well. Besides having some hind end weakness from the Cushing's and kidney levels, he is feeling much better. We are taking it one day at a time, and thanking God for every single day we have with him and of course our little Jackie girl, who turned 14 on September 23.

Second, Vince's golf season was in full swing throughout September, but came to an end a few weeks ago; I have been a busy woman with coaching cheerleading as well. We have our big OHC competition coming up on November 5, this Saturday, and Southeastern is hosting this year. So on top of taking care of Stormy, organizing our adoption stuff, and coaching my girls and preparing them for competition, I am organizing the whole competition as well. Talk about being overwhelmed. I have to say I am super proud of my girls and I love that we are hosting it, but boy am I physically and emotionally exhausted!

Vince and I are also excited and happy to announce that we became Aunt Ashley and Uncle Vince on September 13. We have a handsome new nephew, Jackson! He's adorable! :) We love him to pieces!

Vince and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on October 16. It is hard to believe we have been married for six years and together for almost thirteen. Life flies by way too fast!

Now, it happens to be November 1, which is the start of National Adoption Month. We have some exciting news, which seems appropriate. We finally raised/saved enough money to send in our first large payment and our final paperwork to Faith International last week. Kelsey, from Faith, contacted us Friday and said they received everything and will be starting to process everything immediately. Once they get everything organized and processed, our paperwork will be sent to the Department of Homeland Security and once they approve us (approximately 45-90 days), we are officially on the list to receive a referral. We are starting to apply for grants next week, once we get our homestudy approval letter in the mail. :) Yay!

We need to thank everyone for following our journey so far and for donating money and participating in the many fundraisers we have had so far. We made $900 doing photography mini-sessions, over $300 at a local craft festival, over $2200 on puzzle pieces so far, along with all the other fundraisers we have done in the past. We have a Scentsy party open through the month of November to help us raise money. We are also planning on making and selling tshirts, and are considering doing Christmas Mini-Sessions in late November like the fall ones we did a couple weeks ago. Hopefully, we get some grants awarded to us as well. We have raised, saved, and paid out around $13,000 so far! We need to raise almost $30,000 more.

Once we receive the call, we will do what we have to do in order to hop on a plane and pick up our son or daughter, so at that time, we will take out a loan for whatever amount we still need. Until then, we plan on raising and saving as much as possible. We are one step closer...