Fingerprint Appointment

Yay!  We are sooooo excited! We received our USCIS finger print appointment in the mail on the 19th.  Of course our appointment isn't until the 14th of JANUARY, but none the less we have a date.  I don't know what takes them so long to schedule it, but whatever.  We are one step closer and that's all I care about.  Nothing much to talk about, just thought I would post another milestone with the adoption.

We had a day of sledding, frito chili pie, hot cocoa & decorating sugar cookies at my friend Kara's. It was so cold, -5, that the boys didn't stay out very long. On the way home here's what I captured:






Reagan & Isaac sound asleep. I had to stop and get Levi, he had gone over to his friend isaac's house. I couldn't post everyone elses picture and not his, so here it is:


Just thought I would share part of our day.

Snow, snow, snow

Well, since Tuesday morning, we have had 17 inches of snow fall. I know because I measured it and shoveled it off the deck. I love snow and when it snows, it usually isn't as cold. Currently it is not snowing and -2 degrees.

I know that when we pick up baby Zya, she will too young to know much about where she is from and where she is going. It will be pretty cool to see pink or purple snow pants hanging up to dry next to the black and gray ones now. I'm sure she will be as excited as Reagan to help me shovel off the deck eventhough it takes me twice as long to clean up his part. I still wonder if I will be more protective of her than I have been with the boys. Hopefully the boys always believe I looked after them with all my heart and attention, but they are boys and I probably associate that with letting them find out how hard it is on their own. That would be a pretty good sociology lesson. It will all play out just fine and I don't think it will matter once she arrives. She will just be one of the DaHouck boys. I can't change how I address all the hoodlums just because she is a girl.

Rain, sleet, snow or shine, Zya will always be mine. Pretty good from rap Master B, huh? According to Melissa, I will take great pains to fully explain the differences of weather and the patterns that create them. I don't think I go off on that many tangents, but "she's always right". It's just easier to admit now that I'm wrong. It will save the argument later. So, I may indulge in the details, I just want people informed. The boys don't seem to mind and I'm sure Zya won't either.

Beautiful tree

I just wanted to give a shout out to this beautiful tree I have fallen in love with and wanted to post it on my blog so that maybe I have some friends out there who agree. Please leave a NICE comment about my tree if you agree!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Melissa

Still Waiting...

We are still waiting on our fingerprint appointment with USCIS.  It's been a month and 4 days.  I guess this is typical, but I would like to get it done, because after we get it done then we still have to wait for it to process and be sent in the mail and then, and then, and then, get my drift? Sometimes the waiting can get the best of you if you let it.  I try not to think about it, sometimes it's hard though.  I am just anxiously awaiting to hold my baby girl and give her the love she needs.  Until then keep us in your prayers!  Here is some pics our good friend Duke took of us for our christmas cards.

Me and my boys!One of our family pics!

Good night all!!

More paperwork

I'm in the process of writing two letters. One is for the orphanage that gives them a brief bio of our family. This will help them with the matching process. For those of you wondering, we do not go over and pick out a child. The orphanage will match depending on our paperwork and letters. This is why this letter is difficult to write. How do you explain and talk about your family in a letter and make them see who you really are?

The second goes to the Ethiopian government. This is basically to tell them we will take care of the child we are taking from their country and further teach them of their culture. This one seems to be no big deal as it is more of a form letter.

As far as the matching process, we will write the letter and send pictures. The agency assures us the orphanage is very good at matching, but seriously, how would you turn down who they offer? No sorry, we don't like that one, could you try again. It would be like picking out a big screen TV. I would rather have the Sony instead of the Samsung because it looks better. I'm sure as soon as we see the picture, we will both say that's our little girl. Of course Melissa will cry the whole time and want to get on the plane immediately. Me, I'm more reserved and will analytically assess the situation and process the next steps to ponder as we contemplate our next move. Then, I'll excuse myself to our room and cry like a baby. Scratch that last line. Where's the delete button? I'm  a man, I'll be tough.

Billy's take

What's up, blogland. I'm not sure how to address the readers, so there it is.
1 beautiful wife, 3 wonderful boys, what else do I need? A little girl. Actually, I technically don't need a daughter, but I am extremely excited about the concept. My friend Jeff Nance went all goofy when they sang "Butterfly Kisses" at church one Fathers day. He said I didn't understand yet, but when I have a daughter, it will make sense. Well, hopefully in 2010, I will experience that feeling.
I guess it's different with boys. We're into the chest bumping, UFC moves, using the bathroom outside and I have heard at least 28,954 times, "Dad, you want to go play catch?" Not that girls can't catch, but obviously there are differences. Me and the fellas have had the run of the house and soon that will change. Longer lines at the bathroom door, the whole waiting on a woman thing and pink camoflauge? It should be an eye opener.
Some say, she will have me wrapped around her finger. I say, it will be no different than the boys. We'll see. I may be just as wrong as "they" are, whoever "they" are. My kids are my kids and I wouldn't trade them for any other kids regardless of the many times I've told them I would. Just kidding, I have never told them, audibly. Seriously, just kidding. I'm sure people think my boys are spoiled and they have me under control. That's what we do, invest (spoil) in our kids.
I wonder if she will look like me or Melissa? Yes, I know we're adopting from Ethiopia, but I can still laugh at my own thoughts. She, of course, will be the most precious little girl. God has a plan and I am enjoying every bit of it. I can enjoy it because Melissa is doing most of the work. You women will say that is always the case, but I do have my moments. I'd say I put in about 20% effort to her 80% as you can tell from this blog. I do more, but nobody believes it. That's just on the outside, on the inside, I am just as excited. I just more reserved.
Well, there are my thoughts for the moment. I'm sure I'll have more later.

T-shirts & bags

Front of t-shirt says I will not leave you as orphans....
John 14:18. The back of the shirt which I didn't take a pic of has a pink footprint and it says I helped the Houck family bring home their baby girl from Ethiopia. If u live locally they are $20 out of towners please add $2 for shipping


These are messenger bags we have also, charcoal grey $35. I only have 7 of these left.


my iPhone Melissa

Ok so Reagan felt left out and I had to take a pic of him and (toast it) post it on my page.


I forgot about Levi's little owie from Reagan throwing a snowball at him and it had a piece of ice in it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Melissa

Hair bow

I bought this cute headband with interchangeable bows. Poor Levi was my guinea pig! He will probably be mad that I posted this but he don't know how to get on my blogspot, so don't say anything to him.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Melissa

Okay so I got a call today from our agency and they said they are going to work out our homestudy issue  for us since they didn't catch it months ago, thank you to whoever prayed concerning this issue.  God is in complete control!  I just finished preparing food for Thanksgiving.  It's just me and the Reagan boy at home tonight, Billy took the other boys to the Alaska Basketball Shootout, OU's playing!  Can't wait for homemade cornbread dressing tomorrow.  I called my grandma and got her recipe, I sure do miss her dressin'.  Hope you all have a Happy Blessed Thanksgiving!!

FRUSTRATED!

I got an email today from our agency saying our home study is not approved because our home study guy is independently owned.  Why are they just now telling me this when 4 months ago they reviewed our home study for corrections and didn't say one word about him not being contracted with an agency.  I immediately got on the phone and called him, which he is very hard to get a hold of, for some reason today he answered, thank you Lord!  He told me he had never been denied before so he wasn't for sure what was going on.  I told him well I would appreciate it if you would figure out the problem and fix it because I don't want to be out $1000.  What a headache!  We are so close and this would be a huge stumbling block in our process.  Please if you are reading this, PRAY!!!  When I get more answers I will keep you posted.

No news on adoption, just waiting for fingerprint appointments.  I went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving, since we don't have family up here we are starting our own family tradition.  I'm excited to start cooking, I love to cook.  Nothing much to post just thought I would try to say something daily, have a good night!

Spaghetti Feed Fundraiser Nov 7th

We (Kara, Donna & I ) started planning our spaghetti dinner about a month before.  Finding a place around here big enough to hold at least 200 people was difficult.  We asked tons of places and either everyone had something going on or they didn't allow other groups to come in, except for Palmer Church of the Nazarene.  We were so excited to actually have a place to decorate and feed people!YEA!!  Now we had to decide how many tickets we wanted print and who better to design them than our dear friend Derick Rowlan, he did an outstanding job.  I would show you a picture, but I don't have one yet, maybe later.  We decided on two sessions so we printed 200 tickets total, I know call us crazy.  Kara and I went around to different businesses and local consultants to ask for donations to our silent auction, we had an awesome turn out of items. With the Flu and other sickness going around which everyone got weeks prior except my family, guess whose kids get sick the week of? MINE!  Not good, I couldn't believe it, Reagan got it first, day later Isaac and then Thursday night Levi had it. Are ya noticing a pattern here? Billy and I were getting a little worried along with everyone helping us with the spaghetti feed.  I did get sick on Friday, but only with head cold stuff, nothing like my boys had, thank the Lord!  Kara, Donna & I decided to meet two days  before the event and make all the Pumpkin Bars, Brownies and last minute Chocolate Chip Cookies, which was the best decision we ever made.  This was before Levi got sick and after Isaac had been sick.  Saturday came and I was getting nervous.  We all arrived at the church at about 130pm, our first session started at 5pm so we wanted plenty of time to set up.  A team of friends volunteered their time to help serve where needed at our event: Cheryl Land, Trish Applehans, Becky Day, Joanne McAuliff, Lorna Henze, Debbie Dietz, Amy Broemeling, Victoria Metoyer, Carla, Shelby Land, Carrie Land, Kayla Ballard, Jordan Ballard, Isaac Houck, Aaron and if I have left anyone out I apologize.  People started showing up at about 430pm, luckily we were all ready by then.  Becky Day auctioned off desserts each session which people loved and so did we because that meant more money toward getting our baby girl. Certain items in our silent auction were people pleasers also, I won't mention any names, you know who you are! We had about 150 in attendance.  We are so blessed to have so many people care about our adoption!  We were sad to see the night end, but some of us did have church in the morning!  We had nothing but great compliments about the whole thing.  We raised a little over $3000, what and awesome GOD we serve!  He knows what we need when we need it.  Kara and I got together afterwards and counted the money and with what we raised at the spaghetti event and the money certain ones had given before we have $6500 to send in. THANK YOU LORD!!!  A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported our event by coming or donating we appreciate it!  Kara & Donna are ready for fundraiser #2!  My crazy girlfriends!  I also have Tshirts & messenger bags for sale also if anyone is interested.  Tshirts- $20 please add $2 shipping cost if you live out of state  Bags $35.  I will try and post a pic soon!  Thanks again everyone!

I haven't posted in awhile because I just got the hang of this blog thing.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  We found an agency Dove International Adoptions based out of Banks,OR.  We were accepted in May 09.  After getting the contract to sign, which was probably 15 pages, we had a month to send in $3000 with the contract.  Ok, I don't know about some of you, but who has that sitting in their bank account ready to be given freely, not I.  I believed God had purposed this in our heart and He was gonna supply us with the money. Low and behold a $1000 check came in the mail from a couple who didn't even know we were adopting, the letter said just thought you could use this, you betcha we could.  Several other people stepped out in FAITH and blessed us with money too, which all added up to about $1500. We have $1500 left to come up with so my best friend Kara & I planned a garage sale around the 13th of June (i think).  We had an awesome turnout.  Saturday after it was all said and done we counted the money and had exactly $1503, with $3 left to put toward our next installment.  God is so mindful of our need!  I told my husband, God is never early, never late always right on time!  Our deadline was June 18th and I sent it in on June 15th.  Whoo, one down 3 more to go.  We left later that week for Oklahoma for a month.  The big question we get is why are you adopting from Ethiopia?  Our response is Why Not?  I mean there are a lot of reasons, but God placed Ethiopia on our hearts, so why not?  We have some friends in the ministry from Arizona and Missouri who have adopted from there and I have been drawn to Ethiopia ever since.  While in Missouri this summer I got to sit down with Gwen from Arizona and discuss adoption.  She gave me helpful information regarding adoption.  Our dossier packet was sent to us while we were in Missouri.  Dossier is information about you and your family, medical, financial, housing, debt everything you can think of to be filled out and send over to the Ethiopian courts to look at.  Lots of copies & notarizing.  We have 6 months to fill out all of this plus get fingerprinted at Homeland Security office.  Yippee!  Needless to say I put it on the back burner for a while due to some medical issues I was dealing with.  After going through a rough spot, God reassured me that the baby girl He has picked out for our family is going to be so much more precious than I could ever imagine.  She's gonna be a Houck, of course she will be precious!!  Our next installment of $6500 is due in Decemeber.  This is where my FAITH comes in increments, if you know what I mean.  I will back track a little, in August we had our 3 day ladies retreat.  Our speaker was from a town called Peters Creek, I had just met her in June before I left for Oklahoma and I felt connected to her right away.  After retreat, we were starting to clean up, she came to tell me goodbye and I gave her the love offering.  She immediatly gave it back and said God told her to give it to me for my adoption.  Talk about humbling, I started crying and couldn't stop, God is so thoughtful of me!  You feel so unworthy sometimes.  Billy and I told God right from the beginning, we don't want to borrow the money or put it on a credit card, so far we haven't.  As of October we had $3200, just from certain ones giving to us.  My best friend Kara ( whom i have named CEO of the Houck Adoption) and Donna planned a spaghetti dinner with a silent auction/dessert auction.  Talk about FUN, now that it is over!  We have never done anything like this before, what were we thinkin?  I will post about that later, this is enough info to get ya by for now, my hand hurts.  Good night!

Adoption Process

Ok, so I have been a little lax in the blogging, but here I am now.
We have started the adoption process, FINALLY!
Home study is done, background checks are done & fingerprinting.
Now we just have to pick an agency we feel is a good fit.
We told our extended family this week and everybody is excited for us as far as we can tell.
Our boys are really happy!
Now if the agencies will call me back we can move one more step closer.

So today I thought we were going to lay carpet in the downstairs, well it turned out we didn't know what a headache it was going to be until we started asking how you lay carpet on concrete, well apparently it is tidious, more work than my husband and I wanted to do. My house is going to be a toronado for another 2 weeks at least which I am not happy about. Hopefully no one will wanna come and visit!LOL! I am thankful that our downstairs is getting done, after living in it for 8 years unfinished. The Lord blessed us today by letting us get a new TV. Our other one had a bulb go out and they were going to order the part and let us know when it was going to be in. After 4 weeks of not hearing anything my husband decided to call and ask what was taking so long. They told us we are waiting for you to come in and pick out a new TV because the part is going to more expensive to replace than a new TV, so my husband was doing his victory dance. Thank You Jesus, you are and awesome GOD! We are still in the process of getting our house ready for the home study as you can tell in the above blog.

Well what a lazy day, no not really. We slept in till 9am, got up drank coffee, fed the kids breakfast and packed away toys that I am tired of looking at. Garage Sale here we come! My oldest son Isaac had 2 basketball games back to back and won both of them. He scored a total 12 points for both games. Way to follow in his fathers' footsteps. We also got caught up on Lost and Friday Night Lights our favorite TV series. Not much else going on here in Da'Houck world.

Hi, my name is Melissa Houck and I am new to this whole blogging thing. Just want to get in contact with people who have adopted internationally or are planning to adopt.