Anna Marie

New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:45:00 +0000

After months and months of procrastinating, we have finally started a new blog that will document our second adoption from Colombia, as well as update you on our every day life. Over the summer and fall of '09 we have been pulling the documents for our dossier together, and we finally received the last thing that we needed, our USCIS approval, a couple of weeks ago. Everything has been sent to Colombia for translation, has been presented to the orphanage, and we found out last week that the adoption committee at the orphanage approved us and put us on the waiting list!!! We have been told that the estimated wait from this point on is about 12 months. After receiving our referral and updating any last paperwork, we will travel back to Bogota'! We are very excited to be on this journey again, and invite you to follow along at www.backtobogota.com.

Anna's Christmas Party @ FBC

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Anna's Grocery List

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:25:00 +0000

Anna Feeds Baby Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:49:00 +0000

Anna Marie 2nd Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:52:00 +0000

Happy Halloween 2009

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:31:00 +0000

Our Little Ladybug

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:15:00 +0000

IMG_1263
Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

Continuing on with the ladybug birthday theme, Anna was a ladybug (and a darn cute one, I might add) for Halloween. This was the first year that she was old enough to "trick-or-treat", so we took her around our block and the one behind us before heading to a party that one of our friends was throwing. The night was chilly, but Anna had a lot of fun and was particularly fascinated by her wings (which I forgot to take with us to the party.) "Silly Mama", as Anna would say!

Happy 2nd birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:09:00 +0000

IMG_1165 - Version 2
Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

We celebrated Anna Marie's second birthday two weeks ago. It was a fun filled night with many of our closest friends and their children. The theme was "ladybugs", so we had ladybug decorated cupcakes, a ladybug pinata, and a story time with a book about ladybugs. It was a blast, and we are still just in awe of how fast this year has flown by! It is hard to believe that our "baby" is now 2 and not so much of a baby anymore. Every day with Anna is such a gift, and we feel incredibly blessed to be her parents. Happy birthday sweet Anna Marie!

Samford Homecoming

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:28:00 +0000

We were in Birmingham this weekend celebrating Ruth Ann's birthday as well as attending homecoming at Samford. Ruth Ann got a new Flip video for her birthday.. Not a bad camera for the price, with the exception of no image stabilization...so you will see why in the video...got to keep the hand steady :)

Anna and the Hat

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:58:00 +0000

Anna and I hanging out while ruthie was teaching ESL. Anna decided to wear a 'hat' while she played with her blocks...she is getting good at it..

Anna Marie on the rocking horse

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Here is a quick video of Anna on Ruth Ann's rocking horse. The rocking horse was made for Ruth Ann by her grandfather when she was Anna's age :)

4th of July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:29:00 +0000

What a smile!

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:53:00 +0000

IMG_0873 - Version 2, originally uploaded by S.j.C..

We've posted more photos to flickr. This is one of my favorite photos and I think I will send it to imagekind.com and put it on the wall :)

Summer Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:40:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

OK, I've had many requests for a new blog post, so I apologize for waiting so long to give you an update. We are having a great summer so far. It is so nice to be able to enjoy outdoor activities such as the park, the zoo, and the pool. Anna is now 19 months old. We won't see her pediatrician until next week for her 1.5 year check up, and I am anxious to see how much she weighs and how tall she is. She's still a petite little girl, but she's getting much harder to carry around! Her vocabulary is now around 85-90 words. She's not yet putting many 2-word phrases together yet, but I think most kids start doing that closer to two years of age. Right now her favorite toys are her baby dolls and accessories, her blocks, her balls, her books, and her shape sorter, but that being said, she'd still rather play outside or find some other non-toy item to play with. For instance, she loves to take down all of the cans from the pantry shelf and carry them over to the book shelf and rearrange them! She is still doing great with her signing, and uses "more", "eat", "help" and "play" a lot. We don't have a whole lot of traveling scheduled for the summer, but Steve and I are actually getting to go to the beach alone this week while my parents come up and watch Anna. We will definitely miss her, but it will also be good to have a chance to get away together. We are continuing to check things off the list for our second adoption. We got our first set of fingerprints, medical forms, and psychological evaluation done, and next week we will have our home study. There are many more things that need to be done, but at least we're making progress. Our goal is to have everything turned into our agency by the end of the summer, and hopefully nothing will have to be redone. If we do get around to starting a new blog that documents this next adoption journey, we will let you know. Hope all of you are having a great summer, and I'll try to do better about keeping this blog updated more often!

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:33:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

Well, this post is a few weeks late since Easter was on the 12th, but hopefully everyone out there reading this had a great Easter and is enjoying the spring season. We celebrated Easter with a friend from China, Guofeng, who is here studying at a local university for a year. He came to church with us, and it was awesome to celebrate Jesus' resurrection and the new life and hope that He gives us. We came back home afterwords and enjoyed a yummy pot roast that had been cooking in the crock pot. Anna Marie looked so adorable in her beautiful little Easter dress, and we took advantage of the pretty landscaping at church to snap a few photos. Since Easter we have been traveling quite a bit. Our trips have included a visit to Birmingham to see friends, a visit to East TN to visit Steve's mom and step-father, and a visit to Washington D.C. to visit my sister and brother-in-law. Anna is a great little traveler (mostly), but it definitely is a life saver to have a portable DVD player in the back seat! On Monday Anna turned 18 months old. Our little baby is not so much a baby anymore! Her vocabulary continues to grow, and she now has around 40 words that she can say. Her favorites, though, are Mommy, Daddy, doggie, baby, more, uh-oh, woah, bye bye, night-night, and good girl. She's becoming more physical too, and can throw and kick a ball forward, go up and down the stairs without much help, and is starting to run. This means mommy and daddy have to stay on top of things at all times!! My parents are coming up for a quick visit this weekend, so we're looking forward to seeing them, and hopefully they will be able to watch Anna for us this summer so that Mommy and Daddy can take a little vacation all by ourselves! We finally met with our social worker 2 weeks ago and got the packet of all the stuff we need to start on for our homestudy for baby # 2 from Colombia. We will have to get new medical updates, new fingerprints, and see the psychiatrist again so that he can confirm we still aren't psychopaths! We hope to have everything done and submitted by the end of the summer, and maybe have a referral by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011. We'll definitely keep you posted on our progress, and may even start a new blog, so stay tuned. Until the next post, take care and God bless!

Primer Aniversario del Día de Gotcha

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Today (March 31st) marks the 1 year anniversary of Anna Marie's Gotcha Day! I've compiled some photos of Anna Marie over the last year. Enjoy!

A year ago this week....

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:15:00 +0000

IMG_0393 - Version 2, originally uploaded by S.j.C..

we were quickly getting packed and preparing for Bogotá! It's been hard to believe that a year has passed. From getting last minute items, to making sure out luggage was not overweight, it was a very stressful, yet exiting week. As you can tell, Anna's a bundle of joy.

Ruth Ann and I recently started the process for adopting Anna's future brother. It's going to be a long long process, but this time around we have perspective. The perspective is that you have to "roll with the punches" and keep the faith. International adoption has many many caveats, hurdles, long waits, expenses... you name it, it's in there :) Given that, I would not trade those nine weeks in Bogotá for anything. It was definitely a life changing time, and with that we look forward to what God has in store for us for 'round 2.'

In classic International Adoption form, our application form for the second adoption process was lost in the mail... go figure, it's par for the course. I mentioned about perspective, I will leave you with this:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7 NASB)

--sjc

Happy Birthday Mama B!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:59:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

Ruth Ann's mom celebrated her 60th birthday a couple of weeks ago, and we were lucky enough to get to celebrate it with her! "Papi" and "BiBi", as Anna calls her grandparents, came up for a visit and we had lots of fun throwing a birthday party and hopefully making it a special day for Mom. The weather was also much nicer than what we were used to, so we took advantage of it and made a trip to the zoo. All of us really enjoyed seeing all of the animals, and Anna especially enjoyed the petting zoo. We wish that we lived closer together and were able to see each other more often, but we will have another opportunity to visit in Atlanta next month. We will definitely be looking forward to it!

Anna Shaking Her Head

noreply@blogger.com (sjc) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:02:00 +0000

As Anna's hair continues to grow longer, she's learned to shake her head around, as well as the hair :)

--enjoy

One year ago today...

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:56:00 +0000

IMG_1239 - Version 2
Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

It's hard to believe that it has been exactly a year since we got "The Call" and received the referral of our sweet Anna Marie. We will never ever forget that special day. I (Ruth Ann) was at work and had been in a meeting so I had my cell phone turned off. I was just sitting back down at my desk when the secretary paged that I had a phone call. When I answered it, it was Steve saying "I've been trying to get a hold of you. Cathy (our social worker) is on the line with some news." He then proceeded to conference her into our call, and she announced to us that we had a baby girl!! I remember being speechless at first because after all of our waiting it just seemed so surreal. But then she emailed us Anna's picture and her referral information, and my heart just melted when I saw Anna's adorable little smile. As word got around the office that I was on the phone with the social worker, all of my coworkers came into my office and crowded around the computer to get a look at Anna's picture. They oohed and aahed and gave me lots of hugs and words of congratulations. It was one of the happiest days of our lives. The time since then has gone by so fast. We will be celebrating Anna's "Gotcha" day next month, and she continues to be the joy and light of our lives. Thank you Lord for our beautiful little girl!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:32:00 +0000

IMG_1232 - Version 2
Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

OK, so this post is a little tardy, but we've been busy, so better late than never! We had a great Christmas with both sets of grandparents, and are now getting back into the swing of things with regular life. Anna Marie continues to grow like a weed and cracks us up at the the funny and cute little things she says and does. She is saying several words now such as mama, dada, dog, bye bye, night night, and nana (for banana). She can also sign the words more, eat, all done, and baby. She loves animals and can moo like a cow, neigh like a horse, and bark like a dog. I (Ruth Ann) have started doing a weekly Bible study at Church on Tuesday mornings, so Anna goes to the church day care during that time and seems to enjoy interacting with the other kids and teachers. It's still very cold here, so there's not much opportunity for outdoor play, but we try to make trips to the library and Barnes and Noble for story time, and also the mall has a nice kids play area that Anna likes. Next week we'll be heading up to Washington D.C. because Steve has business there all week, but my sister and her husband and daughter live there, so we'll have a great time visiting with them as well. When we get back it will be time for Anna's 15 month check up and the dreaded MMR shot. We still haven't decided what course of action to take, as Steve is all for it and I'm a little nervous about it. We may compromise by splitting the shots up and giving them over several months time. We'll keep you posted. Other than that, we're doing great and Anna continues to be a joy and delight. It's so hard to believe that next month will mark a year from when we got "the call"! I guess what they say is true, that "time flies when you're having fun!"

Feliz Navidad!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:49:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Ho ho ho

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:26:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

This is Anna's first picture with Santa! We wondered if she would freak out on him, as a lot of kids do, but thankfully she didn't! She just plopped right down on his lap and smiled for the camera! There has been a lot of discussion in our household this season as to whether or not we are going to do the whole Santa charade with Anna, and we've finally decided that the answer is no. We can talk about Santa, elves, Rudolph, and the north pole, but Anna will know that it's pretend and just for fun. We want to focus on the REAL meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus, God's son, our Savior. One tradition that we may start next year is to bake a birthday cake and sing "happy birthday" to baby Jesus. We also don't want to get too caught up in the materialism/consumerism that so many people do at this time of year. Since the Wise Men brought baby Jesus the 3 gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we thought it would be fitting to give Anna (and any future children we have) 3 gifts each to represent the gifts that baby Jesus received. Finally, more than getting, Christmas is a time for giving. God gave us his most precious gift, his son, so we want to also have the same spirit of giving and generosity in out home at Christmas. As Anna gets older, she can help us decide on different acts of service to perform during the Christmas season. As the Bible says, "it is more blessed to give than to receive" and "God loves a cheerful giver." We pray that joy of Christmas would fill your heats and homes this year as we celebrate Jesus' birth. "Joy to the world, the Lord is come!" Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:05:00 +0000

IMG_0233
Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

We had our first snow of the year this week! This is the first December snow that Nashville has had in 8 years, so we were really excited. We took Anna out in the yard to play a little, and she was very curious about the strange white powdery stuff. After taking a few pictures we came back inside because it was COLD! But we hope that we'll get a few more good snows this winter so than Anna can practice her sledding skills!!

A bitter-sweet Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth Ann Craven) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:12:00 +0000

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Originally uploaded by S.j.C.

This year Thanksgiving for us was bitter-sweet. The sweet side, of course, is finally having Anna in our lives. She is the utter joy of our hearts and we cannot thank the Lord enough for the precious blessing that she is to us. The sad side is that we found out on Thanksgiving day that Steven's father had passed away. We had planned to see him the very next day, but the Lord called him home instead. We are thankful that he was at least able to meet Anna a few months earlier. We are sad that she will not get to grow up knowing her "Papaw", but we will keep his memory alive in the pictures that we show and the stories that we tell. Jack, may you rest in peace. You are very much loved and missed.