Bumpdate~ 23 weeks

We are 23 weeks this week!

Just for fun...here's how Ben Curtis is growing! Yes...I miss my skinny self!

Baby's Growth: Size of a large mango! I think we are at about 11.5 inches and more than 1 pound.

Boy or Girl: Boy! We are naming him Benjamin Curtis Dove after his grandfather, Ben, Josh's dad, and his great-grandfather, Curtis, my dad's dad. We will call him Ben Curtis. 

Cravings: I finally had some hot chocolate and fixed that little craving. The hot chocolate k-cups are awesome! As for this week, I am definitely on a soup kick. I think because of the colder weather...but I could eat soup for every meal! 

How I'm Feeling: Since I am now in the 2nd trimester, I have so much more energy. I am still tired by 9:30 every night, but I feel a lot better during the day. I'm very thankful that I haven't really been sick throughout the pregnancy, but I was very tired for a while. For now, I'm great!

Movement: I am feeling lots of kicks these days. I feel him the most at night after dinner when I'm laying down.

Favorite  Moment this Week: Josh finally felt him kick! It was the coolest thing! I am loving these little moments.

Sleeping: I average about eight hours a night, give or take. I have always slept at least eight hours at night, and I'm thankful that has not changed! I do get up a couple times to use the bathroom, but I usually can fall back asleep pretty quickly. I am very thankful for sleep right now!

Clothes: Loving my maternity pants. The band is awesome. I have to find a dress for a wedding/Christmas party and also a maternity coat that will last me until March! None of mine are zipping up anymore.

Most looking forward to: Feeling Ben Curtis kick more! I love that feeling!

Thankful for: My mom and dad. There are hearts never cease to amaze me. They are going back to China this summer to adopt sweet AbbyMei. Yes, my mom and I will be raising kids together and I love it. To raise money for this, they are selling awesome t-shirts that my mom designed herself. Please head over to her blog and check them out! They would SO APPRECIATE if you bought one! This would help immensely with the financial part. 
Here is sweet AbbyMei...

Best Friends

All the littles are quickly bonding and becoming best friends. I can't wait to see them all soon and watch how they play together. Will Perry loves having a brother, and the girls love having a baby in the family. Evie is so small, and they just love it. We all do.

Pure sweetness~

Home

My mom and dad came home last Thursday. Our whole big family all met at the airport and anxiously awaited their arrival. We had a sign and everything.

At the first glimpse,  I went crazy! We are started cheering and probably looked crazy. But, everyone around us seemed excited too as they saw our big family reunite and meet our two new family members.

Here they come~

Instagram collage~

Our first family picture together~

Evie and Payne are precious, and they are both doing so well. Everyone is getting over jet lag and getting back to "normal" life. Josh and I went to my parents last Saturday to spend time with everyone. It was so wonderful all being back together. Life is amazing and God is SO good! For more updates, travel over to my mom's blog!

China!

Right now, my parents are in China! They are adopting these sweet babies...

Please follow their journey by going to my mom's blog...www.everythingbeautifulshay.blogspot.com

You won't be disappointed!

7th Heaven

I am happy to share with all of you that...

 our family of 6 children will be changing to 7 children!!! 

Yes, my parents are going back to China to adopt another little. They haven't been matched with a specific child yet, but that won't be far down the road! 

For more details, travel over HERE!

Please be praying for my mom and dad as they are on another journey to China. Pray that He will fulfill all of the financial needs that come along with adoption and pray for the precious child God has picked out for our family!

Happy Friday!

They are off!

My dad, mom and 3 sisters headed to China today! I was able to ride to the airport with my uncle to drop them off, and I'm happy I did. We helped them get their luggage out and ready to take in, and then they were off!

The next time I post a picture of them, they will have this sweet baby in their arms! 

Please keep them in your prayers as they are in China the next couple weeks. We can't wait to have them back home, but we are excited about what God is doing in their lives while they're there!

Love y'all!

WILW

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

I can't believe it's already Wednesday. I hope the weekend is here just as quick (3 day weekend...woohoo)!!!

Be sure to play along and link up with JAMIE for WILW!

Be sure to check out my post from last week HERE! I posted about NYC and didn't realize my comments were not turned on :( If you have any good advice about what to do and where to go in New York let me know by commenting HERE!

I'm loving... that my family receieved our LOA last week for Will's adoption!

LOA is the letter of acceptance, which means we are officially able to adopt him. It is one more big step towards bringing him home! Isn't he SO cute???

If you feel led, please go to my mom's blog (http://www.everythingbeautifulshay.blogspot.com/) and help us travel to get this precious boy! There is a lot of different things you can do! Check out the right sidebar on her blog!

I'm loving... That we will be heading to Knoxville in 3 days! We are so excited and are hoping for cool weather all weekend. I can't wait to be cheering on our team with 100,000 other people! Seriously, the Tennessee atmosphere is like no where else!

I'm loving...some decorating ideas I have recently gotten from the faithful Pinterest
When we finish our basement, I want it to be cozy and have accents or orange. I want to stylishly display some Tennessee items, so here are some orange accent inspiring photos~
Love the brown and orange

This is my favorite, love the pillows!

I also have been looking for ideas for our master bedroom
Love this!

And I love these colors

I'm loving... these cute outfits, thanks to Pinterest (once again)

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of the week...and be happy because a long weekend is ahead!!!

I will leave you with this...

Also...be sure that you're a follower! Click the FOLLOW button at the top of the page :)

Life Lately

My life lately...in a list!

- I love being a wife...I think I was made to be a wife and a mom. It is so much fun to come home to my husband every night, cook dinner, clean our little home, and then just relax together! We love planning stuff on our weekends, and we love walking in our local park during the week! I also love that when he needs to take something for his company picnic, I can send him to work with these...yummo!

- This past weekend was a celebration of our nephew's one year Gotcha day! Daniel has now been with his forever family for 1 year. I am so thankful to live so close to my in-laws and be apart of our nephew's lives! We hung out with them on Saturday night. We had a perfect "southern" evening. We had BBQ for dinner, and then we headed to a local Bluegrass concert in a barn. They were all little old men, and they were so good! It was definitely a new experience! 

Pardon the picture...it was dark and taken with my phone.

- Sunday was Daniel's Gotcha day so we celebrated that evening by eating his favorite foods! He wanted hotdogs and PBJ's! Ha! It was so fun to all be together for his special day. We ended the night by eating some delicious watermelon. William really loved it, and Daniel had a little I think. He really loved his hotdog and PBJ!

- I am really looking forward to this weekend! We are going to the Braves game on Friday night. We haven't been to one all season, so we are really excited to go. We are hoping it won't be too hot. They also do an awesome fireworks show on Friday nights!

Saturday we are going to see the new Harry Potter. I am not a big fan but Josh is! I don't really get into stuff like that, but I love being with my husband so I will right by his side. Saturday evening we have a wedding to go to. It is our last wedding of the summer! I love being able to know how excited the bride is! It makes me so happy, and I love reliving our special day.

-I am so ready for fall to be here! I am trying not to wish my life away...but doesn't cool weather, football, and pumpkin-spice lattes sound DIVINE??? I can't wait!

-Josh and I have decided to travel to NYC in December! We are so excited and can't wait to be there to see all of the beautiful Christmas decorations. What a great way to get in the holiday spirit! I have been to NYC one time, but I was on a church trip and wasn't able to really explore the city! We can't wait to explore together! I have already started a list of things we have to do!

I'm sure there's more to say...but I will leave you with these thoughts for now!

Enjoy!

James 1:12

If you follow my blog you probably know how close adoption is to my heart. Adoption is a huge part of my entire family, and it has impacted my life in many different ways. This past Sunday, the church we attend dedicated the entire Sunday to the Orphan Care Ministry. My SIL is part of this ministry, and she has helped it grow into a wonderful thing! It was truly an amazing service, and I think many hearts were impacted from it. The pastor of ministries spoke, and he did a wonderful job speaking about adoption. The title of the sermon was "Adoption Is the Heart of the Gospel."

He began by talking about how there are two types of adoption...vertical adoption and horizontal adoption. Horizontal adoption is what comes to most peoples' minds when hearing the word adoption...giving an orphan a forever family and a forever home. However, vertical adoption is something that every child of God experiences. We are adopted into His forever family when we believe that He is the one and only Lord and savior. It was amazing to connect the word adoption to the very thing that we are all created for. Adoption is truly the heart of the gospel.

We are all called to care for orphans in our lifetime...

"Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to orphans, the homeless and loveless in their plight..." James 1:27

Here are some ways you can do it...

- Discover adoption and impact an orphans life forever...go to one-27.org

- Head over to this blog...http://ajoyfulheartshay.blogspot.com/...and help our family go back to China to bring home our sweet brother, Will.

- Buy a cute Tee here...http://store.wildolivetees.com/adoption-fundraiser-tees-c6.aspx... to help us! Make sure to put in the code: ANKERICH0611

- Pray for the needs of more than 160 million orphans in this world...

If that doesn't move you to care for orphans in some way, maybe these precious faces will. 

These are five faces of orphans who now have forever families. Only by the amazing gift of adoption did they receive this amazing and wonderful thing. A thing that you and I take for granted every day...

 My sister EllaKate...given a forever family at 11 months old...

...now she is a beautiful and healthy 6 year old...

My sister ShayleeJoy...given a forever family just 10 months ago...

...now she is healed from a heart defect and is healthier than ever...

My nephew William...given a forever family at 5 years old...

...now a handsome and healthy 8 year old...

My nephew Daniel...given a forever family at 5 years old...

...now a happy and healthy 6 year old...

And sweet Will who will hopefully be home this fall...

Please act now because adoption is our mission. 

If it's on God's heart, it should be on our hearts too!