Stone Mountain

First trip to Stone Mountain for Spence and first time for Marsha and Jeremy to see the laser and fireworks show at the big rock. Went with Jay, Sarah, Greg and Kelly. The tram to top of mountain was broken so we used our tickets on activities at base of mountain--car museum, train ride and 4D movie.

Kitchen Update

Well the guys have been working every night and on weekends to finish up the kitchen project. There is still a bit of touch-up paint to do. And we are waiting for our metal backsplash to be delivered so Jeremy can install it. Look closely to see the little guy at work.

Paxton, Lorelei, and SuperSpence

Reprising his role from Halloween 2004, Spencer is once again SuperSpence in his pajamas. Had to wear the shirt under his clothes to visit Paxton and Lorelei today. Please keep Lorelei in your prayers, that she will soon be able to take regular-sized bottles and keep the contents down so she can avoid surgery.

Another Kitchen "Surprise"

Posted by Jeremy--Title: "I TOLD you I smelled something burning!"

A few weeks ago, we started to smell something in the kitchen. It wasn't overly strong and we never saw any damage anywhere, but we KNEW we smelled SOMETHING burning. After a few days, we discovered that the mystery odor seemed to be coming from the refrigerator...the INSIDE OF THE REFRIGERATOR! Like anyone else, we immediately thought "what could Possibly be smoking INSIDE a refrigerator? Isn't that like something catching fire in the shower?" The smell persisted, however, so we started looking further into the source. We took out the lights (no effect). We turned off the Ice Maker (no effect). I cleaned out the area around the fan in the back (no effect). Then it happened. At 3:00 in the morning on July 19 (why can't these things ever happen at 3:00 PM? or even 7:00 PM?), Marsha awoke to the smell of SOMETHING burning. The problem is, Marsha has a condition that prevents her from getting out of bed anytime before 8:00 AM. Therefore, I was dispatched to discover the source of the odor. My immediate thought was that something had fallen onto the heating element in the dishwasher and melted. Nope. But for those who have experienced that, that was the smell. Upon reaching the main floor, it was immediately apparent that the smell was coming from the kitchen. The microwave was fine, the oven was off, the dishwasher hadn't run...so I opened the fridge. You'll see below what I found. I have to admit that I just stood there stunned for a few moments as I tried to grasp the fact that all my food was now cooked...INSIDE THE FRIDGE!!!The rest of the evening was spent trying to get the smell of burning fridge out of the house then trying to get Spencer back to sleep. Wednesday morning found us shopping for a new major appliance (an item that, oddly enough, was NOT in the budget for July...fancy that). Well, now the new fridge is installed and all is back to normal in the Duncan Household...as normal as things get for us anyway (after all - WHO HAS A FRIDGE CATCH FIRE?).Any minute now I expect God to speak to me from a whirlwind and ask me where I was when He formed the earth...







The bottom two drawers melted in place so I couldn't get them open to see how bad the damage was below this level. ~mkd

Blueberry Picking 2005 and 2006

Yesterday we went blueberry picking with our playgroup. Last year we went in July as well so you can see from these photos that not much has changed: he still sits down on the job to enjoy a snack, he still eats straight from the branch, he still sits with one leg bent under him and the other out straight, and he still can't stop eating long enough for a photo shoot.

Yesterday we drove an hour to pick 5 quarts and unfortunately our refrigerator caught on fire early this morning and we lost all the blueberries along with all other frig contents. Lots of black sludge covers the inside of the fridge and it made the entire house smell horrible but nothing else was harmed and we are very blessed. This morning we bought another frig to be delivered tomorrow. And maybe just maybe we can find a closer blueberry patch and go pick some more on Friday. I know Spencer won't mind--this is one job he enjoys.

Kitchen "Surprise"

Thanks to all of our friends who came to help with the surprise project. Because Jeremy often takes on home projects while Spencer and I are on vacations I knew to expect something but had no idea he would take on the kitchen; I was thinking he might organize his tools in the basement. He decided to update our kitchen to match our table and chairs from 1955 (my parents first set from the year they got married. For my lifetime this was my Grandpa's table and I have lots of good memories of family gathered around this table.) He choose the colors and with advice from friends he choose the style of stripes. He also selected a new light fixture that looks great with the table. Thanks to all of our helpers: Jeff, Melissa, Jay, Doug, Sarah, Harold, Mark, Sean, and Bridget. With Jeremy's dad being in the hospital there's no way he could have completed his makeover without you guys.


As you can see from the pictures we still have a lot of work to do: hopefully this weekend we will install rest of hardware on cabinets, paint pantry, doors, windows and trim the color of cabinets and stripes. And then we have to select and install backsplash where you see gray primer--jeremy had great idea of using a "tin" product to match the table and chairs. What a blessed wife I am to have such a thoughtful and talented husband, with such great friends!!

Arkansas Trip

Spencer had a wonderful time in Arkansas. He came home with new phrases, like "that's funny" from Eli and "TIMBER" from Nash. He came home with lots of wonderful memories that he talks about daily. And he keeps asking to go back to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We packed a lot of fun into ten days: swimming at Eli's and Ransom's, boating with Grandpa, biking with Grandpa on his homemade bike seat, shucking corn with the entire family, golfing, fighting with cousins, jumping off couch with Eli and chasing through Grandma's house at11:00 pm , playing with cousins, watching fireworks display, singing Bible songs, visiting with Kinley and Keyton, playing baseball, watching Mouse and Motorcycle, and flying home. And as you can see, he finally napped at 8:30 Tuesday night as we rode home from the airport--a rariety bc the child refuses to sleep in an auto.

Scroll down to next entry to see more pics. I couldn't get all the pictures to show up on one post so added them to an old post.

Balloons ... are mine.

Spencer and his security balloons. Two weeks after his birthday party and he is still carrying his balloons everywhere--up and down stairs, as he colors, as he eats, as he plays with trucks, as he sits in my lap to read books (making it quite difficult to see the words). Occasionally he will ask mama or daddy to hold them while he climbs or plays bc he is concerned that the ceiling fans will get them if the balloons "fly away". but for the most part of three days he carried them for hours at a time. As you can see in the pictures the helium is almost gone, there's no chance they can fly away and yet he still totes them with love. Ms. Anna saw him doing this and reminded me that he did this for days in February when we had a Valentine's balloon. sad or funny? Thank you GrandDuncans for giving him his birthday balloons.

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek
Video sent by jandmduncan

Spencer is quickly counting to ten so he can search for Daddy. And then finding Daddy in the pantry.

China Update and Why we should be next

Hello all,

June 22: I couldn't sleep so watched some tv and fell asleep on couch. Woke up at 2:20 am and checked the CCAA website before heading upstairs just in case China had updated its referral info. And I had the exciting experience of being one of the first people in the world to see that China sent referrals for June 16-June 28th families. China updated its site around 2:01.

So for all those of you who have asked and asked let me explain the process so you too can share in the joy bc this means we SHOULD get our referral in July.

1. A giant stack of paperwork (dossier) left our hands in early June 2005.
2. US Consulate in Houston sealed the dossier with USA approvals.
3. Dossier goes to our adoption agency in Georgia, then to facilitator in Canada.
4. Facilitator, Adam, translates it and ships it to China.
5. JUNE 27th, 2005 our dossier arrives at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs)
6. JULY 5, 2005 our dossier is Logged-in at CCAA and Duncans are on the waiting list for a child. And July 5th is our LID (logged in date).
7. Our dossier goes to Review Room where China checks to see if we are good parents.
8. Our dossier goes to Matching Room where God shows China which daughter is ours.

1-8 have already happened for us. We are in the Matching Room now.

9. We get a REFERRAL that has all the info about our daughter with three photos. First I will know when the referral is coming bc i daily watch online boards for China to post that referrals have been maied. CCAA's website is here:
http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp
The referral news is always on the right hand side in a little box. Second our agency will call as soon as they receive the Referral. That's likely when we call all of you. Then our agency will email us all the Referral info and the photos. Then FedEx will deliver the referral to us.

10. We accept the referral and send notice back to agency, Adam, then China.

11. We apply for visas so we may travel to China.

12. China sends us Travel Approval that allows us to travel to China. Approval may take a month or so.

13. After receiving Travel Approval, Adam gets us a US Consulate appointment in Guangzhou, China and thus we know our travel dates. The trip will likely be two weeks. (Some families using Adam have had only 36 hours notice between knowing travel dates and when their flight leaves so we will start packing soon after getting our referral.)

14. We book our flights. Typically travel is 8-10 weeks after referral. (But I've known of families traveling within four weeks and some traveling in three months.)

15. While in China you may follow our posts at Aidyn's website: http://www.adoptionvoyages.com/Aidyn.htm


So now that you understand the process, I can tell you why we should get our referral in July. This am CCAA updated its site to say referrals have been sent for families with LIDs of June 16-June 28th. Only leaving three days of LIDs ahead of us (June 29th, June 30th and July 4th).

It is still possible that something happens in China like CCAA moves offices or lots of employees are on holiday and that they only match three days. That happened in March. But in looking at online polls there are not many families ahead of us on those three days so most likely we will get our referral sometime in July. Usually referrals come out in the later part of each month.

So I will be jittery for the next month and Jeremy will still be waiting to see pigs fly and our landscaping project completed.

Marsha