Chip-In China adoption fund raiser.

Lori and I are behind in the funds needed to travel in March to bring Norah home so I am asking for $10.00 donations to help us reach the amount needed. Believe me I hate to ask, if all you can give is a dollar it would help and we would be greatful. Thank you for your help to bring our daughter home. It means so much to our family.

You can donate through the ChipIn widget with your PayPal account, a Credit Card, or a Debit Card.
I cut the follwing From the ChipIn site. http://www.chipin.com/ "ChipIn is a Web-based service that simplifies the process of collecting money from groups of people. We make this process quick, easy, and secure, and we provide organizers with numerous ways to get the word out about their ChipIn event. We process and track all payments. Your contributors chip in via PayPal and the money goes directly into your PayPal account. As people chip in, you'll be able to track the progress of your event using the ChipIn widget, which can be inserted on blogs, profiles, and Web sites."

I also have a PO box: Glen and Lori Cook, PO Box 1114, Cabot, AR. 72023-1114. It's there in case you are not comfortable using the ChipIn widget or would just like to drop us a note. We LOVE hearing from all the great people we have met and will meet through this blog.

Glen and Lori

Moved to post on 12-29-2008

Saved so I don't lose the Comments

The reason for the season.

While we scurry about getting our bandanglers, bobdingelers this year.

I wanted to tell everyone still waiting to see their childs face. Lori and I have come across some
verses over the wait that have stuck with us, and helped us get through some tough times over the years.

I hope that by posting them here, they might give you some hope & comfort this Christmas.

Oh and instead of a Birthday gift for you this year, we will be sending a care package to one of your precious children. I know you like that better anyways;

besides what are you going to do with another tie?

Merry Christmas To Everyone!

Ha-ha Santa Glen & Annie the elf.

Glen

I prayed for this child, and the lord has granted me what I asked of him.

I Samuel 1:27

Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress

James 1:27

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.
Isaiah 43:5

Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth
I John 3:18

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

God sets the lonely in families
Psalm 68:6

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,….
The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:35, 40

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And who so shall receive one such little child in my name receives me.
Matthew 18:4, 5

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.

Proverbs 13:12

A year of lasts.

Anyone that has been reading this blog for a while knows that we have been waiting to meet our daughter for over three years now. We have done many things over the years to help us keep our sanity during that time. Holidays always seemed to get to me the worst. We do our best to celebrate and have fun, all the while knowing a family member is missing the celebrations. To go through yet another Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and The Autumn Moon Festival where family and friends make a point to be to gather can be trying times for the heart.

After finally being accepted into the CCAI waiting child program in February of this year, the first time we applied was October of 2006 but that a whole different story.

I knew this year would be different. In February CCAI told us to except a time frame of about 8 to 10 months before we would get a referral. Could be longer, could be shorter we are in month 10 now.
So going into this year Lori and I knew it would be a year of lasts, and we embraced that, knowing with every passing holiday it would bring Lori and I one day, week, and month closer to our daughter. While it is still not easy to go through yet another year wondering who our daughter is? Is she ok? Is she being taken care of? Is there someone in her life that gives her hugs? Does she have enough to eat and a warm place to sleep at night? I lay awake many nights thinking of her and the day she will join our family. Some time soon I will no longer wonder of such things because I will know that someone gave her a hug that day,

ME.

Glen

It is hard to see because the flash reflected so bad. Lori gave this to me early to put on the tree It is engraved with Waiting for Norah 2008

Annie’s back studying hard at UCA tonight.

We had a good time visiting with Annie over the last four days. She is such a wonderful child to have in our lives. She is making good choices in her life and we are so proud of her. Finals are just around the corner she wanted to have one extra day to study for them before school started back, so I ran her up back to her dorm today. We loaded her down with food and drinks, so that she can grab a snack in her room while she is studying and won’t just go without because she doesn’t want to take a break to go to the cafeteria.

Glen

Dirty Clothes "R" Us and Turkey Day

We always go to my (Lori's) mother's house for Thanksgiving. This year we were lucky enough to all be together again, including Annie. We had a great dinner with all of the traditional favorites as well as fried okra and fried fruit pies. You read that right "fried" was in there twice. After everyone had fixed their plates I was able to get them to stand together for group picture.

From left to right: Dad (Michael), Eugene (my brother), Brandon, Annie, Mom (Carolyn), and Glen.After all that food and some pie and ice cream ,that Annie said she was specifically waiting for, we all rested. Annie found her a place on the couch to lay down and read her Harry Potter book. That's right people her english is soooooo good she reads for fun now. That girl never ceases to amaze me. We also watched movies, worked on the crossword from the paper till Dad and my heads felt like they would explode, filled out Christmas cards, I painted Mom's toe nails and Glen painted mine. We also went through old pictures and talked about Grandma Viola. Brandon and Eugene played computer games and cackled like a bunch of old hens together.

Our washer went out after 14 years of loyal service the day before Thanksgiving. Let me make one thing VERY clear. We can not go without a washing machine. We would be taken over with dirty laundry in no time flat. Glen being the bargain hunter that he is found a set that was 1 year old in the next town over that met all of our needs. We went Wed. night and picked them up from a really nice young man who reminded us both alot of our awesome friend Mike that moved to Utah. The washer and dryer are installed and running like champs. We put the other set out by the road. Some people took the dryer within 20 minutes. We are hoping the washer is gone soon to someone that can fix it or part it out. If not waste management will pick it up next week. While we installed the washer and dryer Annie started dinner and Brandon made cookies for afterwards.

Annie is coming home for Thanks giving

It will be so nice to see Annie again it has been a couple of months, since we last had a visited. Lori and I are excited to here about her life at UCA and how her parents are doing. We keep in touch weekly but it is not the same as when they are at home, We get to see the little thing they she dues that make her Annie.
She will be thrilled to find out that Ginger and Maggie are being adopted she helped me pick out some things for the care packages and wrote a letter to Ginger for us,

she was also able to read Gingers letter to us.
We miss you Sissy see you soon.

Glen

Wonderful News

We got some wonderful news the twin girls we have been sending care package too are being adopted, I just found out. If you are the family that are adopting twin girl through WACAP I have lots of photos to send you of the girls. I would like to know who is adopting them we are thrilled.
Also there are lots of other older kids to there orphanage that are available and going to become available in the coming weeks like the wonderful girl in the photos. Most of the fees for these kids adoption are being waved. I Know older child adoption is not for every, If you are interested , the agency that will be placing the kids now and in the coming months is, WACAP, they have some kids posted now and will have more being posted soon.
Norahs_dad@yahoo.com

Mr./Ms. Mantis

Brandon found this prehistoric looking mantis hanging out on our front porch today.

Work, Work, Work

It has been everyone back to full time work around here. Glen is working on a big house and I have been busy at the hospital. Brandon and Annie are plugging away at school. We are looking forward to going to my Dad and Mom's house for Thanksgiving and for the chance to visit some with Annie during her break from college.

November 4, 2008

Hope that everyone was able and willing to get out and vote today.
We (the U.S.) will make history on this day.

Happy Halloween

We had a lot of trick or treaters last night. I don’t know if it was because of the economy and parents are looking for more inexpensive fun for their kids or because Halloween fell on Friday this year. It was probably a combination of both. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. To be able to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes.
Lori and I went to the pumpkin patch by ourselves this year, with Annie in college and Brandon off with friends we didn't have anyone but ourselves. It was still fun. We went through the corn maze and stopped by the petting zoo.
Then we went and played pool at the bowling alley.

This is the last Halloween we will be without Norah and for that we are Happy!

Glen

And for you SNL fans: "Hey donkey, hows it going? You live in a barn. Say hi to your mutha for me."

Narcissus sylvestris: also known as a dork flower.

Two things that make us happy

First, we got a package all packed up and sent off to Ginger, with warm slippers, mittens, a hat, some toys and some dried fruit she can share with her friends. We now have to start thinking of some thing special for her for Christmas.

Second I finally got around to building the last part of the fence. Lori helped me hang the gate up so we now have a 360degree privet yard.

Glen

The boy has definitley gotten taller.

For a while now Brandon has been much taller than me, but these last few months the gap in our heights is becoming, well, more obvious. Apparently milk does grow strong bones. It is hard to believe he will be 18 next year. As you can see he has dyed his hair and is growing it out. I think it looks good on him.

Annie Is doing good in school. We continue to contact her every other day to make sure she is ok. She now has a private room, and she got her cell phone back, so things are looking up for her. She is going to come for a visit over thanksgiving break and we look forward to seeing her.
Glen

Getting Ready....

"The Pig" is getting ready for Halloween by dressing up as Pippi Longstocking. We are busy decorating the front of the house for the trick or treaters. We have also started getting ready for our trip to China by working on our endurance. We have begun walking 40 to 50 minutes everyday up to the park and back. It has also turned out to be a really good time to reconnect after a long day. The animals in the park have also been very entertaining.

"Stubby" here has somehow lost most of his tail.

This frog or toad, I'm not sure which has found himself a great place to live. The only drawback is the squirrels that stick their heads in his little house to get a drink.

We are also watching the last of the presidential debates tonight. Not long till it will be time to vote. Are you ready?

The fourth post down is new.

Annie has rough week.

First, let me say, nothing is more upsetting and gets me angrier than when someone messes with my child.
It started out with an email from Annie saying she lost her cell phone. This same week she lost money from her dorm room. So I quickly shut off the phone so the people who had it didn’t use it. I looked up the numbers that had been called on the phone since she lost it / it was stolen and called them to find out who had been making calls from it. I got a hold of one person that had used the phone and she said that she had borrowed it from someone else so I took down her name and told her to have the other person turn it into lost and found, no questions asked, and that would be the end of it. I ordered Annie another phone and had it activated. The day it got here I emailed her to check in to see how she was doing, and if she was ok.

She emailed me back and it wasn’t good. Her roommate had also “lost” money and her roommate and a friend of her roommate deceided to yell at Annie to find the money and called her a thief. Then they came back later with 7 of the roommates friends and yell/cursed at her some more for taking the money, then when she went to take her garbage out they locked her out of her room to go through her stuff.
Oh I was pissed!

Within 30 seconds of getting that email I was on the phone with UCA making sure that they were going to do something about it. Annie had started to deal with it on her own already. The RA and Housing supervisor where already aware of what was going on and Annie had filed a police report for the stolen money and flash drive. The housing people and RA are working on moving either Annie or her roommate to a different room. I emailed Annie and told her I could come get her for the night but she said she would be fine, she could stay at a girlfriend’s dorm for the night. So I told her I would be there tomorrow to see her.

Then this morning I got an email from Annie’s parents who are every bit as upset as I am. I let them know I was already looking into it and was heading up there today.

When I talked to Annie I found out about the police report she had filed so after we talked for awhile, about friends she has made at UCA and we took this quick photo together, I gave her a phone to use and told her I was off to the police station.

At the police station I checked in at the front desk. I told them my daughter had been verbaly assaulted and I wanted to make sure they were going to look into it. The Captain overheard me and took me back to his office. He had remembered Annie coming in to file the report on the stolen money, phone and flash drive last week, but did not know about her being verbaly assaulted yesterday, so I talked with the Police Department Captain and gave him the phone numbers that had been called from Annie’s phone after it was “lost”. He was genuinely concerned and told me to have Annie come back in and give a statement about what had happened yesterday so he can look into it and to make sure it is on the record, and that Annie or her roommate gets moved to a different room.

I don’t know if these girls thought Annie being from China had no one backing her up, if they did that was a big mistake.

Just because Lori & I are Annie’s host parents while she is here, and she has parents in China that love and care for her deeply, doesn’t mean we love her or care about her well being any less than we do Brandon’s, and it definitely doesn’t mean we won’t protect her and fight for her safety and rights while she is in America.


I understand with the population of UCA being over 12,000 you are going to run into some really crummy people. Just be prepared for me to use everything in my power to get you and your cohorts thrown out of school, or at the very least a mark put on not only your permanent record at school but also legal records if you come after one of my kids.
Now I need to go drink some water and calm down for a bit.
Glen

Full-Moon Festival Families

Float trip down Saline River

Last week was Lori’s vacation so we all took off and went for a canoe trip down the Saline river. So much for relaxing because of the recent hurricanes that had come through there were trees down across the river in places where you were sucked through and over limbs of the down trees in the fast current. Then there were times when the river would open up wide like in the photos and it was nice. By the time we got done Lori said she didn’t have any adrenaline left and that she "didn't want to get all girlie" but she may start crying.

Glen and Brandon in their canoe.

Boats pulled over so that we could fish.



Brandon giving the "thumbs up" for the miniscule bait fish that he caught. Look really close, it's that little speck even with his head.

Sneaky snake. Lori almost stepped on him.

This was the spill way that the guide said we could just go over. Ha!
Note to self if you aren’t sure of how big the drop-off is and you get out and float your canoe over the drop off and the canoe turns sideways just as it is going over the falls it WILL fill with water in two seconds,

yeah no kidding, I did it!

Catching some bait.

Our Body and Hot Springs

We were walking down the street in Hot Springs and lo and behold there was a giant spitting frog. Well, how can you not take a picture of that.

At the same resturant as the spitting frog there was the "rock garden", of course. Someone has a sense of humor.

Alot of the buildings had murals on the sides and it looked like some of the apartments above the buildings were occupied. Hopefully when they are done with refurbishing the city they will all be available for lease.

We went to an italian resturant to eat lunch. Awesome food by the way. Lori had chicken and portobello ravioli and I had chicken parmesan. Lori said she felt like this giant head was going to fall on her the whole time.

It's a mural of Garvan Gardens. We've been there!

This bath house had a dome on it that we both said looked like something that you would normally see on a mosque. When we read the plaque that tells about the history of the bath house we saw that it was built with influences from Africa.

This person was painting watercolors of the bath house and was nice enough to let me take her picture. She is obviously very talented.

I chased down this poor butterfly and took his/her (couldn't get close enough to tell) picture in front of the Mi America Science Museum.

Not quite sure what this is but it is the first thing that you see when you walk in the museum.

I was thirsty. That's all I'm saying.

We came to the museum to see the "Our Body" exhibit. It was really fascinating. There were lots of Anatomy and Phisiology students there with their professors and Lori even saw one of her nursing school instructors there. The exhibit was amazing. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside so we have to settle for a picture of the book they had on sale out front. The bodys and organs were displayed in a way that let you see the muscles, nerves, vessels, ect. . They even had a head cut into slices and then the 6 slices were on spinning display sticks so that you could look at all the structures. They also had an entire body cut into long slices so that all the organs were visible.