The Setliffe Family

Back to the Bullet Points

Hey friends. I have been meaning to post for awhile now, but I feel kind of overwhelmed by all that I wanted to say. And so I kept putting it off, and now I hardly even remember all those things I was going to say. So here goes. Who knows if this is even the half of it, but it's the best I can do on this Saturday morning :)

• Ava: I know that most people that read this blog are far more interested in Ava than the rest of us, so I will start with her. Oh, and I don't mind that, b/c I also think that she's pretty great! Ava is now 17 months old. Oh my goodness--time is flying by people. She has been so much fun lately. I feel like I'm getting a better hold of how to deal with her tantrums. READ: ignore her. So, now that we have that a little better under control, I feel like I'm enjoying these days of early toddlerhood much better now. She is walking & running around like crazy. One of her favorite things to do is pull Oliver's tail until he shrieks. I then have to find the cat from his hiding place & love on him until he starts breathing again. She also loves to talk to Daddy on her play phone. She walks around all day babbling to him on her phone. It is way too cute. She also loves shoes. She tries to put them on & then takes them off. Very fun :) She's fallen for Elmo & even notices him on diaper coupons and from a distance in the store. "Melmo" is her bestest friend right now--well, except for Lola of course!! She loves buttons, straps, doors & anything else she can manipulate. It is fun to watch her figure things out. She is talking like crazy too. She is a joy & is so much fun. However, I don't feel like I've sat down in about 3 months :)
  
• Married Stuff: Matt & I were able to get away earlier this week for a couple trip---NO BABY!! Our amazing friends Crystin & Ben watched Ava for us for 3 whole days so we could get away. We went to San Antonio & had such a fun time. I took tylenol pm & slept blissfully until after 9 both days. I haven't done that in, oh, 17 months. It was beautiful. We ate great food (including one of the top 15 burgers you should eat before you die here), went and saw the most amazing movie, Becoming Jane, went to a jazz club & just spent time together reading, talking, catching up. They were some of the greatest days I've had in my life. Thanks Ben & Crystin--you gave us such a precious gift!


• Adoption: We are well on our way to finishing our dossier paperwork--woo hoo! We are beginning our meetings with our psychologist next week. We found this lady who is a Christian & who has done lots of adoption psych testing before. God is so good to bring her across our path. So now we just have to get ahold of our police records, gather some documents, finish our psych visits, get our photo pages done & we will be done with our dossier. Then we will have to get everything notarized before sending them to their originating states for apostilling by the secretary of state. We are not going to hit our target of early September, but that's ok. We're getting closer to Bella every day & that's all that really matters. Plus, we're still a long way off with our funding, so we can't submit anything for awhile anyways. On to my next point:


• Our Finances: Early in our marriage we made some MAJOR money mistakes & now we have quite a bit of credit card debt. God has been on us very heavily about this in the last couple of weeks. We are missing out on so much by being tied up financially. So, in an effort to knock out some of that debt, we have decided to sell one of our cars. We won't really make anything on it, but it will get rid of a very large car payment every month. I had originally thought that we could do this to give us money for our adoption,but the more we prayed about it we felt that God wanted us to use that money every month to pay down our credit card debt. Ok God--but what about our adoption??? However, we know that this is what we need to do, so we are going to trust God with this. We feel like He is asking us to work on our finances & He will provide the adoption money. So...please pray for us as we work towards being debt free. It's going to take awhile, but we're committed to getting there. Also please pray for us as we go down to one car--it's going to be pretty inconvenient at times! Finally, please pray for the remaining $3500 that we need to send in our adoption paperwork. We are believing God for this money!!


• My Mama: She's doing ok--definitely ready to be done with chemo. Last week's passing out ordeal was very scary. Thankfully she is ok, and Emily was with her & kept a cool head while calling 911. Only one more round of chemo to go & then she'll undergo tests to see if she needs more. Please pray that all is well & that she needs NO MORE CHEMO!!


• Randomness:

1. I still love diet dp

2. I have fallen back in love with cereal. And chips & salsa. Hello old friends.

3. I think that Jane Austen is just amazing. I love everything she's written & I loved watching her life in Becoming Jane. Go see this movie--it was marvelous!!

4. The Alamo is very cool.

5. I wish I could sleep in more.

6. I don't pray enough.

7. I really really love my husband.

8. I have gotten nothing done this week b/c I've been reading Harry Potter non-stop. I started the series back around Christmas & took some time off. While in San Antonio I started #3 & finished it last night. Now lies the question--do I start #4 today, or do I take a few days off to get things done??

9. I love to read. I mean, LOVE IT!! When I start a good book I cannot get anything else done. It is a blessing & a curse. Ps--I love Harry Potter.

10. I want to get a pretty party dress some day.