January 7, 2012, Nashville, Tennessee, 10:31 a.m., C.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

Louie here.  Hope this finds y'all well; I trust and pray you had a good Christmas and New Year's.  We sure did; it was great having the entire family together and seeing all the grandkids!  It was crazy, but it was worth it!  Got to meet my newest granddaughter, Bella Thu Grace (daughter of Anh and his wife, Thu; they live in Oklahoma) and she is such a sweetheart!

Then I come to find out that our son, Richard, and his wife, Karrie, are going to be parents as well!  Their first child, a little boy they plan on naming Colt William, is due in April.

And, if that wasn't enough, God has laid it upon our hearts to add to the family by way of adoption!  I asked God, "Are You NUTS??"  God must have laughed, but somehow, He wants us to add to the family.  He whispered in my spirit to add a child from either Japan or Haiti, so we have started the adoption process all over again and we should find out something in a few months or so.

So we are adding to the family!  It doesn't really make any sense: we already have more than enough children in our family now (63!!); what's one or two more??  :/  Who am I to argue with God?  If He wants to bless us yet again, then so be it, but wow!!  This is something we did NOT expect!!

Our adoption counselor looked at us like we had horns growing out of the middle of our foreheads when we told her we were interested in adopting yet again. 

The response was the same: "Are you NUTS??"  LOL

The weather is cloudy, fairly cool, with rain the forecast for a good part of this week.  Good thing the children have new toys and games to keep them busy!  And good thing the children who live out of state have since returned home; there's a little more breathin' room in our house! LOL  Hopefully it will be a quiet day.  I am off from work today and Bill has already left for his job at Wal*Mart; he'll be there until 8 tonight.  Long day!

I have laundry to do (always do, with our brood!!) and plan on going to the grocery store later.  Have to get the basics and a few little odds and ends.  While I am gone, then Maman and Papere' Moliere' can watch the kids; they are terrific babysitters and the kids just adore them!

Nothing much is new, but we are still recuperating from Christmas and New Year's.  The decorations have since come down and our house is back in order again.  Some neighbors still have their decorations up, but we took ours down the day after New Year's.  And now the Christmas credit card bills are starting to roll in, not to mention higher gas prices, which means higher prices in the stores.  *sigh!* (Rolling eyes)

Well, I know this is short, but I have to get the laundry going if I want to get it done by noon, twelve thirty.  I then want to get to the store before it gets too crowded (but it may already be that by the time I get there!).  I will write in here again; as soon as I hear anything regarding the possible adoptions, I'll let you know what we find out.  Stay tuned!!

Whee!!

God bless and take care!

~Love, your friend in Tennnessee, Louisiana Mayrah.

P.S.: LSU Tigers play the 'Bama Crimson Tide tonight for the championship, and the New Orleans Saints play too.  Geaux, Tigers, and Go, N'Awlins!! Wewt!!

~Louie.  :D