SEASON'S GREETINGS

In lieu of mailing Christmas letters this year in the spirit of "going green," we decided to try updating everyone with what has been going with us through our blog. For those of you who have been reading this blog, some of this will be duplicate information. Thanks for reading!

Most of you were probably expecting to see that our picture included a new baby this year. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We are still “waiting,” but things have all but come to a halt in China these days. At this point, we are expecting it to be at least 4 more years until we get her. We know that when the time is right, we will meet our little girl, but we would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t tell you that this has been a very frustrating process.

One good thing to come from the wait is that at the beginning of 2008, we decided to pursue a concurrent adoption. This means that we are pursuing two adoptions at once. We received special approval from our adoption agency and have chosen Ethiopia as the other country. We had to re-do most of the paperwork that was done for China, but all of that was complete and sent in September. We have requested siblings (boy and girl) ages 0-4 years old. The wait time for Ethiopia is reported at 6-12 months; however, as with anything in the adoption world, this is just an estimate. They are a little slow on the sibling referrals, but we still hope to travel in 2009 to meet our children. There are approximately 13 families in front of us. There is a slight risk that we won’t be approved by the Ethiopian court system because we are adopting from China as well, but we are optimistic and have reason to believe that this won’t be a problem. Please pray that this process moves along quickly, and we meet our children next year.

Jill is still with Marriott. She facilitated two training classes for them this year in Phoenix and New Orleans, as well as traveled to Kingsport and Atlanta several times on business. She also enjoyed 4th of July week in Destin at the beach with her family! Jill picked up a new hobby this year – running! She did her first 5K race on January 1st, and she and Philip did their first half marathon (13.1 miles) in October. She also enjoyed being in the feed zone at Philip’s bicycle races again this year, dancing, and singing in the church choir.

The UT football season was dreadful this year, but we have enjoyed the Titans games! We have also done quite a few home improvements in 2008. We completely renovated the kitchen and closed in our carport, which created two new rooms – a bike room and a new study. In 2009, we plan to do some work on the exterior – paint and landscaping.

Philip’s 2008 included lots of bike racing, of course! One fun thing that he did this year was to travel to NC to do some wind tunnel testing with his bicycle. He and his Dad spent a few hours testing different bike positions, helmets, and ways to go faster. He once again served as Team Director for Scenic City Velo’s elite racing team, Team Krystal. He is actually “retiring” from that post in 2009 but will still do some bicycle races. He will concentrate more on multi-sport events. In 2008, he entered two duathlon (run-bike-run) events and won both! Philip also had a job change in early 2008 and is now working at Trace Bikes in Nashville.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Miss Mocha. She is 9 years old now and never ceases to amaze us! She gets smarter every year and is such a joy!

We are thankful for each and every one of you and are blessed with wonderful friends and family. We pray that your holiday season is a special one this year spent with loved ones. If you are ever in the Nashville area, please give us a call! Here’s to a great 2009 and GO TITANS!

Happy Holidays!

Philip, Jill, and Mocha Martindale
6512 Jocelyn Hollow Road
Nashville, TN 37205
pjmartindale@comcast.net