So here we are at our fourth June together and we realized we had NO professional pictures and no non-holiday related pictures of us for the dossier. Enter my friend's sister who is raising funds for a mission trip to an orphanage!! She and her husband were offering picture taking sessions for a donation to their mission trip! WIN-WIN situation to us! I hate, hate having my picture taken....it is hard for me to look natural when it is an un-natural setting....yeah, I never did well at those role-playing exercises in school either. and Besides, is any female ever happy with a picture?? I digress......
There were lots of just fun ones that I like because they show personality and there were some ones that are good for the dossier so Mission Accomplished...check it off the list. I am posting these for the grandparents and Aunts and Uncles to pick so I can deliver on our trips...so excuse the "too many" part of the pictures....thanks!
There were lots of just fun ones that I like because they show personality and there were some ones that are good for the dossier so Mission Accomplished...check it off the list. I am posting these for the grandparents and Aunts and Uncles to pick so I can deliver on our trips...so excuse the "too many" part of the pictures....thanks!
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OK, this one below KILLS me....for some reason Nick wanted to take his glasses off...I love my boys eyes but oh my oh my, he looks 12 or older...such a soul-full look. I will say that as his mom, I can totally tell he is holding a smile in.....so glad that is the case! :)
I prefer my "actually looks 6 years old" boy below. So handsome and so cute and not so darn teenager-y looking! ;)
Now onto at least a short post(kind of) :) .....I am so behind.....
Stop the train....time is flying by but yet there are days it feels as if the day will never end. I cannot believe it is June. It just feels like yesterday that we started school and now my boy has finished Kindergarten and will be a first grader in the fall. I have to admit I was a little teary saying good bye to his teachers. I always am.....He has come soooooo far this year. He has accomplished so much. Teachers Rock! I always wish I could take them back to the beginning with us and they would feel so much more accomplishment in how they have helped bring our boy so far. AMAZING. We are just really enjoying his reading skills and he "acts" out the books and expressions as he reads them. Hilarious. I think I have mentioned before that we are now huge Mo Willem Fans (Knuffle Bunny). The Piggie and Elephant series particularly. LOVE THEM! So, on to first grade we go. He was past the benchmark in every area except one and that one he met the benchmark but just didn't go past.
We have had two sessions with his counselor and it is really a blessing to have someone in the trenches with us when we are having a hard day or two or three. She has an adoptive son and totally gets us and what we are dealing with. It is amazing how what we are doing with the OT and what we are doing with the counselor are totally connected in many ways. I will try to post more detail one of these days.
My computer screen broke thanks to a blind and clumsy dog but bless his heart, I kind of left it in a not so good place and well, nudge, crash, and no computer. We did not lose anything as the hard drive is safe but I don't have access to pictures yet except for the ones I posted above because they are on a disk. It has put a big damper on my blog reading (I don't have my favorites selection) and writing but sometimes a break is good, I guess! ;)
We had lots of school parties and activities which kept us fairly chaotic the last few weeks. I have lots of pics. I will share eventually.
On the adoption front, we are progressing thru the dossier steps. Pretty straight forward process. A few differences from Kaz but the best difference is that apparently we dont have to get FBI fingerprints....yippee. We are waiting for our appt with Immigration for our I800 fingerprints but I was dreading the local police department. Although I will say, we needed a criminal record letter from them and they did it for free!! We were able to use this instead of updating our state criminal record check which costs $$.....the states notary expired in Nov...would not have lasted thru the adoption...grrrr! So many crazy details to keep up with regarding dates and expirations....so mindless yet soo important to pay attention to at this time. I need to check with the agency before we start our summer travel. I am so less annoying this time around. I rarely even email them unless I need them to approve a document before we put it in the apostille pile. I figure they will contact me if they need to find out something?? I guess when our dossier is finished I will get more into the game! The psych eval went smoothly and we had a great Dr. He was really interested and kind. The computer test was crazy long and painfully tedious. 560+ questions. ugh!
My computer screen broke thanks to a blind and clumsy dog but bless his heart, I kind of left it in a not so good place and well, nudge, crash, and no computer. We did not lose anything as the hard drive is safe but I don't have access to pictures yet except for the ones I posted above because they are on a disk. It has put a big damper on my blog reading (I don't have my favorites selection) and writing but sometimes a break is good, I guess! ;)
We had lots of school parties and activities which kept us fairly chaotic the last few weeks. I have lots of pics. I will share eventually.
On the adoption front, we are progressing thru the dossier steps. Pretty straight forward process. A few differences from Kaz but the best difference is that apparently we dont have to get FBI fingerprints....yippee. We are waiting for our appt with Immigration for our I800 fingerprints but I was dreading the local police department. Although I will say, we needed a criminal record letter from them and they did it for free!! We were able to use this instead of updating our state criminal record check which costs $$.....the states notary expired in Nov...would not have lasted thru the adoption...grrrr! So many crazy details to keep up with regarding dates and expirations....so mindless yet soo important to pay attention to at this time. I need to check with the agency before we start our summer travel. I am so less annoying this time around. I rarely even email them unless I need them to approve a document before we put it in the apostille pile. I figure they will contact me if they need to find out something?? I guess when our dossier is finished I will get more into the game! The psych eval went smoothly and we had a great Dr. He was really interested and kind. The computer test was crazy long and painfully tedious. 560+ questions. ugh!
We are getting excited for Kazapalooza and I have been busy with the Tshirt design, welcome bags, and nametags.....our living room is full of boxes for assembly at KP....Pat will be glad when it is over and our living room can be cleaned. I personally don't mind having an excuse for the mess when friends drop by! ;) oh, sorry for the mess, all this KP stuff everywhere, wink,wink!
Hope everyone is having a great summer. Some school districts around here are just getting out due to all of the snow days! We have almost survived our first week out and doing pretty well so far although it was so much easier getting my allergy shots without Nick telling (and trying to help) the nurse to push it in! Love ya son! ;) Happy Summer to all!
