Fall is here and I am falling further and further behind on this bloggy thing. I just don't have the verbal/writing energy to get it all caught up, not to mention we have a computer issue....we don't have one. We survive off of Pat's work laptops but keep passing the same computer at Sam's every time we visit and just not pulling the trigger...well, that and our cars are limping along and starting to nickel and hundred us every other week it seems! :) So, lets catch up a bit.....
Nick started second grade in August. HARD.TO.FATHOM!! He is so tall and handsome that I look at his little 3 yr old pics and just wonder where that little pea went so fast. He was overjoyed to model for mom on his first day....cant you tell?? :)
But he brightened right up as we settled in at our yearly first day of school family breakfast...this year at the Waffle House....Pat even celebrated with a breakfast steak...no, really, he did order a steak at waffle house.....a picky man, he is not. ;)
And the obligatory picture from behind that I so dearly love to take every year. Just love my boys! Although, I am wondering at what age he will stop wanting to hold dad's hand...sigh.
School has buzzed along at a quick pace this year and he continues to have a bit of a time with reading and spelling but overall he does great in school. He continues with after school private OT visits and we have been able to do Bible Study Fellowship this year which he has absolutely loved every Monday night. He and dad come in on Mon Evenings just chatting about the Lord and what he has learned this week. So cool to hear him discussing Paul/Saul and the Holy Spirits work in us....makes me get all teary sometimes. We attended the Empowered to Connect Conference in Nashville this last month with Dr. Karyn Purvis of the Connected Child book fame. We have been finding that the principles that she gives are very biblically based, grace oriented and actually work. We have found the more we work on how we react to Nick and how we deal with his behaviors, the more successful we become with keeping him regulated and peaceful. Pat's parents came down from WI to take care of Nick and it was our first (more than 24 hours) away from him since he came home in '07! It was probably harder on me than him. I just worried about him dysregulating on the GParents but of course they handled him wonderfully and there was only one minor freakout over apples. :) Pat's parents usually visit us around this time of year and we pumpkin hunt together but with their September visit, we had to go to the patch on our own.....but we still got a cute picture of our pumpkin even if we had to carve it without the "expert" surgical precision of Ata Bob.
Our other big fall endeavor was our annual KazWalk for the orphans in Kazakhstan. This year we walked in Nashville at a beautiful park in Brentwood. I soooo tried to have a country singer sighting but no luck. Nick was sponsored by some wonderful friends and family and his Kaz Buddy Ben from San Diego sent Nick these team banners and best wishes!! Thanks BEN, JOSH, and SARAH!
Nick has taken on LL Cool Nick persona as of late and the peace symbol always makes it into our pics. Drives the momma crazy!! Nick was excited to be re-united with his buddy Charlie from Atlanta! These two can talk non-stop for hours. We all sit back amazed and quietly rejoicing because if they are talking to each other then they are not talking to us.....Score! 
We were also walking with our other Kaz cousins Max, Allie, and Charlie's brother Alex. Max and Nick were rounding the cones and headed back for this shot.
Nick won for most money raised again this year so many many thanks go out to our generous family and friends who continue to bless us each year! He got a big bag of books this year and he has enjoyed reading thru each and every one!
We have really enjoyed the fact that the kids really are starting to remember each other when going to these events and great friendships are being formed. Nick calls his Kaz friends, his "special cousins" because "we were born in the same country". We even think that Charlie's brother Alex and Nick should be related somehow ...they are from the same region so you never know! :) 
Last week, I was able to attend my first second grade field trip.....a corn maze and pumpkin patch. This place had huge pumpkins and the kids were cracking me up with their efforts to find the biggest pumpkin only to realize that you pick it, you carry it.
This place had this huge pillow jumpy thing that was just cool. The kids could all jump at once and there was plenty of room. I want one in our back yard. ha!
Nick was in jumpy jump heaven. I bet all those kids were so calm when returning back to school. Great sensory diet at this place! ha! 
I still hope to get some summer pics up if I can figure out how to get smilebox on one of these computers ....too many pics to post separately.
Our other big fall endeavor was our annual KazWalk for the orphans in Kazakhstan. This year we walked in Nashville at a beautiful park in Brentwood. I soooo tried to have a country singer sighting but no luck. Nick was sponsored by some wonderful friends and family and his Kaz Buddy Ben from San Diego sent Nick these team banners and best wishes!! Thanks BEN, JOSH, and SARAH!
Nick has taken on LL Cool Nick persona as of late and the peace symbol always makes it into our pics. Drives the momma crazy!! Nick was excited to be re-united with his buddy Charlie from Atlanta! These two can talk non-stop for hours. We all sit back amazed and quietly rejoicing because if they are talking to each other then they are not talking to us.....Score! 
We were also walking with our other Kaz cousins Max, Allie, and Charlie's brother Alex. Max and Nick were rounding the cones and headed back for this shot.
Nick won for most money raised again this year so many many thanks go out to our generous family and friends who continue to bless us each year! He got a big bag of books this year and he has enjoyed reading thru each and every one!
We have really enjoyed the fact that the kids really are starting to remember each other when going to these events and great friendships are being formed. Nick calls his Kaz friends, his "special cousins" because "we were born in the same country". We even think that Charlie's brother Alex and Nick should be related somehow ...they are from the same region so you never know! :) 
Last week, I was able to attend my first second grade field trip.....a corn maze and pumpkin patch. This place had huge pumpkins and the kids were cracking me up with their efforts to find the biggest pumpkin only to realize that you pick it, you carry it. 
This place had this huge pillow jumpy thing that was just cool. The kids could all jump at once and there was plenty of room. I want one in our back yard. ha!
Nick was in jumpy jump heaven. I bet all those kids were so calm when returning back to school. Great sensory diet at this place! ha! 
I still hope to get some summer pics up if I can figure out how to get smilebox on one of these computers ....too many pics to post separately. We have no news on the adoption front and have had to renew all of our immigration paperwork. We go for new fingerprinting next week (cuz you know they change in a year and a half...oy!) and will make a quick trip to Cincinnati for those prints. Our agency has not had much information on why the referrals are not coming out of Ecuador. We have decided to wait a little longer for Ecuador although it seems that Columbia or China may be our next best choices unless Kazakhstan opens up in the next few months....then it might be a whole new ballgame. We are mostly trying to stick with countries that our agency works with at this point so we don't lose as much money. We are not too concerned about the waiting, it's just the not knowing.....but we serve an All Knowing God who goes before us in all this so we are learning to trust and have faith more each month that goes by.
We are so thankful for all of our friends and family and are especially excited this year that my entire family, Dad and mom, Sister, Brother in law and Kids are coming for the whole week of Thanksgiving. We will be excited to cook, over eat, and celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday together this year. Nick is so excited for his cousins to visit..... wait til he finds out they are bringing an extra Wii with them. He nearly might stroke. Pray for us towards the end as they pack it up to take back! ha! I'm sure the phrase "I'm the only kid that doesn't have Wii or Xbox" will be stated at least one trillion times on that following weekend. :)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment