Holy Time Warp Batman, its almost August!

So, how do you describe nearly 3000 miles from north to south and east to west and a continual monologue on Batman and/or theology? Answer........summer vacation in the car with N.I.C.K! ;) For some reason, Pat and I had 5000 miles stuck in our head but maybe that is just what it felt like at the end! ha!

Luckily there is not a picture to commemorate what we looked like upon arrival several days ago but there is also no pictures period because the camera was lost (we think) in St. Louis somewhere, possibly a park in Lake St. Louis.

We had a great time at Kazapalooza in Milwaukee this year. I am not sure we (the coordinators) can top the Milwaukee Children's museum but we will try. I think everything went quite well with just a few snafoos here and there. Nick had a great time which is really all that matters and our men even seemed to start to enjoy as they are finally getting to know each other and have more than two word conversations! :) The weather was fabulous and we ventured down to the shoreline to visit with Pat's college room mate Scotty and family. We dined with them at a Drive in, Diners and Dive place that was known for serving unlimited bacon instead of chips or popcorn but apparently that is only on Sunday....and it was Saturday. bummer! It was still good food though. We also had breakfast with Pat's Aunt, Uncle and cousin that was at another local place. Nick entertained cousin Katie with all things Star Wars for the entire meal and thankfully, that was about the last we heard of Star Wars because Batman became the obsession of the month. Not sure why, he has never seen a batman show, just owns a few batman imaginext figures but I guess that is enough.

The hotel had a mini waterpark which was perfect for all the Krazy Kaz kids. Nick was not tall enough for the large slides but could do a swim test to get the "special" armband that would allow him to ride them anyway. He is not a stroke swimmer but an underwater dog. I told him he would have to work on his arm strokes. He practiced for like a half an hour over and over across the pool. He said he was ready and we grabbed a life guard and he took his test. He did so great. He did great strokes from one side of the pool to the other. The lifeguard made a big deal out of it for him and I nearly burst into tears when he finished and started jumping up and down so excited and proud. We made a huge deal out of him practicing and not giving up. It was truly one of those parent moments that just gives you chills.

It was so great to see everyone although my visiting time was cut short often as one of the busy coordinators. I now know why they (the coordinators) all said last year that they wanted to rotate duties around and add more help because they never saw the light of day til it was over. It was a great privilege to be able to help out and spread the work but shew! it was hard work no doubt! Thanks to Pat for totally taking the kid responsibilities to the max!

We made the trip back and Nick had spanish camp and I tried to get caught up on adoption stuff before we left again. We received our fingerprint appt and it was for Friday of that week which any other day would be great but that was the day we were leaving for STL in the opposite direction from Cincinnati where they decided we should go for our appt. Still not sure why and neither was the Cinci fingerprint guy; but, thanks to my dear friend Cincy Karen who not only gave us perfect directions to an open air parking lot (no garages with a kayak on top) but met us at said parking lot with fresh donuts and provided child entertainment while we got the fingerprints!!! That in and of itself was worth the 2 hour detour up and over the hills and back down to STL. THANK YOU AGAIN CINCY!!!!!

So off to STL we went to see my parents, sister and family, friends and the big 25th HS reunion! EEk. oh, and of course, the pizza, always the pizza! High School tour on Saturday was crazy! Everything looked different because they had combined several of the buildings that were separate so it was hard to figure out where we were but finally we went to the gym which had not changed in the 25 years and it smelled exactly the same.....so weird! We had dinner at a brewery (it is STL after all) in our little downtown area in Ferguson. It was fun to see everyone although I think very few people recognized me at all being the "quiet" type and then not really living in STL after I graduated does not add to the "remembrance" part. Oh well, at least being in my 40's has helped me realize I got nothin to prove to these people....and thanks again to my long-suffering husband who sat by my side and made me proud.

We had lots of good friend and family time at the City Museum in downtown STL which we highly recommend for all peoples with children of any size and age. It was sooo much fun and those pictures are the ones that I am the saddest to lose in the missing camera. Nick was in climbing, hiding, running, and swinging heaven! The adults and children were so exhausted but it was a happy tired.

We left STL and headed back to Wisconsin and as we headed north the weather got cooler and cooler. Heaven! The first day we were there it was in the 60's but then it warmed up to a perfect 80 or so at the lake. Nick had a blast tubing this year and went on his first solo outing and flipped and learned what life jackets are for....Pat said once he realized the jacket held him up, he totally relaxed and was then only upset because his older cousin stayed in the tube and he didn't .....typical! We had our first ever Kitzman firework rain-out. It was a bummer but we had a nice dinner at the house and saved our ears for another year. Although, I think their labor day celebration may be a loud one! ha! Pat ,his brother, and 16 yr old nephew kayaked a river this year....in their really good "lake"kayaks by the way.....apparently it was fairly harrowing as Pat and Mike spent alot of time in the water while Dakota, his nephew, conquered the wild with the safest and most stable kayak. I think they will take the appropriate "river" kayaks next time. They had scratches, sunburn and bruises everywhere....boys!


Pat and I were given the night off by his parents and we went just down the road to a lodge and ate some great pub food and had our first night "away" since Nick came home 3 years ago....we were so happy that he had no trouble being away from Mom and Dad and only inquired in the morning where we were and then proceeded to eat breakfast. We have tried to be good about datenights but just hadn't been able to "get away". Now, we will shoot for a weekend.....babysitters, anyone, anyone? We found out the day we left that Pat had been awarded an NIH grant worth 1million. We are so elated. He has worked so hard with his other team members to get this organization up and running and it will be so fun to see all that they can do with these funds to help the rehab patients of eastern Ky. We celebrated at lunch with his folks and then headed out.

We were all three very tired pups headed home last week. We did have a momentary highlight on our way home when we stopped and visited with Alaina (Kazmom) and boys for an impromptu playdate at McDonald's outside Indy. It was good to chat with her since I did not see much of her at Kazapalooza with all the running around. The boys had a good time playing!
Looking forward to doing it again at the Kaz Walk in September that Alaina is helping coordinate in Indianapolis.

So that is about all I can say about our 2010 Vaca trip.....it was an eventful June for sure! I am sure not nearly as interesting without pictures... :( While we were gone, we received our Immigration approval and now we are hustling to finish up the last of the paperwork to finish up the dossier and apostille. Not really sure what happens next but it will be good to get the paperwork finished and out of the way since it is hard to "do" paperwork with a certain someone home for the summer. School starts when?...... :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

June, Seriously, June?

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!

ZERO

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

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!

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!

Amidst the chaos.....

So, really blogging is not a priority right now. I am barely surviving the day to day business but then I feel like we are getting nothing done. Do you ever have one of those days, weeks, months?



The hubs came down with an illness which is so rare for him that I could not think of a single time in our whole marriage that he has taken two sick days in a row.....in fact I only remember one other time he took a sick day (one!). On the eve of that sickness, our house flooded due to the heavy rains in the area. I would not for one second compare our mess with what others have had with rivers flowing thru their homes and such but water is messy (clear or not) none-the-less. We wet-vacked water out from 830am-1am .....over 15 hours of pure "suckness" and poor Pat (with some very wonderful friends help) lugged copius amounts of water up the stairs and out the door over and over and over..... We are just going to replace a few baseboards and call it done but the aftermath mess is taking its toll on me. I am not an organized person by nature and I had finally gotten the basement/play area about where I wanted it with a place for everything, a "system". AND now, not so much. Oh well, trying to be thankful for no mud and the fact that we were home from church that day due to Pat's illness. Little blessings.




And, then there was the garage sale this last weekend. Can you just picture the chaos our house was in! :) I am so lucky to have a laid back husband who is very patient and willing to jump in and get me motivated at any time. We made almost 800.00 at the garage sale although "we" did not...only 50.00 plus a percentage of the other friends sales. Typical of my garage sale experiences but love having the junk gone regardless.



We said "until we meet again" to our very fav Kaz students that we were introduced to several years ago prior to our adoption in Kaz. They both graduated from UK and were married while they were here but not to each other. Dalel has already returned home to Astana and his wife. Dasha and Al are hanging out til the end of the summer hoping to be allowed to do grad school.
It has been such a blessing to have them in town and see them and talk all things Kaz (or not). We are glad to have even more friends in Kazakhstan so that when we return one day with Nick, we can have dear friends to visit too!

So besides all of the big life stuff that just happens, the adoption continues to proceed. We now have our dossier requirements which seem to be pretty "usual".....we will have to do some of our paperwork over from the homestudy as they want the "freshest" dates on them as possible. If I hadn't done this before, I would not understand but I do "get it" although that does not make it any less frustrating to do. The repetitive paperwork and multiple documents that essentially say the same thing are a little price to pay for the life of a sweet child.

We do have to get a psych eval which was not required for Kaz when we went so that should be interesting if not hilarious. We may have been qualified mentally to be parents before Nick, but now, I don't know if we will pass! ;)

I am going to try and get as much done as possible in the less than two weeks we have left before school is out. I am not sure how much will be accomplished once Nick is home 24/7 and the Star Wars playfest begins.

We are so at peace with our decision to go South this time although the pictures and stories from several of my friends recent mission trip to Kaz are just about to kill me. Pat just wants me to stop looking at them. There are so many little ones who need love and a home. Kaz has recently stopped accepting new dossiers while they switch to the Hague guidelines. We probably would have had delays due to that change and who knows what is going to happen with Russian adoptions so we are thankful that at least at this time, we are headed in another direction. God knew that those kind of delays would have driven me crazy! :)

The blog may be a little quiet while I finish up some of the dossier stuff but we promise to keep you up-to-date on the adoption progress as soon as we know anything exciting. We will go private again once we have a referral and such but for now, we are an open book! :)

Spring is for new beginnings....so here we go!

I love quilts! I have always loved quilts. The new header is made with photographs from a quilt in our guestroom from my Grandmother's collection. Nick has a forest themed one on his bed and we have a quilt too. People don't often know that about me but deep down inside I would like to be a quilter, a seamstress and a knitter. I love watching projects come together. Being a task oriented person, I like to see the start, middle and finish.....accomplished! I remember my mom sewing our dresses, shirts, etc. She would cut the patterns, measure, sew, try it on, rip out a seam here or there, start over, even sit it on the machine for a while when other things were a priority, but she almost always finished a project.



I loved seeing the finished project, even more, I was proud to wear what she had sometimes labored late into the night to make me for such and such occasion. At least in my early youth, I proudly wore "mom" originals vs. JC Penney or Sears. I think my mom enjoyed sewing for us.....you find the pattern, envision it on your kid, purchase it, create it, finish it and then enjoy your work. I love that imagery.



David wrote that God is that kind of creator.....He formed our inward parts and wove us in our mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully made us. He has a vision for us, a plan. Just like a pattern that is cut out, pinned down, and then sewed together, our life unfolds and is pieced together by the God of the universe. I think that is why I like quilts. Pieces from all cuts of fabric put together in a way that forms something even more beautiful. Just like our lives in God's hands.



I don't think when I graduated from high school a mere 25 years ago, YIKES, that I could have ever imagined the quilt that my life would become.....many colleges, many states, many jobs, married at 35, adopt a son at 39 and so on. I had it all patterned out, I thought my quilt, my life would have looked you know, more "normal" but really what does that mean? I wouldn't trade one bend in the road, one mountain climbed, one trial or one tear to get to the life I have now. (well, maybe a few weight battles I could have done without but I digress...) I had lots of dreams, lots of plans, lots of desires that I was ready to accomplish. Some have changed, some have yet to be fulfilled, and some have been accomplished.




I found the verse that I had my sweet friend and blog designer Kim put on the side when I was thinking on our new journey. A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. There have been lots of things that I have desired or wanted over the years. Some of them I made happen.... like singing do-re-mi on the same steps that Julie Andrews sang on in Austria, check, going to Oberammergau, Germany for the Passion play, check, Ireland, check (yes, most of them involved travelling), but the other desires were just completely a God thing..... a husband, way better than I could have dreamed up, and Children.....now this is where it gets good.



You see I have always wanted to adopt as long as I can remember. I have always known people who adopted and who had been adopted. I especially remember babysitting these 2 little girls who were so sweet and so beautiful and they were both adopted. I remember some kind of ministry presentation that their parents gave regarding adoption and their birth country. I begged my parents to adopt after that....I said I would help my mom take care of the baby...please,please! Yeah, that didn't happen....my parents probably thought I was a little off my rocker but I never lost my heart, my desire, to adopt. I used to say I was going to adopt all the kids from the Jesus loves the little children song....red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight....that song is sooo politically incorrect now but they are still precious in His sight. Fast forward many, many years (way more than I expected) to Pat and I deciding that it was time for parenthood. Of course, we figured it would happen the old-fashioned way and when it didn't, they almost immediately send you to fertility specialist because, well, we were "old". I can honestly say from the very first meeting with the Doctor, we were ill at ease. I knew that God was in control of my womb and He could figure all "that " stuff out, we frankly were not that worried about it. Now, it is not that we were not a little sad that we were not going to immediately have an unusually tall, red-head running around but it just seemed OK to us. I think I even knew at that point that God was going to help me fulfill my desire to adopt.



We (well, really I...cuz that's how we women roll) started stalking the internet for adoption sites, waiting children, and THEN.....dun,dun,dun!!! I discovered blogs! Stories after stories of adoptive families taking their journeys to and from some land afar. I became a little obsessive, ok, alot obsessive with google searches and the internet. I searched far and wide for an agency that went to the country where the two little girls were from that I cared for so many years ago when this desire started but their country was closed to adoptions. Here is where God is so fun, you see, I had this weird high school and college fascination with the "USSR". I don't have the foggiest where that one began but I always wanted to travel there and learn to speak Russian, etc. It may have even started as early as elementary school when I played a Russian dancer while we sang silent night in Russian. I got to wear a real Russian hat that we borrowed from a lady who had actually been there. I remember my dad telling me that I couldn't go there because he worked for McDonnell Douglas on a proprietary program and they wouldn't let his family members go there. Cold war and all. Of course, I was even more intrigued! ha! Fast forward 20 some years later and the agency we had chosen highly recommended a former soviet republic, in fact the largest of the former republics, Kazakhstan. Oh, yeah, and we were going to have to learn Russian as well as Kazakh to speak to our child and get around. Is God amazing or what!? He even cares about those desires we think are just silly or unattainable.



So, fast forward again to 3 years later and we are starting to "think" that we might expand our family once more (again, the age thing is killin us....about to age out of the system in a few years...well, at least Pat is, ha!) and you know what, that first country that was closed is now, 3 years later, OPEN! That country is Ecuador and yes, family and friends, we are adopting again. We are done with the first stages (homestudy, etc) and now begin the dossier paper chase to adopt one older (3-6 most likely) boy or girl or (big breath, and panic look from Pat) possibly a sibling set of 2 from South America...Ay caramba! and I say, A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul! I will do another post on all the amazing "coincidences" (NOT!) that have occured to confirm our journey to Ecuador but that will take another whole evening to unload!



I feel so blessed and although we are scared silly to open up our family again to the chaos, the pain, the heartache that is adoption. The flip side of adoption is the most amazing, joy and laughter filled, tear-invoking journey we have ever experienced so we are ready to face the challenge. I have never encountered a journey that will show you the heart of God and His love for us like adoption. I tell you it will change you forever.



So, on to the mundane, our lives are filled with paperwork and more paperwork; Nick is excited to welcome a brother or sister. At first he wanted a brother but now he comments regularly on both.....using And instead of Or. He comes up with names weekly, we have just moved from Nathan to Butch and the girls names have been Rainbow, and Snowflake and one I can't remember but it was equally as "hippie" because I said that and then had to explain what "hippie" was to Nick which probably is why I can't remember what he originally said. I will say we have seen a few behavior changes in Nick that could possibly be related to the pending changes but we have already scheduled some meetings with a counselor who specializes in attachment and adoption so that we stay ahead of the game while we are in the process.



For any of the inquiring minds who "want to know", Ecuador is a Hague-country which basically means extra paperwork but all in all the requirements were developed for the safety of the children which can't be all that bad, can it? We shall see..... Funny enough, Ecuador is a long stay country too. We have been told up to 8 weeks! There is really only one agency, maybe two who are allowed to adopt out of Ecuador and they came highly recommended. Ecuador mostly places older children internationally which is fine with us. We are just way past the baby thing....although, we are not discounting the whole Abraham and Sarah thing....God is able. We just would like to be able to attend their graduations without a walker! ;) We will get a referral this time and be a little more "in the know" for this adoption. Not as many surprises in the age and gender categories but of course, there are always surprises in adoption. Once the dossier is done, we were given a big expected time frame of 3-18 months. We are good with that range either way. Second time around some of those things don't seem nearly as worrisome especially because we know time lines and dates mean absolutely nothing in the world of adoption.....can I get an Amen! from the crowd! ;)



I did not blog this early along in the process to adopt Nick so this will be a new one for me. Hopefully, you will join us in prayer for our journey and our chid(ren) who wait for us. We are going to go public again for a few months to allow some new readers to join the journey (and to get them adjusted to this whole blog thing) but we will go private again once things get rolling.



Sorry, this was so long but I wanted to get the whole thing down in writing for remembrance purposes. I really love to look back and see all the pieces falling into place just as God planned.....now onto the next piece of our quilt! By the way, I found our family friends in STL that I babysat for on FB and they and the "girls" (all grown up and married!) are planning to follow the journey with us....how cool is that!

Spring has Sprung and I'm already behind!

Seriously! Is April almost over......what happened? It will be June before I know it and I haven't even ordered the welcome bags for Kazapalooza, tshirt design is in progress and estimates are out on Lanyards (those things you wear around your neck) and nametags......aaaaaaah, running.out.of.time! :)

We finally celebrated Nick's birthday with a few friends.....not an official party but fun none-the-less at the C.Cheesey! Logan, Peyton, Nick and Libby had a grand time running around in all the chaos.

Pat's folks came for a long weekend in March to help with some planting....Dogwood, and two Rhododendrons.....I love color so we are excited as they bloom. It seems so easy to get those "overdue" chores done when we have the grandparents in town.....very thankful!

The weather has been awesome this spring but the pollen count is killin us! We have played out as much as we can stand (I started allergy shots...trying to get some help) and here was one of our group playdates ......for some reason they all thought it was fun to get in the outside tool bin....containment is always nice! :)

We were invited to my good friend Carrie's parent's house for their yearly easter egg hunt. It was awesome....truly egg overload. Nick had a great time and next year we will probably have to stay and eat too.....Carrie's mom was appalled that we didn't stay and eat......we won't deny her next year....reminds me of my grandma. If she couldn't feed ya, then don't come over! :)

We went to church for easter and then headed to Richmond to visit with Aunt Wanda and Uncle Jub. We were early so we stopped and took some pictures on EKU's campus......I just love tulips!

We spent another great spring day with our friends at the Kite festival. The wind was not ideal for great kite flying but it was an awesome day weather-wise. We had a picnic lunch and lots of playtime with Brian, Amy and Logan.

We are planning a garden with friends! Our friend Carrie's grandpa (poppy) has kindly offered his property for us to revitalize his garden from years past. It is an awesome plot centrally located in town with lots of "boy" activities to do as well. I can see lots of spring and summer weeknights and weekends gardening with our friends. We have about 6 families participating. Nick and his friend Mikey were in HEAVEN as they hammered old wood, climbed sawdust and mulch piles, and "helped" us clear out the weeds and dig! So much fun for a little boy!

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable spring......We are going to try and get an updated blog background......tired of the blue with dots..... so if you can't get access for a few days, it may be down for the update. Bye for now! :)

Nick's new kite with a jet on it of course!

Happy 6th birthday to you!

Three years ago last week, we celebrated Nick's 3rd birthday with him in Kazakhstan. We had balloons and a cookie.....that is about all they would let us give him! Below is a picture of his third birthday in Kstan!

I have been going back thru the pictures and looking at the then and nows and here are some from the same day (27th and 28th of Feb) three years ago. One of my favorite all time pics is this one of Pat and Nick. Nick was not too fond of dad in the beginning but wow, how that has changed. He is the biggest fan (besides me) of his father that could exist. He loves him so much and I am so thankful for the relationship that they share as he gets older.

This picture just cracks me up. He was so serious, hardly ever smiled. Here he had my sunglasses on and his little smirk that we came to know really well in Kaz. So cute!

Nick has changed so much in 3 years. He was about 37 inches when we brought him home and now he is 46 and 1/2 inches (9 1/2 inches he has grown!!). His weight dropped after we got him to 28 pounds and now he is 48 pounds! Crazy, I know! He has gone from never talking only grunting to big words, like "extraordinary, awesome, buenos dias, banyo, stupendous!" He has in 6 months gone from barely being able to write his name to bubble letters.....see below!

He has gone from 3 stick figures to star wars scenes and very detailed drawings of his amazing imagination. The first pic is of an X wing fighter....

This one is of jedi fighters with light sabers and maybe guys with guns? that look like axes? :) I have definitely seen more advanced pics from his friends but I love that he gives his faces emotion with the eyebrows and sends bullets from his swords and guns (sound waves, tears, and radiating light in other pics).

He has most recently taken a liking to Pie (key lime, pumpkin, whatever) which is fun since we like pies too. Now, I need to get him to try fruit pie so we can expand our fruit likes past apples and bananas. I hope his 6th year brings him more veggie varieties too. He will eat what you give him but he hasn't found one yet that he just likes to eat. Just like his name sake Grandpa Carmon, the boy can put away the ice cream. He now has tried chocolate and prefers that when given a choice but loves vanilla too.

This year for his birthday, we had plans for an afternoon playdate at Chuck E Cheese (no crowd) and a small celebration. Instead, Nick got strep throat and had to be at home so I stole an idea from a friend in St Louis who does scavenger hunts for Christmas presents and we made one up for Nick to find his presents from mom and dad. We had 6 small ones, so I wrapped them up, did clues, and wrote out our message to him on each bag so he would have to put them in order at the end to get his message. We took pictures of all the stages so enjoy.....

Yes, he does actually act this peppy and happy with Strep.....the fever only slowed him down slightly.......but, we will take whatever we can get! ;)

We grabbed some cupcakes from my fav bakery and he was plenty happy to eat the icing! Hopefully, I will get to make him some more for a belated celebration in the coming weeks.

It was a good day all in all even with the Strep. He had to stay home one more day to get a full dose of antibiotics in and then he went back to school only to be home again on Thurs with a snow day. We have had 7 snow days this year which is very rare but the one this week was totally lame. I am so ready for spring and outside play.....he just needs his outdoor activity and large muscle activity to keep us all sane! :)

We had one extremely bright spot on our snow day and that was a trip to the airport to welcome home Benjamin (Benny) McIntyre from Korea! My sweet friend Kim and her hubs have been waiting for a long time for their daughter from China (they started before we left for Kaz) and were able to finally do a concurrent adoption with Korea for their new son. He is a pumpkin and a half. We are so overjoyed for them. They will be awesome parents and I just love to see more babies get their forever home! Woo Hoo!

Nick was acting all "shy" and silly but oooo, can't you just squeeze that sweet little Benny to pieces! So excited for them to grow up together.

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Hopefully, next week will be a full school week with no sickness and no snow. I'm really praying hard! :) I can't believe it is March already! Seriously, time is flying! We have Gotcha day festivities and Pat's folks coming to town along with a "just Girls" trip to a "Drive in, diners and Dives" eatery here in Kentucky.....I think it is our only one so far, at least the only one the food network has been too......so excited to go! Love that show! Happy March everyone!

Let's try again....

Blogger is making me crazy since they updated their editor.  For some reason it changes how pictures show up on my blog and you cannot move them around with just a click.  I have tried with and without the new version and it doesn't seem to matter.   So, when you don't have much to blog about it makes it just as easy to walk away.....thus the hiatus!

We are finally back in a routine with the holidays, snowdays and MLK day, Nick has yet to have a full week of school.  I have hope for next week but there is snow expected and well, you know what an inch of snow can do....complete devastation, I know! 

Nick has had a few bad days because of this lack of routine or just generally being 5 I guess.  We have had broken glasses (on purpose), screaming fits a plenty, and even hair pulling and hitting.  Now, lest you worry he is having problems at school, no, no, it is only mom that is the hearer and receiver of all that is the "other" Nick.  Since he really has come so far and these fits are far and few between, I think I handle them with less patience because it is just so out of nowhere.....I am starting to dislike any change in routine very much. 

He has started OT and I just wish his awesome OT's Julie and Ariana could explain all that they are working on with Nick.  The best I can describe it is Sensory related....visual integation and motor planning are two buzz words they are using.  I look forward to our next meeting with them so they can give me the layman's term for how to explain what they are doing. He is in group therapy.  They have found that this age child seems to have success with doing it together with others.  It is a group of all boys.  Nick is the only adopted child but they all have similar sensory issues.  One of the things they are assessing with him is whether  or not he still has some of the primal reflexes in place at birth that go away as a child develops.  While biological children can have this for sure, they definitely see it in some adopted children because of the lack of sensory, simulating input during the baby years.  It is all so interesting to me. I am reading two books that they recommended, the Sensational kid, and Physical Activities for Improving Children's Learning and Behavior (A guide to Sensory Motor Development).

Nick just received his 2nd quarter report card and it was glowing.  We are so proud.  He has come so far with his writing that I would say he is pretty much on target.  Surprisingly but not really, he got some exceeding expectations this time.  One area was Phonemic Awareness....rhymes, sound blending, beginning and ending sounds, etc.  I have to say that I swear by the leap frog video series, letter factory, word factory, etc.  They are the greatest tools to make this kind of learning fun and I think his report card shows that it helped him catch up.  In that area specifically, he is already at the end of the year benchmark (expectation).  Woo, Hoo for our boy!  He is also reading more and more.  He even got some exceeding expectations in spanish.  I am just so happy with the school and all that it has done to spur Nick on and also give him the awesome chance to be bilingual again. 

Since Christmas, he has also discovered thru his new cartridges, more advanced games on the leapster. They keep him mesmerized (batman and star wars) as well as now loving educational computer games on the computer.  We have had to start limiting time on these apparati due to his new "love".  We are keeping it educational only for as long as possible.....he has plenty of years later to discover the other mindless junk. 

Nick is currently into the whole phase of WHY.  He questions everything and it is taking every ounce of my patience to get thru a ride to or from school or anywhere else for that matter these days.  I love his questions but he is never satisfied with the answer and you can just "hear" the little wheels in his head going, and going, and going.....he has the energizer bunny brain.  Sometimes, Pat and I can be heard saying "just stop talking" or "you cannot fully understand that at your age Nick"  ....kind of funny but not so when you are in the car for a really long trip!! :)

His latest inquiry that amazed me was him trying to figure out how we can love God first and not toys.  Seriously, he went on and on for 30 minutes while we were driving around town trying to explain to me that it was impossible to put God number one in his brain when he loved toys so much and that he didn't want to "kick" God out of his brain but he just loved his toys so much he couldn't "kick" them out.  As I tried to explain how we could really enjoy other things alot as long as we put God and our family as our first love, he just continued to argue.  I will need to look up several verses for him to have on his wall to look at about the subject but really, he is just 5...why do I have to argue theology at 5?  DO they have Kindegarten Seminary too? :)

Speaking of growing up and thinking of "older" things, he and his friend Libby came out of class the other day and declared that they had kissed and that they were getting married when they are 17.  And, Libby, announced at home to her parents that not only are they getting married but they are adopting from Mexico!  It cracked us up and made us panic all at once.  Apparently, Kristina and her husband said the same thing Pat and I did at the dinner table which was, you can't kiss until your are married because there are just too many germs! ha!  Also, Libby's dad stipulated that they had skipped the whole process of Nick asking permission from him to have Libby's hand in marriage...and Libby responded...."but why?"   Cracks me up!   The sweet thing is Nick tells us often that he is going to grow up and be a daddy and adopt and have us over to a "feast".  We hear this often and it just melts my heart.  Last night at dinner, he told us when we were grandparents to this child he is adopting that he will buy us birthday gifts.  Rocking chairs for each of us and Knitting for me.  We almost choked on our food.  So funny!  He did say he would get Knitting for Pat if he wanted it too.  So, interesting since neither of his grandparents rock or knit at this point. :)

I just mailed off our third post adoption and last social worker written report.  We made our trek to the capitol for the Apostille and took Libby and her mom with us for an outing.  They had fun although the glasses breaking incident happened on our journey home.  They got a first hand experience with the "other" Nick.  Bless their hearts! :)  I personally think it was the homemade chocolates that we bought at Rebecca Ruth's candy shop near the Capitol building. Sugar is not our friend some days!  We got a few pictures from the outing below....

The crazy blogger won't let me write between the posted pictures so I will talk about Christmas at the end.  We had a great time in Wisconsin.  There was tons of snow to sled and stomp around in for days.  It almost kept a few of the Siblings away but they all being native Wisconsinites made it without much fanfair and panic.....good thing they didn't grow up in Ky.   They would have declared a national emergency and called off Christmas! :)  Nick had a fabulous time with his cousins and as he followed Dakota (15) everywhere so little Colin (1) followed Nick.  It was mutual hero worship all around.  Nick was getting a little testy with Colin towards the end of the week (that whole lack of routine and schedule thing) and Colin wanted most anything that Nick had his hands on.  Star Wars stuff was everywhere and Colin placed his snack cup on top of one of Nick's prized "boxes" from the star wars vehicles.  Nick came in, saw the cup and with much disgust and despair, removed the cup from the top of "his" toy box and declared "COLIN, THERE ARE NOOOO CUPS IN STAR WARS!!!!!!"  It was so loud and out of the blue that we all heard him and it took  a long time for us all to quit laughing....Colin was stunned and just giggled which he did often when Nick was trying to explain the finer points of "playing" star wars to a one year old.  It was classic.  I am sure that will be a phrase we bring up at the Kitzman gatherings for years to come. 

Well, I am sure there are more updates I need to include but I can't be sure this is even going to post so I am going to stop for now.  We have all of our Anniversaries and Nick's birthday coming up in the next 3 months so life and blogging should get a little more exciting....maybe.  

Our hearts are so heavy with the Haiti earthquakes....all of the orphans just break our heart as well as the loss of life.  Our church is doing several different things as they were already doing mission work in Haiti before so luckily there is already people in country that we can funnel our donations and help to at this tragic time.  The one good thing to come out of all this is that many orphans are being approved to finally skip the crazy red tape that has kept many of them from joining their new familis for months and years even.  I just get all teary everytime I see the babies coming home to their families in the recent news reports. Always good to see the good that God brings amongst all the tragedy.  I read a blog by a family working in Haiti and they remarked the other day how everyone sees the chaos and despair that has really been Haiti for a long time and they wonder who is in charge, and they said that they know exactly who is in charge amidst all this chaos and it is God.  Their reports have been so heart wrenching yet so full of hope for these people that you can tell they love with all their hearts.  I think I can understand a bit of their hope for these people because once you have lived among a different culture than your own, they become a part of you, that part that affects how you perceive the world.  It changes you.  You cease to see the government corruption, the bad and the ugly, the differences, you stop playing the blame game and you start to see how God made us all in His image and we are ALL precious to Him and you begin to love them accordingly.  We pray for those precious ones that God made in His Image....