Thought I would post some pics for the grandparents and give a quick update. I loaded the pictures backwards so starting school actually happened first but nonetheless....

Everyone has commented on how tall Nick is getting so I think he must be in another growth spurt. He has been waking more at night and wanting to eat continually.......If we can get another 1/2 inch, he will be tall enough for most rides at the waterpark which will make him one happy boy! He does look rather tall and old in this pic for Gma Martha and Aunt Kelly so they can see what their most recent purchases look like. Very handsome boy!


We went to Cincinnati and Dayton last Saturday with Glenn, Karen (aka Cincy) and Max. It has become so fun because the boys actually remember each other now and have a great friendship. They are so cute together. We had a great time at the airforce museum and then dinner at Cincy's house. Below Nick is doing his best "price is right" impersonation for the McDonnell Douglas Phantom. We took this pic for Ata Bill as he retired from there when they merged with Boeing. Nick loves loves the airplanes. He says he is going to be a pilot and wants to know what war he can fight in....hopefully none! I told him that he could be a pilot for the Missionary flyers.



Max and Nick......aren't they cute. They are both practicing for a sibling. Hope they handle their new siblings as well as they handle each other.

Nick started First grade on the 11th. It was a good day. He has transitioned very well with only a few extra grumpy days which are totally to be expected after a long lazy/crazy summer. We had our breakfast at McD's with daddy and then headed to school. We were the first to arrive in the classroom. He went right to his desk and wanted to start working. We are very impressed with his new teacher. She is from Cuba. Cute as a button and very enthusiastic.

We finally heard back from our agency and our dossier was quickly sent off to Ecuador for translation and approval. They will wait for referrals which match our requirements and present us files one at a time. We got some more reading material about our travel and it made it seem a little more real. We will travel to the city of the orphanage as well as the city where our child was born ( I think that is how I understand it). We will also go to the capital also. There will be a bonding period that could be a few days to a week depending on the social worker assessment of our bonding. We will then take temp custody and then go thru court. I am simplifying somewhat so it may not go exactly like this ....but it is adoption after all! ;) It will be about 8 weeks total with one parent being able to come home if they wish after 4 weeks or so.
We really don't anticipate travel until the spring/summer and we will take Nick with us for at least part of it....we need him for translation! ha!

We are officially paper pregnant!

Well, I guess we can say that we are expecting because the dossier is OUT THE DOOR! I am so relieved to have it off my mind and the papers off the table. It seems that we have been surrounded by papers forever! We actually had less documents this time to apostille so that was one positive for the Ecuador process. Pat took the day off (it happened to be one of the cooler days in the last month or so) and watched Nick while I did some of the last minute copies and certifications. All the county clerks we have dealt with this time around have been so fast and friendly. We ate lunch at a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives place that just aired last week called White light Diner. It was really fun. The owner was quite the character. It was almost a Dive vs. a Diner because it was soooo small but that made it all the more fun. Nick got free Ice cream so he was thrilled. BLOG ADDENDUM and/or LATE BREAKING NEWS: Pat wanted me to add that we did the Triple D double header by going to a second Triple D restaurant tonight that has yet to be shown ....JJ McBrewsters. We actually have been there before and were not overly impressed but it was good tonight and we decided that we DO like Western KY style BBQ and maybe it was just that we had not had that on our last visit....in other words, we didn't order right! Pat thought that Triple D fans would be impressed with our record and/or jealous! ;)......OK, now onto our regularly scheduled blog update: We then headed the few blocks to the Capitol building to the Sec. of States office to our friendly Apostille ladies who we have loved for 4 years now. I want to be an Apostille lady when I grow up. Wouldn't that be fun? Helping finish someone's journey to a child. I am sure they have other jobs too but they have to like that job duty the best. Another observation is that we have become regulars at the capitol and we would have to say that the non-visitor parking is always empty?? how does that work? Lots and Lots of reserved spaces, empty...hmmmm? and this is thru two different terms of Governors (one R and one D) I guess state congress is on break....alot? just sayin? Anyway, I digress. It was a beautiful day so we had to take our "journey to you" book pictures for the new one so here is our sonogram picture of sorts.....look, awwww, isn't Nick cute holding his little brother or sister! ;)

And of course, our "going to the Fed Ex" picture. When we took our FE picture for Nick's Dossier, I had a broken hand, now, I have a right "hand" man! :) Now, I know you are going to ask what happens next. I don't know. :) I emailed our coordinators to tell them the dossier was on the way and then asked the what's next question. We do know that most likely we would not be traveling til after Christmas at the earliest, most likely spring/summer.

As far as the referral, I am a little confused about when that happens now that the dossier is done. They gave us a big packet at the beginning but it is not very specific and they keep everything on need to know basis....thus, now that we "need to know", they will tell us. :) I will let you all know as soon as we do, promise. But, for now, I am so ready to not be focused on paperwork AT ALL.

ESPECIALLY because, our baby starts first grade on the 11th. We are so excited. I am certain that he has forgotten alot but should remember quickly although he has actually been using his spanish at random times and in full 3 or 4 word sentences. So fun! We found out our teacher assignments yesterday and we have so far all of our good friends in class again which is so exciting for the MOMS! ;) You hate to have to make new friends again! ;) Besides, we have our "system" down as far as class parties and such. ha! So, that's all for now but we may be updating more often if things progress as far as the referral but don't know yet. Will have first day of school pics up of course and we have STL friends coming to play for 3 days next week before school starts! yippee!

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!