Soccer Mom

I had to post these pictures-- what a great day to sit out on the side of the field and talk to other parents! This is the kid's 2nd practice, they had to work hard but they love it. Brecken is so funny. He is playing on the 6&7y/o team (mainly for my convenience). He is so competitive and has figured out that he thinks he is the 4th best on the team. Kaitlin informed him that everybody is good at different things and was completely annoyed that he was ranking her as lower than himself. The backseat conversations are great!

Also: Adoption Correction! We did have a couple other things happen last week! We expanded our age range up to 24 months and we received 3 notarized, approved copies of our homestudy on the 15th! Our SW has been great to work with!!!

laura

Where To Get Great Food!

Youngjin and Brecken playing with a little cat toy.

Last Thurs. we had dinner at the home of some friends of ours from South Korea. They are a really sweet couple that have had some huge adjustments! It has been so fun to get to know them and the kids love them. Here Hyojin is playing Polly Pockets with Bella. It is still interesting to me that there are so many great experiences to have, in our hometown, but sometimes it is hard to even get out of the house or think that we have time, how many opportunities we miss I am sure! I'm glad we didn't miss this one, thanks to the Weigands for encouraging us to get involved with this friendship program!

Here is the table they had prepared for us! The food was amazing!!! They were so generous and it is really fun to observe the differences in our cultures but see how when it is all said, how very similar we are!

Adoption update: there is nothing new. We are waiting on our fingerprinting appt. and then I71H
I faxed all of my other papers to get checked over, I was really annoyed that I had copied and pasted a notary thing with 2007 on it to 3 letters that I wrote. Those will have to be corrected and re- notarized(I don't know if that is a word). Anyway, those kind of things always drive me crazy and realize what a perfectionist I am but are pretty easy to fix.

laura

You Just Never Know!

Kevin and Kait with crickets

Brecken helping plant flowers

Kaitlin is our precious second grader. Once she outgrew colic we have pretty much thought that every age is "the best". It has been really fun to watch her grow and the thing I love about this age is how unpredictable she is. Now this could seem like a bad thing, but the times that she is driving us crazy, I know she will snap out of it really soon. The last couple of days have been no exception. Friday afternoon was nice enough to get outside to do some things. Like any good mom would, once I went out I realized that the kids should be outside getting fresh air and helping me (even though that can be interesting) instead of playing computer games. After coaxing them out-- they were "almost to the next level" of course, they started helping me plant some stuff. I sent Kait to the front to plant some flowers in a couple pots saying she could do whatever she wanted with them. After about 15 min. I went around to check on her and was very surprised to find that she was doing a great job and singing at the top of her lungs. She proceeded to inform me that she had named all of the flowers. A names in one pot, C names in the other. The complainer was completely vanished.

Saturday morning the surprises continue while she is checking out the newspaper. When she realized that Saturday was the "Bug Bowl" at Purdue she insisted she wanted to go even though it was rainy and cold. The reason she was so excited to go? She wanted to eat chocolate covered crickets! Luckily, Bella needed a nap in the afternoon and Kevin got home just in time to take Kait and Brecken over and try this new delicacy. They both swallowed them but I don't think they really want them again.

Fun Stuff!

laura

The Hair ?!

I thought that after some kind of serious posts, I needed something fun. My friend Liv had a post with her adorable son wearing a similar hairstyle, placed while the dads were babysitting I think. It made me want to look for some pictures that I had as well. This thing has a life of it's own! It has been used as a joke, in Christmas pictures, to scare people, and in the pictured situation-- in celebration of a big event at Kevin's office-- he is holding a cherry pie-- can anyone guess who he is pretending to be? If you think Kevin is all business-- hee hee-- this shows the true story!

Have a wonderful day!

laura

Yeah- I came up for air!

I'm so gald to be back to checking blogs and taking time to think about my day! There is something really great about staying on touch with people you care about this way! I have missed it!

The last couple of weeks I have been really trying to get everything that I had any control over with the adoption process done. It seems like this in addition to being a mom and wife and other random things- the latest and most fun being "florist" for Betsy's wedding- have taken up all of my time. I am happy to report that I am done with the things that I can do. The sad part is that in the whole scheme of things it seems like that is not actually a very large part of the whole process. Oh well, it is definitely a feeling of accomplishment. Collecting the various papers that we need has actually been really fun. I got to go places that I don't ever visit, like the police dept., and everyone has been so great! I realized even more that we live in a really neat community-- people seem really happy to help you!

At this point our home study report is being reviewed by our adoption agency and we will hopefully have it to send to Immigration Services soon. We will then a couple more things to do and the dossier will be ready ( a month or two). Sometimes with all the "tasks" to do it seems like I forget what they are for-- a precious life and a part of our family! We are so thankful for this calling and although I am not nuturing this child as during a pregnacy, there is something really sweet about knowing you are working for them and having to-do list with "For Baby Jack" at the top -- I think I will miss that during the wait!
laura

Hosanna, Hosanna

Here is Isabella on Palm Sunday making sure she is ready to go into church for the Easter Program. She looked so sweet in a dress that Mom G had made for Kaitlin. Even better though was her little voice singing about being sad that Jesus died and then being so excited to sing Alive, Alive. Kids at Easter are just the best (not only because of the adorable clothes, but I do love that too).

As the Holy Week started I had good intentions of spending some extra time reflecting on Christ's sacrifice and doing some activities with the kids to help them think about it as well. Oh how quickly I get distracted by all the things that come up! It is so discouraging sometimes!

We finally recieved our packet of info from our agency-- wow, there is a lot of paper work! I'm really glad to get started on it and have something tangible to do to move the process along. I am going to try really hard not to complain about it! I can't help but wonder though if people who are famous that adopt have to do all this stuff :) Oh well I'm sure that it "builds character."

According to 2 Peter1:5-8 by adding to faith virtue-knowledge-temperance-PATIENCE-godliness-brotherly kindness- charity my life will be FRUITFUL in the knowledge of Jesus Christ! and that is what we want!

laura

We had our Homestudy!

Yeah, we are started with a major step in the adoption process! We had our homestudy done yesterday afternoon. It went great-- the woman who did it was wonderful to work with. It is really interesting to go through that many questions about yourself, your past, what you think about various things. I don't usually spend a lot of time reflecting so it was kind of a fun experience once I settled in. When it was the kids turn to talk they were all really excited! It was so fun to hear them tell someone else about what they were thinking! Once we were done we were both a little bit fried but really excited! Now we wait about a month to get the final product from the social worker. Then that will be sent to the agency. In the meantime there is plenty of paperwork to do!
laura