Sunday, September 27, 2009

Preschool

I have 2 big school boys now! Leyton started preschool a couple of weeks ago and although the first couple days were a little rough (only for a few minutes), he has been very happy to go to his "blue school" the last couple of times. I just love picking him up after school and him running to me with his little backpack, such a cutie!













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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

LOVE this!

Landon came home from school today with a drawing he did and I just LOVE it! It was so cool to see his perception of our family! I think we look like a nice family of 5 don't you agree ? Love that we are all smiling and that he drew himself with glasses. The coolest part though is to see "baby sister" crawling! It just makes me so proud that even though we don't know who she is she is still so much a part of our family to ALL of us! Love that kid :)



Aren't they cute!

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Friday, August 28, 2009

We made it!

We hit our one year anniversary of waiting today and to celebrate I wanted to take pictures of the boys with the number 12 instead of just finding a picture. Well if you have ever tried to pose children and take a specific picture you know that it isn't as easy as it looks lol! So while I think the one above turned out pretty cute I will also post some funny outtakes from our little photo session.



"MOM, he is touching me again"









(what you don't see is the number 1 floating to the very wet grass below) that would be the end of the pictures this time!


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Thursday, August 27, 2009

New Beginnings!

Yesterday was day 1 of 1st grade at Landon's new school! We were anxiously waiting to hear how he liked it when the school day was over. I got a very enthusiastic "I LOVE IT", he was so excited and talkative about his day we were thrilled! His 2nd day was just as exciting, he came home telling me about the Spanish words he learned, how to say look in sign language and that he got to do math (his favorite). Such a big couple of days for our sweet little man (who I cannot believe is old enough to be in 1st grade :(, or that I am old enough to have a 1st grader for that matter lol). Daddy pulled out yet another of his teeth last night, between that and school he had a very exciting day and ended the day telling us that even he was proud of himself lol!









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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

We hit the 11 month mark!



Well actually we are well past the 11 month mark and are almost to our 1 year wait, crazy! In some ways it feels so much longer than almost a year and in some ways it feels like it has flown by. Not much to report, the girl referrals have come to a screeching halt since MAY so I am not even going to render a guess on what our future holds, I have come to the peace that our path will be just that and it will happen when and how it is supposed to.

We did receive our I-171H in the mail this week, which means we are now officially approved to adopt and have no more paperwork to do at this stage. Once we receive our referral is a whole different story. It is such a relief to have all of it done and approved though, such a big step!

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Lunch with Grandma

Mondays have become our new favorite day around here during the week. Monday means lunch with Grandma Lil (or Great Grandma Lily as Leyton likes to call her). For a few months now my sister in law Rebekah and I have been coming to have lunch at Grandma's with the kids. We take turn cooking, which has been great for trying out new recipes and also getting a break from cooking on our week off. We get great company and lunch who can beat that! Spending extra time with Grandma has been such a joy and the boys ask regularly if it is the day to go to Grandma's house. This week was extra special since tomorrow is her 84th Birthday, Happy Birthday Grandma!







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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Perfect shirt!



Tell me this is not the PERFECT shirt for when we bring our little one home (well it would be perfect if it had some pink on it ;) )? For my fellow adoption friends check at your local Gap and see if they have any left if you like it, I found it in the clearance rack for $2, can't beat that. It was such a good deal I got it in 2 sizes, I am sure she will fit in one of them when she gets home!


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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

TEN!



We hit 10 months of waiting, TEN months! Honestly it seems much longer than that. I think I have become more and more impatient as the months roll by. I know it is all up to a much greater power than myself and it will all come to be as it is supposed to, I sometimes just have to tell myself that over and over again to get through the day!

Thank goodness I have such a wonderfully supportive family as they have all listened to me multiple times and sorry family it doesn't look like it is going to end anytime soon :) My sister in law Rebekah really helped me put things into perspective last week when I was having a particularly hard day dealing with the emotions of waiting. She said you know if you weren't upset I would actually be worried that this may not be the right thing for you and your family, but your emotions just show how invested you are and how much you want this baby to come into your family. She was right, all four of us talk about her constantly, she is a part of our every day and we include her in our future plans. We miss her and long to know who she is, what she looks like, to hug her and kiss her, hold her hand and list goes on and on!

So for now we will continue on making great memories as a family of four and look forward to the day when we can be making sweet memories as a family of five!
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

VBS

Landon has vacation bible school this week and one of the fun things they get to do is memorize a Bible verse by Friday and they win a free t-shirt. One wonderful trait my husband has is that he can memorize things really easily, I couldn't help but hope that my kids would inherit this from him. I thought from early on that Landon had, and I think I am right. He pretty much learned the verse, Hebrews 12: 1-2, the first night we went through it a couple of times and by the next night he had it down.

Last night we put the boys to bed and apparently they weren't very tired. Pretty soon we heard them rehearsing the verse and Landon was trying to teach Leyton like I had taught him. SO sweet to hear their little voices, of course I had to grab my video camera. It was dark in there so you can't see them, but it is still a great memory.




Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Father's Day Weekend

We had a busy but fun Father's day weekend! Here are a couple pictures from Sunday and then the rest of the weekend.

My sweet boys before Church!

Saturday we had so much fun! My brother and sister-in-law had a party to celebrate Father's Day and we got to relax and catch up with family and friends.


The boys loved the hayride

My sister-in-law's Dad let off sky lanterns, SO cool if you have never seen them!


My Dad and I



We had my nephew and niece with us for the day on Friday. We went to a cute restaurant that has a train bring you your food. The kids loved it and the owner's parents were working and were so good with them. They let them help run the train and even let them go behind the scenes to see how everything worked. (the pics are from my phone so not the best quality)



Cute bunch aren't they!

Friday, June 12, 2009

It has been a good week!

We had the success of the garage sale that we made $3000 to go towards our adoption fee's (you can read more about it and see pictures in my earlier post below)!

On Friday our 2nd order of cookbooks arrived ready to sell! We can't believe the outpouring of support we have seen through these cookbooks. Hopefully everyone is enjoying them and cooking up a storm! We do have more available now so if you were interested in a copy please let me know!

We knew eventually we wanted the boys to sleep in the same room and they have been together in one room for over 2 weeks now. A local store was having a big sale and we found really nice bunk beds for over half off the prices I found online of the same bed! For a little while there Leyton didn't sound so pleased to be giving up his room to his sister, but these new beds helped him get over that quickly!

And today our Social Worker emailed to let us know that she received our DCFS endorsement letter (which basically means they approved our Homestudy)! Another step completed and crossed off the list!

Here is a picture of the boys in their new bed!


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Garage Sale post #2

One of the garage sale pictures didn't seem to post. This is also a picture from the end of the sale. I wish I would have had the time to take before pictures. We figure it is worth a shot to try again in the Fall, every little bit helps and we get to clear out our house in the process!



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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Garage Sale

I knew there had to be a reason why it had been 6 years since our last garage sale, they are a TON of work! Last weekend we had "Sadie's Sale" our adoption fundraiser sale. We had been working on it for months and still didn't get everything out and into the sale that we wanted to. I had such a hard time going through the boys clothes for the sale, I still had every single piece of clothing from the day Landon was born until now, maybe just a little too sentimental??? There were so many outfits that I could think back to where we were, or a certain picture that they were wearing the clothes in, and the newborn stuff, how were they ever that little :( I will admit I kept a tub full of stuff I just couldn't bear to part with!

I had a goal in my head that I really wanted to hit, but admittedly it seemed out of our reach. By the time we counted the totals up on Saturday we hit my goal almost exactly on the dot! $3000 going towards helping us pay the costs to bring Sadie home! All that hard work certainly paid off!

I have to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated items for our sale, those of you who let us borrow your tables, and the people who stopped by to help us out, we couldn't have done it without you! We are also so grateful that so many people came out to shop at our sale, I don't think there was ever a moment in those 2 days that we didn't have someone there shopping!

See I am not exaggerating that we never let go of any of the boys clothing!

The other half of the garage before we spread alot of the stuff out on tables outside


This is after the sale is over, I never had time to take before pictures of the outside, but this is VERY thinned out.
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

NINE



Life has been BUSY, somehow 9 months waiting just passed right along and I missed posting this. Not the cutest 9 is it? Wow 9 months, if you would have asked me 9 months ago I never would have dreamed we would be this close to finding out who our daughter is! We found out this week that we are number TWO on the waiting list, we are shocked! Should I start walking around with the phone glued to my hand yet? I feel like there were a million things I wanted to do before we got this close and have done maybe a couple, yikes!

Landon has been asking me lately if we have moved closer on the list and it was so fun to tell him the good news. He is SO excited, and Leyton too, he has started telling people at random that he is getting a baby sister and her name is Sadie, and she is coming from Korea (which he says SO cute)!

I wonder how many more of these waiting for referral posts I will make? It would be really fun to start making waiting for Sadie to come home monthly posts!




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Thursday, May 21, 2009

BLESSED!

I think that sums up quite nicely how we are feeling! I am overwhelmed at how well the cookbooks are going, I feel so blessed at the many people who are supportive of us and our daughter! If any of you are reading this please know that we are so incredibly grateful it is so hard to put into words. I feel like our daughter will be welcomed home with so many people praying for her and embracing her.

Blessed that we are actually number THREE on the waiting list for our little girl's referral. WOW, each little step feels so surreal, our dreams are becoming closer and closer to being our reality!

We feel so blessed that a big decision that was weighing heavily on our minds and hearts has all come through as we hoped and prayed. We feel at peace and have high hopes that this was exactly the direction we were supposed to head in!

Blessed with the amazing family I have. Two of the sweetest little boys a mother could ever dream of, an amazing husband and best friend (definitely blessed that I can still say that after being together for over 14 years lol). We have wonderful supportive extended families as well, and are so blessed that our boys (and soon our daughter) will grow up being surrounded by so many members of their family.

Every night we pray and thank God for the many many blessings he brings to our lives. Even though we have faced hurdles over the past year that were more then we ever have had to face before we still felt the hand of God through it all and felt blessed! Hope each of you is feeling blessed today!


p.s. I made a little change to our blog, can you find it? If so what do you think?

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Welcome Home Cookbook

Over the past year we have been in the process of adopting a baby girl from S. Korea. In an attempt to ease the financial costs of international adoption we have decided to put together a cookbook of recipes from our family and friends. The response was overwhelming and we are so blessed to have a wonderful cookbook full of tons of great recipes (over 300) that would be a wonderful staple in every home!

We are asking for a $15 donation ($18 total for shipping if needed) that will go towards supporting the mission of Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS). Part of our adoption fees include a donation to ESWS to help support the children they are finding forever families for, including our future daughter!

Please feel free to email if you are interested in more information at danmeg@gmail.com and we can work out the details to get you your cookbook!

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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Leyton's New Morning Ritual



Like I have previously mentioned 3 is such a funny age! Leyton's new morning routine certainly doesn't disappoint getting Mommy to chuckle. He is VERY picky lately about what he wears, first it was the shirt with the rhino on it, then it was Thomas and now as you will see it is the helicopter shirt.

So the other day after I helped him put on his helicopter shirt he said to me "hang on a minute" and walked out of the room into the bathroom. I was so curious to see what he was doing but didn't want to interrupt him. A second later I heard him climb up onto his stool and say "Yep, I AM handsome"! So stinkin funny this kiddo!

So the next day I was ready with my camera to catch the action in case he would do it again. Sure enough after I helped him change he waltzed into the bathroom, hopped onto the stool and said "Yep, I AM handsome" (In case anyone was wondering yes that is THE helicopter shirt and yes it was day #2, but hey I learned early on in my parenting that you must pick your battles and this shirt was still within the realm of reasonably clean and that was one battle I really didn't feel like facing so early in the morning)



*Excuse the poor quality pics, there are no windows in this bathroom and I took the pic through the mirror so didn't want to use a flash.


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