It is so surreal that tomorrow has been one month since we received a call that has forever changed our lives. So one month down and unfortunately too many more to go. The only thing that really makes me feel like I have some impact on our daughters life right now is by sending care packages. I am SO incredibly grateful that some super sweet Mama's (and Dad's) who will be traveling soon have been nice enough to take care packages over to our little JeIn in S. Korea!
Shopping for a little girl is fun I have to admit and this time around the Grandma's also wanted in on the action so they each got a little outfit for her too!
This adorable outfit is from my MIL. The little skirt is so cute with attached bloomers under it!
My Mom got this for JeIn, tell me she won't look absolutely adorable in this color green!
I couldn't resist that striped outfit (it is like a cozy sweater) when I found it on sale after winter. I thought she would never get to wear it, but now hearing and seeing pictures of how much they layer the babies I figure I may as well send it.
The shirt says "One of a Kind", so true!
Leyton got to pick out all the toys for this package and he did a pretty good job, except he kept picking out the boy colored versions and I kept exchanging them for the pink when he wasn't looking lol! Gotta have a cute hair clip and some Burts Bee's Buttermilk Bath too, love the smell of that stuff!
On to some really awesome news! I think I have mentioned on here before that my older brother and SIL are adopting the most adorable little 6 year old from Ethiopia, well today they found out they passed court and he is officially part of our family (not that he wasn't before, in our minds anyhow)! Hoping they will be on a plane to Africa at the end of June, can't wait to meet him in person! 
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Care package and some super exciting news!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Best Birthday Ever!
Today is my Birthday and I can think of nothing else I would rather do than officially accept my daughters referral! There will be lots more info to come, but here is a quick post so you can see her adorable face! If you are looking at her picture and are scratching your head thinking hmmm I thought they were adopting from S. Korea, well you are right were are! Our little JeIn (pronounced Jane) is biracial (black/Korean). She is almost 6 months old, living with a loving foster family who has been fostering for 21 years and we are so anxious to get her home!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Seventeen
SEVENTEEN months and counting. Wow, if you had asked me a year ago if I thought we would still be here waiting I would have said no way, but as they say in International Adoption, expect the unexpected. I remember my social worker telling me back in May that "it could be anytime now", funny how I felt so much closer to getting "the call" back then then I do now.
Waiting, that is a word we hear over and over again in adoption. Waiting for this piece of paperwork to come in, waiting for this appointment or that appointment, waiting for the referral, then waiting again for more paperwork to fall into place, and what must be the hardest wait of the them all waiting for that anticipated travel call to go lay your eyes on your precious child in person. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for my actions, words or emotions when I am finally in that stage of waiting.
Funny little things that I have realized while waiting...
*Since it is now 2010, we have officially been in the waiting stage in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (doesn't 2008 sound like an eternity ago?)
*Both of my boys have teachers that have been blessed by adoption. In fact both of Landon's teachers Aide's have adopted.
*When you meet someone else whose lives have been touched by adoption you feel an almost instant bond
*Who knew you could actually go from Friday being the most looked forward to day of the week to it being dreaded and Monday being the new favorite
*There is nothing better than hearing my boys talk about their sister, pray for her, draw pictures of our family including her etc.. Leyton, who just turned 4 randomly blurted out yesterday "when is Sadie coming home", so sweet and so heart wrenching at the same time, I know this wait has been hard for them too.
*Men and women handle the wait in completely DIFFERENT ways lol! Neither one bad or good, right or wrong, just very very different. Is this just me who thinks this???
*Waiting this long with no control over any of it makes me think and rethink the only thing I do have control over, what we will name her. Sadie???????
I know I am missing a ton of thoughts here so stay tuned or please reply with your thoughts, I am sure there are some good ones to add!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
December 2009
If the boys could have had it their way this would have been our Christmas card this year. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a dinosaur on a skateboard, don't you agree?
It just wouldn't be Christmas if there wasn't something to stay up late putting together would it! (Dan got the lucky job of assembling the lego farm set) My SIL painted our train table as part of Leyton's gift into a field pattern.
Christmas morning, Leyton was still half asleep (we actually had to wake him up, don't plan on that happening every year lol)
Landon's face on this one just cracks me up, it looks like a sleepy, hmm did Santa come look.
This was after Leyton opened up the gift Landon got for him, Landon looks thrilled with this hug :)
TWINS! We couldn't resist getting this case for Landon
Last but not least we couldn't resist this t-shirt (Landon got the Kimchee Delivery one) from Tea Collection's Korean line. I have my eye on 2 more shirts for the boys, love those newer Dragon ones!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Leyton turns 4
My baby turned 4 in December. He has grown so much this last year and become quite the little man. He is a sweet, sensitive and adorable little 4 year old! I am one lucky mom with these 2 kiddos :)
These pictures are from his actual Birthday. Landon was off to school and Daddy was off to work so it was just him and I for the day. He helped me bake a cake, and what would be the fun of baking a cake without licking the batter off the beaters! His absolute favorite food is mac & cheese (as you can tell from the picture), had to get TJ's mac and cheese for his special lunch (he could eat that stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him). Once Daddy and Landon got home he opened his presents from us (the buzz lightyear wings and the recycling truck, I am sure there were a few other things).
Hands down the best gift was EDDY from Pororo! I was SO excited to win Eddy from Kris at Life in the Hammer Home It was SO hard for me to wait until his birthday to give it to him but I knew he would really love it because he can't get enough of Pororo. As you can see it was a hit and he was quickly trying to break him into life at our house by trying to get him to ride in his Diego truck lol! Thanks again Kris!
The family birthday was farm themed, how cute is my little niece as a pig :)
Continued Post #2
Continuing with my previous post, here is a bit more of what we have been up to.
At Leyton's preschool they have Mr Bear, a special little bear that gets a chance to come home with each child for the weekend and then we get to take pictures and document what kind of things Mr Bear gets to do and send it back to school the next week. Mr Bear was lucky enough to go out in the combine with Grandpa (my Dad) and Leyton. What a crazy year it was for all the farmers, our family was lucky enough to have everything out of the field by Christmas, not everyone around here was so lucky. I think this harvest will be talked about for many many years to come.
We continued to spend our Monday's with Grandma, previously talked about here http://pregnancybypaper.blogspot.com/2009/07/lunch-with-grandma.html Love this picture of Leyton trying to feed the cattle on the farm one Monday.
Landon kept us busy with his first time playing soccer. Here he is with his cousin Lily. Don't you just love her pink soccer pads!
to be continued (again (: )
Long overdue post #1
Yikes, it has been a LONG time since I last posted so I figured a quick photo recap of the last few months was the easiest way to start blogging again. The past few months have been super busy getting used to our new school routines with the boys in 1st grade and preschool this year, lots of fun family activities and just trying to keep busy and get our minds off this wait (yes we are still waiting, I will get back to that in another post soon).
In September we were supposed to have family pictures taken with my side of the family and due to rain it got cancelled. We ended up getting together anyhow and having a picnic in the woods at my parents and taking pictures ourselves with the tripod and timer on the camera. The kids were having so much fun watching the red light flash with the timer we actually got a shot that wasn't too bad!
If we take these pictures next year we hope that our family will have grown by 3 more people! My sister in law is due with a boy in June, we are hoping (but realistically not so sure) that we will have Sadie home in 2010, and my oldest brother and his wife announced they will be giving me another nephew, a gorgeous little boy who is almost 6 from Ethiopia, we are praying he comes home soon!
Fall is my favorite season and the boys and I had a blast hiking, throwing rocks and playing in the leaves!
Landon turned 7 in October, still so hard to believe! I have to admit I can't believe I am old enough to have a SEVEN year old lol, but that is my own issue :) We had his family birthday party at the cabin and he had a glow in the dark golfing party for his friends. Love the picture of him praying at his party and the one with sweet little Vivi (my niece) cuddling with him. She has been great practice getting the boys ready for a little sister!
We had a Bakugan boy and a Dragon for Halloween this year. If you have boys that are a little older you have probably heard of Bakugans, they were the HUGE thing in our house this past year (although I haven't seen him play with them much lately, maybe they are on their way out). Halloween is CRAZY for us, first we hit Granny's, always a huge hit, ice cream for Landon and cheese for Leyton, they were in heaven lol! I think we had 3 more family stops before we got to the actual trick or treating. The boys are at great ages and had a blast! Oh can't forget the S. Korean flag Dan carved out of our pumpkin, turned out very cool!
