Dress Up Time!

We're not huge Halloween fans around here.  But costumes?  Yes, please!  My three-year-old loves her some dress up.  And Halloween is one great excuse to go shopping for some bling.

This year Em kind of got the idea that her costume was for a special day.  In a super cute, three-year-old sort of way, she kept mixing up what she was going to be and the name of the holiday.

So, here's my pretty little Halloweena.

And, just for fun, here's Em on her first Halloween.  How do they grow up so fast?

Adventures on the West Coast

Okay, here they are F-I-N-A-L-L-Y.  My lovely mama uploaded 226 pictures of our California trip for me.  (And my awesome dad sent me a CD of pictures from his camera; but, sadly, I can't get my computer to open any of them.)  Scroll down for a peek at our adventures on the West Coast.

We went straight from the airport to the beach (which isn't too difficult because LAX is seconds from the ocean).  My mom packed a picnic, and Em got her first real taste of the Pacific Ocean.

She was especially impressed by this "mountain".  My poor little Midwestern child.  

She had a blast doing this...

...and this, over and over and over and over again.

I love this picture of Em and my dad.  They were having so much fun together.

Later in the week, we headed to the happiest place on earth.  Em LOVES Disneyland and is getting super spoiled by her frequent visits.  This is her third time at Disney thanks to her awesome Uncle Matt who works for Disney and gets us all in for free.  Em talked for days about how she was going to visit Mickey and Uncle Matt.  She pretty much thinks that Matt lives at Disneyland.

Em was also pretty excited to see these ladies.

Here she is watching the parade.  She was so eager for each float to come down Main Street.  I always skip the parade, but it was seriously the best part of the day for Em.  I had a blast watching her excitement.

Here are Emma and Daddy on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  Em is a huge Toy Story fan, but she wasn't too sure what to think of all the lights and noise.  (Jeremy claims this is why my score on the ride KILLED his. ;)

Emma was also pretty excited to meet these guys.

Tigger and my mom - are they cute or what?

We managed to squeeze our whole family into one ship on the rocket ride.  Hopefully this will be impossible next time we're in Cali. 

My favorite part of the day was the World of Color show at California Adventure.  Lights.  Disney music.  Synchronized fountains.  What's not to love?

Our other big day trip was to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  We got to see a two-week-old baby elephant.  This little guy weighs in at 273 pounds!

All my hiking pictures are on my dad's camera, so I threw this one in to keep my promise to have mountain pictures.  

Here's Em goofing around with my sister.

Emma is in love with paint lately.  My sister totally scored aunt points by giving her a canvas and letting her go crazy.  (No, Em doesn't usually paint naked, but Tia let her use acrylic paint. :)

Another fun shot of Em and my dad.

Emma loves her Tia.

We had a wonderful visit.  We also got to catch up with some of my extended family, but all of those pictures are on my dad's camera.  Now we're looking forward to a visit from my mom and dad tomorrow.  So fun to see my parents twice in the same month!

Our Little Longhorn

I've had several people ask me recently about our baby in Texas.  I guess it wasn't super thoughtful of me to share our fun news and then not post anything else for a month.  Oops!  


Part of the reason I haven't posted anything is that there isn't too much to share at this point.  Thankfully things have been pretty uneventful.  Another part is that I'm still struggling to let myself get really excited.  My emotions have processed SO. MUCH. uncertainty lately (special needs list on October 10, special needs list by October 14, no news about the special needs list for days on end - ACK!); I'm having a hard time letting my heart hope.


But, that being said, we are excited.  The thought of having a new baby in our home in less than five months is pretty awesome.  So far everything is going well.  Our birthmom had two appointments with her OB this month.  Her first appointment was on the 3rd, and we actually got an ultrasound picture of our little one.  I have it on my phone and if I were more technologically savvy (or had a phone that had been made after 1997) I'd have figured out a way to post it here.  (Check back later this week; maybe I'll get it figured out.)  Her second appointment was this Thursday, and she was able to find out the baby's gender.


We are having a....baby!  


I know, that was mean.  Even though our birthmom now knows the baby's gender, we have decided to be surprised.  (Well, I've decided to be surprised.  After much begging and arm twisting, Jeremy has decided to make his wife happy. :)


Our baby is due on March 16, but he/she will be delivered via C-section about a week early.  It looks like sometime the first week of March we'll be packing the car with lots of diapers and green-and-yellow outfits for a road trip to Texas.  We'll plan to arrive a day or two before the baby is born.


The rest of our plans are up in the air.  We'll probably be in Texas about 10-14 days.  The first 3-4 days will be spent near the hospital.  Once our little one is discharged, we'll be allowed to travel anywhere in Texas while we wait for our paperwork to be approved by Texas and our home state.  (So...if you're reading this, you live in Texas, and the thought of having a houseguest who is likely to be really loud at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning sounds vaguely appealing, we'd love to visit you in the middle of March. :)


Alright...my pillow is calling my name.  I did f-i-n-a-l-l-y get pictures of our California trip.  Tomorrow is crash on the couch and watch football day, so I'll try to upload some pics while we're relaxing.  Check back tomorrow night for the mountains, the beach, and Mickey.

Emma (Almost) Kisses a Cheetah...and Other Stuff

October has been a whirlwind.  (Can you tell by my serious lack of posts?)  

Earlier this week we headed to the state capital to meet up with some friends.  (Yes, I actually went to the state capital without bringing any adoption paperwork along.  I totally had that strange feeling you get the first time you leave your baby with a sitter.  You know, the feeling that makes you keep checking the carseat over your shoulder because you just know something is missing?  It was uber weird to drive past the Secretary of State's Office without my trusty purple accordion folder on the passenger seat.)

We've known the couple we met for a long time.  Jeremy has been getting in trouble with Dave since kindergarten.  They were roommates (and still getting into trouble) in college, and we lived two doors down from Dave and Beth in student housing while Jeremy and Dave were in seminary.  They've been blessed with two precious boys, one of whom we got to meet for the first time this weekend.  

It's always fun to catch up with friends (especially when snuggling a newborn is part of the deal).  We had a great visit, Em had a blast playing with their older son, Sammy...

...and we also got to hang out with these guys.

Emma got up close and personal with this really big kitty.

And, like always, we LOVED having a whole day with daddy.  (Boy, those two are stinkin' adorable!)

So thankful that we get to share life with special friends.  New babies, a day at the zoo, this crazy adoption journey - they're all sweeter, more special, and definitely richer when you're surrounded by people who love you.  I'm beyond grateful that we are.

I (Almost) Love Fall

I had grand plans to post lots of really fun pictures of our trip to California this week.  But, in a valiant attempt to save money on bag fees (which are ridiculous by the way), I left my SLR home and used my parents' cameras.  Their modem broke this week so no internet for them and no fun pictures for me.  Sad.  Hopefully I'll have some to share soon cuz I'm thinking my blog would be a much happier place with pictures of the beach...and Mickey Mouse.

Instead, I have pictures of the beautiful evening we spent with friends.  It was the kind of night that makes me almost love fall.  Sunshine, cider, s'mores - what's not to love?

Emma was totally thrilled to carve her first pumpkin.  The first thing she said when I told her what we were going to do was, "But, mom, I'm not old enough for knifes" (which she pronounced something like NY-FIZZ).  Once she caught on to the fact that we were really going to let her use a "knife", she couldn't eat dinner fast enough.  Does she look excited, or what?  (And am I a crazy mama for giving a knife to a kid with this look on her face?)

Emma's pumpkin has done double-duty this week.  She actually painted it with friends on Tuesday morning.  We put it outside to dry, and then it poured for two days.  All the washable paint washed right off, and Em had a brand-new pumpkin to carve tonight.  (Emma was a little disappointed about the paint washing off at first, but as soon as NY-FIZZ came into the conversation, she forgot all about her Picasso pumpkin.)

Em did a great job carving her pumpkin with just a little help from Mommy (and Raya).

Here's the finished product.  (Emma's is on the left, and Mommy's is on the right.  Daddy's ghost carving lost its head...literally.)

We finished off the evening with s'mores and cider around the campfire.

I'll take flip-flops and fireflies over s'mores and cider any day, but it was still a pretty awesome night.  (Fall would win a lot of points in my book if it managed to be followed by something other than that w***** season.)

If you'd like a quick update on what's happening in adoptionland, click here.  This mama pretty much says it all.

Happy Friday, everybody!

7 Quick Takes Friday

--- 1 ---

This has been a rough week in adoptionland.  The latest news is that the new adoption entity in our country won't begin giving travel dates for 4-6 weeks.  This process is constantly in flux, so it's hard to know whether 4-6 weeks = 4-6 weeks or a really long time.  

We still haven't heard anything about the special needs list.  

Honestly, I'm hurting.  And sad.  I just want to go get our little ones.  Some parts of this adoption journey feel so horribly much like the dark moments of our struggle with infertility.

Okay, that's all about adoption for today.

--- 2 ---

I just made this super fattening supremely fantastic banana pudding.  I can't wait to eat it at our Community Group dinner tonight.  The best part about this recipe is that I got it off a TV show I saw at the Y...while I was working out.  Counterproductive?  Just a bit. :)

--- 3 ---

Cr*zy 8 is having an AWESOME sale.  All their clearance is 20% off the mark-down price as of this morning.  And, they'll let you take 20% off of that if you have the green coupon from F*mily Fun magazine.  Corkscrew hair bows.  Tights.  Tutus.  So cute.

I'm usually a total garage sale girl when it comes to shopping for Em - Why pay $20 when you could pay 50 cents? - but this stuff was pretty hard to resist.  (Or maybe it's just a really bad idea to go to the mall after getting bad adoption news.  Hhhmmmm....)

Check out Em's adorable new fall wardrobe.

--- 4 ---

Leaving your three-year-old in the bathroom alone is dangerous.  Here's what I found when I walked into the bathroom the other day.

Totally made me smile.  Well, first it made me a little nauseated.  (Germy bottom of toilet seat pressed up against child's face + totally OCD slightly germaphobe mommy = EEEKK!)  Then I smiled...and took a picture.

--- 5 ---

I need to rake.  R-E-A-L-L-Y need to rake.  I think all our leaves and all our neighbors' leaves conspired to pile up on our front lawn while we were in California.  It's really windy, though.  Not a good day to rake, right? ;)

--- 6 ---

Yesterday's cooking night at moms group was really fun and informative.  I learned that frozen meat cooks in the crock-pot in the same amount of time as thawed meat; you just have to set the crock-pot on high instead of medium.  Total a-ha moment for me.

My husband will be thrilled to know that I'm totally feeling inspired to try some new recipes.  I also want to try this mama's version of freezer cooking.  She freezes gallon bags filled with chopped veggies, meat, and spices: a freezer meal that can go right from the bag to the crock-pot.  Brilliant!

--- 7 ---

I may or may not be headed to cr*zy8.com right after I finish this post. ;)

Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting.  You can link up here if you want to join in on the fun.

Have a great weekend everybody! 

October 11

For most of you it's Tuesday, or another school day, trip to the dentist day, or maybe someone's birthday.  For me, it's the day I've been anxiously awaiting for months.  October 11 is finally here.

I woke up this morning and laid in bed for a long time.  My stomach was tied up in knots as I anticipated turning on my computer to read news that would either make this the best day ever or break my heart.  I couldn't decide whether it was better to be feeling the anxiety of waiting for an answer or the finality that that answer will bring.

It's been four months since we got the news that laws had passed to put our adoption on hold.  Four months since we heard that our paperwork had been submitted two days after the new laws went into effect.  Four months of waiting, praying, and hoping.  Four months of - as much as I've tried not to - falling in love with the sweet faces of little ones who wait for mamas and papas in Eastern Europe.

Today marks the end of those months, but not the end of the waiting.

When I finally convinced myself to get out of bed and check my email, there was nothing there.  It's already night time in Eastern Europe, so there won't be news today.  No list.  No word on whether the SDA will resume giving travel dates.  No answers.

October 11 is now just another Tuesday.

And the Countdown Continues...

I have been a horrible blogger lately.  Sorry!  Here's my amazing excuse (which I meant to share with all of you before I randomly disappeared from blogland for an extended period of time)...we have been on vacation in Southern California since last Monday.  It has been a wonderful trip, and we've been able to make some special memories with my family.  I had great intentions to stay semi-caught up on blogging (and have even taken a bunch of cute pictures with every intention of posting them), but somehow hiking, Disneyland, and relaxing in the sunshine have filled up my days.  (Computer or hammock in the sun? Hhhmmmmm...)

I have been on the computer enough to obsessively check for updates about the new special needs list.  (Check out my last post if you don't know what I'm talking about.)  I've also been praying like crazy, thinking about special little ones in EE, and counting down the minutes until October 10 about 500 times a day.

I finally got an update today, and it wasn't what I wanted to hear.  As I mentioned several months ago, our country is in the process of changing the entity that handles adoptions.  There was originally a plan to close to adoptions on July 11 while that transition happened.  Thankfully, the government in our country changed the plan at the last minute and allowed the current entity (the SDA) to continue processing adoptions during the transition.  Now, months later, the time is approaching for the new entity to begin functioning.  Our country has not decided how to handle this transition, so they have temporarily stopped giving travel dates to adoptive families.  The last appointments are scheduled for October 17 (and have already been assigned).

What does this mean?

Well, first of all, it means that the possible-but-not-super-likely timeline from my last post becomes a very-unlikely-if-not-impossible timeline.  I had hoped that we could travel very soon if the new special needs list was released this week, and HIV was on it.  That can't happen if travel dates aren't being assigned.

Also, our country has a regularly scheduled closure that usually lasts from the end of November until the beginning of February.  New paperwork cannot be submitted during this time but travel dates are usually given for a portion of the time (normally through December).  Having our country begin a temporary closure so close to their normal closure definitely makes me nervous about whether they will reopen or not.

The update I got had one more piece of discouraging news: the new list may not be released on Monday after all.   That was really not fun to read.  It feels like we have been waiting on this list for ages, and I am so ready to get some answers.  By law, the list is supposed to be done by October 11 (Tuesday), but the update made me uncertain about whether the list will be released this week after all.

So...the waiting continues.  I feel like I am on a roller coaster ride with no end in sight....a little queasy and not sure whether I'm right-side-up or up-side-down.  There are times when I just want to give up.  When I'd like to take my heart and put it in a big vault.  It hurts to care.  It hurts to be 100% invested in something when you have absolutely no idea how it will turn out.  It hurts to fall in love with precious little faces like this one.  

But I'm going to hang in there.  

I truly feel that God has led us on this journey and that he has some very special children for our family.  Do I have any idea where our roller coaster ride adoption journey will go from here?  Not at all.

Over the past few days, I've gotten emails and FB notes from friends who have told me that they're praying for our family and walking this road along with us.  Those words of encouragement mean SO much.  Thanks for being the kind of friends who are there for us no. matter. what.   Please keep praying.

Here are a few specific prayer requests...

1.)  Pray that the new special needs list would be finished this week as the law requires.  Pray that those making decisions about the list would consider the needs of children waiting above everything else.   Pray that HIV is on the list.

2.) Pray that this temporary closure would be very short and that adoptions can continue through the end of the year.  

3.) Pray that the transition to the new adoption entity goes smoothly and does not cause any other hang ups for those in the process of adopting.

Thank you!  You guys are the best!