Happy Candy Day

The kids had a great evening scoring all their loot. Ian was over the top excited. It was fun watching the kiddos having so much fun.  The boys all wanted to be "scary".  Elise of course wanted to be a princess, and Faith and Shelby wanted to dress up in the new witches costumes we scored.  Halloween is just a big fun candy day for the kids.  They had all been looking forward to the big day for a long time.  Ian was still amazed that he got candy for free.  As he kept saying, "Just get candy, no give money?"-LOL

 

Sweet Dreams

Baby girl didn't make it until bedtime tonight. Sweet dreams Leesybug.

Girls Rule

Boys drool :). A whole lot of fun watching the girls and their "fashion shows" around here!

Seriously...

This is getting ridiculous. Nana to the rescue again.  Hives AGAIN!

Creepy Carwash

Elise is SO scared of auto car washes. It cracks me up! I know I am not a very sympathetic mommy ;)

Yes I Did

Two LESS

A bright spot this week has been getting to see two of my peeps finally getting to meet their new additions in China.  You can follow them along on their journeys here and here.  Funny thing is that they both got to go to China together.  They have shared the crazy paperchase journey, now they literally get to share a week in China together with their new littles.

 

I have been with these ladies from the very beginning of just talking about adopting, to now finally being able to share in their joy of holding their babies.  Congrats Michelle and April, you are both very blessed!

Flu-Hives-Lice OH MY!

Is it November yet?!?!?  OMGoodness has this been an insane month for my household.  I have had SO many issues going on with the kids.  We have been to doctors for flu, for hives, for ear issues, for regular checkups, and stomach bugs.  And don't forget I also enjoyed taking 5 kids to the dentist, 4 separate school conferences, early release all week long, oh and the ewwwwiest of them all…LICE.  Yeah, not been my idea of fun times let me tell ya.

 

Thankfully my mom has been the superhero helping me the entire month.  If it wasn't for her, I would probably be on the unemployment line by now.  Oh and of course my mom helped with the whole lice picking session.  And she even did it without wrinkling up her nose the whole time like I did-lol.  Thanks Mom you are the best!!

 

Needless to say, bring on November.  Surely this month of fiascos will soon be over.  Oh the joys of parenting-UGH.

Progress

I thought you would enjoy seeing some of Ian's progress in English and writing.  Now remember that he has only been home 5 months now.  He did this paragraph all on his own at school.  No help from the teacher at all.  The teacher told them to write a paragraph about their fossil experiment.

 

Here is the real translation of his writing:

"One day I found a fossil.  I take it home. I open the fossil. It is a dinosaur bone. I take it to class and showed Sean."

 

I think he is doing fabulous in school!!  He had an excellent report from his teacher who said that he fully participates, all the kids like him, and that she enjoys having him in the class. WOW, who'd of thought :)

More Pumpkin Pics

 

 

Pumpkin Patch 2012

 

 

We made our annual trip to find the perfect pumpkins at Berry Patch. Ian was fascinated and excited the whole time. All the kids had a great time and wanted to carve them as soon as we got home. Not sure if they will last until Halloween, but the kids did enjoy making them for sure!

"Your life is going to be a big mess."

"Your life is going to be a big mess."

Who in their right mind would ever want to hear those words? But it's true....well it's true for those who are lucky, fortunate, and brave enough to embrace and actually live a full life.

It's going to get strange, and uncomfortable, and sometimes a bit overwhelming.  OR, you could just settle for boring.  There's a little gray area in between those two options, but not much. 

Before my husband and I began to build our family through adoption, we traveled. We looked for stuff to do on weekends because we had time to fill.  And the truth is, back in that safe-place of no kids and no mortgage, if i had a glimpse of myself (5 years in the future) standing in a shower, fully clothed, holding a feverish child covered in...stuff... two other kids crying and calling for me..I would have hid in a closet and never stepped out of the house again.  Thank God I entered into adoption blissfully ignorant and blind to that future. Because those messy, hard moments are now yesterday's memories.  Inside jokes to tease each other with. 

Listen to me:  You can do this.  Adoption can be scary, expensive, it takes time...but that is what you have. TIME.  The average family takes 1-2 years of researching before they start down this path.  Start NOW. Pay off your debts, get in shape, gather information.  But get started.  Messy is a whole lot more fun than Boring. Trust me on that.   -- Martha (www.rainbowkids.org)

Visit the Waiting Child Area Now 

Nana's Special Day

We celebrated my mom's birthday at Chinese of course! All the kids were excited to sing and share in the excitement of Nana's big day. Pretty sure my mom was happy getting to celebrate with some of her biggest fans :). Happy Birthday Moma!!

Daddy's Lil'Punkin

Yes, he finally has one that he can truly call a daddy's girl. Elise loves loves loves her daddy. Oh and she still calls him silly every single day because he has no hair anymore ;)

FLU....Ewww

I knew it when her fever spiked to 104 in the middle of the night. My Shelby baby tested positive for the crappy old flu. This is a first for my household, and it is not a welcome visitor. We always get our flu shots, but obviously not soon enough this year.

Praying that the rest of us don't get infected! I went to Kroger and got my flu shot this afternoon. It would be very very bad if this mom got sick. Trust me, VERY bad. So we are washing and sanitizing and staying clear of my sick kiddo as much as possible. I am getting the urge to Saran wrap her though :}

Found: Baby boy on Zhengzhou station China.

Apparently this is a common occurrence of how things are done when a child is found abandoned in China.  Wish their government was a bit easier on us Americans when we wish to "take one home" with us.  Honestly though, it is just a sad situation where families feel like they have no other choice but to abandon their child anonymously.

Frightfe$t at Six Fl@gs

 

I took the kids to 6 flags again this weekend. We are getting good use of our season passes for sure. They were set up for Halloween, so we got I do some different things this trip. As you can see from the pics, BIG smiles from all my kiddos :)

Parade!

Everyone knows I love a parade! Kind of a weird obsession. But if a parade is to be in town, pretty certain me and my crew will be street side:)

This one is just our local high school's parade, but still fun for all. Ian thinks it's great to just show up and get free candy. Faith, well she thinks it's the beat invention E.V.E.R.

Love passing on a "family tradition" to my babies. Pretty sure they will always think of their crazy mom every single time they attend a parade, even when they take their grand kids one day :)

Fishing Day

OK I admit it, I let the boys skip school one day last week just to go fishing. Not just any old fishing....fishing with FRANK!

He took the boys up to TN where they spent the whole day on the water. Pretty sure great memories were made an valuable life lessons were taught ;)

Advocating

Rob is at it again!  Go on over and check out the cuties he is trying to find forever families for:
http://eyesopen-heartchanged.blogspot.com/. 

Got to love this young man's heart.  He changed our lives forever, maybe he will change yours too ;)