Happy 6th Birthday to my Princess

Paige turns 6 years old today. Six years ago, 6 inches of snow covered the ground and a beautiful baby girl was born. Happy Birthday! Where did the time go?

2/28/09

Sunrise, Sunset.. Sunrise, Sunset

So Paige and Steve had a Daddy Daughter dance this past Saturday. It was through the Girl Scouts. Here are some cute pictures before they left. Paige didn't want curls in her hair, she wanted it straight. We used a straightener on it because it's naturally wavy. My little girl is growing up.

This is the I'm not really going to smile face but I will pretend. I mastered that as a child.

And of course Aaron wanted a picture with Dad too.

I had to add some Zane pictures also. He is growing up too fast. I finally got one of him standing and smiling at the same time. Usually when the camera goes up, the smile goes off.

In this next picture we have been experimenting with nap time. He was having a snack, I was unloading the dishwasher and I turned around and Zane was out.

02/23/09

Test passed and TB tests for the kids

Steve and I have passed the first test on the book "Adoption Parenting". We missed a few questions that seemed "relative" and I was rather shocked at that because the questions seemed rather easy. We got a 94%. We are slowly chipping away at the paperwork.

Today I took Paige and Zane for their 6 yr. and 9 month well child check ups. Apparently the state of Indiana requires all people living in the household that will be adopting take a tuberculosis test. So I put them through that today. Zane had to get some other shots so to him it was just another shot. Paige is always a trooper and barely flinches. Aaron on the other hand was crying hysterically before the shot. He had to be manually put on the table for his shot. It's going to be rough for him when he has to get his booster shots for Kindergarten. Here is a picture I took of Paige's arm although by the afternoon, it had just turned into a bruise.

So afterwards, I took the kids to McDonald's. We hope to be done with the paperwork sometime in the near future.

2/16/09

MORE PAPERWORK!!!

Okay so we met with the homestudy person, Alice, from St. Elizabeth Coleman Preg. and Adoption Services. She brought over more paperwork for us. We basically have to write down our entire life story. The kids will have to be subjected to a TB test as will we. We have to get a CPS okay from every state we've lived in since age 18. It just never ends.

I'm so overwhelmed right now. I think I'll just go to bed.

Oh yeah on top of everything else, our garage door opener died, and our hot tub froze.

But on the funny side, during dinner we were trying to teach Paige what an "average" is and other math problems and Aaron piped up and said "I wish I could fly". Out of the mouths of babes.

02/09/09

My Kids and Their Weird Idiosyncrasies (wierd - weird better Lisa?)

For some reason Paige always likes to sit in boxes.

Then:

Now:

** Note it's the same box

Now Aaron always likes to crane his head back especially when he sleeps. Here he is as an infant. It started in infancy and it continues to this day.

I always find that Aaron falls asleep in weird positions. Here are a couple pics of Aaron sleeping

Aaron got "tired" of waiting to use the computer.

Zane is just coming into his own right now, he had one but he doesn't do it anymore. He used to open and close his hand when he wanted a bottle. I miss that, it was cute.

2/4/09

January Pictures

Alright since nothing is going on with the adoption right now, I thought I would post a few pictures from January.

Cutie pie Zane

Zane trying to climb the stairs

Paige got a hold of the camera

Aaron got a hold of the camera

2/2/09

How long will the process be?

Well, it is a 3 year waiting list to adopt a healthy child from China. But we are open to a special needs child such as a cleft lip, or deformed hand ect. So that cuts the wait down to a year. Now this is from the time that China gets our paperwork and that will take us several months. But the wait doesn't bother us. We still have 3 healthy children at home to take care of.

Satisfied with my template

Okay, I have found a template I am satisfied with. Now I can tell other people besides Amber that I have a new blog. This is all new to me so bear with me. I don't have much to say as far as the adoption process goes. Not much has happened in the last 24 hrs that I posted. I have literally spent the last two afternoons on this blog. And it's still not finished. But then again, everything is a journey.

My first Real blog

Okay this is for you Amber.

It has taken me many hours to get a template I liked for this blog. Then once I got one, the top bar was missing. Ugh. So I may try some more later. Anyhoo, the real reason for this blog was to document the adoption process. Okay so far we are reading a Parenting Adoption book and have to answer 78 questions about the book. This book is thicker than I normally would read but when you have to, you have to. We are on question 28. We also have our home study scheduled for next Saturday. I don't know exactly what they are going to do, but it's a requirement. More $$$.

So that is where we are right now. Apparently, parenting 3 kids is not enough. Well I will keep experimenting with templates until I'm satisfied.