Up Close and Personal

Someone asked me what Caden does while we are doing school. Since I don't pretend he is the genius I made Ethan out to be when he was his age, (and maybe because he is the third kid) I'm not going to lie and say he sorts out his colors or stacks blocks by size. Sometimes he will play with all my tupperware(mostly throwing them all over the kitchen). But, no, he crawls up on the table and eats crayons. Sometimes, he colors with them, but mostly he has found that eating them is a better use of his time.

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure they are non-toxic.

Charlotte came to me yesterday.

"Uh-oh, mom LO-OK!"

"What happened?"

"I didnt do anything. It just fell down and BOOM! and then fell down and Boom! again! all over my hand!"

I decided that as long as we were out today, I would try to take some new pictures for my dad's mantle, since he's into that sort of thing.

These aren't those pictures.

I mean, I do have a reputation to uphold.

We've all had the sniffles.

It was nice to get a little exercise in the Spring-y weather.

Who knew that a Peony bed is the perfect place to dig for treasure and build a fire?

Funny, but dangerous.

But funny.

Oh my. If he is still making this face at 16 I'm going to have to lock him away.

Her, I don't think I will have to worry about so much...

This reminds me of Robin Hood.

(Russel Crowe not Kevin Costner)

And there you have it!

Conversations with Charlotte

(While brushing my hair)

"I'm going to make your hair pretty.It doesn't look pretty right now.I'm going to take your hair off and give you new hair. God wants it to be pretty so he can see it be gracious and beautiful."

Conversations With Ethan- In a Tree

"Dad look at me!"

"Dangerous, huh?!"

"I'm like a monkey shaking bananas!"

"Ok, Can you get me down?"

Me: "Can you get down?"

"I think so. Without going to the hospital I guess. And gettin' blood-sucked."

A Nice Breeze Summer Day

That was yesterday, according to Ethan. It really was so nice and Spring-y. And it smelled like Spring, which is one of the best smells ever made.

I like those candles called "Spring Rain", and well, they just don't hold themselves to the real thing.

"Dangerous, huh mom?"

Snow baseball.

It was a hard winter that year...

My most favorite picture of Caden to date.

Charlotte practiced her balancing skills.

They were so excited to see that "the stream "was back.

And we spent a good 40 minutes floating various pieces of garbage in it.

"Take THAT Street!"

What We've Been Up To Wednesday

Valentine party with the cousins

"Let's hunt the wild beasts! Let's throw bricks at them!"

"Dadada DA! Dadadada dadaDADA!"

found under a rock in the yard

I tried to get him to smile, but he said "the Statue of Liverty doesn't smile, mom!"

A bunch of things all rolled into one (post)

We had our final homestudy meeting Friday-the one where our Social Worker came over and talked with us and did the home inspection. It went really well, our SW is a really nice girl, just a year younger than me, but really educated about international adoption. We spent all week preparing-we painted all the trim and cabinets, painted the bathroom, put in a new ceiling in the school room, cleaned the garage, and did a lot of other things here and there. Of course, we had lots of help from the Brickers and my mom. But it was pretty fun and exciting getting ready for it.

Its neat because the very first adoption blog I ever read, the one that God really used to start the ball rolling for us,was a family that was getting ready for their home visit. And they just recently got back from their first trip to Ethiopia to see their little boy.

Everyone asked if I was stressed out about it or nervous, but honestly I wasn't. I felt comfortable enough with our SW and knew what she expected to see. I guess I also felt confident that this is in God's hands, and Zoey is ours whether we "passed" or not; its in His timing. So I was pretty excited about it. Although, after it was over I had to go take a nap {which I never do} I think the mental and physical exhaustion finally took over.

So what's next you ask?

(go on, ask)

Well, we need to file our taxes and get Jeremiah's letter of employment back from HR. Also we are waiting on proof on life and health insurance, and that is it!! Our SW will write up a report that will be put in our dossier recommending us for adoption, and then it will get sent over. Hopefully, in my mind anyway, that will be sometime in March. Maybe, maybe not. And then we wait. Going strictly by current wait list timelines, for a girl 0-12 months we should expect to wait 7-11 months from the time our dossier gets to Ethiopia. But we are requesting 0-18 months, so that could be a little different. And, since our God is not constricted by timelines and dates and statistics and what-not, it's really hard to say when we could expect to get her referral. Could be 2 months, could be 17, although I hope not. I would love to have her home by Christmas, personally.

Ethan is about to turn 5. As I write this, he is sleeping his last night as a 4 year old. I can't believe it.Actually I try not to think about it.

I was lighting the candles on his cake tonight and someone reminded me that there should be one more. I had only put on 4.

See? Denial.

Most of the night was spent chasing Charlotte and Caden around with a remote control car he got, which they loved. I think I know what to get Jeremiah for Father's Day now. He had as much fun with it as Ethan.

I love it when they do this.

Oh, I got a new camera this week, a belated Christmas present, so you will be seeing lots more pictures of the kids, which I know you've all missed since my other one broke.

We started homeschool (again) and reallyreallytrulyIpromise this time we are going to stick with it. I got the Sonlight Kindergarten Curriculum and so far we love it. I love that it covers a bunch of different topics and involves a lot of reading, and that its all planned out for me. The kids love it because they are getting to learn about some really interesting things and make some messy crafts. They've memorized two bible verses so far and love to sing them, and we are learning about all things Australia. Our letter sounds so far have been F and B.

Last week we made Mammoth Tusk necklaces and next week we are going to mummify a Barbie doll.

Happy Valentine's Day!