Moving Along....

Our next step in Josie's adoption is to get our fingerprints taken.  These fingerprints are for USCIS, which is our homeland security clearance.  The U.S. has to give us permission to adopt internationally before we send our dossier (paperwork) to China.  First, we had to have a finalized home study.  Then, we sent that home study, along with the application and $890 to them.  Now, we have to have our fingerprints done electronically down in our state capital.  We have that appointment date for this next Monday.  Once that is done, we wait.  It could be a month.  It could be 2 months.  USCIS takes our fingerprints (makes sure we aren't felons) and reviews our home study.  Our home study has to be written exactly according to specifications in order for them to approve us.  Hopefully, our social worker did it right.  Sometimes, USCIS "pink slips" and needs wording changed or more information.  This sets you back in your timeline though so let's just pray it clears quickly.  Once we have approval, we can mail off our dossier to China.  And then we wait more.  I love waiting.  It is so much fun. 

A Painful Day

Today is my dude's 4th birthday.  Most people would celebrate.  I am not.  In fact, I'm having a hard time getting through this whole week leading up to his birthday.  There will be no candles or cake.  He will get no gifts.  No singing or clapping either.  But what is really making my heart ache, is that on his 4th birthday, my dude will be transferred out of his baby home and into a mental institute.  I don't know where either.  It could be a good one or it could be a bad one.  I've seen pictures and stories of both.  I will lose track of him now.  I've always had a fear of losing my kids in the wilderness when we go camping.  That's how I feel now.  It's pure panic.  There's so many dangers looming and I can't protect him.  Will he be safe?  Or will he be like most children with special needs that die within a few years due to lack of care?  He's lost.  I can't get to my dude with his sweet smile and haunting eyes.  It's killing me.

Please pray for my little man. 

Road Trip!

Every two years, I take my sweet babies back to Ohio to visit my family.  We've always flown, but this time I'm on a tight budget.  We are taking a road trip instead!  My hubby is staying home (because someone has to work) and I am heading into the wild blue yonder with the kids.  I'm pretty sure the hardest part will be getting through the never ending state of Montana, but we have some great pit stops planned.  And the best part....we're camping at KOAs!  Because who doesn't love a KOA?  Pray for us and pray my kids don't kill each other on the way.  I will blog more as I get the chance.

They're spelling O-H-I-O for those of you who are confused.....lol.....

Fun in the Sun

Holy smokes!  It's been a month since I blogged.  I have to get better at this.  We have been super busy just having fun.  Spending our days at the pool and our weekends camping.  This past weekend, we camped at a mountain reservoir.  Our campsite was right next to a small inlet of water off the main river.  This spot had really shallow and slow moving water so it was safe to let the kids have fun and for me to relax. 

This may be the first year where the kids have all been old enough for me to enjoy camping.  I'm the over-cautious mom who always has to have one eye on her kids.  Molly has always been a wanderer, which could be horrifying if you're in the wilderness.  But my husband grew up camping and is great at it.  It's in his blood.  He takes off on hiking and rafting trips a few times a year and his goal is to one day retire and be a forest ranger.  I think he's crazy.  I can usually only camp one day before my allergies get so bad that we have to leave.  Campfire smoke makes me absolutely miserable.  So does grass, dust, wheat, corn, or anything else nature related....  So we compromise and go on short camping trips.  This is easy since we live in Montana and there are several great spots within an hour or so from our house. 

My birthday was a few days ago and my family got me a sewing machine.  It's been years since I've sewed but I'm excited to learn again.  I have been eyeing some valances out of my Country Sampler magazine for about 2 years now, but I refuse to pay the extravagant prices.  That might just be my first project (because how hard can valances be to sew???)  And if they come out well, I'll make some special ones for Halloween and Christmas.  Because that would just be cool....

Mr. Bean, our big baby, had knee surgery this past week as well.  He's been confined to his kennel with next to no movement for the next few weeks.  He started licking his stitches and was condemned to the cone of shame....

Remember when I mentioned that once you decide to adopt, expenses come out of the woodwork?  Beans knees have been one of them.  But he is family and he's only 2 years old and he is a big baby.  I love him.  He is the most gentle of giants and is sweeter than pie.  What can you do but give the pup his surgery. 

On the adoption side, we're just waiting on our home study update to be finalized.  Our dossier paperwork is ready to go otherwise.  Once we get our home study, we can mail it off to get pre-approval from the US to adopt (I-800a).  Once that's back, we can mail off our dossier to China.  That's when the REAL waiting begins.  But one thing I've learned from our last year is that you can't let the waiting get to you.  That's always the hardest part so instead of thinking about it, just live life and don't waste time on the worrying.  And that's my advice for the day.  Or the month since I can't seem to remember to blog... 

Dinner Time Blues

Am I the only parent out there that gets totally and utterly exhausted just from sitting down at supper time?  Tonight may have topped the cake.  I found myself watching meal time unfold like I was in an Adam Sandler movie.  It started out pretty normal....Lily, my 6 year old, looking at her soup with fear.  "Mom...did you forget I'm a vegetarian?"  My reply is always the same..."No Lily.  You are not a vegetarian.  For one thing, you live in Montana and vegetarians aren't allowed in Montana.  Second, your favorite food is a meatball and that is definitely not vegetarian.  Now eat your soup, please."  The conversation continues like it does every supper time..."Mom...I don't like this soup".  I reply with the same lie every time.... "This is your favorite soup, Lily.  Don't you remember?  You had it before and you said it was the best soup you ever had.  I remember you saying that".  Eventually, she tastes it and realizes it's edible.  This happens during every single meal.

After a minute or two, I look over at Molly, my 8 year old, and I realize she is licking the dollop of sour cream off the top of her soup like a cat.  No big deal.  Molly often eats just the frosting off of cupcakes or the whipped cream from her pancakes.  But then, after she licks all the sour cream out of her soup, she looks at me (with sour cream on her nose) and asks "More soup please!".  Wait a minute....the actual soup hasn't been touched. 
Me:  Eat the rest of your soup, please.
Molly:  No!  More soup please!
Me:  Eat the soup that's in your bowl.
Molly:  More! More! More!! 
This goes on for a while........

 But what is odd about this whole dinner, is that right when I'm getting annoyed with the "I only want to eat sour cream for dinner" fight, I hear a soft "moo" sound.  What???  Why is there a cow moo-ing in my kitchen?  Sophia, my 10 year old pipes up "That's my cow.  His name is Kevin".  Apparently, she started playing with an app on the IPad called Minecraft and there's cows involved.  So as we're trying to have a peaceful dinner, I randomly hear gentle moo's.  I know we live on a farm, but our farm doesn't have any real animals on it yet.  So the sound of a cow was just....interesting.

After a while, all my kids start eating like they're supposed to.  Yes!!!  Battle won and I haven't even raised my voice!  But just as I'm starting to pat myself on the back..... "Burp!  Excuse me, I'm a big fat hog".  That would be Brady, my 5 year old.  Well, we can't have a meal without bad manners.  This just ignites the whole table to a riot of burps and toots.  This is when I start to just zone out.  I really do.  I can't get through a single meal without this happening, even when we have guests over.  Just when I think my husband is going to step up and start the lecture on good table manners, I hear "BBBBUUUUURRRRRPPPPPP".  Yep...that would be my husband.  I give up.

I will have to say that my family behaves exceptionally well in restaurants.  Only the occasional burp from Brady that quickly gets a reprimand.  My kids (and husband) do well when they're supposed to and are proper when they have to be.  I guess that's all this mom can ask for.

A Big Decision

About a month ago, my husband and I decided we were going to begin the process of adoption over again.  We have absolutely-positively-certainly-undeniably not given up on our little dude.  His space in the family will always be there and the second Russia opens, we are on a plane.  Joshua is, and always will be a member of our family.  So why would we start a new adoption?  Anyone who has ever adopted will tell you, satan steps it up BIG TIME and tortures the heck out of you the minute you decide to adopt.  Everything possible will break in your house and car.  You will, out of nowhere have a hail storm that destroys your roof.  Your septic will back up and flood the basement.  Your car will start making horrible clicking sounds and definitely need new tires.  These are all things that happened to us this last year.  Our first thought was "if we start the process over, what could possibly break this year".  Maybe our roof will cave in or our hay field will start on fire.  Let's just pray that God will get us through it.  So with that said....

Please welcome our little princess.  She is seven and all sass!  This little girl is going to fit right in.....

Meet the Family

My husband and I have been married for almost 16 years.  We were both in high school and a mutual friend set us up on a blind date.  It was so romantic....a spring dance.  Actually, I'm lying.  It wasn't romantic.  We stopped by the dance, which was taking place in our high school cafeteria.  If I remember right, there weren't even decorations.  But he was absolutely adorable so who cared!  Our second date was my prom, and third date was his prom.  Maybe I should write a book about how to get a guy to fall in love with you in three dates.  It's easy!!  Go to a whole lot of dances!  I'll admit, he was pretty smitten with me from the start.  I'm not sure why, being that I tooted on him during our first date.  Maybe that should be added to the dating book....toot immediately because apparently high school boys love that.  Or maybe we were both just desperate.... I had a white girl afro and he had little chicken legs.  The awkwardness of those first dates was fantastic.  It took my man three months to kiss me, but when he did...fireworks.  Three years later, we were married and have lived happily ever after.

When it comes to men, my husband is pretty fantastic.  He's a dentist, an Air Force officer, a square dancer, hiker, camper, and awesome dad.  He takes our kids fishing and camping at every opportunity.  I think he's hoping that at least one of his kids will be a forest ranger when they grow up.  That's what he wants to do when he retires.....

My goal in life is to have at least one athlete in the family.  My ideal evening is going to my child's sporting event, eating a pretzel, and cheering my kids on.  I'm that scary mom that doesn't shut up when my kid is playing soccer or basketball.  I'm the mom that watches her daughter during Special Olympics with a tear in her eye due to pure pride.  But I'm also the mom that can't help my kids with home work because I get too agitated.  Dad's gotta do that....and he's good too.  I wish I had his patience.  It's a beautiful thing.  Notice there's no picture of me....that's because I haven't taken a great picture since 1995.  And it's my blog so I don't have to show you a picture if I don't want to.

We have four amazing children.  And when I say amazing, I mean AMAZING.  Sophia is my oldest and her goal in life is....hmmmm....well, she doesn't really have any at this time (she's only 10).  She loves reading with a passion.  She also loves to travel.  I have her pegged to join the Peace Corp one day.  She's my escort for charitable events because her heart is huge.  That, and my husband prefers to stay at home and
NOT go to events that involve dressing up.  Sophia doesn't mind.  She loves going places and seeing new things.  I've tried pushing her into sports...... basketball, softball, and soccer just to name a few.  You can often times catch me praying for God to make Sophia an athlete...but I'm pretty sure he's got other plans for her.  She is a diva in every way.  I love to watch her run around the bases during softball....it's much like watching Mariah Carey run in heels.  But heck, she's beautiful so I will continue to just cheer her on. 

Molly is my sweet angel.  We found out she was born with an extra chromosome right after birth.  I didn't care.  I knew she could make me proud and be involved with Special Olympics.  For someone with very bad gross motor development, the girl can play sports.  She's my ballet, soccer, swimming, basketball, and softball loving girl.  I'm so proud.  She's also daddy's girl because she loves to watch Dr Who episodes with him.  That's all it takes to win his heart....

Lily is my rough tom-boy.  She has to be first in every realm of her life.  Everything is a competition for Lily and she's brilliant too.  She sees every detail in a book and will do her homework until it's perfect.  If a friend at school does the monkey bars, she will keep practicing the monkey bars until she can do them backwards and with a flip.  Raising Lily was rough though.  She wanted her way at all times and would scream without ceasing for hours.  I'll be honest...I went back to work for a few years.  Yes, it was THAT rough.  Her first day of kindergarten was the best day of my life, and surprisingly, she didn't throw fits at school.  She needed school and she needed to be around friends.  It is still amazing to watch her blossom into a beautiful little girl.  And I'm a stay-at-home mom again.  Life is good.

Brady was my surprise.  I had planned on adopting our 4th child, but my little man came along.  After three girls, I didn't even know what to do with a boy.  But turns out, I didn't have to do anything.  He just magically became all boy.  Trucks, tractors, and animals came naturally.  Except he did occasionally put on his sisters dresses.... but that's normal, right?  He's stubborn like an ox.....just like his daddy.  For several YEARS, he wore his underpants, shirts, and jeans backwards because he was sure that's how they were supposed to be.  Try going to the grocery store like that.  Brady is amazing though and I love watching him and his dad work outside together.  He is truly a blessing.

All of my children have put so much magic into my life.  How do people function without the dinner time belches, continuous poop in the toilet, and messy house?  I love it!!  I love being a mom to these great little human beings.  Life is not just good.  It's wonderful.