First Tumbling Meet!

Kaitlyn had her very first tumbling meet last weekend.  We spent Saturday and Sunday in Olney watching her do her thing!  She did a great job!  She started some tumbling when she was little, then did a little dance, and a little more tumbling.  We started taking her to a gymnastics class in March 2012.  She then decided she did not like the balance beam or vault very well.  We moved her to Mattoon Academy of Gymnastics in June and she has progressed tons!  When she started there, she had just managed to do her back handspring (thanks to Miss Sam Fisher, who also has helped her tons and is still helping her).  Now she is doing three in row.  They aren't always pretty but she is doing them!  I could barely do a cartwheel at her age, so I am very impressed!  On Saturday she had her double mini passes and her trampoline routine.  She placed 6th on double mini and 7th on trampoline.  She competes in the Novice 9 year old girls group.  We thought this was pretty good considering she just started double mini and tramp in June.  She had no experience in either of these events.  Sunday she had her tumbling passes.  She is in the 9 year old sub novice group for tumbling.  She did really good on her roundoff, 2 back handsprings.  Her roundoff, 3 back handsprings is very challenging for her.  She did really good!  We were so happy that she landed it and did not hit her head!  She placed 7th in that event.  She had a great time competing.  She will compete again in Arthur in January.  I must say she looked super cute in her team leotard and her hair in a bun!

November 1st Update!

Friday was torturous!  The first of every month is update day.  In our little world of adoption, that means email stalking, FB stalking, and impatiently waiting for that update.  Friday was especially tortuous because that update didn't come in until evening.  The clock hit 5:00 and I thought we were just going to be waiting until Monday.  Bummer!  As we set off for trick or treat Friday evening about 6:00, I checked my email on my phone and there it was!  FINALLY!!!!  It was a good one too!  The month of October started off slow, but boy oh boy did it end well.  There were 13 referrals!!!  That's big!  We moved up 10 spots.  We started off at #63 in June.  Last month, we were at #53.  This month we are at #43!!!!!  Woohoo!!!!!!  We were told in October to expect around 25 referrals coming up, so I am assuming November could be a good month as well.  I am hoping!  There are also some rumors going around that we may possibly only have to make one trip to Ethiopia rather than two.  I am hoping and praying that is the case.  There have been some changes in the process, so we won't know for certain how it is all going to work out but hopefully, they will go back to one trip!  It will more than likely be a longer trip, but will be much cheaper to only have to fly there once.  I am also not thrilled about the idea of passing court and coming home, leaving our kids behind in Ethiopia until we are cleared to bring them to America.  That will be rough!  I hope we will not have to do that!  

So....what are we doing while we wait?  Not much!  It is really hard to do all this waiting.  I am ready now!  We have Aden's room done and he has moved into it.  He loves it!  It turned out very nice!  I still do not have his old room completely empty yet though.  I need to work on that.  There was a lot of stuff he didn't want.  I can't decide what to do with it!  We will hopefully be getting Kaitlyn's room upstairs started soon.  I am totally dreading her moving her stuff.  She is a hoarder!!!!  It is bad!  I am also working really hard to prepare myself mentally.  Our lives will be changing big time!  We now have three kids that are really pretty independent and very busy with activities.  I have to admit that I am stressing out a little about adding two more!  Two more that could both be under 2.  I've never had two kids under two before!  I'm going to have tons more laundry.  I will be trying to wiggle two more little people schedules into our busy schedule.  I know it will be fine and we will just roll with the punches, but while I am sitting her waiting with nothing to do, I am worrying about how we will manage it all.  Thankfully, I have the best husband ever who works very hard so I can stay home with our kids.  He does know how to do laundry too even though he folds everything the wrong way and I have to do it over!  I think he does this on purpose.  He thinks it is hilarious that it bothers me when the clothes are not folded correctly.  Haha!  Anyway....I know we will be fine, but it is a little scary.  It was scary each time we had a new baby too though.  It will be a big adjustment which we will make.  I am so excited about having a big family.  A big family is big work, but it is also big fun and big love!