December Update...

Hello!!!  Wow...I didn't realize I haven't been on here since August!  Many things have happened in these few months!  I'll start with Kian starting Kindergarten.  Oh boy was that rough!  It was very difficult for Kian and hard on mom too.  He was not happy about starting school at all.  He cried most mornings and sometimes at bedtime for the first few weeks.  It was really a difficult adjustment for him to be gone all day everyday.  Thankfully his best buddy was in his class and he has a really great teacher.  I am happy to say that he will at times admit that he does actually like school a little bit.  He really does enjoy it.  He likes his teacher and has made many new friends.  I think he would still rather be at home most days, but he would miss school.  He did tell me as he got off the bus Friday for Christmas break that he was a little bit sad because he would not get to go to school for so many days.  He is enjoying his Christmas break.  He got right back to his late nights and sleeping in until noon!  

Aden started Jr. High this year!  He was a little nervous, but I was much worst than he was!  He is doing great!  He really likes being at the High School.  He likes all of his teachers and I have to say I have been very impressed with all of them!  He even has a girlfriend!  Shh....don't tell him I told!  She is a very nice and fun girl we have known for a long time.  He lost his guitar teacher to college.  Bummer!  He is still taking tennis lessons every Saturday.  He really enjoys playing tennis.  We just celebrated his 13th birthday.  I can't believe I have a teenager in my house!  Thank goodness he doesn't act like a teenager.   

Jason and I took a trip to New York City in September.  So much fun!!!  I actually really liked it and would go back again.  I wouldn't want to live there though!  Way too busy for me!  We packed in as much as we could while we there.  We took a city bus tour, went up on the Empire State Building (We weren't going to take the time or spend the $$ to do this, but I'm so glad we did.  It was really neat!), saw the 911 Memorial (also very neat), walked onto the Brooklyn Bridge, took the ferry over to see the Statue of Liberty, and we checked out Central Park.  We saw Wicked, Chicago, and Rock of Ages.  That was my favorite part.  Oh...and shopping at Tiffany's!  We stayed right on Times Square so we walked all over that area.  We also saw a couple comedy shows which was really fun too.  Now, we need to go back to do all of the museums!  We didn't have time to go to any of them. 

In October, we went to Houston to celebrate my sweet baby nephews 1st birthday.  He has grown so much and is just such a blessing to our family.  We love him to pieces.  He was born about 6 weeks early (I think) and was so so small.  It so nice to see him so big and healthy and doing everything he should be doing so well.  I was so happy I could be a part of his 1st birthday.  We always have a good time visiting my sister's family.  

Isn't he a doll!  

Kaitlyn has had two tumbling meets so far.  The first one didn't go so great on the first day.  She had a bad bad day.  She went back on Sunday and got 3rd place on floor so that lifted her spirits a lot!  She is competing at an Intermediate level on Trampoline and Double Mini and Novice on floor.  Her 2nd meet was in Salem earlier this month.  She did awesome!  She brought home 2 trophies.  She loves tumbling and has learned so much in the last year.  She is so lucky to have great coaches.  They are awesome!  She has also made some really great friendships.  We are so proud of her.

Now....adoption news.  Our case worker was so nice to update us before the holidays.  Things are still moving quite slow in Ethiopia.  It is frustrating, but also good to know they are trying to clean things up.  We really thought we would be home or at least have traveled for our court date.  We were way off.  We are now #21.  We have moved up quite a bit.  The sad part is that there have been several families drop out of the program and really not that many referrals.  There were two referrals earlier this month.  Things are moving, but it is sooooo slow!  We are hanging in there though.  We just updated our home study and had to be fingerprinted in Indy again.  Good news.....there was no drama this year.  If you remember last time we were fingerprinted, Jason had a knife in his pocket.  They about arrested him!  I told him he couldn't get out of the car until his pockets were empty this time!  We took in our paperwork, driver's license, and car keys.  That's it!  We survived without being thrown in jail.  Whew!  We should be good now for about a year and then it will be time to update everything again.  Hopefully, that won't have to happen.  We are now approved to adopt 2 children age 0-5.  We went up a year since Kian is now 6.  Wow...that is so hard to believe.  My baby is 6!

That pretty much sums up the last part of 2014 for us.  We have had a great year and are very blessed.  

August Update

Hello!  I have not updated this forever!  To be honest, there is just not much to update.  We have moved up to #33 on the waiting list due to some families making the decision to drop the program.  There have not been any new referrals for months.  It is quite discouraging.  I really just don't even know what to say about what is going on.  I'm not sure why Ethiopian officials are still not signing off on new referrals.  It is what it is and we will continue to wait at this point.  We had hoped to have a referral by now and to be traveling this fall.  At this point, I do not think we will be traveling until sometime in 2015.  We just had a home visit and had our home study updated in July.  We are now able to go up to age 5.  We are on the waiting list for a boy and a girl age 0-5.  We have asked for a girl under 3 and a boy 3-5, but they can both be anywhere between 0-5.  They do have to be 9 months apart in age.  With Kian starting Kindergarten in a little over a week, I am getting more anxious to get this done!  I will have a lot of free time to clean, paint, and get prepared for two more.  I will take advantage of that for sure.  Can you believe my baby is going to Kindergarten?!!!  I am still in denial.  I may decide at the last minute to keep him home with me! ;)  I will miss having him home with me.

Effingham Eggstravaganza Day 2

Kaitlyn had a great meet this morning!  She tied for third place and received her first trophy!  We are so proud of her!!!!  All the girls did a great job today! Forgive me...I got a little ahead of myself and hit record a little early in one of the videos. Oops!!!!

State meet in two weeks!  We are super excited!!!!

Effingham Eggstravaganza Day 1

We spent a good part of our day in Effingham at a tumbling meet.  It was a gorgeous day for it!  I think it was the first meet we have been to that we did not have to battle snow, ice, or freezing temperatures!  It was fantastic!!!!  Kaitlyn did not have her best day but we still had a great time.  Kayla's Power Tumbling in Effingham put on a very nice meet.  Kaitlyn got 7th place today in both events today out of 11 girls.  She did a great job, but the other girls did a great job as well!  Sorry the videos are a bit blurry.  I need to take my other camera, but the phone is so much easier!

First pass on Double Mini

Second pass on Double Mini

Third pass on Double Mini

Trampoline Routine

We will back at it tomorrow morning for her floor tumbling.  She has one meet left after this weekend.  The State meet is April 26th and 27th in Decatur.  If she qualifies at state, she will have the opportunity to go to Nationals in Louisville, KY in June.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that she will qualify in at least one event.  She would really like to go!  She has really enjoyed competing this year and is already looking forward to next year.  

Update!!

I did not update the first of March because not much has happened.  Things have pretty much been at a stand still.  International Adoption has been in a negative view of some Ethiopian officials and they have not been authorizing documents.  There have been a couple meetings that have taken place recently and they have had positive results.  The Minister has confirmed that there is no plan to shut down International Adoption in Ethiopia.  The delay in documents should soon improve.  Research done by the Ministry of over 142 orphanages showed that they are dependent on the support given by the agencies to provide for the children.  The goal in all of these delays and research is to improve the integrity of the adoption process and referral process.  This is really great news!  Although none of us are thrilled about the extra wait times, we are all very happy to see the Ministry trying to improve things. The Minister assured all at this meeting that her position is in favor of international adoption as a child's last means of support, and that adoption from Ethiopia has not, and will not stop.  We have also learned of an additional step that is meant to ensure a child meets the true definition of "orphan status".  Each orphanage will be required to search for alternative means of support for each child.  The orphanage will be required to advertise each child for local adoption.  They will do everything they can to try to find local placement for the child for 2 months.  After the 2 months, the child can be approved for International Adoption.  As I understand it, this is to take place immediately.  We are assuming there will be no referrals for at least 2 months.  Again, we don't the wait to be any longer, but this is definitely a great thing.  This is what has been going on!  On a happy note we did move up a couple spots in the last two months to #34.  Our hope is that after these 2 months pass, there will be a huge month or two of referrals.  We have also decided to change our age range when we get our home study updated.  We will be asking to be able to adopt a child up to age 5.  Kian is hoping for a little brother that is 4 or 5 years old!  Kaitlyn is hoping for a baby sister.  Aden really doesn't care!   

February update

We received our February update on Monday. Boy things are slow!  It's killing me. I'm getting anxious!  The closer we get, the harder the waiting becomes. We moved up 3 spots to #37. We did get some good news the last part of January about the closure rumors. Rumors they were and it sounds like there is still a positive view on international adoptions. That was a relief. I was beginning to research what our other options might be.

We did get Kaitlyn's room upstairs almost completed!  The wall is up and it is painted. We just need a door and to get the base molding back on. Hopefully a couple weeks and she will be moving in. It looks really cute!  I'll post pictures when she's moved in. She's excited!!!  Now I just need to get the upstairs and basement cleaned up and organized. Next project will be the kids bathroom. I can't wait! New floor and cabinets!!!  I still need to paint the rest of the upstairs bonus room and both bedrooms for our little ones. Lots to do!!!!  It's a bit overwhelming!

Kaitlyn had another tumbling meet last weekend in Edwardsville. It was a fun one!  She's loving every minute of it. We are so proud of how much she has learned since June. We will be in Decatur next weekend and Pana the first weekend in March. She has one coming up in Effingham for anyone who would like to come watch!  It's really fun to watch all the kids. She's already talking about next year so I guess we are committed for a while.  Kian went with us last weekend and now he wants to do team tumbling. He loves his boys tumbling class!

The snow and cold has kept us in quite a bit so not much to share. I'm ready for spring! How about you?!!!!

January Update

Wow…It's been a while.  There was not much to update in December.  We did not move at all in the month of November.  It was no fun!  December brought only a few referrals.  We moved up 3 spots to #40.  I was hoping for more than that.  December was also pretty uneventful until the last couple of weeks.  There has been a lot of talk going around about Ethiopian adoptions.  We have known since last Saturday evening.  We are really not for sure what is fact or fiction right now.  Apparently the Ethiopian government (or a portion of it) would like to end International adoptions.  As of right now, we are being told not to read into this too much.  It could possibly just mean there will be more changes on the way.  We are not sure where we stand right now.  It is possible things could change soon or it could take years for the government to get things in place to end international adoptions from Ethiopia.  I'm not sure what we will do if that happens.  We have talked about it a little but are really hoping Ethiopia will not shut down but just make necessary changes.  It may make our process longer.  We just don't know.  Hopefully we will know more soon.

On a better note….we had a great Christmas!  We always do.  I just love Thanksgiving and Christmas. We spent Thanksgiving in Houston with my sister and her family.  We always have a great time visiting them.  I was able to meet my new great nephew too!  He is really something special.  He was not supposed to be here until December 6th, but made his arrival Oct. 25th.  He weighed just a little over 3 lbs.  He was home from the hospital and doing great while I was there.  I just love him to pieces!  He is perfect in every way.  Christmas is always great.  We spend time with everyone in the family.  We had my family over for dinner Christmas Eve.  We spent Christmas Day home with the kids.  We were very lazy that day!  I spent the next two days cleaning house!  Saturday, we spent the day with Jason's family.  Jason surprised me Christmas morning and said we could go back to my sister's, so we left Saturday night and drove 15 hours to Houston.  It is a horrible drive!  We arrived there around 9:30 Sunday morning.  We had a great visit.  Baby Xander has grown so much just in a month.  I couldn't believe it.  I forgot to pack my camera, so I have no pictures to share.  I was not very happy about that! We left Houston on Thursday and went to Dallas for a night.  We did some ice skating at the Galleria and experienced how the rich shop.  We only purchased some candy at the candy store and some Auntie Ann's pretzel bites.  Thursday night we went to Medieval Times.  The kids loved it, especially Kian.  He cheered, well I would actually call it more like screaming and yelling, and ate a ton of food.  Friday we hit Main Event where we played some laser tag, bowled, and hung out in the arcade.  We headed home that afternoon so we could beat this snow storm.  Now I am wishing we had just stayed down there through this week too!

Right now, I am sitting it the dark in front of the warm fireplace.  We have no electricity and there is probably 10 inches of snow blowing around outside.  The temperature is supposed to get down to -14 tonight with a wind chill of -40.  Jason is working on getting the generator going as I type.  He has been out all day cleaning driveways.

Me, my beautiful niece Abbie and baby Xander

Kian loves baby Xander

Me, my beautiful niece Jaycee, and Kian at Top Golf

My sister Michelle and Xander.  Happy New Year!!!!

Ice Skating at the Galleria in Dallas

Our snowman.  Don't judge!  It's not a very big one!!! 

Our first attempt at making snow ice cream.  It was pretty good!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday!  We wish you a great year to come!  Hopefully big things will be happening for us in 2014!!!!