Blogging Backlog

I haven’t blogged a lot lately.  Partly, it is because we are busy.  The other part is that I’m working on getting ready for the baby.  It involves a lot more than just buying things.  I had some research to do on a few areas.  I also want to make sure that we notify the right people.  I’ve tried to make lists of all the things we are doing in the next month.  You never know if J will deliver early.  So, I’m a little preoccupied.

I do want to document a few things though about Nicholas.  First, he is continuing to do so well in swimming.  On Thursday he told his teacher to watch him.  Then he proceeded to do a back flip and a front flip underwater.  This wasn’t something she was teaching him, but something he did all on his own.  I couldn’t be more proud.

At his violin lesson, he has been working on several variations so he can play the entire song of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.  Some are easier than others, so his teacher wanted him to listen to her play it on the piano.  He asked if he could try it on the piano and he played it really well!  I asked him if he was going to be my musical boy and he said he will.  I never played an instrument growing up, so I’m a little excited that he enjoys it.

I was happy to have Evan with me at soccer this past week.  He was on the youth retreat during the first game.  These games are just not that full of action, so it helps to have someone to talk to during it.  It was really cold though.  I was happy to find a pair of gloves in my coat.  Even Nicholas was cold and he doesn’t say that very much.  Nicholas did great though.  He’s one of the bigger kids, so he can really get in there and get the ball.  None of the kids care about teams though.  Anyone who has the ball will get it stolen from him/her. 

We have about four weeks of Pre-K left!  I don’t talk about school too much anymore because we don’t do too many activities out of the norm,  I do have to say that All About Reading (by the publisher of All About Spelling) is a great program too.  The beginning of the book is a lot of review for him, but I can see it is really going to help the more we move through it.  He is able to sound out a lot of words now.    

He and Evan are almost done learning about the 50 states.  We print out a couple of states from Crayola.com each week.  They talk about them, color the paper, and try to find them on the map.  They both enjoy it.  We don’t expect Nicholas to memorize all 50, but to become familiar with many of the states’ names.

Math is going well.  We started a new book recently and he is disappointed that we only do one lesson a week.  I love my little student.  Like I’ve said, it is easier to have my first child be the same kind of student that I was. 

I would say that Handwriting is his least favorite subject, but he has done less complaining about it lately.  He knows how to write all his letters, but is working hard to stay within the lines.  He writes out a lot of his spelling words, so I think that has helped him improve as well.

Being five is hard sometimes, but he is a joy more than anything else (I’m saying this after a really rough week).   I enjoy talking to him too.  Saturday morning we had almost an hour conversation about different questions he had.  We talked about Russia, the plane ride, the airport, and when certain people became my family (not his). 

He asked some questions about his birthmother, which prompted some more questions about J and C.  We talked about how everyone is born and what size they are when they’re born.  They were very thoughtful questions and I could see his little mind just trying to process it all. 

I know one thing though - Nicholas can’t wait to be a big brother.  He’s got his shirt ready with his official title.  Now, we wait . . .  We have about a month to go (maybe less, maybe more)!

Kickin It

Nicholas started soccer this past weekend.  I signed him up so he could burn off some extra energy during the week.  Also, the session is late enough that Evan should be able to make most of the games.

They instruct the kids most of the time.  They do little activities to teach them, so it is a lot less chaotic than I thought it would be.  Then, they play a game for the last fifteen minutes.  Nicholas did score at least once.  I will ignore the fact that he picked up the ball and threw it forward a little before he kicked it in the goal.  He also got to play goalie a couple of times.  I need someone else to tell him that the goalie is supposed to stand, not sit.  He doesn't believe me.

Overall, he had a lot of fun and did a great job.  When it was over, he didn’t want to leave.  “I still want to play”, he told me.  I reassured him that we would be back next week.  

Ready to Go

Looks like a pro

His last game is right before the baby's due date.  Will he be a big brother before the season ends?  Stay tuned . . .

I Have to Confess . . .

I’m not much of a diver.  Yes, I’m talking about swimming.  I had a lot of swimming lessons growing up and even some private lessons.  But, diving was something I never could master.  Granted, I do a mean sit-down dive, but I was too fearful to do a real dive.

This leads me to this past Thursday at Nicholas’ swimming lessons.  When his teacher said they were going to learn to dive, I was a little surprised.  He’s only 5 years old.  This was a joke.  But, she taught both he and the little girl to kneel on one leg and then dive into the pool.  Guess who loved it?  Nicholas wanted to try it again and again.  He even got up on the diving block and put his arms in the diving position.  His teacher wisely told him that they were going to practice more on the ground level before mastering the diving block. 

On the way to get changed I told him how impressed I was that he was diving.  I told him that it was always hard for me and I’m still not a good diver.  He let me know that once he gets good, he’ll teach me.  Who knows?  Maybe my five year old son will be the one who finally helps me get over my fear and inability to dive.

It was fun watching him though.

Nice Form

Action shot

I can't say enough about how great swimming lessons has been for him.  I'm glad we didn't stop after a month or two.  Swimming is a favorite part of our week!

Perfect Timing

Thank you to everyone for your nice comments and congratulations. We are excited!


Well, with our match comes our first payment to our agency. We’ve got that covered! Thank you to all that have helped. But, we have a bigger fee coming up – the placement fee. This fee is due when the baby is actually placed with us. It is triple the amount of the matching fee, but not too big for God.

Nicely coinciding with our recent match is the next Ordinary Hero grant contest. It runs from today (Sunday the 15th) until Saturday (the 21st). They’ve added some more items and have many specials going on. We receive 40% of each purchase toward our adoption expenses. Don’t forget to choose my name in the affiliate drop down box at checkout. The three people that sell the most during the week will receive a $500 grant! We’d love to try and win.




Maybe a nice Mother's Day present?



How about a new coffee mug?

 
  

Also, we have 193 puzzle pieces left to be sponsored. I can’t believe how far we’ve come. After all the pieces are sponsored and the baby comes home, I will find a puzzle that fits with our child for the final product.

Finally, our Lifesong for Orphans tax-deductible account is still open! Click this link for all of the details.

I think that our social worker is meeting with J and C tomorrow.  Our agency took a list of questions from us to ask them.  While there is always a chance that she could choose to parent, we have peace about this situation. 
 
Thank you again for your prayers!

An Update on the Update that I Was Going to Post Today, but Had to Change

So, originally I was going to post that it looked like we were going to be matched soon. J was at a 9 out of 10 on making an adoption plan. We were getting closer, but nothing was official. I even talked to one of our social workers from our agency yesterday afternoon and this was still the latest information. Then, I got a call before 9:00 this morning. We are no longer unofficial. It is now an official match!!!

It feels good, but a little anticlimactic. We’ve known about J’s situation since November. We were told in January she wanted to meet us. We had our meeting in February and then again at the beginning of this month. We’ve felt a part of her journey for a while now. But, now it is a little more real. I guess it gives me permission to do more of the planning that I have wanted to do.

I like to say we have six weeks and six days until her due date. It sounds a lot better than 7. I looked at my calendar for May and the beginning of June and we are really busy. Nicholas will be playing soccer and probably doing swimming lessons. We have meetings and activities ourselves to attend. Also, I just scheduled Nicholas’ last post placement visit with our social worker for next month. However, I think I would prefer to rearrange our lives for a baby than sit around doing nothing, waiting for something to happen.

So, that is the latest. Thank you to everyone who has been praying. Please continue to pray, especially for J, C and their families as this will be a difficult time of grieving and loss for them. Thank you!

Better Late Than Never

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures from Easter.  Time just got away from me.  Well, the first thing Nicholas did when he woke up was a little Easter egg hunt.  We didn't even have to tell him.  The moment he walked down the stairs he was on the hunt.  He was equally excited about the candy and the money that he found in them.

Then he went to find his Easter basket.  Once he found it, he shook it to get the contents out - Easter grass and all!

Finally, we ate breakfast and got ready for church.

This picture was the most flattering one taken by Nicholas

After attending church and teaching our class, we went home and changed.  Then we were off to Evan's parents' house.  Nicholas was really excited that he was going to participate in another Easter egg hunt.

Everyone's ready

We had a wonderful Easter this year.  Nicholas received a lot of candy!  Thankfully, we were able to convince him to give half to the youth group! 

I have a small update to post on our adoption, but it will have to wait until next time . . .

Getting Ready for Easter

This week has been so long- and not in a good way. We didn’t have any of our normal activities, so it felt like our routine was completely off. We did get to do some fun activities, but I still missed swimming lessons and my Wednesday mornings to myself.


We’ll be back to normal come this week though. But, here’s some of what we did this week . . .

On Monday we dyed our Easter eggs. Nicholas got really into his work this year and ended up with green fingers for the next several days.  I ended up with several egg salad sandwiches.

Evan is pretending to be excited

This picture didn't do his green fingers justice.

I decided to support H@rvest for Hunger at the grocery store the other day. If you made a donation they gave you a plastic Easter egg with some kind of prize in it. It sounded like the odds were just candy. Nicholas was/is such a good helper at the grocery store so I thought it would be a nice treat for him. I was content with the three tootsie rolls inside the egg. Then the cashier told him to take the paper out and see what the other prize was inside. My hopes were raised a little bit. I was hoping for the $25 gift card. Unfortunately, only Nicholas was thrilled with the prize. It was a huge bag of cotton candy! That was just what he needed right before Easter.

Finally, we attended our church’s Easter egg hunt this morning. They had a little program where they told the Easter story and sang worship songs. There was also face painting and a couple of small activities. Finally, there was the Easter egg hunt. Nicholas didn’t get too many eggs, which I consider to be a good thing. Tomorrow there will be even more candy.

Looking for eggs

A glimpse into his future?

Carter and Nicholas - it is still so hard to get these two to pose for more than a second.

We’ve tried to really balance the typical Easter activities with the real meaning of Easter. We’ve been talking about it every day using these Resurrection Eggs.  They have been a great visual to remind us all about what Easter is about.


We have a very full day tomorrow between church, teaching and then spending time with family. More pictures to come . . .

A Very Brief Update on Yesterday

I am having trouble putting into words our meeting with our potential birthmother and her family. I guess I can sum it up by saying that it went great. It was effortless like last time. We really enjoy their company. Kudos to our wonderful five-year-old who behaved better than we expected he would. We were at the restaurant almost two and a half hours. Yes, he was antsy at times, but everyone was impressed with how well he did.


He was so cute though. After listening to everyone else ask and answer questions he wanted everyone to ask him questions. He had everyone smiling. He did overeat a tad bit. In order to appease him a bit, we let him eat whatever he wanted while gently warning him that he didn’t want to get a stomach ache. Guess what he complained about the whole way home? He did eat 3 ½ large pancakes and a sausage patty (He ate half of  my meal).

Our potential birth mother – we’ll call her “J” – and her boyfriend “C” went to the bathrooms at one point. That is when her parents told us that J is pretty sure she wants to make an adoption plan. Of course, we don’t know how she will feel when the baby is born, but they don’t think she’ll change her mind before the baby is born. So, we’re waiting for the official word that we are matched. Then, we try and get ready these next two months.

Regardless of what happens, it has been such an interesting and rewarding experience so far. It has solidified what we already knew. A birthmother is not a nameless face. A birthmother most definitely loves her child. To also have the birthfather come and meet us has been great too. Our agency has seen many situations where the birthfather is not involved or has a bad relationship with the birthmother. We’ve been blessed with our situation.

We’re excited about what is to come. Once I hear from our social worker, I’ll let everyone know.

I’ll leave you with the one picture from yesterday:

This was actually on the way to the restaurant.  On the way home he was too hopped up on pancake syrup!