We're in Limbo

I know I promised to let y'all in on what we are doing and where we will end up but we are in limbo once again and I can't say a word.

Soon, I promise. It may also not be what you thought. There are so many factors to take into consideration here. This has to be one of the hardest decisions we've ever made.

OK, enough of the heavy stuff. Yesterday Hannah and I went to get haircuts. She needed a major confidence boost and I just needed a real haircut for once and not a Best Cut*s version. (so says Kerry) Here is the final result for Hannah. Doesn't my baby look so grown up now?? Mine is about the same, just three inches shorter and evened out a bit.

Christmas Day Fun

The kids actually slept in today!! We heard them around 8am and decided to get things started. Grace was still out so we woke her up, this was her first Christmas at home with us, so we just couldn't resist. Didn't want her to miss out on anything. As you can tell from the pictures she was still kind of sleeping : )

Santa tricked the kids this year and put the presents in the family room and not under the tree in the study. Jake was the only one upset, the other kids caught on quick and rushed to the other room. As is our family tradition we read the story of Jesus' birth before letting them tear into the gifts.

Hope's favorite gift was something Santa got on clearance after Halloween. She keeps saying she is going to be a brain surgeon when she gets bigger. Santa found this amazing costume for her and a medical kit with a brain book!! She hasn't taken it off all day!!

Hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas!! Oh, I won't be able to post for a couple days but promise to give the answer to our new place of residency on Monday. It's nothing as glamorous as England or anywhere like that. Another hint. Google Pink Panther.

A special thank you and a hint....

First I want to send a very special thank you out to one of my husbands co workers. She sent us a very beautiful handmade blanket with pictures of Gracie's adoption trip. Her note said that maybe Grace could use this but I think I will put it in her hope chest and save. When she is older we will get it out and show her the pictures and the story behind the quilt. Not only did this very nice lady send us this gift, she was also the one who notarized most of our paperwork for us.

Now onto the hint...

My wonderful husband was offered an amazing opportunity to work for another company. So, we will not be going to Washington DC after all. The hint is below. Can you guess where we are going???

Something close to my heart....

There are so many beautiful kids waiting over at CWA. This is with their Hope Project. The kids are all in Beijing and really want a family. I am especially attached to the the little girl who is assigned #20. She is so cute. Her palate and lip have been repaired. Looks like they did a great job. She would need speech therapy. In her interview she says she would like a large family. How I wish that could be our family but like everyone else is America right now, we don't have the funds to start an adoption.

Cleft issues are not as hard to deal with as you would think, so please take a look and advocate for these kids. Wouldn't it be wonderful to give them the gift of family for Christmas???

Here is the excerpt from CWA's website for her;

“Hi, I am... I am 10. I am in 4th Grade at Gao Li Ying primary school. I am going to sing a song for you. The name of the song is … by …”
Segments of the interview:
Dr. Dan asked her if she wanted a big or a small family, she said “A big family”. Q: “Do you want brothers or sisters on the family?A: “Both”Q: “Do you want older or younger sibling?A: “I want a family with many siblings; it does not matter if they are older or younger than me; or if they are brothers or sisters.”
Dr. Dan’s impression of her: “A cute and smiley face makes her so endearing to be around. Great personality; easy to speak to. She seemed eager to talk and was comfortable and relaxed with me. A real sweetheart!”
She can pronounce words clearly and without difficulties; she just sounded nasal.

more pictures...

Ok, I have heard all of your pleas for word on our news but, you will have to wait another couple of days. I promise it will be soon, we have a few more details to iron out.

I have been busily baking and trying to figure out my camera. We have Grandparents coming up to visit and Kerry's birthday is tomorrow. So a busy weekend.

The Road Less Traveled...updated

We are at a crossroad, there are two paths, which one will we take?? That which we knew was going to happen may not. Any guesses?? We have a major announcement soon.

And just because, a picture of my girl. Oh, btw I did get my new (to me) rebel slr in the mail but have no idea how to use it. Any suggestions?? I am not one to sit and read a manual. Like I have time for that. LOL

This last picture was taken with my new camera. I have no idea how to use it yet. I got lucky with this picture. It may not look amazing to you but if you saw Grace's pre surgery scar from China and her nose you would be shocked at this new one. I think by the time her 6 mth. check is due her scar will be almost invisible. Dr. Jackson is amazing!! We are so blessed to have had his expert services for her palate and lip repair! (oh, please ignore the lovely chocolate, in my excitement I almost forgot it was there)

Update:

I did figure some things out, now how about pointers for photo shop. Here are some more pics of the kids and Sadie. Now remember, I am just beginning, so be kind.

My Future Rock Star

Sorry for the lack of background lighting. In case you were wondering, she is singing "When we were young". Purely Hannah's influence.

Saturday Fun

Where do I begin? Major change is coming. I can't even get into it right now but will soon....I promise. It may not be what you are expecting.....

I am trying to get into the holiday spirit with everything that is going on but it's hard.

We started the day by having the boys go out for breakfast and do a little "mommy" Christmas Shopping. Not sure where they ended up but I did get a total of five phone calls asking about this and that.

While they were gone, the girls and I baked sugar cookies. Have any of you ever tried to make gluten free cookies?? I tell you it isn't easy. The wheat flour is what makes them good and well without that....you get the idea. But, I had success!! The cookies are alot lighter in color (due to the coconut and rice flour) so I had to watch them carefully. The frosting is pretty much the same. The boys came home so I had them do the frosting and sprinkles. They were very yummy and almost gone, so I guess they were pretty good. Seriously, they had a lighter texture, were a little softer and not quite as sweet. (which is good with all that frosting!!)

Not long after we finished that my darling DH came up and said he was taking three of the five with him to finish up shopping!! That in itself is a gift, what more could I need?? Gracie is sleeping and Jake is playing with the kitty. I am about to go park myself on the couch with some major cough meds and a remote : )

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Please help us name kitty!! We have come up with Sage, Sally Sue, Sadie and Sasha but need to all agree. What would you name her??

This is Hope left to her devices for a mere ten minutes. Lovely isn't it. Sorry for the terrible pictures. I am selling my old camera on eBay because I won a Canon Reb*el!! Yeah!! Anyway I am using an old small digital until it comes in the mail.

Breakfast of Champions??

Apparently the girls were tired of waiting for me to get them breakfast. Usually they don't eat right away, so I thought I was safe in making my bed before getting them something to eat. (they did each have a bottle )

Well, I walked into the kitchen to find this.

Oh, and did I mention we are trying to sell our house and have a realtor coming tonight??

Christmas Fun...err, humuliation

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our Happily Ever After

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I needed this like I needed a hole in the head.....

but Kerry and I talked it over and after having Hannah drive us crazy for about six months we decided to give her this for Christmas. (a little early)

Meet Sally Sue or Su Su for short. I know not real original but what the kids liked.

Happy Birthday to Me....

My wonderful DH had this delivered for me today. The girls and I really enjoyed it. Yummy!!

It is so hard to find a gluten free cake or even a recipe for a good one. I really appreciate the fact that he took that into consideration. What a great husband I have!!

Grace's favorites were the chocolate covered strawberries. (can you tell??)

Our News....

There may be a second part to this....stay tuned for more later.

Fun Family Weekend

I got lots of great online scrapbooking deals this weekend, most were just $1.60!! (can you tell??)

We ended Saturday with a visit to see Santa and Mrs. Claus at a farm near our home. Hope was so excited but once we reached the stairs to go up to their house panic set in and Kerry opted to sit it out while I took the other kids. Needless to say we got a photo with the Claus's minus two family members. The set up was super cute. We walked through a path with all kinds of pop ups and animated snowmen, elves and a real reindeer. Grace loved the dancing snowman.

Sorry, I tried to reposition the video. After all this we had hot cocoa and fresh spice donuts. (yum!) (well, the kids did, I can't eat wheat so came home and made some wonderful coconut flour chocolate chips cookies.)

Black Friday Shopping

Well, I was up and out the door late around 6am. If we would have been in Ohio this year my mom would have had me up and out around 5. Good thing we stayed home because both girls and one little man decided to stay up with night terrors until around 2am. Targ*et was packed, I was not expecting that at all. I waited in line for an hour for one item. I didn't mind, it was a great deal and I also got a $15.00 gift card!!

Next stop, the mall. Just as busy. We wondered aimlessly for about an hour and then headed to my favorite fast food stop. Pei We*i. Yummy!!!

We still were not finished and stopped at borders for hot cocoa and a snack. When I mean we, I mean myself, H and H. Yes, I took little H. She was great, she stayed awake the whole time and was such a good girl. We finally made it home around 2 and put jammies on and ordered pizza. Good news is I am finished with Christmas shopping!!

I really expected it to not be so busy. With all the doom and gloom you hear on the news, I thought things would be pretty calm and quiet. Not so here. It was pretty crazy and I was stuck in traffic at one point at 7:30 in the morning.

I would like to give a special shout out to my husbands wonderful company, who came through and did give us the adoption reimursement. Yeah GM!!

And this has nothing to do with the post but I thought this video of the girls was adorable. G has come a long way!!

More news....

We are throwing another wrench into the mix.... Anyone care to try and guess this news? Not to leave you hanging or anything but I will not be able to let ya'll in on anything until later....

Change of Subject

ASIA has some super cute boys ready and waiting for a family. Some have significant special needs and one little boy I have fallen in love with has a minor special need. (according to me)
This is probably their last chance at finding a family.

He is so cute!! He is almost three. Here is his description. I can't post a picture but you may contact Marci and ask for the password to view it.


Cal is a very lovely and cute boy. He has an outgoing personality and likes to play with toys and play with other children. Cal could walk at 1 year slowly without help and liked to watch television. At 15 months he liked to follow adults and talk and was fond of picture books. He liked to imitate adults to talk and sing. At 20 months he could identify his nose, mouth, eyes, ears and eyebrow. Now he is learning to talk, sing and put on clothes and pants without help. He had a chromosome test, which showed no abnormality.

Marci Siegel-Kittrell
Director of Social Services
Marcisk@asiadopt.org


As for our news, it may have to wait until after the Thanksgiving Break until an official announcement at DH's work. Some of you are right on the money though....

One more little hint....

We were kind of thrown a curve ball with this, it was totally unexpected, but here you go. If you can answer this question you will figure out where we are going.

During the War of 1812, President James Madison and the fledgling U.S. government were forced to flee ........?

Now if you come up with the answer please email me, because I need info. I will also mail out a prize to the first person that comes up with the correct response.

And because it's not all about the little ones, here's a picture of one of my sweet boys.

And another of the three amigo's.

Exciting News!!!!

But I can't tell what it is yet!! So frustrating. Anyone want to guess?

And no it doesn't have to do with the picture. I just bought new online scrapbooking stuff and had to try some out.

Ponderings

There hasn't been much to post about lately. Well, maybe that isn't true. How about I be honest and say I just haven't had the heart to post? That would be more in line with what I'm feeling.

We did hear from the benefits people at GM. They have gone ahead and approved the reimbursement for the adoption. We didn't qualify for all of it but that is ok. Something is better than nothing. Supposedly the money will be in the end of the month pay check. (we'll see)

Yes, I do seem a little cynical towards K's employer. They have continually treated our adopted kids as less than our bio kids. Not sure why, but I am angry. My two girls are just as much a part of me as the other three. Why should they be treated differently? When I had my first child we received a beautiful cookie arrangement and flowers. They added her to the benefits immediately and nothing else was said. With Hope we were given piles of paper work, and no insurance card for a while, with Grace it was worse. We had more paper work, letters from the benefits dept. stating that if we didn't provide a SS# she would be removed from the policy. Oh, and the most lovely official letter stating that Hope would be removed also. (two years after her adoption was finalized!!)

As of now we are still waiting to hear from them about Grace's benefits. I am sure they will kick it back and require something else.

Grace's recovery is coming along. I am a little disappointed in her nose. It has fallen completely flat again. Her lip which was redone has scared badly. The reason he wanted to redo everything was to remove the old scar and bump but it has come back. Her palate looks good from what I can see. She has some white matter on the roof of her mouth. Not sure what it is??? (any btdt palate moms out there?)

She is wanting to eat everything again so I know she is feeling better. The only draw back....she will not sleep anymore. I have tried putting her back in her crib with no luck. I feel like I am holding her 24 hours a day. She will not go to anyone else but me. Now, I know this is a good thing but the drawbacks are that if I am not within site of her, or within touching distance she will throw a tantrum. Not just an ordinary one either, she will go all out and bang her head against the floor or whatever is close and hit things including the other kids. Is this normal? I am putting this all out there in case some of you have any experience like this.

The kids and I are trying many different gluten free cookie recipes for Christmas. I think we found a keeper. This is from The Kid Friendly Allergy Cookbook. It's call "O wee o's". They are very good. The cookie is a little crisp with rich fudgy flavor, the frosting I made a little sweeter and tastes very good. I can only eat about three before feeling the sugar rush. They are so yummy!! I didn't put another one on top like the traditional ore*o's because I think they are too rich for that.

Just so you know, everything is not all doom and gloom, we do have some good news but I will save that for another day......