Awwwhh my sweet Madelyn.so she is playing house and has about 10 babies. She has a Booh-Bah doll, if you don't know what they are think Kewpie doll mixed with a Teletubbie. She says" I adopted him, at the adopter place....no one wanted him because he is different color" (he is pink...yes it may be a girl but again this is through her eyes!)
I was choking back tears....would it not be great if we could all see things through the simplicity of a childs eyes!??!

Okay my husband is trying to send me to an early grave (which is not the smartest thing to do since he will be left with all the kiddos!!)

So we (ahem he) buys us a place at the lake 2 years ago. Well, turns out we are allergic to something in the place. Plus we are so busy we are only making it down like once a month and it is just not worth it because there is so much upkeep when you are there. So he has decided to sell it.

So we bought a piece of land last year to build our dream house on...well guess what it is now cheaper to buy than build. So we will get more for our money etc by buying.

So this brings me to the "trying to kill me" part. So we are trying to all three properties!! So he is at the lake fixing some things up and the girls and I stayed home. Our neighbors mother has been looking for a house on this street to buy and Paul walked down and told him about our house..etc. So she is in town today and walks down wanting to see it....AKAAKKAKKKKKK!!! My house has just never been "ready" on a moments notice to walk in....so I ask her if she can come back in the morning. It is now after 1am and I just finished cleaning!!! I have mopped everything worked in closets etc! I am so sore and so sleepy!!

So why am I blogging because knowing someone wants your house makes YOU want your house!! In my head I am wondering if I want to spend more money for more house?!!? I am so spoiled here because we have 6 bedrooms (so I have a school room and a scrapbook room)and Paul has on office.

Plus do I want to deal with moving before the children arrive??? Also worried that it will be too much change for my bio kids?? Moving away from friends and getting new sibs! ALthough we have also considered that it would be a bit easier to begin over in a new house so that it doesn't feel like the adopted children are taking over the bio children rooms and space etc. It would be theirs from the start???

Hopefully a good nights rest will help!!! Night!

Guess Please!

Well the dossier is stopped in Washington DC! The Adoption Stork who personally walks it from office to office, gets it wrapped in a pretty little ribbon and sends it to Ethiopia is ON VACATION!!!
This will not hold up our referral, so not a big deal though!

So it is time for baby guesses!!! (with our bio children we never find out what we are having so we always have every one guess) I need your official guess!
-Our referral date
-Our childrens ages
-Our youngest childs gender
(reminder we have requested a 4-6 year old boy and his younger sibling)

We were given the oppurtunity to send packages to our children in the orphanage. I know this sounds weird since we do not know who our children are! Susan the director of our agency was traveling to the orphanage last week. She was hoping to help find the children God has chosen for our family. Although the children will probably not receive the gifts until we are given a referral, it was so much fun to pick out fun things for them! It made the process seem more about our children than paperwork and notaries!!

Now we had requested a 4-6 year old boy and his younger sibling. Upon talking with Susan she mentioned the oppurtunity for us to get our older boy and an infant that is non-related. I of course said YES, I would be ecstatic for a baby! When making the goodie bags we had to fit it all in a Ziploc bag. The older boy was so easy we did a shirt, frisbee, super balls, mini animals, photo album and disposable camera. The younger child can be from 5 years to 5 months and either gender, so it was hard to shop for that!!
We settled on this fun dinosaur that talks and sings and can be for an infant up to a toddler, we did have to remove it from the box! We also got onesies, a blankie, photo album and disposable camera. I thought it would be great if the caregivers took pictures of the chidlren and we can develop them when we get them!!!


The girls loved shopping and packing it all up, for thier brudders!!! (we all keep referring to them as brothers although there could be one of each!)

Carson's Hit

Carson has always loved baseball. He has always done well too. His team last year was undefeated and the team became really good friends and he loved it. This year was a bit different, he was a bit more intimidated by the coaches and the team itself was not as bonded. He did not do well with a more harsh coach and he went from doing super at practice to no hits all season long. He attended a week long baseball camp run by Bellermine college, he LOVED his coaches...they were fun and positive. This was his second to last game and he hit the ball every time he swung!! He got out after this hit but he did not care...he ran in with the biggest grin! It was such a sweet moment that all the moms were jumping up and down and the coach grabbed him and swung him in circles on the field. His teammates were chest banging him, patting him on the back and giving him high fives.

Chicken Anyone??

I was told by a good friend that ignorance is bliss. She had begun to research foods and what is really in them due to her sons allergies. I think if you watch this video you will agree! Please beware this is stomach turning!




Watch more videos at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Rock Star Readers

The Louisville library has a summer reading program every year and this years theme is Reading Rocks!! The kids dressed up in their rockstar outfits and enjoyed singing karaoke and making microphones.

This is Brinley, my dear friends beautiful,vivacious,spirited,mischievous baby girl!! Can you see it in her eyes!??!
This is "M" my dear friends foster daughter! Such a doll!!
Here the boys are doing what boys do....making microphones into light sabers!!
Rockstar Annie wearing her bling, bling rocking guitar barrettes!!
Madelyn and Brianna waiting for the microphone!
The girls rocking out some High School Musical songs!!

Singing into her microphone!

Woah! Does he look the part or what?!

Madelyn's Summer Daze!

Madelyn loves playing tee-ball! She is hitting "lefty" which Paul loves! Run, Baby, Run!!!!!
Madelyn with her future husband (so they say!) Michael and best friend Brianna!
The funny thing about this picture is that Maddee was traveling at about 48 MPH (down the hill!!)

What do I need to remember about Madelyn at almost 5 years old????
Let's see:
She LOVES ice cream...all the time and any kind!!!
Loves to give out butterfly kisses
Is beginning to read
Loves to "do school" (yes even in summer!)
Loves to sing and dance
Loves to sing Jesus Loves me with sign language
Writes right to left and sometimes upsidedown or reversed as well!!
Is really starting to "dote" on Annie, wants to put her shoes on help her dress etc.
Is ALWAYS smiling!

Her latest cute story:
Madelyn says "when I was in your stomach I was like where is the light bulb?"..... (sorry it was hilarious) of course then Carson says no Maddee you were like "where is the door?" Where do they get this stuff??

Annastyn's Days of Summer

She is such a doll...she kept saying "higher, higher to the kie mommy..to the kie (sky)"!! Below is her silly embarrassed face!
This would be her concentration face...Side note: She has been pedaling since about 2 1/2 very well. While it took Madelyn FOREVER to pedal...she was probably 4 years??? Hmmm...
Oop crash! Funny thing was she got up and said "Ot oh I try again..no grass..I fall"
Blowing Bubbles at Bubbas Ballgame. She blows so hard the bubbles break and she gets so MAD!
Things for me to remember about Annie at almost 3 years old!
-Says Fweet Tea (Sweet Tea)
-Sings "We will we will....rock and roll" (to the tune of We will rock you)
-Counts to 11
-Gets a popsicle out of the freezer about every 4 minutes
-Sings constantly (usually combining all 5 songs she knows..Twinkle, Twinkle/Jesus Loves Me/Happy Honeybee song/Every Move I Make../We will Rock ...)
-Is SO stubborn...will chose time out over and over again rather than saying "I am sorry"
-As soon as she answers the phone says to all family members "I go you house" before hello or anything else!
-Calls me Befany, calls daddy Paul, says Pencer for Spencer, says Ganny for Granny, calls Mamaw "the mamaw will all the foo-foos" (foo-foos are pacifiers), Cawson for Carson,
-Loves yoogit (yogurt), siller (cereal), mook (milk)
-As soon as she sets up in the morning her first words are "I Hungey"
-We caught her today leaving Outback with her dress pulled up around her waist and her panties around her ankles peeing in the mulch (mortified as all the people on the porch were laughing and watching!) Promise this happened in a nano-second!!
-Can send 4 5-6 year old boys crying to their mommies at the ball field (yes it happened!!)
-Sometimes she talks with her lips completely sealed...Future ventriloquist???
-Sometimes talks with "attitude" her neck rotating and hand on hips...Future teenager???

Daddy Day!!!

Aww...Daddy and his youngins! Can you tell which one is the big "daddy's kid"???? This pic was actually not staged and was truely natural!! Notice the medallion Maddee made him at church!!

These were staged!!
Okay as "cary" (AKA scary) as Annie said Madelyn was in this picture. This is Madelyn's big "thing" with daddy and I...her butterfly kisses!!!! Melts our hearts I tell you.............

Why I Homeschool....

Sheesh what a loaded question!! So Kristin here ya go!

Please remember this is based on SPECIFIC situations with a SPECIFIC child and our challenge to educate him to the best of our abilities.

I must begin this post with a few stereotype busters! I want to say that I do NOT think schools are "bad", I do NOT think teachers are "bad", I do not even think the overall theory of mass education is "bad".

Let me go a bit further on that. I grew up planning on becoming a teacher, I loved many of my teachers who to this today I love dearly. I know that most teachers are awesome, dedicated and loving. I believe the pay is way too little, for those educating our future adults! The hours are long and the planning, grading, training etc are endless!

I do think our nation has been harmed by the lack of discipline over the course of the last 50 or so years. I think you can see this largely play a part in the downhill spiral many school districts. With no discipline, how can there be much learning? (Again not a school or teachers fault....) I believe the "testing" that has made way in to the schools has affected the "learning", ironically enough!

So. let me begin! If I were telling you this story in person it goes a little like this:
~Carson has an Oct 3 birthday, missing the cute off date for school by only a few days. (this of course is ironic because had the little stinker came on his due date or even a couple days late he would have started K and the outcome may have been different!)

~Okay so Carson is a first born, type A, personality that was trying to teach himself to read at 3 years old. So spring before what would have been his K4 year he was quite a bit advanced and I began to look for options.

~I called our Public School District and was informed that he would go to a school about 5 minutes from our house. This school has much lower test scores than that of the school about 7 minutes away. Although to get in that school you had to submit a hardship letter and be put on a waiting list. I also asked about the traditional school option. (In our district some schools are called traditional...this allows them a more strict explusion policy and many other techniques to keep the children in these schools that are more academic and with no behavior problems). For some reason you are sent across town to your area traditional school. For our area it put Carson about 35+ minutes away in a very unsafe area of town. He would have had an LEAST 1 1/2 bus ride each way and would have arrived home each day after 5 PM!!

~Needless to say my next calls were to private schools in the area. The average cost for a Christian school here is $5,500 per year plus uniforms, books, fees, field trips, supplies, lunches etc. A friend told me that her totals are right at $7,000 per child (this is directly to the school, not including the uniforms and supplies).

~So we are left with these facts to ponder:
1.) Private school would cost us a minimum of $21,000 a year once all three children were enrolled (plus inflation). Which is hard to justify when that could be a heck of a college fund!

2.)In public school Carson would have been well past K level upon entering. I talked to many teachers who explained that he would either stop loving learning or be disruptive in class due to boredom.

3.)Or you homeschool for about $300, the teacher to child ratio is MUCH lower LOL, you know your child is loved all day, you know your child is being pushed to his boundaries learning wise, the learning style is geared to him and you can filter some of the "ick" that he would learn on that play ground or on that school bus!

So we made the decision to homeschool and have not looked back! I have since heard a mom say that she began homeschooling to give her child the best education but now she homeschools for her childs heart! I think that is am amazing example of making a choice to HS because your child is ahead of his peers or behind his peers or too active and soon realizing that the reasons are SO MUCH GREATER than the academics will ever be! Can I give you examples:

~My children are so close. If Carson was gone for 8+ hours a day and we only saw him for homework, dinner and baths...I cannot imagine how our relationships with him would be altered.
A friend gave birth to her daughter days before her son began K and they have never bonded like they could have had he spent those precious years with her.

~Extracurricular activities are so much easier. I do not see how these children get up for school at 7 am and get home at 4pm do homework for an hour and then get to the ball field by 6PM?? Then they get home at 8PM eat dinner and go to bed??!?

~If you can imagine the joy we feel for a child who comes in off the school bus saying he can read...now quadruple that feeling when it is yourself that teaches him to read! When my son spouted off every plant and animal from Arizonia in detail like a tour guide to granny while on vacation.....I was so proud! I did not have to say where did you hear that? Or, are you sure? I was able to remind him of other things we learned about and then off he went with more information!!

~My children are very "social", which is the all time funniest HS stereotype ever! My children interact with people of all ages all day long. They talk elders and infants and must learn the social respects for both. They are interacting while school children are with 25 other same aged peers sitting in rows being told not to speak to one another!

~My favorite is that my children are self taught learners. Much like in college m children get a choice in the "classes" they take. We create journals and lapbooks on things of interest and we do not have to move on until we are ready. This is one reason colleges want HSers so badly...they have been learning college style their whole life making the transistion to college so much easier!

~And yes, academically my son is well beyond the public school "grade level.

I know several families who pay for private school and then the children get home and have 3-4 hours of homework a night! I tease them that they just did more schoolwork with their child than we did AND they had already paid someone else to do it!! hehe

I do think HS is the best option for our family. I have had total peace about the choice that we have made and I have seen nothing but positive results come from it. I do not think HS is for every family, nor do I think traditional public school is for every family same with private school. More importantly options may be different for each child within a family!!! I think in situations like this you must ask yourself will I ever be sorry......????? So with this I knew the answer to that might be yes if I chose to place him in school. While there are no regrets this way.....

God works in mysterious ways....he knew way back when that a few days difference in Carsons birthday would help lead us to this awesome path for our family! On this journey I have often thought of the poem by Robert Frost ........
The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

BLOG BUZZ Week 1

RLC has a Blog Buzz going on, each week they will post three new questions. I (& you fellow adoptees!) will answer one. Week one questions are listed here. By posting the RLC badge on your site your blog will be tracked and viewers can see what others said about the same topic!

I will be answering Question #2!
Why did you choose to adopt from Ethiopia? What are the pros and cons of adopting from Ethiopia?

This is still a kinda "I have no idea/it's a God thing" answer. Let me tell you what I do know! We met with a super sweet lady and met her super sweet J that was adopted from Ethiopia last August. Hearing her tell of her visit to Ethiopia kept me covered in goosebumps. Hearing her tell of meeting J's birth mother in a row of shanties in the city. Knowing his mother loved him very much even though circumstances prevented her from caring for him. These things all left me with my heart opened to this choice of a country.
I will not lie...the fact that Ethiopia is a cheaper choice as far as International adoptions go was a plus. The travel is much easier in Ethiopia, only one parent has to travel and it is one trip and only a week in duration. Let's not forget the quickness!! Most adoptions are happening in 6 -9 months! Another big bonus is that infants are being picked up under 6 months of age!

So know begins the part where we have fallin' in love with the country! There is such extreme sadness but such extreme beauty in this country. Every day I hear more about Africa and my heart is pulled in closer. I cannot wait to take my African children back to their country one day when they are older and explore it together!

I am not far enough in to the process to have any cons. Although I will say this closing down the courts for summer is really making me a nervous wreck!!

This is really a HAPPY day!!!!

Okay where do I start...?? I talked to our agency today, and..............

She is going to Ethiopia next Wednesday. This means she will see my children, hug my children and FIND my children!!! So please pray that our children are there and released (paper ready for adoption)...please pray for Susan and her safe travel.

They are actually opening the third orphanage (which is great but equally sad that our agency had 1 orphange earlier this year and the need is so great that they need more) so she is in need of so many things to be donated (more on that when she returns-if anyone wants to help).

Please pray for two babies that she mentioned may not make it, she is taking special formula over to them..but it may be too late.
She mentioned the brothers she told me of before and the youngest is still not released.

So here is the "make your heart stop" part! Susan has told us there is a possible way for us to get our children this SUMMER. The courts close the end of July and for all of August. So if everything goes EXTREMELY PERFECT (Via GOD of course) we could pick them up before courts close...if not we are definitly looking at September or October.

So the second most equally cool part is that we get to send care packages with Susan!! This is the closest I have gotten to thinking , loving and buying a few items for OUR children!! AGHGHHG!!!! Paul and I have been grinning all night!! I know I can send a photo album, a tee-shirt, a toy.....so we can not wait to shoop for little ones yet!!

Oh almost forgot, a proffesional photographer is travling with her! So we should get some really great pictures of our "babies".

Oh HAPPY Day!!!!!

I am oh so happy.

Is it because our home study was sent in? NO

Is it because my son won the National Spelling Bee? NO

Is it because I have lost 20 pounds? NO

Is it because we won the lottery? NO

Is it because my camera came back FIXED in the mail yesterday? YES