Nothing New

Again things are at a standstill as far as adoption goes. Our worker e-mailed the twin boys/little girl sibling set's worker to see if they had decided what families would be included in the best interest staffing but we haven't heard anything as of yet. We haven't received any new profiles either. I am not a patient person when it comes to all of this!! I know that it's really not about my timing or about what I want but it really would be easier if we get matched with OUR child(ren) soon so that we can travel for visits without the constraints of school and activities for the girls. We do have an adoption event next month where we will get the chance to meet some of the kids available for adoption but we've already been told that the only two that will be there in our age range are very high needs :(

So while we wait we've been shopping, going to Chuck E. Cheese, planning our trip to Chicago and to the adoption event and today we'll go swimming. Brooke has been busy all week again with vacation bible school where she's getting to do one of the things she loves, acting in a play. Really except for all the running for Brooke, we've had a very relaxing summer break so far! I've been really trying to focus on all that I am blessed with...a wonderful husband and happy marriage, two great kids and the opportunity to open our home and hearts to more, my family's good health, the blessing of being a stay at home mom and being there for my kids everyday, the opportunity to take a family vacation, etc...I am truly blessed!!

Father's Day

For Father's Day this year, Daddy was served breakfast in bed (french toast and sausage) and then we headed up to Papa & Grammy's house. We had a great time hanging out at their house and having a wonderful dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, veggies, watermelon, chips and strawberry cake.

Mike got a grill accessory set, wrestling DVD and his favorite candies. Papa got the hot air popcorn popper he asked for plus a bag of popcorn and a bowl that we personalized to say "Papa's Popcorn"...hope you find a way to make that popcorn a little less dry Papa & Grammy :-)

Parade

Brooke participated in the annual parade this year as a High School Cheerleader! It was one HOT night but the girls did excellent with their cheers and dance. Papa and Grammy came down to suffer...I mean watch with us :) Lexy liked watching the parade and LOVED all the candy that was thrown to her...she had lots of friends in the parade and we kept hearing "Lexy, Lexy" and then all the sudden it would be raining candy!

After being in the parade, Brooke spent her weekend working at Uncle Bill's concession stand on Friday night and all day Saturday at the carnival/festival...she is REALLY wanting to save up for a car...that's ALL we hear about :-)

Farm Girl

Lexy was so excited today that we were going to visit our friends for the day. This is one of Lexy's favorite places to visit because not only is there lots of children to play with but they live on a farm with lots of different animals. Today was no exception, Lexy played and swam with her six friends and got to play with the puppies and chickens and follow a huge pig around the property :) She DID NOT want to leave!

She talked about her day all the way home and once we were home Lexy told Daddy that she would really like to live on a farm...I'm all for a little land but I'm not the farm (with stinky animals) type of girl :-) I do think that one will be a farmer's wife one day for sure!!

Summer Fun

Yesterday Robin and I packed up the kids and headed up to the Farmstead for the day. It was WAY hot but we had a good time anyway. We bought sack lunches for everyone and enjoyed all the animals and park equipment!


In other news...We have decided to go to Chicago for our vacation this summer. We were going between that and Arkansas but figure that since Chicago is a flying vacation that we should go there this year (before we get more kids). Who knows how many kids/what kind of behaviors we might be dealing with next summer and airfare is ridiculously high!

The girls are super excited for this vacation. We haven't been on a plane in seven years (when Brooke was seven and we went to Disney World). And this will be Lexy's first airplane ride!!

The same week we are going on vacation, we will be attending an adoption event at the end of the week. We will be going to a town about 3 1/2 hours away so we'll make a mini vacation out of it! Our worker is excited for us to attend...I'm thinking that she wants us to meet some sib sets that she's mentioned that are a little above our age range. We'll see what happens. It's just a short sidewalk chalk event but it should be fun!

Adoption Update

We haven't heard anything more about the twin boys/little girl sibling set, still waiting for court papers to go through before setting a best interest staffing.

We did get another profile and I really can't believe the decision we made about this one. The profile was for a 10 mo. old baby boy, he had a few minor issues...we have choosen not to be included in a best interest staffing for him. I'm still in shock that we made that decision but I feel 100% that it's the right decision. That little boy will find HIS family (I'm sure there will be a ton for the worker to choose from). As we told our worker when she first visited with us, we are not in this to find A child or children we want to find OUR child(ren), the ones meant to be with us. We had an overwhelming feeling that this little boy was not our child, that we are being led to adopt more than one child this time...a sibling group that needs a family that is willing and able to keep them together.

In a way it breaks my heart to say no to a baby but I've come to terms with the fact that our baby days might be over. When I look back, we had a baby almost constantly for the entire 8 years that we were a foster family...maybe it's time to move on. We'll just have to wait and see what's in store for us :-) Most certainly with as hectic as our schedule has become with Brooke and Lexy getting older and involved in more things children that are a little older would be easier when it comes to all our comings and goings but we are open to whatever is meant to be!

Brooke's Driving

For the past couple of weeks Brooke has been taking her Driver's Ed class. Yesterday we went to get her permit. I can't believe I have a daughter old enough to be driving!!! I was even brave enough to let her drive Lexy and I from the court house to McDonald's for lunch and then from Wal-Mart to home. As I put on facebook yesterday, I'm now going to have a permanent scared look on my face and knot in my stomach!

I know most of the kids aren't thrilled with the new laws that took affect at the beginning of the year (permit for an entire year, 50 hours of driving training) but I really think that the extra training time will result in less accidents and better drivers!

Nothing much

While we've enjoyed our first couple of weeks of summer, we really have done nothing much. We have went to the park, the pool, bowling, shopping and wandered around the mall. But mostly Lexy and I have spent lazy days at home while waiting for Brooke to get done with whatever activities were on her agenda for the day...cheer practice, meetings, driver's ed class, driving, play practice, etc. It's amazing how much Brooke's schedule has filled up since becoming a high schooler! It's almost feeling like we only have one child again as much as Brooke is gone :( She even has her first job working with Bill (my brother) at his concession stand that he takes to different fairs/festivals during the summer. Brooke's working hard to save for that first car...which she says she will have painted pink and put zebra print seat and steering wheel covers in!

Hopefully after next week, after driver's ed is done and cheer practice is over for the next month or so we'll be able to start doing all our fun summer activities! Although I'm pretty sure Brooke will think she needs to drive to those activities since she will have her permit....and that scares me :-)

Really no news on the adoption front. The twin boys/little girl sibling set is indeed going to be available for adoption (both parents relinquished their rights) but we have to wait for the court papers before they can set up a best interest staffing to choose a family so it will probably be about another month and a half before we know anything on them. We are still looking at websites of available children and our worker said she would send us profiles of any kids she comes across but so far we haven't been led to inquire about any other kids.

What a site!!

I'm guessing that only someone in small town KS would see this and think that it's completely normal :-) Yep...horses visiting Sonic LOL!

Memorial Day 2010

For the first time (for as long as I can remember) we didn't have any plans for Memorial Day so we decided spur of the moment to make the best of the day by taking the grill our to the city lake and asking Robin and the kids to come out for a cookout and some outdoor fun. It was a fabulous no stress day!!