Easter

I can't believe I didn't get even one picture of Papa and Grammy :(

Egg Hunts

Lexy's friends!  She made them and named them and WILL NOT let us eat them :)

  Lexy and Avree with their egg hunt loot!

 Avree and Lexy at the second hunt of the day (where they could only get 5 eggs each - BOO)

Brooke didn't go to the first egg hunt of the day but did decide to go to the second even though she's too old to hunt eggs now :(

Little mommy

While cleaning I found a stray little diaper under our bed.  Lexy saw it and asked if she could put it on her stuffed dog Brownie. 

And if you give a girl a diaper to put on her "baby" then she will probably ask for...a bottle, clothes, burp cloth, blanket, binky, teether.  So we spent the next little while going through the baby stuff downstairs to fill the diaper bag. :) 

Lexy has never been much into playing dolls but she sure has been a good mommy to her "baby"!  She keeps saying "see mommy, I'll make a great big sister!"

Adoption Event

Papa & Grammy came down on Saturday to watch the girls so that Mike and I could attend an adoption event (3 hrs. away) that we had been invited to. 

Adoption events are...weird.  We, along with about 15 other couples, were told that we would be helping the children do an art project.  We could help, talk and listen to the kids but we were not to mention adoption.  The kids at the event were between seven and seventeen so I would guess they knew exactly why they were there.  We could tell that most of the kids felt very awkward and we kind of felt awkward too since there were no kids there that were in the age range we want to adopt.  We didn't want to take too much time with any of the kids for two reasons...1. we didn't want to take any time away from a couple that could potentially be a match for that child and 2. we didn't want a child to go home thinking that they might have found their family b/c we spent the whole event talking with them.

The art project at first sounded really weird but it turned out to be quite neat.  The project was called "Walk a Mile", the kids chose a shoe and decorated it with all kinds of craft supplies to represent their life story.  At the end of the event the kids shared what each thing on their shoe represented and many ended up telling quite a sad story of their life.  :(  I kept thinking how different those shoes would have looked if done by our girls.

They had papers on the table that the adults could color to tell about our life so I decided to do one...

toe - red - Mike and I's love/marriage

pink - Brooke

blue - foster children that we have had to say goodbye to

green - Lexy

white - our next child(ren)

She made it!

After two weeks of many hours of practice, Brooke tried out for cheerleading for the the fouth year...and she made the Dazzler squad again!!  She was very nervous before and very relieved after they got the results :)

Sad and Disappointed

Well I just got a phone call from our adoption worker...we were not chosen as the two year olds family.  But then neither was anyone else.  Seems that at the beginning of the staffing the adoption workers were told that the team had decided that they wanted to look for a family willing to take the 2 yr. old's 12 year old brother with her so they were not having a best interest staffing today.  One of the other families said that they would consider taking him so they will be included in the next staffing but the rest of us are out.

What a disappointment :(  We were just SO hoping that our wait would be over.

So we move on...

We are attending an adoption event this weekend.  The kids will be older than what we want but we will get to meet our worker's boss so maybe if she sees what great people we are it will help. :)

Our worker told us last night that a sibling set (b-4, g-3) that we had previously put our homestudy in for are once again looking for a family.  Apparently the relative that was going to take them backed out. 

So now the situations we have homstudies in for are...

Three siblings (b-3, g-2, b-1)
3.5 yr. old girl
Two siblings (b-4, g-3)
Special Needs infant adoption agency in NY

Torture

Okay so I assume that the best interest staffing for the 2 yr old little girl took place this morning at 10am as planned.  But do we know the outcome?  NOPE...and we won't until probably early next week!!!!!!

During a phone conversation with our adoption worker last night we were made aware that the adoption process has changed here in our great state.  It is now required that the team that makes the decision packs up all the homestudies and a report on which family that they chose and why and send it to SRS for approval before the outcome can be released.  So now instead of finding out if we have an addition to our family today we will have to wait the customary 3-7 days before finding out. :(  I am FREAKING OUT!  I have not been able to properly function since last night...I'm worried, hopeful, nervous, excited, stressed...a HOT MESS!  Why would they do this to families that are waiting to hear some of the most important news of their life?  This is TORTURE!  So if you see or speak to me in the next few days please forgive me because I may not respond in the correct way, do what is asked of me...heck I may not even acknowledge your existance.  My mind and world right now revolves around finding out if we have another daughter or if we need to continue our journey.