The Countdown Begins

Two weeks to go and we'll be leaving on a jet plane! I have been in survival mode the past month. Aside from changing all the travel plans, I have done nothing to prepare for this trip. I'm still a little nervous something could change or go wrong. But now I'm running out of time. I've got 2 weeks to get my Christmas shopping done and wrapped, plan Christmas dinner, put up the tree, and make sure everything is ready for the boys. Luckily, I'm done shopping for the boys thanks to Amazon. I think I may be single handedly keeping them in business. For those of you who don't know, TAX FREE AND MOST ITEMS ARE FREE SHIPPING! And their prices are usually less than the stores. I sit here on my couch with my laptop, feet up, clicky click! The boys were off from school all week and every day packages would arrive!

I am soooooo ready to meet our little girl! It will be just about 3 years that we started with adoption when we finally get her home. That's a long time! Aidan was a little 4 1/2 year old, now he's a big 7 year old who will be the best big brother! Nate was a little first grader just learning to read. Now he's a fourth grader who will be reading his favorite books to his baby sister!

Lego Robotics and 40 and FABULOUS!

We had a very busy weekend. Nate had a Lego Robotics tournament all day Saturday. His team is called The Oddbots and they have worked very hard building and programing their robot. It is really cool how these kids, with some adult help, learn to build and program a robot to complete a task. They are then judged and scored points based on their robot's performance. There were approximately 46 teams competing! The Oddbots did very well considering they just started their team in October and they are all just 9 years old. Some teams have members as old as 14.

Meet the Oddbots!

The Robot


In between some rounds of competition, they had dancing. Check out these Oddbots doing their "thang".


Then Saturday night we went to my sister MIchelle's 40th Surprise Party! There was good food, dancing, drinking and great company! We all had a great time celebrating with Michelle and visiting with family!
Mom and Dad

The family


Mom mom and the boys

Denise, Michelle and I

Happy Birthday!

Today is our baby girl's first birthday! I hope she has a wonderful day and that someone makes her feel very special. We wish we could be the ones throwing her a party and showing her how loved she already is. We can't wait to finally meet her and celebrate all her future birthdays as a forever family!

Congratulations and big hugs sent out to two families from our agency that got their referrals this week :) We would love to meet you in Moscow!

My sister is running the Philadelphia Marathon tomorrow! Go, Denise, Go!!! But Not In Your Pants!!!

(I typed this post Nov. 20th, but didn't publish it until the 21st because that is our baby's actual birthday. I didn't realize that the date would be wrong!)

Valley Forge and Visas

It was a long week last week. The boys are both finally better and I'm still getting better from the flu (swine, I think). The cough will just not go away! Brad may say I was being dramatic, but I swear there were times I was on my death bed :)

We went to Valley Forge State Park in hopes of getting a xmas card picture. I got some pretty good ones, but I'm not going to show them! I'll just share some of the neat historical things they have there. It is such a beautiful park. The deer are so close to the path, it's crazy!

Our new visas showed up yesterday! We leave in 3 1/2 weeks! My only worry now is most of our dossier was notarized by someone whose license expires Feb. 9, 2010. That seemed so far away back in the summer of 2008! Hopefully we will get to court before that. The idea of having to redo everything, honestly, freaks me out!!! But we will do what we have to. We will just keep praying that things go smoothly in December and that we get a court date in January!







We are very proud! At least it isn't their own noses :)

Things Certainly Happen For A Reason!

WARNING: MAY BE GRAPHIC!

Today was the day we were suppose to be in Moscow meeting our first referral. But things happen for a reason! We are all sick! They probably wouldn't have even let me in the orphanage today. I sound and feel horrible! Brad is the only one that is healthy (so far) in our house and couldn't wait to go to work today. Even after I asked him to stay home and take care of all of us :) It all started with Nate on Friday afternoon. He came home with a fever and cough from school and is still home today :( I would have had a difficult time leaving him especially after what Aidan went through with pneumonia. I had had a sore throat for days, but started going down hill yesterday and Aidan is home for his 2nd day this week due to a short-lived fever, gross nose and funky eye boogers! Yes, he had snot coming out of his eye last night. That would have sent my mom over the edge! At least I had seen it before and knew what it was. So, here we are. Not in Moscow...but for a reason! Somehow all this sickness makes me feel better about the turn of events 2 weeks ago!

Valley Green

The boys had off from school today due to election day, so we went to visit my mom. The four of us went to Valley Green bridal path and did some exploring. We played by the water, hiked and went over the covered bridge. We had a great day with Mom mom. I even got a picture of Mom climbing through a fence to avoid some huge puddles on the path. I'll save that picture to share with my sisters :)

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone had a nice Halloween! The boys had a great time and I ate WAY TOO MUCH CANDY! This has been a very difficult week for me. I keep looking at the pictures of our new referral and getting very attached. I want to be excited, but I'm just so scared. It can be so difficult to have faith that things will work out during this process. I don't know how much more I can take. The one thing I am taking from this experience is that I have the most amazing friends and family. Everyone has been so supportive! You have all picked me up so many times. Hopefully you won't have to do that anymore :) Our little girl is so lucky to join this amazing extended family. And I'm not forgetting about my blogging friends. So many of you have had such struggles trying to bring your children home. It just doesn't seem right that there are so many children that need a loving family and they make it soooooo difficult. Anyway, we truly are a blessed family already! Thank you all so much!
I'll leave you with some pictures....
We went on a Cub Scout trip one day with a hayride and bonfire.

Daddy and Aidan

Here is Aidan, Ryan, Isaac and Owen..






I wasn't able to help out with Aidan's Fall Social this year, but I did stop by to say hello. His class was making these cute Ghost ornaments.

I made Eyeball cupcakes for Nate's Fall Social!

Nate's class made Monster fleece pillows. They all turned out so cute!

Nate's class did the Mummy Wrap with toilet paper. Here's Nate, Tyler and Liam.



Nate the Gatekeeper and Aidan the Grimm Reaper

Nate, Tyler and Aidan