Busy

It's been a busy, busy week.  And I am tired.  The boys just spent over an hour playing in their room (making a surprisingly small mess, too!) and I was flat on my back on the couch trying to get up the energy to do something.  

Look, it worked - I'm blogging!

Earlier this week, Nathan had a CT scan scheduled, so he and I were up  at 5:30am to head to the hospital.  This was my first time going it alone for a procedure like this and I was a little nervous about it, but Nathan was such a trooper and did really well.  He had to be sedated (since he can't sit still for 10 seconds, let alone an hour!) and he had as can done of his inner/middle ears and also his right eye.  We are looking into the possibility of surgery to improve or maybe even restore his hearing, and this is the first step!  Also, he has a dermoid cyst on his right eye that his eye doc wanted a picture of if he was ever having a scan done (this is not anything we're worried about).  

Nathan had a bit of a difficult time before he got his happy juice, but bubbles did help :)

Everything went well and as soon as he woke up he wanted to eat, eat, eat!  We were home by about 10:30am and he was fine the rest of the day.

What else have I been up to...well, I've been busy in the kitchen!  

Every single day, without fail, I think to myself, "Dinner again?  Seriously, do I really have to make dinner again?".  I kind of got in a bit of a funk and let's just say we weren't eating very well.  

I had the idea that maybe making freezer meals in large batches would be good for me to try, so I got organized, made a list of meals I was going to make, bought my groceries, asked Brad to take the kids outside for a couple of hours, and voila!

I was able to make 15 freezer meals in just under 2.5 hours!  Some of these are complete meals and some of them are just the main dish and I will just have to make a side dish (for example, I made meatloaf and will just make some potatoes and a vegetable at dinner time).  A lot of them just thaw in the fridge for a day and then I will pop them in the crock pot.  I'm pretty excited about not having to think too much about dinner for the next two weeks!  I will definitely be doing this again.

I'm loving Pintrest these days and getting some great ideas.  The best part - I'm actually doing them instead of just thinking what good ideas they are!  I'm looking forward to sharing some more projects soon!

Fun Fall Memories!

It's a beautiful day in our corner of the world!  The boys have transitioned down to no naps (boo!) but honestly I am finding this really opens up the day and seems to give us a ton more time to do fun things.  Today after lunch we made some colored rice, and the boys have been happily playing with it for over an hour!

Every Fall I look forward to our trip to the local apple orchard, and yesterday we had absolutely perfect weather so we decided to spend the afternoon outside.  My sister and a friend joined us and it was just lovely!

Nathan's favorite part - the goats!

Matthew's favorite part - his very first pony ride!  I thought he would be scared but when I said I'd be just behind the rope waiting with Daddy he shouted, "Alright, Mom!" and then he was off with a big smile on his face!

After all this excitement we snagged a table and enjoyed some apples and freshly made donuts.  Yum!  I made Matthew some homemade donuts and he and Nathan both devoured those.  Then the kids all ran around like crazy with a sugar high :)

Then we attempted a family picture...which is always fun with two toddlers!

We got some apple cider to bring home and Nathan insisted on carrying it!

Brad and I have been going to this same apple orchard since before we had kids and every year I find myself thinking about past years and marveling at how our lives have changed in the last few years.  It's hard to believe next year there will be another little one running around, too!

LID...And Then There Were Three!

We got good news this morning - our dossier was logged in with China on 9/21/12!

Just another step closer :)

In other news, someone new has joined our Stinky Family!

No, our family is not stinky :)  But we have three little blankies who are the Stinky Family.

When Matthew was little we got him his blue bear blanket.  The kid seriously loves this bear.  He used to drool a lot (Matthew, not the bear), and chew on the bear's ears, and it would get all stinky.  I started saying things like, "Where's your stinky bear?"  and, "Oh, that bear is so stinky!" and somehow it accidentally stuck.

And so the bear's name became Stinky.

When Nathan came along, so did another little blanket.  His had a monkey head on it, and when I was trying to explain to Matthew (who was then 2) what it was, I would say, "It's Nathan's Monkey Stinky."

And it stuck.  Monkey Stinky it is.

Well, as soon as we found out about Hannah we knew she couldn't be left out.  When my sister got her this beautiful, soft, pink blanket I knew instantly what we would call it:

Pinky Stinky :)

We are excited to have another Stinky member but we're really looking forward to the day when we have another family member!

Time to Shop!

Before getting the wonderful news about Hannah yesterday, we got other great news from our agency.  In a couple of weeks, someone from our placement agency will be going to China and visiting the city where Hannah is!  This is great news because it means that we get to send a care package to our girlie!

Until now, we have not been able to send a care package, and I wasn't sure we'd get to send one at all so this was very exciting news!  We sent one to both of the boys and I was disappointed to think that we wouldn't be able to tell Hannah one day about how we shopped for her and sent her a package while we were waiting for her to come home.

Today was a happy day (again) because I went shopping (without children!).  It was a lot easier this time as I had a general idea how much stuff I can get into a one gallon ziplock bag :)

Here's what I ended up with:

For the foster family:
* Werthers candies
* Jelly beans
* Note paper

For Hannah:
* A teething bead toy
* A little outfit
* A bib
* A photo book (ordered the photos tonight!)
* A bear lovey

I am hoping to get it in the mail tomorrow.  It's so funny, with Matthew and Nathan's care packages it took me so long to get it together and send it out.  It seems like the more children I have, the more productive I am!  So when Hannah comes home, that means I'll be super productive...right?!?!!

Oh Happy Day: Hannah Update!!!

Sometimes God answers such specific prayers, it blows my socks off!

On Friday, I was talking with another adoptive mama about how detached I feel this time around.  We have two pictures of Hannah from when she was five months old, and as time goes on, I find that I am just not feeling very much at all because it doesn't feel very real.  On the way home from my friend's house, I was talking to God about this and I asked Him to please, please let us get our update on Monday because it was time for me to feel more, care more, pray more for our daughter.  I don't want to be detached anymore, even if it makes my heart hurt more.

My hand went to my mouth and I gasped as I opened my email this afternoon and saw our case worker's name in my inbox with the subject: UPDATE!!

I opened it to find the sweetest little pictures of our beautiful girl!

I mean, really, could she be any more precious?  She looks so different from the last pictures we have!  I love her hair, her sweet little lips, her feet (which if the update is correct are almost the same size as Matthew's!!)...I love everything about her!

We also got a two-page update (which I have read no less than 100 times already!).  A few highlights:

*  Wonderful news - Hannah has been with a foster family and not in an orphanage since birth like we believed!  We are so thankful for this and to know that she is being cared for by a family.

*  She weighs 17.6 pounds (at 14 months old)

*  She has 8 teeth

*  She is introverted, timid, afraid of strangers

*  She loves all kinds of toys and likes being cuddled outside to play :)

*  She sleeps well with adults (uh-oh!  looks like lots more co-sleeping is in our future!!!)

*  She is saying some words and can follow adults orders (which is amazing - we had no idea if she even had any hearing!!!)

*  She can sit freely, turn over, stand for a while with holding

*  When she is crying, she can calm down by giving her snacks (this one made me laugh - she will fit right in around here!!)

*  She likes to eat porridge, eggs, meat soup, bananas, and has a good appetite

I can't explain it, but it is just so good to know more about her.  It does make my heart hurt, and the waiting harder, but I'm so thankful to know.  I hope and pray that in less than five months she will be home with us!!!!!  That is really not long...but tonight, I feel like I can't wait another minute!

A Cute Little Sleeper

It doesn't matter where or when...

he's stinking adorable

and perfectly peaceful...

my precious sleepy boy!

Happy Days

The boys are at such fun ages!  I must admit, I am loving Matthew being almost four and able to communicate so much more with me.  Nathan said a NINE WORD SENTENCE to me tonight and talked my ear off most of the day - he is starting to really be able to express his feelings, which is good because he's been having lots of tantrums lately and I'm ready to move beyond that a little bit.  Not that they won't happen anymore, but it seems like now that I can really talk with Matthew things are a lot easier.  

Sometimes I get the feeling though that Nathan is going to give me a run for my money ;)  He's a little pistol, that's for sure!

Look at these two cuties right before bed tonight!  They are melt-my-heart cute and I often shake my head in wonder that I get to be Mama to these two precious boys.

Every day these boys play together more and more and fight less and less.  It just amazes me to see what good friends they are becoming!  I love it!  Yesterday they disappeared into their bedroom and for 45 minutes they just played and talked and laughed...serious goodness :)

Lately they have been playing with all kinds of stuffed animals.  They carry them everywhere and make them talk to each other.  It's so funny!

They still love playing outside and we do that as often as we can while the weather is still good.  The swing set has gotten a lot of mileage out of it, that's for sure!

And lest you think that they are always happy and smiling...

Here's what happened when Nathan got to the swings first and got on "Matthew's swing" (there are two swings, exactly the same, but for some reason Matthew has decided that one of them is "his" and one is "Nathan's".  Sigh).  So when I wouldn't make Nathan get off the swing, Matthew had a big ole meltdown.

Luckily, these things don't last too long (usually) and five minutes later...

Yep, these are happy days.

Random Ramblings

We've been home for over two weeks now and let me just say, jet lag seriously kicked my behind coming this way.  Going to Korea was not bad; coming home was really rough.  This makes me pretty nervous about traveling to China and returning home as the mother of three children.

Still, I've been reminded over and over recently that God supplies the grace when we need it, so that's enough worrying about that.  He'll take care of it when the time comes.

I've managed to pick up some kind of bug, seems to be a cold and a sinus infection.  My head feels like it might explode soon!  After three days of antibiotics I thought I'd been feeling better, but today I started feeling worse instead.

On the bright side, though...my boys both slept until 7:45am today!  That is a new record; I don't know if they have both ever done that before at the same time!!!

I told you this would be random.

One of the only things I don't like about being a stay-at-home mom is that there are no sick days.  Like, ever.  Little kids don't seem to get that when Mommy isn't feeling well she wants to just lie on the couch; they still want you to play and get them stuff and hold them.  Sometimes I really just want to take a sick day!

Instead of taking a sick day, I have tried to get some activities ready for the boys for tomorrow so that hopefully I can just lay low.  They are easily entertained by things like cutting up paper into tiny little pieces and dumping rice from one bowl into another so I know that they'll be excited about that tomorrow.

The boys are doing well and have settled back into "normal life" fairly well after us being away for two weeks.  Nathan has had some struggles that seem to be to be very adoption related.  I started a post on this yesterday - we'll see if it ever gets finished or published.  I feel like such a beginner at all this parenting stuff so I find it kind of hard to share my thoughts or opinions about it all.  But it's something I've been thinking about a lot.

For now...cold medicine is calling and hopefully I'll be heading to bed very soon!  Please, oh please, little children...sleep late tomorrow!!!!

Korea Trip: We Love Seoul!

Brad and I spent the first three days of our Korea trip in Seoul.  We knew we wanted to go early (before beginning the tour that we won) so that we could meet the boys' foster families.  It worked out well and we really enjoyed having a few days on our own to explore Seoul.

What an amazing city!  Seoul has over 10 million people in it, and apparently the "greater Seoul area" has over 25 million people!  It's hard to get my head around those numbers.  The city is amazingly clean, felt so safe to us, and was easy to navigate.  There was a lot of English, and many people speak English.  We found people to be friendly and helpful and we loved every minute of our time in Seoul.

We stayed at the Somerset hotel and it was fabulous!  We would stay there again in a heartbeat.  It came highly recommended by many adoptive families and even though it cost a lot more than any hotel we've ever stayed at here, it was worth it to be somewhere we knew was safe and clean.  It had a great location, and the staff was amazing.  They helped us so much when we had our "typhoon incident" and weren't sure if we were going to be able to fly to Jeju Island or not.

Our favorite thing to do in Seoul was to walk around the markets.  We went to three different areas and loved all of them!  The shopping was so fun, but also just the energy, the people, the food...the smells!  Well, some of these weren't my favorite, but still, it was an experience for sure!

For the most part we managed really well with getting what we wanted/needed...except for one time when I accidentally got three smoothies instead of two and Brad was convinced that everyone was thinking, "Look at that big white guy with two smoothies!".  At least they were really yummy...

We really hope we get to go back to Korea one day (to take the boys) and we will definitely spend some time in Seoul again.  I told Brad that I felt like if we adopt from Korea again in the future I could even travel there by myself to bring home our child, that's how easy and safe it felt.

Three days was not enough!  I can't wait to be back to Seoul!

Decisions, Decisions

As parents, we make lots of decisions for our children.  Some of them are small, and some of them are life-altering.  It has been weighing on me lately what a big responsibility this is.  God has blessed us with two (soon to be three!) precious children and it is our job to follow Him and to make decisions for our little ones.

We are facing some big decisions in the coming months and years about Nathan.  He was born with Microtia, and his outer ears did not form correctly before he was born.  He also has some hearing loss associated with this, because his ear canals are really narrow.

We are blessed to live in a country where we have access to wonderful medical care.  There are actually a lot of options available to us, and we are now in the beginning stages of researching and learning about these options so that we can make a big decision.  Some of these surgeries can be done as early as 3 years old, and Nathan will be 3 in January, so we have decided to start our inquiries now.

Before Nathan came home, we knew that this would come.  We knew that surgery and reconstruction was probably in store for him down the road.  What I didn't know was that when it is your child you are talking about...it's really hard.

It's hard to make decisions about changing him.  We love him so much and honestly wouldn't change a thing...if this world was perfect.  But it's not, and so we grapple with thoughts about making changes to his appearance to protect him from harsh and cruel people.

We feel very excited about the possibility that he might be able to have surgery to improve or even restore his hearing!  What an amazing thing that would be!  We are taking steps to look into this possibility and I must admit I am excited for that part of it.

As thoughts about these decisions have been pressing in on my mind lately, one thought continues to echo in my heart:

"Be still and know that I am God."

The Lord is walking this road with us, gently leading us, always hearing our prayers, and He asks me once again to trust Him with this little boy I love so much.

Can I ask you to pray for us as we walk this journey?  We know it is a long road ahead but we trust that God will faithfully guide us every step of the way.