Love Friday

* Love Janet's posts on Fridays and hope she doesn't mind me stealing her idea!

* Love Matthew in his new elephant hat and how hard he laughs when mama wears it and acts like an elephant. Which will never appear on this blog, by the way.

* Love how happy this little man has been this week. Love the laughing and the giggles and the smiling all the time! So happy he is feeling better.

* Love his new way of carrying around Stinky (yes, the name stuck for his blanket!). Love that he is figuring out how to multi-task :)

* Love that we have another new plan for handling his eczema...and hope that it works soon so he won't be so itchy all the time :( Love that I got to spend time with my boy and my hubby today, even though it was just to go to an out-of-town doctor's appointment.

* Love that we have NO plans for tomorrow except to spend the whole day together!

A New Social Worker

On Sunday we traveled to our adoption agency, this time to celebrate the retirement of a wonderful lady. "J" was our social worker for Matthew's adoption, and we loved working with her! We are sad that we won't get to work with her for our next adoption, but already love our new social worker.

We had a great time at the party even though we didn't know any of the families. There were families with children born in China, Korea, Guatemala, and I think Ethiopia. It was so fun to be together and to "talk adoption" with people who had been through it.

A lady was putting together a scrapbook for J from all the families who she worked with through the years. I made a page for her scrapbook and I was so happy with how it turned out:

Afterwards we went to one of my favorite restaurants where we met up with some good friends we know through our adoption agency. They also adopted a little boy from South Korea about a year before we did. I love this picture because the boys kept trying to give each other "knuckles" the whole time!

I must admit, something about knowing our application is done (it arrived at our agency today!) has me feeling pretty stinking excited! It's starting to feel real that we're adopting again!

Formal Application: Complete!

It's done!

The documents are printed.

The papers are signed.

The medicals are completed.

The questions are answered.

The check is written.

The prayers are prayed.

The envelope is mailed!

Our formal application is finally on its way

to our adoption agency!

Do you know what that means?!?!

It means in only one to three short years

(I really have no idea how long it will be!)

we will be on our way to Korea

to bring home another precious child!

What do you think, Matthew?

Does that sound like a good idea?

Yes, we think so, too!

Next stop: homestudy!

The Rocking Chair

For months before he came I home, I had visions of rocking Matthew in this cozy chair in his bedroom.

I would often go into his room, sit in the chair and smile (or cry) thinking of him and wondering what it would be like to hold him. I couldn't wait for that day to come!

And then he came home...and he hated to be rocked!

Yes, I probably had the only baby on the planet who did not want me to sit in a rocking chair with him before bed. In fact, if we even sat down before he was asleep, he would scream. Perhaps he was just used to being carried a lot by his foster mom. Maybe he often slept in a carrier on her back. Whatever the reason, when Matthew first arrived he would only fall asleep if we were walking with him.

I remember the first few days so clearly - the walking, the aching arms, the screaming back pain...the pure joy to have him home that thankfully made me not even care! I remember I would make up games in my head to keep myself from falling over or

dropping him..."Okay, count to 100 and then you can try to put him in his crib....one....two...three...." It was pretty brutal. And I felt sad that I couldn't just rock him in the chair.

Fast forward 10 months (has it really been 10 months already??). Matthew is a fabulous sleeper - we just put him in his crib, he talks a little or is silent, and he's usually asleep within minutes. He rarely wakes up in the night anymore except when he is sick (like last week). A few nights ago, I awoke to his crying and knew he needed something, so I went to get him. He needed a diaper change, so I took care of that, and then he asked for a drink, so I got him one and we sat in the chair so he could drink. After a moment he handed me his cup and pointed to my chest. I was confused and didn't know what he wanted until he turned to face me and laid his head on my chest. I asked him if he wanted to rock in the chair, and he signed "please".

And so it was another middle-of-the-night dream come true for this mama.

Love this boy so much!

Wordless Wednesday {Laundry Basket Fun}

Hello Monday...I'm Glad to See You!

First of all let me say THANK YOU for your thoughtful comments and for the idea to prop up the mattress - we got 12 hours of sleep last night! I was so thankful when I woke up this morning at 8am and realized he had slept through. It makes me feel like a new person!

Matthew seems a bit better today and we'll be starting him on a new antibiotic today, so hopefully that will help with the tummy troubles he's been having. He is still pretty clingy today but not screaming, so I'll take it :)

The weekend was pretty rough and we didn't leave the house much, but Brad and I both managed to go running which was a nice break. We are toying with the idea of running a 1/2 marathon in October (well, I am toying with the idea and trying to convince Brad to run it too!) and we started the training program for that this week. We both ran 30 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday and then 2 miles on Saturday. I was excited that my 2 mile run was done in 19 minutes and 36 seconds...faster than I used to be for sure. Brad and I have been taking turns going after Matthew goes to bed, so we don't run together, but that is okay since he is way faster than me anyway!

I think I'll leave you with some Korean cuteness...last week we got to meet some new friends who recently adopted a beautiful little girl from Korea. Seeing her got me thinking, maybe a little girl wouldn't be so bad... :)