Zoom zoom

My boy loves his action vehicles. ;)

the trip

I need some of you to weigh in on this. We can't figure out who is going to travel. It had pretty much been decided that one of us will go and one will stay with the boys. Lots of reasons for this. 1) daniel has a business partnership and traveling away for a week is a big stretch. In 2 years he has never been away from it for more than 2 days. 2) if he did manage to work it out, he would hit the ground working when we arrived home from seoul. I am thinking yikes. Jetlag for me, leah jetlagged and wrong time zoned, grief filled, and my 2 boys in need of mamma attention. I am thinking not having daniel's help those first days back will sink me. 3) i have never left anderson overnight and am worried about leaving him parentless for a week. If daniel stays home he will continue working and have a sitter during the day. If i stay home,he would still hit the ground working on arrival, but i would not be jetlagged and exausted. I would not have to leave anderson, but i would have forever missed picking up baby leah. I am not sure i want that. Sigh. Thoughts?

9 months

We are at 9 months waiting on our Leah. To me, this is kinda a big number. In a pregnancy, 9 is the number you are going for. A magical number when you are swollen, huge and tired. Something you really look forward to! But in adoption, 9 can just be a starting point. Or a mid-way point, in which case I am hoping for! Each month I can cross off I get more and more excited. We have to be getting somewhere, right? This part of the wait, you just kinda sit. Which can be good and bad. Not hearing from the agency on anything makes me wonder if I have just made this all up in my head. Not having the physical signs of pregnancy obviously makes it unknown to strangers that we are indeed expanding our family.
But being at the 9 month mark just kinda re-establishes in my mind that although this child is already loved, and will come into our family in one moment, just like my boys, this is different. I feel silly when I do buy little girl things. But yet I do it anyway. I am waiting on our referral before any big purchases, kinda like I did with the boys in the home stretches of pregnancy. But you should see inside Miss Leah's closet. Oh my. I will have to post a picture one day.
SOOOOO 9 months, YEA! We love you Leah and each month brings us closer to you, our wished for daughter.

Wordless Wednesday

Time Out. This is what happens when I try to put Jack in time out in the corner. Anderson joins in the fun and they both start giggling, then so do I. :)

The wait

FLASHBACK PHOTO - the day we sent in our application to adopt. Oct. 2, 2009 :) (and wow, Anderson looks little!)
The wait till referral for me has its ups and downs. One minute I am completely giddy about the fact that the phone will ring in the fall (hopefully) telling us we have a daughter. In another minute I will be in a panic thinking about leaving Anderson and Jack for a whole week. It is a crazy roller coaster ride of emotions. But watching all my bloggy friends get their referrals, travel calls (GO Kelly!) and pick up their babies (yea Elizabeth!), makes me ridiculously excited for when our time comes.
I try to go about my day with the boys normally,and truth be told they keep me on my toes and super busy, but when nap time or bedtime comes, all I think about is Leah. I wonder how old she is, who is taking care of her, what she looks like, how her birthmother is coping, when we will get our referral, when we will travel, etc. etc. The questions go on and on in my head.
So those that have already gotten referrals, how did you cope with the waiting? And those of you in my boat, how are you doing?
I have to say this is easier so far than the wait for our 1-600A approval. That about put me over the edge. I guess that wait was 11 weeks total but for some reason I just wanted the paperwork in Korea so bad it made me nuts. Now at least I know our dossier is THERE and any day someone could match us to our daughter. :)

Playroom/living room

This is the problem room which I have no idea what to do with

This is the cozy room with built ins that I love and have all my furniture in

So I have been obsessing over how to make the first living room in the house look less like a big jumbled mess. We have a futon in there and all the kids toys, plus a white bookshelf, oak stand with tv/vcr combo. There is a pretty fireplace with pictures of the kids over it. In the back of this house we have the back living room, with all our living room furniture. That room looks pretty good. But when you walk in the house, you see the front living room and it looks crazy. The front living room is the largest room, and some have suggested switching the two rooms so my actual living room furniture is in the place everyone sees first. But, I love the back cozy room. We love to sit in there and watch tv. And to the left of it is the screened porch, and the right is the deck.
Soooo.. it would be great to purchase an actual living room set for the front living room, but money is not growing on our beautiful trees here, and we have a good amount of saving to do in the next 3 months until referral. Any great ideas on what to do with the living room that is relatively cheap?

Pool time

I just love this photo of the boys from a few weeks ago. They both love the water. Whenever we get in the car now Anderson says "pool, pool." He wants to go back!

The world's best daddy

Happy Father's Day to my hubby. You are the best daddy to our boys. Thank you!!! Next year, hopefully you will be a daddy to one more!!!

Caverns!

Yesterday we made a family trip to the caverns. We started out the day with an iced carmal machiato: mmmmmm

And snacks for the boys:

After the cavern, sharing a rock candy snack:

Always the clever thinker, my shoe of choice to go deep underground in wet, slippery terrain:

Family photo. I look terrible here, like an uumpa loompa, not a good angle, but oh well!





Jack wanted to buy this hat. We told him it was lit inside the tavern. They did turn the lights out once for fun, and Jack informed us quickly that we should have bought him that light up hat and we were wrong. lol.

korea

So technically, korea is still at war with each other. The korean war ended with an armstice, not a treaty. I read news every day about threats the two countries are throwing at each other. And each one makes me gulp. My dad lives in seoul, and he says the people of seoul are not worried about the north. The hardest part of all this? There is nothing i can do. If war is started back up,i may not be able to get my girl. They may close adoptions. This is always a possibility with international adoption. I know families that had doors closed to them and you know what they did? They found a window. As in, they moved countries. God knows where my little girl is. If the door shuts he will show me the one to open. This has been keeping me from panicking when i read news like the north koreans are going to turn seoul into a city of fire.(ummmmm...yikes) pray. That is all i can do. I love my leah, and while i think she is in korea, only the one above knows.

Seoul dreams

Last night I had the BEST dream! I was in Seoul with Daniel and we were visiting the baby room at SWS. In Korea, the tiny babies to be placed for adoption go to a baby nursery for about a month (i think) to be evaluated and placed in foster homes. Then the remainder of their first year, until their parents get to come and take them home, they live with foster parents in Korea. In my dream, we were looking at all the sweet tiny babies. I remember thinking in my dream "I should really go sightseeing and take pictures of all the neat things in Seoul, but all I want to do is stay right here in this baby nursery." :) I think having so many bloggy friends traveling to Seoul now and soon is making me think lots about going!!!

cakes and sweet friends

I have had several cake orders and one of my friends came by today to drop off her order for two cakes and she gave me the best magnet. "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." (And written in pink, no less) adoption carries so many emotions and when you feel like someone understands how you feel it is so sweet. I had to try to not tear up. I have the nicest friends...... thanks friends near and far for the cake and coffee orders. I think i have 31 cakes ordered. I have filled two of them. Ha. Better get bakin!!!

Homemade to bring HER home

Adoption fundraiser!!!!
I am making my homemade delicious, moist, large pound cakes to raise money for our adoption! I am selling them for $15. (locally) I love to bake, and get rave reviews on my pound cakes, so I thought I would give this a shot!
I have already sold 3. :) And guess what? One of my cakes would go fabulous with the coffee (top left) we are selling for our adoption, also.
So local friends, let me know if I can make and deliver a cake for your family!
Blessings, Elisabeth

(But if you are not local, you can still buy our delicious coffee, and thanks to all you that already have!!)