three today

Today I am watching my friend's daughter all day so I am getting to experience three children all by myself. She is jack's age. So far, so good. Definitely more work and lots more noise. Guess I may be taking a tylenol shortly. Lol. Happy Monday!

So this is what happens....

When you start to have more time than you want to think about your baby. You start to think of other baby names.

Here is the other name I love:

Annelise

Annelise means "graced with God's bounty". My name is Elisabeth Ann, so it is sorta reversed. And I LOVE the meaning and way it sounds. I guess we will just see what name fits her best!

(You can also spell it like this: Anneliese ) To prounounce, say Ann, then elise.

The name Ann goes way back in our family line. I still love Leah, though. Plus, it is all over my blog. sigh.

eleven months

Today marks 11 months since beginning our adoption journey with Korea. Our journey to baby has been longer since we began with China, did a paper Chase, then switched agencies and countries. To say the least, my emotions have been on a roller coaster for over a year. Have I grown a lot? I hope so. Have I made many wishes on stars in this year? Yes. Have I prayed for, cried for, yearned for and fallen in love with a little girl I have yet to see a picture of? Most definitely. The path to our daughter we will continue to follow. And little one, I love you so very much. And I pray someday soon I will hear the words " you have a daughter" because in my heart, I already do.

Tired Tuesday

A couple of sleeping boys!

Brought to you by the letter "A" and the number "2"

The birthday boy first thing on his big day. Don't worry, things got better for him!

He got this sweet house!


Decorations.....


I loved his cake!

Mamma and her boy

Yea, I'm cool like that. I dressed in theme.


Fun elmo and barney gifts


My sister in law made Anderson this amazing doggy quilt. I love her.

Candles! Notice Jack trying his best to blow it out from his seat. hahaa



We had a great day celebrating two years with our Anderson. And Anderson loved his birthday. He is still talking about it and singing happy birthday to himself. :)

mommy guilt

I thought I would do a little blog on something I struggle with, mommy guilt. Here are some things keeping me up at night. Anderson does not have a baby scrapbook. And his pregnancy memory journal is about 10% filled in. Jack has 2 baby scrapbook but one still has two pages blank in the middle. His pregnancy journal is half filled in. Sigh. This is driving me nuts. I tried to order baby pictures to start Anderson book but only half got delivered. Also, I want to make photo colleges for each of their rooms. Jack needs some current big kid jack photos in there. I still need to get Anderson two year pictures taken and guess who still needs to make his two year doctors appt.?? Enough guilt? Nope, moving onto leah. I love her. But I am terrified of leaving Anderson, my baby now. For a week. I am considering having Daniel go get her. Big mommy guilt on thinking this. I am torn. I am fairly sure I will end up going, but also sure my heart will ache for a week of missing all my boys. Let's move on to stay at home mommydom. Some days by 3pm I wish to heaven for a chariot to carry me away to a quiet adult place. Where there are mature discussions, money being made, perhaps some Starbucks being quietly sipped on while I ponder my work? Mommy guilt. Why am I not so thrilled to have so much time to spend with my boys? Why am I wishing so many days away until daddy gets off work? I have no outside job, and I rarely get away from the boys except to grocery shop on the weekends. Wishing to get away more leaves me with:: you guessed it. And lately I am longing for the days with one child. It is so much easier with one. You get to spend so much quality time with one. I feel bad Anderson does not have that and jack lost it. And now we will have a third. I took jack alone to run errands lately and it was heaven. He was so easy and fun. I tried to make it fun for him since we usually have little brother with us. We even sat quietly and read books in Barnes! Sweet Anderson tears thru Barnes pulling books off shelves. On the other hand, anderson naps, which is glorious. Jack has not napped for like 3 years. So I guess mommy guilt runs rampant in my life. Thanks if you read this! I hope your life holds less guilt, more joy!

** I have to add, if you do work outside the home, I think that is great, to each his own. I hope you have no guilt over it. I may end up doing it eventually. I hope I did not come across like anyone should have any guilt over anything! Just sharing my own feelings lately....

Which bedding?

These are two of my favorites. I wanted something without much design, just soft girly patterns. I want to get some hanging lanterns in light pink for the corner of her room. Which do you like best?

Bee-bim bop

I have heard wonderful things about this book. Yesterday, I ordered it for Leah. I can't wait to get it and read it. Have you heard about this book? Have any other great Korean book ideas for kids?

I am really really wanting to order Leah's room things, like her crib, changing table, rocking chair, and baby bedding. I just keep looking over sites, picking out different bedding that I like. I think I have decided her room colors will be light pink and light green, with maybe some hot pink thrown in there. I am trying to think of things to do to keep me occupied during this wait. I think decorating her room is a great idea, but I am trying so hard to wait until referral. I suppose it may make me sad to have this wonderful room all ready, with no baby to sleep in it. I wish I could sew or knit so I could make her something. Maybe I need to check out a class on that. Well, I have taken a knitting class before, and I am not very skilled. My scarf looked kinda pitiful. Any ideas on good things to do during this wait?

I would love to learn some Korean, but am not sure where to start. I guess I could start gathering the gifts I will need for her foster parents and others when I do travel. (which feels at this point like that will be years away....)

I am actually starting to go a bit nutty. As in, second guessing the pictures I sent to Korea of our family. Wishing I would have scrapbooked them and thinking I will not be matched with a baby very quickly because my pictures are not super amazing looking. This is nutty, I know. Oh and people need to stop calling me with the area code of our social worker. I about hyperventalated yesterday when her area code popped up. I was thinking "this is it." Then: big let down.

So those of you waiting, how are you holding up? I am excited for the many referrals and dossier's that have gone to Korea this past week. It is fun to watch adoption progress!!

I love

These boys.

My baby is almost two!!

I don't know where the time has gone, but on Saturday Anderson will be two years old. !!! I am still not quite realizing this. I told the photographer on the phone that he was almost one. It did not hit me until later that was all wrong. To me, he is my baby still. Happy "almost" birthday little man. I will share all the party pictures from Saturday this weekend. :)

Funny things Anderson is saying:
whatru doin?
i do it!
elmo poop, cookie poop (thanks to our Elmo goes potty dvd)
baaaaany (for Barney, his favorite dinosaur)
Baby aaul (for his cousin baby Paul)
moomey (for money, he loves his large pretend change)
eaad (for read) and eaad cookie (for read his cookie monster book)
fica! (for fish)

Anderson has tons of new words and tiny phrases. He seems to be having a word explosion. Each day he picks up one or two new words.

On a side note, it was this time a year ago when I really started thinking about adopting. Daniel told me that after Anderson turned one we would discuss it. So I was gearing up to discuss. :)

So getaway rescheduled

Due to lots of reasons, we are rescheduling our get-away tonight. We think we will do it when we get our referral now as a celebration get away. :)

Happy, happy news a bloggy friend got her referral with our same agency. Her paperwork went to Korea 6 weeks before ours, which makes me giddy. She now has a baby boy!! ;)

Happy Friday everyone!!!

3

We have hit the three month mark of our paperwork being in Korea. How am I holding up, you ask? I have my good moments, and my sad moments. Emotionally tired of waiting. But trying to stay upbeat knowing the timing will be perfect. I said trying. 3 mos. Is really not that long. We may have another 5 to go, worst case scenario. I am not expecting to hear my phone ring soon, and I need to feel that way to cope. I can't even imagine how it will feel to see my baby's face. Surely time will stand still as I fall in love. My heart holds a place for her. She is never far from my thoughts. Is it selfish to pray to see her face soon?

Wordless Wednesday

Jack really enjoying himself at my sister's water park in her neighborhood. Yeah, I want to move to her neighborhood.

Get away

OOooooohhhhhh. I am starting to get very excited. Daniel and I have just planned a "kid free" getaway this Friday night. Kids are going to Grammy's and Papa's. We are spending the night away!! I am a) nervous b) thrilled c) nervous.
I have never left my almost 2 year old overnight before. Daniel and I have only been on one overnight get away in the past five years, sans both kids and it was within 5 minutes of Grammy and papa's house when Jack was 2. I think we need to leave Anderson for at least a few little overnight stays before I travel to Korea, so this will be good for him, and me.
And I suppose it will be ridiculously good for our marriage. We don't get away from our two darling boys very often. We celebrate 7 years being married this October, so this will be our celebration. I am even thinking I should go get my nails done Thursday. :)
Given this is a public blog, I don't want to disclose the location, but will share all about it when we get back. Let's just say BED and BREAKFAST.