Photo post #2

July photos begin with our Canada day celebration. I'm going to try to keep my comments minimal and link to previous posts so if you are interested you can read up on what was happening when we were snapping these photos. 

We had lots of friends join us to celebrate Canada Day but I'm not posting photos of others because quite frankly I didn't ask their permission. :-)

Good times hanging out in the backyard.

Celebrating R's birthday at her favorite restaurant wearing his new duds.

Starting to feel at home? I think so.

Play ball!!!! Our handsome little ball player.

Can you feel the love? Yes folks it is July and we are still honeymooning away.

Here we go - photo heavy post #1

So this morning at 10:30 we signed adoptive placement papers. This means our son is legally free for adoption and he is now in our home for the purpose of adoption. Not only that but we now have a finalization date where he will be completely legally our son. One week from today on 12/21/12 we will finalize his adoption and become his parents listed on his birth certificate. Funny that we will be listed as parents on a Puerto Rican birth certificate when we've never even visited Puerto Rico. :-)

Blah! Blah! Blah! More legal junk.. here are the photos. More than 5 months worth of photos coming up in a half dozen or so posts - consider that to be your warning. 

These are from the day we met our son.  I'm not going to type much in these photo posts - I'll just link back to the origninal post whenever it applies to a photo.

Baking cookies 

Another supervised visit - this time at Mickey D's.

What a chef!

A very uneventful exciting day...

That sounds a little like a Winnie the Pooh tale. 

So today came and went with no mention of status update to being legally free for adoption.  So are we left to assume that no news is good news? I think so. 

Tomorrow I will reach out again to his adoption worker and request a status update. You will all know when we have signed the OFFICIAL adoption placement papers, as this blog will become photo central. I will also be contacting our attorney tomorrow to make sure she has everything she needs for finalization as she was proactive and sent us paperwork ahead of time. 

*** Just to clarify adoption placement is not the same as finalization. Adoption placement means just that - he is officially 'placed' in our home for adoption nothing more nothing less. However, because he has been 'placed' as a non-relative more than 90 days we can proceed immediately from adoptive placement to finalization. ***

Thanks for caring enough to check in. I know many of you have been praying for us as we have inched towards today's deadline. I even received a beautiful card of encouragement in today's mail from a very sweet and thoughtful friend. The timing could not have been better - you know who you are - thank you. 

Please stay tuned as I will update when there is anything to report.

Mini timeline update time -

Dec 13th or 14th sign adoptive placement paperwork

Sometime during the week of December 16th - FINALIZATION!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is American Thanksgiving. As has become our Thanksgiving tradition we celebrated with our friends who are like family, the McClains. Once again they opened their home to family and friends to celebrate and be thankful together. Here is part of our family's contribution to the massive feast we enjoyed for the entire afternoon. Veggie turkey with thanks to Pinterest.

We have some very amazing things to be thankful for this year. First and foremost we are all thankful for the fact that our family is healthy and safe. There are many things in the routine of our lives that we do not take time to be thankful for. That comfy, warm bed I woke up in this morning, the warm, clean water that cascaded in my shower this morning and the fluffy white towel I used to dry off with. Those are such mundane, taken for granted luxuries. The fact that I can flip a switch and have light and can adjust the temperature of my home with the push of a button. We have a choice of two vehicles to go where we need to be so my husband can travel to his job that provides not only for all our needs and many of our wants as well.

I addition to these things we often take for granted there is the miracle of being able to expand our family this year. We are now just weeks away from finalizing S's adoption. I took his suit pants to the tailor earlier this week. As described in his words, "That was awkward." :-)

In preparation for adoption placement after Dec 5th S requires a current (within the last 6 months) physical. We looked after that this week. From that appointment we determined that he needs his eyes tested. I already had my suspicions about this, a benefit of homeschooling. I had even already talked to the receptionist at our optometrist about wait time to get him in post adoption when he will be on our insurance. Now that it is a documented medical need I have to try to have him seen by an optometrist prior to adoptive placement. Not a big deal just another appointment that we have tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be annother fun filled day decorating for Christmas. This will involve baking cookies, hot cocoa and hot almond milk for K. As much as I'm looking forward to the day of decorating being S's first Christmas with us. I have a few concerns about the girls getting out all of their sentimental ornaments and memory filled crafts. S won't have anything in our boxes this year. He will never catch up to his sisters collections and we know that he is a sentimental boy. I'm sure there will be times throughout the holidays that will remind him of holidays in his past spent in foster homes or with his birth mom. He doesn't share these thoughts but I want to remind myself that even if he doesn't voice his feelings his emotions can come out in behaviors and I want to try not to be so involved in the joy and excitement of the season to overlook all that his little heart is missing. I'm thankful today that he will hear the reason for the season this year and understand the "Christ" in Christmas. Thanksgiving is not about Black Friday tomorrow and Christmas certainly isn't about the presents we receive. There are many holiday seasons ahead of us where new memories and new traditions will be established.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So close..... the countdown is on.

So I'm sure this is just my life and no one reading this could possibly be as busy as me. Just kidding of course, I know you are all very busy. It is our lot in life choosing to be all things to all people. Wanting to be the best mom in the world, the doting wife, a great friend and then collapsing into bed each night only to repeat the cycle of fulfilling needs the next day. So this is my excuse for not making the time to update the blog. But I'm here so prepare yourselves to be updated.

September and October were ruled by cheerleading practices, football games and cheerleading competitions for R and baseball practices and games for S. I honestly don't know how families who aren't homeschooling do it. At least I have control of testing days and allowing them to sleep in until they are rested enough to get up and start their school day. Listening to the other cheer moms talk about homework and tests their daughters needed to stay up until midnight preparing for just made me feel so bad. How do middle schoolers get enough rest to do well on a test they have studied for until midnight? The general consensus among the other moms was that they are really looking for grades to go up in the second 9 weeks of school now that cheer is over. That said I have enjoyed watching both our youngest children grow and flourish in their chosen sports. I admit I had no understanding of how tough cheerleading is. My biggest reward for S playing baseball for the first time on a team is watching how his team has rallied around him. When he hits a double or makes a great snag in right field - he did both of these things in his last game - hearing his teammates and the parents in the stands cheer for him does my heart good. They all know he is new to the sport while the other boys have been playing for many years. Considering his lack of experience he has had an awesome season and his last game is tomorrow night. Michael has been able to help out assisting the coaches on S's team and this has been a good time of bonding for them. I love this picture of them in the dugout.

Here's a before and after shot of my fresh faced twelve year old cheerleader and then the same sweet girl complete with competition make up - have mercy!

During these months the big girls have kept pretty low key. T went to homecoming - and has been applying to colleges. ** Insert proud but teary eyed mom face here. ** K decided she didn't want to go to homecoming this year and she is still debating whether or no she will attend her senior prom. These are hard moments. I want her to have success and friendships but it is a different road for her. She is however really enjoying her career class at school where she is working in medical records at a local hospital four days each week. Her favorite part of this is that they have free lunch in the hospital cafeteria each Tuesday. Oh and she has a special magnetic pass that allows her into restricted areas at  the hospital. 

So now you are all caught up on life in general. How about a good ol' adoption update? We went back to court - yes we did. It is getting to be a very familiar routine. This last time was a Super Duper Hooray we've (almost) done it day in court. We were in court on November 5th. The next to final step before S is legally free for adoption is complete. Now we wait until December 5th for him to be free and clear and OURS!!!! After December 5th we will go to court one LAST time - oh and rest assured I will be telling all of my children this had better be their last time in court, unless of course they too adopt someday. :-) This final court date when we appear in front of the judge for official finalization and adoption we will be decked out in our Sunday best. Honestly, we usually wear jeans to church so this will be better than our Sunday best. Michael and S both got new suits and the girls and I are working on getting our outfits court ready. There WILL be photos taken. And you can bet this blog will be overflowing with months worth of photos I haven't been able to share - I mean seriously how annoying is it to keep seeing the back, the hand, a foot of my son? He does have an adorable face and I should be posting his sweet little mug right here in about 1 month - that feels crazy good to say.

Just for kicks how about one of my famous (infamous?) timelines?

December 5th, 2012 - S declared legally free for adoption
Sometime before Christmas - adoption becomes finalized - YAHOO!!!

There should be no reason that this is not achievable. Prayers are still appreciated to ensure no bumps in the road delay anything further. Michael, K (now that she is 18) and I all went for fingerprinting background screens last week. That's done! S needs a current physical prior to adoptive placement so that's the only thing left to be done on our end. I hope to look after that in the next week or so.

One other little update. Report cards came out last week. Being that R and S have never been homeschooled before this year, they really wanted report cards too. So they got them. I noticed S looking his over with rather an unusal look on his face and I immediately felt inadequate in the very simple report I had crafted on a speadsheet. I apologized that it didn't look exactly look like his usual report cards. He looked at me and said, "No mom, I've just never had one without F's and D's before." Well alright then. A's and B's - I'm just saying!

How you doin?

Yesterday we went to Michael's work picnic of sorts. It was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and temps nearing 80 degrees. Perfect for a company picnic at Busch Gardens. We went on a few rides then met with Michael's co-workers for a lunch where the kids had caricatures sketched. I have always wanted to do this and having the opportunity to get them as freebies was a no brainer. We finished off the day with more rides and finished with a very wet ride on the Congo River Rapids, Michael and K got the worst of it. We all got very wet but they were soaked without a spot of dry on them from head to toe.

I know I've said I can't post pics of S yet - but I'm thinking these likenesses wouldn't identify any of my children. :-) I love them and can't wait to get them framed and displayed.

There are so many updates I need to do - but time has not been on my side lately. I just wanted to do this quick little fun post and I'll get back into the serious matters at hand in a future post. Maybe even later today. 

Just for fun, how ironic is this "Joey" kangaroo we spotted lounging about at BG yesterday?

"How you doin?"

Lifebooks

K has a lifebook. A lifebook is the story of your life - your old life, pre-adoption. A life, that depending on your age when you are adopted, you may not have any recollection of. K was fortunate to have an adoption worker who did research to form a birth family tree. Her worker also got as much family medical background as possible from the most reliable source in the family. I was very blessed to have made friends with the Case Aide who took K for visits with her birth mom. This friend took my camera on one visit and took photos of K and her birth mom together. These are pictures that after 18 years K has not yet seen. She knows we have them. We have told her about them and said she can see them anytime she would like. Her response has always been. "Okay, not right now." You know what? It is okay. The thing is we have the photos and I'm thankful for them and someday maybe K will want to see them - maybe not, but it will be her choice.

This week I have started making a lifebook with S. This is a different experience. We are on our own with his memories and my computer. I have put out a request to all of the professionals involved with him. Asking for stories about him and especially for photos. I haven't received any replies yet but I'm hopeful that some of them will be able to contribute to his lifebook. Yesterday was fun. S was born in Puerto Rico and we spent some time in virtual exploration of the area where he was born and printed off photos of two hospitals where he may have been born. He liked seeing the national bird and fun facts about Puerto Rico. He made four or five pages of this information and couldn't wait to share it with all his sisters and his dad. He was very proud. It felt good that he was learning all this information for the first time and that it made him so happy. Today we added a copy of his original birth certificate. After his adoption is finalized this birth certificate will become null and void and a new birth certificate listing Michael and I as his parents will replace it. In addition to the birth certificate, today I gave him photos of his birth mom. That was a big surprise to him. He is quietly working on these pages now. Because he was so excited to share the pages he made yesterday, I told him he doesn't need to share anything further unless he wants to. I wanted him to feel free to write whatever he wanted on these pages with photos of his birth mom. We will also start taking his lifebook to his weekly therapy appointments so he can show it to his therapist and hopefully create an atmosphere for open conversation about things in his book.

******************INSERT TIME LAPSE****************

So he finished today's pages. I won't lie, there were tears. He misses his birth mom and he worries about her. We had a little chat about her and I told him again how it is okay to talk with us about her anytime he wants to. We try to encourage him to tell us stories, happy, sad, scary, whatever. We just want him to feel free to talk about his life with her. Most of his memories are scattered. I asked him when he last saw his birth mom and he said he didn't know, but he thought it was before he went to his last foster home. I'm thinking he still had supervised visitation with birth mom up until February of this year. I'm not sure if either of us is right but hopefully someone can shed some light on his visits with her. Tomorrow I hope to get him to write a memory page - just one very short story about when he lived with his birth mom. There's not much he detests more than writing so I'm going to offer up my computer for him to type a memory of his birth mom.

If you have adopted or you are thinking about it - here is a very basic introduction to lifebooks. Because of his age S will have much more to contribute to his lifebook if he chooses to. I hope he will have pages for each of his foster home placements, and a few mementos like this sweet little note his teacher wrote to him at the end of the school year.