Benjamin's 11th Birthday

Wow, it is hard to believe my baby is turning 11 today. He is my first born, the one we could not fathom loving another child as much as (of coarse we do). I am so proud to be his mother. He is a kind and thoughtful child. He is more introverted than his brother, a little more shy. He came into this world stubbornly, have to be forced from me with forceps - he still has that stubborn streak :). The way he protects, and loves his little sister makes my heart melt. I can't wait to see what he will grow up and become or do.

I pray a special blessing over him today, he is one of the joys of my life. I love you Benjamin.

Birthday dinner at Friendly's





Laser Tag and sleepover











Mia was not going to be left out !!!

Camping Fun

Last weekend we went camping at Smith Mountain Lake. I am not a huge camper and never went growing up, well we never went tent camping. Having 3 sisters and no brothers it was never something we wanted to do, urrr yucky spiders, bugs and no electricity!!! I have since been semi-converted, 2 nights is about my limit, but I actually enjoy it - being married to an ex-boy scout has definitely helped. My wonderful husband makes sure we have all the necessities - for me this pretty much means a way to boil water so I can have tea, a mattress to sleep on, and a flushing toilet, we only camp where there are bathrooms - this chick is not really in to out houses !! Do I sound like a spoilt princess - maybe - but I'm ok with that :).

It was a great way to spend Fathers Day weekend. I am married to the most amazing father, and man, he is my best friend. Before we had our first son he had not ever even held a baby, but he jumped in from day one and has been hands on ever since. He has probably changed more diapers than me. We have this on going unofficial competition as to who has cleaned up the most poop, unfortunately I usually win because I cheat and pull the work card - I am a pediatric nurse, so poop is my life :).




It took us a while to remember how to put up the tent, but we got eventually :)



































We went to a drive in movie and saw UP - so much fun, it was a first for the kids.

Visitors

Today we had a family of Canadian Geese visit us !!!












Goodbye

A day with Mia

Today Chris took the boys out to the river for a hike, so Mia and I spent the day together at home. We actually spent a lot of the day cleaning, which happens to be one of her favorite things to do. It takes a little longer, but she makes it a lot more fun. Her other favorite thing to do is to pose for pictures, so here is a few shots from her photo shoot.

Physical

Tuesday I had my adoption physical done. This is what they did :

Blood drawn
Tetanus shot
Chest X-ray
Weight / Height
EKG
Head to toe physical

Mia came with me, and she was an absolute angel. As usual she was her cute self, and the staff gave her lots of attention.

Chris is going today - he is not very excited about it. He wants me to promise him that this will be the only time he will have to do this, but unfortunately I can't. There is no guarantee how fast we will receive a referral from China, if our wait goes over 18mo we will have to repeat the physical :( !!! I explained to him that when you go through pregnancy and birth of a child there are parts that involve pain, so this is a small amount of pain in comparison that we are going through for our daughter, and this way he gets to experience it with me :). Not sure he bought it, but it made me feel better.

Adoption update

I haven't posted on the adoption in a while so I thought I would give an update.

We are in the process of collecting all of our paperwork. We have to main things to complete.

1. Our Homestudy : this involves multiple background checks, copies of birth and marriage certificates, financial info, physicals for all members of the family, references, and bios on each of Chris and I. A social worker then has to meet with us 4 times. We have already had one social work visit at our adoption agency (AWAA), the other 3 will be at our house.
Next week Chris and I are scheduled for our physicals - something Chris is not looking forward to, as they have to draw blood. I have to admit, even though I am a nurse, I don't like it either.

2. Our dossier : this is all the paperwork that has to be sent to China, this includes a copy of the homestudy, our immigration approval to adopt, and a few other forms.

We can't apply for our immigration approval until our homestudy is complete, it can take 1-2 months for approval, so our goal right now is to get the homestudy done.

We also need to complete the waiting child application with our adoption agency to be approved to adopt a child with special needs.

As you can see the paperwork is extensive, and with our busy lives it is sometimes hard to get it done, but I know it will all be completed in Gods timing. I remember stressing with Mia's adoption that things weren't happening fast enough, but like my sweet husband likes to remind me it all happened perfectly, and if things had been any different, Mia would not be our daughter. A reality I can not even think to comprehend.

Catch up

Well life has been nathing but boring for the last month or so, actually, when is life ever boring. April though was busier than usual. Apart from the normal things of life - family, church, work, and friends, we also went out of town 3 times. First we went to Missouri for the weekend where we had a wonderful time staying with friends. Mia got to meet Haven - they became fast friends and were adorable together. Then we spent Easter away with our famly - some wonderful much needed down time - we also celebrated Mia's 3rd birthday while we were away. Four days after we returned we left for a week on a missions trip to Nicaragua.

Here are some pics of our adventures

Nicaragua was an amazing trip, I took about 300 pics, but here are just a few










Our trip to Missourie - Mia did great on the plane





She loved Haven



Easter weekend in Williamsburg







Mim and Papa



Mia's birthday