Is it that time of year again? Anniversary!!!

If you have read last year's blog about our anniversary then you know that 1.) we follow the traditional gifts for anniversaries and 2.) we cheat horribly with it. This year is no different. With the crazy busy time of year that we chose to get married in the first place our anniversary usually gets a little lost in the shuffle but, add in a three year old that is just too cute and you've got a marriage problem on your hands. There are nights after we get K-Bug into bed that I sit down and think - Hey wait - wasn't there a rather attractive man I call "Boo" hanging around here somewhere. We really have to make an effort to spend quality time just the two of us - and that's hard when it's the last two hours before our bed time and we can barely keep our eye lids open.

This year is our big number 5 - that's right - we've been hitched for five years. I feel especially lucky because not only are we celebrating it as husband and wife but as a mommy and daddy as well. The fifth anniversary gift is supposed to be wood so during dinner the other night I asked Gar if he "would like to go to dinner with me" for our anniversary (I swear I never thought I could be this lame). It got a chuckle from Gar but K-Bug was not impressed. No gifts this year - just two hours alone at a restaurant that does not have a children's menu - we are too excited. Our WONDERFUL friends Todd and Hayley are watching K-Bug while we play grown-up.

Respectful

We are working with K-Bug on being respectful and not being so bossy. We even read a book today about it - "I am Respectful." Well - tonight at dinner Daddy and I were talking and K-Bug said, "Excuse me." I said, "What's up baby?" K-Bug responded, "Alligator." Apparently our stimulating adult talk was just not that interesting to K-Bug. She was respectful about it!

I don't feel good Mommy.

This is what K-Bug told me this morning when she woke up. Now this wasn't new news - I listened to her stuffed nose and weezing all night. Poor little K-Bug has a bug - runny nose (we call it Naughty Nose - we've put it in the thinking chair but it hasn't done any good), weepy eyes, and fussies. Its no fun but what is fun - bed day! We've got movies, pillows, blankets, kleenex, and animal crackers in Mommy and Daddy's bed. We're staying here until we feel better! Thank goodness for Uncle Jarred and Aunt Mimi's video library or we'd be stuck watching the Lion King five times in a row. We did watch the new Tinkerbell movie (a must have for all little girls).

Mommy is surfing the web trying to find Christmas crafts that will make good gifts. Here are a couple sites I have found that have cute stuff.

One Pretty Thing

Homemaking Fun

Kojo Designs - this one has a November giveaway for the CUTEST little girls dress.

I Read Good!

I love to read - I have spent whole days in bed just reading and have even contemplated faking an illness just so I can have a "bed day." Lucky for me, K-Bug shares this love of reading. While many children sleep with a teddy bear or a favorite stuffed animal, my little one sleeps with books all around her. Gar and I often make bets about how many books there will be in her bed when we check on her. (All time high was eleven.)

Our favorite book, "Llama Llama Red Pajama" was given to us by Gar's boss. We often read it before nap and bedtime.

We take weekly trips to the library to check out new books and I'm always on the look-out for books that are fun for kids and adults. Sometimes its hard to find age appropriate books for K-Bug. Here are some recommendations of books we have enjoyed.

If anyone can recommend a children's book that they enjoyed please do!!!

I'm crafty!

For Halloween this year we decided to give K-Bug another opportunity to wear her ladybug costume by bringing treats to Gar's work. Of course it then snowballed into making our own candy and decorative cones to carry the candies. I can't be entirely blamed, however, because my mom showed me this adorable blog where I got the idea to make Halloween Bark.

This is my bark - it made A LOT more than I expected but it was delicious and very cute!

The cone pre-candy.

Gar holding the cone post-candy.

All my cones wrapped up and ready to go!

K-Bug on her way to hand out candies and turn Daddy's work friends into Ladybugs!

Sweetie and Honey

Lately K-Bug has been calling everyone "Sweetie" or "Honey" or "Sweetheart." Now its important for you to realize that she only does this when she wants to tell someone to do something or to stop doing something. Here are a few examples;

To Daddy at breakfast "Sweetie, can you eat your eggs?"

To Me when I ask her to go potty "Honey, be patient for your K-Bug."

K-Bug also tells us that she has nice manners after she says "please" or "thank you." Gar was trying to explain to K-Bug that we need to show that we have nice manners and that we don't say we have nice manners. Here's what K-Bug did later "Daddy can I please have some milk. I have nice manners. We don't say we have nice manners we show we have nice manners."

Adoption: Accomplished

We are now the proud parents of the cutest, sweetest, and most hilarious three-year-old. K-Bug has come into our lives and has made us so very happy. We go to bed each night still giggling about the funny things that K-Bug did throughout the day. We owe everything to our social worker who suggested calling a local lawyer before starting the international adoption that we had previously decided upon. Boy are we glad that we did. The lawyers worked hard and fast on matching us to a birth mom and within months we were flying down to Louisiana to meet our precious girl! I was so superstitious that I didn't want to jinx the adoption by writing about it too soon but now that it is finalized I feel comfortable announcing our wonderful news (to those of you who don't already know of course).

So now that we have adopted K-Bug, I will now post our cute stories so that you can all hear about her cuteness. We just can't thank our family and friends enough for being so loving and supportive of this journey. I thank God every night for bringing this precious little girl into our lives and I am so happy to be her Mommy.

I'm so tired!

It's official - I'm overwhelmed. When we first got an email from Gladney with attachments I was so excited. I had G print them and I organized them into sections. Then we got another email, and another, and another, and a separate paper on how to organize all the paper work. They suggest putting it in four different folders and friends, let me tell you, the folders are bulging. I have them on my counter and honestly, I don't know where to begin. I'm trying to stay inspired and motivated but I'm struggling to maintain my previous enthusiasm. We are sure in our decision to adopt and this is definitely what we are going to do but its daunting. We've given ourselves the summer to do the paperwork but I'm wondering if that is even possible.

Here's hoping my energy comes back so I can rock the paperwork!

Our Sweet Friends!

Our very adorable friends have just started their blog documenting their adoption journey to Rwanda. We are so excited to welcome them to the adoption world! Hayley and I have been friends since we were in 6th grade and not only do our husbands work together but now we are both adopting. It's like every little girl's dream!!! Now if we only lived next to each other (I don't know about that).

Check it out: Hayley and Todd

Phone Orientation

Today we had our phone orientation with Gladney - the agency we have chosen to help us with our adoption. We feel super comfortable with our choice - they are very organized and clearly know what they're doing. We now feel fully geared up for a mountain of paperwork but we are not overwhelmed. 

Here's a breakdown of the process:

Basically we have 4 parts to the paperwork process: Application, Homestudy, Immigration, and the Foreign Dossier. A lot of the paperwork will be repeated so that's nice but there is still a ton more. I have decided to take the summer off to get our paperwork ready, catch up on some adoption related reading, and finish some house projects (not to mention spending time with my nephews). 

After the paperwork is completed and approved then we will begin the matching process (hopefully we will be getting siblings - more about that in later posts). Once a match is made they take the babies out of the orphanage and put them in foster care. The babies will be taken to doctors to have testing done (HIV testing is done twice) and to have a complete medical work up. We then get a picture and the medical information of our prospective cuties. 

Then begins the legal process where we wait for the courts to finalize the adoption and FINALLY we go get our babies. 

Seems like a lot but we're pumped - we are excited and nervous but we're ready. We'll keep you all updated more often now that I'll be done with school and we'll be doing more. 

We're on our way!

Today Garrett and I signed our loan papers - we are in the money! We also filled out the pre-application for the agency we decided on. 

I was taking care of my friend's little girl the other day and I told her that Garrett and Auntie M are going to get babies from a far away land. She asked me why they're not here yet - I told her they are waiting for us. She said that yes they ARE waiting, waiting for her to get big enough to help me with them. How cute is that?!

I'm sure we will have more to post now so be sure to check back. 

 

Wyatt!

We can't just show Jack without showing the cuteness that is Wyatt. We are at Wichita's new Donut Whole - which has the best donuts! They certainly got Wyatt's approval.

Lots of love!!!

New Nephew

We have a new nephew! He is very healthy and big (9lbs 5oz big!). We already love him so much and our older nephew Wyatt is coming around to the idea of being a big brother. 

New Year, New Decision

Nearing the end of last year we knew we needed to make some decisions about our adoption process (or lack thereof). We bandied about such words as foster care, international adoption, and Ibuprofen. We spent a good part of our recent vacation to Colorado talking about what we want to do next and we have finally made a decision. Africa, here we come (in ten to twelve months). 

We feel like this is what we are meant to do and we are so excited to share this process with our friends and family. Many of you know that this a direction that we have been leaning towards and what a lengthy process this has been to make this decision. 

So far we have looked into financing and feel comfortable that we have a few options. We have also chosen an agency and country in Africa (Ethiopia). 

Look for more blog posts - I want to keep everyone up to date on this amazing journey.

Lots of love!