The count down is on....

Having kids is a constant transition from one stage to another. When they're tiny, it seems like as soon as you master one stage and schedule, it's time to move on to another, thanks to their rapid growth and development. First you get the feeding schedule down, then change it up to add in solid foods. You figure out how to contain them crawling, and then they start to walk. For a long time, even though I tried not to, I was impatient to move from one stage to the next.

I can't wait til Jonah can sit up.

I can't wait til Jonah can walk.

I can't wait til Jonah starts to talk.

I can't wait until I don't have to lug everything plus the kitchen sink with us everywhere.

I can't wait til Jonah can blah, blah, blah......

How I am wanting to take all those back now! We are less than 2 weeks away from Jonah starting kindergarten, and I am NOT wanting this stage to start. On one hand, he is beyond excited, which makes it so much easier on me to let him go. However, I am really going to miss the little guy! I hate the thought of him being gone every day...no more lounging around if we want, going fun places at the drop of a hat, watching him play with and teach Reagan. I know it's just Kindergarten, but I know that quickly, "just Kindergarten" will become, 3rd grade, and 8th grade, and on and on. I guess I am still in denial that we are to this point.

I really am excited to watch him grow and learn this year. He's excited to eat lunch at school. I guess we'll just have to both appreciate the little things.

A little change of plans

I will admit, I had an official hissy fit the other day. It wasn't pretty. And I wasn't happy! I got an email stating that our Immigration Approval for our adoption was approaching expiration and we needed to start working to renew it. That may sound like no big deal to you...but if you knew how much work went in to getting that approval, and all the other paperwork we completed to get registered officially for our adoption, you'd understand how the prospect of doing more just makes me nauseated. The original approval involved 5 months of waiting after submitting our paperwork. This time, an extension involves MORE medical stuff, MORE tax forms, MORE copies of birth certificates, and marriage certificates, and fingerprints....ALL of which the government already has!!!! Seriously, in the past year, have my fingerprints changed??? I mean, they were taken electronically for goodness sakes! Pull up the file!!!! *Deep breath....deep breath....*

It just makes me sick to learn more and more about how many roadblocks are in place for families pursuing international adoption. It is an understatement to say that I am not a fan of big government, and this is a perfect example of why (and it's certainly not helping their case). I just wish they would get out of the way so that we can get on with expanding our family through this means. I know certain systems have to be in place to assure security, etc., however, it really is absurd to see the hoopla around bringing a BABY home. She's not a terrorist...not on any banned visitor list...won't even remember her native country. And all this mess goes for China too...don't even get me started on their government in terms of adoption. There are all kinds of kids just rotting in orphanages desperate for a family, and all kinds of red tape keeping them there, along with people seemingly more concerned about opinions and image than the good of some of these kids.

Ok...let me get off my soapbox and share our news.

The most recent time frame for a referral of a child is approaching 3 1/2 years. That's 3 1/2 years from your log-in date with the Chinese government. Although we started this process 15 months ago, we have only been logged in for a little over 6. That's a LONG way to go. We started investigating ways to shorten our wait time to see if there was anything we could do to speed this process up. The only thing we really discovered is that to shorten the wait, you either must increase the age of the child you request, request a boy, or apply for a waiting child (special needs). We really felt like we wanted to stick with our age range (under a year) mostly because of its effect on Jonah and Reagan, and we wanted to stick with a girl. So, that left the waiting child option to investigate. There is a HUGE range of what China considers special needs....it could be as simple as a birthmark or as complex as major heart anomalies or severe spina bifida. Without going into too much detail about our decision, I wanted to share that we have chosen to go down this road. We have said we would consider a variety of conditions, most of which are fairly mild because we still have Jonah and Reagan to think about. Anyway, we certainly covet your prayers in this area. We don't know what God has in store for us, or what child he has selected for us already....but we do know that we wanted to provide every open door we felt we could handle that could be used for our daughter to come to us. Maybe it will speed the process up...maybe it won't. I know I definitely feel better about things though now that we aren't putting such narrow limits on the blessing we are hoping to accept. Who are we to give God such guidelines anyway? We'll keep you updated on the progress (or lack thereof!).

Now...off to do some paperwork....again!

I am not sure at this point that I can catch up....I am so behind but I will at least try to hit a few highlights from the past few weeks!

First.....Jonah's 5th birthday party! Some friends let us borrow their water slide and the kids had a blast!

They had a water balloon fight!

Star Wars cake!

Our big 5 year old! Wow!

Otherwise, we've been doing lots of fun stuff! Like some water playin'....

fingerpaintin'....

cruisin'...

July 4th'n....

attackin'...

hangin'...

ice creamin'...

cheesin'...

and swimmin'.

Mostly, we've been having fun! This has been a great summer so far....I feel like the kids are at such wonderful ages. They're old enough to do some fun things and be a little independent which has allowed us to do some things we couldn't do in the past few years. As much as I loved them being tiny, this is great too!

And I promise, I'll try to be better at keeping up!

Who sent one of THOSE???

Jonah got a birthday card in the mail this weekend. In the midst of all the craziness of the weekend, I totally forgot about it until I found it today. He is always excited to get mail, and of course, birthday mail is even better. He ripped the card open excitedly, found a check, and exclaimed, "Look guys....it's a bill!!!"

Whew!

I am so behind on this blog it's not even funny! When I look at the amount of posting I have to do, I become very overwhelmed....and frankly, I just don't have the time or energy to catch up right now. It's been a busy weekend! Jonah's birthday party was Saturday....we've been doing a lot of work in the yard recently and that, mixed with Rush working a ton recently (20 hours on Friday), made for a lot of prep work. The party was great! Today was Jonah's 5th birthday and Father's Day so it was busy as well (along with more working for Rush). Anyway, I will catch up soon....I promise.

But first, I just witnessed a hysterical sight I only wish I had my camera for. I had put Reagan to bed and was planning on hanging out with Jonah for a bit. He ended up having a melt down (completely exhausted) so I took him on upstairs to bed as well. As I sat with him for a minute in his room, I heard Reagan get out of bed and mess with the gate at her bedroom door (she recently moved into a toddler bed!). Anyway, after Jonah calmed down, I wanted to peek in on Reagan to make sure she got back into bed. Well....she did, but only after she put on her white dress shoes. She was laying in bed, in her pj's, with her blanket, and church shoes. Nice. :) It was such a funny sight...and totally unexpected, which is perhaps why I am still laughing at the sight of her. I think I need a permanent harness attached to me for my camera. They always save the funny stuff for the times I don't have it right there.

"Gradulation" Congratulations!

I remember something people said to me a lot when I was pregnant with Jonah and when he was a baby. I heard these things often, and scoffed just as often. They were common, cliched phrases that just seemed like "small talk" things to say. And they drove me crazy every time I heard them.

"Enjoy every minute, it goes by too fast."

"They grow up so quickly."

"Before you know it, he'll be in kindergarten."

etc., etc.

Yeah, well, they were right. And now, I get it. Time goes into hyper-drive when you have kids. Then when you have 2, it just gets down right ridiculous. I was in no way prepared for it! Sometimes the days drag on, but boy do the years fly by.

Tonight, my baby "graduated" from preschool. He starts Kindergarten in the fall, and I have no idea how we got here! He's excited, I'm......excited. Honestly, I am. It's a little bittersweet, but knowing he's ready, and looking forward to it, makes it much easier. I don't know what I'll say come September when that big yellow bus comes down the road with my little man waiting to hop on....but hopefully, I won't be standing in a puddle of tears!

Anyway, unbelievably, Jonah had his "gradulation" tonight as he called it, and I couldn't be more proud. I love this kid!

Cowboy Jonah!

Jonah had his picture taken at preschool on a pony. Yee Haw!!