My Paul

June is Paul's birthday month and we've had fun celebrating him.

He took us to a Mediterranean restaurant one day and to a Turkish one another night.  Delicious and fun to share international food with friends who basically stick to fried American food.

Many local friends dropped by the house with love offerings of cookies.

Peter set up a treasure hunt for Paul to find his gift from him.

A clue under the printer.

Peter gave him a money clip,

something Paul's been wanting to replace his wallet.

I asked Reuben if he wanted to get Paul a gift and he said,

"A cup."

"You want to give him a cup?"

"Yes."

So he picked out this very special set of dishes

for Paul to use as his very own.

Starbucks sent Paul a postcard for a free birthday drink

so we took that on our date last night,

which was also a part of the birthday festivities.

To the Mat Kearney show we went!

Thank you birthday money from our parents

and a free ticket from a friend.

Such a sweet time together.

And for the record,

I predicted Mat would wear a horizontally striped shirt

and he did.

Which isn't really that impressive if you're

up on Mat Kearney.

But still, one point for me.

Our date night continued over to this morning

as the boys had a sleepover at a friend's house.

And now I must go retrieve them.

Good-bye treasured date-night.

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Celebration,

Sugar Lumps.

Ha.

The Last Game

He hit the ball!

He got on base.

Second base even.

Then to third with the next batter.

Then across homeplate after that.

He scored!


Oh, it was thrilling.

I had tears in my eyes.


Twenty million games and he finally hit the ball.

You can imagine his big smile.


No pictures, as I am a knitter these days, not a photographer.

But the yellow dishcloth on my needles will hold a monumental memory.


Good-bye baseball season.

Hello summer days of nothingness.

Nothingness filled with anticipation of a new brother.

Do You Ever Feel Sad?

I didn't really want to visit Seoul in June anyway.

Except, really I did.

But we got this email yesterday...

Good morning Stacey -

We heard from Holt this morning that your kiddo will have the Visa Physical Exam on Thursday, June 30! Yay!!! Things are moving along : )

Have a blessed day,

R. A.
International Services Coordinator
South Korea Team

Did she really say "Yay!"  Doesn't she know this is a crushing piece of information?

Here we are expecting to travel any day and now we find out that he hasn't even had his visa physical yet!

This is sad, sad news for this highly expectant Momma.

So we will not travel until mid July.

Oh, I am so disappointed.

This also means that we won't be able to travel to the west coast for the Event Of The Year:  the gathering of my parents and all my siblings and their families in July.  All of us together is a rare event.  And the timing of our Korea trip is most definitely going to cause us to miss it.

Oh, I am so disappointed.

Not Yet

No Travel Call today, in case you were wondering.

But we are having Vacation Bible School at our church this week and it is a great help in keeping busy and passing time.

VBS is from nine to noon.

I ran the dreidel booth.  And for two hours I sang the beginning part of the song, then had to hum when I got to the third line.

Here it is.  Because I wouldn't want to leave you humming it now that it's stuck in your head too.





After lunch we went to a splash park for the afternoon.

Tomorrow will be a repeat.

Easy, free, and fun.


I also want to try to make this super easy and cute skirt made from a Tshirt...

http://sewlikemymom.com/the-shirt-skirt/

but I just can't focus my nervous energy enough to attempt something new.

Especially sewing clothes, which I have a negative amount of experience with.

Negative, as in I've attempted clothes-making and it's never produced a wearable item.  The attempt then gets put back into my fabric stash to be cut up and used in a future non-clothing project.  Like beanbags.  Or napkins.

But I'm pretty sure I could make this skirt...

...If I was a woman NOT waiting for my phone to ring at any minute and tell me to buy plane tickets ASAP and go to Korea to scoop up my nearly one-year-old son.

I just can't think straight.

So, you go ahead.  Hobby Lobby has their adult Tshirts on sale for $1.99 this week.  Perfect for this skirt project.

Let me know how it goes.

Frosties All Around

Since none of us has received our Travel Call,

let's drown our sorrows in Frosties!

This is the big weekend when Wendy's donates fifty cents from each Frosty purchase to helping kids in foster care.

Saturday and Sunday.  Tomorrow and the next day.

If you don't eat Frosties, buy one or four anyway and find a homeless person or four to give it to.  You'll be helping all kinds of people.

Read more about it at www.wendys.com and watch this little clip...










Here's Dave Thomas' story...

In 1990, at the request of President George H. W. Bush, Dave Thomas began to speak out publicly and encourage people to consider foster care adoption. He spearheaded a national public service campaign and encouraged other business leaders to offer adoption benefits as part of their employee benefit plans.

But Dave wanted to do more. So in 1992, he established the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Over the years, Dave’s modest charisma and simple sincerity helped spread the word about adoption. He testified before Congress in support of adoption tax credits and adoption legislation, appeared in television public service announcements, expanded his reach to Canada, and led the initiative to create an adoption stamp, which was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2000.

On January 8, 2002, Dave passed away and the world lost one of its greatest advocates for children. Dave Thomas was respected for being a talented businessman and a caring philanthropist; his unceasing desire to improve the lives of North America’s most vulnerable children was arguably his greatest contribution to society. In honor of Dave, our Foundation will continue to commit itself to the vision he set forth: to make sure every child has a permanent and loving family. It’s a lofty vision. But Dave would expect nothing less.



Have a Frosty.  Become a foster parent.

Jae-min

No news.

Blah.

Travel call any day now.

As in, I could be in Seoul on Friday.

Ah-ha!

But first someone who knows something has to call us and tell us we can go.

So I knit.

Almost completed a whole dish cloth today.

We did get a Well Baby Check today for Jae-min.

He's still at 18 pounds.

Eleven months old.

He's standing alone, but not walking.

Which is good.  I want to experience his first steps.

Four teeth.

Box of Cheerios purchased for airplane snacks.

For him.

Cheerios are so necessary for this age.

There is some kind of emotional attachment to the big yellow box for me.

I feel ready for this.

I think I have everything essential.

Let me check to see if the phone is still working...

Yep.

People who are in control of my adoption destiny...

Call me.

Please.

Today.

Now.

Thank you.

Prayers and Swords

Paul usually prays with Peter during the Going To Bed ritual.  But he was on the phone, so tonight I prayed with Peter.

I could tell when I hit the mark of praying too long when Peter started making light saber noises.  He was no longer listening to me, but having a battle in his head.

So I wrapped it right up and said good night.

Apparently the battle is still going.  Shwoom, shoom, swshoomm... and so forth are coming from the top bunk.

 

On the way to church tonight, a thirty minute drive, the back seat was humming with the swish and swoosh of axes, guns, swords, and other various weapons as the boys played some imaginary game.  I think maybe they were slicing trees and telephone poles as we drove by them.  I don't really know.  But the sound effects and their boyishness were cracking me up.

Wake Up!

It was a swoosh and a crash and it startled me early this morning.

Out our front door.

 This huge branch decided to break off and fall.

In the morning calm.

No storm.

No wind.

And thankfully, no kids or cars were up and about yet.

We are off to Turkey Run this morning.

It's been a long time.

And, have you seen my large, white ladle?

I can't find it.

What's Happening

I switched my part today.  So that's exciting.  My bangs are sweeping over from the right now.

It would be the opposite of this.

And, Peter had another baseball game tonight.  In the two hours, he batted once (struck out) and didn't touch the ball while playing in the outfield.  Also exciting.

It was in the 90s and my eyebrows were working overtime to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

Um... what else?

We began a new school year yesterday.

 Reuben is doing PreK and K.
Here Peter is helping Reuben sound out words on our new word caterpillar.

I woke up this morning and heard Reuben out here by himself sounding out these words.

So sweet.

Peter is beginning 4th grade.

I love that cape-wearing is a part of our school day.

Could you imagine if he showed up to school in a cape?

I wonder what the teacher would do.

My yarn stash has been restored and I have dishcloth #6 on my needles.  It's purple, so naturally I'll send it to my sister.

 Here we are.

 

Peter's embroidery skills are coming along nicely.

As he was secretly stitching this he said to me,

"Thanks for teaching me how to embroider, Mom."

So much love around here.

Jae-min is not ready to come home yet.  But, yesterday I got to hold a baby that is the same age and size of Jae-min.  It was so good.  So good.

What about Paul?  He's really handsome in this one green shirt he has.  And in the grey shirt.  And that blue one with the snaps.  And the one when he rolls up his sleeves.  He's got all kinds of style.  I love his smile.

That's what's going on in this small life.

Small Life For Sure

I have become addicted to knitting.  Three and a half dishcloths complete!  So fun to carry my ball of yarn and needles with me as I go about my motherly duties.

When I made my initial knitting purchase I made the mistake of buying only one ball of yarn.  I ran out of yarn on Wednesday.  I have had to sit through two ball games with idle hands.

Here's the salt in this very shallow wound...  There is no yarn for sale IN MY COUNTY.  Isn't that crazy?  I have to drive fifty minutes to the nearest yarn-selling store.

Gas is over four dollars.  That makes for expensive yarn.

Know what else?

Paul has been mega sick since Wednesday.  I have a baby in Korea that I need to snuggle.  I want to cut my hair short.  White flour and sugar are trying to bring me down.  And... I want to hang out with my sister. 

In conclusion, I will take the two healthy boys to the China Buffet to meet friends.  Yuck.  But I need to do something.  And just to feel productive, we will stop by the high school to recycle our recyclables.

That feels better.

Colorado

It's already been two weeks since we were a mile high in the Colorado sky.

 We flew into Denver, then drove into, over, and through the Rockies.

There they are up ahead.

 This was my attempt at photographing the woman running with the Special Olympics' torch.

I didn't quite get her.

She was accompanied by four or five police escorts.

 We paused in Glenwood Springs so I could reminisce of good times had here in the past.

My mom and I took a road trip from California to this small Colorado town to visit Colorado Mountain College, where I was considering majoring in photography.

The college is still here.

 Paul reaching the top of one of the monuments in Colorado National Monument Park.

 I don't know what's going on here.

My inner ninja, perhaps.

We enjoyed having several days of just us.

Just us = no kids

I had some down time,

which was an amazing feeling.

Look at me knit.

Professional style.

I don't have any pics showing why we went to Colorado.

If I did, they would look like this...

 

We met with a lot of people -

trying to determine if the Paul and Stacey piece fits into the grand puzzle of this organization.

The Board approved us to join them.

And we probably will.

Just need to settle in with a Jae-min first.

Hoops of Fun

Embroidery Lesson #1