Adoption News

We met with our Adoption Specialist in mid January to work on our homestuday.  At that meeting she told us that there is a need for families to adopt domestically, but to be open to a nonCaucasian child.  Well, obviously since we're adopting from Ethiopia we're open to a nonCaucasian child.  We had just never thought about adopting domestically.  So we attended 2 meetings about the domestic program. 

Then we were stumped.  Do we continue with Ethiopia or switch to domestic?  We could not decide, so we stopped the adoption process and just waited and prayed.  I was sad to stop, but after thinking and praying my heart said, "I wish there was another option.  This just doesn't seem right." 

Move along now to last Friday.  I emailed our Adoption Specialist with this question, just wondering: 
 "Is the Korea program full?" 
Now, I know it's full.  They only take so many families each year and they do that in September.  So the program, of course, is full.  But I just had to ask. 

Guess what?  She said they were accepting applications to the Korea program starting Monday (Feb. 1), they would only take applications for 3 weeks, and would we like to apply?  What?!  Oh my joy.  That's it.  That's what we have been waiting for, we just didn't know it. 

We submitted our application to the Korea program on Wednesday (Feb. 3) and our Adoption Specialist just called today to welcome us to the Korea program.  We're in and our homestudy will be done on Feb. 20, which starts us for the wait for referral.  In 12-16 months we should have referral of a 6-8 month old boy or girl, then travel 2-4 months after that.  So that takes us to about April 2011 for our son or daughter's arrival to our family.

We are so excited with this new direction.  We look forward to traveling back to Korea and to incorporating more of Korea into our family life. 

The Pre-Birthday Celebration

Yep, they were right.  It's snowing.

Glad we did this yesterday and not today...

Skee ball, my fave.

 

 Pizza, pepperoni style

 

Trading in tickets for treats!

Reuben, our candy-lover, got 3 tootsie pops and a plastic frog.

Peter wanted to open a present at Chuck's so they each opened one from Granpa and Granny.

Capes!  Really great capes.  Long and flowy.

They wore them the rest of the time at Chuck's, then to Target, at Barnes and Nobles, and Kroger.

They made a lot of people smile.

It was a lovely family day.

 

This is them leaving Chuck's with capes under their coats.

Thanks for the capes, Mom. They're perfect.  Reuben requested his on within 20 minutes of waking up this morning.

Now we're watching the snow fall and taking in the aroma of Crock Pot Black Bean Soup.  Homemade corn bread and warm banana pudding are also on the menu for lunch.

Change of Plans

So, we have a Severe Weather Alert due to a snow storm coming our way on FRIDAY - a.k.a. Chuck E. Cheese Day.  4-8 inches is the prediction, with a "travel may become hazardous" statement and threats of freezing rain and drifting snow.  So Chuck E. Cheese today!  Getting the birthday fun started. 

We'll have to see how the roads are Saturday to know if we can get to Home Depot (for the kid's workshop) and the Children's Museum (for Bob the Builder).

We're big into celebrating birthdays days/weeks before and after the big day.  It's so much fun that way.

Thursday - Pizza and games with Chuck, followed by his regularly scheduled piano lesson.
Friday - Bring in some birthday bucks shoveling snow, come in to warm up with hot chocolate then go back out to play.  Later, a surprise trip to the local diner with Paul (the boys love going there with Paul) for the traditional opening of the Lego gift.  Decorate the house with streamers and balloons while he's sleeping.
Saturday - Make the cake together, open rest of presents and perhaps make it out to Home Depot and Museum
Sunday - Eat more cake

Sounds good.

Birthday Plans and a Birthday!

Peter's birthday is this Saturday, so on Friday he wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch- avoiding the weekend crowds (the joy of the flexible homeschool schedule), then back to the Museum for the Member Preview of the new Bob the Builder exhibit opening this weekend.  Then Saturday morning we'll go to Home Depot's Kid Workshop and back to the Museum.  

It could be worse.

I really like how my brother and his family celebrated their son's birthday with friends at a university gym.  Tiffany wrote about it on Her Blog.

AND IT'S HER BIRTHDAY TODAY!

The most recent picture I have of her is from this family breakfast the day after Carly's wedding last March.

She's the lovely blond on the left.

She is one of my favorite people to talk to on the phone.  

She's a great conversationalist and she's always so happy.

Her children are wonderful to be around, which I think speaks a lot about her and Craig.

Hope you have a Sunny Day!

Our Day at the Museum

We love our Children's Museum.  We've been members for the last 4 years and even though it's an hour away, we go 2-3 times a month.  It's going to be 2-3 times this week, since that's what Peter wants to do for his birthday.  I mentioned we were going last Saturday for Science Day...

 

We observed large, strange insects.

  

And up-close cuteness.

  

 Getting geared up to climb the rock wall.

  

The Water Clock says it's 11:52.

  

He made a microscope slide of fossil pieces.

 

 We all agreed that a Wendy's Frosty would be a good ending to our outing.

  

"Feel my tongue, Dad.  It's cold."

Come back this afternoon for another post featuring my Sister-in-law of the Northwest.

Mosaics

So the Ancient Romans like to make mosaic art,
and we do too!

Instead of using expensive tiles, we used broken plate pieces.

 

We picked a plate...

 

...put it in doubled-up Trader Joe bags and dropped it.

MANY times.

 

 The plates would not break.

So we got out our very Ancient Romanish hammers.

 

Our tiles.

Art waiting to happen.

 He told me the yellow is the sun, with a rainbow over it.

The blue is sky, the brown the ground.

 

And the red is a house, the white on it being the gutter.

A fun time for him and Reuben. 
Especially the destroying of the plates.

Click to enlarge this Real Deal Roman Mosaic.

Impressive.

Art Class

We are breaking dishes this afternoon.  

 It's pretty hard to do when you're trying to do it.  I picked up some colorful plates at Goodwill and we're smashing them to use the pieces to make mosaics.  I'll post pics when the art is complete!