Something else I came across today

Someone posted this on a site I frequent and I liked it. (I changed the child's name to Sarah's)

(1) I will be Sarah's mother, not her "adoptive" mother;
(2) similarly Sarah will be our daughter, not our "adopted" daughter;
(3) adoption is something that occurs when the child legally enters a family that is not the biological family; it is not a perpetual state of being. In other words, Sarah is not "adopted," she was "adopted" in the past (of course this will hold true when it does really happen!);
(4) do not use the terms "real" to refer to her biological family. Her birth parents and Brent and I are all real. (Brent and I are going to have to figure out how to address this at some point. I'm sure questions about her birth parents are going to come up and we will have to figure out what to call them.)

Another Bonding Link

We've been thinking about this a lot lately - particularly since I'm going to be going back to work.

*How are we going to incorporate Sarah into our family?
*How will this affect Brandon and Hannah - the fact that Sarah is going to need so much more from us than they are used to giving to someone else?
*How will our families react?
*Does this mean that they give no attention to Sarah until we are sure she is bonded to us? (fyi - I don't think this is the case! I think it will be important for other family members to play with and talk to Sarah. She is just going to have to know who "takes care" of her - comfort, feed, etc.)
*What happens when I go back to work? My mom is going to be watching Hannah and I'm not sure if I'll be able to bring Sarah to work with me for a few weeks. What does that mean for attachment to us? Will it cause issues? Will she be confused? My mom and I have talked about this a lot. I'm sure things will be okay.

New Link

I posted a new link to A4everFamily.org

There are a lot of good tips for us and our family members in terms of what we have to do when we finally bring Sarah home.

How long have we been waiting?

From and including:
Midnight between Thursday, January 12, 2006 and Friday, January 13, 2006
To, but not including : Monday, July 30, 2007 at 5:44:52 PM

The duration is 563 days, 17 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds

Or 1 year, 6 months, 17 days, 17 hours, 44 minutes, 52 seconds

Or 48,707,092 seconds

Or 811,784 minutes (rounded down)

Or 13,529 hours (rounded down)

Or 80 weeks (rounded down)

from http://www.timeanddate.com/date/timeduration.html

pictures

This was an amazing storm that hit a few nights ago. The definition of the storm was incredible.


Before Hannah fell this is what the kids were doing. Right next to Aunt Janet's house the high school built a large wall to surround their parking lot. At the corner of the lot they have an area where rain water collects and comes out the bottom of the wall. It is supposed to be spread out so it doesn't cause a "flood" or any damage to their property. Well, this didn't happen. We received about 3 inches of rain here yesterday and the run off came out the bottom of the wall and made a small "wash". It flowed down the driveway a bit then branched off. One branch went straight down Janet and Render's driveway the other went through the desert area and down Carl and Kathy's front walk. The kids had a great time "sailing boats" (little sticks) down the water. Brandon, Brent and Kyle were skipping stones.
This picture was about a minute or two before the fall. She had been looking for the "mommy" in the comics. Right after this picture she stood up and slipped off the chair. (See the previous post about our evening.) She is doing very well today. She hasn't had a headache that she has told me about. She has been in a very good mood all day.

Another late night...

we spent 3 hours in the Pediatric ER last night. Hannah stood up on a chair and slipped off. She hit the back of her head, cried for about 20 minutes and seemed okay. She ate a bit of dinner and was mostly happy. A little later the vomiting started. We decided it was a little too close to the fall so we took her down. They checked her out and gave her something for the vomiting which she proceeded to vomit back up. So after a bit they gave her more without water as a chaser this time. She fell asleep within about 10 minutes of getting it.

The doctor said she had a concussion and that we could do a CT scan or wait a bit and see how she was doing. We opted to wait since the CT scan had a high amount of radiation to her thyroid. The doctor told us that if in an hour she was worse then they would just do the scan. So, an hour later the doctor came in, checked a sleeping Hannah. Said he felt very comfortable and safe sending her home. The nurse woke her up to see how quickly she woke and we were off.

We decided to keep her in with us last night. She slept great. We woke her up every few hours and she is in a very good mood this morning. We have to make sure she doesn't hit her head for the next week since her little brain will still need some healing.

And we still haven't found Kodi. Brandon has been so worried about him and now Hannah. Poor guy!

Things that make me cry, things that make me laugh

First the sad news - Kodi was outside this evening when we went to run errands. He hasn't been out much due to the weather. When we got home we couldn't find him. We got out the flashlights and searched in all the corners of the yard and can't find him. There was a storm that rolled through town while we were out but we didn't think it was near the house. We think maybe he got scared and somehow got out of the fence. We can't figure out how though. We hope he comes home tomorrow. Brandon wants to put up signs so we will probably do that. I hope he comes home.

Hannah's funny: This morning I was doing her hair in the bathroom.

Me: You are so pretty. Who made you so beautiful? (in my head I'm thinking of the answer we have always given her "God made you such a beautiful girl!"

Hannah: Hmmm, I think the mailman did it.

Me: (while laughing) No, honey, the mailman had nothing to do with why you are so beautiful - God made you a beautiful girl.

Hannah: Just tidding (she doesn't say her "k"'s very well) God made me beautiful.

She makes me laugh!

These are just a few pictures from the week

Susie and I took the kids to get their pictures taken today. These were some that we did at home. They looked adorable - Hannah looked so grown up in this outfit!

Brandon took my camera and was posing Hannah to take pictures. I thought he did a pretty good job! He also took the one of Kodi sitting in Riley's carseat that I previously posted.



This is a picture of the yard during the hail storm the other night. The ground was covered in hail. Brandon was hoping today's storm would do the same thing but it didn't.

Caught in the crib! No, Hannah didn't climb in herself! When I went to get Riley from her nap I popped Hannah in there to play with her. They were having a grand time.

This is a little Mandarin dress I bought the girls last year when we hoped to have Sarah home. I bought one for Katie and Joann and one for each of our girls. Katie and Joann can't wear theirs anymore. Hannah wore Sarah's last year and has almost out grown this one so I had to take one last picture.

Ha, Ha, Ha!

The kids and I were down the hall this morning when we heard "something" by the window. I thought it was a cat going after a bird in the yard so I asked Brandon to go chase her out of the blinds. This is what he found:



Who me? I didn't do anything! See! I just wanted to go for a ride in Riley's seat! I'm not too big! If I smile just right will you let me go, too?

The storm

Yesterday's storm was incredible - it fast and hard. The hail was the size of a hazelnut and the ground looked like it had snowed. Our backyard was a big lake and the wash behind the house was running. Our front yard looked better - there are rocks in most of it so it wasn't muddy at least. The planter areas looked like ponds. I told Brandon we should get some fish and put them in the one by our front door. The weeds like that area as well- we have a lot of them! I think we will probably wait until the threat of rain stops so that we don't do it one day and have it all come back the next. I've got mud in the entry way and mud in the kitchen where the dog went out. I have to let it all dry before I can sweep/vacuum it up. It cooled off to the mid 70's last night - very nice!

We have a chance of rain today but before then it will probably be hot and sticky.

Monsoons and the Heat

I'm tired of being hot. Hannah likes to sit on my lap or be carried and it is just too hot. Brandon likes to snuggle on the couch while I read to him and it is just too hot. Brent likes to cuddle up at night with me and it is just too hot. I hate pushing them all away but I'm just so hot! Did I mention that I am hot? :)

I love thunderstorms! I love the lightening! I love the coolness. I love the smell - creosote mixed with the rain - yum! I love when they happen in the middle of the afternoon like yesterday but also in the evenings when I'm going to sleep.

Yesterday afternoon we had a doozy of a monsoon storm here. It was thundering and lots of lightening. I didn't have any lights on in the house and you would have thought it was after 7:00 at 3:00 in the afternoon. The temperature dropped and of course the kids snuggled because of the thunder and I didn't mind. I did mind when the dog tried to get up on the couch with us - he is afraid of the storms. He is a cuddler on most occasions - needy is more like it. He sits in whichever room we are in and is usually on my feet. Not bad in the winter but hot in the summer.

The kids and dog hate them at night. A few weeks ago we had both kids and the dog up in bed with us. The dog is never allowed on the bed but he didn't think it counted when it was thundering. Poor baby was shaking and was basically on my lap. We kicked him out since we don't want to encourage the bed but it was funny.

Right now it looks like we might have another good storm tonight. The wind has picked up in the last 10 minutes. The sky is starting to get dark. The temperature is dropping. I'm ready for the coolness

12 Hours

WARNING: Do NOT read any further if you have not finished the book!

Hannah got up at 6 am. Katie had to be up at 7:30. Susie was picking her up around 8:30. So at 6:30 when I realized Hannah was not going back to sleep I started reading. I finished it at 6:20 the same evening. Now don't think I was neglecting the kids! I did take breaks and have breakfast and lunch with them but Brent also took them to the Air Museum in the afternoon then we took them up to Grandma and Papa's house. I didn't read for 12 hours straight - it probably took me 8-9 hours of reading.

I was incredibly sad when Hedwig was killed. Totally didn't expect it. I was amazingly sad when Fred died. I adored the Snape memories of Lily. All these years Snape was the "bad guy" and in reality he loved Lily and would have done anything for her. I think that was brilliant on JKR part to make him so evil to Harry and yet have a soft side for him as well. I loved the whole battle scene and the ending. Harry does die but doesn't stay dead - love it. My only problem with the book was the epilogue.

Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermionie - totally expected. Love the names of Harry and Ginny's children expecially Albus Severus. Like the name Rose for Ron and Hermionie's girl but Hugo? I want to know where those names come in. Like how Draco Malfoy has a child named Scorpius - very fitting. But I wanted a bit more. We find out about Neville - a little. I want to know more about Luna. What happens to her? Is she still as wonderfully dingy as she has been?
What about Teddy? Who does he live with and just how much contact does Harry have with him? I would think with Tonks and Lupin gone that Harry would have taken him in and given him the home he never had as a child. Tonks' mother was caring for the boy when they died but is she still alive 19 years later? And why was he even near the train when he is 19 and shouldn't be going to Hogwarts?
And what happens with George? How has he handled his brother's death? What about Bill and Fleur? Do they have children and do those children go to Hogwarts?
And Hogwarts - who is the new Head? McGonagall? Someone new? What about McGonagall - what has she done with herself? And Hagrid? Where is he and what is he teaching or up too? Do they have contact with Harry, Ron, Hermionie and Ginny?

So many unanswered questions still in terms of the people. JKR tied up all the lose ends when it came to Harry, Ron, Hermionie and Ginny but not the minor characters that were so important as well.

Oh well, I loved the book. I'm re-reading it with Brandon right now - we are on chapter 2 and I imagine we will read at least a chapter or two tonight and several tomorrow. (I read chapter 1 to him when I had gotten through chapter 8 and chapter 2 at Grandma and Papa's - see that is an hour right there taken from the time.)

I'm sad it is over and I hope I can find another series that Brandon can get into the way he has enjoyed this one. He loves to pull one down and just start reading. So great for his imagination!

Harry Potter party

I took Brandon over to Barnes and Noble around 5:45 on Friday night to get our place card for purchasing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There were already about 100 people there but the store wasn't forming a line until just before 6. So when we walked in and hung out near the front we just happened to be where the line started. We just stayed right where we were and people moved in line behind us. We were about 10th in line. We got our place card (1 green) and went home to have dinner. After dinner Brent dropped us back off at the store. (We left my car over there because I knew it would be packed and I didn't want to walk in the dark with Brandon and Katie.)
Brandon had a great time - they had facepainting, magic, crafts, etc. Susie dropped Katie off at about 8 - 8:30. At 10:30 or so Roz and Ty showed up. I was able to add a book to my card when Susie said she wanted me to pick one up (when I was on line). Then I was able to add another to my card when Ty and Roz were going to come over and meet us. Worked out well! 3 books on one placecard so Ty and Roz didn't have to wait until 1:00 to get their book.
We lined up around 11:45 by color and number. We were in the second group. We had our books and were out of the store at 12:05 am. Kids in the car and home by 12:10 and the kids finally in bed at 12:45. I was exhausted!

Roller Coasters

I don't like most roller coasters. I hate the speed and the feeling when the hill is steep - especially going down. I don't like that feeling in my stomach - you know the flippy feeling. I'm not all that keen on the "excitement" of roller coasters. With that....

The rumors that are floating around right now regarding referrals are killing me! If you check out the rumors site to the right you can get all the details but remember these are just rumors and early rumors at that! It is so hard to not get my hopes up that they could possibly be true.

Some agencies are saying the next batch will get to the first part of December and that December people (the rest of them, I think) will get their referral in September.

This would mean we could have our referral in OCTOBER!!!! with travel in December (not ideal since Brandon's birthday is around Christmas but he would understand - we have talked about the possiblity in the past that this could happen with him)

Down side of this is that a few months ago a similar rumor was floating around about the same time in the month and they only did 2 days of log in dates. So, while the rumors are encouraging right now that doesn't mean that they will remain so. CCAA could do 1-2 days or they could do 6-7 which has been the norm the last few months or they could do a big batch like the rumors are saying.

This process is like a roller coaster - sometimes things are going up and sometimes things go downhill really fast - I really don't like roller coasters.

Update from our agency

Here's an email from Adam. I also spoke to another family last week who knew of a family who had a LID of Nov. 15 and had just missed the cut-off of Nov. 14. Adam is saying Nov. 8, so the referrals are coming for LIDs somewhere between Nov. 8 and Nov. 14. You're getting there one tiny step at a time!
Janice

Dear colleague,
Group 121B got referrals recently. Their dossiers were submitted in last Nov., LID Nov. 8.
The average age of the children is a little over 15 months.
Adam

I think they are a bit behind since we have known for a few weeks that the cutoff was the 14th!

My son is so sweet....

We were at the grocery store today and as we were leaving Brandon gave me a hug and said, "Mommy, I'm so glad you are my mommy." Awwww! So I told him, "I'm so glad you are my son. Isn't it nice that it worked out that way?"
He is such a sweetheart!

Sleeping Beauties

This is what my house looked like..... then......

I was feeding Riley her bottle when Hannah crept up on my lap and promptly fell asleep. I should have known she was tired since 1) she got up at 6:30 this morning 2) Little People were being put in time-out for flying across the room at a rapid pace toward her brother 3) time out was rapidly approaching for Hannah due to Mommy's quickly diminishing patience

This is how Daddy/Uncle Brent found us when he walked through the door. Thank goodness he came in because Riley's nap was less than stellar (think sweating Auntie holding her because she couldn't get up with Hannah on her). Hannah is still sleeping on Mommy and Uncle Brent and Brandon are playing with Riley an hour and a half after this picture was taken. I sure wish I could have kept both of the asleep so Riley would be in a better mood when her Mommy gets here. (teething doesn't help matters either!)

I just realized...

today is 18 months since our LID. How much longer?

AND.... Brandon is 7 and a half - I probably should have realized it sooner. He is on the downslide to 8. :)

Just Stuff

Our wireless mouse is on the fritz - sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. It makes for a difficult time because the mouse pad on the laptop isn't easy for me to work with. Maybe this weekend we can go get a regular mouse. How long are these things supposed to last anyway?

My house is covered in toys. Yesterday it was "letter links" in the afternoon. This morning it is Little People toys. Hannah has a bunch of different "big" pieces - the house, the barn, a castle, the circus plus all their "accessories". We have two baskets FULL of the people and animals and stuff. We have the house out this morning plus the baskets of stuff. Riley likes the giraffe from the Noah's Ark set- I think because the neck is easy to grab. The people seem to round for her to grasp her little hand around easily. Hannah enjoys the house and car best. I found one on-line last year that I'd love to find for her for Christmas this year - it is the Nativity story. I don't really want to order one from on-line though. I'm going to have to search the stores after Thanksgiving.

I love the way she has been sitting on her chair -

Riley yesterday - I have a picture of Hannah holding the same animal when she was about this age. There is something about the giraffe!

pictures

4th of July - Brandon's sparklers

Our little fairy princess - she likes watching Barbie - Fairytopia with her wings on.
She told me she was a "sparkle fairy" yesterday

Brandon was being a great big brother and having a tea party with Hannah.

Two quilts I just finished. The top one is Hannah's. I realized today that the 'N' square is upside-down. Oh well! She likes to play on it - "Hannah, stand on the __" She is getting pretty good, too.

The bottom one is the same idea - different pieces of material - that I made for my cousin who is expecting a baby. My mom is going to visit next week so I had to hurry and quilt it. I think it turned out really well. The only thing I didn't like about this one is the corners. I haven't made too many quilts so I still need to work on corners a bit. I hope she likes it!

Prediction

Our prediction for LID 2006-01-13
Our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2007-11-25
That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. Just at a guess, we can suppose that the CCAA either speeds up or slows down significantly, and show you those dates. If they speed up: 2007-10-11. And if they slow down: 2008-08-06.
Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch.
(There is some discussion of the math behind these estimates on another page.)

(I previously posted this site here http://our-enchanted-world.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-site.html where it was estimated that we would get our referral on 2007-11-06 If they speed up: 2007-09-25. And if they slow down: 2008-08-25.

Not much different and actually we would probably receive a referral in December if that were the case since referrals usually come out earlier in the month.)

If you click on the entry title (Prediction) it will take you directly to the site so you can see for yourself.

pictures

ummm, yeah, I'm seriously behind on pictures.... and won't be posting any today - I still need to download them off the camera.

In my defense Hannah has been running a fever for the past few days. We think it might be another UTI so we are giving her the original dosage of her antibiotics as prescribed by her primary care vs. the dosage our urologist said was okay to give her. (1 tsp vs. 1/2 tsp) It is a real pain to get her to take the medicine (tastes nasty) so I have to hide it in food and drinks. Can't hide it in milk or water - she knows! I've been sneaking it into yogurt and juice. Today is the first day all week that she hasn't had a fever.

I also have Miss Riley today. She is a mover and is cutting teeth so she isn't happy just to play on the floor for more than a few minutes. Plus she hasn't had a decent nap today - 2 20 minute naps does not a happy girl make! We are working on it though. Brandon has loved having her around since we haven't had her for a few weeks. Hopefully after her lunch bottle she will sleep for at least an hour.

Other news - I got a job! I'm going to be teaching pre-school at the program at my parents church. I'm pretty excited.

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

Next batch of referrals

Well, the next batch has supposedly been mailed and should be here by Monday. They got through November 14th - 7 days worth. I have to go back and see how many they did last month but I think it was 6 days. If they keep doing 6-7 days worth of referrals before they get to ours we won't see a referral until May - April would be the earliest.

I truly believed that this would be the year we saw Sarah and would have her home by Christmas but now I doubt it. I'm still holding out for the very slim possibility that we will have her picture by Thanksgiving or Christmas. I want to believe that we will get to at least see her little face this year.

Between November 14th and January 13th (our LID) there are 60 days - I hope that doesn't equal 10 more months.

Happy 4th of July

I didn't take many pictures yesterday. I bought some shirts for the kids to wear but, I have no idea where Brandon's got too and Hannah wanted to wear a dress (of course) and not a t-shirt. Once I find Brandon's shirt I think I'll take some pictures of them anyway - even if it isn't on the 4th. I did take pictures of Brandon and Dylan playing with sparklers yesterday and some of the fireworks that we watched. I don't know how well they came out and won't until I download them on the computer.
I think the ones of the boys are going to be interesting. I set the camera on "fireworks" mode and put it on a wall so it was stable. Then when the boys were playing with the sparklers they were moving them around so the picture looks interesting. I'm going to try to download soon.

sick

I've got laryngitis for the second day in a row. I'm tired. But, I'm not too stuffy anymore.
I just hope no one else gets whatever it is I have. (of course, I'd love for the kids to be a little quieter sometimes!)