We've decided to adopt!

After almost two years of hoping and then being devastated by loss, we have decided that adoption will be the best choice for us.

We mailed off the application to the adoption agency on Thursday and applied to the Home Study agency on Friday so we're just waiting to hear from them to see what the first official steps will be.

The boys are very excited and we're all looking forward to learning more about Chinese culture on the way to meeting our new little girl.

We will be going through the special needs program in China. This means that we are willing to nurture a child who is considered to have a special need in China. Some of those needs are very manageable in the US though. We get to choose the gender, age and needs we are willing to work with. We will spend the next six months working on our paperwork. Then it will be sent to China and then it is just a waiting game...waiting for that right little girl to come into the system. Once we find her, it will be another six months, probably, before we get to take the trip to China to pick her up. We will spend two weeks there and then bring her home and she will be all ours!

We are so excited to be able to heal our broken hearts in such a special way! We cannot wait to meet our new daughter and to watch her grow and blossom!

PS - Today is our 5th Anniversary! Happy Anniversary to us!

Water Worries

 You'd think that by looking at this picture that my children are loving summer time and all the water play that it brings...but you'd be wrong.

Connor is ok with shallow water, but as soon as you put him into a regular pool, the tears start flowing and the anxiety hits a new height. He's been in swim lessons for 4 weeks now. Four weeks of tears and bribing and screaming and clinging. Today I asked if he could move back down a level and that went a bit better, but still he freaks if his head gets near the water...which makes the whole swimming thing a little difficult. He's only got 2 lessons left...thank goodness!

We are still in full on dinosaur mode. We've been to the big Dinosaur Park ever Tuesday for the last 3 weeks. It amazes me because the dinos don't move. They're still in the exact same place each week. But each week we run from dinosaur to dinosaur and read the signs and make up names and race into the gift shop to get what they really came for...a new Dinosaur Train friend! Then we come back home and add the new friend to our growing collection and they plan the next one they're going to get. My little collectors!

Last week we decided that maybe it was time to send Connor to preschool. He's had some very anxious moments lately trying to figure out how to fit in with other kids when we go places and play. He gets worried about new places and I can just see that Kindergarten is going to be a rough transition and he may need a little longer to get used to the idea. So we're starting now! He will be going to a local Montessori that is very highly praised. He'll be there M, W, F and mornings starting in August! Now I just have to convince him it's a good idea!

Dinos A to Z

Connor is back into dinosaurs, and Dinosaur Train, these days. He saw an episode where they sing a song that lists a different dinosaur for each letter of the alphabet and decided that he needed to learn that song. The paper he has gives the picture clues to each dinosaur, but he learned all the names yesterday. He also had to go around and find all the dinosaurs in the house, well 26 of them, so he could act out the song. Kind of funny how his first obsession of dinosaurs and his second obsession of letters has now come together!