Summer, Summer, Summertime ...Part 1

Oh, how I love summer! We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy and enjoying every minute of this hot summer.
Couple of things I Love about summer.....

No school schedules!.....so we can come and go as we please.

One of our recent outings was to the She*d Aquarium.

Long weekends away with family!.....

This is my nephew's baptism over the 4th of July weekend in Iowa.

These are from one of Gracie's trips to Michigan....Magaritaville Party.

Lots of outdoor playtime and swimming!...

Grilling out and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables!...

This is my first homemade cherry pie. I've never had the motivation to pit cherries but, really enjoyed it this year. Michigan cherries are great in the summer.

Care Package to Korea

We put together our first care package to send over to Jackson. Another waiting family will be getting their call to Travel soon and has so graciously offered to take the package over for us. Due to agency restrictions (and various other reasons), we are not allowed to send the package directly to the Foster Family. It must travel to Korea with another family. The family will hand the package over to Eastern. Jackson's SW at Eastern will then give the package to his foster mother when she brings him in for his next well- baby check up, which will be at the end of the month.

Before I share what we included in the package, I have to thank the waiting families before us who have shared their care package ideas and recommendations. I "stole" many of them. They were just so perfect.

We have many things we want to send over. However, we have to limit the items because they all need to fit into a gallon sized Ziploc bag.

This time we chose to send the following items:

A squishy book with pictures of Grace, KJ and myself.
A little brother outfit.
A plush star that sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's actually a recordable star that plays back hopes that it will get played over and over and Jackson will recognize Gracie's voice when he comes home.

A little brother bib that I bought right after we signed on with LL.

A cute polo and some Robe*zs.

We also included a box of chocolates for the Foster Family and a Co*ch wallet and note for his Foster Mother.

Because we know our wait is going to be pretty lengthy, we hope to send a number of packages. It was kind of hard to decide what to send this time and what to hold onto for the next package.

I really hope this package finds Jackson happy and healthy and brings many smiles to his cute little face.

** Big Thanks to Mandi and her family for taking the package for us. Happy, safe and wonderful travels**
(I know she doesn't blog but, wanted to send a shout out, anyways.)

Warrior Dash

KJ, my uncle, cousin, brother, SIL, my good buddy/neighbor, a friend, and I ran the Warrior Dash the day after our referral. It was a whirlwind of a day.....lots of laughs and so much fun. I think I was still a little in shock from all the good news the day before because, the race seems like it was forever ago but, referral day seems like just yesterday.

Anywhoooo, we had such a great time. Thanks Uncle G. for pulling us all together!

Us all clean before the race...

Some action shots....

And a wee bit muddy when it was all over...

6 Months

Happy 6 months, Jackson! I hope today was a day full of smiles with your loving foster family.

It has only been two weeks since we first saw your picture and we are so anxious to come meet you! You are already such a huge part of our little family.

We have many things planned to keep busy as we wait for that Travel Call. Gracie has big plans for your room and insists on buying you something every time we go shopping.

Happy Day, Little Man!! xoxo