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

REFERRAL!!!!

Friday was a wonderful day for our family! Gracie is officially a big sister. After 14 months and 3 days of adoption waiting we received "the call"! We have accepted a referral for a beautiful baby boy. He was born on December 31, 2009 and is healthy. He weighed 16.5 pds at his 6/1 well-baby check up.

As many of you know, wait times from referral to 'travel call' are pretty lengthy right now. The earliest (due to the back up) that we will be able to travel will be Feb. But, it will more likely be late March or April. In the meantime, our baby is being cared for by a loving foster mom and dad. He will check in with the agency monthly for medical check-ups and foster family updates.

Please pray for....
our little guy; that he continues to thrive and grow during this wait,
the wonderful foster family who is taking care of him during the wait,
and the birthmother who had an unfathomable decision to make.

Thank you to all of you that have been so supportive during this long roller coaster of a wait. We know we have a ways to go with a different kind of wait but, we can't even to begin to express the excitement we are feeling. I still feel like I'm going to pee (from excitement) and puke (from the surreal feeling). Yippee!

Meet Jackson .........don't you just love his sweet little bald head!












Happy Father's Day KJ!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful weekend this turned out to be. I got the call on Friday morning at about 9:30AM. Of course, I wanted to jump in the car and head up North to LL's office right away. But, I knew Kirk had meetings all day. Luckily, I got a hold of him at work right away and we were able to work out a meeting with our SW at 3:30PM. I can't even begin to describe the wonderful feeling I had all day. But, man was it hard to occupy myself for those few hours in between. It worked out that Grace was away Baba and Grandma in MI this weekend so, I had the whole day to myself . I did a little shopping and cleaning but, mostly, just counted down the hours. Anyways, the meeting was great. Seeing Jackson's picture for the first time was amazing! I still can't wipe the smile off my face. After all of this wonderfulness, we leave the office with our cherished referral paperwork and step into the worst storm I have been in in awhile. We actually pulled off the highway and waited it out in an office building lobby, laughing and smiling at each other the whole time.....made for a very memorable day.

Two Fun Weekends

I love Summer Weekends...

Last weekend Gracie and I ran in the Running for Hope 5k/Kids Dash benefiting Children's Hope Hospital and the Ronald McDonald Charities. This was my first run with my BFF and my first 5K since before I was pregnant with Gracie. It was a great race for an even GREATER cause. The best part of the day for me was the 'Kid's Dash' which Gracie and my BFF's kiddos ran in. As you can see from the video, they did great and are so excited to get their medals. So precious :)

A little red but, pushed hard and finished with a decent time.

This weekend was recital weekend. I love recital weekend! Gracie had two dances on stage this year; one ballet and one tap. She loves dressing up and being on stage. Her ballet dance was to The Climb and her tap dance was to Pretty Little Angel Eyes. TPDC put on a great show that we enjoyed along with Neena, Uncle M & A, Scottie and Grammy.

Look at that sass.....Hmmmm, not sure what to think about that at 5 years old.

Gracie was excited to finish off the weekend with an overnight at Neena and Poppa's house so KJ and I could have a night out together.

Gracie's last day of Preschool

Grace's last day of preschool was on Wednesday. Her class ended the year with a picnic outside across from her school. Although, it was a VERY hot day, the kids had a wonderful time saying goodbye and talking of school next year. Grace is officially a Kindergartner and has awoken the past two days asking when Kindergarten starts. :) She's such a big girl and I just love her excitement for school (we'll see how many years that lasts... ;-) )

Here's a picture on her 1st day of preschool in August of 2008...and I just remembered I started this blog right around that time. Here's a 1st day of preschool post....

And here are her class pics from this year. Same sweet smile, just a little bit older.

Love you sweet princess!