To Infinity and Beyond!

A few days ago we let off rockets in our backyard with the kids. They had built them earlier this summer, but we live in such a windy area it took awhile to find the right day to do it.

Both boys loved it. Noah's rocket was the larger one, and the first time we had an engine in it that was too small, so it didn't go that far, but he loved it anyway. Well, I should say that he loved it until Elias' much smaller rocket went about 3 times higher and landed in the corn field next to our house. When we used the larger engine for Noah, all was well again.

Elias was so cute, he would jump up and down and pretend to "blast off". Noah was trying to guess how far they would go and where they would land. The boys have talked about the rockets almost everyday since. I think we'll have to do it a least one more time before it gets cold. Of course, Elias has been asking me almost everyday when we are going to put the Christmas tree back up. I'm somewhat surprised that he has such a vivid memory of the tree being so young, but there is a specific ornament that he is asking about too.

Noah starts school in a week. Can't believe it!

Readoption Frustrates me!

Please excuse my rant, but it's well earned :).

We have been home with our son Elias for about a year and a half now and still have not completed our readoption, but not from lack of trying. In our state, you have to wait six months to file, so we did. Right before the six month mark we contacted our social worker from our homestudy agency to start the process. At this point we found out that our county is one of the few in the state that requires we do a full adoption instead of a recognition of a foreign decree, which is much longer and more expensive...joy.

While getting the proper documents filled out, we found that our social worker was basically forging our signatures on paperwork because she was too lazy to get our signatures herself. She also sent us documents that belong to other people with all of their personal info. on it. It's a good thing we aren't into identity theft. When we contacted our agency about this, they said that this was "common practice" and refused to see our concerns. We didn't feel like the social worker was trying to be purposefully unethical, but when you are working with people's personal information and legal documents, you need to be more careful. We had only suggested that they retrain her, but the agency took great offense to our concern and basically sent us back our money and closed our file (they also let our homestudy expire after we had asked to do the paperwork to keep it active, but they "didn't get to it in time" despite us asking several times).

They did send us our paperwork for the readoption with our refund (it was very strange to us how they seemed to panic when we raised our concerns). So this put us back quite awhile on our readoption. We finally submitted our paperwork to our county at around the 11th month mark. So we waited and waited for a court date. We still have not received a court date over 7 months later. One month ago we learned the courts had lost our paperwork, but when pressured, they found it, but we still don't have a court date. We were hoping they would speed up our file after they lost our paperwork, but that isn't how they roll I guess.

We are hoping to have our readoption done before Christmas at this point, but it's been a wild ride that we would like to see end. Who knew this would be the most difficult part of our adoption!

Introducing Lifebook Essentials!

When I was working on Eli's lifebook, I had a terrible time finding embellishments and I ended up making most of them myself. Because I had so much trouble, I thought others may be in the same position as I was, so I've decided to start selling the items I made for Eli's book. If you would like to check them out you can find them at www.lifebookessentials.etsy.com . You can also click on the picture on the sidebar. Enjoy!

Family Vacation!!!!!

Hey, I'm back! Sorry for promising an update and then dropping off the face of the planet. I would promise that I'll blog more frequently, but I know better than to make promises :).

Anyway, we took the boys to Washington DC and Ocean City Maryland a few weeks ago and had a blast. Noah loved the Museums in DC and Elias loved all of the excitement that vacation offers. They are both growing up so fast! Here are some pics from our trip...

Hate Blogs

During the waiting phase of our adoption, I tried many things to help keep my mind of the extending wait ahead of us. One of those things was blog stalking. I visited (and to some extent still visit) many different blogs, some adoption blogs, some not. I also started following the China Adoption site "the Rumor Queen" which really helped me put my wait in perspective. The wait for a referral from China is now 4 years and growing, We waited just over six months, so I learned to "get over it". I still follow the Rumor Queen because my heart goes out to all of the waiting families and I have kind of grown attached to them :). I also followed some blogs of families who's children were facing heath issues or who try to live more simply and frugally.

In following these blogs I started to notice a trend... any blog that becomes successful will no doubt develop a following of "haters". These haters will set up alternate blogs so that they can blog about how wrong or stupid the other blogger is. They will go to forums to drum up support for their hate sites, they will call CPS on mothers that blog that they do not like. It's kind of sad how much effort someone will put into bringing someone else down.

I've really cut down on my blog following these days because of the "haters". I still follow a handful of blogs that I have found encouraging and/or interesting. I have added a few transracial family blogs to my list, but I admit that one reason I don't want to have my kid's "star" in my blog is because of the haters. My kids have enough to face in this world without becoming the object of someone's jealous or misdirected hate. I know that I cannot protect them from everything, but I can avoid some things.

That being said, my next post will most likely be an update on my kids, but on a small scale. Hope you are all having a great day!!!!!

Same Blog, New Focus

Wow, it's been ages since I blogged! Sorry to those who actually noticed I was gone :). There were several reasons I went silent for awhile, in time I'll touch on them all, but for now I'll just share a few.

Firstly I struggled with my children being the "stars" of my blog. I love my kids and they are certainly "stars" to me, but I also realize that there are no do overs in blogland. Once you post, it's there, even if you delete it, it will live on in other places. So, though I will post on my kids every once in awhile, I don't want to only post about them. And for those who are wondering, Elias and Noah are doing great.

Secondly, since my kids were the "stars" of my blog, it had become a brag blog. I'm uncomfortable with putting up a brag blog. Yes, I have a really great life and there is a lot I could brag about, but that's not who I am. I'd rather my blog be an authentic portrait of my life and family. Yes, we are great, but lets face it, sometimes things suck. Sometimes people do horrible things to us and sometimes we screw up.

So here's the deal, I hope to blog more frequently and more authentically from this point forward. How frequently, I don't know, but we'll see :). Be back soon...

Fishing And School

Well, it's been busy, busy around here. We took the boys fishing last weekend. Both boys had a lot of fun. The fish they caught were very small, but that didn't seem to bother them. Also, Noah started his last year of Preschool. This year he gets to ride the bus and he was VERY excited about it. Boy is he growing up fast!

Noah got a new backpack this year and insisted that Elias get his old one. After I gave Noah his new backpack, he ran to his room, got his old one and gave it to Elias and the two of them ran around with their backpacks on all day. Noah also insisted that Eli wear his backpack while we waited for the school bus on the first morning of school so they would be "buddies". Elias seemed to miss Noah while he was gone, but also really seemed to like having mommy all to himself. Overall, our first week of school went very well.

Fishing Picks....First Day of School Pics...