What else would I be doing while D-man is napping? No, surely not doing laundry or working on birthday invites. Or anything else relatively productive. I'm not even putting up a legit post. Just messin' with my background and settings because I can. Maybe I need a life coach...
Thursday, June 13
Sunday, May 26
Happy Mother's Day
Well, I've celebrated my first official Mother's Day. Last year I was pregnant, so we celebrated it then too. But this year felt different. More legitimate. I never really understood mother's day/father's day/grandparent's day. But man oh man, do I get it now. Turns out that being a parent is HARD work. I only have one very small and very sweet baby to care for, and this stuff is difficult sometimes. So yeah, a day to celebrate parents of any kind... ABSOLUTELY!
Don't get me wrong, being a parent also has it's incredibly high points and wonderful moments too. Watching Declan grow into this bright little person who reaches up to me to be held, discovers new talents each day, and giggles and grins at me just because I'm me is pretty fulfilling.
So to celebrate the day, Matt let me take the day off. I slept in, had breakfast ready for me when I came downstairs (orange danish rolls! yum!), and after church I took the opportunity to catch up on some projects around the house (and of course some chillin' out too). I was supposed to have time to go get a pedicure as well, but we decided to save that for another day. I had so many projects I wanted to work on, I felt rushed on the whole pedicure thing which was not the goal.
Being at home and not being the primary caregiver for the day was pretty fabulous. No coaxing healthy foods into D during mealtimes, no changing diapers, and no putting down for naps or bedtime. I was just around to play and have fun when it suited me! Pretty good gig for the day :) Also, I wasn't responsible for cleaning or cooking either! Awesome.
In addition to all this, I got a bouquet of flowers, a card with D's handprint in it, and a pair of sparklers for my ears (hello diamond earrings!). Looking forward to celebrating Father's Day with Matt in June :)
And my final paragraph... a heart felt thank you to my momma. She raised my sister and I mostly on her own. She's my #1 fan, biggest cheerleader, close friend, and of course strong-to-the-core mom. She's taught me the meaning of kindness and generosity which I hope to display in the quiet way she does. Mom, thank you for all you've done and continue to do. You always said "You'll understand someday when you have have kids!". And sure enough I do. You were right :)
Don't get me wrong, being a parent also has it's incredibly high points and wonderful moments too. Watching Declan grow into this bright little person who reaches up to me to be held, discovers new talents each day, and giggles and grins at me just because I'm me is pretty fulfilling.
So to celebrate the day, Matt let me take the day off. I slept in, had breakfast ready for me when I came downstairs (orange danish rolls! yum!), and after church I took the opportunity to catch up on some projects around the house (and of course some chillin' out too). I was supposed to have time to go get a pedicure as well, but we decided to save that for another day. I had so many projects I wanted to work on, I felt rushed on the whole pedicure thing which was not the goal.
Being at home and not being the primary caregiver for the day was pretty fabulous. No coaxing healthy foods into D during mealtimes, no changing diapers, and no putting down for naps or bedtime. I was just around to play and have fun when it suited me! Pretty good gig for the day :) Also, I wasn't responsible for cleaning or cooking either! Awesome.
In addition to all this, I got a bouquet of flowers, a card with D's handprint in it, and a pair of sparklers for my ears (hello diamond earrings!). Looking forward to celebrating Father's Day with Matt in June :)
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| Me and my lil' buddy! |
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| D's signature... ADORABLE! |
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| Thanks Declan! (Matt told me D got them for me) |
And my final paragraph... a heart felt thank you to my momma. She raised my sister and I mostly on her own. She's my #1 fan, biggest cheerleader, close friend, and of course strong-to-the-core mom. She's taught me the meaning of kindness and generosity which I hope to display in the quiet way she does. Mom, thank you for all you've done and continue to do. You always said "You'll understand someday when you have have kids!". And sure enough I do. You were right :)
Tuesday, May 21
Sunshine
With the wonderful weather we've been having (finally!), we've been spending our fair share of time outside. I'm not sure why, but this seems to demand that I take pictures of Declan doing the exact same things, but this time outside... Yeah, I don't get it either. It does make for fun pictures though! I have about twice as many photos for this past month than I have for the previous 2 months combined. Here's a look at us in the sunshine:
We've also been pretty good about getting together to play with friends. We go to Courtney's house once a week to spend the day playing with the twins, Mr. Carson and Miss Reese. We've been doing this for several months now, and it's one of our favorite days of the week. It most definitely helps keep me sane when Matt's out of town. I get to spend the entire day with a great friend, a fellow mommy, and not to mention a fabulous cook!
One of my good friends from Joplin came through KC last weekend, so we also got to spend time with her husband and baby. Mr. Jenson was born in August shortly after Declan. We're pretty blessed to have so many friends with kiddos right around Declan's age! And of course, there's Miss Rowan. We get together about every other week or so with her and her mommy, Rachel :) Rowan is a few weeks older than Declan, so Rachel gets to give me a heads up about what's coming my way. So far, just about everything Rowan does, Declan will do shortly after. And bonus, I have Rachel to help me troubleshoot problems because she's already been through most of them! Thanks friend :)
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| So handsome in his hat! |
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| Selfies we take when Daddy's in Chicago. |
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| Ignore my weird faces and check out lil' buddy's! Too cute. |
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| Hanging on tight |
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| Flipping through his baby artwork book from the library. |
One of my good friends from Joplin came through KC last weekend, so we also got to spend time with her husband and baby. Mr. Jenson was born in August shortly after Declan. We're pretty blessed to have so many friends with kiddos right around Declan's age! And of course, there's Miss Rowan. We get together about every other week or so with her and her mommy, Rachel :) Rowan is a few weeks older than Declan, so Rachel gets to give me a heads up about what's coming my way. So far, just about everything Rowan does, Declan will do shortly after. And bonus, I have Rachel to help me troubleshoot problems because she's already been through most of them! Thanks friend :)
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| D and Ro |
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| Not sure who was doing a song and dance to get them both to smile for a picture... |
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| Playing with Carson-bear and Reese-y Piecey! |
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| Sharing with Mr. Jenson |
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| More playtime with Ro! Bubbles and sunshine :) |
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| Practicing sitting in the grass; he's still not a fan of the texture... |
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| The best picture for last! D and Ro in their swimsuits getting ready to head to the pool (indoor heated pool that is). They had a blast :) |
Monday, May 13
US Citizenship & Immigration Services
I picked up our completed home study (4 copies that is) this evening from Adoption & Beyond! Step 1 done :) Now to the next... USCIS fingerprinting and approval (we need to get an I-600A form to move on with our dossier). So exciting and nerve wracking! This is a lot of paper people. I really hope I've got everything together so there aren't any holdups.
That's all! Mostly I just wanted to remember the date I sent the paperwork off, which will be tomorrow after work via overnight express ;)
That's all! Mostly I just wanted to remember the date I sent the paperwork off, which will be tomorrow after work via overnight express ;)
Tuesday, May 7
A Walk in the Park
This spring weather has been so crazy. Temps in the 70s, then snow with temps in the 30s (in May nevertheless!), and back to a beautiful and breezy 70! I'm hoping for a really green end of spring and summer with all the rain we've been having. My yard is turning into a swap it feels like. We try to get outside to play every day that it's nice out, but with the yard being so damp all the time sometimes we go to the park instead :)
Luckily, there's one just a few miles down the road that we can get to pretty quick.
With the nice weather we've also gotten to wear shorts out and about for the first time. Shorts are great because their stylish without being jeans (which can be hard to crawl in) and comfy without being sweatpants (which is what nearly ALL baby boy pants are if their not denim; thanks a lot Carter's!) I say this outfit was a win/win :) We even had a navy blue bucket hat to wear when we were playing outside!
Luckily, there's one just a few miles down the road that we can get to pretty quick.
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| Waiting on Dad to finish mowing so we can go to the park. |
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| Two handsome dudes ;) |
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| WEEE... |
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| EEE... |
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| EEE... |
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| EEE! |
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| He LOVED these musical chiming tubes |
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| Peek-a-boo! (His all time favorite game) |
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| Where did Daddy go? |
With the nice weather we've also gotten to wear shorts out and about for the first time. Shorts are great because their stylish without being jeans (which can be hard to crawl in) and comfy without being sweatpants (which is what nearly ALL baby boy pants are if their not denim; thanks a lot Carter's!) I say this outfit was a win/win :) We even had a navy blue bucket hat to wear when we were playing outside!
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| Here I come summer! (The checkout lady at Target referred to D as 'she' and 'her' while she was bagging my groceries and finished it with "She's so pretty!" Really?! Maybe if he had on a dress, but this awesome outfit does not say girly.) |
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| Too cute |
Wednesday, April 24
Here We Go Again, Baby Numero Dos!
Wowza! So I didn't expect to be so ready to start thinking about having another child join our family as early as I did. Right after Christmas time just when I was starting to feel like I kinda knew what I was doing and had this 'mom' thing more under control (and more importantly, Declan was sleeping through the night), I start wondering... "What about a sibling?" I mentioned this to Matt (who thought I was a little crazy for even thinking it at this point, or a lot crazy) and he made me agree to wait and discuss it further once Declan was officially 6 months old (Jan 2013). Matt and I have known for a long time that adoption would be part of how we built our family. We just didn't know the when or how. Well, I proceeded to do my own research on adoption so come 6 months, we would be ready to officially get started (I discovered this process can sometimes take years, and we wanted our kiddos to be relatively close in age).
Turns out that adoption is going to be apart of our lives now, and we're learning how :) To answer a few of the questions we get asked... No, it wasn't that pregnancy was so terrible I don't want to do it again (I actually really liked it and will miss not being pregnant again--- recovery from labor and delivery and those first 6 weeks or so? Won't miss those a bit!!!) Matt and I both have a heart for the millions of orphans in the world (especially the third world) and feel like this is an area when we can make a tangible difference for at least one of them. And ultimately, we want more children and don't feel that they absolutely need to be biologically related to us for them to be our son or daughter :)
Where are you adopting from, and why? We discussed domestic adoption and adopting through the foster care system, but in the end felt more drawn to international adoption. Each country has its own set of guidelines for prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) such as age, income, number of children in the home, and other considerations such as the age of children available, timelines for completion of adoption, travel requirements, and stability of the foreign country's adoption program. Africa was a no brainer for us (we have very close family friends from Zimbabwe, and felt this is where the biggest need was). Realistically, there were about 5 countries for us to choose from. We narrowed it down to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia (ET). The DRC is relatively new to the international adoption scene and can be on the unpredictable side, whereas ET has been completing international adoptions for years with a stable program. When you invest this much love, time, and effort (and let's be honest... money too!) you want it to work out :)
After weeks of research on adoption agencies, we decided we felt most comfortable with Adoption Associates Inc. in Michigan (AAI for short; a smaller but very active adoption agency) for our international adoption agency. We then had to pick a local adoption agency to complete a home study (read: comprehensive social work study of EVERY aspect of your life), so Adoption & Beyond in Overland Park is completing that portion of our adoption for us.
Kind of like finding out you're pregnant, sometimes you wait a little while before announcing to the world and making it 'official'. This new child of ours may not be in our home for another 1-2 years so we didn't want to announce it to everyone everywhere from the beginning (I managed to make it almost 3 months without sharing! So hard!). Well, today we received our completed home study that approves us as adoptive parents!!! I got so giddy with excitement when I was reading our 14 page write up (yes, 14!) that I nearly got teary eyed. One big step done, but a lot more to go.
The international adoption process is pretty long and complicated but it breaks down to something like this...
-chose adoption agency and apply for services
-collect a rainforest's worth of paperwork about your entire life
-submit mentioned rainforest, have home study interviews, and obtain completed home study
-submit more paperwork to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services), get fingerprinted for the 2nd time, and obtain approval from US government to adopt
-submit third and largest rainforest to foreign country along with USCIS approval and home study (collectively called a dossier)
-now you are officially on the 'waiting list'
-be matched with a child (we're anticipating a 1-2 year wait, and honestly we're not in a hurry)
-travel to foreign country to meet your new son/daughter and go to court hearings, visa interviews, and eventually bring them home to the US (this last part can take a few weeks to many months, and may require multiple trips)
We are timeline-wise still at the beginning of this whole process but paperwork-wise getting close to done. We joined AAI and were accepted at the end of January. February and March were nothing but paper chasing (birth certificates, marriage certificates, Dr visits for everyone including Declan, bank statements and past W2s, 9 reference letters, employer reference letters, employment verification, etc ) and completing education requirements (1 book, 3 videos, 1 weekend conference, 4 online education programs). April was interviews and home study completion. May/June should be USCIS approval, and June/July should be dossier submission :) Whew! I'm already tired. Then we start the waiting game.
My feelings before the home study: anxious, but feel silly for over preparing, I wanted to bake cookies which Matt said was "trying too hard" (I did anyways and had fresh lemonade too), gave me a reason to spring clean the house from top to bottom (the cleanest it's been since D was born), I'm sure it will go fine, I'm wondering if it will feel formal or relaxed (our social worker said it would be casual and not to worry about it), D will be awake for the first hour or so that she's here so I'm really hoping he's in a good mood and makes us looks like model parents :) Overall, a little nervous but I'm sure it won't be that big of a deal and she'll approve us as adoptive parents. All our paperwork from this point on, depends on what they say about us in our home study.
My feelings after the home study: that wasn't as intense as I was prepared for or had imagined, she didn't once mention how impeccably clean my house was, she didn't want a fresh baked cookie OR lemonade (both made expressly for this purpose, I however ended up eating a half dozen...), it was very casual like we were just visiting rather than being interviewed (other than the fact she had a pen and paper and was taking notes here and there), it took about 2 hours but could have been condensed into 1 hour I think, I so wanted to listen in during Matt's solo interview portion but like a good rule-follower I did not, and I'm confident about her recommendation.
Home study= 83 pages of personal information + 9 reference letters + 14 hours of education + 1 book + 3 Dr visits + 4 repeat visits to Matt's Dr to get the papers filled out right + 1 weekend conference + 4 vials of blood + 3 interviews + 1 tour of our home = approved as PAPs!
Next step... get the US Government to agree :) Bring it!
Turns out that adoption is going to be apart of our lives now, and we're learning how :) To answer a few of the questions we get asked... No, it wasn't that pregnancy was so terrible I don't want to do it again (I actually really liked it and will miss not being pregnant again--- recovery from labor and delivery and those first 6 weeks or so? Won't miss those a bit!!!) Matt and I both have a heart for the millions of orphans in the world (especially the third world) and feel like this is an area when we can make a tangible difference for at least one of them. And ultimately, we want more children and don't feel that they absolutely need to be biologically related to us for them to be our son or daughter :)
Where are you adopting from, and why? We discussed domestic adoption and adopting through the foster care system, but in the end felt more drawn to international adoption. Each country has its own set of guidelines for prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) such as age, income, number of children in the home, and other considerations such as the age of children available, timelines for completion of adoption, travel requirements, and stability of the foreign country's adoption program. Africa was a no brainer for us (we have very close family friends from Zimbabwe, and felt this is where the biggest need was). Realistically, there were about 5 countries for us to choose from. We narrowed it down to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia (ET). The DRC is relatively new to the international adoption scene and can be on the unpredictable side, whereas ET has been completing international adoptions for years with a stable program. When you invest this much love, time, and effort (and let's be honest... money too!) you want it to work out :)
After weeks of research on adoption agencies, we decided we felt most comfortable with Adoption Associates Inc. in Michigan (AAI for short; a smaller but very active adoption agency) for our international adoption agency. We then had to pick a local adoption agency to complete a home study (read: comprehensive social work study of EVERY aspect of your life), so Adoption & Beyond in Overland Park is completing that portion of our adoption for us.
Kind of like finding out you're pregnant, sometimes you wait a little while before announcing to the world and making it 'official'. This new child of ours may not be in our home for another 1-2 years so we didn't want to announce it to everyone everywhere from the beginning (I managed to make it almost 3 months without sharing! So hard!). Well, today we received our completed home study that approves us as adoptive parents!!! I got so giddy with excitement when I was reading our 14 page write up (yes, 14!) that I nearly got teary eyed. One big step done, but a lot more to go.
The international adoption process is pretty long and complicated but it breaks down to something like this...
-chose adoption agency and apply for services
-collect a rainforest's worth of paperwork about your entire life
-submit mentioned rainforest, have home study interviews, and obtain completed home study
-submit more paperwork to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services), get fingerprinted for the 2nd time, and obtain approval from US government to adopt
-submit third and largest rainforest to foreign country along with USCIS approval and home study (collectively called a dossier)
-now you are officially on the 'waiting list'
-be matched with a child (we're anticipating a 1-2 year wait, and honestly we're not in a hurry)
-travel to foreign country to meet your new son/daughter and go to court hearings, visa interviews, and eventually bring them home to the US (this last part can take a few weeks to many months, and may require multiple trips)
We are timeline-wise still at the beginning of this whole process but paperwork-wise getting close to done. We joined AAI and were accepted at the end of January. February and March were nothing but paper chasing (birth certificates, marriage certificates, Dr visits for everyone including Declan, bank statements and past W2s, 9 reference letters, employer reference letters, employment verification, etc ) and completing education requirements (1 book, 3 videos, 1 weekend conference, 4 online education programs). April was interviews and home study completion. May/June should be USCIS approval, and June/July should be dossier submission :) Whew! I'm already tired. Then we start the waiting game.
My feelings before the home study: anxious, but feel silly for over preparing, I wanted to bake cookies which Matt said was "trying too hard" (I did anyways and had fresh lemonade too), gave me a reason to spring clean the house from top to bottom (the cleanest it's been since D was born), I'm sure it will go fine, I'm wondering if it will feel formal or relaxed (our social worker said it would be casual and not to worry about it), D will be awake for the first hour or so that she's here so I'm really hoping he's in a good mood and makes us looks like model parents :) Overall, a little nervous but I'm sure it won't be that big of a deal and she'll approve us as adoptive parents. All our paperwork from this point on, depends on what they say about us in our home study.
My feelings after the home study: that wasn't as intense as I was prepared for or had imagined, she didn't once mention how impeccably clean my house was, she didn't want a fresh baked cookie OR lemonade (both made expressly for this purpose, I however ended up eating a half dozen...), it was very casual like we were just visiting rather than being interviewed (other than the fact she had a pen and paper and was taking notes here and there), it took about 2 hours but could have been condensed into 1 hour I think, I so wanted to listen in during Matt's solo interview portion but like a good rule-follower I did not, and I'm confident about her recommendation.
Home study= 83 pages of personal information + 9 reference letters + 14 hours of education + 1 book + 3 Dr visits + 4 repeat visits to Matt's Dr to get the papers filled out right + 1 weekend conference + 4 vials of blood + 3 interviews + 1 tour of our home = approved as PAPs!
Next step... get the US Government to agree :) Bring it!
Tuesday, April 9
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