More Pictures

Not much to say, but here are more pictures of Chris' big weekend and J's room, plus the end of the weekend.

My man bringing home the bacon, er, venison.

Here are more pictures of us putting the crib together, with some help from our little ladies!

Caught her sticking her tongue out at the camera!

Here's the finished product...can't wait to see our son in it!!

After a busy day, my family sacked out...

...well, except for one little girl who has to know what's going on at all times:

Happy Thanksgiving!!  I know we are thankful for many, many things this year!

Some pictures...

Just wanted to post a few pictures from the last week for you all!!

Here is a teaser shot of J's painted room...
it's kind of a pistachio pudding green.

The rest of the room is a bit of a mess right now,

so no shot of the whole thing until later!

Chris was going on a trip and this is Lexi's

subtle way of saying she wants to go too!

Also, not the first time she has done this; she will climb

in most any bag that has our clothes in it...too cute!!

Finally, I gave the dogs a lick of a lemon and it was sooo funny!

After the first taste, Lexi would actually run away from it if I put it too

close to her.  Jinx wasn't sure she wanted to taste it, but she also didn't

want to pass it up since it was something new.  So she was guarding it

from Lexi, who thought if Jinx had something, she should get it as well.

Come to find out, it was the dreaded lemon!!  What I didn't get a picture of

was her howling at Jinx-and-lemon from a foot away...what a character!!

A Little Bit Closer!!

Our SW received the second endorsement letter yesterday from DCFS!!!  This is a step that only IL families have to go through and usually takes a little bit longer because there is only one woman who does all these letters.  She was probably trying to clear  her desk before the holidays...yeah!!  It is not a huge step, but we are that little bit closer now.  Our paperwork will now go to USCIS, which is the immigration office here in the States.  I am hoping they will be done with their part before Christmas.  We are now at the point where I have an email address or phone number for these offices and I can pester keep track of where our paperwork is at, so it doesn't get lost.  I can feel like I'm a little bit in control of what happens, at least (even though I'm really not!).

Still don't have pictures of the room yet...haven't had time to download from the camera, but soon, I promise!!

7 months old!!

Dear son,
Today you are 7 months old...isn't that amazing?!?!  You're getting so big, I'm sure.  You will soon be receiving a care package that we are sending over to Korea with some friends who are going to pick up their son.  We hope you like the things we put in it and get some comfort from the blanket and pictures of your mama and daddy.  We are looking forward to bringing you home early next year (the earlier, the better!).  Your room is painted...thank you, Grandma Klein!!  Some of your furniture is in there, but we have to set up the crib yet.  It is really starting to look like a child's room and is just waiting for you to fill it with your smiles, giggles, and babbling.  It is so exciting to see it come together and it's becoming more real to us that this is actually going to happen.  We know you are being well cared for, but we are still missing you and cannot wait for the day that our arms are finally filled...with YOU!!
Stay healthy and happy, our darling boy.
All our love,
Mama and Daddy

(pictures of the room will be coming soon, I promise, Tiff!!)

It's the small things...

Most of the time when I go to a store or online to look at baby items, it is just assumed by the people/website that you are pregnant.  This really bothers me, especially when adoption is becoming more prevalent.  But I was soooo excited when I registered online at "Baby's R Us" that the second question asked was whether I was adopting!!!!!!  I was just so pleased to see that places are starting to realize that not all families are built the same way... it's the small things.  :)  [Although "Target" still gives newborn diapers out in all of their Baby Kit bags, without asking...:(  ].  Now I just need to find that perfect list of what exactly I need to buy to get ready for a 10-month old, rather than a newborn!!  I will take any and all suggestions!

Another not-so-small, actually a rather big, thing is that we are sending a care package over to Korea for J!!!!!! Another waiting family who will hopefully be traveling next week to pick up their son is graciously taking this gift over with them and will drop it off with the Korean social worker for it to get to J!!!  Thanks Shona and family!!  Safe travels.  Here are a couple of pictures that I took of what we sent to them:

 I can't believe that in the next few weeks, he will be seeing pictures of me and Chris for the first time!  My heart wants to be there with him so badly, I want to be the one to hold him when he sees those pictures, I want him to see our faces in person NOW!  We thought the wait to referral was hard, but I agree with others who have been in this situation, this is a thousand times harder!  Especially because we are going to miss his first Thanksgiving and Christmas; we want to spend his first holidays with him, not halfway around the world from him.  We are missing so much of his life already.  These holidays are going to be very difficult for us, since our family is not complete; one part of it is not home yet.  This care package will give me joy, though, knowing that J will be getting something soon that we picked out just for him.  He will be snuggling with the security blanket that I washed for him, along with a load of his clothes(...let me tell you, that was the best load of laundry I've ever done!  I've been looking forward to that one for years!!).  I'm hoping that this is something he latches on to and that it is sent with him when he comes home with us.  We are also hoping that his foster mother will take lots of pictures of him with the two disposable cameras we sent, in the hopes that we might get some of them when we go pick him up.  We would love to have pictures to show him of this time in his life.  The other green outfit are pajamas a friend of mine sent to us.  Only thing is, it would have been way too small for him by the time he got home, but I just loved the snuggly fabric, so instead of taking it back for a bigger size, I decided to send it over to him now.  It will definitely keep him warm and cozy!  (We don't even know what size he will be wearing when he comes home, so I didn't want to return it and have it possibly still not be the right size.)
We also sent a small gift for the foster mother, a scarf and some stationery that we hope she'll like.  She's doing a job I could not do, caring for a child who she knows is going to be adopted by another family, and she will have to let him go.  She has an older son and daughter of her own, but it still has to be hard on their family.  I give thanks that she/they are loving him and caring for him until it is time for me and Chris to take over.

Next week, while my DH is gone for work, my mom is going to come help me paint J's room so that we can start getting things arranged...and rearranged...and probably rearranged again!  I am really looking forward to finally seeing that room turned into a nursery.  It's so exciting!!

My mom is also dying to get her hands on the quilt!  I know she would much rather be working on that next week instead of painting, but she said she will do whatever needs to be done (and probably secretly hoping that we will get the painting done so we can get on to the quilt!).  I am still waiting on a few squares from people who have said they are doing one, but I am also eager to start on it, so if I don't have yours (or haven't received a verbal promise of one), please please let me know very quickly so I can leave a spot for you!  Here is a view of all the squares I have in the tentative order on the quilt.  It will not be this big when it's finished.

I have two more squares that are not shown here from a good friend (thanks, Dodger!) that I am going to be making into a long pillow or two throw pillows; I haven't made up my mind yet.  These squares have the words "family" and "love" written on them in Korean.  I cannot cut them to the size I am cutting the others for the quilt, so I'm using the same backing for them that I'm using for the quilt in order for them all to coordinate.  I cannot wait to get started on this project!!

So those are the small and not-so-small things that are happening now.  Stay tuned...