December 2007

Okay, I knew that i would have a hard time keeping up with this blog, but I didn't realize it would be months in between updates. Sorry!
Nandee and Papa treated us all to a ride on the polar express again this year. Ethan loved it, but was very serious the entire time. Paigy slept through at least half of it. Here is a pic of Daddy and Roo looking out at the north pole. Papa is in the blue behind them.

Ethan update:

Ethan is 3 and 1/2 now. He loves school and drop off isn't an issue anymore. Here is one of the tricycles that they have. He loves anything that he can peddle. He just had his first holiday program ever. It was great to watch him practice his songs. There is something so sweet about little kids singing. He just got his first progress report from preschool. He is doing really well. His teacher said that he is very articulate and his vocabulary is amazing. This is definitely daddy's doing and not mine. I give Ethan 2 more years before his vocabulary is better than mine. Santa brought him a new backhoe loader for Christmas--the kind that he can sit on and peddle. Ethan has basically played with this toy nonstop since christmas morning!

Here is a picture of Ethan in a firetruck. His preschool did a field trip to the fire station and he loved it!!Ethan is a master negotiator. Just yesterday Ryan gave him two choices for lunch. Ethan added a third and then chose the third. I know that may not sound that exciting, but its the sly way that Ethan goes about things that makes us laugh. He has an incredible imagination and memory. He is still into making up his own words, names, songs.

Eating pancakes outside for Christmas Eve:

Paigy Update:

Paigy is almost 1 already!! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. It's definitely quicker with the 2nd baby. She is cruising all over the place and has been standing in the middle of the floor for 3 months now, but is not walking yet. She pivots around in a circle and is barely starting to taking 2-3 steps. She is still a great sleeper and a happy baby. She tries to talk all of the time, but really only says Ma, Da, Ba (big brother). She signs water, eat, more, all done, but not milk yet. She HATES getting her diaper changed. She is into everything Ethan is and tries to mimic everything that anyone does. She still loves her pacis. She has an incredible appetite. She eats more that her big brother! She loves to eat if she is feeding herself. If you try to feed her with a spoon she will start grabbing the spoon after a few bites and do it herself. She is very independant an into everything!!! She goes to the Dr for her 1 year appt this Friday.

Adoption Update:

We are fully into the paperwork for our adoption. We have finished everything we need for our homestudy. We had a home visit about 2 weeks ago by Cindi, our social worker. She spent about 2-3 hours watching us interact with Ethan (Paige was asleep) and getting our life stories. She also took a brief tour around the house to look at space and safety. Last Friday we went to her office to get individual interviews--again she mainly watched us with the kiddos and also asked questions about how we resolve conflicts and such. We also gave her our medical forms (thanks to Robin for helping us get these!!!), employment proof, insurance proof, etc. We are just waiting on our letters of reference to get to Cindi, our federal and state background clearance to get to her, and then for her to write her report.

We have sent off our immigration application for the baby (I-600A). This will get reviewed and hopefully approved after Cindi sends them our approved homestudy. The homestudy will probably take another month (end of Jan) and then the I-600A approval another month after that (end of Feb).

In the meantime we have been working on our dossier for Ethiopia. We have almost everything for that too. Again we are waiting on a state background check. We already have most of the papers together (employment proof, med docs (again thanks robin), financial proof, letters of reference, proof of ownership of house, and intro letters). After we have them all together we have to make sure they are all notorized and then send them to the state for authentication, and then to the fed government and Ethiopian Embassey for another authentication. Then we will be able to send them to our agency and then to Ethiopia. This will probably take a month for all of the authentications. We hope to have this completed by end of March. After that we the wait will begin for a referral of a child.

Paigy sleeping on daddy. She has an apple in her hand. She got ahold of big brothers apple and would not let go. She kept sucking on it and scraping little bites.