5th Anniversary -from Clay-

It seems like 5 is too big of a number, but it is true. It has been a very fast, eventful, and family filled 5 years. Although, it also seems like we've been waiting to go get Violet for about 10 years . . . The best part of our anniversary was getting a video of Violet from Dillon. It was so great. I sat and watched it five times. She smiled at one time, but was mostly silent. She's going to fit in well, we're a very quiet family!

We went to Carino's for our anniversary.

Noodles was our previous favorite, but they changed their bread and pizza. I like the new bread, but Amanda doesn't. I don't eat the pizza, but Amanda does. The chicken parmesan was excellent as always, but for a restaurant to be our favorite, we both have to like it best.

Carino's might have been our new favorite, but their chicken parmesan was kind of like rubber chicken parmesan. I had the lasagna last time and it was great, but you can't be my favorite with bad chicken parmesan.

CLAY

Noodles in Trouble, Girls' Clothes

OOO NO! We went out to my favorite restaurant, Noodles, this week and they have CHANGED THEIR BREAD!!! I am soooo sad over this! I also ordered pizza like always and it was different and awful too!

Well, onto a more positive subject - my youngest is 6 months old as of yesterday!!

So, according to babycenter.com she could possibly be rolling all around, maybe sitting up, & imitating sounds. I wish so much that I could know what she was doing! I wonder if she will be starting solid foods this month. Being pre-term they may have her wait. I wish I was making that decision. I am sure her foster mom is taking good care of her though. I wish I could get more pictures or send another package! I thought we were going to get a video of the last visit, but we are still waiting!

I love blogs with lots of pictures! Colorful, fun pictures! I came across this blog today full of pictures of strawberries! I also love Aunt Ruthie because she finds the BEST pictures for her blog! I have no idea where/how people find their pictures! I love finding pictures to put on my blog also (they just make me so happy!), but I am not so good at it. Maybe I will try a "theme" sometime like the strawberry page :).

I LOVE having a daughter and I cannot wait to have TWO! I love my son, but girls have the cutest clothes (and he does not like me to pick his clothes)!! When I was little I always wanted two little girls that I could dress alike and I hope I get the chance to do that one day soon :) In the meantime, my current hobby is searching out the cutest clothes for girls...

Here are some of my favorite finds on Etsy.com *sigh*:

Okay, so I am pretty terrible at updating this blog. We did announce our referral of our precious little girl! Sunday at church, my parents, Clay's mom and one of my brother's and SIL came, so we had a nice full pew. Clay did an excellent job. It was a surprise to me, too, as he would not tell me how or when he was going to announce it. He began his sermon by talking about patience and used our adoption as an example and then up came her pictures on the overhead screen and there was a big GASP! from the congregation and my mom started crying and I leaned over and saw my son point & say "That's my sister!" It was so sweet! So we have been getting a lot of congratulations and questions from lots of family and friends. It is so sad that we have to wait 8-12 months before we can bring her home.
So it has now been ONE month of waiting. 11 more to go (or hopefully 7!).So what to do for the next 11 months? I have NO idea! I have, however, bought 2 Asian baby dolls off ebay that my daughter, Faith, loves to play with and carry around with her and she calls them both "Violet". Which brings me to another announcement - we have officially decided to name Bo Ra, Violet! It has been nice to call her Violet and every time I see something purple I think of her and want to buy it! But I don't. I want to buy her clothes so bad but I don't know what size she will be when she comes home. I don't know if or when I will get to send another care package. Right now we are also trying to save money. We still do not have all the funds needed for travel. I guess there is a positive side to having to wait 8-12 months - time to save up! We also are focused on gifts for her foster parents. I am really nervous about finding just the right gifts. They need to be items made locally (or at least in the USA). These people are and always will be so special to us. I really like this clutch and may get it...it takes me a long time to make decisions. Drives Clay crazy, LOL.
So because of the expense of the adoption/saving we decided to have a STAYcation this year. Clay did get a grill for his birthday from his mom and he had fun grilling lunch and dinner almost everyday! And I had fun eating it! We went to the farmers market (which I LOVE) and got a lot done at home. Clay and I love to eat out at our favorite restaurants. We went to Johnny Carinos and I had the best pizza! It was even better than the pizza at Noodles, my favorite restaurant! But Noodles has better bread, so they will keep my business ;)

Some People Wait a Lifetime...

for a moment like this!!
Well today was the last day we had to get our acceptance paperwork and care package all together and sent off to Dillon. Clay and I were super stressed and frantic all day! I went to Clay's office to have his coworker notarize papers and I needed to take a picture of him for our baby photo album. I had to have it to put into the care package I had put together.

He couldn't be there until 2 and the latest we could send something overnight at the post office was 3:45! So the very last thing was to get the mailing address for Dillon from my email. So we logged in and there was an email from our agency with 3 news pictures of our precious Miss Bo Ra!! She has grown so much! I LOVE her face! I love her hair! I love her nose and I love her little mouth! It was such a nice moment in such a stressful time.

So here are some new pictures of my beautiful girl:

After a 7.5 month wait...ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!

My son had 2 friends spend the night (6/10) after a long week of vacation Bible School. The boys stayed up until almost 2 in the morning and I stayed up with them so the house wouldn't burn down. So the next morning we were all tired and slept in. At 9:05am my phone rang and I did not recognize the number so I ignored it because I was so tired. Well then I had a voice mail and I couldn't go back to sleep until I listened to it. So I groggily put it to my ear, and it was our adoption social worker! Oh my gosh! I was awake! But I still was not quite sure why she was calling because she told us if she were calling with a referral she would call early in the morning before Clay left for work. So I got extremely nervous and didn't want to call her back without Clay being with me! So I call Clay at work and tell him and while I was talking she called him! So I got off the phone so he could answer and began brushing my teeth and crying. Well just a few seconds later he called back and had her on 3-way!! So I knew then that it was exciting news!! She said "Hi Amanda, how are you?" and I said "Nervous!". She said, "Did Clay tell you why I am calling?" and I said "No!" And she said "Well, I am calling with your first referral!" Oh my gosh! My heart was in my throat! Then she told us it was a little GIRL! I just let Clay do all the talking because I just cried the whole time! There I was standing in my bathroom in my pajamas hearing that I was having a baby girl! And her name is Ba Ro, a name given to her by her birth mother (which is so special) and it means "purple" because that is her favorite color. I just think that is so sweet because Clay's grandma's name was Violet. So that is a name option.

Speaking of names...Clay and I have been discussing girl names. We had a boy name picked out. We just knew we would get a referral for a boy, everyone gets boys from Korea! I secretly wanted a girl so badly and I cannot describe in words how thrilled I am to have this precious angel in my life! Although I do love purple, I feel I need to give her an American name, because kids in school may not be too nice about "Bo Ra." I love old names, especially from the 1920's, but all the ones we love are already being used by good friends or family members :(.

We officially accepted the referral today, June 14. We left a message Friday evening & had to wait through the longest weekend of our lives before we could talk to someone! I believe we are now going to file acceptance paperwork and it will be sent to Korea later this week and then it will have to be filed there.

Bo Ra was born at 31 weeks, January 21, 2010. At 9 weeks early she only weighed 3.5 lbs. Our medical information on her tells us she is growing well, gaining about 2 lbs per month. She is meeting all of her developmental milestones as well! The last update Dillon had on her was in April, so I am guesstimating she weighs around 12 lbs now. I always thought we would have plenty of time to shop around and find just the perfect items to send whenever we were able to send a care package. Well, when Clay received a call back about accepting our referral he was told someone is traveling to Korea FRIDAY!! And they can take a care package to Bo Ra if we get it to Dillon in time!! So I rushed off to the mall in search for items! I got a few things, but I still need to find a baby photo album tomorrow AND hopefully take pictures of each of us to put in it! Thank goodness for digital cameras! Another thing - this is all still a SECRET! We have told a FEW friends, but no family members! We are trying to make it a special surprise! Clay preaches at church in a couple weeks and we have invited all of our parents and siblings and hope to announce it to them then! It will also be our Father's Day and June birthday celebration party I mentioned in my last post! I really hope it works out! But it also means I have to not tell them for 2 WEEKS! That is going to be really hard!!

In other news, Faith's yellow party was a lot of fun. She got a bike from Clay's parents! And we brought a giant piece of plastic and made a "hillbilly slip'n'slide"! All the kids had a good time, even my 1 year old nephew toddled over and went down fully dressed! haha! 

Let the Summer begin!

Today is the last day of school! I now am the mother of a 6th grader! Aidan's last day was yesterday though since he went with my mom to our family reunion in Little Rock. Today was Clay's last day with students. We are missing the reunion this year because Sunday starts vacation bible school at our congregation and I am in charge of decorating 2 rooms! Which I love doing. I love doing anything creative! But I am sad that I will not see all the family at the reunion this year. Our VBS this year is on the story of Joseph when he is in the prison and then the palace. So those are the two rooms I am decorating. I have been using this hilariously OLD opaque projector. We have all had a good time making fun of it.
June is the month for birthdays in my family! My precious angel, Faith, turns 4 on Monday! This is not happening!! AHH! And My sweet nephew turns 14! My fabulous brother turns 33! And my amazing husband turns *BEEEEP*! Just kidding, he's going to be 31. I wouldn't leave that out! AND last but not least it is FATHER'S DAY this month! My middle brother's first! We are all going to get together at the end of the month to celebrate! And we will have Faith's birthday party also in a few weeks at her Bella's (Clay's mom) house. She has talked about wanting a Tinkerbell party since the day after her 3rd birthday. So I had been searching out decorations and searching for the best Tinkerbell outfit. I had found a few outfits online and so I showed them to Faith for her to pick and she didn't like any of them because they had green on them. I learned that she "hates green." So I told her that Tinkerbell wears green so most everything will have green on it. So to that she says she did not want a Tinkerbell party, she wants a yellow party. Just yellow. So I will be excited to post pics of how that turns out!
Today Faith said, "Let's play Simon Says." Me: "Go to bed." Faith: *stares blankly...* "Simon didn't say! I'm getting the hang of this!" haha!!
The other day at my mom's house Aidan was pretending to be sad about something (I don't remember) and then I saw a light bulb go off in his head and he said "I'll be right back!" And he ran off behind closed doors and was gone for quite awhile...then when he finally came back, this is what he had been making:I just died laughing! Can you see it? They are big paper pupils that he had taped to a pair of sunglasses! HAHAHA!!

My 2 favorite kids!

Still no referral. But that's okay, I don't expect one until July. I will be upset after that!
Faith had "show day" at gymnastics today. This is a day where each child performs everything they have learned throughout the semester. She did great!! It was so much fun to watch her. She has been doing gymnastics for 2 years now and it is so neat to see her progression. Aidan has been mowing the grass for us this spring/summer for the first time! He acts like he hates it, but I think he enjoys it some because of the satisfaction he gets from it. Our yard has never looked better! He also won 3rd place in his science project! I can't believe the 2009-10 school year is almost over and I will have a 6th grader! It just does not seem possible. I was just telling Clay the other day about the funny things he used to say when he was little, like "cha-cha mlowk" = chocolate milk, and "apuppa dOWg" = puppy dog (this he would said over and over and over). He also said "Lee me lome!" = Leave me alone, that one was funny. He still says really funny things all the time. I will have to start writing them down. The other day I was reprimanding him for something and he argued and I said, "don't argue!" and he put up his hand and said "okay, you're just missing out on the truth." HAHA! Both of my kids are HILARIOUS! I can't wait to see what kind of personality our next child will have!
(Here is Aidan riding a bouncy horse rodeo style at the park, LOL!)