May 30, 2011
Videos
It's been a while since I have posted videos of the kiddos. So here are a few. Hallie has been very good to help with Jace. She constantly wants to hold him and take care of him as these videos show.
A sweet story: The other day, we were talking about MF with Hallie. I told her where she lives now, but that we would be going to pick her up and that she would be coming to live with us (we have this conversation from time to time). Hallie then said that she would share her dresses, her toys, and her bed with MF. Then she said, "And my mommy will be her mommy? And my daddy will be her daddy?" She comprehends a lot more than we give her credit for sometimes.
*PS. Recognize the outfit in the second video? Yeah, its one of her chosen outfits from her fashionista week. Clearly we had not gotten her ready for the day yet. Also forgive the hair. She is in a phase where she doesn't want "anything in it!"
May 29, 2011
Changes
So---after discussing it with Devin, I have decided to make the blog unprivate. Wahoo! The main reason is that there are more people wanting to read it than I have invites for. Darn blogger for limiting it to 100.
I joined an Ecuador Adoptions yahoo group about a week ago after scouring the web for adoption stories from Ecuador. Nothing like reading real life stories to prepare yourself, right? I couldn't find ANY, but finally found this group, which has opened up a whole new world of stories for me. It has been fabulous. Not only that, but many of the people know our sweet MF from their trips to pick up their children. So amazing what a small world it can be.
If you are wondering who in the world MF is, well, that's the little girl we are adopting. Don't worry. I still care about privacy and not jeapordizing anything with the adoption, so until things are final, I have taken down all pictures of her and have also removed her name from all previous posts. She is now known as MF all over and from here on out. Most of you know her name, but if you are a newcomer at some point and want to know, just email me. I have also taken out some details in the back story posts as I again want to be cautious. I will put everything back up when all is said and done.
I joined an Ecuador Adoptions yahoo group about a week ago after scouring the web for adoption stories from Ecuador. Nothing like reading real life stories to prepare yourself, right? I couldn't find ANY, but finally found this group, which has opened up a whole new world of stories for me. It has been fabulous. Not only that, but many of the people know our sweet MF from their trips to pick up their children. So amazing what a small world it can be.
If you are wondering who in the world MF is, well, that's the little girl we are adopting. Don't worry. I still care about privacy and not jeapordizing anything with the adoption, so until things are final, I have taken down all pictures of her and have also removed her name from all previous posts. She is now known as MF all over and from here on out. Most of you know her name, but if you are a newcomer at some point and want to know, just email me. I have also taken out some details in the back story posts as I again want to be cautious. I will put everything back up when all is said and done.
May 28, 2011
Fashionista
So I have mentioned before that Hallie is very conscious of what she wears. She changes her clothes so many times a day that we put one of those safety locks on the outside of her door so that she can't go into her room without our help. Because, well, when she does, she comes out wearing something new. (One reason I looked forward to having a boy is I am pretty sure he will not have this habit. Maybe...but hopefully not!)
The best surprise of every night is when I go to check on Hallie before I go to bed because inevitably, she is wearing something really fantastic. I honestly don't know why I even put pajamas on her before bed, because as soon as I shut the door, I know her creative juices get flowing as she tries to come up with the "cutest" outfit she can.
About a week ago, I decided I ought to take a picture of her every morning right when she gets out of bed to document the outfits she comes up with. I am sure she will want to know about this when she is a teenager. So, without further ado, a really incredible week in fashion, according to Hallie. (Sorry about the bad pictures-- she isn't really that cooperative first thing in the morning. Wonder why? Crazy woman chasing her around with a camera before she can even get a bite to eat? That's not even understandable.)
Morning 1: A long sleeve, polka dot top with a pair of brown, polka dot shorts. Polka on Polka. Good choice.
Morning 2: This happy girl is sporting a pair of pink stretch pants (no childhood is complete without stretch pants) and a green, polka dot used-to-be-a-dress-but-now-serves-as-a-shirt top. I sense a polka dot theme, yes?
Morning 3: a long, red, flowing dress up skirt (we won't mention that it is not actually ours and that it was removed from the poor, unsuspecting neighbors' house...aka stolen) paired with a brown and turquoise gem up top.
Morning 4: ("Mom, I am getting sick of this game!") Leopard print dress. Always a classy choice.
Morning 5: The return of the brown and turquoise top, this time paired with a brown, animal print skirt. Can't forget the pink fluffy dog purse, proclaiming that she is a "Princess". Now, whether or not she slept with the purse on her arm as a part of her outfit... I don't know. But, I wouldn't rule it out.
Morning 6: AH! A pair of pajamas! Not the ones she went to bed wearing, mind you, but pajamas none the less. Oh, let's not forget about the one black shoe and one white shoe. Definitely interesting. Hopefully not a new fashion trend.
And the best part of all:
Hallie came out wearing this one day after her middle of the day "quiet time" (read: nap time- though she doesn't actually nap):::::
A Pair of Pajamas! Go figure.
The best surprise of every night is when I go to check on Hallie before I go to bed because inevitably, she is wearing something really fantastic. I honestly don't know why I even put pajamas on her before bed, because as soon as I shut the door, I know her creative juices get flowing as she tries to come up with the "cutest" outfit she can.
About a week ago, I decided I ought to take a picture of her every morning right when she gets out of bed to document the outfits she comes up with. I am sure she will want to know about this when she is a teenager. So, without further ado, a really incredible week in fashion, according to Hallie. (Sorry about the bad pictures-- she isn't really that cooperative first thing in the morning. Wonder why? Crazy woman chasing her around with a camera before she can even get a bite to eat? That's not even understandable.)
Morning 1: A long sleeve, polka dot top with a pair of brown, polka dot shorts. Polka on Polka. Good choice.
Morning 2: This happy girl is sporting a pair of pink stretch pants (no childhood is complete without stretch pants) and a green, polka dot used-to-be-a-dress-but-now-serves-as-a-shirt top. I sense a polka dot theme, yes?
Morning 3: a long, red, flowing dress up skirt (we won't mention that it is not actually ours and that it was removed from the poor, unsuspecting neighbors' house...aka stolen) paired with a brown and turquoise gem up top. 
Morning 4: ("Mom, I am getting sick of this game!") Leopard print dress. Always a classy choice.
Morning 5: The return of the brown and turquoise top, this time paired with a brown, animal print skirt. Can't forget the pink fluffy dog purse, proclaiming that she is a "Princess". Now, whether or not she slept with the purse on her arm as a part of her outfit... I don't know. But, I wouldn't rule it out.
Morning 6: AH! A pair of pajamas! Not the ones she went to bed wearing, mind you, but pajamas none the less. Oh, let's not forget about the one black shoe and one white shoe. Definitely interesting. Hopefully not a new fashion trend.
And the best part of all:Hallie came out wearing this one day after her middle of the day "quiet time" (read: nap time- though she doesn't actually nap):::::
A Pair of Pajamas! Go figure.
May 21, 2011
Stuff
I know I just had a post called "shmorgasboard", so I am going to call this one "stuff". I know it's lame, but it's a done deal.
Stuff. Yeah, we have stuff going on. Since I know you are all dying to know everything that goes on with us, here are the top ten newest new and exciting/not so exciting things going on in our lives.
10) Hallie had her eye checked out finally. She has had a bump on her eyelid for like 3 months. We thought it was pretty harmless but decided to check it out anyway. After our doctor announced that he had never seen such a large thing on a child's eyelid (comforting), he sent her to a pediatric eye doctor to get it checked out further. It is a cyst, as we thought. The eye dr. said that it would go away on its own. Let's hope sometime in the next 5 years, since its been there for months already. Oh well. The best part is that her eyes had to be dilated and they stayed that way for like two days. Kind of freaky.
9) Jace is rolling over. Only from stomach to back, but it's still fun to watch him learn new things all the time. What a handsome boy. (Not that being handsome has anything to do with it, but I just can't resist saying that. I am, afterall, his mother and I am supposed to say things like that about him).
8) After much struggle, tears, and protesting, my friends Camille and Kylee have convinced me to do the 10k Dirty Dash with them in September in SLC. I know, I know- pick yourself up and get back into your chair and then you may proceed reading for a thorough explanation. If you know me at all, you know that I detest running. I am not an exerciser in general, in fact. I only agreed to do it because a) the baby chub isn't coming off quite as quickly (or at all) this time around b) it supports some good causes and c) its running through mud with slip and slides and fun things like that! Fun, right? We will see. Wish me luck. Before I agreed to do it, I made Devin go out running with me just to see how far I could go before I died. I went 1.5 miles, which I was rather proud of, particularly since we live in a hilly neighborhood and Devin (that sly dog) started us off by running directly up one of those said hills. He had to drag me back home, along with the two children, at the end- but hey, I ran 1.5 miles!
7) On that same note (I don't know if I can really come up with ten things to talk about here...so, continuing on from the last one), Camille sent me a training schedule for the race. Devin and I have been 100% following it so far. This is really saying something people, just so you know. Each Thursday is stretch/strength day. Well. Let me just tell you that Devin takes things seriously when it comes to stretching and strengthening. We did wall sits, lunges, sit ups, push ups, weights, and more weights. Rounds of three on each one. Just when I thought I was done, he would announce another round. (I think he was re-living the glory days of his high school basketball days). Oh. MY. GOSH. My legs were immediately like jello and have not returned to their normal consistency since. Yeah, I am walking like I am 90 years old. Hopefully I stop being so weak and it doesn't hurt so bad after a while!
6) Loving Bountiful baskets still. We have been getting one every week for the past few months and we love them. Love the variety, love that it saves money, and love that we get to try new recipes with things we have never had before (jicama for example. Tried a few things with that. I loved it, Devin hated it.)
5) A few exciting adoptions this past week. They are all exciting, but these past two just left me feeling extra great for some reason. One was with one of my adoptive couples that I adore and another was my birth mother that placed with a couple from another office. That one was fun- the baby was supposed to be a girl and came out a boy. Never hear of that happening anymore, but that made it extra exciting. Also fun was listening to the birth mother talk about how hot she thinks her doctor is and how flustered she gets just mentioning him. haha, so funny. I personally don't think I would pick a doctor that I think is hot to be my down-there doc, if you know what I mean. But to each their own!
4) We are really not that exciting and I don't have anything to say here.
3) It's time for Relay for Life fundraising again! Wahoo! Since I have sort of saturated this audience for donations, we have decided to do things a bit differently this year and I am super excited. I mentioned Sarah has gotten me into garage sale-ing. Well, I decided that we should hold a garage sale of our own and donate 100% of the profits to our Relay for Life fundraiser. I am so excited about this! I think we can do pretty well. I am going to ask our ward members to just bring us things that they are going to give to the DI anyway or that they want to get rid of during spring cleaning, etc. so that we can have a variety of things to sell. I think people will be pretty supportive since it is a fundraiser and all the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. I think this is a good way for people to help too, since it is hard to always donate money to different causes, particularly when money is tight for a lot of people. I think we will hold it the second Saturday in June so that I have time to gather things and get organized. If you want to help me out-- here are some ways. If you live nearby, you can donate items for us to sell at the garage sale. OR- you can stop by the garage sale to see if anything strikes your fancy to purchase (I will post details later on). As always, you can also just donate directly to my Relay for Life page if you would rather. HERE is the link.
2) I got a new calling. Relief Society secretary in my ward. I really am getting old, I guess.
1) Devin is starting his new job this week! Can I get a hallelujah from the audience? He has a job with a grounds crew at a golf course. This is super exciting for him because it is a step in the right direction for career jobs in his chosen field. The hours are great (for him): 5:30 am to 1:30 pm, allowing me to work from 2-6 each afternoon still. The down side is that it is a seasonal job and does not offer benefits, so poor Dev is staying at Smiths as well. He will work there on weekends to maintain our benefits and such there. I know he detests that place, but even having a few less shifts there per week makes him extremely happy. Next year, after we have a little bit more leeway (we need to stay in our house for another year since we bought it with the tax credit), he can use the golf course job as experience to look for jobs elsewhere, besides just our little area, which doesn't offer much in the way of what he would like to do (sports turf). Anyway, that's that. Exciting and kind of fun to be moving forward a bit.
Stuff. Yeah, we have stuff going on. Since I know you are all dying to know everything that goes on with us, here are the top ten newest new and exciting/not so exciting things going on in our lives.
10) Hallie had her eye checked out finally. She has had a bump on her eyelid for like 3 months. We thought it was pretty harmless but decided to check it out anyway. After our doctor announced that he had never seen such a large thing on a child's eyelid (comforting), he sent her to a pediatric eye doctor to get it checked out further. It is a cyst, as we thought. The eye dr. said that it would go away on its own. Let's hope sometime in the next 5 years, since its been there for months already. Oh well. The best part is that her eyes had to be dilated and they stayed that way for like two days. Kind of freaky.
9) Jace is rolling over. Only from stomach to back, but it's still fun to watch him learn new things all the time. What a handsome boy. (Not that being handsome has anything to do with it, but I just can't resist saying that. I am, afterall, his mother and I am supposed to say things like that about him).
8) After much struggle, tears, and protesting, my friends Camille and Kylee have convinced me to do the 10k Dirty Dash with them in September in SLC. I know, I know- pick yourself up and get back into your chair and then you may proceed reading for a thorough explanation. If you know me at all, you know that I detest running. I am not an exerciser in general, in fact. I only agreed to do it because a) the baby chub isn't coming off quite as quickly (or at all) this time around b) it supports some good causes and c) its running through mud with slip and slides and fun things like that! Fun, right? We will see. Wish me luck. Before I agreed to do it, I made Devin go out running with me just to see how far I could go before I died. I went 1.5 miles, which I was rather proud of, particularly since we live in a hilly neighborhood and Devin (that sly dog) started us off by running directly up one of those said hills. He had to drag me back home, along with the two children, at the end- but hey, I ran 1.5 miles!
7) On that same note (I don't know if I can really come up with ten things to talk about here...so, continuing on from the last one), Camille sent me a training schedule for the race. Devin and I have been 100% following it so far. This is really saying something people, just so you know. Each Thursday is stretch/strength day. Well. Let me just tell you that Devin takes things seriously when it comes to stretching and strengthening. We did wall sits, lunges, sit ups, push ups, weights, and more weights. Rounds of three on each one. Just when I thought I was done, he would announce another round. (I think he was re-living the glory days of his high school basketball days). Oh. MY. GOSH. My legs were immediately like jello and have not returned to their normal consistency since. Yeah, I am walking like I am 90 years old. Hopefully I stop being so weak and it doesn't hurt so bad after a while!
6) Loving Bountiful baskets still. We have been getting one every week for the past few months and we love them. Love the variety, love that it saves money, and love that we get to try new recipes with things we have never had before (jicama for example. Tried a few things with that. I loved it, Devin hated it.)
5) A few exciting adoptions this past week. They are all exciting, but these past two just left me feeling extra great for some reason. One was with one of my adoptive couples that I adore and another was my birth mother that placed with a couple from another office. That one was fun- the baby was supposed to be a girl and came out a boy. Never hear of that happening anymore, but that made it extra exciting. Also fun was listening to the birth mother talk about how hot she thinks her doctor is and how flustered she gets just mentioning him. haha, so funny. I personally don't think I would pick a doctor that I think is hot to be my down-there doc, if you know what I mean. But to each their own!
4) We are really not that exciting and I don't have anything to say here.
3) It's time for Relay for Life fundraising again! Wahoo! Since I have sort of saturated this audience for donations, we have decided to do things a bit differently this year and I am super excited. I mentioned Sarah has gotten me into garage sale-ing. Well, I decided that we should hold a garage sale of our own and donate 100% of the profits to our Relay for Life fundraiser. I am so excited about this! I think we can do pretty well. I am going to ask our ward members to just bring us things that they are going to give to the DI anyway or that they want to get rid of during spring cleaning, etc. so that we can have a variety of things to sell. I think people will be pretty supportive since it is a fundraiser and all the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. I think this is a good way for people to help too, since it is hard to always donate money to different causes, particularly when money is tight for a lot of people. I think we will hold it the second Saturday in June so that I have time to gather things and get organized. If you want to help me out-- here are some ways. If you live nearby, you can donate items for us to sell at the garage sale. OR- you can stop by the garage sale to see if anything strikes your fancy to purchase (I will post details later on). As always, you can also just donate directly to my Relay for Life page if you would rather. HERE is the link.
2) I got a new calling. Relief Society secretary in my ward. I really am getting old, I guess.
1) Devin is starting his new job this week! Can I get a hallelujah from the audience? He has a job with a grounds crew at a golf course. This is super exciting for him because it is a step in the right direction for career jobs in his chosen field. The hours are great (for him): 5:30 am to 1:30 pm, allowing me to work from 2-6 each afternoon still. The down side is that it is a seasonal job and does not offer benefits, so poor Dev is staying at Smiths as well. He will work there on weekends to maintain our benefits and such there. I know he detests that place, but even having a few less shifts there per week makes him extremely happy. Next year, after we have a little bit more leeway (we need to stay in our house for another year since we bought it with the tax credit), he can use the golf course job as experience to look for jobs elsewhere, besides just our little area, which doesn't offer much in the way of what he would like to do (sports turf). Anyway, that's that. Exciting and kind of fun to be moving forward a bit.
May 20, 2011
Play-doh scripture stories
My cousin Sarah and her husband Daniel live really close to us and we are lucky enough to see them a few times a week, generally. Nothing like having family close by--automatic/built in friends. The rules of family are such that they have to like us and they can't rid themselves of us, even if they wanted to. Ha.
This week, we had FHE together, which consisted of building our favorite scripture story out of play-doh. As we all know, my artistic skills are lacking. If you need further evidence, see this post or this post to remind you.
Anyway, it probably won't be hard to guess which scene is mine (and Hallie's. We were on a team. She was quite the help, let me tell you. My work is about the level of a 2 year old's, so lets just go ahead and say that she built it. That makes me feel better).
The building process:
The finished products:
Some people in this family are highly artistic! Can you see the detail on some of those things? Alright- any guesses as to what the stories are and which one belongs to who? I am almost certain no one can guess 100%. If you can, you might just deserve a prize!
Another great thing about Sarah and Daniel- completely unrelated to this- is that they are teaching me the art of garage selling. Stay tuned for possible adventures in that. I am on the hunt for a bike. Wish me luck.
This week, we had FHE together, which consisted of building our favorite scripture story out of play-doh. As we all know, my artistic skills are lacking. If you need further evidence, see this post or this post to remind you.
Anyway, it probably won't be hard to guess which scene is mine (and Hallie's. We were on a team. She was quite the help, let me tell you. My work is about the level of a 2 year old's, so lets just go ahead and say that she built it. That makes me feel better).
The building process:
The finished products:
Some people in this family are highly artistic! Can you see the detail on some of those things? Alright- any guesses as to what the stories are and which one belongs to who? I am almost certain no one can guess 100%. If you can, you might just deserve a prize!
Another great thing about Sarah and Daniel- completely unrelated to this- is that they are teaching me the art of garage selling. Stay tuned for possible adventures in that. I am on the hunt for a bike. Wish me luck.
May 15, 2011
shmorgasboard
So- we have been up to a few things lately and since Blogger was being dumb for a few days, I got behind and now you are going to have to deal with an all-in-one post. First and foremost, I promised a recap of
WICKED:
Well now, this was an exciting Clark family event if there ever was one. We don't even really need to be doing anything exciting to have fun together, but when you throw in something as awesome as Wicked, the time is extraordinarily fun. Yes, I know i just said extraordinarily. That's a big word for me. Anyway, it's true.
I left P-town at 9 am in time to pick up Che' by 10 and then our dear Aunty Linda (that makes her sound old and decrepit. She is actually young and hip) by 11am. When planning this event, Che' and I sent out an email stating that we Utah folks would be due to arrive in Boise at about 3:14 pm if our planning was correct. Those driving from Idaho made fun and said that we would never make it by 3:14 because we had two babies with us who would need to be fed and a Linda who is pregnant and needs multiple bathroom breaks. WELL- we sure showed them. We arrived in Boise long before they did and just barely missed our 3:14 pm mark. We only had to stop once and in fact could have been on the road quicker after that stop were it not for a one woman bathroom in the gas station where an unknown woman was already occupying the stall and taking her sweet time. Anyway...
By the time we all got to Boise and settled into our rooms at the hotel, it was time to get ready and head to dinner. We met my friend Kylee (why in the world did we not get a picture woman?) at a restaurant. She was kind and loving enough to take on the task of both Hudson and Jace (not to mention her own child) during the show. We owe her big time!
The show itself?? A-MA-ZING. I honestly thought I was going to be disappointed because everyone talks it up so much, but I can tell you that I was super impressed. My first order of business when I came home was to order the soundtrack and I have listened to it at least once per day since. Yeah, I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The trip was super short as we woke up the next morning and hit the road by 8 am. Che' graduated that evening from the U's nursing program so we wanted to be back for the big celebration. Though it was a short journey, it was an excellent adventure, as usual.
Now some pictures....
Carlie, Grandma, and Jen at dinner
Suey and Jace
Che', Mari Ann, and Hailie (who turned the big 14 the next day! Happy birthday to her!)
Suey and Me
Che', me, and Grandma at the show. Poor grandma's eyes are closed.
Jen and Nort
We weren't supposed to be taking pictures, but hey it was intermission and you can't see anything anyway.
Well, don't we look all washed out? I seriously need a new camera. You get what you pay for...:)
Event Number Two...
Birth Mother/Adoption Celebration Walk:
Yesterday was the annual walk sponsored by Families Supporting Adoption at the Provo High track. Usually it is held on the Saturday before Mother's Day, which is Birth Mother's Day, but this year the track was booked so we had to push it back a week. I have been three years in a row and this year the event definitely was at its biggest and best.
There were fire trucks from the local department there, Cosmo from BYU, tons of balloons for the kids, donuts, a candy toss, a parachute, and of course roses for the birth mothers in attendance. I know people think open adoption is weird (mostly when they don't know much about it), but I think it is a beautiful thing. It was so fun for me to see a lot of my current adoptive couples, some I have worked with in the past with their adopted children, and many of my former and current birth mothers all there together. It is totally normal for the birth parents to arrive with the adoptive family and everyone has a great time together. I just love it.
About Cosmo: Hallie has an infatuation with him as long as he is over 20 feet away. If he got any closer than that, she would scream bloody murder, but if he was over that distance, she would ask about him incessantly: "Where's Cosmo? I want to see Cosmo!" I can't figure that kid out sometimes...
Anyway, I failed miserably at taking any good pictures, but I did get a few and here they are.
I actually took this one from my co-worker Paige's blog (thanks Paige) because my husband chopped half of Krystal out of the picture on our camera. Lovely. These are all my fantastic co-workers. I appreciate each of them so much and couldn't ask for a better team. From the left: Lauren, Koleen, Margaret, me (Hallie refused to let me put her down, thus, she is in the picture), Sandy (our trusty and faithful boss), Paige, and Krystal.
WICKED:
Well now, this was an exciting Clark family event if there ever was one. We don't even really need to be doing anything exciting to have fun together, but when you throw in something as awesome as Wicked, the time is extraordinarily fun. Yes, I know i just said extraordinarily. That's a big word for me. Anyway, it's true.
I left P-town at 9 am in time to pick up Che' by 10 and then our dear Aunty Linda (that makes her sound old and decrepit. She is actually young and hip) by 11am. When planning this event, Che' and I sent out an email stating that we Utah folks would be due to arrive in Boise at about 3:14 pm if our planning was correct. Those driving from Idaho made fun and said that we would never make it by 3:14 because we had two babies with us who would need to be fed and a Linda who is pregnant and needs multiple bathroom breaks. WELL- we sure showed them. We arrived in Boise long before they did and just barely missed our 3:14 pm mark. We only had to stop once and in fact could have been on the road quicker after that stop were it not for a one woman bathroom in the gas station where an unknown woman was already occupying the stall and taking her sweet time. Anyway...
By the time we all got to Boise and settled into our rooms at the hotel, it was time to get ready and head to dinner. We met my friend Kylee (why in the world did we not get a picture woman?) at a restaurant. She was kind and loving enough to take on the task of both Hudson and Jace (not to mention her own child) during the show. We owe her big time!
The show itself?? A-MA-ZING. I honestly thought I was going to be disappointed because everyone talks it up so much, but I can tell you that I was super impressed. My first order of business when I came home was to order the soundtrack and I have listened to it at least once per day since. Yeah, I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The trip was super short as we woke up the next morning and hit the road by 8 am. Che' graduated that evening from the U's nursing program so we wanted to be back for the big celebration. Though it was a short journey, it was an excellent adventure, as usual.
Now some pictures....
Carlie, Grandma, and Jen at dinner
Suey and Jace
Che', Mari Ann, and Hailie (who turned the big 14 the next day! Happy birthday to her!)
Suey and Me
Che', me, and Grandma at the show. Poor grandma's eyes are closed.
Jen and Nort
We weren't supposed to be taking pictures, but hey it was intermission and you can't see anything anyway.
Well, don't we look all washed out? I seriously need a new camera. You get what you pay for...:)Event Number Two...
Birth Mother/Adoption Celebration Walk:
Yesterday was the annual walk sponsored by Families Supporting Adoption at the Provo High track. Usually it is held on the Saturday before Mother's Day, which is Birth Mother's Day, but this year the track was booked so we had to push it back a week. I have been three years in a row and this year the event definitely was at its biggest and best.
There were fire trucks from the local department there, Cosmo from BYU, tons of balloons for the kids, donuts, a candy toss, a parachute, and of course roses for the birth mothers in attendance. I know people think open adoption is weird (mostly when they don't know much about it), but I think it is a beautiful thing. It was so fun for me to see a lot of my current adoptive couples, some I have worked with in the past with their adopted children, and many of my former and current birth mothers all there together. It is totally normal for the birth parents to arrive with the adoptive family and everyone has a great time together. I just love it.
About Cosmo: Hallie has an infatuation with him as long as he is over 20 feet away. If he got any closer than that, she would scream bloody murder, but if he was over that distance, she would ask about him incessantly: "Where's Cosmo? I want to see Cosmo!" I can't figure that kid out sometimes...
Anyway, I failed miserably at taking any good pictures, but I did get a few and here they are.
I actually took this one from my co-worker Paige's blog (thanks Paige) because my husband chopped half of Krystal out of the picture on our camera. Lovely. These are all my fantastic co-workers. I appreciate each of them so much and couldn't ask for a better team. From the left: Lauren, Koleen, Margaret, me (Hallie refused to let me put her down, thus, she is in the picture), Sandy (our trusty and faithful boss), Paige, and Krystal.
Margaret and Jace. Cute. Apparently the little guy in the background was born just one day after Jace. How fun, they can be buddies.
Hallie was most likely freaking out about Cosmo right here. Devin wants to toughen her a up a bit.
Finally, the next event...
Cleaning Linda's house:
Remember how I mentioned that my aunt Linda is pregnant? She is pregnant with her fourth child and has had real problems with her back/nerves during the pregnancy. She has been in a lot of pain and hasn't been able to do as much as she normally does. She still manages to work full time and take care of her husband and kids though. This weekend was her and Brad's anniversary, so they called Che' and Landon to come watch their kids so that they could go for a little getaway.
Che' and Sue started brainstorming about ways we could help Linda and decided that it would be nice if we could congregate while they were gone to deep clean their house. We all thought it was a great idea and a bunch of us came to help. We waited until they left and then arrived in masses. Che' and Landon had to keep up a pretty elaborate lie each time Linda and Brad called to check on the kids about what was going on and keeping the whole lot of us hushed was also a project, but it worked. We got the carpets cleaned, cleaned walls, cleaned out the fridge and cupboards, scrubbed baseboards with a toothbrush, organized closets, swept, mopped, did laundry, cleaned windows/blinds, etc. It was a BIG project, but with as many people as we had, it didn't take too terribly long. We had a great time. I should have taken more pictures of our faces and such...but well... these will have to do.
Grandma and the big mess. Getting things cleaned always involves a larger mess first.
A portion of the mess in the kitchen
Hudson loved hanging in the bumbo with his baby. Isn't that adorable??
Piles of stuff on the bed during the carpet cleaning.
Cleaning walls, closets, baseboards, etc.
We had such a great time and Che' said that Linda and Brad's reaction was priceless. I wish I could have been there to see it- but hearing about it was pretty awesome too.
Well there ya have it....all caught up on the shmorgasboard of happenings!
May 9, 2011
Dossier Smoshier
Things seem to finally be moving along in the adoption process, so I thought I would give you an update. I still don't really know a timeline for when we can expect to bring MF home, but I am starting to feel really anxious and really, really excited.
It hits me at random times and all the sudden I am crying thinking of her and how badly I want to hold her and see her smile. For example, I had a girl's night out last week with my aunts, cousins, and sister in Boise where we went to see the amazing play Wicked (more on that later), and in the middle of the play I started bawling because I just had this image of MF in my mind doing fun things like this with us and I could just see this massive grin on her face. The image stayed with me for some time and I was so excited thinking about it. Don't get me wrong- I know she isn't just going to show up and understand plays (and it is likely she probably never will), but it was more the idea of her being able to be out doing something fun. I don't know what she is exposed to in the orphanage, but I hope that we can take her to some places and show her some things that she hasn't been able to experience before.
I have been reading some international adoption stories on blogs and such and each time, the Spirit has testified to me again that we are on the right path. It gets me so excited thinking about welcoming our daughter home after such a long wait.
There are so many hoops you have to jump through with international adoption (well adoption in general, but so many more with international!). Let me just tell you the range of emotions I have felt this week as we have been working on things: overwhelmed, frustrated, ready to give up, excited, anxious, happy, peaceful, did I mention overwhelmed?
Just in case anyone wonders what the process is like...well, let me tell you. Last week, we went to the post office to apply for a passport for Jace (he looks adorable in his passport photo, just so you know). At the same time, I realized that my passport is in my maiden name, so we needed to re-new mine as well. Good thing we asked. I thought we could just go and bring our marriage license with it to show the name change. Not so. Also at the same time, we were mailing off the biggie form to the US government, which is an application for immigration and visas basically. It is called the I-800a form. That handy dandy little form only costs $900 to file. No biggie.
I don't tell you the costs of these things to garner sympathy, because of course we knew going in that this was going to be an expensive process. However, I tell you this because I want to be real about my emotions throughout this process. Each time we spend a big chunk of money (which has only been a few times so far), I find myself feeling especially overwhelmed. However, I have to remind myself that this is something that we feel strongly about and it is a decision that we feel that Heavenly Father is pleased with. Therefore, He is not going to leave us stranded. I know things will work out just fine. I just have to constantly re-assure myself of this. On the topic of money and full disclosure in our journey, we have been denied for two grants so far (one no reason was given and the other denied us because we have not supplied at least half of the full cost ourselves). There are three more that we are still waiting to hear from. So prayers for something to work out would be wonderful.
Okay back to the process. Love the dis-jointed thoughts, don't we? The next step is this form called a dossier. (I recently learned that this is pronounced dos-ee-a. a as in pain. Smart me, I was pronouncing it how it looks.) Holy moley, talk about stress inducing. The dossier requires the following:
*3 personal reference letters
*Certified copies of our birth certificates (all four of us)
*Certified copy of our marriage certificate
*Certified copy of Utah's law of adoption (yeah, you are thinking what I was thinking...what the heck is this and where in the world do I obtain one? Luckily, I found out that the agency supplies this for us. Whew.)
*Home study
*Psychological Evaluation (yes, we were evaluated psychologically. Fun.)
*Background checks with state seal embossed
*Employment verification letters for both Devin and I
*Adoption letter from our agency stating that we are qualified to adopt
*Medical reports for Devin and I
*A signed post placement agreement (we agree to 2 years of post placement visits after MF is in our home and the reports are then sent to Ecuador)
*A signed Power of Attorney form
All of the above documents must be notarized and apostilled. Don't get me started on the confusing and very not specific instructions on this. Notarize a certified birth certificate? WHY??? Notarize something that was done six months ago (such as our medical reports for our home study) that we did not sign? Isn't that the purpose of a notary...to witness a signature? So I was thinking I would have to drag a notary to the doctor's office, to my personal references houses, etc. to do all this, but finally I got instructions from the agency today that the notary just notarizes each of these documents stating that they are an original copy. Okay. Much easier, but still a bit pointless in some cases, such as the certified birth certificates. Agreed???
After the notarization of all above documents, we must get them apostilled, which is basically a notarization that the notary's seal is valid. Lovely good fun, right? And each document costs like $15 to apostille. Extra fun.
The dossier must also include the following, but these documents (luckily) do not need to be notarized or apostilled:
*photo copies of our passports
*an Application filled out
*1-800a form approval
*pictures of our family and home
We did a bunch of this stuff today and have all of our documents gathered to be notarized except my employment verification, but that should be in the mail and on its way. I am sure I will drop onto the couch and not move for 48 hours when this is all done. Gathering them was sort of a process as well, as the agency in Florida (Joshua Tree, which is facilitating the adoption) said to get the medical reports, reference letters, and background checks from our home study agency (Families for Children in SLC). Well, I called to talk to our worker there and she said that she never, ever releases original copies of things, which makes total sense to me, because we don't either at LDSFS. So how else was I supposed to get originals except for start over? Well, she took pity on me and said that she would give us the originals and keep copies in her files. Hallelujah, bless her heart.
Bless your heart if you are still reading this. I realize that this is likely incredibly boring for most, but I want to document the journey for ourselves and possibly for future people who may read this some day who are going through the same thing so that they realize that they are not alone in the frustrations of this process at times!
Anyway, there you have it. Now we wait. The I-800a is supposed to take about 8 weeks to process and somewhere in there, they send us notifiation to go get yet another set of fingerprints for background checks (that will the the third set!). Once we get that approval, we can file the dossier. That is when all the money is due for the cost of the adoption as well. So, it looks like in the next 2 months or so we will be getting much closer to bringing home MF!
It hits me at random times and all the sudden I am crying thinking of her and how badly I want to hold her and see her smile. For example, I had a girl's night out last week with my aunts, cousins, and sister in Boise where we went to see the amazing play Wicked (more on that later), and in the middle of the play I started bawling because I just had this image of MF in my mind doing fun things like this with us and I could just see this massive grin on her face. The image stayed with me for some time and I was so excited thinking about it. Don't get me wrong- I know she isn't just going to show up and understand plays (and it is likely she probably never will), but it was more the idea of her being able to be out doing something fun. I don't know what she is exposed to in the orphanage, but I hope that we can take her to some places and show her some things that she hasn't been able to experience before.
I have been reading some international adoption stories on blogs and such and each time, the Spirit has testified to me again that we are on the right path. It gets me so excited thinking about welcoming our daughter home after such a long wait.
There are so many hoops you have to jump through with international adoption (well adoption in general, but so many more with international!). Let me just tell you the range of emotions I have felt this week as we have been working on things: overwhelmed, frustrated, ready to give up, excited, anxious, happy, peaceful, did I mention overwhelmed?
Just in case anyone wonders what the process is like...well, let me tell you. Last week, we went to the post office to apply for a passport for Jace (he looks adorable in his passport photo, just so you know). At the same time, I realized that my passport is in my maiden name, so we needed to re-new mine as well. Good thing we asked. I thought we could just go and bring our marriage license with it to show the name change. Not so. Also at the same time, we were mailing off the biggie form to the US government, which is an application for immigration and visas basically. It is called the I-800a form. That handy dandy little form only costs $900 to file. No biggie.
I don't tell you the costs of these things to garner sympathy, because of course we knew going in that this was going to be an expensive process. However, I tell you this because I want to be real about my emotions throughout this process. Each time we spend a big chunk of money (which has only been a few times so far), I find myself feeling especially overwhelmed. However, I have to remind myself that this is something that we feel strongly about and it is a decision that we feel that Heavenly Father is pleased with. Therefore, He is not going to leave us stranded. I know things will work out just fine. I just have to constantly re-assure myself of this. On the topic of money and full disclosure in our journey, we have been denied for two grants so far (one no reason was given and the other denied us because we have not supplied at least half of the full cost ourselves). There are three more that we are still waiting to hear from. So prayers for something to work out would be wonderful.
Okay back to the process. Love the dis-jointed thoughts, don't we? The next step is this form called a dossier. (I recently learned that this is pronounced dos-ee-a. a as in pain. Smart me, I was pronouncing it how it looks.) Holy moley, talk about stress inducing. The dossier requires the following:
*3 personal reference letters
*Certified copies of our birth certificates (all four of us)
*Certified copy of our marriage certificate
*Certified copy of Utah's law of adoption (yeah, you are thinking what I was thinking...what the heck is this and where in the world do I obtain one? Luckily, I found out that the agency supplies this for us. Whew.)
*Home study
*Psychological Evaluation (yes, we were evaluated psychologically. Fun.)
*Background checks with state seal embossed
*Employment verification letters for both Devin and I
*Adoption letter from our agency stating that we are qualified to adopt
*Medical reports for Devin and I
*A signed post placement agreement (we agree to 2 years of post placement visits after MF is in our home and the reports are then sent to Ecuador)
*A signed Power of Attorney form
All of the above documents must be notarized and apostilled. Don't get me started on the confusing and very not specific instructions on this. Notarize a certified birth certificate? WHY??? Notarize something that was done six months ago (such as our medical reports for our home study) that we did not sign? Isn't that the purpose of a notary...to witness a signature? So I was thinking I would have to drag a notary to the doctor's office, to my personal references houses, etc. to do all this, but finally I got instructions from the agency today that the notary just notarizes each of these documents stating that they are an original copy. Okay. Much easier, but still a bit pointless in some cases, such as the certified birth certificates. Agreed???
After the notarization of all above documents, we must get them apostilled, which is basically a notarization that the notary's seal is valid. Lovely good fun, right? And each document costs like $15 to apostille. Extra fun.
The dossier must also include the following, but these documents (luckily) do not need to be notarized or apostilled:
*photo copies of our passports
*an Application filled out
*1-800a form approval
*pictures of our family and home
We did a bunch of this stuff today and have all of our documents gathered to be notarized except my employment verification, but that should be in the mail and on its way. I am sure I will drop onto the couch and not move for 48 hours when this is all done. Gathering them was sort of a process as well, as the agency in Florida (Joshua Tree, which is facilitating the adoption) said to get the medical reports, reference letters, and background checks from our home study agency (Families for Children in SLC). Well, I called to talk to our worker there and she said that she never, ever releases original copies of things, which makes total sense to me, because we don't either at LDSFS. So how else was I supposed to get originals except for start over? Well, she took pity on me and said that she would give us the originals and keep copies in her files. Hallelujah, bless her heart.
Bless your heart if you are still reading this. I realize that this is likely incredibly boring for most, but I want to document the journey for ourselves and possibly for future people who may read this some day who are going through the same thing so that they realize that they are not alone in the frustrations of this process at times!
Anyway, there you have it. Now we wait. The I-800a is supposed to take about 8 weeks to process and somewhere in there, they send us notifiation to go get yet another set of fingerprints for background checks (that will the the third set!). Once we get that approval, we can file the dossier. That is when all the money is due for the cost of the adoption as well. So, it looks like in the next 2 months or so we will be getting much closer to bringing home MF!
May 1, 2011
The handsome man is 2 months old!
Our little Jace is growing up before our very eyes. Today marks two months since he entered this world- and what a wonderful two months it has been. Jace brings us so much happiness and laughter. What a cute boy.
While I think Hallie and Jace still have some similarities as far as looks, I think Jace definitely has his own look now. The above picture is Hallie at 2 months just for comparison. You can tell me what you think. 
Jacer and his best pal, Hudson. I stole this picture from Che'- I couldn't help myself. Isn't that about the cutest pair of boys you have ever seen? I think so.
Jacer taking a little nap in the bumbo the first time he tried it out. He can only stay in there for a short time as he does not have that great of head/neck control yet.
Bonding time with sister. She loves the "Five Little Monkeys" song and was reading/singing it to Jace.
Two boys in a crib. Apparently not napping as they were ordered to do.
A little bit of gangsta never hurt anyone....
Jace likes baths a whole lot better than he used to. He loves to relax and chill in there now. It's the getting out and freezing part that he doesn't care for so much.
Other things about Jace at 2 months:
*He has a really high pitched/whiney cry. When he is mad, you sure know it. Devin and I were certain that no one could top Hallie's emotional side, but perhaps we might have a highly emotional boy, too? Wouldn't that be funny...
*He is an okay sleeper. I guess I can't complain too much because he will sleep for about 7 hours at a stretch, but since he goes to bed at 7 pm generally, he is up around 3 to be fed. I tried putting him to bed later for a while, but he didn't sleep as well, so I am okay with him going to bed earlier and waking up in the night. After the long stretch and being fed, he only sleep for another three hours or so before wanting to eat again. What's up with that?
*He is a binky-ADDICT. He loves that sucker and we typically make a few trips out of bed every night to put it back into his mouth. He can put himself to sleep in his crib as long as he is sucking on his binky, but I am excited for him to get a few months older so we can start sleep training without the binky. Right now, he is too young to soothe himself to sleep in other ways. But, we hopefully won't be relying on the binky for too much longer.
*He is a happy, fun boy. He is starting too coo and ooooh and ahhh and it is so fun for him to "talk" to us. He smiles but doesn't laugh yet.
Happy 2 months to our sweet boy!!
2 month stats:
11 lbs. 3 ounces (50%)
23.5 inches (90%)
I am so glad I kept these posts for Hallie because it is easy to go back and see her stats from the same age and to see what she was like. Hallie was 10 lbs 8 ounces at 2 months and 23 inches.
While I think Hallie and Jace still have some similarities as far as looks, I think Jace definitely has his own look now. The above picture is Hallie at 2 months just for comparison. You can tell me what you think. Jacer and his best pal, Hudson. I stole this picture from Che'- I couldn't help myself. Isn't that about the cutest pair of boys you have ever seen? I think so. Jacer taking a little nap in the bumbo the first time he tried it out. He can only stay in there for a short time as he does not have that great of head/neck control yet.Two boys in a crib. Apparently not napping as they were ordered to do.A little bit of gangsta never hurt anyone....Jace likes baths a whole lot better than he used to. He loves to relax and chill in there now. It's the getting out and freezing part that he doesn't care for so much.Other things about Jace at 2 months:
*He has a really high pitched/whiney cry. When he is mad, you sure know it. Devin and I were certain that no one could top Hallie's emotional side, but perhaps we might have a highly emotional boy, too? Wouldn't that be funny...
*He is an okay sleeper. I guess I can't complain too much because he will sleep for about 7 hours at a stretch, but since he goes to bed at 7 pm generally, he is up around 3 to be fed. I tried putting him to bed later for a while, but he didn't sleep as well, so I am okay with him going to bed earlier and waking up in the night. After the long stretch and being fed, he only sleep for another three hours or so before wanting to eat again. What's up with that?
*He is a binky-ADDICT. He loves that sucker and we typically make a few trips out of bed every night to put it back into his mouth. He can put himself to sleep in his crib as long as he is sucking on his binky, but I am excited for him to get a few months older so we can start sleep training without the binky. Right now, he is too young to soothe himself to sleep in other ways. But, we hopefully won't be relying on the binky for too much longer.
*He is a happy, fun boy. He is starting too coo and ooooh and ahhh and it is so fun for him to "talk" to us. He smiles but doesn't laugh yet.
Happy 2 months to our sweet boy!!
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