The Boys

Camping

Last Sunday night Bart decided to get his parents pop up camper and bring it in our backyard. "We're going camping now, we're on our way...." (Anyone grow up with Psalty?!) :) The boys were so excited. We had some cousins over too. Heidi, Jason, Mindy, and Laura. (Thanks for coming guys!)













After popcorn, snacks, and lemonade on the patio, the kids jumped on the trampoline till way past bedtime then decided to start settling in for the night.














Lots of laughs and good times. A great memory.

One step closer

This past Friday, my mom and dad came out and brought a new desk for us. (Built by a relative back home in Francesville who makes furniture.) We were up till midnight putting the desk together. Here are some pics.










































The next morning, Bart and I got up before 5 so that we could be at Naperville by 8am. Fun. We got fingerprinted for USCIS. I explained to them the trouble I had with my other prints and she assured me you can't really lose your fingerprints but that I had a skin disease that made them worn. I felt like a leper! :) The back of my hands are really dry so I guess it's just eczema. Anyway, I asked if I could get multiple prints and she had to check with a supervisor. These people seem like they want to be helpful, but just can't be too nice about it. :) She came back to tell me that if I wanted another set of prints, I had to take a new number and get in the back of the line. They would then do an ink print. I decided to do it to save me another trip to Chicago. It ended up taking about an hour instead of 10 minutes, but hopefully they took and I'm good. One step closer!

Some happier news!

Bart's brother, Scott, and his wife, Heidi, just got their referral this week! They are adopting a sweet little boy from Ethiopia. He was born on January 10 of this year so he's a little over 5 months. He has big beautiful brown eyes. They are hoping to travel around Christmas time to bring him home. They had originally requested a girl but after they submitted their dossier, their caseworker told them there were about 10 families waiting on little girls and no families waiting on little boys. So, after praying about it, and one week later, they have a new son! I'm so excited for them and am hoping he can come home soon.

So frustrating!!

So things in our adoption have been moving along pretty good until today. Not super fast but steady progress. Today marks 8 weeks since we've done our fingerprints for our background check for DCFS. (They are usually done in 6-8 weeks.) I've been waiting on this to come back to complete our homestudy. Because this is week 8, I've been anticipating the approval. My mother in law took my boys for a good portion of the day on Wednesday and I started and almost finished my dossier. I was hoping to get the fingerprints back saying we're not criminals and then I would add that completed homestudy to my dossier and send it off to my case manager. July 1st seemed like a reasonable goal.

Well, today I found out that Bart's fingerprints came back and were fine, he's cleared. Mine "didn't take". What?? They are saying that I have to go get reprinted. I knew this process would not always go the way I expected but this first setback is so frustrating. The funny thing is that when I got my fingerprints taken, the lady doing them said, "oh, you don't have a fingerprint on your right ring finger". My social worker said she has had this happen one other time and it was because a man had a bad accident and had burnt his fingers; therefore, he didn't have any fingerprints. So they "didn't take" and he had to redo them, only to find out the second time that things hadn't changed. :) I just have to keep in mind that God is in control of even the setbacks. He knew from the beginning where we'd be right now.

Playing Church

Video Link

Okay, I tried posting the video for the song, but I'm not figuring it out. Here's the video link, you can check it out if you want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYUns2YQik

I've Been Watchin' You

There is a great country song by Rodney Atkins that tells the story of his little boy learning everything from his daddy. Here are the third chorus lyrics.

"He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool? I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you. And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are. We like fixing things and holding mama's hand. Yeah we're just alike, hey ain't we dad? I wanna do everything you do. So I've been watching you."

I love this song probably because I have four boys. I am so thankful that Bart is such a great dad. I would love it if my boys would grow up to be like him. I was taking a pic outside yesterday of the boys with their sidewalk chalk drawings. When I was ready to snap the picture, they all help up their fingers (like the peace sign). Those of you who know Bart well, know that this is his "wave". If he's driving or walking by and he wants to say hey, he holds up his two fingers. I love it. :)

Good "Clean" Fun

When it rains a lot, like it did last Friday, our backyard becomes a lake. The boys decided to take advantage of this since our pool was still too cold to swim in. Look at Quinn and Kade grinning in the first picture. They are cheering Cole on and telling him to "get dirty, sit down, splash Cole". He loves attention and definitely knows when the boys are laughing at him. So, of course, he sat down and got dirty. Looks like Carson is enjoying this too.












The end result. I'm not sure why they are both hunching over looking like little monkeys. :) By the way, Quinn's shirt is supposed to be white. More laundry!