#5 for Kerri

The tooth fairy just can't get a break around here! With a little help yesterday from her sweet sister in the form of a kick to the face and the finishing touch from a friend at church who did the dirty work for me by "cleaning" Kerri's bleeding and dangling tooth, Kerri lost tooth number five tonight! She couldn't be happier. Look at that smile!

You can also catch a glimpse of some of the dental work we'll need in the future. Her bottom teeth have decided to come in sideways in order to squeeze into her little mouth.

2012 Photo Challenge: February

It was past bedtime last night when I realized I didn't have a picture yet for this month for my photo challenge. We had just spent the evening with us all piled on our bed reading books and playing games. I finally put off the laziness, set up the camera, and got a couple shots. The perfectionist in me doesn't want to keep it - or at least doesn't want to publicly share it. The settings were wrong; the quality is poor, but in a way, I think that's part of this challenge for me. I always try to wait to set up a "perfect" (or at least close to it) family shot, but if I wait until we're all in the right mood, everyone is dressed in cute clothes with hair fixed, with proper lighting, etc. the result is what I have from the last 7 years: very few family photos. I think in the years down the road, this picture will be precious to me not because it was expertly composed or had the perfect lighting but because it captured a family moment. It is us - all together - in one of our favorite spots with two little girls who are growing up way too quickly.

Makes My Heart Glad

2 MONTHS! 2 short months is how long it took Emma Lee to do her first read through the Bible! She got an Action Bible for Christmas (and while it's not word for word the entire Bible, at 744 pages it's no quick read either!), and she's been soaking it up (unprompted!) ever since.

She started in Genesis, and when she went to bed last night she had just gotten to Revelation. She woke up early enough this morning to finish it and come excitedly rushing in to tell me by 7:30.

I love that she loves reading, but more importantly I love that she loves reading the Bible. In the last 2 months, she's often chosen to pick it up and read it over other books, at times choosing to read it over watching tv or playing. 

I love that she's made numerous connections between Bible stories. I can't count the times she's come running to me to explain something she's just read or the times I've overheard her excitedly telling Kerri about new truths she's discovered.

I hope that her love for God's Word continues to grow, and I'm thankful for the reminder I've gotten from her to have an excitement and love for reading the Bible.

Spirit

Emma Lee and Kerri just finished up their first cheerleading experience. Here's a video of some of their cheers. My camera did a great job picking up all the noise from the game behind me and not very much of the noise from them in front of me, so it's hard to hear them (but they're really cute to watch!).

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Here are some pictures of them in action.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tooth Fairy Visits Again

Kerri lost #4 tonight! We had just put them to bed a few minutes before, and she came out saying, "Umm, Mommy, one more thing.......I lost my tooth!" We knew it was loose, but didn't have any idea that it was loose enough to fall out. She said she was biting her blanket and it just pulled it out. Anything for 5 extra minutes, right?! Gotta love those late-night-unprepared-for tooth fairy visits! 

Love Is in the Air

We've been studying poetry this month in school, so the girls came up with the fill-in-the-blanks for this love poem together (all on their own!). Here's what love is to them:

The paper was a little too big for my scanner, the 4th line says ice cream with sprinkles!

Tomorrow, we have plans to have a little v-day party with some of the girls' cousins, play at a cool museum in Atl, and then spend the evening eating pizza and cuddling up on the couch for a family movie night. Sounds pretty perfect to me!

School Recap: January

January was an unusual school month for us because a good portion of it was spent on the road. We managed to make quite a few of those days count for school with lots of reading and activities that the girls could do on their own in the car and stopping at museums and historical places along the way. We spent a full day in DC visiting the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.

We attended my sister's Coast Guard boot camp graduation ceremony. They learned about the Coast Guard (adding to their knowledge about the Army that two of their uncles serve in) and got a small tour of the base.

My plan was to stop in Philadelphia and visit the liberty bell and a museum or two there, but we were so tired that I just couldn't make it happen. It all worked out though because we stayed in Allentown, PA, which just so happens to be the town (then called Northampton) where the liberty bell was moved to during the Revolutionary War to hide it from the British. They have a small museum and an exact replica (minus the crack!) of the real Liberty Bell, but you actually get to ring this one! We read a few books in preparation for our visit, so the girls were really excited to see it in person. Emma Lee was even able to answer some of the questions our guide asked. 

We also had a fun day visiting the Hershey's Chocolate Factory and learning how they make their chocolate - good stuff!

We jumped right back into a more regular type of school when we returned home. To go along with what we had already learned this month through our visits, we continued learning about some American history, some of our presidents, and the process of becoming a president. We did some of our own imaginary presidential campaigning, and Emma Lee and Kerri both did a little persuasive writing on why they should get your vote for president!

We also had fun learning about compound words through reading, games, and activities. (This Silly Milly book was a big hit with them.)

We even managed to stay on schedule enough to hit our 100th day of school on the last day the month! We had tons of fun celebrating the number 100. They made 100th day glasses, found balloons numbered from 1-100 and popped them in order, painted a picture of 100 gumballs in a gumball machine, figured out what all they can do in 100 seconds (they loved this!), made some predictions about how much space 100 drops of water would take up, made (and ate!) a trail mix snack made up of 100 things (sunflower seeds, nuts, pretzels, chocolate chips, etc), did a little 100th day graphing, and put together a 100 piece puzzle (that actually ended up being a 99 piece puzzle - oops!).

(Because it's way too cute not to post - here's a video clip of Kerri popping one of the balloons. Up until this point they had both been using a thumb tack. After this, Kerri couldn't get enough of popping them without the extra help......Emma Lee not so much!)

It was a great way to end a great month!

Like Mommy Like Daughter

Emma Lee got a camera for Christmas - a real one. I recently upload the pictures she took and enjoyed looking at things through her perspective. It's so exciting to see her loving something I love, and it's so sweet to see how she's setting up photo shoots on her own. Here's one of her favorites - taken and completely edited all by herself. 

She also has quite a few of the typical pose-in-front-of-the-mirror shots (I promise she didn't learn that from me - it just seems ingrained in young girls!) It cracks me up! Here are some of her first ones - before she realized that she shouldn't be holding her camera in front of her face.

Side Note: She's also been enjoying the video aspect of her camera. It has given me a whole new look into what her and her sister do behind closed doors. I was wondering about how concerned I need to be about how excited a certain crazy little girl gets about shaking her booty for the camera. Then, coincidentally, I was also looking at old home videos of the girls this week and might have heard myself cracking up at and encouraging a crazy 1 year old little girl to shake her booty for the camera -oops. There's a parenting choice that I hope doesn't come back to haunt me 10-15 years down the road! (Oh, and I'm just realizing that maybe this wasn't the most aptly named post because that's another thing that neither of them got from me!)  

Groundhog Day

Yes, Mr. Punxsutawney Phil, you're right.

We'll stay inside,

trying to keep warm,



only venturing out when we're completely bundled up from head to toe.

6 more weeks of winter sounds just about right.

Wait, you're serious?

What's Going on with Our Adoption

I keep getting this question (and I'm glad that people want to know!), but I'm not sure I have too much of an answer. Here's what I do know:

1. We're still waiting. Surprise! I'm pretty sure whenever we do get our referral, you won't have to check the blog because you'll hear us celebrating! As little as we have to go on as far as specific timing, it seems that it is very likely that this will be our year - to at least get a referral and make our first visit (which happens pretty quickly after the referral is received). It also seems that it might not actually be our year to bring him home because with as slow as things are moving over there the time in between trips is stretching into 3-5 months (as opposed to the 1-2 months we were initially thinking). We're thinking there's a pretty good chance that our referral could come any time between this summer-fall, but really it's mostly based on some educated guesses. It could happen next month and just as easily as it could happen next year.

2. Things ARE moving over there! A family using our same agency just returned from their first trip and shared a letter with us about their experiences. Another family from our church is actually in Bulgaria right now making their first visits to their two little girls (in two separate cities). Some of the information shared has been helpful (which airports need longer layovers because they're hard to get through, money issues, etc.) and encouraging (very helpful and informative translators/guides, positive attitudes from the caregivers, good experiences with the children), while other information raises even more questions. Each of the experiences with the three children has been very different. In one case, the orphanage was very strict - not even allowing the couple to take pictures or videos of their new daughter - and the visits were restricted to a playroom within the orphanage. In another, the orphanage let the couple's new daughter leave with them during the day to go around the city and hang out in their hotel! They faced hardly any restrictions at all. The third child actually lives with foster parents, and they opened up their home every day so that the visits could occur there. It just all leaves me wondering more about where our little boy is and what our visit will be like.

3. Things have changed in Bulgaria, and we're all waiting to see what that means.There is a new Minister of Justice (the former MOJ is now the Vice President). The MOJ is responsible for appointing Deputy Ministers for various departments, including international adoptions. The new Deputy Minister for adoptions is believed to be someone who will act in the best interest of the waiting children and families. She is also an adoptive parent, so hopefully she'll be more sensitive to adoption issues. Our agency's attorneys in Bulgaria know her and have met with her. The information that we've been given is that she seems very positive and has said that she will do her part not to be an obstacle in the adoption procedure.