Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Growing up




I can't believe how much they've changed and how big they are getting!




Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Roller Coaster Ride

These last few weeks have been a roller coaster ride in bringing our little girl home. No infant referrals were being given because of a lack of HIV tests in Ethiopia and then MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) announces that they were reducing their case load for adoptions down to 5 per day from 25-30 per day. A huge petition was sent around and there has been some talk that MOWA may increase their numbers again but no one is sure by how many/when/or if this will happen. Basically we'll just have to ride it out and wait! We then received word that HIV tests were now available and referrals were given out. This means we're moving up on the list!!!! It may only bring us a little closer to her but we'll take that with great joy. God's timing is perfect and while at times I want it to happen now and in my timing, that's just not an option and I have found peace in that. We think of you often little one and can't wait to know who you are and hold you but until then we will continue to keep holding onto you in our hearts and prayers. Chase is too cute, he keeps asking when she will be coming home "How long is the paperwork going to take?" he asks. When Chase and Cody see pictures of Africa Cody will say "sister" and Chase will go on to talk about that being where she will come from. I love to hear them talk about her.











Just waiting for those little handprints to finish off part of our playroom!


Chase has become quite the little talker lately (well he has been for a long time but lately he is so interested in everything and knowing how everything works). Latest question directed at Luke (thank goodness)- they were talking about our cows and how they were going to have calfs next year. Chase looks at Luke and says "Where do the calfs come from?" Luke started with the cow and bull and then went onto the word procreate. Chase then interrupted him and changed the subject. Sometimes I love that at that age they have such short attention spans, and that I can direct questions like that to Daddy :).


Cody is such a picker lately. He gets this little sheepish grin on his face and scrunches his nose and then we wait to see what's coming. It is too cute and funny (depending on what actions follow). He has no problems though fessing up to his wrong doings. Chase will come out to the kitchen crying and when we ask what happened Cody will chime in "hit him". At least he's honest.


Tonight my heart just melted watching them. Cody wanted his PaPa book to look at before bed and before I knew it they were sitting side by side and then laying side by side looking at the book talking and talking about the pictures. I really can't wait until Cody can talk a little more, just to listen to their conversations!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

What a week!!

Recap of this Crazy Crazy week!
Sunday: Started off as a busy Sunday but due to the weather our plans quickly changed and we were able to stay home as a family and relax. Chase and Cody were so cute at church. They randomly just walked up to eachother and gave eachother a huge hug and just stood that way for a few minutes letting everyone walk around them in the hallway. We were all able to help Luke work on our basement project that day. Chase was quietly sitting and watching Luke, all of a sudden Luke hit his hand with his hammer and I see Chase look at him and then say "Bet that hurt." It really was priceless. I am sure he learned that from his Daddy so it was quite fitting!
They were such great little helpers that afternoon!




















Monday: -I think the wind blew everyone in NY's snow right into the middle of our driveway. Luke goes to start the tractor with our snowblower on it to get the driveway cleared out-it won't start! Our downstairs toilet decided that it was going to be temperamental and not work. The car got stuck in the driveway. I had company coming that night so I thought I would go out and try to shovel some of the bad parts of our driveway (those of you that have been here are laughing right now thinking of someone attempting to shovel our driveway). I get both boys in their snow gear - we get outside and I hear Cody say that five letter word that no mother of toddlers wants to hear once your child is in full snow suite attire- "potty". I took Cody to the bathroom, made it halfway down the driveway to attempt to shovel my path and I hear Chase. "Mom I have to go potty". I then decided that shoveling was a pointless cause and am so very thankful that one of my friends drives a great suv and that the other one is so athletic (she ran down most of our driveway since her car wasn't getting in it either). :)

Tuesday: Luke got the car unstuck - unfortunately the muffler was caught in the crossfire and found itself unattached from the car! After that this was a great day, I was able to spend Tuesday with some amazing women and Chase and Cody had a blast playing in the snow making snowmen 3 or 4 times their size.

Wednesday: Where do I even start. Our toilet decided to start working on its own again-yay! Luke had heard about an auction and was going to take some machinery to it. In order to do this though he had to get the barn door open. We were experiencing some more major wind that day which always makes opening those doors difficult. It was frozen in the ground so after Luke cleared away the ice he was able to get it part of the way open, until it came off of its track. He proceeded to climb a ladder (in crazy wind) and attempt to fix it. I can't believe he was not blown over! He was able to get the door shut (so I thought). He again could not get the tractor started to clear the driveway. You'll never guess what happened next-the car got stuck. He informed me that the only vehicle that would be able to make it out was the truck. That would leave us stuck here. This would normally be no big deal but I needed to be at church that night. Again my brilliant idea-I'll try to shovel again. I was able to get the kids in a place where they were with me but out of the wind and I started working. It did not take long to realize that that idea wasn't really going to work to well. When I was walking through the deep snow I would look back and within a few minutes my tracks were completely gone! I decided to check things in the barn and noticed that the door wasn't all the way closed. The ice and wind were keeping it open so I grabbed a shovel and cleared away the ice. Still couldn't get the door closed so I called Luke-normally this isn't a big deal but with the way the wind was blowing it could have cause serious damage if it caught the door. Luke informed me that the ice was keeping it secured, I informed him there was no longer ice because I had cleared it out-oops. I was able to secure the door and arranged for my mom to pick me up and let me use her vehicle to get to church. The driveway wasn't going to cooperate and let her in with her jeep either though. I proceeded to carry both boys, with hats completely over their faces so they could see nothing, halfway down the driveway where I met my mom. We each carried one of the kids and made it to the end of the driveway to her vehicle. Like I said I really needed to be at church that night. We made it to church a little after 6:30 and around 7:00 I was informed that Chase had thrown up in his classroom. We were back at mom's by 7:15. Guess we should have just stayed home and enjoyed an evening in. The plan had been for us to drive home with Luke on his way back from work but we decided that with it raining and sleeting it would be best to leave the boys at moms since they were sound asleep. While mom and I were putting Chase to sleep he got sick again! I asked him if he wanted some water and then saw Cody leave the room. I heard all this noise in the bathroom and then in walks Cody with a dixie cup of water for Chase. It was so sweet. He then gave him a stuffed animal and a hug along with 2 more glasses of water. Cody usually sleeps in grandma's room since Chase has claimed the guest room has HIS. That night we thought it best for them both to sleep in "Chase's room". Chase wasn't that thrilled but once they fell asleep they were so cute-there little hands were touching everytime we checked on them. The next morning I found out that Cody had gotten sick all over their bed (bet grandma was glad they were in the other bed), so both boys got to sleep in Grandma's room. I went home with Luke to help get chores done and when we walked into the barn the cows were loose in the barn. They had broken a gate, at least there was nothing for them to get into. We just had to laugh ...when it rains it poors.

Thursday: I picked the boys up early and we made a very quick trip to town, they both seemed to be feeling much better. It was a very quick bug with very few symptoms with it thankfully! Luke was able to get the car unstuck and it stayed in one piece. He also did some work on the tractor and it started so he was able to clear out our driveway. He got his barn door all the way open and was able to make some progress on the basement project with the help of a family friend. Cody and Chase were quiet today but still playing and having a good morning. Lately Cody has decided that he enjoys being naked much better than having clothes on at times. He will randomly take off his pants (I should mention he is potty trained) and underwear, can't usually get his shirt off though. What is it about this age that they like to be naked so much! He managed to get part of the way down the stairs to the basement to 'help' daddy, I hadn't yet realized he had left his clothes upstairs. Luke was at the bottom of the stairs and called my name in a somewhat distressed voice. He informed me that Cody had had an accident. I quickly grabbed him and took him into the bathroom. At this time Chase announced in a disgusted voice that Cody had pooped on the carpet. As I'm reaching for a washcloth I see Cody reach behind him, pull off a piece of what was stuck to his bare bottom and attempt to put it in his mouth. I quickly yelled no, totally disgusted and surprised by what he was about to do. Cody looked at me just as surprised and then I had one of those 'ah-ha' moments that we as mothers have sometimes. I remembered that I had made chocolate chip cookies that morning and Cody and Chase had both had some of the chocolate chips. Cody had managed to sit on a couple of them and melt them onto the carpet and onto his bottom!! The moment was priceless once this all dawned on me and I shared it with Luke and informed Chase! The experiences of being a mom can be so amusing at times! Did I mention that I spent almost 30 minutes on this blogpost and then hit a button and deleted it all.......lol, what can you do but laugh!

This has been one of my favorite weeks-not one I want to relive all the time but we have some fun memories from it!!

ADOPTION NEWS: It has been a disappointing week in someways because we found out that MOWA is attempting to go from processing 25 adoption cases in Ethiopia a day to 5! That means a major slow down in getting our little girl home once we have a referral and court. On a positive note though they are working to try to get them to reconsider and there is no longer a shortage of HIV tests in Ethiopia so referrals for children under 18 months can start being given once the children are tested!! Everything in God's timing we keep reminding ourselves. I just can't wait to meet her though!!