Right Now

There's so much about right now that I don't want to forget. Things that drive me crazy, make me smile, and warm my heart.


Max. On his tricycle. With his Thomas sunglasses and long sticky hair. Yes, I said sticky. His hair is actually sticky, but we're growing it out so we're going with it. He rides his trike all the time now.




He also wants to do everything by himself. Including putting on his sunglasses, which is why they're worn like this.


And no socks for him. He prefers bare feet, but when I demand shoes, he refuses socks. He now sports a little blister on his heel and hobbles around but still will not. wear. socks.


And this one? Always with his horsie. Always wanting what his brother has (ahem, the Thomas sunglasses?). Always wanting his binky. Always with a filthy face.


And always wanting a freshly picked flower. The yellow ones.

These two. Together?





Well, my heart just explodes.


And then, Max torments Ben in some way (or vice versa) and I sigh and breathe deep and remember to hold tight to these precious memories. The ones that will soon be too distant. The ones that are forming their little childhoods. The ones I hope they'll remember with a smile.

I know I will.

A WINNER (Finally!) and an Update!

First of all, THANK YOU for being so patient while I gathered some info from the fundraiser. The winner of the $50 Stella & Dot gift card is HILLARY CUMMINGS! Congratulations, Hillary! Please email me your address and I'll get that in the mail to you :)

A huge thank you to everyone who purchased and helped spread the word!

SO much has been happening lately with the adoption! We've done our physicals, our financial statement and adoption petition and ordered a million copies of marriage and birth certificates. We've met twice with our social worker who is putting together approximately 30 pages that basically paints the picture that is our entire lives. We meet with her one more time and then she finishes that and we can begin sending papers every which way to get them authenticated, sealed and what not before they can go to China. At that point, we will be what is called LID (logged in Dossier) which basically means WE CAN BE MATCHED TO OUR DAUGHTER ANYTIME AFTER THAT!! We're still a good 4 months at least away from being LID, but that's the next big step!

So, we're pretty excited to be active in the process now! I know once we're LID their will likely still be a good little wait (4-6 months) before we're matched, but it feels darn good to be working towards bringing the little miss home.

That's all I have for you today! Ritchie and I are spending our very first night away from the boys this weekend and let me tell you, after this week, I REALLY am looking forward to it!

Bare With Me

I know I said I would choose a winner of the Stella & Dot gift card today, but given that we expanded the companies of the fundraiser so much, I'll need a few days to gather all of the information of the buyers before I can make a fair drawing. Hang in there - my goal is to announce the winner on Friday! Again, thank you all SO much for your support!