Kids blog

Hi!  Head on over to my kids blog and check out their puzzle fundraiser.  My oldest two would really love to go to Ghana with me on my second trip to bring Hannah and Isaiah home.  Do you think you could spare a little cash to help them out?

Jake and Lauren's blog

Birthday's

My youngest turned 2 on March 31st and my oldest turned 12 on April 9th!  Seriously, where does the time go?  My little one is no longer a baby and my oldest is a young man.  I am one blessed mama...these kids are amazing!
Jacob went to lunch and a movie with daddy for his birthday.  He also had a little geocaching adventure to find one of his gifts.  Here are the pics of that:

Clue #1

Clue #2

Clue #3

Off to find the last clue...

Found it!

He got a geocaching shirt!  He LOVES it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too busy!

Tomorrow (or today since I wont be publishing this until tomorrow...that made sense, right?) marks the beginning of our insanely busy and crazy few days.  Actually, come to think of it, this whole week has been busy already.  For the entire month of April we will knock out a whopping 13 doctor and dentist visits!  Seriously? 
So, tomorrow am we have Kyle's pre op appointment for his surgery on Tuesday.  Then, in the afternoon, I have to see my doctor to fix some adoption forms he filled out for me a while ago.  I am assuming he didn't really mean to check the no box under the question "Is the adoption applicant's state of health suitable for raising a child?"  At least I am hoping he didn't mean too!  Saturday...yard sale and bake sale in the morning, baby shower in the afternoon.  Sunday...church!  Monday morning Kyle has an appointment with developmental peds for an autism evaluation.  Looking forward to getting some answers there.  Monday afternoon Lauren has gymnastics from 12-2 but just realized as I am typing this that she will have to leave early because Kyle and I have a dentist appointment at 2:00.  Sealants and a crown...I think I got the raw end of the deal! Tuesday, Kyle has surgery #2 on his ear.  Praying this is it for the little man.  So far Wednesday and Thursday are free! Oh, wait, piano lessons on Thursday but I can just drop the older two off and enjoy the hour with my younger two.  Friday is my mommy and me book club...which is really just a fancy name for kids running around having fun while mommy gets some adult time with a great group of Christian ladies...but that seemed too long. ;-) Somewhere in all that craziness we also need to squeeze in some school and I have to finish up adoption grant paperwork to be turned in by the 30th.  Yep, pretty sure smoke will be coming out of my ears by Friday evening...if not sooner.  Definitely thinking Saturday needs to be a beach day!
Now, the hardest task during those busy days is to take a moment and thank God for giving me the most amazing job in the world...mom.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I love you Jacob, Lauren, Kyle, Hannah, Isaiah and Ethan!!!

Easter

We had a wonderful day celebrating our RISEN SAVIOR!  Here are some pics:

Hunting for eggs

Making Resurrection Rolls

HE IS RISEN!

We enjoyed a great church service and a super yummy potluck meal afterward!

For Sale!!!

I mentioned in a previous post that we are making some changes in our curriculum for home schooling.  Because of those changes I have some great deals on our previous curriculum choices.  Some items were barely used!  I also have a couple Korea and adoption books to sell.

Mystery of History volume one, complete set.  This is a GREAT value.  This set was very gently and barely used.  We only got through the first CD.  There are some timeline characters colored and already placed in the timeline book.  There may be a few marks in the teachers book.  Online the whole set would be $220 before shipping.  I am selling this for $120!!!

All the folder pack worksheets have already been printed onto cardstock and are ready to be cut out.  We did use some so you may have to print a page or two but most of the work has been done for you.  Including a 3 ring binder full of multiple copies of the maps you will use throughout the book.  You can have all of this for $120!

Spanish curriculum.  This was also very gently and barely used.  There are 3 workbooks included and they do have my children's names on the front.  One page inside the workbook has pencil markings.  This is in excellent condition.  This set cost me $165 not including shipping.  It can be yours for $85!

This is an excellent spelling curriculum.  It is not the most recent addition but still wonderful.  The book has been taken apart and put into a large 3 ring binder.  There are some markings throughout.  I am asking $30 for this.

Love these books from titus2 ministries.  They have been well loved and well used in our house.  They do not have all the extras that you can buy with them but they are still wonderfully useful and you could go to the website and purchase the add -ons.  I would like to sell these as a set for $35 but would consider selling separately.

Writing With Ease by Susan Wise Bauer.  These books were never used and therefore are in excellent condition.  You will get the Strong Fundamentals book and the Level 1 Workbook.  $25  SOLD

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 3...this is just the teachers manual.  Workbooks will need to be purchased.  $10  SOLD

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 1 & 2....LOVE this book.  I have debated quite a bit with myself about selling it.  This book shows some wear as it was used A LOT!  This is a wonderful introductory language arts book.  I love the poems and the short, simple lessons!  $10

A brand new baby book for adoptive families.  This is a very sweet baby book for infant or toddler adoptions.  Since our children will be older we will be doing a different type of memory book.  $10

Seoul, Korea visitors guide.  This book is awesome!!  Tons of information about Korea and beautiful pictures.  Would be great to have around the house for you Korea adoptive mama's!  $15

Toddler Adoption, The Weaver's Craft.  Great resource for toddler adoptions.  Good used condition.  $8

If you would like to buy any of the items just click on the donate button at the top right of this blog and specify in the comments what you are purchasing.  Most books will be sent media mail.  The bigger items will probably be sent in flat rate boxes.  Shipping can take a while from Hawaii...just a warning. :)  I included shipping fees in the prices.  Thanks for looking!

Goal failed!

HA!  So much for my goal of keeping up with this blog.  Whew!  I give kudos to you blogging mamas who find the time to do this.  Between homeschooling, church commitments, adoption paper work, and...well...LIFE, I just can't seem to find the time.  So, here is an update:

Adoption:  We are finally home study complete!  Woohoo!  Only took a year. :\  What's next?  Well, we are waiting just a bit to file our first official form, the I600a.  Basically we are waiting on some medical reports.  Our home study needs to be very specific regarding any medical issues with the children so we may have to update it.  Rather than send in all the paperwork and then have to send in more because it changed we are waiting a week or two for some results and then we can send in everything we need.  Once the I600a is sent we will get a notice in the mail for fingerprinting.  Hopefully that wont take long and we will get our approval quickly.  While waiting for the approval our agency will be working on our dossier.  I find this rather redundant since our home study has basically the same information as the dossier.  What is with governments and massive amounts of paperwork?!?  So, those are the next steps.  It is definitely getting closer and starting to feel real again.  My excitement has been renewed.  I.CANT.WAIT.TO.MEET.MY.BABIES!!!

I think we will be bringing this boy some manly flip flops! haha



You may notice the "bump" under her shirt.  She has an umbilical hernia.


Life:  We are pluggin' along as usual.  Kyle will be having sugery this month.  He had surgery in February to remove a tube that was placed in his ear over 5 years ago.  That tube left a hole in his ear drum that needed to be patched.  The doctors made a small incision behind his ear and took some fat to stuff in the hole.  Well, at his 4 week check up the fat did not "take" so there is still a whole.  So, little man goes back in on the 17th to redo the fat stuff.  Praying it works this time! 

Homeschool:  Since deciding to adopt I have been changing up our curriculum a lot.  I wanted to get my oldest two working independently so that I could devote my time to the younger and "newer" kiddos.  So, Jake and Lauren are now using Christian Light Education for Language Arts, Reading, and Bible.  I just recently ordered their History workbooks as well.  It has been hard on all of us switching to a workbook type approach but it needed to be done and it is definitely allowing me to focus more on the younger two right now. 
Kyle is still struggling to read.  We see a developmental pediatrician in a couple weeks.  I am hoping we can figure some things out and this will help me to know how to teach him.  Since I have to sit with him and "do school" we are using Heart of Dakota, Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  It is mainly literature based which works well for him right now.  I am hoping to get him reading soon so he can start doing some work independently as well. 
I really like the CLE curriculum.  It is very God focused and it fits the needs of our family.  We will most likely be using this for Hannah and Isaiah once they are home a while and I can assess where they are at developmentally.

Last but not least, I want to give a shout out to all my Korea adoptive mamas....CONGRATS ON EP'S AND TRAVEL CALLS!!!  I am so anxious to see facebook light up with pictures of mama's holding their precious baby's after a ridiculously long wait!  ADOPTION ROCKS!!!