Continuing on with our awesome news, we had it confirmed today that we definitely have a court date of July 31st! Praise God!

So, what did I do today?:

• Reserved airline tickets (3 out, 5 back! Woo hoo!!!) • Spoke with our attorney's office • Spoke with our social worker twice • Got accommodations for the week we’ll be there • Downloaded all the additional ICPC forms needed to update our file (as the adoption took longer than... more

Our lawyer’s office called us this morning with the news we have longed to hear – we have a potential court date! Yes, Lord willing, by the end of this month, the hubby and I will officially have two more children!

Naturally there are contingencies (hence the "potential court date"). All parties to the adoption need to be served, and assuming everyone gets served on the day we’re shooting for, our adoption will be finalized this month. If not, we will have to wait a week or so, which will push us into next... more

I just got the news that we have one more adoption hurdle down – actually, what we hope and believe to be the last hurdle. However, we do have to hold our collective breaths, pray a whole, whole lot, and wait (hopefully, the latter is for the last time as well!). This is the final phase, and barring any other unexpected setbacks, our adoption should be finalized within a matter of weeks.

By the end of this week, Lord willing,... more

We’re home. We’ve settled back into our daily routine. Though the holiday threw our internal calendars off kilter a bit, we’ve still been homeschooling and going about our “normal” routines.

But, it just doesn’t feel the same.

Our foster mom said that she’s planning on keeping the kids busy to divert them … I feel like I need the same! We can’t reach the kids by phone due to their increased activity schedule and the time difference, and it feels weird. Even though we only used to call once per week, it feels like we should talk to them more now, so they know that we were serious about adopting them and don’t feel as though we are abandoning them. It’s kind of like waiting... more

So, we’re back and settling into our pre-trip routine again. But, there’s a different timbre to life these days. The whole family really misses the kids and being home just isn’t the same.

The night we got back, hubby edited our pictures into a cute little slide show with music. The song makes me cry, so I try not to listen to it, but it’s in that commercial where people are doing nice things for each other. Hubby watches the slide show over and over, but I just can’t. I overheard the song this afternoon and I dissolved into tears.

What... more

We woke up at 6:00am to be ready to head out by 7:00am (well, 7:00am-ish … we do have three, ya know!) and we do head out around 7:10! We travel south for an hour and make it to graduation with about 15-20 minutes to spare!

The kid’s foster mom has saved seats for us as close as she could get, but it’s a big crowd. Five Kindergarten classes are graduating! My daughter looks beautiful in her dress as she marches to the ever-familiar Pomp and Circumstance. The kids regale us for around 45 minutes or so, with songs and skits.

Afterward, we head to her classroom to pick up her report card and papers. She has a hard time saying goodbye to her teacher and a couple... more

Upon waking up we had a family meeting where we informed the kids that we are adopting them. Though they appeared quite pleased, it was somewhat anti-climactic. I think, in part, because they had pretty much figured it all out by this point!

However, my daughter, who does internalize and process things, had a potty “accident” about an hour after “The Reveal.” Having had numerous conversations with both her foster mom and social worker over the months, I did know of my daughter’s propensity toward this form of expression and knew it was a great possibility after the news.

I really debated my response. I finally decided that I needed to deal with it head on, just so she would... more

We had really wonky connectivity Day Three and afterward, so I wasn’t able to post “as it happened.” So, three days later, I’ll have to rely on jet-lagged memory to reconstruct the days. So, here’s the recap:

Wednesday was a relatively uneventful day after our scary start. We woke up really early because of my youngest son’s coughing fits. He has a really acute sinus condition, and it produced so much mucus that he threw up. Hello parenthood of three!

After frantic calls to the foster mom, who reassured me this is common with my son, she did call in to his pediatrician and got his other meds, which, she assured me, really do the trick!

It was my uncle’s last day... more

Today has gone smoother than could ever have been anticipated … so naturally, we’re waiting for a little rain to fall. Enter nighttime!

First up: Newly dubbed Mom battles ethnic hair! I have some pretty unruly ethnic hair myself, so I came prepared! And, I knew my daughter had a tender head. We managed to get by with only a few tears. It’s not a perfect job, but it’s just for bedtime anyway.

While I do this, hubby bathes our youngest son. All goes well! Since my daughter hears that my oldest son wants to take a shower, she decides she does too! So, ladies first and off we go to shower! I give her some of my special shower gel, and off we go!

We all meet up in... more

Within an hour of meeting our future children, we’re put to the test! We go out as a group to lunch. Though our social worker and foster mom are with us, clearly we’re the “Parents on Duty!”

My youngest son, continues to shadow my oldest son and sits by him at lunch. It’s a buffet, so we fix plates for the kids, and my daughter parks herself beside me, as advertised! The staff at the restaurant soon learns what’s going on, and all three kids get lollipops and yo-yos. So, we begin the very normal, “How Many More Bites Til I Get My Stuff” game that we take for granted as non-adoptive parents!

My daughter is proud of all her counted bites. She asks my oldest son to teach... more