Trask Family

Pictures

2009-04-13T21:27:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures from Easter and Tom's Mr. Gorham High School pagent.

2009-01-02T21:48:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures of Halloween, Christmas and the ones done professionally. The one of all 5 kids was Bill's surprise Christmas present this year. Since this was pretty much the last year that the older boys will be "single", I thought it a good idea to have them done. It was kept a secret by all up to about a week before Christmas. I had some of the Aunt's and Uncle's pictures wrapped under the tree. Cara decided she wanted to see what was in one of the pretty packages. So one evening while I was gone, she opened one of the pictures and Bill saw it. He is pretty happy about it though. Now back to the older boys being "single"...Tom doesn't have a steady girlfriend and Matt and his long term girlfriend are now engaged. In other news...as of December 1, 2008 Bill no longer ownes a Coldwell Banker office, but he in now a manager for 2 of Better Homes and Gardens The Masiello Group. You can check them out at http://www.masiello.com/. We are all doing well. The kids are growing like mad and the boys love being in school. The top of Lucas' head comes up to about the bottom of my neck and his uniform size went up 2 sizes over the summer. Even though Brian is 42lbs, he is still a peanut. He finally moved up to 4T undies. Brian has hit a couple of milestones. He lost his first tooth(bottom front) and we took the side rale off of his bed. I believe all of Cara's growth is in her hair and teeth. She has 3 coming in right now. She has the height of an 18 month old with the waist of a 9 month old. She just went to 12 month old onsies. The weather is COLD but we are surviving it. We have been and are very blessed. Our love to all and we wish you a Happy New Year.

Pictures since Easter

2008-09-07T20:36:00.003-05:00

We have had a busy summer. Here are some pictures taken since Easter. Most of them are of the kids at camp during the summer. I will explain the others (like the jet ski on the dock) at a later date. Enjoy!

Easter

2008-03-24T09:45:00.002-05:00

Here are pictures I tried to take of the kids with their Easter outfits. We had a very nice Easter. Saturday evening we went to church with Bill's parents and sister. They did a play of the Crucifixion and afterwards did a egg hunt for the kids. Then we went to Bill's parents' house and had a delicious pot roast dinner. Easter Sunday we went to church and came home and had some much needed naps.

Cute hair turns ugly

2008-03-05T20:29:00.002-05:00

Toothless but talented

2008-03-05T20:15:00.002-05:00

Today Lucas lost his fifth tooth. Two of which were lost a while ago and the adult teeth have grown in. However, he continues to show his creativity. This picture is of the house he made for his seal. It is made out of a saltines cracker box. This reminds me of the "purses" I made when I was his age, except mine were out of the boxes trash bags come in.

Museum Trip

2008-02-20T21:16:00.002-05:00

A week ago Tuesday the pre-school classes went to the Children's Museum in Portland. Here are the pictures from that. Cara really enjoyed being there, but because she was so little and there were so many other big kids, she did not get to get down and play much.

Finally Final

2008-02-20T20:26:00.003-05:00

On February 6th at 2:45, Cara's adoption was final. Once we returned home we started the process to do a readoption in Maine. There are a number of reasons this should be done, but the reason we HAD to do it is because Bill did not go to Vietnam with me. Other reasons are: there is now a birth certificate on file with the state of Maine vital records and she will be able to collect social security when she gets to that age. As we are driving to the court, Bill tells me about the dream he had the night before. He dreamed that when we got to court, there was a problem with the paperwork and told us that they were going to have to take Cara back. He said then we started running and at every door there were Vietnamese guards chasing us. He said he woke up before the dream ended though. Fortunately, it was very uneventful. Another kind of funny thing about this (I did not realize this until Bill told me) is our lawyer was Judith Berry. She is Julie Berry's(from Survivor/dating the Survivor host-Jeff) mom. Neat. Here are the pictures from that day.

Pictures

2008-02-05T20:19:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning
New Year's
Brian's Birthday

Holidays, Birthdays & Updates

2008-02-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas was wonderful. We did dinner and presents with my parents Christmas Eve. Matt and Tom spent the night with us Christmas Eve, which they haven't done in a number of years. They helped Bill put together the basketball game the kids got for Christmas. Christmas morning Bill's parents came over and we did presents. Brian woke up at 6:30. We were able to get him to sleep with us for about 45 minutes. About the time he decided he wanted to get up, Lucas woke up. By the time they were done opening their stockings, Bill's parents were here. We went to Bill's sister's (Kristy) house mid morning and stayed until about mid afternoon. Then we came home. Christmas was pretty relaxed, but still fun, this year.

New Year's Eve was a bit different. Bill was out that evening. The boys and I decided that to put together the ginger bread house Brian got from his teacher for Christmas. I know, I know...a little late on putting it together. We still had fun doing it. Unfortunately, Cara was sick. When I took her temp. at 6:30 it was 102+. Then at 7:45, when she vomited, I took her temp. again and it was 104+ (I had given her tylonel at 6:30, so theoretically, it should have gone down). I put the boys to bed and my parents came over to stay with them. I left about 8:30 and took Cara to the hospital. I tell you the time because we did not get into a hospital until 9:45. The Brighten Quick Care had just closed. When I got to Mercy hospital, they told me that it was atleast a two hour wait. So off to Maine Medical we went. they got us right it. They did x-rays on Cara's chest to make sure she did not have pneumonia, gave her a dose of tylonel and motrin. We left the hospital just after midnight. The verdict was...she just had something viral.

We had Brian's birthday party on January 26th. In the picture, he is holding his hands over his mouth. This is because they were telling him not to breath and blow out the candles while we were singing happy birthday. He was so excited that he could not not breath on the cake. So he put his hands on his mouth. The first gift he opened was THE ONE he wanted to play with and we had to keep reminding him that he had other gifts. Now my little boy is the BIG 5! He has not had his 5 year check up. So I don't know how much he has grown in the last year. I will say the outfit I bought him for his birthday was a 4T. He is still a little guy. However, we are doing much better on the night time potty training. He received his mid year progress report from school. He has some maturity issues (don't we all) but is doing very well academically.

I took Cara in for her 15 month check up. She is doing soooo good. She loves food but I think all of her calories are going to her teeth and hair. She has two bottom teeth and four top teeth, all in the front. She is 20 lbs and 29.75 inches long. She is still in 9 month clothing. She is walking very well now. In fact she doesn't crawl at all. She says mama, dada, papa, nana, eye, bye, hi, diaper, u-oh and signs please and thank you. She likes music and to "dance". Some of the things she understands are "no" , "hot" and "come sit" (usually when she is too close to the tv). She knows the juice is in the refrigerator! Unfortunately, she had to get 4 shots. At her 18 month appointment she will need to get 2 more and will be caught up with her vaccinations.

Lucas is doing very well in school. We have had a couple of phone calls from school, but where just one time incidents. Their school deals differently with behavioral problems than public schools, which I am actually kind of greatful for. He would eat constantly if I let him. He has gotten more creative lately with drawing and crafting things. He makes "houses" for his stuffed animals out of paper. The last one he made was for an alligator. It had a pool, bed, and a place for food. He seems to be growing out of everything. I thought they would get closer in size as they got older (they still may), but the size difference seems to be getting larger.

We had a Super Bowl gathering at Bill's parent's house. Because Bill's birthday was the next day, we did cake and ice cream, too. If the Patriots had won, that would have been the only thing he would have wanted.

Time to put the kids down for naps. I will post pictures later.

Door frames do not give

2007-12-10T15:08:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you go head on into a door frame, when you are running in the house.

As I thought about posting this, it reminded me of this picture taken in August 2006. This is what happens when you run with train tracks.

Moral of the story is...make sure all heads, arms and legs are not sticking out and hands are empty or...don't run in the house!

Santa & Christmas Play

2007-12-08T17:16:00.000-05:00

Today Santa was at the local Wal-mart. So we took the kids to see him and then to lunch at Pizza Hut. They each had received a certificate for a free pizza. The earned the certificates by reading so many minutes (Lucas 300 and Brian 200) in one month. This is a program thru their school and they have a chance to earn this every month from September to May. Cara sat long enough for me to get a picture, but didn't seem impressed. At least she did not cry.

This is a picture of Lucas in his school play. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and used my cell phone. So it did not turn out very well. It was about a half hour long and they did really well. The elementary students did most of the singing. However, we didn't get to see Lucas' face while the dancers were performing. Lucas was fixated on them the entire time.

Pictures

2007-12-02T21:49:00.000-05:00

Pictures include:
Brian's first day of school
going apple picking
Cara's first birthday
Cara loving on her seal
Cara at the airport coming home from Vietnam
Cara's open house
Cara "throwing out" the recycling
Halloween 2007
Lucas & Brian's homemade costumes
pumpkins that Aunt Kristy carved for the kids

Milestones

2007-12-01T22:37:00.000-05:00

First I would like to apologize for taking so long to between entries. We have hit a few milestones in the last 3 months.

Brian did get potty trained enough to go to school. Lucas started a week before Brian just because preschool started a week later. We told him he couldn't go to school unless he had not had any "accidents" for a whole week. The first day Lucas went to school and Brian didn't was when he started going to the bathroom. He loves school and has done very well (as long as he is not overtired.)

Lucas has done very well in school so far this year. He is a little more settled this year that he was last year. So far he has made a 100% on all of his spelling test. We just got his progress report Friday. Fortunately, he has the same teacher this year as last.

Lucas and Brian have done very well with Cara. They both jump anytime I asked either of them to do anything for her. They can't seem to get enough of her.

We had a open house for Cara. We had about a lot more people come than I thought would. Two weeks later we had a birthday party for her. We only had a few people come, but we still wanted to celebrate it for her. At her 12 month appointment she weighed 18.5 lbs and was 29 inches long. So she gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches in three months. She still is in 9 month clothes. She now has 1 tooth that has come through the gums. She has at least 2 more trying to come through. She has started taking steps too. My mom was here the first time she walked on her own. She took 3 steps. Now she is to the point where she will try to walk on her own without us prompting her to. She no longer will eat baby food. She loves food and drink. Today we took the kids to McDonald's. Every time she wanted a drink, she would push her face forward and grunt. She is saying mama, dada, and nana. Last Friday, I bought her a full size crib. She certainly would not have gotten to heavy for the portable crib she had. Every time I go in to check on her when she is sleeping,she would always be cross ways in the crib and seemed to be cramped. She is still has such a pleasant personality and is constantly doing something to make us smile and laugh.

This was the first year we took the kids trick or treating. The boys dressing up as the black spider man. Cara wore a orange and white striped outfit with face on the feet. The boys were so excited that they pretty much ran from door to door. We only went to 3 neighborhoods. They got about a third of a bag each. We put Cara in the stroller, which she really liked.

Thanksgiving went well. We had dinner about 1pm, cleaned up and played games afterward. It was sort of uneventful.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures. Now that I have my new computer and scanner set up, I have plenty to post.

Oh, the funny things they do.

2007-08-28T20:45:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the kids. Brian decided to try to read to Cara. Fortunately, it was a book that only had pictures, since neither of them can read yet. Lucas decided to watch Brian as he cleaned the pool with my mop. He felt the need to wear his winter hat to get the job done. Today they decided to play outside with their rain coats and winter boots since it was 75 degrees out.

I have had Cara's pictures done. However, I have not loaded the scanner software on my computer yet. I will post as soon as I do.

All is well. Lucas starts first grade tomorrow. If we can complete Brian's potty training in the next week, he will be starting pre-school on the 5th. Cara is crawling all over the place and trying to pull herself up.

Until next time.

All is well

2007-08-02T11:51:00.000-05:00

All is well in the Trask household. Cara has adjusted wonderfully to us and us to her. It feels like she has been with us from birth. She loves her big brothers and her mommy and daddy. She had her 9 month check up this past Tuesday. She is just over 16 lbs and 27 inches long. She still has some skin issues, but is doing very well in every other aspect. She had 4 of her immunization shots and will go back in 6 weeks for more. Cara loves food! She eats her normal container of baby food and will eat anything we give her. She still loves her bottles though. For about the last week, she has been sleeping through the night. She still cries only when she is hungry. She has such a pleasant personality. Here is a picture of Cara and the boys.

We are home!!!!!!!!!

2007-07-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

Praise God! We are home after about 40 hours of traveling from Vietnam. We arrived at the Portland Jet Port around 12 pm on Sunday. We had a small paperwork snafu, but it was quickly fixed with no delays. Otherwise, the whole process went very smooth. Cara loves being with her daddy and brothers. She is a very pleasant, happy baby. She is getting used to the time change, taking 2 naps during the day and only waking once during the night for a bottle. Her rash and the sores from the scabies are clearing up. At her first medical exam in the US, she weighed in at 16 lbs. Here is a picture of her with the boys.

More pictures

2007-07-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

Here are more pictures of Cara. I apologize for the fuzziness of the pictures-both the camera and the person have to be perfectly still for a clear picture. Ellie took us out shopping yesterday. We were out for less than 2 hours. I did pick up a few souveniers. We will be leaving here and going to Hanoi, Northern Vietnam, on Tuesday night. If all goes well, we should be able to leave Vietnam Thursday night or Friday.

Nothing much

2007-07-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Cara in our hotel. We have not ventured out at all for shopping or touristing. We have had to wait for the call for each of our appointments. Yesterday, Cara had her medical exam. I unfortunately did not get the specifics of her weight, etc. The doctor was trying to explain the rash on Cara's face. The language difference did not help. He also thought we should have another little girl to balance out our two boys, one girl family. Anyways, we are waiting today for our first interview after filing the adoption papers. So I am here in the hotel room watching National Geographic as Cara sleeps. The hotel has been great. The food is good and the staff are wonderful. They are happy to wait on you hand and foot. They always address me by name, always say "delighted to serve" and always with a smile. I am itching to get out. So hopefully over the weekend I can. Enjoy the pictures.

A New American

2007-07-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

Cara is now ours. We had a uneventful Giving & Receiving Ceremony. Here are 2 pictures of the ceremony. There would have been more pictures but my batteries died. We are now back in our very cool and comfortable hotel and Cara is napping. We will be leaving after lunch to go to the police department to apply for Cara's passport. Tomorrow we will be going to the hospital to get a medical exam for Cara.

Pictures

2007-07-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday. I will have more of the ceremony today.

I am in Vietnam and have Cara

2007-07-03T04:39:00.000-05:00

I arrived very late last night. The first 2 planes were very full and I did not get much sleep. Thankfully the last plane was not so full, but still only sleep for about an hour. Martin and Ellie from World Child, as well as a couple of hotel personel, met me a the airport. It has been very interesting so far. The first thing I noticed when I got here. The people waiting to pick you up are not allowed in the airport. So there was a huge crowd outside of the airport. They shuttled me to the hotel, which is about a half hour away. I got settled in and ready for this morning. The morning did not start off so well as I overslept and woke up only minutes before Ellie was to be here to pick me up. So I did not get breakfast or COFFEE! We left the hotel about 7:30 this morning to go to the orphanage to pick up Cara. When we got there, I met the director, one of the vice directors, and the paperwork lady. Then they brought Cara in. She is so beautiful and smaller than her pictures make her look. I did get to go into the "baby room" to see where Cara was staying. All of the caretakers just cooed over and loved on Cara. After that we went to get Cara's passport pictures, which we had to wake her up for and then to the supermarket to get formula and cereal. We got back to the hotel about 10:30. Ellie stayed to fill out paperwork and translate the instructions from the orphanage about Cara's feeding schedule. After her bottle Cara fell asleep. So I was able to shower, eat and sleep some. I will post some pictures after I load them on my computer. Tomorrow we go to the Justice Department to make Cara leagally ours.

Leaving on a jet plane....

2007-06-20T11:59:00.000-05:00

Today I got word to get my plane tickets and give hotel preferences so they can make my reservations. They have scheduled my Giving & Receiving ceremony for July 4th. This means I will probably be leaving on July 1st. I have contacted the travel agent and am awaiting confirmation. This is hard to believe for us, but we will wait patiently because we know that God can do anything. Praise Him.

NEWS!!!!

2007-06-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

I receive word on Thursday morning to get my visa ready for entry into Vietnam on the 17th. I have sent off for my visa, which I should get by Wednesday and have my hotel information. I am just waiting for information so I can get plane tickets. I was told I should be in Vietnam for about 10 days. The schedule I was told is: Arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, go to orphanage and get Cara, have the Giving & Receiving Ceremony, have immigration interveiw, apply for Cara's passport, wait 5 days for passport, have visa interview and medical exam (at this point, I am not sure if I fly to Hanoi, Vietnam first or have the visa interview/medical exam), wait two days for visa (in Hanoi), come home. When I get more, I will write more.

Boston Aquarium, Birthday, Graduation

2007-06-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

Since all three events happened with days of each other, here they are. Lucas' 6th birthday party was on Thursday evening, the class trip to the Boston Aquarium was on Friday and the kindergarten graduation was on Tuesday evening. The kindergarten class did some solos and I do have a video of it...very cute.

New Pictures of Cara

2007-05-08T08:18:00.000-05:00

No more diapers...for now

2007-04-30T12:25:00.000-05:00

Yea!! Brian has gone 3 nights and 2 naps with out a diaper. Thanks to our babysitter, who did not put a diaper on Brian before bed Friday night. This same sitter did the same thing with Lucas. Even though it is only going to be for about a month, it is nice to say...WE ARE DIAPER FREE!

On another note, we found out this past week that it will be June before I will be going to get Cara. Apparently, all of our agency's familys that are going to Ho Chi Minh City are not going until June. The good about this is all of the "activities" we are in will be over. Lucas will be out of school and will have his graduation ceremony. Awana will be over, which Bill and I volunteer for, as well as my Bible study. Also, Lucas' birthday is May 24th. We know that God knows what is best and what the perfect time is. I will keep my faith in that.

All In Time

2007-04-17T10:26:00.000-05:00

One year ago today our dossier was logged in in China. It would be at least another year before we received our referral from China. In just under 3 months we changed agency's, got all of our paperwork done, got our referral and are now just waiting to get the call to travel. In less than the time it took us to get the paperwork done for the China adoption, we will have done all of that and have our daughter home. Just when I had decided that I was ok with standing still, God said it was time to move. And move we did. Now we stand still again, but this time it is to go get Cara. All of my bags are packed and ready to go. So as I grow impatient with waiting to go get Cara, I have to remind myself that our time is not His time. God knows when this will all happen and that it is the perfect timing.

Cara's first shower

2007-03-15T20:28:00.000-05:00

Bill and I were pleasantly surprised yesterday with a baby shower from the agents at Bill's office. Last week the bookkeeper call me to tell me that Bill was receiving an award and it was going to be presented to him after the staff meeting on Wednesday and asked if I wanted to come. Of course, I said yes. So when Brian and I arrived, they said he the man presenting the award was not there yet and asked us to wait in the conference room. After a couple of minutes one of the agents came and got us. As I opened the door to the "meeting room" they all yelled surprise. Bill said he did not know they were doing it, but thought they were up to something. Here are some pictures. One of the agents took more pictures. When I get those, I will add them.

Our dossier is in Vietnam

2007-03-01T16:14:00.000-05:00

Yea! Our dossier (paperwork) is now in Vietnam. We also got our appointments today to have our fingerprints redone. They expire in late May and we don't want to get stalled in Vietnam because they expired while we are there. I know, I know...our fingerprints don't change. However, we have to have them reprinted (scanned on a computer) and the security information has to be redone. Since neither of us are criminals, we should not have any problems (again). Anyhow, more information will come as we get it. For now we wait.

Cara's room is done

2007-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

Well...Cara's room is done. Everything that is going on the walls is up. The crib and changing table is put together and is up. There is currently a love seat in the room. Hopefully, it will be gone soon. I have ordered her a six drawer dresser (white) and will go where the love seat is. The last picture above is of her mobile that is hanging under the canopy, above the crib. I can't wait to see Cara in it. The little "things" on the walls around the wings are little fairies. You can see a them better in the clock picture. Our dossier has made it through notarization, certification and now authentication. It was delivered to World Child International today at 10:42 am.

Updates

2007-02-15T12:56:00.000-05:00

Well it is hard to believe that it has been almost 2 weeks since we first received Cara's pictures. We did get an updated medical report. All is good. She weighed 11 lbs and was 21 inches. We both have put her picture on our computer desktop. So every time I sit down at my computer I get to see her beautiful little face. I (and some other folks) have been shopping! I have bought a lot of pink. I am so excited to be buying pink! We finally got all of our paperwork done (that we have to do to this point). It is sitting at the Vietnam Consulate as I type, to be authenticated,(they are closed celebrating Tet, Vietnam's new year). From what I understand though, they will be opening back up on Tuesday, 20th. From there they will go to our agency to make sure everything is A ok and then to Vietnam. After that I am not sure what happens. Initially, I was going to go to Vietnam to get her and Bill was going to stay home with the boys. However, since we have received her picture and shared it with our family and friends, a number of people have volunteered to watch the boys so we could go together. God is so good!

As far as what is going on otherwise... Well... It snowed here all day yesterday. There was no school yesterday or today. The boys did go out to play in the snow for about 10 minutes, but since it is only in the teens, much colder with the wind chill, they could not stay out too long. Not much else going on, normal everyday stuff. School vacation is next week. I am hoping to take the boys to the big hill in Gorham to go sliding. Should be lots of fun.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

Here is our new daughter. I don't have a lot of facts about her, but here is what we know:

Her name is Tran Thi Hong Chau soon to be Cara Jeanette Trask. She is in an orphanage in south Vietnam. (I was told the name of the city, but I was so excited I forgot.) She was born 11-1-06. "She was brought to the emergency room after being born at home and the cord was cut in the emergency room. The baby weighed 2 kgs at birth (about 41/2 lbs) and was transferred to the orphanage about a month later weighing 4.4 kgs (about 9 lbs). Don't know her weight right now but she will have a general check up tomorrow at Columbia." (direct quote from case worker)

We received the news last night about 7pm. We were not home at the time. So we did not get to see her picture until about midnight last night. We are just so excited! The expected travel time is in April. I will post more information as we get it.

We praise our Father in Heaven for this wonderful gift and His never ending blessings.

A change & more

2007-01-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

First the "more"... Because today is our 9 month anniversary for our log in date for our adoption, I thought this picture would be appropriate. Lucas brought this "family portrait" home today from school. The item to the far right is a crib with Jade in it. So we have promptly put it up on the wall.

And now the "change"... We have decided to sell our camp, which is not seasonal to buy a camp on the other side of the lake. This one is closer to our friends that live there year around. We can walk back and forth to see them. The water is also better there. It is deeper and less rocky. So we will not have to be as concerned about docking the boat and wave runners. This camp is seasonal and feels more like a camp. We will be closing this one up at the end of summer instead of renting it out for the fall and winter. I am not usually one for change, but this time I am excited.

Where has it gone?

2007-01-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it, we are in the year 2007! As it seems to every year, the year flew by. A lot has happen this past year. We sold one house, bought another, our dossier was logged in in China and we started our 2nd summer at camp, all within a month's time. We got rid of both of the boy's binkies, completely potty trained Lucas and started successfully potty training Brian. Lucas started kindergarden and Matt started college. Bill not only won Realtor of the Year at the local board of realtors, but he also won Maine State Realtor of the Year.

The holidays were great. Even though the boys are only 5 and 3, this is the first year they have never not just ripped through all of their presents. We decided before Christmas of 2005 that we would only do 3 gifts for each. One they open on Christmas Eve and the other 2 Christmas Day. This year two of their gifts were battery powered ride on 4 wheelers and a number of Rescue Heros command centers with some accessories. They were excited about the 4 wheelers but could exactly ride them in the house. As soon as they opened the Rescue Heros, they decided to play instead of opening the presents brought by Grandma & Grandpa. Not that they were not excited about the gifts from Grandma & Grandpa, but they stopped to enjoy the presents as they opened them. My parents came Christmas Eve, as they have for the past 3 or 4 years, had dinner and exchanged presents. Bill's parents came Christmas morning. The boys were up at 5:30. We keep them in our room and let them opend the stuff in their stockings while we waiting on Bill's parents to come. So they could see the boys open their presents. After breakfast we went to Bill's sister's house and spent most of the day there. Bill was quite surprised with his gift this year. I got him a ride in a Marchitti SF260 at Air Combat USA. He got to pick the date. So he is going to Boston in October to do it. New Years Eve we hosted a game night at our house with Bill's parents and sisters. Even though we enjoyed the holidays, it is nice to have schedules back to normal.

Now here we are in January and will be celebrating Brian's 4th birthday in a couple of weeks. He has decided he wants every thing Batman for his party. So that will be the theme for his party.

As well, we (my parents & I) will be celebrating the 14th year since my adoption. It has been a wonder 14 years and pray for many more. As I think about my adoption, I also think about the pending adoption for our daughter. We were suppose to know atleast who she is, if not have her, by now. We know though it will probably be the end of the year or next year before we even know who she is. However, I find myself praying for her as I do for the boys on a daily basis. I pray that if/when she is born that she is safe, healthy, and some how feels the love of the family she will have one day. I continue to remind myself that it is in God's timing, so I leave it in His hands.

I close in prayer for another great year, with hopes of "celebrating" many happenings, including bringing home our daughter.

What's going on...

2006-12-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

Obviously, I have not blogged for almost 3 weeks. We've been a little busy. Thanksgiving dinner went very well. Bill's side of the family was here. Dinner was delicious.

Brian has been potty training for the last three weeks. Willingly!!! He is doing great He is still very busy. He does very well with brother in school. He has always played very well by himself though. Every time he saw a girl toy on tv, he would say "I want to buy that for my baby sister". Now he says he wants to buy it for his girlfriend. I haven't asked who is girlfriend is yet. He loves taking Lucas to school every morning. The preschool class is right next door to Lucas' class. The teacher allows him to come in every morning and play while I am getting Lucas settled in class. He seems to really like the teacher as well. She will be his teacher next year (unless she leaves).

Lucas is doing very well in school. He is still antsy, but his teacher seems to be accustomed to it. He loves school and has a hard time "turning it off" when he gets home. I had to call the school this past Wednesday, because Lucas was out sick. The admin that answered the phone made the statement: "Lucas loves life". He most definately loves school. He got 2 green jewels in Awana. We are working on getting a red one.

Both are very excited about Christmas. We have our tree and outside decor up. I have wrapped some empty boxes and put them under the tree. I do this to get them accustomed to seeing them and not open them. Except for the first day, they have not touched them. Hopefully, I will be able to add more without the boys opening them. I have pretty much finished my shopping.

Nothing new on the adoption. The last batch of referrals start coming out yesterday. From the statistics I have seen for this batch, they referred about the same number of referrals as the previous 1 or 2 months. Every month there is talk of a speed up and of the wait time increasing. The CCAA's year ends on November 30th. Their year end meeting is, I believe, December 8th. Hopefully there will be some information coming out of that meeting that will give us some idea of what is going on. I think the questions the entire China adoption community wants to know most are... why the slow down?...are they going to speed up or will the waiting continue to increase?... and if the wait is going to continue to increase, are they going to continue to accept applications. I was reading my favorite blog today (Rumor Queen), which is a great source of information. She gave me a different prospective about the wait time being extended. The way I understand it is... even if the CCAA stopped accepting applications today, if the referral rate continues as it is, it will take about 30-40 months to match all of the parent dossiers they have now. This means the parents that have their dossiers logged in and through review are being "promised" a baby that is not only not conceived, but the mothers are years away from pregnancy. I haven't wrapped my mind around that yet. So at this point we will continue to wait whether there is a speed up or the wait continues to increase. We know it is in God's time and we will have our Jade (oh, by the way, we picked a name) when we are suppose to.

It is almost 11pm. So more next time.

Oh the joys...the blessings...

2006-11-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

As I look back at the week, I think about the joyful and memorable moments with the boys.

Over the last few weeks, Brian's Sunday school class has been working on a notebook. This past Sunday they finished them. Doing the great that he did on it, he showed it off so proudly and carried it under his arm around church that morning.

On Tuesdays, Bill & I take turns taking Lucas to Awana. This past Tuesday was my turn and this week, Lucas received his the patch for his vest and a blue jewel for his first quarter attendance. To be able to see the excitement in his face when he received them and then to hear the excitement in his voice as he told told his Daddy about it, brings such joy to my heart.

Flu shot time... Thursday I took the boys to get flu shots, no joy in that, but it is done and over with. I also took to them to Build A Bear Workshop. They had such a fun time. Both of them picked the penguin from the movie "Happy Feet". Each of them helped the worker fill the penguin. They did the heart ceremony together (this is where they rub the heart on their heart to always be love, on their head to be intelligent, and on their tummy to never be hungry, then it is put into the animal and closed up). Lucas got a Superman outfit and Brian got Batman.

Friday evening as Lucas started to take a drink from his juice cup, Brian decided he wanted the light off. Thus, causing Lucas to hit himself in the mouth with it. No I don't find any joy in that. As a result of hitting his mouth, Lucas lost his first tooth. It had been loose for a while. Unfortunately, the tooth got lost some where in the living room and we have yet to find it. I think I was more excited than he was, though. The picture is of him with his first lost tooth.

There have been other things that I seem to have notice lately...like they way Lucas walks around counting or trying to spelling...or their compassion for others that are hurt (just not for each other yet)...or that they whine about missing their Daddy when he is away, not actually hearing the whining, but knowing that they love him and miss him...or hearing "I love you" or "I'm sorry" when they have misbehaved...or the fairly new "yesss muder (mother)"

Obviously, these are not the first happenings in our children's lifes that have warmed my heart. However, I pray, not that they will continue because I know they will, but that I continue to see them as the blessings they are.

Adoption Status

2006-11-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting. When we started this process we were told from the time our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) it would be 6-8 months until we received our referral. So that would have meant any time between 2 weeks ago and mid December. However, since about October 2005, there has been a continual slowdown. At this point the wait is about 15 months. There is constant talk in the China adoption community about whether the wait will speed up or continue to get longer. There are agencies all over the world that are on both sides. At this point we are not even out of the "Review Room" (this is where they review our dossier). They have finish reviewing up to the end of January 2006. It is to my understanding though, that 2 months are in the review room at one time. They have matched parent dossiers with baby dossier (referrals) for those who are logged in on and before August 25, 2005. They send out referrals about once every month, give or take a few days. There has been speculation about why the wait is taking so long, but no one knows for sure. So we will continue to wait.

Where are we now...

2006-11-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

Bill is still owner/broker of a real estate company. (Actually has been for about 10 years now. I forgot to include that in the time line). I am still at home with Brian...no school this year...still working on the potting training thing. Matt started his first year of college working on a business degree. Tom is a sophmore and will be getting his driver's license soon. Lucas started kindergarden this year. He is loving it, but having a hard time sitting still all day. And the adoption...well that is another entry.

History of Us

2006-11-02T12:56:00.000-05:00

Here is a time line of the big moments since Bill and I met.

10/16/93 Bill & Renay met
5/27?/95 We got engaged
Late Spring 1996 Bill started in Real Estate
7/27/96 Married
6/8/94 Bought our FIRST peice of real estate(sold and bought a number of them since)
5/24/01 Lucas was born
1/23/03 Brian was born
2/22/05 Renay stopped working outside the home
July 2005 Made the decision to adopt
7/31/2005 Signed and mailed adoption application(the journey begans)
8/19/05 Bought our camp
4/7/06 Moved to our current home
4/9/06 Adoption paperwork finished and sent to China
4/17/06 Adoption paperwork logged in in China(known as LID, will be used alot)

Also, because they are such a huge part of our lives I must list a few events that happened before we met.

Bill:
7/30/1987 Matt was born
10/21/1990 Tom was born

Renay:
6/10/1990 Moved to Maine from Louisiana
1/19/1993 Was adopted

New blog

2006-10-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

I have wanted to do this for a while... since our oldest was a baby. Now that we are going to have 3 and I have some idea of what I am doing, it is probably time. The purpose is to keep family and friends up to date with our family including our pending adoption.