Documents, Documents, Notarizations, Certifications, Authentications and on and on and on

The question we keep getting asked is, "Since you have done this before, you shouldn't have to gather all of the documents like you did before,right?"  Well, I wish!  But that is not the case.  We need to gather everything again and then some new things.  The process has changed a little bit, so there are even more checks and documents that are needed.  The good thing is that we have done a dossier (the documents that get sent to China) before and so it is not completely new to us. 

Where we are.  We are currently completing all of the documents that are required to be part of the dossier.  We have all of our documents completed, all have been notarized, and the notaries have been certified by the local clerk of courts. Our Indiana documents (marriage certificate and Michael's birth certificate) have also been certified by the Indiana Secretary of State and are currently at the Chinese Consulate's office in Chicago for final Authentication.  The rest of our documents (or what we refer to our "Ohio documents") are ready to go to the Secretary of State's office this week.  We have also completed all of our home study visits and are awaiting the report to be written so we can send it in with our I800A application.  This application will lead to fingerprinting and then hopefully approval by the USCIS.  Once we get that approval, we are almost ready to send in our dossier to China.  Confused yet?  Yeah, we are too at times.  We keep telling ourselves "one step at a time".  We are so anxious though and the wait is already hard.  But each step gets us closer and that is what we are focusing on.

We have also been having a great spring and enjoying the warmer weather.  Aidan is back in the full swing of things with soccer.  We had a good spring break and were able to visit my sister and niece in Indianapolis for a couple of days.  The kids also spent time with grandparents and enjoyed coloring Easter eggs and playing with their cousin.

Here are some pics from our spring so far ...



We won tickets to LegoFest - here is Bella in front of Lightening McQueen

Bella, Aidan and Keenan on Easter morning 

Keenan, Bella and Aidan all ready for church

Family pic

 

All of the kiddos after their egg hunt (Hunter, Keenan, Ashlynn, Bella and Aidan)

The boys having some 4-wheeler fun (Matthew, Hunter, Aidan, Michael and Keenan)

Bella being Super-woman!

Keenan being Superman - scary!

Someone once said ...

if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.  We thought our family was complete, but God has made it very clear to us that it is not.  We are very excited to share that we are adopting again!!  If someone would have told me years ago that we would have 4 kids, I would have told them they were crazy.  The truth is, we are thrilled and can't get all of the paperwork and home study visits done quickly enough.    
We feel led to adopt a little boy from China.  Some people have asked us, "Why a boy?"  What a lot of people don't realize is that there are a lot of little boys with minor special needs who need homes.  Many people think that only girls are adopted from China, but boys can also be adopted. 
We have completed all of the applications for both the home study agency and adoption agencies. We have also started gathering our documents for our dossier.
We are now trying to come up with a new name for our blog and are taking suggestions.  :-)  The kids have also started the great debate on a name for their little brother.  The kids are all excited and cannot wait to bring their new brother home. 
Next steps is to complete our home study and to then complete our dossier.  This can take a few more months because certain things have to be checked and approved by the government.  We are hopeful that we will be matched once our dossier makes it to China.  We appreciate all of your prayers and support as we journey back to China!!

A long time

A few nights ago I found myself looking at our blog for the first time in what seems like months.  I started reading some of the entries and going back all the way to when we started the blog and realized that this is serving as a family diary for us and that I don't want to give up writing in it.  I am not sure if anyone even looks at this anymore, but I figure this is a way to really capture what is going on in each of our lives.

Sooo, with that being said, here is a brief overview of the past several months ...

In September, Bella's first family (her foster family) visited us and we had a wonderful time, as always, with them.  Here is a picure of her "sister" Cassie.  They were being pirates and were so cute together.  They truly feed off of each other and enjoy getting into trouble together.  One thing they did was to go into Aidan's room and destroy (and I mean absolutely destroy) several of his Lego sets.  He is still working on putting them all back together.  He took it pretty well, actually A LOT better than I would have.  Silly girls.  I also should say that this all happened while Julie and I were out shopping and the guys were home with the kids.  Would this have happened if us moms were around???  Maybe, but I like to think that it would not have. :-)

Michael and I got to take a trip to Las Vegas in October to attend a conference.  We  had a really great time and got to do a little extra sight seeing.  Here is a picture of us at Red Rock Canyon, which was beautiful!  And it was nice to be in the warmth and able to swim in October (can't do that in Ohio!).

Halloween is always a fun time at our house.  We have some really great neighbors and we got together with several of them and had a fire pit and ate yummy food before the trick or treating began.  Once it was time, the kids took off and got around the neighborhood in record time. (They are still talking about the king size candy bars that one of our neighbors handed out to everyone.)  Bella and the neighbor girls went around with us and they were so cute.  As you can see from the picture, we had a muscular ninja warrior, a tae kwon do ape (Aidan's own creation) and a beautiful Belle.

We added to our family this past fall as well.  Lulu joined our family and has been such a joy to us all.  The kids adore her and Bella finally has someone to boss around so she is in her prime.  Lulu is a Yorkie Coton mix, so she is called a Yo-ton.  She has been the best puppy ever.  She trained quickly, hardly barks and is so good with the kids.  We really could not have asked for more.  This is a precious pic of Keenan and her just a couple of days after we got her.

Certain seasons of the year, I truly become a "soccer mom" and tote the kids to practices and games throughout the week.  We love it!  Michael has been assistant coach for Aidan's team the past couple of seasons.  Here is a pic of the team right after they won the tournament in the fall.  Such a fun group of boys!! 

Christmas was wonderful this year.  The kids really had a great time and I took the last couple of weeks off at the end of the year.  We did a lot of fun things ... decorated cookies with friends, visited with other friends and had a lot of family time; went to Niederman Farm for their Christmas Walk with our small group and just played ... a lot!  The one thing that did happen right before Christmas was that Michael was in a car accident.  Everyone involved was fine, but our car was no so fine.  So in the midst of getting ready for Christmas, we also got to add car shopping to the list. 

Here is a pic of all three of the kiddos at my mom's house for Christmas. 



Last week, Michael, the boys and I took a trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado.  Bella is not a skiier yet, so she stayed with grandparents while we were gone and had a blast!  I think she really enjoyed the one on one time and all of the spoiling.  She is already asking to go and stay with them again.

We had a wonderful trip to Colorado.  This was Keenan's first time to Colorado and he truly cracked us all up from time to time (like he always does).  As we headed over the first mountain pass outside of Denver, I said, "Keenan look!  Aren't the moutains beautiful?"  His response, "Am I skiing down that?!" (disbelief in his voice)  The boys both did amazing skiing and took on just about anything.  Their favorite thing to do was to go off of the marked run and ski through the trees.  We all went to the very top and skiied all the way down which took about 30-40 minutes.  We cannot wait to go again.  Maybe next time Bella will be ready to tackle the mountains also.    Here are some pics of us and the beautiful mountains that God created ...  

I also attended a retreat in January for adoptive moms called Created 4 Care.  Awesome!  That is best way I can describe it.  I want to blog about it and hope to do so soon.  So, until next time ...

Goodbye Summer

As it was pointed out to me recently, I have not blogged in a VERY long time.  So here is a quick re-cap of our awesome summer.  My one goal for this summer was to have fun with the kids and we did! 

My wonderful sister Janel came and lived with us and watched the kids on the days that I worked.  She did an amazing job and the kids miss her so much now that she is back in school.  They played, swam, went to the park and just had fun all summer long.  Here are some pics from our summer ...

My sister Alyssa grauated from UC in Fashion Design.  She is getting ready to move to Milwaukee to begin her careeer.



 Keenan graduated from preschool in May.  Here he is with his aunts, Alyssa and Janel.

For Mother's Day, my sisters and I took my mom to a fun new place, Paint by the Glass.

( Alyssa, Me, Tiffany, Mom, and Janel)

We took our annual trip to Hilton Head.  Michael and Jeremy showing off their dinners. 

Keenan and Bella in the ocean.

Beach beauties ... Addy and Bella

Keenan and Aidan getting ready for a dolphin cruise ... check out Keenan's face.



In July, we went on a long weekend trip to Chicago with our good friends, Kim and Tad.  We had a blast and can't wait to go again next year!

Trip to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

Aidan, Bella and Keenan - they are quite the warriors, aren't they?

Another trip to Indy to visit with college friends.  Nick, Michael, Brad and Chris

Alisha, Lisa, Me, Laura and baby Sawyer

 The boys had another great birthday party with friends. 

Good friends, Josie, Aidan, Shelby, Keenan and Bella

Golf outing - Benny, Aidan, Michael and Keenan

The crew getting ready to get on the bus. 

(Trent, Abby, Troy and Aidan)

Back to school for all - Aidan (3rd), Keenan (Kindergarten) and Bella (pre-K)

Michael and Aidan on the field at the Reds game.  Michael presented an award and was able to take Aidan.  He got a lot of autographs, won a signed ball - all on his birthday! 

The boys showing off their new hats (family birthday party).

Can you guess where we have been??

A couple of weeks ago we went to Orlando for several days.  This was our first trip there since Aidan was 2 and at that time we only visited Sea World.  We felt the kids were at a good age to go and they were!  We had a blast and hit all four Disney parks, spent time at Downtown Disney (especially at the Lego store ... Aidan was in heaven), ate at Rainforest Cafe and the T-Rex restaurants and came home exhausted!!!  Here are several pics from our trip ...

Aidan and Keenan near the Indiana Jones Adventure at Hollywood Studios

Our favorite day was probably at Epcot.  We spent the entire day there and enjoyed so, so many things there.  Stitch greeted the kids and this was just the beginning of the many characters we got to see. 

Keenan holding the world on his finger.

 The highlight of the entire trip for Bella was getting to meet Tinkerbell.  That is ALL we heard about for days before we got there.  She was in awe!

 The boys goofing around in Norway.

 Bella with Mulan

Aidan holding the Epcot ball in his hands.

M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E

 We were at Epcot during the flower festival and it was gorgeous!  Here is Bella with Tinkerbell.

 Had to take a picture of this.  Everest Expedition, the roller coaster at Animal Kingdom is in the background.  This was Aidan's first roller coaster and he loved it!!

Bella passed out and lounging back in her stroller - check out the open mouth.  She reminds me of how my grandma used to sleep.

All three with Rafiki

 Bella posing in front of Rainforest Cafe

Aidan snapped this pic of Michael and I ... I think it is the only one of the 2 of us we got the entire trip.

 Family pic at the Magic Kingdom

With my princess