Conversations with Maddie

As I was doing Maddies hair this morning she asked if she could sleep at Tamis house.. I laughed and said no and she asked why? I told her there are no girls there for her to sleep with and she said Why? I told her she can only sleep with girl friends and not with boy friends and she asked of course WHY? I told her you have to be married to sleep with boys (not a conversation Im ready to have with her) and she said I AM married! LOL Well I said no for real married and she said again I AM for real married!!
She cracks me up and really believes that her and Silas are married! Tami and I were talking today that we have to watch them carefully because they will probly end up being the most educated of our children in the parts department. Growing up with each other for this long they have done some pretty funny things together and we always realize when they are quiet that we better run and check on them.... they have NEVER done anything body wise that would be naughty but Im just waiting for that day!
Something else I wanted to write about was Maddies new sense of humor. Her new favorite thing is to play jokes on us which mostly entails Im just kidding! For example... When she yells that she is done in the shower I go and turn off the water and she will say O I forgot to wash my hair and I will go to turn back on the water and she will yell Im just kidding! OR she is always the last at the dinner table... she is not a good eater so when she brings me her bowl she will put it behind her back and say I was to full and then will wait for my reaction and yell Im just kidding. OR if she is supposed to be cleaning or doing a chore she will come to me and tell me she cant do it and I will about to be mad and then she will yell again Im just kidding!
Shes a fun girl to have around! She has a very good sense of humor and loves to use it with all of us!!

What a blessed week! (Sunday update)

Well I think most of my readers have seen our great news that we had this past week! First we got brand spankin new photos of Malia along with a video!! Myra and her husband went to Korea to pick of their precious daughter and had told me before they left that if they could that they would get us some photos so Wednesday morning when we woke up I checked my mail and saw that I had an email and she was ready to send us our photos! What a wonderful day that was we all cried and cheered and looked at those photos and video more than 100 times for sure. I wake up every morning now and watch the video a few times before I can move on with my day. I have her photos up all over the house also, one is in my bathroom and I can sit and put on my makeup and have her watching me!!

We also got our much awaited LEGALS!! Legals are a huge deal because it is the Korean paper work that needs to be matched with our paperwork with USCIS so we can now move forward and start getting the last approvals of everything we have left! I believe we have about 2 months of waiting left BUT time lines are NEVER what you think or want them to be.. we could still be 5 months out Im just praying that isnt the case and things move quickly!!

We then on Friday got a new medical update!! She is weighing in at 18.5 lbs and hasnt gotten much taller so she seems to pretty much be holding steady right now. The doc said she is cute and active! She has 6 teeth (SAD) and says omma (momma) and dadda! She is so on track with all of her mile stones which I find amazing! We really thought when adopting from Vietnam that we were going to bring home a baby that was going to be quite delayed... but with the amazing care she has gotten in Korea she is doing so great I mean come on you all saw those chubby arms! Shes just gorgeous and OOO the hair! I was almost asleep last night when I started thinking about her hair and how cute all the flower clips and bows were going to look and all of a sudden I couldnt fall asleep I just get so anxious and excited thinking about getting her home I just cant sleep!

So that was a HUGE week. We have had months and months with nothing and to have 1 week with so many awesome things happening it was like Christmas in the adoption world. We just cant wait to get her home and feel so blessed to be getting so close, we just keep hoping and praying to get her home before Oct 6th (her b-day) but if it doesnt happen we will have a big ol celebration when she does get home anyways! Love you baby girl!!

TOURNAMENT

Kaden had his big baseball tournament this weekend! It was so much fun and his team did awesome! We started out 11th out of 22 teams, and Friday beat our first team. Then today won our first two games sending us to the semi-finals. We were up against the best team there was in the league they have never lost a game so we knew it was going to be a hard one to beat.

Well the boys came out with all fire and we held them for awhile and was tied 2-2 but they got ahead of us in one inning and ended up beating us. They boys were really bummed but we were all so proud of them for a job well done! They played with great attitudes and huge hearts. We had excellent coaches which was a big boost this year!

Kaden played great but didnt have the best luck at bat... he ended up getting hit twice and walked all but once so he was really bummed but he took his hits and his walks like a man and shook it off each time, and he made some great plays in the outfield.... he caught a pop fly and was so excited he started running and pumping his fist, it was really cute! We are so proud of him for the sportsmanship that he plays with!! It was a very hot day in the 90's and playing all dang day was ruff but it was so much fun!! Maddie was the team cheerleader and of course enjoyed all the attention that came along with that. She makes a great cheerleader, she is very loud and excited even if its the other team doing something good!

*Now its over and I am ELATED!! A two week break and then football starts YIKES!

Legals baby!!

We got our legals today!! Now hoping that we have filled out everything correctly we should be done with the paper work!! WOOHOO! I was so excited to see the Fedex man today I nearly gave him a squeeze!! The legals where really neat to see they had stuff in english and then originals in Korean. Then we had to fill out the I600 which is a petition for a specific orphan. We hurried to fill them out took 3 different print outs though and then I just got back from Fedex. I feel very excited I cant even explain what this last step means to me.
After getting photos and video this week and mailing off this last set of stuff it has been just the best week ever!! I cant even tell you how many times that video has been watched... we just push play play play play time after time all in a row. I just love her little giggle and her smile just melts my heart and gives me the warmest feeling! To know that we are really getting so close feels amazing! So now we wait for some approvals we need her visa and EP and some other things have to happen I not positive what order things happen but hopefully it happens before her her b-day!!

Photos of Malia!!!

Ok the most sweet loving family got us these photos of Malia!! They are in Korea right now getting their daughter and had told me if they were allowed that they would try to get us some photos of Malia. When I checked my email this morning I right away got teary seeing that I had a message from her saying they had photos AND video of baby girl!! I cant show the video for respect of the caretakers but I can share these sweet photos of my baby girl!! Isnt she so sweet! AND CHUNKY!!! LOVE IT!!

The I just woke up face!

She was a little frightened by Myras hubby but boy do I adore this photo!! Just melts my heart
The sweet caretakers were so excited you can see here where they are fixing her hair for photos
Myra said that when they got there Malia was sleeping but they were excited that they were there for photos of Malia for her Omma (momma) that they woke her up and hurried to straighten her dress and fluff up her hair! LOVE IT! She said that the toys we had sent were in her crib also!! I just cant thank you guys enough for doing this for me, it really has meant the world to us and we will be staring and watching these videos all day for days and days to come! She looks so different from her tiny baby photos that I have had there is no way I would have recognized her now. She looks so healthy and I am so impressed with the recreation center and how nice and clean everything is. I will never be able to thank her caretakers enough. Boy do I feel blessed today my goodness!

There are 2 videos but we have only received the 1st one so far. But it has her giggling with her caretaker... how sweet is that and then it shows her get shy when Im guessing she sees Myras hubby!! Cant wait for the second one!!!

I just cant explain how much I love the little girl my heart just flutters looking at these photos and I just cant wait to have her in my arms!

David Archuleta - Be Still My Soul

Be Still My Soul/ Sunday Update

This is my absolute favorite hymn... it has gotten me through some of the hardest days. The words all ring so true. Here are the words for those of you not familiar with it.

Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side; With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change he faithful will remain. Be still, my soul; Thy best, thy heavnly Friend. Thru thorny ways leads through a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as he has the past. Thy hope thy confidence let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul; The hour is hastning on When we shall be forever with the Lord, when disappointment , grief, and fear are gone. Sorrow forgot, loves purest joys restored. Be still, my soul; When change and tears are past. All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

That last line is my favorite and when I really take in all the words meanings I feel so blessed to know that Malia will be home very soon safe and blessed! I feel so blessed and happy this week that we had MAJOR progress with Malia getting here. First on Wednesday we got the official referral which came with all sorts of paper work to be filled out. Thanks to Tirsa who once again helped us out with everything we needed to be notarized! LIFE SAVER! Also we learned on Wednesday that Holt has our legals is what they are called and from what I understand it is the Korean side of paper work which usually doesnt come until even up to 2 months or so after your approval. I was ecstatic!! What a huge jump we got with that. So on Thursday we over nighted our paperwork to Holt and they got it Friday morning so we are hoping that we will have our legals in hand on Monday?? We will fill out another form and mail it in and then I think really just be waiting for the US side to do their thing to approve her to get into the US and come home to her family!! We just cant wait to snuggle her! I got to snuggle with Jude last night while he slept and it was exactly what Ive been waiting for with Malia its so nice getting to practice with Jude, he is a good sport!

Ive been getting asked now that we have this part done how long are we expecting... that is such a hard ? because we are always wrong BUT I think it could be as soon as 2-3 months or still as long as 5 but of course Im hoping for 2-3!! Love my baby girl and I want desperately for her to be home for her Birthday!