Kindy 500!

I got to help a little in Justin's class this morning. They did a "Kindy 500". All the students brought cardboard box cars that they helped their parents make at home. They drove them around to stations at the school where they learned different things about the United States. It was so cute to see all the boys and girls coming to school with their cars. They were so excited and so proud. I'm glad I got a photo of Justin before we left this morning, because the ones at school didn't turn out very well. They were so excited that they were moving too fast!

Here he is with his BYU car.

My only regret is that I didn't find a way to have him more involved. We did such a simple design that basically all he could do was help put on the vinyl lettering. Oh well. Live and learn.

I sure love this kid! I can't believe how fast he is growing up. It is still a little strange to have an empty house every morning. I don't know what I'll do if we don't have a baby before he starts first grade.

Dinosaurs in my kitchen

Tyler is definitely enjoying the present we got him for his birthday.

He has to chisel a dinosaur fossil out of a brick of sand and rocks. He's spent several hours at it so far, and he's not even close. Love presents like that!! We did make him clean it up last night though, because the debris was taking over the counter and spilling onto the floor.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

Tyler turned 9 years old yesterday. Are you noticing a pattern? I was a day late posting about Brandon's birthday, and I'm a day late posting about Tyler's. Luckily in real life I did actually celebrate their birthdays on the right day.

We spent Tyler's birthday with my parents. He wanted to see "The Lightening Thief", so we all went to the matinee. Then we had dinner and cake. I of course left my camera at home, so we have no photos of him blowing out his candles. We also left his presents at home. Am I mother of the year or what?

Lucky for me, since we left his presents here we got to come home and take pictures of him opening them. Wes was operating the camera, and I don't know what setting he was using, but every single photo is blurry. This is the best of the bunch:

Today I got to make a birthday poster and take it to Tyler's class with some treats. It was fun to spotlight him. He is such a cute kid! I am so glad he is in our family; he makes me smile every day. We love the heck out of you Tyler!!!

Hapy birthday Brandon!

Yesterday Brandon turned 15. I am still amazed and so grateful that he is such a mellow teenager. It has been a breeze to raise him so far. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

He played his last basketball game yesterday and my parents came down to watch. It was a very tense game and they lost in overtime. But he played really well, so it was fun to watch. I made cookies for him to hand out to his teammates after the game. Hopefully they made the loss a little bit easier. ;)

All he asked for was a German chocolate brownies, so we've had to get creative in the gift giving department. If he can't think of something he wants pretty soon, I guess we'll have to resort to cash. Boring, but always appreciated.


We love you Brandon, even if you are hard to shop for. :)

An answer to our prayers

As most of you know, we have been working with a birth mother over the past few weeks. We had three different phone calls letting us know that we had been chosen and would be getting a baby girl. Each one was followed with another phone call informing us that she a-wanted to go with another agency, b-called another family and told them she had chosen them also, and c-that she was considering doing a private adoption. Very emotionally exhausting!

After our initial phone conversation with the birth mother, every single conversation was about money. We felt like she was really in need, but her stories weren't quite matching up with what her case worker would tell us. We weren't sure if things were as desperate as she was making them seem. To make matters worse, she told us her phone broke and she could only text. It's pretty hard to build a relationship texting. (Plus it takes forever and I can't pushing all those tiny buttons for hours on end.)

We were totally fine with helping her out, but had to work through the agency. It is actually illegal for adoptive couples to send money directly to birth mothers. And for good reason. That's why there is always an agency or attorney involved. She didn't seem to understand this, so it was stressful for us.

On Saturday, we prayed that we would know if this baby is meant to be ours. If we should continue to endure the stress because it would be worth it in the end. Our prayers were totally answered. Sunday we got a text asking us how much money we could send for groceries every month. We texted back that we would have to talk to her case worker on Monday. Then we got ready and left for church.

When we got home, there were two texts waiting for us. The first one said that if we couldn't send the money, she would have to find a family that could. The next one (three hours later) said basically that it was just too stressful for her and she would need to find another family. When I read that last message, I felt a flood of relief pass over me. I felt like I had a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. Wes said he felt the same. We knew that our prayers had been answered and that it was time to move on. We texted her back that we understood and wished her the best of luck. I felt more relaxed that evening than I have for weeks.

We spoke to our case worker on Monday and told her what had happened. We told her that although it is a disappointment, we are totally at peace. We know that our little girl is coming, we just need to find her. She told us there is still a small chance that this baby could be placed with us, but that it is a good idea to move on.

So we are back to square one. But this has been an amazing learning experience. Our case worker told us that only about 1 in 10 placements is this stressful. So unless we have to try 9 more times, it should be much easier in the future! :)