Special Exposure Wednesday

Just one of the many perks of having a brother with special needs. Sensory swings in the basement.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Yeah. I'm so behind, it isn't even funny.

But I had to share these three cuties:

a wizard (Hermione, perhaps? She says no - she's Jenny Weasley. Love this girl.)

a doctor (Fitting, considering her time spent in the hospital.)

Wall-E (No comment here except that it was a victory that Will kept on a costume AND let me take a picture.)

The best news this year was that ALL THREE of my kids went trick or treating and enjoyed it. Now there's a huge accomplishment, and not something I take for granted. Norah, of course, had to keep up with the big kids. Will rode in a stroller for the first half and then, after feeling brave enough, got out and went to houses with dad. All in all, it was a good time!

He's ours!

Yesterday we got the call that our LOA reached the doorstep of our adoption agency. Today, we received a package from FedEx with an embossed document from China stating that our paperwork was in line, and they officially referred him to us. We signed it, accepting his referral, and off it went.

Next step was sending a copy of this document (along with many others) to immigration here in the US so that they can give us approval to bring Eli home. (Prior to this, they had approved us to adopt a 3-5 year old boy from China, unspecified. Kind of a preapproval, so to speak.) Their approval will travel back to China so that China can approve a visa for him. There's a few other documents along the way, but this is the gist of the rest of the process. Eventually, we will receive travel approval when all of this is finished, and then we travel approximately two weeks later. These small steps we have left will still take us to about February.

All of that aside, today we are celebrating! Eli is ours, maybe not legally adopted, but ours...waiting for us to come and get him.

Saying Yes

It's been a heck of a week around here. My two youngest kiddos have had a level of crankiness that has shaken any ounce of patience I had left.

So last night, when my oldest asked about using chopsticks with dinner, I was ready to say no, bark orders to sit down and start eating, but something stopped me. I got out the chopsticks and let the girls attack their food. By the end of the meal, we had gone through several mini lessons on how to hold the chopsticks and how best to pick up the food.

Norah preferred the two hand grab.


Caroline almost had it mastered. I was impressed!


Dinner turned out to be a whole lot of fun as well as the highlight of my day. Which made me think....How often do I tell our kids "no" when the answer can really be "yes"? Does anyone else struggle with this?