Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

Why we need another bathroom

The kids had a snow day today. Freezing cold outside and everyone in pj's watching cartoons this morning, so I thought I'd take a shower.

It went something like this:

Shower starts, and I'm enjoying the steaming hot water.

2 minutes in, Caroline enters.
Caroline: "Mom, the outfit Grandma gave me won't fit."
me: "What outfit?"
Caroline mumbles something I can't understand.

me: "What??" (straining to hear as I brush my teeth. Yes, I brush my teeth in the shower. Don't go there.)
Caroline(yelling): "The outfit for my American Girl doll."
me: "Okay, I'll check into it when I'm finished."

Two SECONDS later
Caroline: "Mom, it fits."
me: "Great. Now please leave." (Yes, I know. You can give me my mother-of-the-year award later.)

Two minutes later
Norah: "Mommy, Caroline won't let me play with (fill-in-the-blank-here)."
me: "I'll take care of it when I get out.

Two minutes later (see a pattern here?)
Will rips back the shower curtain and peers at me, erasing any shred of calm and decency I had left and hollers "HEWWO!"
me: "Hi Will. Shut the shower curtain please."
(He proceeds to use the restroom and then flush. TWICE. I holler, scalded from the hot water.)

Two minutes later
Caroline: "Mom, I know you said to leave, but is it okay if I come in to use the bathroom?"
me: "Sure." (I'm thinking....why not?)
Before I can say anything, she flushes.

No kidding. We *SO* need another bathroom.

Brave girl.

Despite the fact that neither of her siblings wanted anything to do with meeting Santa, she was determined to see for herself.

When asked what she wanted, she very softly answered, "nufing (nothing)". LOL!! That's not what I hear!

Date Day

Today I'm writing over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs about our tradition that we call "Date Day." Click here for the whole story.

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.