Cardale's Birthday, Family, and Big News!

The boys having fun together
Blowing out candles on the Elmo cake
Isaac, Caleb, Jack, Uncle Mike and Aunt Colleen
Jack all bundled up to go outside

We met up with Cardale's family, my parents and sister to celebrate Cardale's 2nd birthday. I am so grateful we are still in Cardale's life! When he turned 1, I remember thinking we probably wouldn't be celebrating his 2nd birthday with him. But, God has better plans than we can ever imagine! I made an Elmo cake for Cardale. Kind of 2nd birthday tradition now. And I wanted to make up for the sorry 1st birthday cake I had made for Cardale. :) Overall, everyone had a fun evening!

The day after Thanksgiving, Colleen and family came to our house. They are leaving tomorrow. We've had fun visiting with them and the boys are very cute together. We took the boys to the GR Children's Museum and had a good morning.

And the big news, we got our travel call today! It was such a good phone call to get. I was so excited and couldn't think straight. :) We are flying out of O'Hare this Saturday and flying back on Friday, the 11th. I have alot to do in the next couple of days! Julia, here we come!!

November- still waiting!

To sum up these past few weeks- we are still waiting for the travel call! I have to be honest, this has been frustrating. I'm a planner and not knowing when we are leaving is a little stressful. But, I am trying to keep busy. I have almost all of our Christmas shopping done. I don't think I've ever been done this early before! Once Julia is home, I'm guessing there won't be much time or energy to shop. I also went to visit a college friend in Ohio this past Monday- Wednesday. Nate is off this week so I was able to go without the kids. I enjoyed spending time with my friend, Beth and her family. Her youngest, Clara, is 6 months old. It will be fun to have daughters so close in age! Julia is 8 months old now.

On Tuesday night, Nate got a phone call from our social worker at 10 pm. He was a little surprised, but it wasn't the travel call. :) She was telling us to look for a document in the mail on Wednesday that we needed to sign, notarize and drive to the Grand Rapids office on Thursday morning so the form could be mailed back to Korea on Thursday afternoon. Julia had her visa physical in Korea and the physician noted that she had a hemangioma on her scalp. They then need the adoptive parents to sign a letter of acceptance basically saying, yes, we still want our child. Seems a little silly, but they have to make sure everything is legit. We already knew about her hemangioma and have seen pictures of it. It's like a raised birthmark under her hair. Not a big deal, but we'll sign whatever we have to and drive all over MI to get her home! So, our social worker is hopeful that the form will arrive in Korea by Monday and MAYBE we could get our travel call by Tuesday or Wednesday??? I am trying to strike a balance between being really excited, but also not getting my hopes up. Have I said this waiting game is difficult? :) I know once Julia is home though, the wait will be worth it!

In the past couple of weeks Nate and I have helped out in Caleb's classroom. He enjoys school so much and is learning alot. He is very close to reading. He is learning some phonics and is excited that he can sound out some words! We have started taking Isaac to the Dash and Splash program at the gym. He is a little young, but does well if we stay with him. He needs a little help following the teacher's directions. :) He likes the scooters during the gym portion and is actually learning quite a bit in the swimming portion. Isaac is still our silly, snuggly child. He has adjusted to Cardale being gone, but he still doesn't play alone well. He prefers to follow me around and do whatever I'm doing. Isaac has also started the "scared of the dark" phase. We leave the hall light on now when he goes to bed and he's been waking up more at night and having a hard time going back to sleep. I remember when Caleb went thru this phase. I thought it wouldn't be an issue for Isaac since Caleb is in the room with him, but I guess I was wrong. :)

October 31

Grandparent's Day at Caleb's school- he really had fun, he's just making a funny face :)
Air Zoo museum in Kalamazoo- they had a room for kids and the rides are free!


Pilot Isaac ready for takeoff
Caleb enjoyed playing in the plane cockpits
This was the first carnival type ride for the boys, Caleb liked it, Isaac not so much
We were shocked when Caleb agreed to go on this ride! He liked it too!
Caleb was a soccer player this year, so really he went as himself :) Didn't have to buy costumes though! Like the Green Bay pumpkin?
Post trick-or-treating loot.

This past Friday was Grandparent's Day at Caleb's school. My Mom was excited to attend. The school served breakfast to the grandparents and the kids put on a program. The school dismissed at noon, so it was an even better day for Caleb!

Nate didn't have to work this weekend so we took full advantage of that! On Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends. We haven't done that in a while and had a good time. On Saturday we took the boys to the Air Zoo museum. The museum has free admission until the end of December if anyone wants to go! You just have to pay for some of the rides at the museum. The boys are too young to appreciate looking at all of the airplanes, but there were enough things to catch their interest. Saturday night was trick-or-treating. The boys had easy costumes, yea! It was freezing last night, so the trick-or-treating didn't last long. Many of our neighbors weren't home, but that is ok. I figure it's better for all of us if the boys don't get alot of candy. :)

No word yet on our travel call. We'll keep you posted.....