Grandma!

Enjoying some time at the park

Playing Settlers with Dad
This is probably the cutest picture ever!
Using the "sunbrella" at Caleb's soccer game
A great week with Grandma!

Nate's Mom stayed with us for a little over a week. The day after she arrived, I went to Boston for the weekend. I then spent the rest of the week quite sick. Everyone knows that when Mom gets sick, the house falls apart- especially if Dad is working crazy hours too. :) But, Grandma was here and it was so helpful! I went grocery shopping and realized we were also getting laundry done and the house cleaned because Grandma was around. Such a treat! The kids enjoyed having Grandma's undivided attention. They read lots of books, did art projects and played outside. She also went on a field trip with Caleb's class. Mom and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Steven's sons have a band called 'Caleb' that played some songs. Then Steven played some of his oldies and new songs. Steven's wife, Mary Beth, then spoke about their family's journey over the past two years after the death of their daughter. I actually heard her speech at the orphan conference I attended, but it was still moving. The Chapman family is a big supporter of adoption and orphan care. I ran into quite a few people I know from the local adoption community at the concert. It seems like Mom's visit flew by! Thank you again for coming, we all enjoyed your visit!

Hopefully the outage will finish up next week. We're all ready for that.

Robin's wedding

Beautiful Bride
Robin, Ricardo and her parents
Friends since high school!
Deb and me- I look a little sick :)

This past weekend I flew to Boston for my friend's wedding. I've known Robin since high school. I stayed with Deb and her family for the weekend and had fun hanging out. Traveling was not fun. I came down with a horrible cold a couple days before I left. I was coughing and sneezing all over the place, not pretty. I sounded so horrible that Amy's (Deb's sister) kids were afraid of me! I didn't spend alot of time with Robin because I didn't want to get her sick before her honeymoon. I did get out on the dance floor for awhile. It was a short weekend and most of it was in a fog. :)

Nate's Mom is visiting for a week so she watched the kids while I was gone. I am so thankful she is here. It has been a huge help what with me being sick and Nate working long hours. The kids are enjoying Grandma's visit too!

Zoo Day

Chicago skyline on a beautiful day
Aunt Steph and the kids

Soccer star Caleb

This past Thursday and Friday Caleb didn't have school. My sister and I took an impromptu trip to Chicago with the kids. We spent Wednesday night at my grandparent's house and then went to Lincoln Park Zoo on Thursday. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! The zoo is free which is a nice bonus. You make up for it in parking, but that's ok. The zoo is quite large and has a good variety of animals. The kids really did awesome. My sister is moving to Denver in a couple weeks so we won't have too many more trips with Aunt Steph. I'm super proud of Steph and excited for her, but I'm also really sad. I'm going to miss having her nearby.

This weekend I visited my parents. My Dad had his surgery earlier in the week and it was successful! He is doing amazingly well. He has about a month recovery time, but he's able to get around and feels ok. Thank you for your prayers!

Caleb is playing soccer again this year. There have been some cold mornings at the soccer field this fall, but he has fun. Nate's power plant is in an outage again. They happen every 18 months when they shut the reactor down, refuel and fix as many things as possible in 4-6 weeks. He's working 4 days on, one day off. The days average about 13 hours. I'm thankful he's on days and not nights. We're all just making the best of it and waiting for November. :)

Funny little story about Julia. After Isaac used the bathroom today she started pulling on her pants and saying, "potty." I put her on the toilet and she didn't do anything, but still I was impressed. The boys had no interest in the toilet at 18 months. I'm not planning on potty training her anytime soon though. :)

Isaac is getting excited about the idea of going to school next year. He talks often about when he gets to go to preschool. When we visit my parents' church they have a program for Isaac's age group. He loves going to his own class and making a craft, having a teacher, etc. He was upset because I pulled him out of the program early so he missed some of the singing and couldn't take his craft home. The nerve of me! :)

Something else I've been thinking about recently. Through a Korean adoption forum I read about an American adoptive family getting to meet their child's birthmother in Korea. This hardly ever happens in international adoptions. As I read this Mom's opportunity to meet her child's birthmother I found myself feeling jealous. I used to think the nice thing about international adoptions was that you didn't have to interact with the birth family. My mind is changing though. I would love an opportunity to meet Julia's birthparents. I want a chance to get to know them. Which parts of her personality come from her birthparents? If I saw her birthmom, would I get a glimpse of what Julia will look like when she's older? I think Julia would also appreciate having more information about her birth family. I was thinking I would also be extremely nervous about meeting her birthparents. What would they think of me? Would they be happy she was in our family? So many interesting thoughts and questions.