When to ask for help?

The pictures speak for themselves. Just genuine cuteness!

I know there are some other adoptive families that read my blog and I'll be curious to hear their take on this posting. Others can feel free to chime in too!

Nate and I have been asking ourselves questions about some of Julia's behaviors. It is so hard to know if her negative behaviors are a result of her age (almost 2), her gender, personality, adoption related or a mix of all of the above. There is a lot of adoption literature that explains how adopted kids will always struggle with feelings of anger/grief. Not all the time and not necessarily severe, just something adoptive parents need to have on their radar. That is great to know, but I am constantly questioning when is something adoption related and when is just your garden variety misbehaving child? :) And, the million dollar question in the adoption community, how is the child attaching to us? Does her behavior show that we need to work harder on attachment?

I should probably explain some of the behaviors she is having to give some perspective. We taught her to say, "stop," for when the boys are bugging her. However, she has morphed it into a very imperious sounding, "Stop It!," which she uses with Nate and I all the time. We are reminding her to say, "stop, please," so she can get her point across in a polite manner. The part that concerns me is that when Nate or I try to hug/tickle/hold her she pushes away and says, "stop it or (maybe) stop please." I am torn in these situations. I want to acknowledge that she asked in a nice way, but it also isn't good that she only takes affection on her terms, right? If she asks to be held it is ok, but not if we initiate. She doesn't reject our initiated affection all the time, just enough to make me worry. Again, is this just a normal age/personality issue or something we need to address? She also goes through really angry phases and where she does the exact opposite of what I ask. Actually, the doing the exact opposite thing is almost all the time. :) I was asking my Mom, "Is this what a mother/daughter relationship is like until they grow up?!" :) Ugh, I can drive myself crazy analyzing all of this stuff.

I did talk to our adoption worker and she suggested re-reading the Connected Child. She also said I may just need to remember Julia's age. Which is true, because she is so verbal and the third (fourth) child we tend to expect more I think. Our adoption worker also suggested meeting with an adoption therapist who could give us some perspective and new parenting tips. I seriously considered meeting with a therapist until I learned the cost. It would be $150 for the initial assessment and then $1oo for each 1 hour session. And, they can't tell you up front how many sessions you'll need. Ouch! So, for now, we'll do some reading and talk with other parents. I am also trying to just ignore the negative behaviors and not give her a reaction. I think that is what she is really trying for, some kind of reaction from me. Honestly though it takes serious prayer to not give a reaction all day. We are also doing time-outs on our lap. Any other suggestions? If things really do not improve or we're super stressed, we will talk to a therapist. I'm not against seeing a therapist, just want to make sure we really need it. ;)

I do want you to know that Julia brings so much joy to our family and we wouldn't change a thing! She is so smart and very verbal. She greets everyone with an enthusiastic, "Hi (insert name)!" I love getting her up from sleeping, she is so cheerful. I can not say my other children have been like that! Julia also enjoys helping. We have the boys take turns clearing the supper table and Julia insists on helping too. She is a social little girl and doesn't mind sharing her cuteness. I love the little happy dance/run she does and her smile is infectious. We love our precious Julia!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Decorating the real tree with our family ornaments
Adorable in pigtails
I like this picture b/c of the cute face she is making
Isaac enjoys "washing dishes" otherwise known as making a big watery mess
I took this picture and then Caleb threw that snowball at me when I turned around. Little punk.
It's marshmallow girl- I can't put my arms down!
Chilling in the fort Daddy made

Going for a sled ride
Opening presents from his teacher at the Kindergarten Christmas party


First of all, the Bulls game Nate and I went to was awesome! We had good seats and the game was alot of fun. At the end of the game, the Bulls hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer and sent the game into overtime. The Bulls then won the game- it was all very exciting! Scottie Pippen was at the game too! He was sitting directly across the arena from us and they showed him on the big screen. The night would have been perfect if Michael Jordan had been there too. Nate laughs at me b/c I cover my ears whenever someone tells me what Michael Jordan is really like. I prefer the hero I followed as a kid to the real person. :)

On the 11th we celebrated Julia's Family Day! She has been home for one year now. She has adjusted so well and we can't imagine life without her.

About that same time we had the stomach flu hit our house. Julia had it for the first time and it wasn't pretty. I wasn't prepared for how stuff gets stuck in girls' hair- gross. I then got the flu and had to call Nate home from work. Isaac had a mild version and we thought we were done. However, Caleb then got it and once again we thought we were done. About 3 days later, Nate got it. This is the most drawn out flu bug ever. Thankfully it was just the 24 hour bug and we recovered fairly quickly. I hope all of this sickness means that we will be healthy over Christmas. :)

The kids are enjoying this snowy time of year. Julia loves being outside, which is good because it takes about a half hour to get her snow stuff on. I am always proud of myself for going outside with the kids. I really don't enjoy it, but I know it makes them happy if I do it once and a while.

We have all of our Christmas decorations up and have been celebrating Advent every evening. I am slightly embarrassed to say we have two Christmas trees this year. A couple years ago we bought a pre-decorated tree for a charity event. The tree is pretty, but we can't put our family ornaments on it. And Nate really likes real trees, so we bought a 5 foot tree for the toy room. The other day we stopped at a friend's house and Isaac said, "Look Mom, snow poo!" I looked and realized he was pointing at a Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas decoration. Too cute.

Caleb had his church Christmas program last week. It was a fun program and he enjoyed singing the songs. His age group dressed up for the manger scene and originally Caleb was going to be a rooster. And he was excited about being a rooster. You all know Caleb doesn't do dress-up, but he was looking forward to this. The day before the program he found out he couldn't be the rooster because he was too big for the costume. He had to dress up as a sheep instead, he was not excited about that. :) But, I give him credit because he wore that sheep costume with a good attitude and looked pretty cute. But don't tell him I said that!

Christmas vacation has now started and we'll be off and running. On Monday we're taking the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I hope they aren't too young for it. We'll also spend the night with my grandparents and see some extended family. We celebrate our family Christmas on the 22nd and then leave for Pittsburgh on the 23rd. Nate's whole family will be there for Christmas! That means we'll have two family get-togethers with them in one year- that doesn't happen very often. We'll then drive to my parent's house on the 26th and have Christmas with my family on the 27th. (My sister will be home for that too- yay!) We'll have a couple days at home and then we'll head to my grandparents on New Years weekend for the Jongsma Christmas. And then school starts again! Can you see why I'm praying that we all stay healthy? :)

If I don't update before Christmas, I pray that you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth!

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. :)

The waiting game

Caleb's last soccer game for the fall season- brrr!
My Grandma Jongsma and my Mom

As many of you know, we received a phone call from our social worker last week telling us that we could get our travel call in the next 2-4 weeks!! We were a little surprised! Everything seems to be moving faster than we anticipated- which is a good thing, just unexpected. Our paperwork is done on the US side. We are waiting for Julia's visa interview in Korea now. Once they approve her visa we will get the call to come get her! Once they call us we have to arrive in South Korea within 7 days. We will buy our plane tickets once we get our travel call. We know which airline we will use (Korean Air) and that we will fly out of O'Hare on a direct flight. The flight is 13 hours long! I feel a little claustrophobic thinking about it. :{ No matter when they call us our plan is to fly out on a Saturday and fly back on a Friday. I'm praying we get our travel call early in the week so that I have a couple days to pack/prepare! We'll see what God has planned. The adoption agency in Korea (Holt agency) will make our hotel reservations for us, take us on a city tour, and help us line up a tour to the DMZ. When we're there we'll meet Julia and her foster Mom on a Monday. We'll then sightsee for a couple days and then pick Julia up on Thursday afternoon and fly home on Friday. I'm hoping when we're in Korea I can blog, but we'll see.

Julia's room is pretty much ready! We painted the walls pink. I have some pink and sage colored bedding and I bought a sage valance. We also found a really nice dresser for a good deal at a second time around furniture store. I still need some decorations for the walls and a little rug, but that will happen in the future.

Caleb had his last soccer game for the fall season on Saturday. The field was full of puddles, it was drizzling and freezing! It's hard to see in the above picture, but Caleb was covered in mud. The parents were a little miserable, but the kids had a great time! After the game we drove to Grand Rapids to eat lunch with some of my extended family that was visiting MI. I had to get a picture of my Grandma to post on my blog because she faithfully reads my blog. Hi, Grandma! :)

As I am writing this, I am watching a friend's little girl who is about Isaac's age. The two of them were coloring and Zoe must have done something Isaac didn't like. He then turned to me and said, "Zoe, in time out." Apparently in nursery at church he likes to tell kids what the rules are as well. I'm thinking Julia might have a bossy older brother. :)

Fall fun

The hand dryer was probably Isaac's favorite "toy" at the museum
Playing together again
The boys had a great time, it's hard to get them to look like it though for a picture!
The hay pile was Caleb's favorite part of the orchard
The perfect pumpkins!

Just a warning- this post will be long! The two weeks without Nate were a little tough, but manageable. Life just doesn't work as well without him here! :) This past week the boys and I saw Cardale. We met Cardale and Jenn at the GR Children's Museum. Cardale was confused when he first saw us, but then had a big grin. The boys enjoyed playing together again. Cardale was a little sad when we said goodbye, but that is to be expected. It was a fun morning for all of us!

Nate flew home yesterday. The boys and I met him at the South Bend airport and they were so excited to see Daddy! Our original plan was to drive to my grandparent's house and spend the weekend in Chicago doing museums, etc. By the time we finished eating supper, we decided to just drive home and then take the train into the city Saturday morning. When we got home Nate made the mistake of answering the phone. It was work calling and telling him he had to work the night shift Saturday! He was so mad! Actually we were both mad. His work has known for a month that he was just getting back from a WORK trip and that they needed to find someone to cover this shift. But no, they waited 21 hours before the shift started to find someone. Nate is at work right now and has vowed that if he has anything to say about it, this will not happen again to him or anyone else. :)

I digress. Since we couldn't go to Chicago we went to a local orchard. We ate some yummy cider donuts, went on a hayride, saw a petting zoo and picked out some pumpkins. Thankfully the boys weren't disappointed about not going to Chicago. They were just happy to be all together again.

I want to share some news about Julia too. Almost a month ago we received some medical reports showing she had an abnormal EEG. The doctors in Korea diagnosed her with partial seizures and put her on medication. Partial seizures are like "absence" seizures where kids kind of space out for 30 seconds and then wake up again. We met with our pediatrician and she fowarded the reports on to a neurologist for their opinion. We heard back from the neurologist and they felt Julia's EEG looked normal. Now, they can't say that 100% because they didn't have the whole EEG. They also felt the sunset eyes they documented in Korea shouldn't be a concern because that also correlates with increased brain pressure which then affects head circumference. The neurologist here thinks Julia's head circumference growth has been normal and not indicative of brain pressure. So, now that we've gotten some more info, I feel at peace about Julia. The neurologist here is more than willing to see Julia when she gets here, so that is good to know. We know Julia is receiving excellent medical care in South Korea and that God will lead us through whatever transpires. We appreciate your continued prayers for Julia!

Her name is...

We have named our daughter, Julia Cho DeMaster! (Cho in Korean means beautiful). We also received this updated photo. She is 4 months old in this picture. Her hair is pretty funny right now. And for some reason in every picture we receive, her pants are hiked up to her armpits. :) She is a cutie though! Hopefully we'll meet with our social worker this week to get our acceptance paperwork submitted. It's much harder to wait for Julia now that we have seen this new photo. Just want to hold her and kiss those cheeks!

Still working on a name

Yes, we are still talking about what to name our daughter. I would say we've narrowed the selection down to about 5 names, so that's progress! I made an announcement in church on Sunday to let everyone know we were adopting a baby girl. I am grateful that there are so many people who are excited for us. There are going to be a lot of people waiting to meet our daughter when she comes home. :) Anyways, after the service a Korean woman came up to me. She and her husband live in Chicago, but spend their weekends here during the summer. They travel to Seoul every other year to visit her family and she said if I needed help with anything to just ask. We're making connections without even trying, God works in every situation!

In other news, we switched Isaac's crib to a toddler bed. The first day went great. The second day I spent 1 1/2 hours putting him back in his bed during naptime. He thinks it's great that he can look out the window, bring toys in his bed, etc.:) When we switched Caleb to a bed, he never pushed the limits. To this day, he doesn't like getting out of bed in the morning until we come in the room.:) I knew Isaac would be a bit more challenging in this area, but eventually he'll learn to stay in bed, right? :)

This past weekend we had our annual college friends get-together. It's been 8 years running now. In the beginning we would rent a cottage or camp. Now that the majority of us have multiple small children, we've scaled back a little. On Friday night we had an adults-only dinner in Holland. It's always nice to have uninterrupted conversation and not have to cut anyone's food! On Saturday afternoon we all met at the beach. It is fun to see everyone's kids again. There was plenty of sand eaten and lots of sandy diapers to change, but a good time overall! I'll post some pictures soon!

Here she is..

Here is our little sweetheart! These pictures were taken when she was a newborn. She's about 4 months old now and hopefully we'll get updated pictures over the next couple of months. She is a healthy baby living with a foster family. We'll be sending a letter and pictures of us to the foster family soon. We met with our social worker today to go over our daughter's info and talk about the next steps. We will be sending in our acceptance documents after August 10. It's crazy the amount of documents you need to accept a baby! We'll travel 3-4 months after August 10- so we're thinking she'll be home by Christmas?! The timelines aren't set in stone, so we just need to be flexible.:)

We also learned today that we need to have a name for her when we send in our documents on August 10. That is like 2 weeks away!! I thought we'd have a couple months to think of a name, I'm feeling a little stressed right now! Please pray that we can agree on a name quickly.:)

It's a Girl!!

We received our referral today and we have a daughter!! We are so excited! Nate actually found out first and got to call me and share the news. I was crying on the phone. It was kind of crazy at that moment. I was at my parent's house watching the boys outside. The little boys were trying to run in the street, Caleb is yelling at me b/c my parent's dog pooped in the house and Nate was trying to talk to me. The neighbors must have thought I was crazy as I'm balling on the phone and yelling at my kids.:)

God's timing is truly amazing. Just this morning I was feeling completely overwhelmed with having 3 kids and telling God I couldn't go on with my own strength. Then we get this huge answer to prayer! I guess God is telling us we can do it, but only with His strength. I still can't believe we have a daughter! Nate and I knew there was a chance we'd get a girl, but we didn't want to be disappointed with a boy- so we convinced ourselves we would have another son. Craziness!!

We will meet with our social worker tomorrow to get more details. We've seen her picture and she's cute as a button! We'll share the picture and more details when we're allowed to. So, our little girl will be coming home in 3-4 months. Now we need a name!

Reading Frenzy

Playing with Grandpa DeMaster- April 2009
They prefer playing in the bins instead of with the toys

I received these pictures from Nate's Mom, so I thought I would share them. I just completed my latest reading frenzy. I finished the last book in the Twilight series last night. My family just breathed a sigh of relief. No longer will I be trying to read every chance I get, at least until my next good book. It's funny how many adults I've talked to who are also reading the series. However, we're all slightly embarrassed to admit it.:)

We also received an update today on our adoption. We are number 11 on the waiting list! I don't know what to think. Our adoption worker kept saying, "I'm so excited for you guys." And I kept saying, "I'm just so surprised." There were 11 families that received referrals in the month of May, which is a really high number. It is HIGHLY unlikely that there will be that many in one month again. It's usually 2-3 families per month. So, it could still be September or later when we get our referral. It's just hard to predict. I just don't feel ready yet for our baby. I feel like a pregnant woman who suddenly realizes the baby is actually coming and doesn't feel prepared. I kept telling myself we'll have a couple of relaxing months between Cardale leaving and our new baby coming. And, most likely, we'll still have those months. However, the adoption is starting to seem very REAL right now. Exciting and scary. I'm so glad we can trust God with the timing of everything. He knows what is best for our family. So, keep us all in your prayers!

Needed: Your stuff!

I am putting out a call here to everyone I know for some help! We are hoping to do a huge garage sale this summer to raise money to bring baby DeMaster home!! I think everyone knows that international adoption is quite pricey. We need to come up with about $16,000 this year. I struggle sometimes with sharing that figure just because people feel funny talking about money. But, I want people to get the real picture of adoption- sometimes it isn't cheap. However, we serve a BIG God who can easily provide these funds. We just need to do some work too.:)

So, we are asking you to save your stuff and donate to our garage sale. Kids items/clothes are usually in high demand, but we'll take other stuff too! Also, if any of you have experience doing a garage sale- I need some advice! I've never done a garage sale so it seems intimidating. If any of you have other fundraising ideas we could try, let me know.

On a side note, I have to share what happened with Cardale yesterday. I made grilled cheese for lunch and decided to cut some up into little tiny pieces and offer him some. He ate it! I was so happy! I sometimes think he isn't progressing at all in his eating and then he has little breakthroughs. I'm trying to remember that slow and steady progress is still progress.:)

Korean party

This past Sunday we went to a Korean New Year party. The party was organized by an adoption support group. Most of the people there have adopted children from South Korea. The location of the party was kind of funny. It was in the basement of an Oriental store which wasn't bad of itself, except that the basement was tiny! There were about 20 of us trying to eat Korean food (with chopsticks) while standing and trying to make conversation at the same time.:) But, it was still fun! We tried most of the food and it was really good. Nate and I weren't brave enough to try the seaweed wraps. Something about eating seaweed just seems odd. We took Caleb with us and left the babies with a babysitter. Caleb didn't try any of the Korean food, but he had fun. We mostly wanted him to meet some kids who had been adopted from Korea. Most of the families there had adopted their children with Bethany's help. We met a couple who had just welcomed home their son 6 weeks ago. He was an adorable 10 month old. It was really interesting to hear how they were all adjusting. If Nate and I are honest, deep down we want a little girl. However, seeing such an adorable baby boy made me realize I would love another little boy too! We also met two couples who are a couple months behind us on the waiting list. We're excited to have some local adoption connections.

Random posting

During the week I usually think of things that are blog-worthy. However, they are usually a little thought or story that is not long enough for a full post. So, this post is going to be a compilation of various things.

First of all, Caleb went on his first friend sleepover last night! This was a very big deal for me and I was nervous. Caleb was not worried at all. I think it helped that his friend had already spent the night at our house last month. Nate and I had to be in Grand Rapids very early this morning to get fingerprinted for the adoption. We wouldn't have been able to bring Caleb to school, so he spent the night with his friend and went to school with them. It sounds like he had a great time. The only issue was that they boys took a long time going to sleep b/c they were laughing so much. That kind of problem I can handle.:) When I dropped Caleb off last night I was talking to my friend. Caleb ran by, saw me and said, "Mom, why are you still here?" I laughed. It's starting already!

I think I witnessed one of the most boring jobs ever today. We had to go to a special citizenship and immigration office to get fingerprinted. The work environment there is so depressing! There are tons of chairs lined up in a big room with little work stations along the wall and no decorations or background music. The employees stand there taking fingerprints ALL DAY LONG. Nate and I agreed we would go crazy working there. I know someone has to do that job, thankfully it's not us!

Another random thought, clothing stores should only sell little boy pants with REINFORCED KNEES! Caleb has gotten holes in so many pairs of pants this year. He received a brand new pair of cargo pants for Christmas and had holes in the knees by January. Yes, Mom DeMaster, it was the pants you gave him.:( Thankfully my mother and mother-in-law have been kind enough to patch all of his pants. He recently got holes in a pair of jeans that had already been patched. He informed me the patches needed to be fixed. I said, nope we are not patching patches.:) Now we need patches for the cargo pants.:) I bought a pair of jeans with reinforced knees, we'll see how long they last....

I just finished a very interesting book. It's called Seed from the East. It was written in the 1950's about the Holt family. They felt called by the Lord to help children in Korea after the Korean War. They were 50 year old farmers who had 6 mostly grown children and they felt God calling them to adopt. They adopted 8 children under the age of 4 at one time! They then continued helping children in Korea and eventually the Holt Christian adoption agency was started in Korea. This agency has been around for 40+ years and is big in South Korea. Bethany does all of their Korean adoptions thru Holt. Anyways, the writing in the book isn't great but the story deeply impressed me. It's so amazing to see how God worked thru an ordinary couple to change the lives of so many Korean orphans and how their faithfulness has trickled down over 50 years. Because of the steps of faith they took, we can have our own adoption story. God is amazing.

Another book I just read is called I Wish for You a Beautiful Life. It is a compilation of letters written by Korean birth mothers to children they gave up for adoption. The book is informative and heart-wrenching. It explains the Korean culture more and why having a baby out of wedlock is so shameful. Reading the letters also gives us a glimpse into how our baby's birth mom may be feeling. It will not be an easy decision for the birth mom and we pray that she feels God's presence and has people supporting her. It's exciting to think our baby could be born in March or April, but we feel for the birth mom as well. The baby's birth will be a bittersweet day that she will never forget.

Catch Up

Hello countertop! This area is now bottle free.:)

Caleb test driving Cardale's new trike. Such a good big brother.:)

We acquired 3 xylophones over Christmas. The boys are starting a xylophone trio.

Well, the Christmas break is ending. Caleb has missed school and is excited to go back on Monday. The boys enjoyed seeing so many family members over the past two weeks, and we didn't even have to travel much! Our family room is now covered in new brightly colored plastic toys.:) We have double of many toys as Cardale will be taking his with him when he leaves our home. The kids got over their sicknesses and we were all healthy over the holidays.

You may wonder why I took a picture of my countertop. I had a moment where I could visibly witness a parenting milestone and decided to document it. Cardale is now off the bottle! No more making bottles, washing bottles, traveling with bottles- can you tell I'm excited?! I now have a little square of counter that is no longer continually covered with bottle paraphenalia.

In other news, almost everyone knows now that we are adopting! We are adopting a baby from South Korea. We do not know the gender, but the baby will be between 9-12 months of age. We hope to be matched next fall and hopefully will travel to South Korea in December to pick up our child! We are very excited, but it still seems a little unreal since it's a ways off. We started this process with Bethany in the spring. There was a lot of paperwork and social worker visits this summer, but now we're just waiting. If you have any questions, feel free to ask- we love talking about our adoption journey!