Time for T-Ball

There are some softball fields right next to Anthony’s school, so the last few Fridays the boys have gone over to play ball. I joined them one day to take a few pictures and ended up taking a TON. As you can see, it was a fun afternoon!

The following series of pictures cracks me up! Rather than tagging Daddy
with the ball, he threw it at him! Funny!

It would work better if his eyes were open, but he did hit the ball a few times!

It was a GREAT day at the ball park!

Basement Changes

Over the last month there has been a lot of work going on in the basement, although it really doesn’t look like too much has changed. There have been even more changes since these photos were taken, but here are a few shots that show what we have been up to, as well as a few of our purchases.

The bathroom with the bedroom behind it.

The plumbing is now ready for the bathroom sink!

We picked out this tile for the basement shower and I love it with our kitchen counter. I have been thinking about tile backsplash in the kitchen, but haven’t been able to figure out what I like. I may have just stumbled upon it….???

This was before the electrical work had been started. Now the majority of the can lights in those big boxes have been installed.

For the Bathroom sink

We picked up a couple of these lights for over the bathroom sink.

Helping with the demolition of one of the few “finished” walls we had in the
basement so that some electrical work could be done.

Can you tell he was having fun?!?

He thought it was pretty cool to be given a permanent marker to write on the wall!

The installation of all of the electrical is now in full swing and we hope to make a final decision about the fireplace this next week. With the crazy warm March weather we are having, it’s hard to think about buying a fireplace, but we’ll sure be glad next winter. Project in the basement continues!

Gotcha Day!

Today we are celebrating Gotcha Day - the anniversary of 5 years with Anthony! We are so lucky to have him as our son! Every year we have celebrated Gotcha Day by doing something all about him. We’ve had trips to the Mall of America, the Children’s Museum, the local bounce house place, etc. This year we were dreaming up some ideas for the evening of Gotcha Day (since it’s a school day) and then the birthday party invitation arrived. So, Anthony is off to celebrate a friend turning 6 while we reminisce about the day he was handed into our care in a parking lot in Minneapolis. What an amazing day that was. One we will never forget.

These pictures were taken last summer, but they definitely capture the spark that he is…

Photos taken by Krissy McCabe Photography

Love that boy with everything I’ve got.

Trip to St. Louis

Now that it is starting to feel like spring, I am ready to start planning a trip somewhere. With the work going on in our basement, our travel budget has been significantly impacted, however I am really hoping to convince the Mr. that it would be a great idea to take a road trip to St. Louis. I’m thinking that either July or October would work good with our schedules, but we’ll see if I can convince him.
Eight years ago we drove to St. Louis and spent a few days exploring – Forest Park, the Zoo, the Budweiser Brewery, the Arch, etc. before going to visit some of my family in southern Illinois for a few more days. When I think of that trip, I think about how much fun I had taking pictures of all of the animals at the zoo. For a free zoo, it was AWESOME! There are two of my favorite photos from the trip and they have not been edited. I’m not even sure what camera we used, but I’m pretty sure it was our first digital “point and shoot” camera because I remember downloading the pictures in our hotel room.


Wish me luck on planning this trip!!

Waiting to Adopt is Hard. Really Hard.

On March 1st we hit a milestone that, as a family, we were hoping we could skip. March 1st marked 2 full years that we have officially been “in the book” waiting to adopt #2. This means we had started the adoption process months earlier, in order to have fingerprints taken, background checks done and the Home Study completed so we would be ready to start waiting on March 1st. In the last two years we have had to update everything two more times, because it has to be completed yearly. More meetings with the adoption agency, more fingerprints, more checks written. Ugh.

Anyone who has adopted, or is waiting to adopt, understands the process, knows how long the wait is and how frustrating it is to prove that you will in fact be a good parent. It definitely feels like this waiting is never going to end...

Going into the process, we knew the average wait this time was around 2 years, however we also went in with high hopes. At least I sure did. We worked with the same agency a few years ago when we adopted our son, and our wait was much less – he was in our home just 6 months after going “into the book”, even though at that time the average wait was 18 months.

When we adopted the first time, we went into the book on Sept 23 and on March 1st we received our first call, from his Birth-Grandma. We arranged to drive to their hometown the following weekend (4 hours from where we live) to meet him, his birthparents and some extended family. That was an emotional day as we met both the little boy who would become our son, his birth-parents and his biological family. We were able to spend some time with him on both Saturday and Sunday and then a new type of waiting began. We felt like things had gone well, but we had to wait until the birthparents contacted our adoption agency for things to really move forward. Two days later, on Tuesday, his birth-parents contacted our adoption agency and made arrangements to meet in Minneapolis that Friday to sign the paperwork and transfer him to our care. Just fifteen days after that first phone call, we brought our son home on March 16th.

This photo is one of the first pictures we took on the way home on our very first day as his parents. We have not edited this photo – the look in his eyes is exactly what we saw. That expression just makes me melt...

During the days that followed we were blessed with some amazing moments as we began our journey as parents of an 8-month-old. Here are a few pictures from the first 4 days – he was HAPPY, but his happiness couldn’t compare to the joy we felt about finally becoming parents after trying for years.

It’s comforting to look back on these pictures and know that we will eventually bring another baby into our home, and will be able to experience these same joys again. But today, that moment feels so far away.

As we have passed our 2-year waiting mark, we are also creeping up on March 16th, a day for celebration - Gotcha Day for Anthony! On March 16th we will be celebrating 5 years since he has been home with us.

We will continue to wait until we are chosen by a birth-family, and will look forward to sharing our good news with all of you! Until then, we wait.