We have less than a week before our house goes on the market and we're all getting rather work-weary. We had lots of help from family and friends over the weekend and are truly grateful. There's no way we could do this alone. Pretty soon I'll share some pictures of the work going on around here. In the meantime, here is our work crew taking a voluntary reading break:
I just love it when they do that. (Joe realized the book was upside-down, in case you were wondering!)
We decided our work crew needed some training so Billy set them up with hammering practice.
I think now they will take their jobs more seriously and get some work done around here! By the way, did you notice the living room walls are no longer green? They are now "Vanilla Steam".
I tried to teach the kids to say "Happy Father's Day" and while no one got it exactly right, they were all very cute in their attempts. Throughout the day Mikea would say "Happy Daddy" and "Happy Day" when I reminded her.
now up to our necks in home improvement, plus we had to deal with a dead battery in our van last night. (Fortunately, at least for me, Billy was the one driving and no kids were with him.) We are living at Home Depot and Lowe's these days. Sometimes we take our work crew with us to the store, but as you can see from the picture all they do is goof off just like they do at home when they are supposed to be working.
Now that we've adopted Mikea, we are getting serious about our next life-changing event: selling our house and buying a bigger one. We live in a two-bedroom, 1100 sq. ft. home that barely contains two adults, three kids, and two dogs. We didn't anticipate getting so many kids so quickly.
The huge weight that has been sitting on our hearts the past 19 months has finally been lifted. Besides that, there's the relief of no more monthly reports, no more filling out medication logs, no more visits from case workers, and no more trainings to attend. We are finally a "normal" family! :)
Here's Joe hanging out on stage before the ceremony began. I am so proud of him - he was very well-behaved the entire day, even though we were out long past naptime.
This is the mad dash to get pictures taken with the judge. Since we had arrived at the Justice Center early we got seats up front and didn't have to wait very long.
Cousins! We were so happy that my sister Rebecca, her husband, and their two daughters joined us for our happy day. Lydia and Ruth are awesome with our kids and I know they are going to be great role models for Mikea as she grows up!Adoption day was both exhilarating and exhausting! We scrambled to get out of the house on time, left 15 minutes late, but still arrived 30 minutes early for the ceremony. Go figure. The kids became very restless before the ceremony began, and Mikea was crying when it was our turn. But she got quiet when we stood up to hear the judge say, "Your adoption is granted." Hallelujah!
Before the ceremony began, leis were given to everyone.
Here is the table of cupcakes and stuffed animals for the children. The kids who were adopted today also received lovely blankets made by a local Democrat group. (We won't hold that against them.)
Can you tell this is one happy girl?
Here we are with Judge Montemayor. We were excited that Nana was able to join us. She's Billy's grandmother and the kids' great-grandmother. (In other news, please ignore the location of Daniel's index finger.)
Our little sweetheart is now legally, officially, 100% ours! I will post pictures from the adoption ceremony later on, but for now enjoy the ones above, kindly taken and put together by our friend Jamie. Thanks, Jamie! And thank you to everyone who has been praying for us the past 19 months. Our prayers have been answered above and beyond what we ever dreamed! Praise God!
If you visit our household on any given day, you'll probably hear the words "no" and "mine" more than you thought possible. It was over a year ago that Joe's speech therapist taught him to say (or sign) the word "mine", and I guess it's no surprise that Dan and Kiki learned quickly what a useful word it is.
They use other words of course, like water, ball, doggie, etc. But lately I have been amazed at some other words they are starting to use. With Daniel, it was when he said "animal" at the beach. Dan is the least talkative of the three, so that's why it was such a surprise to us. Fortunately he doesn't seem to have the same issues Joe does with forming letter sounds, so we think he's just naturally quiet.
Yesterday I was feeling guilty about not doing enough art activities with the kiddos so I took a deep breath and brought out the paint. Joe did a great job and was remarkably conscientious about not getting paint here, there, and everywhere. (He has an odd tendency towards neatness. Odd to me, at least.)
To be expected, the other two were more interested in playing with the paint than actually painting.
Kiki was likewise covered in green and blue paint. 
Hmmm, so they look more like tigers. . . oh well. Dan and Kiki weren't really able to do much by themselves and somehow I ended up covered in glue when we finished, but they all had fun and that was the point!Soon this little cutie will be officially be our daughter!
We are almost certain we will be able to adopt on June 12.
Then I won't have to hide her pretty face anymore! It seems like every time I go to get the kiddos up from nap I have a surprise waiting for me. Last week it was Dan's crib pushed across the room and earlier this week I found Joe trying to climb into Kiki's crib (I think he learned his lesson because his leg got stuck between the slats and he had to be rescued).
The surprises also take the form of wardrobe malfunctions. Take Dan, for instance:
He's smiling for the picture, but he was near hysterical when I discovered him this way in his crib. The shirt was so twisted it was stuck and he could hardly move his arms.
Joe has also had some wardrobe mishaps of his own. This is what I found after nap on Tuesday:
Like Dan, he was also crying because he couldn't get the dress off by himself. I'm impressed he was able to even get it on. This incident led to our first discussion on gender-appropriate attire.
Kiki has clothing issues as well. But hers involve taking off her shorts and diaper and running around bare-bottomed; therefore, no pictures! :)
Life with our children continues to get more exciting by the day. Earlier this week Dan and Kiki decided to redecorate their windowsill and wall with orange marker and pen. Joe never did anything like that when he was their age. However . . .
Yesterday when I went to get the kids up from their naps this is what I found:
You are correct if you're thinking that doesn't look like the best place for Daniel's crib. Joe, who usually is very good about staying in his bed, decided to rearrange the furniture and took Dan along for the ride. I could tell by the laughter coming from the room that they all thought it was great fun.
And of course, they are fascinated by toilets:
So far all they like to do is watch it flush, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we have to call the plumber.
And while most days I have moments where I just want to run away from the screeching and screaming and fighting, every single day is also overflowing with laughter and joy and silliness and love. I am still awe-struck at the gift God has given us in these three beautiful children!
Yesterday was another one of "those days". You know - kids stripping naked and jumping on your bed, kids throwing food and plates at meals, kids bursting into tears when you put their shoes on to go play outside, and kids screaming at each other at the top of their lungs because they all want to sit on your lap at the same time. Throw in a dog peeing on your carpet and that pretty much sums up my day.
I knew Billy was going to be a little late coming home because he had an important meeting after school, plus he had a friend who needed cheering up and after the meeting they were going to Chili's to have a drink. No big deal. Of course I estimated in my mind how long all of this should take, and 15 minutes after I figured they should be finished and I didn't get a phone call from Billy telling me he was on his way home, I started to get irritated. I'm not proud I reacted this way, but hey, did I also mention that I had the kids all by myself this weekend while he was away on a retreat?? Anyway, when he finally did call I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was not coming home right away. And of course my irritation instantly ratcheted up a few more notches. Billy knew this would happen, so the next words out of his mouth were, "We found a baby." My brain was waiting for him to finish the sentence - a baby what? Dog? Squirrel? Possum? Opossum?
But no, it really was a human baby. Billy and his friend found a little girl wandering around in the parking lot by the dumpsters behind a Long John Silver's. She was about 15 months old, scraped up, and dirty. They took her inside the restaurant to see if they could find her parents and the workers told them she lives nearby and this was the third or fourth time she had wandered away. They gave her water and some ice cream while waiting for the police. The little girl's father showed up and was very remorseful about what happened. Billy and his friend gave statements to the police, who then escorted the little girl and her father home.
Needless to say, after hearing what happened I immediately felt ashamed of myself for the little pity party I had been throwing because I thought my day was so awful. My heart aches for this little girl and I hope this is a wake-up call to her parents to be more vigilant. I know kids can escape - Joe can unlock and open our sliding back door - but from this little girl's appearance and the fact that she had wandered away several times before, I fear she is not growing up in a safe and protected environment. I pray that things will get better for her.
I have no idea what they were doing, but the other day when we let the kids play in the sprinkler all they wanted to do was hold golf clubs and bubble wands towards it as if it were some magical force. They refused to run through it even though we showed them how.
We thought Joe might be ready for the next step in his journey towards independence: underwear. I think I was more excited than he was when we bought the underwear at Wal-Mart on Wednesday. (He chose Cars and Spiderman designs over Sesame Street). He stayed dry for about 3 hours on Wednesday afternoon/evening, but on Thursday morning I had to clean up 2 puddles within an hour. At that rate we would have run out of clean pairs before lunch.
So it's back to diapers for now.
I thought a quick trip to a local nursery to pick up a few plants would be a fun outing for me, Daniel, and Kiki last Friday afternoon. Billy and Joe were in Oklahoma over the weekend and to me this presented a great opportunity to get out of the house and do all the things I wish I could do but don't because of the hassle of taking 3 toddlers. Three is just too many, but two? Piece of cake! Or so I thought.
Here's what I didn't account for:
1. Little fingers ripping leaves off plants and petals off flowers? Check.
2. Four little feet jumping and splashing in water, soaking themselves and me? Check.
3. Little boy falling down on the sidewalk, scraping his head and getting covered in dirt? Check.
4. Little girl running away straight into the parking lot? Check.
Plus it was 100 degrees outside. When Kiki started to run away, I abandoned our wagon of purchases, scooped up both kids and took them to the van. Dan's shoe fell off, I grabbed it, and then dropped it. I was also trying to hold onto my receipt but it ripped and blew away. I was starting to feel humiliated. Fortunately a kind gentleman saw my plight and pulled my wagon over to the van for me while I was getting the kids buckled in. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Needless to say, I won't try that experiment again anytime soon.
As you might be able to tell from yesterday's Top 5 Beach Moments, Daniel had the most mishaps during our trip. In addition to falling out of the bed and dumping water on his head, he also became entangled in the tail of our kite. The wind was so strong he was unable to extricate himself from the situation. Unfortunately for Dan, his mother tends to photograph him in these situations before helping him out. 
Joe:
Dan:I've heard many stories about desperate parents who've had to improvise in diaper emergencies, rigging up makeshift diapers that usually include the use of duct tape. I've come close a few times, down to one or two diapers before someone can go out and buy more. I also have a pack of swim diapers from last summer that I figured would work in a pinch. I'm sure you already know where this is going. This morning during a totally unrelated experiment I discovered last summer's swim diapers are too small (we're going to the coast this weekend so I was trying them on to see if they fit. Ha ha not me, the kids!), and this evening when the tab ripped on the second to last diaper in the house, this is what had to happen:
In full disclosure, it was my husband who did this. I don't blame him, though. He made a diaper run once the kids were in bed and we now are fully stocked with 252 diapers.
I never would have believed it would be six months since we were free and clear to adopt Kiki and we would still be waiting. Last week's sicknesses caused the most recent delay because I had to cancel a developmental assessment that needs to be done before we can adopt her. Our new goal is to have everything completed by May 18, which is the next scheduled court date in her case. I just have to keep reminding myself that the adoption IS going to happen and remember how difficult it was a year ago when we had very little hope and to thank God that very soon Kiki will be ours!
