Little Bill

Will has not had an interest in the TV or cartoons at all. My girls were not tv children either, which I was pretty happy about. Will will watch sports with Jeffrey, but no interest in blues clues,or my personal favorite higgly town heroes.... I did want some sort of cute show to hold his interest for a half hour a day while I started dinner, or did dishes. Well, Jeffrey suggested we try Little Bill. I didn't even know how to find where Little Bill was or if it was still even on the TV. He looked it up on his magic tvoe and it was on NOGGIN. I had forgotten about NOGGIN and the cute shows it has. Jeffrey recorded it, and he was right, Will was fascinated with Little Bill.

I SCREAM YOU SCREAM

COLD FOODS WERE A PRETTY NEW THING FOR WILL WHEN HE GOT HERE. REFRIDGERATION IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED ON DUE TO ELECTRICITY GOING OUT OFTEN IN ETHIOPIA. IT WAS PRETTY CHALLENGING FOR ME TO GO WITHOUT ICE IN MY DRINKS FOR A WEEK WHILE I WAS THERE, AND I SURE DON'T TAKE ICE FOR GRANTED NOW!! SO ANYHOW, WILL HAS ACQUIRED A TASTE FOR COLD FOODS AND HE LOVES ICE CREAM. GOTTA LOVE THE 49 CENT CONES AT MCDONALDS NOW!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings , exhaustion, and sorrow, too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop her own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own. – Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons.

snakes, and turtles oh my

We found lots of critters in our yard today! A little baby paint turtle and a garden snake. Glad my kids are not afraid of these sweet little critters!!!

Cooling Off!

A good way to cool off! The girls put a sprinkler under the trampoline and had some fun "sister" time! On another note, Will and I headed to the courthouse yesterday to turn in his final adoption papers, pay fees, and get his readoption court date! We got our court date set for June 5th:) The courts work a lot faster here in the USA ! Not a long wait at all. Once we get his "official" birth certificate with his new name we can apply for our adoption reimbursement help from Jeffreys work! Thank you US BANK. When we were researching adoption, we were thrilled to find out his employer helped with financing the adoption. Now why doesn't my job, working for the state help? hmmmmmmm maybe because the education system can't even balance their own budget????

A first :)

A proud daddy moment for Jeffrey. Jacklyn broke her first string tonight on her racquet :) It was on a topspin backhand and pop went the string! Jeffrey was so happy it was in the middle, right in the racquet's sweet spot. Congratulations Jacklyn! This means her hit is getting harder and she is hitting more topspin:) Just what her daddy has been working on with her!

Tuesdays with Daddy

Will did his first round of 9 holes with Jeffrey today! He took a 2 hour nap in the backyard while we mulched some flower beds! We have a little golfer on our hands!

water park photos

Will telling us how old he is...... yes, he is 2, but soon to turn 3 on June 22.

Jacklyn's sweet girlfriends and her at the waterpark!

Our waterpark cake!

Could he look any more excited to be at the "big wooha"..(.big water)

A touch of what my camera can do and I'm still trying to figure it out. It's called color swap and I have to become an expert at it as I think it is so very cool! You take a color in the photo to accent the black and white. In this case it pulled the blue from the tubes!

Happy 12th Birthday Jacklyn

Will giving Jacklyn her birthday kiss. They both adore each other!

They warn you that the years fly by while your children grow up. So true. Hard to believe my Jacklyn (doodah) turns 12 today. I still remember clearly Jeffrey hiding behind my head while giving birth to Jacklyn. We are so very proud of our "oldest" child. We couldn't be more blessed to have her as our daughter.

Will and Jack posing for pictures in our flowering crabapple tree! Too beautiful! We had Jack's party at an indoor waterpark and fun was had by all. I'll post more photos of that later.

little Will little Will, how does your garden grow?

When we bought our current house 3 years ago the people who lived in it before us were big gardeners. Way too big of a garden plot for me to upkeep with 3 kids, so Jeffrey decided to just conquer a section of it and give it a go this year. It has great garden grade soil, so the soil is rich and doesn't need much added to it..... We started the garden today. Sometimes we can get glimpses of Will's past by what he knows how to do or what he is familiar with without us having exposed him to it. This digging in the soil and planting seemed to be something he was familiar with. He sure loved having a rake his size and carving away in the soil. We will see how successful we are at keeping the chipmunks out of the strawberries, tomatoes, squash, green peppers and pumpkins!

With it being Mothers day you can't help but think of Will's birth mom and the sacrafice she made giving Will up. Unfortunatly we don't even know if Will's birth mother is alive. That is one of the hard pieces of his being abandonded to take in. I do know that whoever did care for Will before he was taken to the orphanage did fill him with love. His blending into our family has been extremely easy. I have heard of adoptive mothers writing letters to their children's birth mothers every year on mothers day, so that is a tradition I am going to commit to, so Will may have a record of my thoughts and gratitude towards his mother.....I don't think a day goes by without my thinking of her.......

To our Little Will's mother,

I think about you every day. I wonder if Will looks like you, what you named him,...if you have his beautiful eyes and contagious smile.... I wonder if his personality is like yours, a little stong willed, but very loving and caring........I think about his first two and half years of his life and the life he may have lived with you. I know that he was very loved by you. I can just tell......it's a mom thing. Your son is a testament to the amazing mother you must have been. It often makes my heart hurt to know that my gain had to be your loss. In this lifetime we will never meet, for you were taken from your child(ren) before your time, but I know we will meet in the next life. I pray that I will have instilled the values and character in him that you would have done if you could have finished the job you started. I pray that he will go above and beyond the dreams we have for him.

I can't even imagine what your last moments with Will were. It is hard for me to even think of the pain you must have felt, knowing your only option was to leave him so he could live...I am thankful that you left him in a public place where he could be found and taken to an orphanage to be cared for after your doing the best you could with him for his first years of life.... I don't know what you would have thought about our family adopting Will. I'm sure it's not the plan you dreamed for him, and I am sad to know things are this way because we live in a fallen world. I want you to know that we are honored to be a part of your son's life and being his mommy,is a title I happily share with you. Adoption is what lead us to Will, and it was put on our families heart for a reason... We will do our best for this little man, and hope we will meet someday. I know God hand picked him for our family because of the circumstances that you were in. I do believe that with all my heart. I'm not sure if you are in heaven or not, but I hope that if you are you can look down on Will and see that he is thriving. He loves trucks, and cars, and jumping on his trampoline. He loves being outside! He has gotten over his fear of dogs and is now an official dog whisperer! He falls asleep in our arms every night and is loved by his sisters dearly. We read to him daily! He will start preschool in the fall and is picking up on his English very quickly. He drinks water all the time! Ice cream is one of his favorite treats! He loves to eat everything. He really loves his Ethiopian food, and we will continue to bring him to Ethiopian restaurants so he can love the food from his country. Hopefully I can master the art of Ethiopian cooking and make it myself someday! It is my hope that someday he will return to his country and help with his talents and motivation to make a difference...Happy Mothers Day to Will's first mom........who will always be in our hearts and thoughts as we raise this wonderful little boy.

Susan

I lost my husband last night

Before Jacklyn was born Jeffrey and I purchased our first bed back in California. We opted for the queen size since the adorable and my still very favorite house had a not so huge master bedroom. Well, little did we know that when our kids were born I could not let them sleep in a crib, or what I call jail, and both our daughters were "family bed"girls. Well, it was finally time to break down and get a new bed since the springs in our queen seemed to be digging into our hips! So yesterday, Will was thrilled when a huge mattress delivery truck pulled up in our driveway! He is a truck lover! Now we are the proud owners of a King size bed! Wow, those kings size beds are huge. Since Will starts his evenings with us, and many nights stays through the night we have so much more room! So much more room that we lost Jeffrey last night!!

Wills day

Yes, Oscar still gets a couple of photos taken of him every now and then. He is enjoying the sunny weather and being outside playing with all his siblings!

! One of the vehicles we see Will on often! His driving skills are incredible!

Licking his cheeto orange fingers!

A nutricious snack provided by mom!

I think I gave Will 60 underdogs today! My back is killing me, but it is worth it for the smile and laughs you get out of him!

updates

Just when you think you are done with all the adoption paperwork.....readoption sneaks up on you along with the post adoption home visits and letters every 3 months for the first 12 months Will is home. Wow, we already have had one post visit with the social worker and she is due for a second visit this month. We have to write up our own letter to send to our international agency along with some photos and they send this on to the Ethiopian government. We are in the process of readopting Will so we can change his name and birthdate. They really messed up on his paperwork in Ethiopia. His documents have his name spelled about 5 different ways and his birthday is different throughout. I had to write a letter to his international adoption pediatric dr. today to request his professional opinion letter on the age he believes Will to be. He said he would do this when I last visited with him, so the judge will approve Will's new bday. I have mentioned before we chose June 22nd as Wills day and he will be turning 3. Will's latest cute thing he did was................he was folding laundry with Jeffrey and Jeffrey was asking him whose clothes was whose and he was pretty right on with all of it. Well, Jeffrey held up a pair of Jacklyns sweatpants.....well Jacklyn is very, very, very thin and her clothes is pretty darn small, and my sweet, sweet boy said.........."mama's pants" Gotta love him. Yes, I have lost 12 lbs since he has come home, but I'm not even close to my little doo dahs (jacklyn's) waist. Our Jacklyn turns 12 next week. I even hate to type that..where do the years go???? We are having a waterpark (indoor) party for her at a local hotel. It should be a lot of fun.

Two friends were walking along the beach. The beach was littered with thousands of starfish that were drying up in the sun.As the 2 friends walked along,one of them bent down and picked up a starfish and carefully tossed it back to the sea. They could hardly walk without the man rescuing a poor starfish. As they continued , the other man asked his friend"why are you throwing these starfish back into the water? It doesnt matter , you cant save them all." The other friend smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish. He looked at his friend and held up the little starfish and he replied while tossing the starfish back to the sea " It matters to this one...................saw this and it reminded me of our Little Will. Our whole adoption process has made me look so differently at the world and what matters.
We got some great news today that Will is Malaria free! I can just imagine how much better he must feel now that he no longer has giardia and malaria. His stomach has gone down a lot, even though he eats a ton now! When we brought him home he was going to the bathroom about 24 times a day. Now we are down to about 6:) That in itself has been so wonderful. I'm ready to take on some more now!!! Not sure if the hubby is for that yet though...I'll give him a little time!