Has it been a year and a half already?

I always like to look at before and after photos of different things to see the changes. Changes in rooms, or haircuts etc... But the changes we see in our little man from just a year and a half often take my breath away. The first two photos in this trio I took of Will yesterday. Yes, the last photo in this trio is a referral photo we got of Will. There is 2 years difference in the photos as his referral photo was taken in June 08, but I am still amazed. Lets see, in a year and half Will has been to the Ocean twice, learned his letters and sounds, is doing simple addition, can ride a two wheeler, is amazing on the trampoline, has mastered Mario bros on the Wii, and has moved from WI to NC. He always goes with the flow and adapts to new situations so easily. The determination this little guy has when he wants to do something continues to amaze me. I think the hardest thing about Will's adoption has been resting on me. It's not something I thought about too much during the adoption process, but something I think about daily since Will has been with us. It is his birth mother and the hole she must have in her heart and because of the hole in her heart the hole in my heart was filled. She may not even be still here on earth, but either way.....she had to say goodbye to this blessing and that whole situation challenges me daily. Why in this day and age people have to live like they do. Starvation and AIDS, corrupt government. I haven't put my finger on how I will make a difference yet.... Yes, I plan on going on some missions with the girls at some point and there is child sponsorship, but is the cycle ever going to end. Can it get better? Just food for thought.

We're still here!

Out of town guests,including Winston the bulldog, back to school commotion (they started back on Wed) Jeffrey left for banking school in Washington on Sunday and will be gone thru labor day, and a little time for boating have been keeping us busy. Jeffrey's sister came up from FL with her two kids and husband to keep us company for a week while Jeffrey was gone. She left yesterday and we are getting things in order. We had a good time doing a variety of things including some boating and tubing on Lake Norman. I'm learning how to maneuver the boat in and out of the slip and pulling tubers. The more waves and the faster the boat the happier Jacklyn is. She is a thrill seeking tuber. Will has gone on with Jaymie too and they prefer the calmer speed. Jaymie and Will actually prefer swimming in the lake compared to the pool. I think they like jumping freestyle off the boat and bobbing around in their life preservers. I'm planning a special post dedicated to Will being home one and a half years.... can you believe it. I have to make some time for it! Hopefully this weekend! Thanks for stopping by.. I have been a bad blogger lately. It didn't help my mac needed to go to the apple care genius's and have its software reinstalled because when I updated it it had some sort of glitch and made him move VERY slowly! He is all better now and able to download my pics again. Thank goodness for applecare!

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Heres are a couple pics of our 14 hour drive to NC from WI. What an adventure traveling with Bagheera. He actually did a lot better than I thought he would. We are still settling in here, but making progress daily. I hope to tackle painting Jacklyns room this weekend. The thought of my not returning to the classroom this school year is bittersweet! I know I will miss it along with my co-workers.....but being able to have more time for my kiddos and spending time with Will while my girls are in school will be nice too!

Well, we were not there when Will cut his first tooth.... but we got to experience him losing his first tooth. He was jumping up and down on our trampoline with his cousin and he yanked it out. I was not there but Jacklyn was and she said he said "look I lost my tooth and then he threw it into the mulch that surrounds the trampoline. Great Will, doesn't he know that I save my children's teeth? Nowhere to be found! He came running into the house with a bloody mouth asking for his beloved Jaymie as he wanted to show her the hole in his smile! So here you have it. My little BABY has lost his first tooth. Makes me wonder, is he older than 4, but then I googled losing teeth and it said kids do lose them at 4......

Will's room

Will saw Jaymie's room on the blog so the little prince wanted pics of his room on here too. So here you have it. We scored on having a baseball wallpaper mural already in one of the bedrooms, so Wills room was a no brainer. The bed I got on craigs list just days after I got here for a mere 60.00! It is Pottery Barn too! He was so excited to have his own bed. Now, when will he sleep in it? He still shares the love with either his sisters or Jeffrey and I. I'm good with that though:) Who can resist the little snuggle bug?

First change

Jaymie's room is the first room we tackled since moving in as far as changing the wall colors. It was a nursery for the previous owners I believe and we had to paint over a mural, but decided to keep the giraffe and just paint his spots to match the colors of Jaymie's room. We had to paint over a darker color, so that made the job that much more time consuming, but Jaymie is happy with the (almost) finished product and that makes it worth it.

Bagheera

Bagheera has been in our family for 8 years now. He completes us. He acts more like a dog than a cat and is very much loved by every member of our family. 2 days ago we thought we lost him. I had not changed the tags on his collar to our new phone # so I was very worried. Jeffrey had let him wander free in our backyard thinking he was going to be keeping an eye on him. Well of course he was distracted and forgot he was watching him and then all H _ _ _ broke loose when we thought he was gone. The girls go CRAZY when he can not be found. At first look around the yard we didn't see him. It is fenced in, but we still don't know if it is possible for him to jump the fence. He is kind of heavy... weighing in at about 20lbs. He is strictly indoors except for when we tie him up outside on his lead. He LOVES being outside and we have a flower that attracts hummingbirds growing over our back patio arbor and he loves to watch them. Needless to say, I went straight to petco after this ordeal and made a tag with our new number that gives Bagheera's name and says he is diabetic. Baggy was in the backyard hiding in some low bushes thinking he was a jungle cat. Thanks goodness we found him. Here he is in a basket on our computer desk looking like a rising loaf of bread!!!