My Gym

A good friend of ours and her 2 children joined us for a playdate yesterday.  We  enjoyed an early piza dinner than headed over to a children's excerise playcenter called MyGym.  http://www.mygym.com/  Lindsey and Sam have been taking weekly classes there since November and absolutely love it. 

We also had a really fun family party there on December 19th celebrating Carley's and Sam's birthdays.  This was also the 4 year anniversary of when we were given Lindsey in China, aka "gotcha" day.  It's hard to  believe that was now over 4 years ago.  She's grown from a beautiful baby to an even more beautiful young girl.

I didn't take any pictures last night because sometimes it's more fun to actually play with your kids and visit with friends then try and take pictures of the event.  So I'm going to post pictures I took at our family party instead.

Santa at the Symphony

This is obviously out of order on our blog but I just came across these pictures on my camera.  In the busy time right before Christmas we went to see Santa at the Symphony.  It's an annual Christmas program tradition with our local orchestra.  Kids of all ages are welcome and it's a great way for parents to introduce their children to classical music.  It was a surprise how much the baby enjoyed the music.  They had a choir and she was baby singing right along with the choir and rocking out literally.  She was so loud it was embarrassing but awfully cute at the same time.

Sam was too afraid to sit on Santa's lap.

Maybe because he knew he had been naughty.

Art

Lindsey decorated what was to become dinner with stickers.  Even squash can be art.

Update on Haitian Adoptions from our Agency

Like the rest of the world, we have been watching the news from Haiti with great sadness.  Having adopted internationally, I'm especially mindful of the families that were in the process of adopting from Haiti and how desperate they must feel to be united with their children still in Haiti.  The agency we used for our 2 adoptions from China, Wasatch International Adoptions (WIA), also has a Haitian program.  They sent out a newsletter with the following information.  I am not trying to solicit money for this particular organization, although I personally will be giving them a contribution.  Please keep the orphans of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.

 http://www.wiaa.org/

WIA works with several orphanages in Haiti and all of the orphanages suffered damage. One orphanage is completely destroyed. We are scrambling to send money to our Haitian coordinators so they can purchase food and water for the children. Long term efforts include repairing damaged buildings or in some cases building a brand new facility for the children. Money is desperately needed in order to do this. Please send donations to our office – no donation is too small and every penny donated goes directly to Haiti. All donations are tax deductible and all donors will receive receipts for tax purposes.

We are currently working with 27 families who are adopting 30 children from Haiti. Most of the children have been accounted for and we are so grateful that even though the orphanages they were living in were damaged or destroyed all the children are alive and unhurt. However, as of today, Thursday, January 21st, there are 3 of our children who are still unaccounted for. We are asking for your prayers on behalf of these children and their adoptive families who are anxiously waiting to hear they have been located and are okay.

Chareyl Moyes, our Haiti coordinator, left for Haiti on Thursday morning, January 21st. She was lucky enough to find a seat on a humanitarian flight to Haiti and she is now working with the U.S. State Department to see if she can obtain a humanitarian parole or maybe even an actual U.S. visa for about 50 children in the process of being adopted by U.S. families. The State Department has been difficult to work with but we are hopeful that Chareyl will be successful in her efforts to get these children out of Haiti and into the U.S. Our Haitian representative, Guesno Mardy, who is the director of Foyer de Scion orphanage, made several attempts to bring children to the U.S. Embassy during the week, but was unsuccessful in getting assistance from the Embassy staff. We soon realized that those orphanages that had U.S. coordinators on the ground in Haiti were the ones who were successful. For that reason we felt it was imperative to get Chareyl over to Haiti as quickly as possible. Chareyl is traveling with a group of people who will help her and the children while she is in Haiti. It is a very fortunate thing that Chareyl has been to Haiti many times and during those trips to Haiti established good relationships with the people working at the U.S. Consulate. Hopefully this will work in our favor and she will be successful in getting these children home. To read the most current updates on the situation in Haiti, please go to the U.S. State Department website – there are daily updates posted about what is happening in Haiti.

Adoptions from Haiti

We have been inundated with inquiries from people around the world asking if they could adopt a child from Haiti. Unfortunately adoptions are currently suspended in this country. The infrastructure in Port Au Prince has been destroyed, government buildings are in piles of rubble, and there is no government organization in place right now that can oversee the adoption process. At this point the people of Haiti must have time to look for their children and family members and the reunification of families may take a while. When this search is finished we are certain there will be many thousands of children left without parents or family and the need for adoptive families will be great. We are not currently accepting new families in to this adoption program, but are instead creating a data base of families who would like to go forward with the adoption process reopens in Haiti. If you are interested in pursuing an adoption from Haiti, or know someone who may be interested in doing this, please contact our office and ask that your contact information be entered into our data base. When Haiti resumes the international adoption process we will then immediately contact all families to let them know the adoption process is once again open and functioning.

The earthquake in Haiti has been a terrible and devastating tragedy for the people living in that country. We are so blessed
Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the people of Haiti as we know yours are also. Let us all join together in prayer on behalf of the people of Haiti. We will be posting updates on our website as often as possible.

What eating an old Milkdud can lead to

A couple of days ago Blain bit into an old Milkdud leftover from Halloween. He took one bite and out came a cap on one of his teeth. Since our local dentist had retired, he ended up calling his old dentist from his hometown about an hour and a half away who could see him yesterday. So we turned it into a family outing.

We went to a dinosaur museum that was on the way that we've been meaning to visit for a while now. Then after Blain's dentist appointment we saw one of Blain's aunts that we haven't seen for several years. It was her first time to see Sam and Carley. After that we had dinner with some old friends. A great day all thanks to an old Milkdud.

New Old School

In our never ending quest to find the perfect daycare/school for Lindsey and Sam we had decided to pull them out of the Montessori school they were going to at the Christmas break.  There were some things going on there that we didn't like.  We were going to put them in a different Montessori school near our house after the holidays but at the last minute decided to put them back in the daycare preschool at my work.  I called and they had a part time opening for them both so we took it.  Now they'll only be going to school 2 days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Today was their first day back.  It went better than I had hoped.  They remembered some of their old friends and teachers and had a great first day back to the new old school or old new school, it gets confusing.  Once we got home, though, Lindsey had a total meltdown over something very small.  So the stress of the day came out after all. 

I feel so guilty sometimes on how much we've changed schools for the kids, especially Lindsey.  We've always had very good reasons for moving them, but I know it's been a lot of changes.  Oh well, it's like our pediatrician told us at Lindsey's first checkup after we got back with her from China.  He declared her to be in perfect health and then said we had the next 20 years to screw up her life.  I think we've got a pretty good start.

First Time Skiing

Lindsey went skiing for the first time today.  She loved it and she did great. We were lucky that there was no one else in her ski school class so she got what was basically a private lesson for a couple of hours.  The teacher even took her up at the end of the lesson on the chair lift to go down the "big" bunny hill.  This might have been her first time skiing but it won't be her last.  My Mother's dream of having another skier in the family looks like it might be coming true.

Viva Elvis and Happy New Year 2010!!!

Christmas afternoon after all the presents were opened, we packed up the kids and headed to Vegas for some R & R and to ring in the new year.  I met up with a good friend of mine, Barb, who had flown into Vegas to visit her neice for Christmas and see her perform in the new Vegas Cirque de Soleil show called Viva Elvis. 

I joined up with Barb to see the show while Blain babysat (thanks, Babe, you're the best).  It was a great show and a really fun time.  Her neice is one of the dancer/acrobats in the show - very talented and impossibly cute!  We met her and her parents after the show for a late dinner, all wonderful people and I had an absolutley marvelous time.

For New Year's Eve, we were staying at Sam's Town and had a view in the distance of the buildings on the strip.  In Vegas at midnight they shoot off fireworks from the tops of several of the casinos on the strip.  We had a great view of all the fireworks from our room.  We tried to get the kids to stay up until midnight to see the fireworks, but one by one they dropped off to sleep.  We even tried to wake Lindsey up because she had really wanted to see the fireworks, but no luck with that.  So Blain and I shared a kiss and a toast at midnight and enjoyed the fireworks sans kids.

Christmas 2009

The joy and magic of Christmas morning with children is truly one of lifes great experiences.

Wii Bowling

We setup a new Wii system today and the whole family tried their hand at the bowling except for Carley who cheered us on.  Sam and I weren't too good, it took us both a while to get a hang of when to hold the right button down and when to let up.  Blain was okay, but the real surprise was Lindsey.  She was amazing.  She easily won.  She either would get a strike, in fact several in a row, or would get a spare.  She made it look so easy.  Blain couldn't believe a 4 1/2 year old could beat him.  I wonder if there's any money on the professional Wii bowling circuit.

Family Visit

I'm way behind in posting so I'm going to try and do catch up posts.  The weekend before Christmas we had Carley's birthmother fly up for the weekend.  This was the first time we have all seen each other since we said goodbye to her at the hospital when Carley was 2 days old.  She flew back to Texas and we drove home with Carley in her carseat - only about a 15 minute drive from hospital to our home.

Needless to say, it had been a very emotional goodbye at the hospital and it was a very emotional weekend when she came to visit.  It was difficult at times but well worth it.  We found out so much about each other and really got to know each other as people.  I know there will be more visits with her in the future.  She feels like extended family now.

We had some pictures taken with her while she was here.  Below are a few of my favorites.