Ruthanne's court case is on tonight to find out if she gets to bring home sweet "Bear." You can go see her post here to find out why it was postponed. Please go visit her blog and let her know you are rooting her on. I love this woman & can't wait to go and visit her, Andrew & sweet "Bear" next summer. I am praying she passes so I can go do a little shopping for her boys!!! Hugs to her & her boys!!!
I met Ruthanne via the blog/FB world. She is a wonderful mom to Andrew also adopted from Guatemala. She will find out tomorrow if she passed court (which actually happens while she is sleeping) for her 2nd adoption from Ethiopia for her son named Bear. As a bonus you all can finally see how gorgeous he is. (I already know! Hehe!) I so hope she passes and gets to go pick up that baby. I don't know how she is going to do it raising two boys by herself but she will be rewarded with more love than she ever thought possible.
I hope the few of you out there that read my blog have a "Happy Thanksgiving"! The holidays are always filled with tears around here. Tears of happiness! You never quite know life until you have a child to discover it with.
I always remember being so excited when I was little about the holidays b/c my grandma was just so into it all and made sure I was always a part of that. She always made sure there was something to help her with. I miss her so much this time of year b/c the more family that was there the better. Now that she has passed away I feel like that has gotten away quite a bit. Now that I have my baby boy I making my own memories. I love watching him discovering and learning what it is really all about. I am so thankful to his birth mom for letting us be the ones to raise him and call him our own. If it wasn't for her my heart wouldn't be so full!!
I have tons of new pictures but they are on the main labtop. The cat chewed right through the cord so I have to wait for a new one. As soon I get it get ready for some Cameron on overdrive!!
Go to Hannah's blog to see what our latest adventure was with them. They were in Guatemala picking up Sophia the same time we were picking up Cameron. We never spoke a word to one another while we were there with everything going on and because we are both big shy birds. We met through blog & facebook world and now have playdates together every couple of weeks and for the first time in a long while Dan & I have found a couple we love hanging out with. I predict our two guate babies will be married some day but not until he is 30 years old. We love you guys too!!!
Mommy & Cam at the Bengals pre-season game.
Unlike some people I have not had much desire to post on blogger. Maybe it is b/c of summer time or maybe b/c I am addicted to facebook. Well, not that bad. I will do all my babbling on this post and add some pictures on the next few. Our summer has been a little busy this year but mainly just on the weekends. During the week it is me & Cam. Where do I begin? We have had play dates with Hannah, Sophia & Dmitry (Phia as he calls her) at the Children's Museum, the waterpark in Louisville and just recently the outlet mall. Ham (as Phia calls Cameron) and Phia are madly in love! LOL! I guess I love hanging out with Hannah too!!! JK! I had my first annual A Gathering of Our Hearts in Indy in July. It turned our great but I will save that for another post. Cameron loved spending all weekend with the guate babies and I loved getting to meet all my adopt moms in person. It was so much fun and I hope it is bigger next year. We went camping with Mammaw & Pappaw (Dan's parents) in Brown County, Indiana. Cameron loved staying in their bus as he calls it & although we all smelled by the end of the weekend it was fun.
Dan's mom had her 2nd stem cell transplant 3 weeks ago and she is doing pretty good. She has multiple myeloma and had one 7 years ago. They had some stem cells left from the last transplant so she thought it was in her best interest to do another. It scared us but it was ultimately her decision. She gave us a scare here and there but seems to be doing a lot better. She still can't eat b/c of the sores in her mouth from the chemo she gets before but she is walking around and talking like crazy. That's my mom-in-law. (I just call her mom!)
Cameron is growing up like crazy. He is 2 and 1/2 now but loves calling himself Mama's baby. He is now 3 feet tall and 30 lbs and all boy. He is very orny and stubborn but I love him to pieces. He is so much like Dan & I it isn't funny. Every day I am told how cute he is & boy does he know it! He is so into shoes & clothes it isn't funny. Wonder who he got that from?! He loves to be out & about and really does get upset if we aren't going to see Phia his girlfriend as he calls her. He is very independent and gets upset if you don't let him so something. He has to everything including bringing Dan his boxers in the morning and helping him change his clothes when he gets home from work. He has to help Daddy with the shoe inserts, put his dirty clothes in the hamper, put his shoes away and then steal any change he has in his pockets for his piggybank. He amazes me every day the things he remembers. He knows whose house is off what exit of the highway. How does he remember these things?
I have been pretty busy just being mommy and a wife. I am happy to say that I took the plunge and got right into this get together we had last month. For those of you were there and those of you that know me I am VERY shy until I get to know you. I had to hand deliver the gift bags I made and introduce myself to complete strangers. I hate patting myself on the back but that was a VERY big deal for me. I do have to say I made some great life long friends. It was so much fun to get to hang out with Hannah & her family all weekend. They have been the first couple that Dan & I have felt comfortable with from the very start. We are all too much alike it is scary. Hannah, I think you need move closer so we can hang out more. At least that is what our social worker said!
We have been to Disneyworld already when we visited the in-laws last November but we both thought he would really get into being that he is officially obsessed with Mickey & Minnie. Disneyland in California is awesome. It is smaller but it is no nice to have one main entrance to get into both parks and downtown Disney. And it is open until midnight so we could take our time. When we first arrived we decided to get him Mickey ears since we didn't do that last time. While Dan was in the store getting ears I was outside with Cameron avoiding the crowd. All of a sudden here comes Mickey & Minnie right where we were standing. They were coming out to do their autograph signing & we were the first ones. Cameron actually got a whole 5 minutes with them all to himself. He was in awe & so happy to see them. He kept kissing them on the noses and they loved it. I, of course, didn't take him out of the stroller but it was so awesome just to watch him light up. He only slept for about 10 mins the whole day we were there. We went over to downtown Disney for dinner and went to their huge store. They have the biggest store in the world there and I am determined to go back just to Christmas shop. If we weren't flying we would have stocked up for Christmas. Cameron crashed so hard when we got to the car. He actually slept the whole time I was putting his jammies on in the room. It was the best day and I love seeing Disney through my baby's eyes.
Here's the pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40992311@N05/
I am really, really behind. Here are the pictures from Cameron's first official professional baseball game.
The view from our room.
On Monday my mom turned 48. Yes, my mom is young but I love that Cameron has a nana that will be around for a long time. We have been practicing saying "Happy Birthday Nana" and I finally got it on video. Mom, I know you loved hearing him say it on the phone but now you can see him say it. This is for you mom and we can't wait to see you on Saturday.
Please read this post on Kayleigh Freeman's blog written by Brent Riggs. I have asked everyone to pray for this family which I do every day. Yes, me! They also need help financially. Their daughter was born premature and after her last surgery is somewhat brain dead. They have no clue what the exact thing that caused it but she had blood loss either during or after surgery. She may not survive but their faith in God is unbelievable. Along with dealing with their daughter being in the hospital since the minute she was born they have been hit hard financially. Please read Brent's post and help any way you can. I did and it feels good to be able to do something to help them even if I don't know them personally.
http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/2009/04/42709-guest-blogger-brent-riggs.html
Prayers & hugs,
Mindy
We have been looking for swing sets for Cameron and finally found one we loved. Well, Dan fell in love but Cameron had to approve. We actually went to a different Costco to check it out and I couldn't find it anywhere. Then all of sudden Cameron points up and says Mama. It was clear on the other side of the store. When we finally got it it was the last one. Dan rushed to get the sod taken up and the yard leveled before he left for his trip. Of course he hurt his wrist while doing it. We had one Sunday planned for the guy to come put it together (yes, we paid someone. It would have taken Dan 10 years & who knows if it would be put together right.) and of course it rained. Well, finally this Sunday they came to put it together. Of course they weren't quite done & it started drizzling but they kept going. At 6:30 they got it done so we woke up Cameron (late nap) and took him out. He was watching them build it all day while he played outside so he was so excited when it was done. He got to play on it for about 15 minutes before it started pouring down rain. He hasn't gotten to play on it since b/c yesterday we had hail and today it is snowing. Only in Ohio!!!
Ever since we were not selected during the committee for a child in Korea I have been really down. We started thinking that maybe this was a sign from God that we should go for a girl. I keep looking at the photolisting. Every day I check them to see what children are waiting in Korea. Some children have severe special needs and while my heart breaks for them I don't think it would be fair to Cameron to bring a child into our home where we would spend a majority of our time in the hospital if we can help it. The way it works is they are given a batch of referrals just like any other country. They go through & send referrals to families who are a matched based on the form you filled out on what special needs you would prefer. If some children are not matched they go on the photolisting. You can then inquire & request additional medical information for your pediatrician to look over. Sometimes there are a few families that request information. After so many they won't send out anymore information. Then they wait for those families to decide if they wish to proceed with the adoption. The committee made up of 5 social workers looks over every families information & decides who is the best match for the child. Even though we know we are not bad parents in any way it is very hard to hear you are not selected. I hurried and started getting all our paperwork ready for our homestudy to have everything done & turned in before our committee meeting. I only had a few documents to collect. Then we were not selected and I put the binder away for a few weeks. Our homestudy agency is waiting on me to complete the paperwork before doing our first visit. I just can't seem to get it together. The fear is coming over me more than I anticipated. Am I ready? Yes. Am I somewhat prepared for two children? Yes. Am I okay with not having that little girl for this adoption? Yes. The ups and downs of Cameron's adoption are just coming back after our one year anniversary. He was so worth every mountain we had to climb and compared to some families they weren't that bad but when we signed up for Guatemala it was 6-8 months at the most. It then turned into one year for us. Children in Korea are not available for international adoption until they are 5 months old. The wait is usually 3-5 months at the most but again you never know. And yes we found another little guy we are interested in and are still waiting on our pediatrician to go over everything. She adopted two girls from China so she understands so much and is really helping us by looking at this child's information. We inquired on Thursday and by Friday they marked his picture as no longer accepting applications. Yes this means that there are other families looking at his information right now. If we do decide to proceed with adopting him there is a potential for us to have to go to committee again if other families would like to as well. I think this is scaring me for than anything. Can I handle another let down right now? What if we aren't selected and it puts me to where I just don't want to do another adoption right now? I know this is part of life and you have to take risks to go after that ultimate dream but I can't but be scared. I am human! But that the same time I can't help but think of the other families. I have to let go and God will help me through it no matter what the outcome.
