Getting Away

Preschool ended and Zane snatched me away for a weekend together.  Our 10 year anniversary was last December, but with all our visitors, we didn't get a chance to get away.  We took advantage of my parents living close by who watched our kids and enjoyed spending time together.  Of course while we were away, we got an email from my brother talking about his trip with his wife to Italy....we had a river too though!  One day we will get to Italy, right now I will take any time away with Zane that I can get!

Visiting the Temple

 "Remember this day you touched the temple. One day you will enter this door." President Monson has said, ‘As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.’ 

Our Primary took a trip to the temple (to learn more about what happens in temples, click here).  I love that my boys have so much experience with the temples at such a young age.  Whenever we adopt a child, we go to the temple as a family and have that baby sealed to our family making them part of our forever family.  Dallin still remembers Gavin's sealing.

 Let's try again...

I hope they always have a love for the temple.

Summer Is Here!

 Obviously we are excited!

 I said goodbye to these boys...

with a little sadness. 

(Last day of school water party)

It has been an energetic, busy, fun year.  I'm amazed with how much these boys soaked in and I love their excitement over bugs, snakes, anything gross really and food.

I will see three of the boys next year (including Dallin) plus three new boys and two girls. :)  

Since school has been out (one week) we have hit the pool three times, gone to the zoo again, played at the tree house in the mall and visited the pet store, and had a picnic by the library (where I melted).  With no preschool, I have had more time to spend teaching Gavin who loves puzzles and shapes and start teaching Dallin piano lessons using a really fun, very beginner curriculum that involves lots of movement to expose a kid to the piano.  It is perfect for Dallin.  

I could barely keep my eyes open on my date with Zane Friday evening. 

Hope your summer is just as fun!

Adopton Process Part II: Still Trying

(See Part I of this post here.)

When I told my friend that I had just turned in the rest of the paperwork, she excitedly asked if we were approved and being shown to birth moms.  Unfortunately...no.  It has just taken us this long to finish the paperwork.  We had to have our physicals done and at my doctor's office, only the doctor can do these (but PA's can do well-women check ups...go figure.)  It took us three weeks to get an appointment for our doctor.  Zane and I both had to take a CPR class.  There was one class offered in my area which again was at the end of May.  While we waited for these appointments, we requested certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificates and started researching other agencies.  Our plan is to get our home study to a couple of different agencies so that we are shown to more birth moms.  When researching agencies it is important to find out how many birth moms they help and how well they advertise.  We also like to find out the support given to birth moms.  Then it comes down to how money is spent.  This of course is the part I would love to ignore, but it is definitely a huge part of adoption.  We like to find out if the fee covers birth mom expenses, medical expenses, and what happens to our money if a birth mom changes her mind (which she has every right to do before she relinquishes her rights which is anywhere from 24 hours to 3 months depending on the state.)  It is important to see a break down on how the money is spent (advertising, lawyer fees, agency fees etc.)  We have done a lot of research now and I have a nice spreadsheet with the information I have found.  We picked two agencies in Utah, which has laws for adoption.  We have since filled out the paperwork required for those agencies (so now we have done three sets of paperwork).  I think we will stick with these two (and the agency doing our home study) because other agencies have an application fee and every agency requires an adoption profile (more to come on that.)

Zane and I made some mistakes because we assumed that the agency doing our home study would pass on copies of all our documents.  Agencies can't accept copies though so we should have requested multiple copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificates.  We are now doing that step again (and spending more money.)

We have now turned everything in and are waiting for the caseworker to come to our house and do the home study.  While we wait, we are putting together our adoption profile.

The adoption profile:  This is a scrapbook which includes a letter to birth parents telling them all about our family and pictures of our life.  This scrapbook is what is shown to birth parents when they are looking at couples to pick.  It is also something the birth mom gets to keep once we are matched.  This scrapbook stresses me out.  Luckily I have a good friend who will do it for me once I get everything to her.  I also have a wonderful sister-in-law who will come and take more pictures of us and edit them making our family look more beautiful than we really are.  With their help we can pull this off!

For someone who is thinking about adoption and reading this post, please don't get discourage with everything that has to be done.  Maybe instead of comparing this part to the trying part, I should call it our "morning sickness."  I haven't because the part where we are approved to the part where we are at the hospital (which with Dallin was 9 months and with Gavin, two years) were full of ups and downs, lots of waiting, lots of patience and even stretch marks (to my heart).  And yet every day I play with my sons, read stories to them, and get hugs and kisses with the I love you's, I know it is all worth it.  Just like I'm sure my sister-in-law would say the throwing up she did every day of her pregnancy was all worth it to get her cute little girl.

Another Head Wound

Gavin's first head wound came two weeks earlier when he tried to climb the ladder to Dallin's loft bed, fell off, and hit the window seal with the back of his head.  The wound bled a lot even though it was only a small cut and I could see it wasn't deep.  I kept debating about whether to take him to the doctors but finally after twenty minutes of putting pressure on it (the best I could with a squirmy two year old) it stopped.

Two weeks later, Gavin climbed in bed with me in the morning and started trying to jump on my tummy (a favorite pass time.)  He climbed off me and went for the clock on my night stand.  Somehow he fell and hit his head on the corner.  I was facing the wrong way and just couldn't catch him in time.  This wound though didn't bleed much and Gavin didn't cry for very long.  (The picture below was 10 hours later which explains the smile.)  Zane and I didn't even consider taking him to the doctors.  I put a band aid on it and went on with our day of TaeKwonDo and a zoo trip.

 That night we looked at it again after a bath and I started getting worried that maybe I should have taken him to the doctor.  I would have called my all knowing nurse/family doctor (at least we treat her as such) sister-in-law Kari, but she of course moved away from me.  So I called my mom who informed me that of course I should take him in.  Gavin's face is too pretty to have an ugly scare which was sure to happen if we let it heal on its own.  My mom is always right.

The doctor gave Gavin's cut a good cleaning and then taped it shut.  Gavin did not enjoy any of it but as you can see, he bounced back pretty fast.  The doctor said to leave the tape alone and after a week it would fall off.  This tape was amazing though and stayed on two weeks and only came off because we started getting it wet and helping it along. 

How do you keep an active 2 year old who climbs on everything from hitting his head?  I think we need to invest in a football helmet.

Seeing It Through New Eyes

 Yes, another zoo post.  We fit one in the middle of May before it got too hot.  This trip though was different because it was the first time that Gavin was into it and walking around with us.  His excitement over everything was so fun to watch!

 Checking out the birds instead of eating lunch

 Dallin with his friend Samuel- Despite the look of boredom on their faces for this pictures, they were fascinated by the life-like moving dinosaurs.  We saw them twice!

Dallin trying to keep control of an excited boy!

Around the dinosaurs, it was especially difficult.  Gavin couldn't contain his excitement.  We also couldn't keep him moving on.  He didn't understand that there were lots of dinosaurs to see and just wanted to stay at one.  Also, there was dirt, leaves, and rocks on the ground which distracted him from the walking.

I have a video of Gavin with his favorite animal (a chipmunk) and the dinosaurs, but blogger won't let me upload the video.  A little frustrating...

 Because the boys were so awesome at the zoo (I was by myself), they earned ice cream cones on the way home!

Post coming soon about the band aid on Gavin's face...