I'm Back

I am still here!  We are living in Hawaii now.  We moved here last August for Erich's next duty assignment.  Things are going well enough, though I cannot seem to get a job.  Oh well.  I am taking the opportunity to work on my Master's degree in Early Childhood Studies.  Sydney has started Junior Kindergarten at a nearby private prep school and LOVES it.  She is doing so well and I know she will be a lifelong learner.  Oliver is very excited to start school next fall, though we are still trying to figure out how we will fund it since I cannot find a job and the sale of our house was had to be lowered by $15K, just about what Oliver's tuition will cost.  (I have added a button if anybody wants to help donate to his schooling).  I am going to try to keep up with the blog, maybe try to post at least once a month.  For now, here are a few photos of the kiddos :)

Shout Out

Hello out there.  I am debating on whether or not to keep the blog going.  If there is anyone out there still following, can you please let me know.  We don't seem to be getting too much interest (not that we are that interesting, anyway).  But if anyone out there IS following I would like to know.  Thanks!

Updates coming soon!

It has been a very busy year for us so far, so I have put updating the blog on the back burner.  I have some time off at the end of the month, so I hope to update the blog then.  Here are a few pictures until then.

Sprinkling Easter Bunny food on the lawn the day before Easter Sunday.

Having fun at Auntie Lorna's house.

See how we have grown...

Chillin'

On the way to Auntie's house.

We are OFFICIAL!

We had our re-adoption hearing on Friday, which finalized Oliver's citizenship and name change.  The hearing went very well and they even remembered us from Sydney's adoption hearing two years ago.  They were so nice and wished us lots of happiness and luck. Now the paper chase begins to get Oliver's U.S. birth certificate, Certificate of Citizenship, Social Security Number, passport....and on and on :)  We are just happy to have the opportunity to do it all now and grateful that our family is officially complete!!  

After our adoption hearing.  The judge took the picture with his camera,
as we were not allowed to bring one.  Thank you, your honor!

A season of blessings

I took Oliver for his pediatric cardiology appointment last week to have his PFO verified/checked.  Well I am happy to report that he was pronounced 100% healthy.  The doctor could not see the opening and was a little confused as to the measurements we received from Taiwan.  He was wondering if maybe the doctors in Taiwan were using an inferior machine and misdiagnosing the condition.  In any case, Oliver's health is great!
After adopting two children from Taiwan I can advise prospective adoptive parents, with all certainty, that you must take the medical information they give you with a grain of salt. Things can get lost in translation, people can exaggerate the facts. This is not to say that the facts cannot also be minimized or glossed over, but if we had taken the medical reports as 100% accurate and not taken a risk on bringing Oliver into our family, we would have definitely missed out on something wonderful.
I was told by our agency that Oliver was passed up by several families because of the birthmother's history and prenatal smoking and drinking.  When we were considering him, we looked at the all the information and considered what would be the most serious difficulties this child might face if all the information was accurate.  We were willing to take that risk.  Thank goodness those other families were not!! I think that it all boils down to the fact that you have to listen to your heart.  Oliver was not meant to be with those other families, he was meant to be with us.  I believe they listened to their hearts and something told them that this was not their child and another one was waiting for them, just as we listened and knew he was ours.  You have to believe that things will work out the way they are supposed, no matter how hard it might be in the present time.

How can you not agree with this?...

My Silly Monkeys!

The New Normal

Some of our adventures over the last month...

At the National Zoo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brother and sister playing.

At Mt. Vernon...

Is there anything better than throwing stuff off a bridge?  

Visiting with the Washingtons at Mt. Vernon (that is my niece Katie with Sydney).

Things have been a little hectic and a little stressful around here.  Trying to get Oliver into the child development center where I work has been a bit of a nightmare, but he will finally be able to start tomorrow even though I went back to work last Thursday!  My sister watched him on Thursday, I had to call out on Friday and Daddy stayed with him today.  We will be back to our regular schedule tomorrow and will be having to figure out how to make it work with Oliver, because he sure does make things interesting!

Looking out the window.

Oliver is a wonderful little person.  He is full of energy and curiosity; he wants to be independent yet wants to be taken care of.  He is very loving, free with lots of hugs and kisses; and he is highly intelligent.  We are amazed at how quickly he is picking up English.  He has picked up several signs, but is really trying to learn to speak the words as well.  He says "hi", "bye", "uh-oh", "hungry", "no", "mama", "dada", "I do", "thank you".  He is quite the little parrot and so observant.  He copies EVERYTHING Sydney does.  I hope this means he will speak soon and potty train early.  I know he will do very well at the CDC once he gets used to it, and will learn a lot there.  

Going to see Santa!

Sydney is doing well even though she is going through lots of changes.  She has moved up to a preschool room at school.  She had a bit of a rough time on her first full day.  She cried when I dropped her off and then had several potty accidents during the day.  BUT-she is almost potty trained.  We have graduated from Pull-ups to cotton training pants.  She doesn't really go potty on her own yet, she has to be reminded constantly, but she doesn't put up a fight most of the time and the accidents are few and far between (although if we didn't remind her to potty, there would be a lot more).  I can't believe how much she has grown in the last few months.  She will be three next week!  My baby is gone and has been replaced by a three year old preschooler, with lots of sass and attitude.

We are really looking forward to this holiday season.  It should be lots of fun!  We already went to see Santa.  We got a really good picture of Sydney smiling with Santa, but Oliver was having none of it.  The picture with just Sydney and Santa wasn't as good, but still cute.  There have been lots of requests to go see Santa again, so we just may have to do that :)
I have updated Sydney's and Oliver's pages with new pictures.  Enjoy!