Morgan's a BIG GIRL!

Haiti Earthquake Recovery Fund

I have been watching the news through tears the past 48 hours.  It's a helpless feeling watching such devastation. I am encouraging everyone to donate to help the people of Haiti.

Please visit the link below and under gift designation choose: Haiti - Earthquake Recovery

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Thank you!
If you can financially help the children in Haiti, Bethany Christian Services has set up a fund for earthquake recovery in Haiti. We will work with our partners on the ground in Haiti to use your donations to help ensure that children in Haiti are cared for and kept safe.


Please visit www.bethany.org/donate to donate to the Haiti-Earthquake Recovery fund.

Casts off after one week ( post Botox)

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrYN6pv4E40&feature=youtube_gdata

Sent from my iPhone

Feeling the Excitement!

The past few days have brought tremendous news for many, many families waiting for referrals from our adoption agency!  There were 10 or more families matched with children (based on the waiting families just on our agency's adoption message board -- which obviously isn't every family working with our agency).  This is a HUGE number.  Recently there has been a lull in referrals where weeks would go by without any matches and then just one or two would occur.  We have kept our excitement in check and knew that we had many, many, many longs months to go before it was our "turn" to receive a referral.  This large group of referrals just made us jump up on the waiting list faster than I've seen in the past year!  There was at least one family's DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) date really close to ours.  The quoted time frame is still around 15 months from the time your paperwork (dossier) gets to Ethiopia.  Our paperwork went on August 7th, 2009.  Based on that -- we still have 10 months to wait.  Based on what went on yesterday...we could potentially receive a referral much, much sooner!

Up until yesterday I hadn't thought actively about the wait.  I was "fine" just going about our busy days...now I can't peel my eyes away from the message board and I admit, my hopes are waaaaaay up!!!  I said to Jason last night a few days ago getting a referral seemed like some far off day...kind of like thinking of Jack's 10th birthday or Morgan going to Kindergarten.  I know those things will happen in the future but I certainly don't think about it every day!

So we don't know anything...we do know that our social worker is absolutely fantastic about sending program updates and information.  I just started reading another book she suggested a few weeks ago.  So we wait...how long?  We still don't know!

For those interested in reading more about the work our agency is doing for families in Ethiopia you can do so here: ETHIOPIA

Pee Pee on the P-O-T-T-Y!!

Major milestone moment here today!  Miss Morgan Leigh decided today was the day she'd finally pee on the potty.  We'd been trying on and off with zero success over the past 6 months or so.  She'd just sit and make a "Pssssssst" sound with her mouth...we put it on the back burner over the holidays and this morning while I was running her bath water I decided to try again.  I wasn't expecting anything so I was very surprised when she hopped off and there was actually PEE in the POTTY, lol!  So it's officially on...potty training has begun!

Morgan Funnies

Because I don't ever want to forget the conversations with my kids :)

____________

Me: Morgan we are going to take DADDY'S car today.
Morgan: But I don't see daddy
Me: He's at work, we traded cars today
Morgan: Oh, I see snow
Morgan: Where's yellow binky?
Me: in Mommy's car, daddy's car doesn't have any binkies
Morgan: What about another binky?
Morgan: Get it from cribby?
Me: okay

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Morgan to Jack "You can't get ball now, HA HA HA HA" in an evil voice!!

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We were explaining Santa to Morgan and reminding her she should be a big girl and listen to mommy and daddy.

Me: And he has presents he puts under the tree for big girls and boys
Me: We wake up in the morning and there are presents to open!
Morgan: What color Santa's car??
Went on to explain the sleigh and reindeer through laughter!
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Morgan told me a story. "Dora Explorer...open the piñata....pull the string...cookies come out...yummy cookies, open the piñata"

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"Mommy I eat rectangle Cheerios" (Frosted Mini Wheats)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

On a morning walk...

Jack using his walker before school this morning...Happy Friday
everyone!!!

Crafty :)

The cutest candy dish ever made by Jack :)

Learning the mouse!

Catching up is hard to do!

So it's been a while and I am sorry!  So many things to catch up on I am not even sure where to start!  So here is a very "off the top of my head" update!

School is going very well for Jack this year.  His team continues to work so hard at helping him succeed and learn and it's showing!  Jack's talking and vocabulary has exploded since last year.  It's amazing to hear him talk these days!  He's also doing really amazing things with his walker as well.  He's also doing stairs (assisted) and his legs are stable.  We're going to do another round of botox in December and he'll also be evaluated for surgery (his left leg turns in at the knee and our physiatrist feels it's his muscles pulling on his bones and we do not want his bones to grow abnormally).  We'll know more in a few weeks.  His academic skills are coming along too and looking back over the past year we really do see a lot of progress!  Jack had several days where he had small seizures and after an increase in his Keppra (fingers crossed) we haven't seen any lately.  His Keppra levels are already on the high side, so we don't have much room to increase this med.  I really hope he remains seizure free because it's so hard to switch seizure meds and it can take months and months of behavior changes and seizures until we reach a stable point.  He's doing so well I really don't want to see this happen!

On the adoption front -- we are officially waiting (as of August) and expect to have a referral perhaps by this time next year!  It's great to have all of the interviews and mounds and mounds of paperwork behind us.  Now all we do is wait!  I am having moments of excitement and other times it's hard to imagine it's really going to happen!

Morgan is growing up fast!  She's funny and smart and can talk a mile a minute!  She's always exclaiming how  beautiful things are or how sweet someone is or how much she loves something.  She loves to show affection and make us laugh.  She's also very, very stubborn and willful!  She's thrown a few good tantrums here and there and tests our limits daily.  I plan on sending her to preschool after she turns 3 to the same school Jack attended, but maybe only 2 1/2 days a week.  It's hard to believe she'll be 3 in April!

We are looking forward to the holidays and spending time with our families.  I have so many pictures to share and will be uploading more soon!!  I would like to do weekly updates -- there's so much I want to mention but it's all too much to remember or put into a cohesive story!!!  So that's my goal to post at LEAST weekly from now on!

Must run -- time for the kids to get a snack!

Favor Frenzy!

My mom & Paul are getting married this weekend!! We are so excited
and everything is coming together beautifully! I am working on the
favors - 2 down and 173 more to go!

Mini Josie

She's up to no good but the reason I am sharing is she the spitting
image of my mother in this picture!! Everyone always says she resbles
her and I finally see it here!

Uh Oh

Blue crayon meets Jack's wall.  When I asked Morgan about it she said "need paper" she knew it was a big no no! Now off to try magic eraser!  Hope it doesn't take the paint with it!!




Sent from my iPhone

Ready for Dance Class!

Our conversation went like this: Showing me the "butterfly" move, saying she wasn't going to do any rolls at class, to pointing out a piece of the game Ants in the Pants, to saying ready, let's go and bye, bye Phone!

Morgan and the pirate slide

Everything is pirates these days!! She's such a cautious creature and
I am proud she just needed my finger to attempt the slide on her own!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO0SOgyFU0Q

Sent from my iPhone

First lost tooth :)

Sweet feet :)

Bouncing Bunnies Dance Class

Morgan attended her first dance class this morning! She loved it! I didn't know what to expect going in. It's truly my first experience out there in the world of organized group activities for "typical kids."

Morgan didn't like leaving her shoes in the cubby. She kept asking "Shoes...where ARE YOU???" after we sat for a few minutes waiting for everyone to get there we went in the studio area. It was a nice carpeted, soft floor with a lot of gymnastics and dance apparatus set up. We started with a little song and clapping -- which Morgan fully participated in, then on to some stretching like touching our toes, putting our nose to our knees, etc. Morgan was a little confused but went along with it. Then we went on to the balance beams. She loved it! We did them several times, each a different way. Her favorite was step-kicking her way down the beam. She did not like the parallel bars one bit. She kept saying "oh no, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay" and I knew she was nervous and not having any of it. She did the same thing when it came time to learn a forward roll. I think she prefers her feet under her head and not over it!

All in all I was impressed and we'll be heading back next week! I am going to get her a little pair of ballet shoes because she kept slipping all over the place in her socks. I am proud of her and can't wait to see how she does next week!

PS -- Jack starts FIRST GRADE on Monday!!!!!!

One week later!

More sauce!!