A New List

I am so happy to say that our agency has just received a new list of waiting children. Their last list came in June. As I mentioned in the "Update on our little Lia" post, we are part of the waiting child program which means that Lia will come to us with some type of "special" need. It is very unlikely that Lia will be part of this current group of children, as there are many people who have waited longer than us, but I can hope, right? So far we have only been waiting for 5 months. They generally get large lists every 2-3 months, which would put the next list in October/November. At that point we will have waited for 8 months, the average wait time for our agency. This new list puts us one step closer to Lia. I am so excited about this list and about all of the waiting families just days away from seeing their children. Maybe now I can give my computer a much needed break:)

19 More Wishes

I have 19 new wishes for the 100 Wishes Quilt. This brings my total to 61! I still have 39 to collect, but as you may have noticed Bob, the kids and I haven't even done ours yet. I am excited to get started on the book and the quilt. I haven't decided on a pattern for the quilt yet, but I'd like to do something simple. I only have pictures here of 18 of the squares, because no matter how many pictures I took, I couldn't get one of the squares to show up.

Here are our newest squares:

My mom


My brother, Kevin


My sister, Maura


My Grandma and Grandpa Geraghty


My Aunt Mary and Uncle Chris


Two squares from my cousin Jonathan, his wife Maggie, and their son Joseph



My newleywed cousin Molly and her husband Connor


My cousin Tim


Bob's Administrative Assistant, Monica


My mom's good friend, Ann


Another friend of my mom's, Anne


Donna, a friend of my mom's


Pat, another friend of my mom's


Mrs. Ward, my mom's good friend


Molly Ward, a childhood friend



And two cute kids!! I know that Garrett will not be happy later in life to hear that we put a bath picture on the Internet, but isn't he cute? He doesn't like the shower we have at the cottage, so we have to give him a bath in the sink:)



Caelan's newest favorite thing to do is give piggy back rides to Garrett.

Guess who's coming to China?

After a lot of discussion we have decided that we are going to bring the kids with us to China. We have always wanted to bring Caelan, but we were (OK, still are) worried about how Garrett will handle the trip. There is no way that we would bring one and not the other. I am so happy that we have made this decision, I want to be able to enjoy our time in China, and I know I wouldn't be able to do this worrying about the kids at home. I just kept thinking about what a basket case Caelan was while Bob was in Africa. Granted, he was gone an entire month, but she cried nearly evey day. And Bob may have been just as bad, I am not sure, what I do know is that he missed the kids terribly.

I am a stay-at-home-mom and the longest I have been away from the kids was last weekend when Bob brought the kids away for two nights and I stayed home to clean the attic. Sparkling, by the way:) Well, that worked out fine, but other than that I have been away from Garrett only a handful of nights (actually 4- when my girlfriends came to my parent's cottage last summer, Nora's wedding in September, Molly's wedding this June and one night while we were at our cottage I had to drive home for a doctor's appointment and steam clean the carpets). Only one of the nights I left him with someone other than Bob. I certainly haven't prepared him for life without Mom for two weeks.

Even my mother agrees that the kids should be there. That or she has realized after our 2 night visit last week that two weeks with the kids might put her over the edge. She has volunteered to come with us. And my dad doesn't want to miss out, so he will likely be coming as well. This will work out really well, since my parents can watch Caelan and Garrett whenever we need help. I know that once we have Lia, her needs will be our priority. I am also hoping that having the kids there will put her at ease more quickly. Our only problem now is that we have two more plane tickets to buy! Oh, and passports! Visas!

Oh, and I will bring the kids to a local class so they can learn some Mandarin! That starts in September.

We Did It!

Yes. We set up the crib.

Caelan was feeling sort of down in the dumps about when Lia would actually come home. I keep hoping that we will hear something by Christmas- this would be almost exactly 9 months that CCAI had our medical conditions checklist, but it could go a little longer than that. I am still hoping it will be sometime this fall. Caelan said, "Mom, last night I kept thinking about Lia and I wanted to cry. When will she come home?" So I figured that we should do something to add a little excitement.

Well, this is my big weekend for cleaning and reorganization. Bob is bringing the kids to the cottage, and it will be my responsibility to reorganize the attic. It is really bad:( Caelan's bedroom also needed a major overhaul, so we did that yesterday. Just as I had everything out of her bedroom I had the bright idea of setting up the crib. It makes sense- I had to clean the attic anyway, and the crib was in the attic- right? SO here it is:




We love our house. We live on the Saginaw Bay. We have a lot of birds and other wildlife. But, we have a small house, especially the kids' bedrooms. Caelan's is small, maybe 8 x 9 or 9 x 10 or something like that, and good intentioned people (my mom and mil) questioned whether we would be able to fit another body in Caelan's bedroom, but as you can see it was a success! Now Garrett's room is much smaller than Caelan's and there is probably no way that we'd ever fit two beds in there.

Neither Caelan or Garrett were very interested in sleeping in the crib as babies- they much preferred their mama :). So needless to say the crib is in very gently used condition and even if we don't have a baby to put in the crib for another year, maybe we will get some use out of it with the kids playing in there.

I am so glad that we did it. Caelan didn't stop smiling all day, and she went to sleep very easily. And she made her bed today. Wow. Last night as I was reading her stories we were pretending to say goodnight to Lia. The crib has just made the adoption seem even more real. Someday (soon, I hope) there will be our sweet baby looking up at us from that crib. We can't wait!

The New Washing Machine

This probably doesn't warrent its own post, but we recently made a big purchase that I couldn't be more pleased about. Here is the washer we bought.

Now, I must say that our washing machine that we had been using came with us from our Delton house. We have lived here for 2 years, in Delton for two years, and that washer was in the Delton house when the previous owners moved in. So at least 11 years, likely longer. We replaced the belt on the old washer twice in the past 9 months. It stopped agitating the clothes and leaked an enormous abount of water on the floor. I was pleased to finally say to Bob that the washer has finally washed its last load.

On to the purchase. I hate doing laundry. With three kids (OK- ALMOST three kids:))and a semi-regular jogging husband, we have a lot of laundry. I feel like there is always laundry to be done. My friend Karin once said something about if there is something that you dislike doing, figure out how to make it easier. Well at the time, I didn't like to put the clothes away. No wonder- all of our drawers were busting at the seams- did Bob still need that concert t-shirt from 1990? Probably not. SO once the drawers were cleared, putting clothes away was a breeze. My new washing machine really saves time and energy. I have found that I can do two, maybe three loads of clothes a week and be done. I was doing 10 with the old washer.

Now my second reason for choosing this washer is that it has an ENERGY STAR rating. Last year during lent, my lenten resolution was to make at least 10 changes to how we live that will lessen our impact on the environment.

Here is my list:
1. We recycle. I am even embarrassed to put this down, as we have lived here for two years and just started recycling. The garbage company picks it up curbside. Too easy.
2. We now compost our kitchen waste.
3. Turn off and unplug all appliances, lights when not in use. (Mom, if you are reading this, you know how hard this one has been:)) Did you know appliances can use up to 40% of power while plugged in, even if they are turned off?
4. I use a Divacup.
5. We almost never purchase processed foods. My exceptions to this are breakfast cerael, bread, pasta. We also buy canned tomato products (Salsa, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes) and canned beans. Oh and condiments- I eat a lot of salad and love the convenience of prepared salad dressings. But for the most part we eat fresh, whole foods. This cuts down on boxes and plastics and we all feel much healthier.
6. We are buying organic foods, when possible. I joined a local food co-op which was a great way to purchase organic foods at lower prices. I would love to do all of my shopping there, but it is a little too far, which sort of defeats the purpose as I was spending too much in gas, so I have gone back to Meijers and our local fruit and veggie stand. I always go to the organic section first and purchase from there, though there isn't a huge selection. I sure wish we had a Whole Foods around here.
7. Any appliance we buy from now on must have an energy star rating. Not all appliances can get this rating (like dryers), but for those that can we will stick with the energy star.
8. Our next vehicle will get better gas mileage. We are currently driving a gas guzzling SUV. Our lease runs out in March and we will be looking for a smaller family car that will still be able to accommodate 2 adults, three kids and our two big dogs.
9. We are trying to use less water.
10. I will try not to purchase any more books. I am definately a book junkie. In fact yesterday, I picked up a box full of maybe 100 children's books from a freecycler. This doesn't count, though, since I am simply reusing someone else's old books.
11. We use non-toxic cleaning products. I usually use a mixture of vinegar and water for most of my general wipe downs. I also use Simple Green.

So anyway, my list has finally generated an energy star rated appliance- Yeah!

End of Summer for Bob

Bob officially goes back to work on Tuesday. His five weeks of freedom are over. We spent the last week at the cottage. Caelan had a lot of fun with her cousins, Jenna and Zane and her Grandma Jansen. Garrett was too busy mowing and raking to be bothered with all of the fun:)



The Baldwin Troutarama was going on all week, so we went to the carnival. Bob and Gayle brought the kids to a fish hatchery where they had a two day kids event. Each child could catch up to three fish on the first day and two fish on the second day. The kids were able to keep the fish.





Bob's mom had 2 nights of sleepovers with Jenna, Caelan, Zane and one night with Tommy as well in the camper. As she gushed over what fun they were having, I often wondered if she was slowly losing her mind. I guess this is what I have to look forward to- being a grandparent. I am far too anxious right now to handle all of the chaos that seems to come with the territory of a handful of sugared-up 5 and 6 year-olds. I am not sure that I will do well when the time comes for me to organize and supervise sleepovers, maybe I will check myself into a hotel and hand over the night to Bob!

Just look at how excited they all are:



I have made it a habit to walk around the lake each morning. From our driveway, around the lake and back is exactly four miles. I have walked every day that we have been up there, except the day I had to bring Garrett in for chest x-rays after a couch diving incident went terribly wrong. (Thankfully, nothing was broken). Caelan has decided that she really needs "exercise" so she has also made it a habit to come with me. Unless, of corse, there is something more "fun" going on- aka her cousins and Grandma are at the lake. She does pretty well. I bring a stroller and she takes a ride when she is tired, but I think she usually goes at least 3 miles. When I bring Kali (our Siberian Husky) it usually takes me an hour to walk. When I take Caelan, we usually make it around in 90 minutes. It is fun. She is really into searching for dead snakes and frogs on the road. One day we saw what we suspect may have been a hedgehog. It sort of scared her. Here is a picture of us both in our walking gear- note the fancy pink sunglasses.



Caelan had such a fun time with her cousins this week, we were able to take quite a few pictures of her and her cousin Jenna.

Update on the 100 Wishes Quilt Wishes #3-42

Well, I now have 42 squares total!!! Only 58 left to collect:) I think that I have made copies of all of the squares, though I feel like there are a few missing.

Bob's sister, Robin and her family


From Great Grandma Jansen and Bob's cousin Cindy


From Bob's cousin, Rich, and his wife Lindsay:


From Jackie Kellogg and her children Mitchell and Olivia with cousin Courtney Kellogg


From Leslie, a teacher that Bob worked with in Delton, Mary Rose, a teacher at Hampton, and Tina, a parent coordinater at Hampton


From Bob's Aunt Betty Brown, her daughter Linnea, and granddaughter Linden


From Bob's Aunt Julie and Uncle Dick


Bob's Aunt Pat and her family


Bob's Uncle Howard, Aunt Betty and cousins Kraig and Kristy


From my very good, new friend Nicole, who is also adopting from China


An adoptive family


Another adoptive family


More adoptive families


Even more adoptive families

Birthday Boy!

On Monday, our little guy turned three. We celebrated at Wolf Lake with Shelley, Emily, and Mikey on his birthday and then the next day with Great-Grandma Jansen, Grandma Jansen, Aunt Robin, Jenna, Zane and Lukas. For those of you who know Garrett, he is very interested in household maintenance. He particularly likes lawn work and vacuuming. We have been joking quite a bit lately about how while Caelan is in heaven when we go to a toy store, Garrett prefers the hardware store. He now has his very own weed whipper and tool set. If only they actually worked:)

I asked him what type of cake he wanted for his birthday. While I LOVE to cook, I am not much of a baker, so I knew I'd be heading to our local market for the cake. He wanted raspberry cake. Huh? Well, I did find him a delicious raspberry pie that seemed to satisfy him.

Update on our little Lia

I just wanted to explain our new timeline for the adoption. Officially, we are logged in on 4/13/07 with the China Center of Adoption Affairs and have requested a non-special needs girl aged 0-12 months. Right now referrals for NSN are averaging 20-21 month wait for a referral, but this time is increasing, and is expected to reach a three year wait. While this was originally the plan, we have had a change of heart.

I have always felt drawn toward our agency's waiting child program. What CCAI does is have a prospective adoptive family fill out a Medical Conditions Checklist which states the "special needs" your family would be open to. Here is the checklist. There are a variety of special needs ranging from birthmarks to more major issues. We have selected needs that I feel that we could easily handle. I spent a lot of time researching and talking to other families. Since Caelan and Garrett are so young, I still felt like the age range we previously indicated would be best for us, though we said we would go up to 16 months. We still would like a girl, as we all have our hearts set on our "little Lia."

What our agency does is organizes the checklists into an order based on when the ckecklists were received. As they receive referrals from China, they match these children with adoptive parents. The parents then have a week or so to review the file, bringing the file to doctors or further researching the specific special need before deciding if this is their child. So far, our agency is working through checklists submitted in October/November/December of 2006. We turned our checklist in March of 2007. Now, if a child has conditions that do not match any of the potential adoptive families, their profile is posted on our agencies waiting child list. Generally these children have more severe needs or are older children.

We are very excited about this change and hope to have a referral by Christmas, though it could be longer (or shorter). Generally, travel is 2-4 months from the time a family submits a letter stating that they wish to adopt a waiting child.

Summertime

Well, we have owned the cottage for nearly a month, and have been up there almost the whole time. It seems that the kids start to need a little break from there, so we come home for a couple of days. They regroup, play with their toys and then are ready to go back up there.

We spend most of the time swimming or playing in the sand at the lake. It has been great for me because I feel like I have been able to relax for the first time in hmm... 6 YEARS!! There isn't much straightening to do and Bob has been grilling dinner every night as we still haven't been able to light the pilot on the stove (oh, well:)). I feel pretty guilty as we have been using a lot of paper products, but it has been so wonderful to do breakfast dishes only. I will make up for it in the fall, winter and spring.

While we have spent most of our time at the cottage, Bob did bring the kids to the Ludington State Park. We have never been there before, but I guess it was just beautiful. The kids had a lot of fun running in the sand dunes on the beach.

We did make it up for a while to the Cherry Festival in Traverse City. We didn't stay long, as the weather was on the verge of a major downpour. We made it our just in time. That is always fun.