March 28th

I have so much to say and I haven't posted lately, but I just wanted to remind everyone of Earth Hour on March 28th. You can bet we will have all our electricity off at that time because of the little scientist in our house. His newest science interest is learning about water, snow and ice (mostly due to our melting snow here). He is our in-house expert on Global Warming right now also. I'm so glad that he is embracing his love of science and changing the world, even if it just means turning off our lights for an hour right now.

So please join us on March 28th from 8:30-9:30pm (your local time) and turn off your lights to help save Planet Earth.

And he's off...

Lance got up this morning at 5am to get to school by 5:30 because he left on a field trip. His class is going up north for a week to have fun and learn some new things. I packed more than enough clothes for the child, so hopefully he'll be fine in that area and won't get cold. We are having a heat wave here in the cities, but it can still be cold up north. It was a little scary for both of us to say good bye. He has never been apart from us for an entire week before. We are sure he will have fun, be safe and make good memories, but it is still tough. So think of Lance this week and I'll write about his trip when he gets home.

Liam is really looking forward to some time alone with us I think. He'll miss Lance, but he knows he'll come back. He already has fun things planned for every evening I think.

Lance's violin competition

If you remember I shared Lance's festival with everyone a few blogs ago. It is a competition, but they are just competing for a score not against each other. They are graded 1-5 on their pieces and when they total 15 points they get a trophy. Lance found out his score tonight...he got a superior which is a 5. He is really happy.

He also left a graded homework assignment for me to look at when I got home from work. Ryan showed it to me and said Lance told him to tell me I got an A+. I had helped him with an assignment last weekend and he got an A on it. He really did do all the work, I just had to explain how to do a collage and write about it. Happy day for grades around here.

Her current home

An online "friend" from my yah.oo group adopted from the same orphanage where Shella May lives. She gave me a website for the home. It goes by a different name than what is on our official documents. According to the website, only two children have been internationally adopted from this home so far. We think we are in touch with both of those families now. It looks like a nice place and they speak English there because it is run by American missionaries.

My scrapbook

I took pictures of the scrapbook I made for Shella May (but didn't send) before I gave it to our agency. Remember I made the entire thing in one day, so it's not the greatest thing I have ever done. Wait, who am I kidding? All of my books look like this, I am more of the theory of get it done, rather than pretty stuff everywhere. I admitted long ago I don't have the talent or the patience to do really pretty scrapbooking. We have decided to bring it with us when we go pick her up.

Already on an emotional roller coaster

It was one week ago today that we found out we have a daughter half way around the world. During this past week I had to do all the acceptance paperwork, prepare pictures to send to her, work, take care of my family.... So I devoted the past weekend to doing the paperwork (including getting it notarized) and preparing a scrapbook.

Yesterday our paperwork was turned in and we thought we would just sit around and wait for the next step. Nope! I got an email from our adoption counselor that I did the paperwork backwards then how we originally applied and that they didn't feel we should send the scrapbook because they were worried it would be stolen and never get to her.

When I found out, I just went to my bed and cried for a few minutes. Liam came to see what was the matter. I told him and he cried with me. I decided I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and go do that paperwork again. We went downstairs and Lance wanted to know what was up. We told him the bad news and he started crying. Then Liam proceeded to call him a baby for crying and told him to get over it. I had to remind Liam that we just had the same reaction, but he still thought Lance was being a baby. Breaking up a stupid fight really brings you back to reality.

So, I redid all the paperwork, ran it to a notary and made a smaller picture book. We are keeping her scrapbook for when we meet her. I am still bummed that I spent the entire weekend doing something that was a waste of time, I try to be a very productive person, but happy to announce it is ALL done now and on it's way to the Philippines.

Lance's violin competition

Lance has a new violin teacher this year that requires he play in a competition called "Festival". They play two pieces from memory, one required, one free choice and they get a score of 1-5. After they accrue 15 points over the years, they get a trophy with their name on it. Lance struggled learning the songs 5 months ago when he started practicing for it, but with hard work he has really learned the songs well. We could not video tape or take pictures during his performance, so we have "faked" a performance for you. He had accompanist at the actual recital, but he does well without the piano also.
The first song was the required "Hunter's Chorus"

The second song was his free choice. It is called "The Blessed Spirits".

Lance's good friend Oliver came to watch him perform. Not only did he support Lance's efforts, he also gave him beautiful flowers for his first competition. (They smell so wonderful)

For fun Lance also played this song (not at the Festival, just for us) called "Boil 'em Cabbage Down"

Not to be outdone, Liam also wanted to get in the act. Here is his song. "Count Carefully".