Wow, she wrote!

I've decided that I want to make my blog a part of my life again. I got lost in all of the stuff that needs to be done, and haven't written regularly since we got home with Shella May. I will try to be a better blogger and bore you with the day to day happenings of my little family. I always like to read about other people's adoption stories, or just life stories for the most part. It seems like there is nothing to write about when life is going smoothly, but I would like to be an advocate for adoption and this is a great way to do it. So here goes my new commitment to blogging, again. I even updated the picture to one taken in January.

Great mini vacation

I know this is a few months old, but it was such a great trip I wanted to share it. I decided about a week before the 4th of July that I wanted to get out of town for a small town celebration. I decided that it would be fun to go to Southern MN and it turned out to be a great time. I was lucky to find a great deal on a really nice little "suite" in a town close to our destination 4th of July small town.
We drove down on a Sat. and had great weather. We stopped and had lunch at a state park since we couldn't check in until later that afternoon. (Picture: Kids looking at the river after eating lunch) After lunch we drove around the beautiful countryside (note: kids were pretty bored with this, but good sports because this trip was my birthday gift). We were in Amish country and we were looking for some Amish farms to visit. We checked into our great "suite", two bedrooms, full kitchen, living room for a great price. We decided to go find a goat farm that was advertised. They had a neat shop and goats the kids could pet. Of course I wanted to buy everything because it was all handmade. It is really rude to take pictures of the Amish, they don't believe in pictures, but they had a buggy display outside the visitor center (don't worry it didn't belong to anyone, just a display) that the kids posed in front of. After the goat store we drove around more looking for Amish farms. They have tours that you can take, but I was too cheap to pay for them. Then we saw a buggy going down the highway and I told Ryan to follow that buggy. He drove right past a farm that was selling goods. We stopped in and bought a basket, jam and cashew crunch. The kids had never been to an Amish farm, and watched the children there with interest. We had a nice chat with the woman that lived there about the weather and were on our way. Then we started just following horse poop and found another farm. The next farm we found we bought some gifts and the woman there was super nice. She asked if we had an audio tour, and we told her how we found her farm. She was so nice she drew us a map of the farms in the area. She also told us to go to a bakery just out of town that is great. The little girl that lived on that farm kept getting scolded by her mom in German for staring so much at our kids, she especially liked the way Shella May looked. We quickly drove to the bakery because it was going to close soon. We all got some great treats there and everyone was happy with our farm searching at that point.
We went back to our hotel, had some dinner and played card games. The next morning was the Fourth, so we went to town for the festivities. It was lightly raining, but it didn't spoil the fun. We ate some food, played some mini golf and got ready to watch the parade. It started really pouring rain when the parade started, but it still went on. It was Shella May's first parade and she thought it was great that people were throwing candy at her despite the rain. The parade was a lot of fun and just long enough. That night they had great fireworks in town. I couldn't believe how long the show went for such a small town. It was a long day, but we all had a great day despite the rain.
The next day we were taking off to go home. The kids (mostly Liam) had asked if we could go to a local cave. It was a little pricey for 5 people, but they had been such great sports all weekend that we decided to go before we left the area.
We got to the cave and it was a fun tour. It was a different kind of structure than the other caves we had been in. It was really long and narrow. It was Shella May's first time in a cave and she didn't like that it was cold. It was really interesting and we had a fun time. There is another cave down there and we will try to go to that one next time we go down for a visit. What a fun, inexpensive family trip we had.

Finalization!!

I finally got some pictures from our court finalization. My friend was wonderful and came to take pictures of our special day, but we both have been so busy it took a while to connect to get them. Thanks Ann!

There isn't much to say about the entire process. We sent a bunch of paperwork in and then we called for the court date. We planned it for when Grandma would be visiting from OR. We got to the court house early because we didn't know what traffic would be like. Since we were the first family to sign on, we got to see the judge first. It was so great to not have to wait all day. We went into the courtroom and met the judge. He went through all of our paperwork and asked us several questions for court record's sake. He was really a funny judge and made jokes a few times.

At the end we got to take pictures with the judge and the boys even got to sit on his bench. Shella May didn't want to go up.

So now I proudly introduce our little girl: Shella May Marie!!

Easter weekend

It started with a nice Easter egg hunt at Liam's classmate's house. They invite hundreds of people and hide over a thousand eggs. Lance was too old to hunt, so he just helped eat the little ones' candy.Then we had the kids' cousins over. They all played outside and then came in to decorate eggs. As you can see Liam had a little fall during the outside playing part.Easter Sunday was a beautiful weather day and we played it low key. Liam relaxed in the sun, while Shella May and Lance played baseball with Daddy.We took Liam to Urgent Care later Sat. night because he couldn't sleep due to the pain. They gave him a splint, took an x-ray, and told us to see our doctor on Monday.
After having the x-ray read, it was decided to put a cast on his arm. He says it feels much better now. He only has to wear it for 3 weeks and then back to the splint. The downside is that a new session of orchestra started on Monday that Liam will not be playing in.

The FINAL step of the adoption process

Almost 3 years ago we started the official adoption process. Of course we had been talking about adoption and visiting different agencies for years before we actually started. I would have never thought that it would take 3 years from start to finish, no wonder our first social worker laughed at me when I asked if it would be under or over a year to complete. Of course I didn't believe her when she said it would take a few years.
We got our letter from ICAB saying we could officially adopt Shella May on Feb.26th, very close to our 6 month mark. I hadn't finished the paperwork we were supposed to turn in because I saw no urgency during the past 6 months. So it took me a couple of weeks to get all the paperwork finished, notarized, etc and then mail it to our agency. Our current social worker was on maternity to leave and was coming back the next week, so it sat on her desk for a week or so also. When she came back to work, she looked over it one last time and mailed it to the county court house. She mailed it on a Wed. and we had the paper saying we could file on Sat. I guess our county moves fast, too bad they didn't work in other areas of our adoption process. I called yesterday and made our appointment with the judge for April 29th. We could have gone next week already, but Ryan's mom will be in town and my dad will be home from FL then.
What a big day it will be. Of course Shella May knows it is important, but doesn't get it all because she is said she is already a part of our family (which is true). She would like to wear her purple dress and that is a big deal because she doesn't like wearing dresses.
So...July 2007 to April 29, 2010, so worth it all.

Everyone loves a good duel

I don't know if Shella May was a Star Wars fan before she was part of our family, but she is now. They have been chomping at the bit to play light sabers all winter, so when spring arrived they were out in full force. They ran around and played for hours in the warm temps. I'm sure we'll see more light saber battles when spring break begins next week.

One year ago

One year ago today I was on cloud nine because we received our referral for Shella May. Today I told her the story of how we found out and how excited we were.

Well, last night we got an email from our agency telling us that we received our official Affidavit of Consent to Adopt from ICAB. Now I just have to complete the paperwork that I have been procrastinating on for the past 6 months. Then when that paperwork is all done we get to go to court to finalize our adoption. We already told the kids that it will be a big special day in our house and we will celebrate!

Thank you for all of you love, support and prayers throughout this part of the journey.