just photos......(well, almost)

So, what have we been up to?? Here's the brief (not necessarily in order)...hangin around, riding skatebords, jump roping in the front yard! Pool time's always fun! Playing in rain with our clothes on is FABULOUS! Ichthus music festival was a sweaty blast! Me and three 13 year olds got our faces rocked off!! Meeting cute boy bands was one of their highlight..I thought they were hilarious dancing with the ChickFilA Cow! I had to take a photo when our adoption agency FINALLY posted a "Matched" by Bryce/Will's name...Can't tell ya how many times I searched the yahoo group for that!!! YEAH! We JUST had our family pics made a few weeks before we decided to adopt Will (heheh) and my latst project was the wall behind the couch..a new look for me...I'm usually so linear/matchy matchy when it comes to frames...I like it! Thanks for the motivation Amy!!! and lets not forget photos from Field day on the last day of school! OF course we are missing some camping trips, cook outs, family gatherings and things...but as mentioned this is the "brief" :)

I'm one excited Chick!

I officially faxed all my homestudy documents off to my social worker Amy yesterday!! It was quite an accomplishment!! All 14 documents!! ..and if I may pat my own back, those 14 documents were gathered in under 4 weeks!!! It took two and half times that long for Sams!!! (It DID help some of the documents were able to be reused) My dear SW (who I feel like is a friend at this point) said it won't take long to tweek the old homestudy...so I'm quite hopeful the new HS maybe done in a week or so and we can move forward to the next step...the 800A application!! WHICH I've already completed and mailed to my Homestudy agency....GO ME!

Don't you LOVE adoption paperwork~~~ HURRY UP AND WAIT!!!! But as everyother adoptive parent out there, I'm oh so anxious to be waiting for the next step....one step closer always feels so good!

As for my lovely family, we are doing fabulous! Summer is moving right along! I'm so grateful to be able to spend as much time at home with them as I do! We've been having LOTS of fun doing a bunch of nothing most of the time...just hanging around! Lots of pool time, picnics at the park, playdates with friends, sidewalk chalk and bike riding...and staying up to late...I wish Sam would figure out how to sleep past 7:30! We did have a VERY exciting weekend! Friday I took a bunch of 13 year old to "Icthus" which is a HUGE!!!! four day Outdoor Christian Music Festival. We only made it for one day, but had a total blast! We had our faces rocked off by Fireflight, Skillet, and so many other smaller bands I can't remember~ It was 10 hours of blasting heat WONDERFUL music and AMAZING Christian messages for the kids. I really enjoy spending time with those of different denominations! Saturday was family cookout time, dinner out with my DEAREST friend Kristi and agroup of friends to celebrate her birthday and then downtown to a streetparty! I was actually in a bar at midnight on a Saturday night~~~ Geesh! Don't remember the last time that happened! I sent Sam a memo I was going to be out late two nights in a row...BUT he didn't read it and was STILL! up at 7:30AM!! Mamma's toooo old to miss that much sleep! Sunday was fun but LLOOONNNGG for someone who desperately needed a nap! Breakfast in bed for dad, mass, and another cookout with the DeLuca side of the family!!! Boy was I sorry I had to work Monday morning....gggrrrr! I'll post pics later....fun was had by all but I think it will take a week of naps for me to recover!

and I didn't think I cared!!!

Our PA came yesterday!!! I immediately printed it off and put it on the fridge and I've been grinning at it for two days! Funny, I didn't even know our real LOI...hadn't even thought about it. I've been focusedfocusedfocused on summertime fun and working on the homestudy paperwork any spare second I have AND I'm just a birth certificate and maybe a child abuse clearance short! BUT when the email came yesterday I was genuienly thrilled! There aren't many "genuninely thrilled" moments in the adoption journey so I REALLY enjoyed it..and I tried to file that sweet element of surprise away to pull out the next I feel like banging my head into a wall over paperwork~~~~ and that would have been tonight! BUT that PA still looks fine hangin on fridge! :)

What a little ham!

We finally got our medical translated (Thank you MingJi and friends!) so far everything medically looks good, no real surprises! But we've gotten a little insight into his personality....you can't help but smile at this...

"He likes to be called ”little handsome”. Every time he was dressed nicely, he would run all over the playground as showing off what a cutie he is. Workers and the elders in our institution like him a lot and can’t help to compliment him when seeing how cute he was, and he is very pleased. He would say hi to elders politely. When he was 24 months old, he already had strong capability of imitation, he could mimic whatever the grownups said and nodding or shaking head, which makes people laugh. He is really a good boy. He’s not as afraid of stranger as before, and is very nice to strangers in the contrary. Sometimes he took others’ hands to show them around, seemed to be a good tour guide."

hehehe...my handsome tour guide!!!!! I love it!!

You know it's summer time when.......

dinner consists of pancakes eaten at 8pm while you are covered in sidewalk chalk and smell like grape bubbles!! Yeah baby, let the good times roll!!!!

New Sweet pictures!!!

We sent a cake and some food to contribute to the orphanges celebration of "Children's Day" on June 1st. Just like here in the states we have Mother's & Father's Day they do a pretty big celebration for their kids. I was really pleased to see how much the orphanage did for orphans. Really warmed my heart! We also got some updated measurements. He's just a bit smaller than Sam but in 95% for everything...they defiently grow them big in Huaian!!! These pictures she have done my worried heart good!!! Ann from Red Thread did a wonderful job as always and I really appreciated her tip of waiting for Children's Day!! She's FAB! and I love her! Enjoy the pics!