Summer colds

There is nothing worse than when it is 90+ degrees outside, humid and muggy and you have a fever and cold. Well that is what F and C are dealing with this past week. F started the week with fevers and it has turned into a runny nose nightmare. We are just not used to dealing with this during the summer time. Yesterday C started running a fever and we thought he would follow the pattern of F, but it is a bit different. He started getting sick this morning and just feels awful. Aside from being irritable, F wasn't too bad off. C on-the-other-hand is miserable. Poor guy is just wretching every 30-45 minutes or so. Hopefully this will soon pass.

A has a t-ball game this morning, so Susie is going to take him there. I am going to stay home with C. When they get home we have some odds and ends things to get accomplished today. It will be much more difficult with one of us stuck at home with a sick boy, but oh well.

Deanna Rose

Today we took the kids to Deanna Rose Children's Farm. This is an amazing farm for kids to interact with animals, ride tractors, play in barns, go fishing, explore Native American teepee's and so much more. (I sound like a commercial) I really is a great place and even better is the fact that it is free!! We got there around 10 this morning, packed a picnic lunch and stayed until a little after 2. Though it is pretty crowded everytime I go, it is never so bad that you can'd do everything you want to do. This time in the barn there was a fake cow that had a "milking simulator" and the kids really enjoyed that! Here are some pics from the day.

You can see A's neon green cast in these pictures. Unfortunately we were unable to get him a waterproof cast, so no luck with swimming lessons. The good news is that he only has to where it for three weeks and we are one week into it! June 27th is the planned removal date. Hopefully he can pick up on swimming for the last 3 weeks of the lessons. I think it bothers Susie and I more than it bothers him. He is not slowing down one bit. He even played T-ball this past weekend and was able to hit with the cast on!

We're Logged-In!

We have received our Log In Date (LID) from the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Our dossier was sent over on 5/25/07 and we were logged in on 5/29/07....only four days after it was sent. Our agency told us to expect a 4 week delay between when our dossier was sent and when it would be logged in. Then it could take 4 more weeks until the agency was notified. As of May 1, 2007 new rules went into effect regarding who is now allowed to adopt from China. The new rules on top of the fact that the program is taking so long to complete has clearly decreased the number of people applying to adopt. China was getting so many dossiers each month that they couldn't keep up and it was taking 4 weeks just to log one into their system. Obviously this has slowed tremendously since it took them about 1 day to log us in.

So now we have a date to stick with. As referrals are handed out each month, they are given by date the adoptive families were logged into the system. So this month China gave out referrals to all families who were logged in between November 1 and November 7, 2005. (They are very behind!) As they continue to give out referrals they will creep slowly towards our date of May 29, 2007. Then we will have a new baby!

Ouch!

While we were out galavanting around town, A was at home breaking his arm!! He fell off a rocking zebra we have and landed on his elbow. Fortunately it is not a bad break, but enough to disrupt his summer plans (all of which involve water!). The funny (odd) part of the whole story is that he did it just a few minutes after we left. We met the trolley at a neighborhood bar and then drove it back to our house to pick up all the food and coolers for the night. When we got home, A was out front crying. We all assumed he was upset because he wanted to go on the trolley. When I ran up to him and asked what was wrong, he told me he had hurt his arm. Since it was not grossly deformed, I gave him a soft pat to the head and told him it would be okay. Well, it wasn't okay and Susie had to take him to the ER early the next morning. If you are medical then I will tell you he has a hairline fracture of his right distal humerus. If you are not then I will say he broke his right upper arm. We meet with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday to get his arm casted and find out how long he will be in the cast. Pray for a short term cast!!

Trolley Crawl

On Friday night we officially rang in my thirties with a trolley bar crawl. We had a really great time visiting some of my favorite bars around the city with some of my favorite people. Thankfully everyone was safe and we all made it home in one piece (unfortunately our kids at home did not fare as well...see next post!). A big thanks to my parents, Max and Eileen for sponsoring the Trolley! The night would not have happened without them! Here are some pictures from the night. I have heard that some not so flattering pictures of me were taken as the night progressed, but we will not acknowledge the paparrazzi in the blog!!

Take me out to the ball game

For my birthday we ventured out to a baseball game. Even though our local team is probably one of the worst teams in the league, it is still a lot of fun to go out to the park. It is too bad that more people do not support the Royals, because it really is fun to watch any team play (good or bad). This was the first trip for C and F. A had gone last summer to a game with me and my dad. They all loved it! We were in great seats and you can actually see the faces on the players. I am used to sitting in nose bleed seats when I have gone to professional sports games in the past, so it is really great to go and actually see what is going on. The boys brought their new gloves in hopes that they would catch a foul ball. This was so funny to me because they can't catch the softest lob you toss their direction yet they thought they would hang on to a ball coming at them at 30x that speed. Even though we had just gone out to eat, we had to get the obligatory nachos. If you haven't been to a game in awhile you might not know that nachos are now served "mega-style." You get a massive amount of chips and two huge servings of cheese. The cheese to chip ratio is out of control. The kids thought they were in heaven, so I guess it was worth the outrageous fee they charge from stale chips and processed cheese! Anyway, it was a really great night and not a bad way to ring in my thirties.

DTC

Today we are officially DTC!!! Our dossier was sent to China today from our agency in Texas. Now begins the looooooong wait. Atleast it is out of our control now and in China's hands.