Happy birthday Mom!!

Today is my Mom's birthday! We went to dinner and out for ice cream to celebrate.





Naked baby getting ready for bed
This is blurry... but so sweet.

picture pages

Baby reads to Daddy...
Daddy reads to baby...
Dad's not lookin'? Baby's outta here!

Bzzzzzzzz....

More social events - all good fun. More yard sale prep - ugh and hooray (tired of digging through basements and garages yet so thankful and pleased with the donations we have gotten and all of the support)
These pics are of Eliana visiting with some friends this week. She was especially fascinated with the babies that were littler than her. She's never shown that much interest before - it was really cute.


Oh wait- -this is our family pic for the dossier. Doesn't Eliana look thrilled?

... with baby Helen
...... with Domenic
... with Penelope

She can sit in the tent and ring the doorbell for a long, long, LONG time.



Also - Congrats to Nino - he has PINK and
WELCOME HOME ZOE!!!!! She came to her new home in the US just 2 days ago from Vietnam.
Hooray for families!!

Busy bees

This truly awful picture of me was taken at an amusement park this weekend. Eliana had a great time. Unfortunately this was not documented photographically as the camera died right after Matt took this picture.


Eliana looking beautiful for our dossier photo shoot


Future photographer?



Playing with Craig....


... taking Mary for a wlk. Look at that little belly!


This pic was from the get together we had with some of other families in the area that have kids from Guatemala. We are trying to all get together once a month. It's so much fun to see the kids together! This little outfit E has on is one that we brought home from Guat.

There's been a lot going on around here!
We've had a bunch of fun stuff going on, hanging out with lots of friends this past week. Eliana loves it - she loves going out and about, seeing other people.
We've also been wrapping up our paperwork stuff. Today we sent away all of our homework for the homestudy (it's supposed to be an update but we really re-did almost everything), we mailed out our I-600 application (requesting permission to adopt from the gov't) and we sent away the one document we need to have authenticated. We have 1 paper to write up ( a letter of intent about why we want to adopt 2 kids from Ethiopia) and then we will be finished with the dossier! I'm going to do the letter tonight, so after tomorrow we will just be sitting around waiting to get stuff back from the HS agency and the government. Wish us luck (in the form of speedy accurate responses)!

We're still getting ready for the yard sale - it's in less than 2 weeks!

Time to put this baby girl to bed. She's started 'reading' to herself today. She opens books and slowly turns each page while talking in a low voice to herself. She's a genius, what can I say!?

Help a friend...

Fellow adopting Mom, Krystal, is finishing up a Pampered Chef fundraiser that you can access from her blog. It's easy to check out the products and maybe do a little early online Christmas shopping - while helping bring home 2 of her beautiful children from Guatemala!
Check it out

braydenboy

Another week gone by...

Ok, so these are not the best quality, but I never seem to now where the camera is but my phone is always in my pocket. Sorry, Eliana, that your childhood is being recorded in grainy, blurry whisps.

Eating her dad's ice cream cone


These sleepers always remind me of Elvis when the top button is undone. She even looks like she's singing in this one.


Ok, so this one is especially not clear. But it was so especially funny at the time..


We have been busy! We've been kicking butt on gathering paperwork for the adoption. We have a ton done and are almost (almost) to the point where we are just waiting for other people to return their stuff to us: the doctor, the government, reference letters, the accountant, etc. I predict that by the end of next week we will just be sitting around waiting for the homestudy to be done and the fingerprint appointment letter to arrive.

Eliana has been doing great! She is trying new foods which I love! This week she tried (and liked) watermelon, hummus and tomato. She still likes guacamole and is loving ice cream just like her ma!
This baby gets cuter and more fun every day.

Fundraising!!!!

Ok folks, just thought I'd clue you into what we've been doing.
To help cover the costs of this adoption Matt and I have some fundraisers planned over the next year.
The first one will be at the end of this month: a yard sale/ bake sale.
It will be Aug 31st and Sept 1st at a cousin's home in Moundsville. (Thanks for the loan of your lawn!)
We have been busy gathering stuff from our house, my Mom's house and coordinating donations from some generous friends and family. Anyone I haven't hit up yet: take this as your invitation to get rid of some junk and help us out! Seriously, if anyone around here has anything they'd like us to pick up (sale stuff or baked goods) we'd be more than happy to do so.
Check back for more info on the Sept fundraiser.
For now, I've gotta get back to the basement.....

Mini Vacation

We just got back from a weekend in Dublin... Ohio not Ireland. We still managed to have a great time though. We went to the Dublin Irish Festival which is the second largest Irish fest in the country. As all of you could probably tell Jenny (maiden name Daugherty) is Irish so when family friends told us about the festival we had to go. Jenny, her mom, Eliana and I left Friday, met up with Jenny's cousin and his wife (Jenny's best friend also known as Tia) and her parents (close family friends) on Saturday and ended the festivities with a traditional Irish Mass spoken in Gaelic on Sunday. I also managed to see a band I really enjoy called Black 47 twice. The baby did great and had a wonderful time. Here are a few pics.....


Eliana with Tia




the baby hanging in the little baby prison that the hotel lent us instead of a crib(and yes she is raking her cup back and forth across the bars, nice huh?)





Eliana dancing a jig with her mom



checking out one of her favorite bands of the festival



nearing the end of a long, hot day



watching Black 47 with her Dad


We also stopped at our first Ethiopian restaurant on the way home. It was called The Blue Nile. They had a buffet so we were able to try a few different things. We loved it and plan to seek out more locally. On the adoption front we filled out the first packet of paperwork and are working on the 2nd. We are anxiously waiting for the case worker that will be assigned to us to call. We are also working on the update for the home study. As some of you know we have a lot of paperwork to "chase". I think that's about it... oh I think one of our trees was hit by lightening while we were away. Three branches were nearly ripped off the tree. Two were a pretty good size. One of which decided to fall down as I was messing with it. I had to jump out of the way at the last second before it could come crashing down on my head. Not a pretty sight. I'm not exactly agile. Jenny was watching from the window, she was not impressed. :) We are all really tired so I'm off to join the rest of the family. Goodnight.