The last few weeks have been a blur. Paperwork processing has slowed down only due to where we are at in the process. In between - is where we are at. Almost done completing homestudy. Almost done collecting papers/documents for the dossier. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of this phase. In the beginning, I was very busy collecting documents, typing and running here and there to gather items. Now - I am in between. So we started setting up Alivia Grace's room a bit amongst other things in this "in between" part of the process.
Here is a few pictures of what we have been up to:
The boys have been jumping on the trampoline. Thank you Easter Bunny!
Carson's Birthday Party - My sister from Indianapolis came to visit with her two boys for a week. We had a great time visiting with them. I think this picture captures the excitement well. Let's just say that Aunt Diane spoils them just a bit!:)
Let's just say we made a really big mess this birthday. The kids enjoyed water balloons, party poppers and confetti shooters! I am so glad that my sister Shawnda was in town with her two boys to celebrate with us.
Mother's Day! I had a great and very blessed Mother's Day. First, I attended a mother's day tea that the Kindergarten class put on. So cute! Carson made me a purse and book all in one! So handy! Brennan showered me with a love letter he had made at school with Free Car Wash and many other chores that he would help out with. We enjoyed lunch with my parents and my sister Diane to top it off. What a great day! I can only begin to imagine what next year will be like having our sweet girl with us to enjoy all of these things as well.
Brennan's end of the year trip to Animal Kingdom. I think they had a Great time! Brennan enjoyed his first Water Raft Ride! :)
Through this time I have been planning fundraising projects. Our first fundraiser will be a tennis clinic and round robin event (more info to come next post). I am so very grateful and thankful to my dear friend Gabby and my sister Diane who helped me to organize this. This whole process would not be possible without the help of others. I am so grateful for who God has placed in my life!
As you might recall from a previous post we were considering a second child as well. During this "in between time" I had identified a possible second child and as we worked further through the process researching her medical needs etc... it became very clear that we would not be able to meet her needs. This was somewhat of a loss as I knew we were in the beginning stages and did not know all of the details yet however i felt myself beginning to fall. I was so very hopeful that she would be ok.
We will move forward with our one sweet little princess Miss Alivia Grace and we will consider a second at another time. I really want her to have a sister and from her same country - But first we must meet the needs of Alivia and really define her needs. We will need to recreate the attachment process for her as many babies/toddlers who are in group settings do not get those needs met. This means even though she will almost be 3 (technically she is much younger as for every 3 months in group setting a child would fall behind one month) at the time that we get her we will intitially need to treat her like an infant continue holding, rocking, cuddling, bottle feeding and not worrying about potty training. She most likely could be resistent to this and will take time. Why? might you ask well every child needs to go through this process to build trust - trust that their needs will be met and that they will be cared for. This also instills bonding and closeness. I look forward to gently shaping this and spending the quality time with her bonding. I am fully aware that this could take a long time to develop but I look forward to the journey.
I completed the parent training courses - which I find very interesting. This informs us as adoptive parents how are parenting might look different from our biological children as well as the cultural background that our child will come from. This is great preparation for this process. Between the social workers information and the parenting classes we feel that we have "a guide" for this child that we did not have with our biological children.
Well, I must sign off for now!
xoxox Traci
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