Celebrating Adoption

Yesterday we had Sue from Little Souls Photography come over for a photo session. What is Celebrating Adoption??? Celebrating Adoption is an organization of photographers dedicated to promoting adoption. Their participating photographers are very different: some shoot with natural light while others use studio light; some prefer posing the subject while others prefer the spontaneity of lifestyle photography; but they all have one thing in common, the desire to celebrate your adoption with you! If you are an adoptive family and have adopted your child within the last year, you qualify for a Celebrating Adoption session. Mia wasn't in greatest of moods and Ethan just wanted to play. But it was neat to have pictures taken in our own yard. There are two pictures from the session. When we get all of the proofs we will share with all.

Mia's Baptism

Steve & his princess

Pastor Tom, our family, Sarah & Scott

Our little angel. We bought her gown in Guatemala.

You think I'm going to sit still & look pretty!

We celebrate ALL of God's blessings today

OK, Mia didn't last to long in her gown so we changed in to something PINK.Funny that all of the girls had the same dress too. You have to love Gymboree:)

Mia sits on Meme's lap

What a day! Praise the Lord!

Today holds a special day in our hearts as Mia was baptized. For nearly a year our church has prayed for us to bring Mia home. Today our friends and family were their as we dedicated her life to the Lord. She wouldn't go to Pastor Tom, but instead snuggled in her daddy's arms. How fitting that Pastor Tom's sermon was on prayer: God hears our prayers. Sometimes it seems like he is denying them, but he WILL answer them, in his time. WOW! did we ever experience that first hand with Mia. At times it felt as if God wasn't hearing our prayers - how could one more thing come up to delay Mia from coming home? But today we celebrated answered prayers and a new member of God's family.

Ethan & His One Man Band

Mia & Auntie Sarah

Sarah, Scott & Mia

Hey Pa...I Like your hat!!!

Am I ready to sign a record deal yet????

Wow!!! These are REALLY noisy!

No more quiet times at our house!

Auntie Sarah & Ethan play T-Ball

Ethan swings and misses the ball

Uncle Scott is that how the Cubs do it???

Uncle Scott steps in and shows Ethan how to hit the ball. But notice they get a strike!!!

Try and catch me

Yeah Auntie Sarah & Uncle Scott are here!!!

Amy's sister, Sarah, & her husband Scott (The Dunblazier family)came into town to celebrate Mia's baptism. (Which is Sunday) This was the first time they had seen Mia. One look at her and they were hooked. They recently went to Hawaii and brought the kids back some Hawaiian shirts. Then Sarah had a special present for Ethan. She is a music teacher so most of the time her gifts are music related. Wow was Ethan surprised to get a pair of cymbals & a recorder from her. Yes just what EVERY parent wants their three year old son to have!!!! (We will remember this when they have kids!!) Ethan loved everything and right away had to test them out. I'm not sure if we're ready for the UT marching band yet, but we're headed in that direction!!

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Ethan gets his presents.

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The one man band debuts.

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Scott & Sarah try to brainwash Ethan.

Photo Session Gone Bad....

Ethan is doing his impression of a flamingo or a peg leg pirate.

Not quite sure what Ethan's doing here

Where are the smiles???

Today we took Mia to get pictures in her baptism gown and her dress she wore to the embassy for her gotcha day. Well, the session didn't go as we had planned!!! Ethan & Mia we NOT seeing eye to eye. Mia really didn't want to smile. We had to laugh because the photographer asked if they could use our pictures for their publications. For what....a reminder NEVER to photograph a 1 & 3 year old together???? The photographer felt so bad, but we just had to laugh!!It will be AWHILE before we try pictures again!!

Hum...can I get that bow out of her hair???

I'll just pretend I'm going to kiss her

Ah, but Mia is quicker and gets Ethan first

Mama, what happened???

Potty Progress

Well I know most parents can relate when your child goes potty in the potty for the first time. It is a BIG deal! To amuse myself I decided to put some "big boy" underwear on Ethan this afternoon after his nap. I then went into the kitchen. When I came back to him he had already wet himself. I thought am I nuts for doing this???? I changed his pants and we headed off to my mom's for dinner. When we got there (10min away) he was again wet. Not a problem, because I came prepared. I changed him again, but this time just let him run around in his underwear. (Which I think was the key to his success) When he started to go the next time, it came down his leg. He stopped and we ran to the bathroom where he finished his business. The rest of the night he did pretty well. He went a total of three times and only had one accident. (Which was at dinner time) This is a HUGE step for us because he has NEVER showed any interest in being a big boy yet. We hope that this interest wasn't just a one time thing and it continues!

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Yes I know that someday he will hate me for posting this and taking these pics, but it is such a big deal!!! We love how he tucked his shirt into his underwear!!!

The last time we bought diapers we told him Kroger only had one box box left. We told him that they needed to put food where they kept his diapers. We don't know if that sparked his interest, but we're going to stick to the story!

Metting the Nickols

The Nickols & Tennant's finally meet

Mia goes right to Lane

Sammy & Ethan

Is this a new toy???

Karen & Mia

Ethan's appetizer - a handful of sand

What a yummy dessert Karen made!!

Yes we gave all three a bath at once! (We ARE CRAZY!!)

On Wednesday of this past week we got to meet some of our Internet friends in person for the first time. They are in the process right now of adopting a little girl from Guatemala. Their son Sammy, also from Guatemala, came home when he was 4 months old and is only a few months younger than Ethan. We met them in a very strange way. While chatting in a Guatemalan adoption chat room, discussion led to the agencies we were using and we found out that we had the same agency. Even more crazy was the fact that we had disposable cameras at our house at that time that we were going to take down to Guatemala for them. They accepted a referral of a little girl early last August and things have not gone as anyone would have planned or expected!!! We will not go into details but this wonderful family can use all of our prayers that things will start moving again! They did receive some good news Tuesday and we hope that they will now be able to get the DNA approved that has been holding up their case!

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Sammy and Ethan hit it off right from the start. Ethan has never really had a lot of time to play with other boys around his age and his true colors really showed! They played cars, Thomas, and went outside. They chased each other playing their own version of tag, danced, and even watched a little bit of Veggie Tales. After dinner Lane and Steve escaped to Cabela's while Karen and Amy gave all three of the kiddos a bath. It should be mentioned that all three were in the tub together! It really was an awesome day and we had so much fun. Hopefully we will be able to do more of this real soon

Extreme Makeover - Blog edition

We want to give a huge shout out to Ashley (from Ashley & Madeline) !!!! We think it turned out great. Ashley is leaving July 23rd to foster with Madeline. We pray that her trip is short and sweet! Thanks again Ashley, you rock☻

Mia's Homecoming Video

We just finished up Mia's homecoming video. Hope you like it!

Go Tigers, Cubs are Stinky!

Alan came over to play with Ethan tonight and taught him something. Go Tigers! Auntie Sarah & Uncle Scott won't be too happy about that!

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A Trip to the Zoo

Yeah, we're going to the zoo!!

Barbara Manatee, you are the one for me

In line to see the baby polar bears, Mia snatches Ethan's Cheerios

A cub came to the window to say hello to us

Steve had today off so we decided to head to the zoo. The weather was great and Ethan & Mia loved looking at the animals. The baby polar bears were finally on display so we got to see the two cubs. While waiting to see the cubs, Ethan spotted the harbor seals (which he called Barbara Manatee - from Veggie Tales). He said Barbara Manatee was getting ready for the ball☻ Ethan was amazed by the polar bears. He said the Mama polar bear had two babies like my Mama. How sweet is that??

What did you put me on Mama???

Mia, you ride the merry go round like this

After the polar bears we headed to the merry go round. Ethan rode the dolphin and Mia rode a crazy bird. Mia was unsure of the whole thing, but I think she will learn to love it just as much as her brother. Hopefully she will choose a different animal to ride than a dolphin, otherwise we could have WWIII.

Waiting for the train Ethan tells Mia all about Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas says what Ethan??? Peep, peep?

All aboard! Here we go!

Whose loving the train more...Daddy or the kids???

We had lunch then went to aquarium & butterfly house. Ethan as always loved the fish. He loves walking through the aquarium saying hello to them.

Cool dude Ethan at lunch

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At the butterfly house Ethan was laughing at the butterflies. He said they were tickling him when they flew by. By the afternoon we were all tired and ready to come home, but we had a great family day☻

We love our zoo!!!