Almost 8 months

Almost 8 months home now and in no time flat, Judah figured out in no time flat how to open Christmas presents!

He's an amazing and precious little boy. What joy he brings to our family!

Seven Months Home

We're all here and accounted for in the frozen sledding slopes of northeast Iowa. Seven months home came and went. I think I was busy trying to get a court date (which still hasn't happened) and who knows what else.



In our spare time, when it's not below zero or a blizzard, we've been out playing in the snow. Judah is a little trooper. He makes his way up the snow covered hill without complaining. With his short little legs the snow is knee deep. He seems to love the snow. Then again, who wouldn't when it's 32, snowing beautifully, your layered in flannel lined jeans, snow bibs, a sweatshirt, coat and mittens and know hot chocolate is waiting inside for you.



The photo is of me and the kids a week or so ago (before we had a blizzard and another 12 inches of snow). The two littles are being towed back to the house while big brother is digging in the snow ahead of us. We love warm winter weather. Not sure what Judah thought of it this morning when it was minus 13 leaving the house!!!

conversation

Just had an interesting conversation with one of my clients.  He asked a few questions about Judah and Ethiopia, etc.  Then as he was leaving I asked if they had kids and he said that they weren't able to so they talked about adoption which is why he asked the questions.  So we chatted a little more about domestic and international adoption options.  I told him that we'd love to sit down and visit with him and his wife some time if they'd like to hear more about it.  How cool would that be!?!?!?

Tax Credit

The tax credit, as I understand it, is on the chopping block (and I'm not well versed in this at all). But, our adoption has not been finalized in the states so I should really, really pay attention to that. I just left the lawyers office today where we talked about finalizing in court. He told me it would take 30-45 days to get a court date. Do you think the tax refund will still be available for us? I'm tempted to find out who sets the court appointments and then beg them to squeeze us in this month. In addition to that, I'm certainly calling on the King of the universe to act in our behalf cause I'm sure He wants us to get the tax refund... so we can do another adoption!

Why/How We Chose Judah

And I love when people ask me about adoption and give me the chance to talk about it. The other day at work someone looked at the family picture on my desk and asked me if we adopted the youngest one. I looked at the picture, smiled, and looked at my client and said "nope, he came out natural like that". Of course, I couldn't hold a straight face when I said it. Friday I had lots of people ask me about Judah or about adoption. It was great but I love to talk about it so much that I feel like I can't share with them while I'm at work or I need to take an early lunch if I want to take time to share with those who are truly interested.

Last night some friends asked me how we chose Judah. Interesting question. So I explained to them and thought I'd explain it here real quick. There's two main ways to adopt through Holt (the agency we chose). One is the waiting child program which is a list of kids who haven't yet been matched because of age or special needs. We looked at this option and there weren't children on there that fit our criteria (being younger than Scott). So we went with the traditional method where a child became available for adoption and was matched with us. So the match with us to Judah was that Holt sent us a profile with his known background both socially and medically. Most people review the profile and talk to their doctor about it. Ryan and I had already decided that we would take whoever we were matched with. We didn't want to choose. We couldn't choose our first two (or I would've chose kids without bowel issues) so why would we choose the child we were adopting. We said that we wanted to care for a child in need of a family and the child being presented to us fit that bill.

Now, with that said, it's not like we didn't put any parameters on the child we would take. Holt says they want your oldest to stay the oldest. Ryan wanted the same so we had to have a child younger than Scott. We also knew that we were somewhat limited in the availability of medical help living in a small rural community. So, we limited the "special needs" to things that wouldn't require us driving 90 miles one way to s specialized doctor several times a week. So there you have it, we really didn't choose Judah. But we gladly accepted him as part of our family.

Sayin' Somethin'

Well since I can't get my excel to work like I want it, I thought I'd post real quick.

Just a few minutes ago we finished supper and I was washing dishes in the kitchen. Bethany came up to me and asked if I had a baby growing in my belly. As she continued to walk past me, she gently tapped my belly and kept on going.

I am NOT pregnant, thank you very much!

a little surprise

I just wrote about being home for 6 months and how everything is normal.  I guess I shouldn't have written that because last night we had a little surprise that made itself obvious today.  Judah has ring worm on his chin.  Yes, we've been home for 6 months and he just now picked it up.  Isn't that lovely.  Right on his chin.  I'll try to keep people from kissing on him until it goes away.  This was also a reminder that Scott's ringworm is still a headache.  The first treatment wasn't successful but then again we weren't the best at giving him meds.  We're still not done with it and I forgot the other day.  Yuck.  I'm watching it closely and when I see a sign that it's going away, I'm marking it on my calendar and making sure we have 2 more weeks supply of meds.
 
Darn ring worm.  I'm sick of it.  Even then, hugging on those little ones (where I likely picked up ring worm) and whispering in their ear that their parents were coming soon was worth the 6 months of fighting it.