Huge Milestone!

Picture is unrelated to this post. Just wanted you to get your daily dose of adorable :-).

As of yesterday, Friday, July 23, 2010 - all of our BAAS documents are in! Woohoo! I have already e-mailed our social worker to make our appointment for our last homestudy visit. She hasn't gotten back to me yet, but I trust that she will.

Today we also notarized the second to last piece of our dossier! All we need now is a copy of our homestudy report (which cannot be written until she has visited our home), and also our approval for visa (which we can't apply for until after the homestudy if completed). Yippee! Very exciting! We are getting closer. . .

Some bad news unrelated to adoption. . . my iPhone died :-(.
Sad, very sad.
On Thursday, it was a crazy morning as I was rushing to get the kids in the car to go meet the notary of Dave's medical office, and then head off to the beach afterwards (I had to pack swim stuff, lunches for everyone, and all the papers to be notarized, as well as feed them breakfast ahead of time), and also prepare for our housekeeper who was coming that day. I made it to the office in time, but in my rush on the way to the beach where we were meeting friends, I slipped my iPhone in our library bag which was packed FULL of library books to return. And then I promptly in my rush forgot what I did with it! It wasn't until later when I got home, hot, tired, and covered with sand that I couldn't remember where my beloved iPhone was. I searched and searched, and thought that maybe I lost it in the medical center parking lot. Finally, I desperately searched every nook and cranny of the car, and then looked through every bag and box there as well. That's when I found it at the bottom of the library bag - screen totally illuminated - white with streaks of pink and yellow going horizontally and vertically :-(. I think that it got crushed :-(. I tried resetting it and now it won't even turn on :-(.

Natural Bridges

The boys and I went with the Kus to Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz. It gets its name from these large stones that have been eroded to look like bridges. It is so nice to live in a place that is so close to so much natural beauty. We had another fun day at the beach, and this beach has lots of tidepools! The boys were delighted to climb and scramble up rocky shores, poke their fingers and dip their toes in the tidepools - all the while punctuating each moment with squeals of delight as they found sea crabs, shrimp, sea anemone and krill. Oh - and we ended the outing with a trip to Marianne's - an ice cream parlor with about 100 flavors! I got red raspberry cheesecake, Matthew got 50/50 (creamy vanilla with orange sherbet), Nene got root beer swirl, and Aaron got rainbow sherbet.

Randomness

I love this video and so do my kids. Check it out!

Swim Lessons

We've been taking swim lessons with Jill. www.swimwithjill.weebly.com
I highly recommend her! Nathan and Aaron are making good progress. Nathan can now blow nose bubbles ( a BIG deal for him, enabling him now to be able to use goggles instead of a mask when swimming), roll to a back float, and roll back over and swim. Aaron is unbelievably willing to go with Jill, put his mouth, ear, and chin in the water, and kick.

Fourth of July

Better late than never, I guess :-).
We had a wonderful 4th of July complete with coordinating outfits, hanging our flag outside, having some church folks over for dinner, red white and blue desserts, an AMAZING corn tomato salad made by a friend, and fireworks at a local park.
Thank you Lord, for this amazing country that we live in :-).

Fun at the Fair

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We have gone to the Los Angeles County Fair every year for the last five years in Los Angeles. Now that we are up int he Bay Area, I was getting sad that I would miss it. However, there is the Alameda County Fair! Hooray! It was really fun to go with the kidsa couple of Fridays ago. For one, it is a lot smaller than the one in L.A., so it felt more doable. We saw pig races, the gardening exhibits, tasted honey from all over the Bay Area, learned more about beekeeping, went to the petting zoo, watched goats being milked, ate deep fried food and ice cream. It was all good. I found out also that there is a Santa Clara County Fair next month that has FREE admissiona and FREE parking. I will report back after we go (I plan to take the kids there).

In adoption news. . . well, we are still waiting to get Dave's medical report back (hopefully this week), and then our documents to BAAS (Bay Area Adoption Services) will be done! This is a huge step, and then we schedule our last homestudy visit which will be at our house. I have read a couple of books that I checked out from BAAS' library to the kids: Everyone Eats Rice, and How I Became A Big Sister (they won't be big sisters, but it is about a little girl who becomes a big sister through adoption).

Summer Days

In adoption news, I had my homestudy visit today with our social worker. Dave had his last week. There is only one visit left - which is the home visit. We can't do it until we get all of our documents in, though. We are still missing a couple of things - but we are getting really close!