Two New Nieces!

As most of you know, Tim has several siblings who cannot, for whatever reason, conceive.  We have a total of six nieces and nephews who are adopted.  Adoption has proven to be an incredibly costly and political endeavor for most.  Jody and Erik, who adopted five from China and Vietnam, had to wait for long undetermined lengths of time before selected and then they had to bring a large amount of "gifts" (read: bribes) with them for the orphanages and judges in order for their new children to be released to them.  Todd and Amy have an open adoption, meaning that the birth mom and her family visit Oliver regularly and are a big part of their life.  They even celebrate "Birth Mom Day" the day before Mothers Day with the birth mom.  It works for them, but they made that choice in order to increase their odds of getting picked.  Because of Todds stroke five years ago, they have been disqualified from adopting by any conventional means.  They have become foster parents with the distant hope that they might be able to make one of these children permanent members of their family.  They have come very close to getting two daughters once, but the birth father stepped in last minute and made his claim.  Whether this is for the better or worse, we will never know.  Many years ago, Jenny and Carl learned that they too, could not bear children.  They signed up and paid all their dues for the LDS adoption services. They went to all the advisers and did all they were instructed to do to sell themselves as the best potential parents.  That's how it works.  If a birth mom picks you out of all the rest of the online profiles, you might be lucky enough to welcome a new baby into your home, if birth mom doesn't change her mind.

Well, Jenny and Carl tried this for several years and got fed up, so they too decided that fostering children would be better than having no children in their home at all.  Two years ago, on July 25th, they were given guardianship over Tilly (14 months) and Molly (25 months).  These past two years have been full of visits with the birth mom and court appearances.  Birth mom was determined unfit to have her children back after a long long process.  The birth mom has had a total of five children.  The older three were removed from her care and adopted by another family long ago.  Once the birth mom was seen as unfit, the parents of the first three decided that they wanted to adopt these other two girls as well.  Interestingly enough, they were initially offered to foster the girls before Jenny and Carl were, but they did not want to because they did not want any more children.  So, once Jenny and Carl petitioned for adoption, there is a thirty day waiting period to see if there is anyone else who wants to adopt them (like grandparents, fathers, aunts or uncles,...parents of the siblings).  During this time the parents of the siblings petitioned for the adoption of the girls as well.  The past year has been full of court dates trying to determine who would be better parents for these girls; the parents of the siblings (keep the blood related siblings together) or Jenny and Carl who have been raising them.  It is a tough call.  Can you imagine raising two children, knowing at anytime they could be taken from you forever?  For two whole years with that knowledge hanging over you??

We just learned that on August 7th these two girls will be legally adopted by Jenny and Carl.  On August 9th they will be sealed as a family for time and all eternity!  I am so happy for these four.  They have been through so much.   Though these past two years have been fraught with trials, they have experienced boundless blessings and are finally adding those "missing pieces of their family puzzle" (as they say :).

(I don't have a picture to show you, because these two girls were foster children, Jenny and Carl were not allowed to share any.)

4th of July!

So for the 4th this year Matt and I both had the day off which was so nice. We didn't really have any plans until that evening so we bummed around and it was great! That evening we went to my aunt Mary's house for a BBQ and fireworks. It's our family tradition and something I look forward to all year. We had a blast!

I thought either Abby or Liam would be scared by the fireworks but they both loved them! Abby even started plugging Matt's ears, lol! What a cute girl! Liam was just fascinated with the fireworks, it was so cute!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Yesterday as a family we went to the Orem Owlz baseball game and it was a blast! We had so much fun taking Abby to her first baseball game. She likes watching baseball with my mom so it was fun for her to see it in person. It's really nice because they have a play area for kids to stay entertained while the long baseball game is going on. It was funny because she was so nervous about the mascots, lol! Oh it also rained a little but it wasn't too bad. Such a fun night to spend with my family!

I can't believe how fearless Abby is! The first time she went up this we had to hold her but by the second and third time she was doing it all by herself. What a little monkey!

Father's Day!

We had such a fun Father's Day this year! On Saturday, June 15th, we met up with my family for lunch at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun catching up with everyone. For Father's Day I made my dad a book about our cabin down in the boulder mountains and he loved it! 

On Father's Day (Sunday, June 16th) Abby and I woke up extra early to make Matt breakfast in bed. We made him steak, eggs, and hash-browns, some bacon, blueberry muffin bread, and hot chocolate. Abby helped me a ton which was awesome! Anytime I needed something stirred she was right there. After we got everything ready we started to head downstairs to take Matt his breakfast when I realized all the doors were shut. I put the food down and told Abby to watch it while I went to open all the doors so I could bring the tray of food down. I opened all the doors and went to grab the food when Abby ran down and closed them all before I could come through, lol. What a stinker! We finally made it downstairs and woke up Matt. He was very surprised and very excited. 

We also had Matt open a few Father's Day presents we got him. Matt has an office at his work and the last time I was there I noticed he didn't have a lot of items in it. So for Father's Day I got him a couple pictures to hang on the wall as well as a name plate and a holder for his business cards. He loved it!

And just a couple of photos right before we headed to church. Love my family so much!

My Silly Girl

While singing the part where the baby cries on the bus during "Wheels On The Bus" Abby stops to have a minute long conversation with the baby to ask if they want to go home and have their "mama make them a bottle", how freaking cute is that? (6/10/2013)

Liam's First Haircut!

When Liam was born he had the fullest, darkest, brown hair. Abby had a lot of hair but Liam blew her out of the water. Well, as with most babies, his hair hasn't been able to keep up with his growing head. He looks like he has a comb over sometimes, lol. Well yesterday I decided it was time to change that. After talking to my friend who cut her boys hair at 3 months I decided to go ahead with it. It was hard saying goodbye to all his beautiful long hair but I think it will be so much cuter when it grows in all the same length. I guess until then hats will be our best friends!

 Still such a cutie!

Proud Mommy Moment!

Abby loves ANYTHING and EVERYTHING outside. This came about mid-winter (also when I was about 7 months pregnant) so we weren't able to do a whole lot outside at that time. I couldn't wait until summer cause I knew Abby would have a ball playing outside. Well summer has come (I guess not officially until next week but when it's 100 degrees it's summer!) and Abby is loving it! Every day she wants to go outside and play. Her two favorite things is playing in the sprinklers with her swim suit and riding her bike around the block. We got her this cute little tricycle for Christmas and as soon as it was warm enough we started teaching her to ride it. It has this handle on the back you can help push her along and when she first started riding it we had to do just that. For some reason I just pictured her taking right off on it and getting the hand of it really quick. Well that wasn't the case. She didn't understand the concept of steering and forget about pedaling. It took a lot of patience and a lot of practice but yesterday was a very proud mommy moment for me because Abby rode her tricycle all by herself around the block!