The Question of The Hour

I"ve been asked several times by different people recently if we've told Athena about our plans to adopt again. We have. We actually told her pretty early on, right after we started the process again. I thought it was important for her to have a good long time to get used to the idea of having to share mom and dad since she's used to getting every waking moment of our attention and she's such an incredible mama's girl. She seems to have embraced the idea and constantly talks about when 'baby brother or sister' is going to come home. She knows that we're all going to go on a big airplane to Colombia to go and get 'baby brother or sister' and that we're all going to have to stay in Colombia on vacation for a long time until all of the paperwork is ready for us to return home with him/her. Every time she sees a plane in the sky now she asks if it's someone going to Colombia to go and get their baby brother or sister:) The only thing that concerns her is that poor Amber can't come along too and how much she's going to miss Amber while we're gone.
I think it's good that we told her so early on because she's had plenty of time (almost 2 years so far!) to get used to the idea of having to share mom and dad. A year ago if I would have held another kid she would have been nearly hysterical, crying and saying 'that's my mom!' and trying to push said kid off of my lap. Last week however, we had friends over for pizza and cake for John's birthday. I held their 6 month old baby for at least 15 minutes and Athena took it really well. In fact it didn't seem to bother her at all. She asked for several turns to hold the baby also. Maybe all of the prepping we've done with her has paid off or maybe she's just matured a bit more. Either way, I'll take it:) Now we just need that phone to ring:)

No new pictures of Athena today, but I do want to say HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO ANDREW AND JESSIE!!! Here is what we were doing a year ago:)

First Day of Preschool!

So I just dropped Athena off at her new preschool/daycare for her first day. We visited last week for about a half hour so we could see her classroom and I could talk to her teacher for a few minutes and I'm so glad we did. Drop off went very good with no tears from Athena. I also managed to hold it together until I got back to my car. The teacher was great. I gave her a heads up when we visited that Ena is not good with transitions and that I would most likely need some help getting out the door. When the teacher saw that it was time for me to leave and Ena was still hanging onto my leg like velcro, she came over and asked Ena if she would like to sit on her lap for a while. Thank you teacher!! Ena happily accepted the invitation, gave me a kiss goodbye and went with the teacher:) Thank goodness!

She had free pick of her closet when we picked out and laid out her first day of preschool outfit last night. I was surprised at her choice-a well worn play t-shirt and pants. She has several adorable new school outfits and super cute new pairs of shoes that Grandma Kathleen sent her in a care package, but she went with one of her older play outfits. Maybe the excitement of starting at a new daycare is enough new-ness for her for one day and she just wanted the comfort of a familiar outfit for today. She's a pretty smart cookie like that;)

I'm off to work now to start getting my classroom set up. Wonder how long I should wait until I call to check how she's doing.........:) Teacher inservice starts on Thursday. Hope everyone else's back to school routines go smoothly!

~Nic:)

Sunny morning at the park.

The weather was perfect today, warm and sunny & not hot and humid like it's been so much around here lately. We headed out for some park fun this morning. I wanted Ena to play good and hard outside this morning so she would take a little snoozer this afternoon since she has a dinner date at my parents house tonight while I have a dentist appointment and a few other errands to run. This way she won't be tired and cranky for them this evening since she's had a nap:)

For the adoption, August 28th will mark 17 months of waiting in our 15-36 month estimated wait and 2 months of being officially submitted to our respective orphanage. I just got the info this morning from LSS MN to start working on the forms to renew our immigration pre-approval which is up to expire later this fall. Shockingly, there is no fee to file this form! The reason I am pleasantly shocked by this is because several of the fees for the USCIS forms that need to be filed for an international adoption have tripled since we had to file them for Athenas process.

Lots of other excitement around here. This weekend is John's birthday and school starts next week for both me and Athena! You can bet I'll be posting pictures next week from her first day of pre-school!

Toodles~Nic:)