Catching up in March

Boy! I keep thinking I am going to do better at posting regularly, but life is just busy. I am amazed at how quickly the weeks pass. Here are a few things we have done this month:

Jackson's music concert.Isaiah LOVES music, and he joined in with the motions.Fun time with Daddy.Blocks!Blocks, Isaiah's way! Play DoughPlanting Seeds
E-Group (Ethiopia Adoption Group) Get-together
It is tough to get three little toddlers to all look at the camera! (Brenda or Chelsea, if you have better pics, e-mail me one!)OH, I love having these little Ethiopians in our back yard! We missed having Jude there. His family was sick. :(

Jackson got to meet Tony Moeaki from the Kansas City Chiefs!He was so excited to get his helmet and ball signed!
More to come on our ski trip!

New Friends

Today, we had a play group over for lunch! We are so excited to have met these sweet friends. Tyler Jae, Isaiah, Raegan, Dominick, and Jason all played so well. Isaiah had a tough time sharing at times, but overall, he did great!

I already love my new friends, and I look forward to more play dates! Here are the moms (picture by Raegan!)

Record Snow Days!

The kids have been out of school for a record number of snow days this winter. In fact, they have had to add 10 minutes each day to make up for it! But, we made the most of the days! Here is our awesome "Fox and Geese" field! The drifts made fun "forts".

Our Family--on Paper!

Jackson was drawing the other day, and this is what he did. I just loved seeing it on paper!

Secret Keeper Date

Sydney and I went on another Secret-Keeper Date a few weeks ago. We were lucky enough to get to go to Aunt Becky's "salon" for a super experience in getting an "up-do"! Aunt Becky is super-stylish and super-fun, so it was seriously better than going to a real salon! (Thank you, Becky!!!)After getting Sydney's hair done, we went to eat at a fun brick oven pizza shop before going shopping for a few gifts. In between, we were able to talk about inner beauty and how we need to spend more time adorning our hearts than we spend adorning our outer beauty.
I love these Secret-Keeper Dates. If you have an 8-12 year-old daughter and want a tool to help you be intentional in connecting, I highly recommend the kit! I'm so glad to have these special times with Syd. :)

How Isaiah brings us Joy

After sharing about the tough stuff, I wanted to show you a few ways Isaiah brings us joy. Enjoy his show! First, here are some of his favorite words.

Here, he is dancing.

Here, he is singing. So fun!

Readoption

About a week ago, we had an appointment at the court house to finalize Isaiah's adoption. Of course, the appointment landed on a day of snow and wind; however, I was not going to miss it! To make matters worse, Jackson was sick with what eventually turned into Strep Throat. Oops!
Technically, Isaiah's adoption is finalized; however, we needed to get an American birth certificate and legally change his name. So, we braved all the elements and headed out.

We quickly found out that we are so glad we live in Kansas! All we had to do was make an appointment with the probate office on the 9th floor. We spent about an hour in the office with a very nice lady named Kathy who filled out most of the paperwork for us. We paid $61.50 to file everything, gave her a bag of chocolates, waited for the judge to sign the papers, and that was it!

The judge was super nice and interrupted his court to let us take a picture.

Honestly, after everything else we have done in this adoption process, it seemed a little anti-climactic, but I guess that is o.k.! We are one step closer to being finished with paper work! Now, we are waiting for the birth certificate to arrive so that we can visit the Social Security office and get him a number.