I'm just saying....

this little ray of sunshine brightens everyone's days!!!!

Moving Right Along......

We are officially "Gladney Approved"!!!! We had our USCIS prints done on Monday, our dossier is done, so as soon as we get our FDL we authenticate our dossier and then we are officially "waiting"!!!! I'm hoping this happens by mid-October. Yeah. Progress feels good.

Best Hair Blog ever!!! (and other stuff...)

The other day I came across this site: Happy Hair Girl It's amazing! It's an adoptive mom of twin Ethiopian 5 year old girls. She shows hair styles, hair products, how-tos, etc.!!! It's the most comprehensive site I've seen! Grace has incredibly long and thick hair and I'm really needing to keep a "do" in her hair. I LOVE her hair down-- her curls are gorgeous, but keeping it down, or even in a couple of puffs, does tangle and dry out her hair. So, I've been trying to alternate down/semi down styles with cornrows, braids, etc. where I can slather her hair in some conditioner and then bind it up to hold in all that moisture!

Though the styles take some time, I love doing Grace's hair. I usually do it in the evening, after a bath and pajamas. We sit down and watch a show, or cheesy sing a long video that she currently loves, and we sit together. While I do her hair, we talk together, sing, and laugh at the shows. It's a good 30-40 minutes of uninterrupted time we get together. We do this a couple of times a week. It's t.v. time now, but as she gets older, I'm looking forward to time together to talk.

Tonight I tried something new: cornrows and Zulu knots! I've always wanted to try Zulu knots, but Grace's hair is so long that they just got too big. But, I braided her hair first, and then binded her hair at the nape, and then I did the Zulu knot with the binded hair. It's a bit wonky, but for my first time, I think it's still pretty cute on her. :)




And..... my little man started Kindergarten last week!!!! The best part is-- he's LOVING it! That's music to this momma's ears!
And..... my FBI prints FINALLY arrived!!!!! The crazy thing is, they never were "lost in the mail" like they said. They had them the entire time!!!! Today, a "reissued" letter arrived FedEx, along with my original cards that were date stamped Aug. 5th!!!!! Thank you FBI!! But, God knows when our little guy will be ready, and obviously He needed us to slow down a bit in the process so our family and little guy will be ready at the same time! :)

On to USCIS on Monday! :)

Next Step!

The FBI called me this morning. They are reissuing me a new letter (they JUST changed their procedure and now they don't send your cards back, just a letter) Good news for me since my cards "got lost in the mail"! At least they're using FedEx.

We're doing USCIS prints next week...... and then we're DONE with paperwork!!!!!!!

Still here.... and still waiting!

Ughhh is all I have to say!! We're in a hold-up with my FBI fingerprints! Everything else is done. Mike's fingerprints cleared on July 16th!! We'd be on the waitlist by now if my prints had cleared then too! But, my prints didn't clear (after a re-do because my first set of prints weren't clear enough?!?!) till Aug. 25th. The kicker is.... I still don't have the cards!! The FBI didn't use the nice FedEx return envelope I sent them, and instead they just stuck them in the regular mail... and I still don't have them!!

So...... as you can tell..... this is a very lame, complaining post. Sorry about that. But, in the grand scheme of things, this is minor, and obviously our little guy just isn't quite ready for us. :)

But, on a lighter note... life is about to change!! My Jacob starts Kindergarten in 2 days!!! And... I've decided to start a little in-home preschool two days a week with Grace and 3 other sweet 3 year old girls!! Fun, and BUSY times ahead!!

An ode to the end of summer...... just got home from a few days at the cabin.

Jake "wishing" he was reeling in a big one!

Both Jake and Mike enjoyed several fishing outings this summer. I think they're both hooked. (hmmm.... no pun intended!!)

One day it was sunny and warm.... the next was a torrential downpour!! But, Grace thoroughly enjoyed every mud puddle! I even saw her bending down, scooping up muddy water and rubbing it all over her face and hair!!! She's quite the adventure girl!

This might be my favorite picture of Grace this summer. It just shows her devout love for her dolls (they went everywhere with us this summer!) and her intense infatuation for flip-flops (she even wore them to bed several times!) I guess it just captures the stage she was in the summer of being 2!

.