First night in the "big girl" bed

Hey there!

I know, it's been WAAAYYY too long since I've updated our site. My apologies. I'm going to blame my recent CRACKBOOK, I mean Facebook addition.

As you can tell by the name of this post, Lucy slept all night in her big girl bed last night. I only had to put her back in bed 3x. I thought that was pretty good for her first time. There's no going back now! Her afternoon nap has been pretty sporadic lately. She's only 2 1/2 so I'm hoping that she hasn't given up on it yet. The dark circles under her eyes are a dead give away that she still needs one, not to mention that cranky attitude of hers;)


Lucy is getting so big! I'm continually amazed at her verbal and motor skills. She's like a little sponge. Favorite sayings at the moment are, "Niicce" (courtesy of Kurt) "What you doing?" and "I no want to." Transitions continue to be tough. This girl never wants the party to stop. Kinda like Mom???? At least I don't arch my back, scream and throw myself to the ground every time...well not EVERY time...we have to stop the favorite activity of the moment to move on to something different. Lucy got more stitches in the SAME eyebrow again. We were in church for all of 15 minutes when she wanted to take a stroll up the center aisle to say hello to Pastor Anne. When I tried to stop her, (picture said back arching etc above) she flung herself into the corner of the wooden pew. 3 stitches later...What a way to avoid church! At least Kurt was home this time. For those of you that don't know, Lucy has had a total of 3 ER visits in her brief time on the planet thus far, two of which Kurt was traveling. It figures doesn't it?

The Colombia program has picked up again. We've moved up the list considerably and hope to have a referral sometime this spring. Fingers crossed! And please keep us and our next birth family in your prayers guys. We've requested a child of either gender, younger than Lucy. I'm nesting right now BIG TIME. Just trying to get the house ready for our #2. It keeps me busy during the wait. I overhauled the storage room, donated and threw out a bunch of stuff. The OCD in me feels goooood right about now. Lucy is now in our old guest room (don't worry guys. We still have a comfy new futon in the basement.) We'll keep the nursery the same for the new baby. I wanted to have Lucy all settled into her new room to help ease the transition of a new brother or sister. She's in for a wake up call:0 Now if we can only get her potty trained! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be handled before we get "the call." I really don't want to buy diapers for 2 while we're in Colombia for 4+ weeks!

Well..onto the pictures...it's what you've all wanted to see anyway right?

Smooch
PK

"I wanna puppy"

This is what I heard the other morning coming from Lucy's crib at 530AM. She kept saying it over and over again. "I wanna puppy." "I wanna puppy." Pretty funny. Luckily we haven't heard it since. We lost our dear Callie in September this year. I can't imagine having another dog just yet. Callie was such a big part of our lives for so long. The house seems empty without her. Not to mention I now have to sweep under Lucy's chair after every meal. That's just how Callie was, always one to lend a helping hand:)

There is much singing around our house these days. I sang Jingle Bells to Lucy just once and she later broke out the whole song! It sounded something like bum bum bum, bum bum bum, bum bum bum ba bum, bum bum bum ba bum bum badda bum ba bum ba bum HEY! Bingo and many other Spanish songs are big hits as well. Lucy prefers a solo singing career. Anytime Daddy or I try to sing a duet with her we get the big NOOOOOOO. You'd think we had terrible singing voices or something. She has a whole music collection in my car and doesn't hesitate to let us know when she wants a song skipped. "Next song please Momma." "Next song Papi."

Lucy is talking up a storm. She continues to amaze us with new English and Spanish words. And oh the joy of trying to figure out what the heck she is saying. Is it English? Is is Spanish? Spanglish anyone? Her latest is mamo! mamo! Complete with a tug on the arm(vamos: let's go!)

Kurt and I recently started talking to Lucy about going back to Colombia in preparation for our 2ND adoption. When I asked her if she wanted a little brother or sister, her response was "no tank you Momma, no tank you." Hey at least she's polite. She's also no dummy. Why would she want to give up being the absolute center of our universe? Boy is she in for a surprise!

LSS received FOUR referrals this past month! Our in-country coordinator Cecilia recently told our agency that the Colombian families that wanted to adopt have done so and that there is no longer a pool of waiting families )Colombian families have priority in the adoption process.) So this means that things will be picking up so to speak. Not as fast as with Lucy but not as slow as before. That is the ebb and flow of adoption. This leads to the question that I'm sure everyone is dying to know....When are we returning to Colombia???????? With those recent referrals, our SW finally gave us the thumbs up to start working on our Los Pisingos dossier!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!! Since these documents only stay good for 6 mos we're cautiously optimistic that Lucy will have a little brother or sister before she is 3(Sept 09).

So... we have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. We're healthy and happy. Kurt is gainfully employed. I get to stay at home with Lucy. We have a roof over our heads. We are surrounded by loving family and friends. We are blessed.

WE ARE A FAMILY OF THREE NOW! I love saying that. We are a family. Sigh...We are a family.

God, please watch over Lucy's birth family and keep them safe. Please let them know that she is loved and that they are in our thoughts constantly. We are so utterly grateful for the beautiful gift which they have entrusted to us. Lord, we also ask you to put your arms around our next birth family. Comfort them and give them strength as they struggle with the very difficult decisions that are unfolding before them.

Amen

KK PK and LK

Merry Christmas everyone!

Where did the Fall go?

Just a short post with the fall Lucy pics. Trying to play a bit "catch up" if you will.

Enjoy!
Smooch
PK

Lucy's birthday party

It occurred to me that I never posted anything pics from Lucy's 2nd birthday party. OOPS! We had it at a park since we were in the throws of a kitchen remodel. Lucy had a great time with all her friends. The piñata continues to be a big hit:)

I have a good feeling....

Good morning!

LSS has recommended that we dual list with ICBF (govt run orphange)and Los Pisingos (private)to cover all of our bases. So...we've just completed our dossier for ICBF and I sent of the copies for LSS to review for any changes. After they've been approved we can send them off to COLOMBIA!

I called our LSS rep yesterday with a few questions and I decided to be brave and ask where our LP application was in the pile. You may be wondering why I said brave... I feel like having too much info can be harmful. I know, weird but we don't have any control over the process anyway. Things could change on a dime so really what's the difference? It makes me too anxious. Anyway...She told me that right now LP has 3 dossiers in front of the referral committee. There is one more dossier "in cue" and we are one of the next 4 families to get their dossier ready to go! She actually had a call into the in-country coordinator to see if we should start compiling our documents when I called! So, we should get a phone call with an update soon. The dossier documents only stay valid in Colombia for 6 mos. LSS likes to hold off so our documents don't expire and we would have to update them all again. We know of MANY families that were caught up in this slow down that have had to update their dossiers 3 times so it can be a real bummer having to keep updating that thing without any movement and no referral!

We joke about being on "the list that doesn't exist" because the referral committee does try to match families with babies so referrals don't necessarily go in order.

I guess we can officially be "cautiously optimistic"???



P.S. There are 2 families that we've been following that are in Colombia right now and are caught up in a judges strike (I think over 40 days?). One of these families have been in country for TWELVE weeks. Please pray that these families get home PRONTO.

Thanks
Smooch
PK

adoption update...don't get too excited...

I guess I'm in a blogging mood lately as I think I've had 3 posts here recently:)

Our application for Los Pisingos (private orphanage) has now been in Colombia for one year. Sigh....or should I say our app is sitting on the desk of our in country rep waiting to be submitted to LP. We're still waiting for the go ahead to start on our dossier. Because our dossier documents are only valid for 6 mos, It makes sense to wait. I THINK I remember our SW saying that we were in the top 1/3 of that pile. LP only accepts 3 dossiers from LSS (our agency) at a time.

I'm in the throws of gathering paperwork for our dossier which will be submitted to ICBF immediately, immediately being we got the OK to do this in June and I decided to enjoy our summer instead. ICBF is the government run orphanage in Colombia. It is typically a much LONGER wait but hey, a person never knows right?

Since we have no idea how long the wait will be, we've decided to request a child younger than Lucy, not necessarily an infant per say. Hopefully that will move things along but who the heck knows. I did hear there is "a thought out there" that most Colombians who wanted to adopt have done so. Maybe that means that the program will pick up again for us gringos???? We have friends in Colombia right now adopting their son after a 2 year wait. I just read their blog and they said that 25 babies are now at LP. So....Keep us in your prayers for a referral soon!

I know, our family life is based on rumor and conjecture. But I've learned to take it with a grain of salt. I've accepted that I have no control over the process. It's frustrating at times but I wouldn't trade if for anything in the world. Sometimes it does make me mad as hell. But then I remember it's not about me. It's about us as a family, a Colombian family. We're committed to sticking this out. It's our life and we love it. We love Lucy so much it hurts. We miss Colombia and our friends there.

nuff said
PK

The great MN get together and Labor Day weekend

Kurt, Lucy, Jackie (a family friend) and I went to the state fair this year. Can I just say that I FLAT OUT LOVE THE FAIR! It brings back such fond memories of going with my Mom and Dad. My Dad being a farmer preferred to stay on Machinery Hill all day. That about killed me! But we also took in the 4-H building, ALL of the animal barns and not to mention all the yummy food. I hope Lucy will have those kind of warm memories that I had as a kid going to the fair. And...what doesn't taste good fried in oil on a stick? I'm just saying...

We were also up at the lake with ALL of Kurt's family for Labor Day. We had a fantastic time. I think it's the first time since the cabin's been built that we were all there as a family. It was SO nice to be together enjoying the new place.

Smooch
PK