Preparing for Baby - Adoption Auction

Just in case you didn't get one of my mass mailings, we are in the middle of our online adoption auction (http://farnsworthadoption.blogspot.com) which runs until 11:59pm on Monday night, Feb. 1st. So far many bids have been placed and several donations as well. To say that we are grateful is an understatement. We can never fully express how grateful we are for so much generosity and kindness.

One of our primary concerns about adopting again so soon was money. It's not cheap to adopt, especially twice in a year. We may not be struggling financially in the same way that many of our friends and family are, but we're no Daddy Warbucks either (if you don't get that reference, google "Little Orphan Annie".) When we decided to move forward with another adoption, it really was a leap of faith. We've been amazed to see miracles happen and doors open to help us get together the necessary funds, again. The same thing happened when we adopted Forest last year. Amazing.

Of course, there are many other preparations to make for a new baby beyond just money. We've been getting our house ready and organizing ourselves a little better. We learned from Forest's adoption that when things start happening it can all go really fast. So, we want the guest room to be ready for my aunt who has offered to come help with the kids when it all "goes down". We want a few packed bags, so jumping on a plane at a moment's notice isn't as hard to do. We want the baby things (that I just barely finished using for Forest) to be clean and ready for the next little baby. There's plenty to do and think about... especially to think about. We're still waiting to see if Forest's birthmother chooses to place this baby or not with us. We're still holding our breath and waiting to see what the Lord's plan is for our family.

Happy Birthday to my Girls

Both Maija and Rebekah celebrated their birthdays in the last week and a half. We had a joint birthday party for them this past Saturday with 21 (yes, TWENTY ONE) of their cousins, friends and classmates. Saying that it was crazy is a bit of an understatement, but the girls had a great time, and I think their friends and cousins did too.

Here are pics:

Pictures

Pictures I had to share:

Dropping Preschool

As you may or may not know, I was a school teacher for 4 years and I got my graduate degree in education. I care a lot about education and my kids' schooling, or in their case, future schooling. I've had Maija in a wonderful preschool in our area for the last year a half. She loved it and was excited to start classes again this week. So, it was especially hard for me to have to pull her out of preschool for this semester. In fact, Maija seems like she's fine about, and I'm the one who's had a hard time.

Even though I knew we needed to save every penny for our upcoming adoption, and even though I knew that Maija is more than ready for kindergarten already - I still struggled when I made the phone call to her preschool teacher saying that Maija wouldn't be coming back. Visions of Maija singing songs at school, doing her little preschool end-of-year program, bringing home cute projects and assignments she'd done all danced in my head.

I think the one positive (other than the obvious financial savings) is that I've gotten back in teacher mode putting together what I'm calling "Homework Days" every Friday, so Maija has at least some practice with sight words, letters, numbers and problem-solving. We did our first Homework Day last Friday with one of her friends, and it went really well. Somehow this whole preschool thing is bringing up all kinds of other emotions about all the change that is coming. Whether Forest's birthmother chooses to place his sibling with us or not, we've decided that we will adopt, so I know that a new baby is coming into our lives sooner or later. I think that every preparation we make for the adoption makes it more real to me that I am going to have 4 children under 5 years old very soon. I'm excited and terrified at the same time.

So now we're in a waiting game.... waiting for our baby to come, waiting for Maija to start kindergarten, waiting to one day be rich and have everything paid off... :-) I may wait on that last part for a long, long time.

Holiday Hangover

Talking to my sister-in-law Kimberly today, we were both sharing how tired our families are after the weekend, and she said, "It's a holiday hangover." I think that's a pretty good description of how our whole family is feeling. The kids were exhausted and grouchy today. I was exhausted and grouchy today, and Kent came home exhausted and grouchy today. The holidays were a lot of fun, but it sure can wear you out.

It's also like a form of jet lag. Our sleep schedules are so messed up (see the time of this post) so we're trying to force ourselves onto a new schedule. Not fun. It reminds me of growing up when we would travel halfway around the world, and my dad had this 9pm rule: nobody can go to sleep until 9pm at night no matter how tired you are. When you've travelled to a time zone that is basically the opposite time of day from where you were, it's like torture starting around 3pm in the afternoon. You can hardly keep your eyes open, and all your body wants to do is sleep. My father would NOT let us sleep no matter how tired we were. He was convinced that the sooner you get yourself on local time, sleeping at local nighttime hours, the sooner you'd get over jet lag. Ugh!

Hopefully, in a few days we'll be back on a "normal" schedule. Also, a little newsflash - we heard that Forest's birthmother is due February 26th. We knew it was some time at the end of February, but it's so nice to have an actual due date. We're still waiting to see what she decides to do. The agency hasn't heard from her in several weeks. Crossing our fingers and praying...

Here are a few pictures of the kids and family:

My Sweet Babies

Our Little Family
With Kent's Dad

2010

Forest is 10 months old today and growing so quickly. He is such a big boy. You can see a recent (and adorable) picture of him on our adoption auction website - http://farnsworthadoption.blogspot.com. We're doing an online auction January 29th - February 1st to help us raise more money for baby #4's adoption, which we're hoping will be Forest's sibling due February 26th. Some of the items to be auctioned include: 1) weekend getaway to cabin in Pine, AZ 2) 50 min. massage 3) salon cut & style 4) four hours of electrical work, and we're working on other items including a personal coaching session with well-known lifecoach, airline tickets, gift cards to restaurants and movie theatres, etc.

Between preparing for our next adoption and then actually being placed with our new baby, this year will be full of blessings and challenges. Kent asked me tonight what my resolutions are for this year, and I think my primary goal is to survive :-) I'm still working with our ward's Relief Society (women's organization) and Kent continues to work as assistant ward clerk. Maija will be starting CTR 5 in Primary and will start kindergarten this summer. Bekah turns 3 years old in less than 2 weeks, which of course means we'll also be hard at work planning birthday parties for her and Maija (both b-days in Jan.) And Forest will have his 1st birthday in March. Busy, busy, busy. That's what makes life so interesting and worth living.

Hope you have a blessed and wonderful 2010. We'll keep you posted on any adoption developments...