GOOD FIND!

Went out to a couple thrift stores today. I was in search of something I could use to organize my jewelry and found the perfect thing! But of course, I'm always keeping an eye out for fun things to put in Arthur's room. I had to bring this 3 dollar lamp home. I'm loving the look of this room so far :)

SUCCESS!

Today marks three months of success on our adoption budget. I have to say, the first month was an adjustment, but now there's not really a lot I miss. Eating at home more has been the biggest change, but other efforts we've been making really add up.

(Who knew suave would make rosemary mint shampoo... awesome!)

(This one's a little hard for me, but my weekly CSA bag gets me through it.)

(All I have to say is... I'm never buying another book as long as I live!)

(Fold-Top, c'mon it's what all the cool people are using!)

(If you're not using Groupon, you're stupid!)

(... still workin' on this one. We do love our cable.)

HALLMARK BABY ANNOUNCEMENTS

I recently moved to a new team at Hallmark. I design photo cards, invitations and announcements for Hallmark.com. This particular design was featured in Pregnancy magazine this month! Woo Hoo! A lot of people don't know that Hallmark offers this kind of product. Spread the word!

TO-DO LIST

Here's what's happening with the adoption in detail for those wondering. We submitted our home study about 4 weeks ago and received an appointment to be fingerprinted August 2nd. In the mean time we've been putting our dossier together and last week sent it in for review. We got a list of things to fix and things that were missing. As soon as we complete these things, we should be in a really good place...

- get new doctors letters (wording and notarization was wrong... plus I spilled water all over them. ha!)

- complete class for first time parents (signed up for August 3rd)

- get Aaron's employment letter re-stamped (the stamp was smudged)

- fix financial form (DONE)

- get 3 reference letters signed and notarized (they're on their way!)

- type out power of attorney, sign and notarize

- fingerprints (August 2nd)

We're getting SO close!

DIAPER CAKE...

So, it's baby season and I've been to a lot of showers lately. If you know me, you know that I don't like showers or really anything where women get together, eat finger foods and act like ladies. I've tried to keep quiet about my feelings toward the infamous "diaper cake", but I just can't hold it in anymore. Can we please talk about this?? I mean let's try to avoid putting the words "diaper" and "cake" together. I don't want to think about eating diapers. EWWW! And please don't put it on the table next to the chicken salad. It doesn't belong there. And can someone please tell me why they all look like wedding cakes?? I know that by sharing my feelings on this, I run the risk of receiving the mother of all diaper cakes and I guess I can deal with that. I mean diapers are diapers, right? Just had to get that out! Anybody with me??

GRATEFUL

I've been complaining a lot about this process lately, but it just occurred to me that there are people who have the desire to adopt who, for whatever reason, aren't able to get even this far. That just breaks my heart! I would be so so sad if we weren't "eligible" to adopt. Today I'm just grateful that we are able to walk through this process at all.

Also, just got our appointment to go get fingerprints done. August 2nd!

KAKENYA NTAIYA

PISTACHIOS - Kakenya from POCKO on Vimeo.

This is what got me thinking about Africa and Scola in particular. Found it on my friend Sarah's Blog. Very beautiful! VERY inspiring!

SCOLA

When we were in Africa, we stayed in tents in a Masai village right at the edge of the Tarangire National Park.

Beautiful... but also dangerous! Elephants, Zebras, Lions, Giraffes just roaming free all around us. We were particularly vulnerable at night which is why a man from the village, a "Masai warrior", guarded us every night with one of those sticks!

I love these guys for their bravery, but I also love these guys for their amazing robes. Bright colorful plaids, mostly red.

It's been 3 years since we were there. I wonder about these friends and what has changed since we left. I wonder about my friend Scola.

For some reason I really connected with this girl. She was really fun yet very "cool", like "teenager cool". She sort of seemed like the leader of the pack with girls her age. And SMART! She knew 3 languages: Swahili, Masai and English. She was teaching me lots of words. The only thing I came away with was counting to 10 in Masai. ha! I miss Africa! Can't wait to go back!

WISH I COULD GO TO THIS

The Together for Adoption Conference will be held in Austin, October 1st and 2nd. Some really cool people in the adoption world will be there...

Jamie Ivey, who has two little ones from Haiti, one adopted domestically and another biological son. Yes, mother of four! I love how real this girl is. Jamie's husband, Aaron is a super talented musician and worship leader in Austin. Their family has been very inspiring to us.

Amy Bottomly... the one and only. This gal is practically a celebrity in the adoption world. They have a son, Silas adopted from Ethiopia and just brought little Olive home a couple weeks ago. Can't wait to see pictures!!

Also, the amazingly talented Esther Havens provided the photo for this design, which is strangely familiar :) I guess great minds think alike.

WELP...

Today we crossed Planetarium off the list and it was pretty disappointing. We were looking forward to, ya know, seeing stars... this was more like a poor quality, low budget, science class movie. Since we were already at Union Station we decided to make the best of it and see some of the free exhibits. It was ok... maybe the solar eclipse this Sunday will make up for it.

oh... we did see a couple families there who had adopted children. I keep seeing families out there that look like we're going to look and it's encouraging.

JUST THE TWO OF US

It's finally sinking in how long this is actually going to take... meaning I'm starting to be ok with how long it's going to take. Don't get me wrong, I still think about that little boy everyday, but for now I'm going to focus on having fun with Aaron while it's just the two of us. This guy is too much fun! It's only been a few years, but we have been on many adventures together...

AFRICA

ST. LOUIS

LUBBOCK :)

KAUAI

EUREKA SPRINGS

CHICAGO

AND FINALLY... BRANSON

and that's just to name a few. Lately I've been thinking of things around the Kansas City area that we can do without spending a lot of money. Here's what I've come up with so far.

PLANETARIUM

ROYALS GAME

BOULEVARD BREWERY TOUR

LOUISBURG CIDER MILL

FRIDAY NIGHT FLICKS

WATCH THE SOLAR ECLIPSE JULY 11

POWELL GARDENS

SCHLITTERBAHN

WESTON BEND STATE PARK

ARBORETUM

SHATTO FARM TOUR

WESTON ANTIQUE SHOW

PICK PEACHES

TOY AND MINIATURE MUSEUM

Any other ideas?

WORLD CUP

Well... it was an amazing effort from Ghana, but they didn't quite make it into the semi-finals. Bummer! These last two games were pretty intense and fun to watch. I'm thinking that cheering for African teams in the World Cup will be something fun for our little family to do together in the years to come!

A COUPLE OF BUMPS IN THE ROAD

This process is lengthy, confusing, expensive, and overwhelming... BUT it's ok because everyday is a day closer to our little boy. We hit couple of bumps in the road, but we're back on track and Aaron and I believe that these little hiccups are only ensuring that, in the end, we are matched with this specific child that we've been praying for.

More great news... there's so much support out there! Today we sent in an application to Show Hope, an organization started by the Chapman family that offers grants to families who are adopting. Also heard about a couple of other organizations that might help us reach our financial goals!

Adoption Resource Foundation

Abba Fund

AND, I recently reconnected with the Ubuntu group at Jacob's well. We got together to watch the World Cup. I think we were the only people in the bar cheering for Ghana last Saturday. Tomorrow they play Uruguay. Can't wait!

Spotted this awesome shirt at Target yesterday :)