Think about something else...

What isn't lovely= The adoption waiting game... We are currently #4 on the list I believe. One of the families in this area received their referral (the call from the agency that basically says, hey, we have a child that we think matches your family) a week or so ago and I was really hoping that meant we would be coming up soon too. There were 2 more referrals this week, but not us. We are getting closer, but the wait is tough. I keep telling myself how good we have it, because our wait is most likely only going to be 3-5 months (we are almost at 3 months right now since our dossier was approved). China is currently a 2-3 YEAR wait from application to bringing a child home. Haiti is around 2 years, so I will not complain. We will most likely have our little one home before the end of the year and we didn't start the process until Feb. of 2007. Every time the phone rings during the week, my heart stops a little. I am very excited and the anticipation can get intense at times. So I am trying to think about different things.

What IS lovely: 4th of July with family and friends (and no pictures because my batteries died as the parade started and I didn't have time to put new ones in for the rest of the day). Our house is right on the parade route, so we have decided to have an annual open house sort of party. The front lawn is open for parade watchers and then we do a potluck style lunch after the parade and hang out in the back yard by the river. Canoe rides included for free. Everyone usually goes home late afternoon for some rest before fireworks. Then we head to Curt's office parking lot to watch the fireworks. I am sure I have said it before, but I LOVE our small town.

Flowers:

Black Poppy (from my lovely sister) Bee Balm ( I like to call it the Bad Hair Day Plant)
More Black Poppy


Queen Anne's Lace (a weed to some people, but not me)

My Crazy Family :



If you click on the pictures to make them bigger, you will see that Curt is breaking a water balloon over poor, little Abi's head. Too which she responded "that's cheating Dad!"


Perfect weather and time to do what I love. So far today I was able to laze around in bed reading a good book, fertilize all of my plants, watch the fishing and water balloon fights that Curt and the kids were enjoying, take pics of my beloved flowers, and type this post. It is only 10:30. We still have blackberry picking, some baking, HGTV watching, and grilling out at Curt's parents. All in all a great day. Hope for some sewing tomorrow and we will call it a perfect weekend.

Gardens

Like I said yesterday, we went to Rotary Gardens on Emma's birthday to take some pictures. Emma loves to use my camera and I thought maybe I could get some decent pictures of the children, not to mention, this is one of my favorite places on earth to go. I did get SOME decent pictures of the girls, but most of them were either of them running away, doing flips or being goofy. I love that my camera does a decent job of capturing action because their facial expressions are always best when they are moving quickly. At least the flowers were cooperating.

Getting Closer

We have officially finished our Dossier and went yesterday to have our fingerprints done (they have a security checkpoint at the USCIS office that we had to go to, like at an airport!) So now we are at the sit and wait part of the adoption process. We had to go to Milwaukee to get the fingerprints done, so we left the girls with a friend and spent a nice day together. After fingerprints, we headed to the Mitchell Park Domes and then went for some lunch. Here are a couple of shots from the domes.


I want my back yard to look like this... Ok?

I have been super busy in the garden and doing some Spring cleaning (or trying), so the posting will be even less than usual. I am trying to get a photo of the crazy robins in my yard, they aren't afraid of me and get super close. I will post that and a story to go with it when I get a chance. I hope you all are having a wonderful Spring. I finally feel semi-confident that Spring is actually here.

Blooming Butterflies!

Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison has a butterfly event every year and we have taken the girls to it since Emma was 2 and Abi was a baby. So today was the day to go this year. We have had butterflies and moths on the mind lately as Aunt Mandy has found 2 different caterpillars for us in the last week. A dear friend had given Emma a wonderful butterfly barn for her birthday, and we weren't sure that the 2 caterpillars could cohabitate, but they are handling things quite nicely. The first caterpillar received he name "Junior" and made a cocoon overnight right after we got it. We did some research and found that it is an American Dagger Moth caterpillar. They like to eat maple leaves. The second caterpillar, Mandy and I found at her house, on the milkweed. The allusive monarch caterpillar! So exciting to everyone. (If you are not excited, just pretend). She is named "Laura." It ate a ton of milkweed the first day. Pooped A LOT (Abi's observation). Then yesterday, it "glued its butt" to the screen on the butterfly barn. This morning when we checked, it was still just a caterpillar glued to the screen and by the time we got home from seeing the butterflies at the gardens, it had formed its chrysalis. The girls were pretty pumped and we just hope we will be home to see it hatch out. God's creations are amazing!

The one on the left is a mini Monarch and the right is a Julia. The gardens had pamphlets this year that the kids could carry around so they could identify the butterflies they saw. We also saw a Queen butterfly and a Zebra butterfly. Abi was especially pleased to be able to lable each of them.

Abi as a leaf that is about to be eaten and Emma as a chrysalis.

My friend the dragonfly.

Zinnias as big as my hand and RED. OH MY!!!

This would be my children testing their limits. The sign directly behind Abi says "please do not touch the pebbles in the pool." Emma, whose reading skills are rapidly improving, read the sign and quickly said "it doesn't say anything about touching the water." That is true, Emma.

Emma is learning how to use the camera. This is her photo of her shadow. :)

The chrysalis we found when we got home.

Spring fever

My husband surprised me with these yesterday. They are from Daffodil Days. Pretty flowers and a good cause and a little breath of spring.