Sacramento County Fair for 5 people on $1

FREE parking

FREE admission

and FREE educational activities?  

Sounds like a field trip to me!  

Someone from homeschool park day arranged a school tour for us, and we had a lovely day filled with military vehicles, animals, giant bubbles, and more.

Here's our $1 purchase.  The kids got flavored honey sticks, 4 for a buck.  

We brought a picnic lunch and ate in a quiet corner in the shade.

Then it was more fun, including the "boot camp" obstacle course the army sponsored.

We watched more than one kid go down in the tires, but Eli did great.

Jack just happened to be wearing his Air Force shirt from Lackland AFB.  

A quiet moment while the brothers were in line for something.  

Jack doing the Army crawl section.

Some other large, khaki armored vehicle.  They all started to run together at this point, but the "army guys" running the stations were mostly all very nice and interacted with the kids well.  This one was ready for a break.  ;)  

Brianna in the gunner's turret

and Eli.

You know how the end of the school year has some "fun days" where nothing much happens in the way of book work?  This was one of those.  But I think learning happened anyway, so we're counting it as school.  

In other news, we don't have exact travel dates yet, but it looks like I may leave a couple days earlier than we thought!  It seems Luke's province may allow us to receive him on 6/13, instead of waiting until the following Monday.  I hope to have dates finalized tomorrow or the next day so we can book tickets and such.  Brianna made me a paper chain yesterday, and I'm holding my breath to see if I'll get to take a few extra links off soon!  

 Have you clicked for us today?  We've slipped to #39.

Just in time for a little summer reading

Do you remember when I reviewed Schoolhouse Teachers.com?  Well, there's something new and exciting to share with you!

Schoolhouse Library has ebooks, audio books and more!  Over 175 resources for you to access.  Check it out!  Now is the perfect time to browse these resources, as you plan for next school year!


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Travel Approval

This is it!  The moment we've been waiting for!  China has said, "Come and get your babies!"

Unfortunately, there is an obstacle.  Dragon Boat Festival closes down the civil affairs office all week, so they can't process adoptions during that week.

This means that we will likely not leave until June 14.  Which is 23 long days away.  Not that I'm obsessing or anything.  Our agency has emailed their in-China person to confirm this, and to request our consulate appointment date at the end of our trip.  Right now, it looks like that date will be July 2 or 3.  But we can't book any travel arrangements until we get that confirmed, hopefully tomorrow.

My next project is going to be putting together all the paperwork we need to bring with us.  I got a little file thing to take with me, and I put labels on it, but that's as far as I've gotten.  Hopefully, I can sneak in a bit here and a bit there while the kids are doing their school work.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!  NOW is the time, if you want to make any last minute donations to our Reece's Rainbow account.  I'm so excited, we're finally close!  Not as close as I was hoping, but still, we're getting there.


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A little shout out to Bright and Beyond

This is NOT a sponsored review.  I was recently looking for a deck of activity cards to take to China with me for ideas of simple things I could do with Katie and Luke in the hotel or on an airplane.  I remembered seeing a ring bound card set several years ago at a school supply store that is no longer there.  Someone linked me to these Bright and Beyond cards.

  (This IS an affiliate link.  I DO earn a small commission if you purchase through this link.)

I figured that even though these weren't ring bound, they would do the trick.  And then I discovered that they're available as an app!  That totally made my day, because it means that I can load it on my iPad and not have to lug one more thing across the ocean!

I downloaded the 2 year old set and flipped through them.  Perfect.  Just what I was looking for.  Simple activities, most with common household items, that were all thought out for me.  I ended up downloading the 1 year old set, as well, since it's common for institutionalized kids to be delayed, and more ideas for interacting intentionally are a good thing.

I think these will be good once we're home, too.  I know I get so busy, I don't think of the simple ideas for teaching toddlers, but once someone suggests it, it's easy to implement.  For example, this month's sample for preschoolers (an older age pack, which I have not yet purchased) is stringing Cheerios onto spaghetti noodles.

Simple, right?  I would't have thought of it, but I can certainly pull together the stuff and do it.  

  Whoops!  We've slipped to #37!  Can you spare a click to help bump us up?  Thanks!

What's happening in the adoption world... and in ours

The families caught up in the White Powder Incident/US consulate closure are trickling home.  The consulate was able to open Thursday afternoon, which was earlier than originally stated, and they processed at least 70 families applications that day.  Visas began being available for pickup on Friday, and some families actually left Friday night.  Many more left on Saturday.

I have not yet heard if the Article 5 processing times are back on track, but I would think that they will be in another week or so.

In contrast to the adoption from China world in general, and on to us specifically:  Having the consulate re-open means that as soon as we are issued our TA, our agency can make the all important consulate appointment, and we can book our flights and hotels.  TA could come this week or next week.  Honestly, I'm starting to get a little antsy, even though I know we don't hit the "average" until Thursday.

I just want to have things settled, travel booked, and know when I'm going to get my babies.

One thing that has been different this time is that we've been able to get updates through our agency.  Last time, we got one update between LOA and travel from our agency, and the others were from third party care package companies.  We sent Katie a care package at Chinese New Year, just so that her people would know she had a family coming, but we didn't receive Luke's referral until after CNY.  It recently dawned on me that we hadn't sent him a package.

I wrestled with it for a few days, torn between cheapness (as in, "we got pictures in April, is it really worth $75 to get 2-3 new photos in May when we're likely to travel in June?") and equality (as in, "Someday, the kids are going to want to see all the pictures and hear the story, and part of Hannah's and Katie's stories is, 'and this is the care package we sent you.'  Do you want to look at his little face and say, 'but we didn't send you anything?'  I think not.")

Equality won, and I placed the order.

Knowing that he's in foster care, I decided against a perishable cake package, not knowing how often his foster mom gets to the orphanage.  I chose the PJ package instead.  

Looks like pajamas, a blanket, candy for the foster family, a disposable camera, our translated letter, and a stuffed Lightning McQueen.  It should be delivered to his orphanage this week.  I am *hoping* that it will get to his foster mother and that we will get a couple of new pictures in return.  But I know not to *expect* that, when we just had an update a little over a month ago.  So we'll see what happens.  

Ideally, it would be nice if he could bring the blankie and stuffie with him when we receive him, but I know not to expect that, too.  Hannah did not come to us with any of the items from the care packages that we sent to her.  However, I do not regret sending them.  1)  It feels like we're doing something, when we really can't do anything; 2) It lets their caretakers know that someone cares about them; and 3)  It is a part of the story we will tell them later, when we talk about how very much we wanted them and how we waited and prayed and hoped for them.  And I suppose on some level, I'm happy to sponsor an extra blanket and pair of PJs for whoever ends up using them after Luke is home with us.  

I wish I could see him in these pajamas.  I wish I knew what size they were and how they fit him.  I wish I could smell his baby shampoo, after bath smell and snuggle his sleepy body.  Do you know how weird it is to miss someone you've never met?

If you would like to pray for us, please pray for my heavy heart.  My mind says surely it can only be a few more weeks now, but my heart is weary of the wait.  Also, as always, please pray for Katie and Luke's safety and that God will help prepare their hearts for the transition.  I am getting a little nervous about travel, since I will be on my own the first week, and it has occurred to me that not all kids have the beautiful easy transition that Hannah did.  I could end up with a very unhappy little person all by myself for several days.  I know I can do it, but it's just one more hamster on the wheel of insomnia to keep my mind whirling at night.



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Waiting Children

Please take a look at the waiting kids listed at our agency.  We have been very happy with our agency, both for Hannah's adoption, and for our current adoption, and would highly recommend them.

Click here to see Madison Adoption Associates waiting kids.  If you have been thinking about adopting, I would love to answer any questions you might have.  You can email me at grtlyblesd@aol.com .

There are several children around Hannah's age, and it just makes my heart ache.  She's so much more than a picture, a diagnosis, a description.

This was one of Hannah's referral photos.  

And this is Hannah now.  There's no comparison.  

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Weekly Wrap Up, Australia Week 2

Our Little Passports treat was a fridge magnet featuring aboriginal artwork.

Now that we're at the end of the school year, it's such fun to look at the map and see it covered in flags.  (not all of the countries we studied had LP kits available)

Our Little Passports suitcase shows some of the fun places we've learned about.

And all that's left now is 2 weeks of Antarctica, and the "end of school year" festivities.  

Eli is working on his Marsupial report.  Those are koala pictures on the screen.

Brianna is doing artwork from a DVD series (review coming soon!).

Speaking of artwork, 

the kids painted coral reefs.  This is Eli's fish face.  

This has been an amazing school year for us.  I feel like we've all, myself definitely included, learned so much this year.  I am excited about next school year, but I'm also looking forward to the summer break that will go by Way Too Fast.  

Next year, we begin a chronological study of world history.  I can't wait!  Even though next school year will have some new challenges for us, I am so looking forward to getting my historical facts in order!  

After 5 years of private school, Josiah has decided to homeschool again next year.  

Josiah's spring choir performance was last week.

Any time you add or subtract people from a group, it changes the dynamic.  Adding both a high schooler and two toddlers should make for some interesting times!  This year, when all the school kids were at school, I had 3 students.  Next year, I will double that.  

Although I can't order any curriculum until after we get back from China, I've been looking at ideas and talking to other moms and planning what I'd like to use.  I'm hoping we have another incredible year next year.  

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