Vacation

We got back from vacation about a week ago. We visited family in cocoa beach and Atlanta. Our relatives live in some pretty nice locations:)

Ian thought if we left at 4 AM the kids would go back to sleep. It worked 2/3s of the time:)

First day there these two were up at 6:30 and wanted to go see the manatees:) they adjusted at least a little and started waking up at 7 for most of vacation. So much excitement! 

They turned into little fishies by the end of our trip. We had so much and just relaxing and playing together as a family.

We kept my cousins kids one day and went to the park. My kids had a blast because the slides were SO HIGH at this park!

While we were there we also got the update that we are licensed to foster and could hear from them anytime! I will update here and on Facebook when we get a placement please pray for the baby that will be placed with us and pray God will prepare our hearts.

2 year pictures

 I just love this guy!

Waiting waiting

 We are still waiting for our home study to be complete. We thought we were buzzing through the process so fast. We had everything completed within two months of applying! But the wrench in the plan came when Ian's finger prints wouldn't go through electronically. It has been 2 months since he had the fingerprints done and we are STILL waiting for them to get back to the county. I'm ok with the waiting in one sense because I know fostering will be really hard, but it's never fun being in limbo.

This seems like initiation into fostering. Let's see if they can wait for ridiculously long amounts of time...then we'll know they're ready to accept a kid into their home without knowing much about them, keep him or her for an indefinite period of time, and anxiously wait to hear what the courts decide about their fate!

 I'm kidding. Mostly. We are trusting in God's perfect timing. Maybe there is a kid who needs a home tonight who is not supposed to be with us. Maybe we will get a call tomorrow saying we are licensed and oh by the way we have a baby who is ready to come to your house. Maybe we'll get the call about being licensed tomorrow but will wait another 2-3 months before we hear anything else. Who knows?

We will just keep waiting! This room will just keep waiting to remind a baby that he is loved, created ON PURPOSE for a purpose, and that his creator has a plan!

Thomas is 2!

 Happy birthday crazy boy!

 Who does NOT like to wear the birthday hat

 Unless we bribe him with a donut

 This kid is so friendly, charming and energetic. We love his smile and laugh and his crazy adventurous nature.

 Flubs seemed like the perfect way to celebrate since it is his favorite place to eat:)

More to come after I take his 2 year pictures!

Noah's special day

Noah had a special day with me a couple weeks ago! We met some friends at the museum center

 

 

And we had so much fun! He asked if we could have another special day the next day... 

Easter

This was Thomas' first Easter where he was up and ready to hunt for eggs (er...cupcakes)

 It was, apparently, to sunny to look up at me

 But we aren't going to complain about sunshine after the winter we had!

The butterfly show

Mary and I went to the butterfly show at krohn conservatory today. I have such fond memories of going when I was a kid. Krohn and the art museum always seemed like magical places to me. It was fun to share one with Mary today and I hope to take her to the art museum soon! She sat so still for a while hoping a butterfly would land on her. One landed on my stomach and she just stared and stared. 

Then a man next to us was holding a paper that one of the butterflies landed on and offered it to Mary to hold. She got a HUGE smile!

It was a special day! We were able to see where they breed the butterflies and they had butterflies at every stage from caterpillar until, obviously, adult butterflies. If any of you plan to go make sure you print the coupon from the Cincinnati parks website!