Nothing new......

I just wanted to pop in and say, nothing new is going on.  Besides being busy the last week or so, we haven't had internet (*gasp*), hence the no posts.

We are 5th/6th in line for our little boy (as of last week) and the wait is starting to get a little agonizing.  On a "good" note, we have been extremely busy lately and that helps a little with the wait.  Although I always seem to have time to think about little bean and what he is like/doing right now.

The coop is painted and I will include pics as soon as I can.  It looks good and I am pretty happy with it.  We have not finished the fenced in area off the back yet (although the trench for the fence has been dug) so the poor chicks have not been out and about yet and they probably won't be for another couple weeks or so.  Also, we got two more chicks.  They are standard sized roosters because we needed one or two for our hens.  They are very cute and actually quite sweet.  We may have to give away one of our bantams.  I hate to do that because he/she is probably the prettiest one out of the 6, but he/she is quite aggressive.  I put our two 1 week old roosters in with the 6, 3 week old bantams (who are all about the same size) and that one bantam kept charging the rooster chicks and for the 4 hours they were in there, he/she would not let them get water/food.  The poor guys were huddled in a corner when I pulled them out and put them back in their own brooder box.  I have not given up on it yet, but we really have no place for a chicken that can't get along.

Well, we are leaving in two days for our annual trip to Canada!  I love this trip because once we are there, it is very relaxing.  However, packing is very time consuming.  Especially this year because I am trying to bring everything I can from home because I know things will be pricey up there.  This week is proving to be exceptionally busy, not including the packing, so I am in a bit of a tizzy.  Also, when we get home we will be turning right around and going camping for a long weekend.  And then, the day we get back from camping (Sunday), Leah and her friend have to be in Columbus because they are going to camp for a week.  Oh man, I am going to be sooooo busy.......

Ok, well off I go to pack.  

Julie

Anna Birthday Pictures.....

Anna celebrated her birthday three different times over the last week.  Last Wednesday we went out to eat with Ryan's family and celebrated.  Everyone was so thoughtful in buying her presents and I know she had lots of fun.  She even got ice cream for dessert!  The picture with the baby doll is from that party.

Then, on her actual birthday, we made a cake and went to the park for a picnic.  The cake was a HUGE hit and the 3 little ones loved helping me make it, and eat it!  Anna opened her presents, ate sandwiches and cake and played on the playground.  It was pretty chilly though, so we didn't stay too long.

Finally, Saturday evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate Mother's Day and we had yet another little party for Anna.  I made chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting.  Anna loves princess' right now.  She'd wear a princess skirt every day if I'd let her.  So, pink and princess was a theme throughout the celebrations!   Happy Birthday again sweetie! 

The inside of the coop is done!

I am very happy to report that the inside of our coop is done!  We only finished off one side because that was more than enough space for our hens.  It is in old coop, there's no doubt about that, but it is a cool kind of old in my opinion (if you like that kind of stuff).  Even though the other side is not finished, it is sanitized and structurally sound.  It is also predator proof (as best we can tell).  It is really is quite nice to have all the extra space on the one side.  Before we avoided that coop like the plague, now is very functional and clean! 

We were able to clean up and use the old nesting boxes. There were two sets, but for now we only need one.  We are just storing the other one in case we need it at some point. You can kind of see the nesting boxes in one of the pics.  They are kind of cool looking.  The front of the boxes face the inside of the chicken area of the coop  The back of the boxes face the coop door where you walk in.  Those old boxes flip open in the back, so when we collect eggs, we don't actually have to go in the coop. Just walk in, flip down the hatch and collect the eggs  (this was Leah's beautiful idea).  We sectioned off the coop with the nesting boxes, a wall frame, a door and wire mesh.  The kids helped me build the roosts in one of the pics.

So last night we actually moved the hens into their new home.  It was fun and all 5 kids were excited!  I think for myself and the older 2 it was just very fulfilling to put all that work into something and to finally see the fruits of our labor.  Ryan and I have pretty much spent every spare minute over the last 5 to 7 weeks on that coop.  The big kids were very helpful also.  If they weren't actually helping with the coop, they were watching the 3 little ones so we could get some work done.  It really was a family project.  

Anyways, the 3 little ones were able to hold a chicken by themselves for the first time.  It was sooooo cute and funny.  Olivia (our family buddy) took these great pics of the kids!  Madeline and Anna took right to the chickens.  They both did exactly as I said and held them perfectly. Gideon wanted to hold one also, but as soon as the chicken got close to him he didn't want to hold it anymore.  After a while though, he saw how much Anna and Madeline liked it and then he wanted to try.  He did great and I was very proud if him.  He is such a funny little guy.  In some ways he will try anything.  Flying high on the swing, jumping off the top of the couch, crazy stuff (remember that at 14 months he loved riding the big horsies up the volcano in Guatemala).  But sometimes he just "wigs out" and doesn't want to do the easiest things.

Anna was cracking me up!  She LOVES animals.  Even if they scare her, she loves them and will just sit and watch them.  I have caught her on more than one occasion, just watching the chickens while the other two are playing.  She had no hesitations though when it came to holding the chicks.  What was funny though was that I had her put the chick down and a minute later I looked over at her and she had caught a different one and was holding it just like I told her.  Madeline tried to catch one and they just ran and squawked!  I know they were not easy to catch because the kids and I even had trouble getting them. 

Now I have to focus on the outside of the coop.  It needs painted and I think I am going to take the gutter off (it is half rusted out).  The roof also needs a little attention (a few nails have come out).  I don't think that will take long though and I have already bought the paint.

Check out the cute pic of the kids looking through the window!

My baby girl is 3 today......

Well, since it is 1:11 am it is officially Anna's birthday!  This is incredibly hard for me to believe.  I remember her first birthday.  I made cupcakes and spent the afternoon delivering them to loved ones and taking pictures.  Praise God she was home for her second birthday and we threw her a big princess party!  It was fun and very pink!  This year it is going to be pretty low key.  We are going to take her to the park for a picnic.  I am going to let her help me make her cake in the morning and we will take that and her princess plates and a picnic lunch to the park.  I think she will really like that.  My nephews are here at the house and she loves them, so that will make it extra special for her.  We will give her her presents from our immediate family (can we say "princess" stuff) and just enjoy being together.  Later in the evening we are headed to my aunts house to celebrate Mother's Day on my side of the family.  We will celebrate her birthday again with them.  We already celebrated with Ryan's side of the family.  I really do think she will have a good day.  Oh and I forgot, she got to pick out a special donut at the grocery to eat for breakfast.  That will certainly beat her regular breakfast of oats or eggs!

I really can't tell you how much I love this girl.  She is beautiful in every way and I am still in awe that she is ours.  Tears are seriously streaming down my face right now as I reflect on Anna's life thus far.  I remember her first little picture I saw on the computer screen.  I knew I wanted her from that very moment.  Now, she is my daughter.  It is amazing.  Anna is a funny, sensitive, curious, smart, perceptive and loving 3 year old.  I am so proud of her and so incredibly blessed to have her in my life!

Julie

Feeling a little bummed in the adoption arena....

I talked to my case manager on Monday and she said we were around 4th in line for a baby boy.  I was kind of excited about that, because that put us moving 3 spots.  Yeah!  However, I have made friends with a lady on-line that is also adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia through our agency, and she has been hearing something different when it comes to where we are in line.  She got her paperwork to CWA like a day or two before me and she it right in front of me for a baby boy.  She has been talking to the lady at our agency  that actually hands out the referrals (not just a case manager like I have been) and we have been e-mailing one another what we hear.  So today I decided to get an update from the 'horses mouth" so to speak, so I e-mailed the referral lady.  I asked her lots of questions, but I specifically asked her to be very realistic with me.  She replied back with an incredibly sweet e-mail.  I could tell she really took her time to explain things to me and she didn't just brush me off.  Pretty much we are 7th in line for a baby boy right now.  That number can certainly vary based on what comes in.  Some people are waiting for a boy and girl, some for just siblings, the list goes on.  It all depends on how the referrals fall.  She also said that it is doubtful that even the people getting referrals now will be able to get through court before it closes, so there's little to no chance of us getting to Ethiopia before October.  In some ways that takes a little pressure off me, but in more ways, it makes me sad.  All in all I am not at far along down the line as I thought I was and there's pretty much no chance to get in before the big close.  Also, we got an e-letter from our agency today and they said that the embassy appointment process has changed some and that change will add time until you can travel.  **SIGH**

On a good note, the referral lady said that most their baby referrals are younger than 6 months, so it is good to know that our age range of 0-6 months shouldn't hold us up too much.  On another good note, God is in control of this adoption.  He is moving in ways that I may never see.  He knows who our son is and I truly believe God will bring our son to us in His perfect timing.

Julie 

Can we say SUCKER!

That darn Tractor Supply Company.  I went in for a simple bag of feed and came out with 6 baby chicks.  So, does that make me the sucker or my dear husband that begrudgingly said "whatever you want....?"  The poor man was cornered though.  He had his two oldest children begging and pleading for the chicks and wife (who maybe in this case could be considered a third child) saying "well, we have all the stuff...."

They are cute though.   They had just come in that day and were in need of attention (IMO).  We saw two chicks die while we were there.  But, out of probably over a hundred chicks in the pen, I guess that's not so bad.  Chicks will die in transport and shortly afterwards, that is just the way it goes.  So, I wasn't overly surprised to see some dead/dying chickies, but it was still sad.  The worst part was that someone needed to put the poor animal out of it's misery because it was just laying there dying while the hundred other chicks trampled it.   

We did our good deed though.  There was one chick in there that had a very red toe.  Almost blood red.  It looked pretty healthy otherwise.  But while we were standing there, just one of those little one day old chicks noticed it was red and gave it one little peck.  That started a pecking frenzie on the poor guy.  We were already waiting for a box, so I literally was flipping the other chicks off of it.  If you are reading this and struggle with separating humans from animals (i.e. my pet/livestock is my child............you know who you are) just remember this, if one human gets a booboo, another human does not peck it to death.  God has indeed designed us differently, thank goodness.  I wouldn't had made it past infancy otherwise.

Anyways, Leah has adopted "footsie" as her own.  She/he actually is doing quite well and so far none of the other 5 chicks we've got have pecked it.  We thought we'd have to separate it for a while.  Logan adopted "stripey" as his favorite.  

The new chicks are Bantams.  They are just a different type of chicken and they tend to be smaller than your standard size chicken, although they still lay nice eggs and do all the things a normal chick would do.  These chicks I think will just add some nice variety.  3 or 4 of the new ones have hairy legs (you will see in the pic) and when they grow up they look kind of cool.  One of the black fluffy one is Footsie and if you look closely you will see it's red toe.

I'm exhausted.... And a cool update!

Well, this weekend has shaped up to be pretty busy.  Ryan has been gone since Thursday morning (cry, cry) and I have tried to keep myself busy.  Which, since I am already pretty busy, that make for a VERY busy weekend!  Thursday and Friday I hung a lot with my wonderful sister in laws and mother in law.  Their hubbies were gone also, so we kept busy together.  We spent time visiting, watching Survivor, garage sale-ing and eating (just a little bit).  Today I mostly spent with my family.  We went to my nieces' softball tournament and then just hung around here at the house.P Pretty laid back, but nice.   Also in the last few days I rearranged all the coops in our garage and cleaned them out, plus I mowed, re-arranged and cleaned our computer room and did all the normal everyday stuff that I do just to keep the house going.  I am just tired and I am so glad Ryan gets home soon.  Tomorrow should be a normal day.

Here's the cool little update....  We got our I 171H approval in the mail Friday!  This is really the last little tidbit we need for our adoption.  It is our approval on the US side when it comes to bringing little bean home.  We were allowed to submit our paperwork to Ethiopia without this (and get on the waiting list), but we can't go to court without this document and we certainly could not even adopt without it.  It is very important and I am just excited to have it in my hot little hands!  I am going to call my agency on Monday and tell them I have it and ask if they need a copy of it or anything.  And, while I am there, I may just ask a little bit how referrals are coming along.......

Well, off I go!  

Julie