SO proud of my girl...you must watch until the END. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When I came home from dropping children off at school at 8:30 this morning, this is what I saw:

 Five perfectly still animals staring at me. A little eerie don't you think?

Today we went to the State Capitol building to get adoption documents apostilled. I told Hope we were going to Oklahoma City to get Joseph's paperwork finished. 

What SHE understood however, was that we were "going to _____________(name of country which I can't mention on a public blog) to get JOSEPH". Boy was she disappointed she realized on our way home that the only thing that coming home with us was 29 state extra pages in our stack of paperwork! She was hoping to sit by Joseph on her way home, poor girl. :(

We went out to In the Raw downtown for sushi while we waited for seals and the nice waitress would not let us pay for our meal! She had a brother with special needs who passed away a few years ago, and she is now a volunteer for Special Olympics and has a heart for special kids like Ava. We found out we have to re-do a couple of documents which will delay an extra week, but we got a free lunch and met a great young lady, so hey, it was a good day! 

We gave her the link to the blog so she can follow us to Joseph. (Hello Anna, if you read this, thank you for being so nice to us!!)

We are getting so close! 

The Garden Party, a benefit for the Little Lighthouse

Poor Buddy the Cow is about to become roast beef. But it's all for a good cause. He is going to be auctioned off to benefit the Little Lighthouse at the Garden Party Banquet and Live Auction.

If anyone has any items or services they would like to donate for the auction we would gladly accept them. Here are some ideas of what people have offered so far, to show you how creative you can be:

1. Lawnmowing service
2. Doula service
3. Haircut
4. Hand made jewelry
5. Avon basket
6. Diaper cake gift set
7. Personalized embroidered bag
8. And of course, Buddy the Cow.

Thank you to those who have donated or offered to donate so far. Please email me or call if you have an idea or something to donate. It is a great way to promote your business by the way!

My due date

Yesterday I had a chat with my adoption facilitator/helper and she was helping me calculate a possible travel date based on where we are in the adoption process. I had my calendar open counting weeks and I said I felt like I was calculating my due date. She said "You are".

And I burst into tears.

If all goes perfectly, I have a possible (?) due date of.......(and this is simply an estimate by the way) May 15th. !!!!

(Make a note of that Mom and Dad).

Random

Last night was Grandma's last night here before she went back to California. We decided that earned a girls' night celebration. We offered Grandma several nice choices but she said all she wanted was a chile relleno! So Mexico Lindo it was, which happens to be one of my favorites anyway. We had a big laugh on our way out of the restaurant when a man told his kids, "Let's get out of the way, Here comes Mrs. Nagle." Grandma was so surprised that someone in Oklahoma recognized her only to find out he was just reading her name printed on her walker.

Remember my floors that got ruined by the concrete contractor? Well I've been tolerating them for several months. Finally someone offered to fix them for me. 

Sigh.....

My hero.

I'm not sure what we're going to do with them next. I am open to suggestions. Right now my priority is to get the white wax chips stripped up. It's been a long 7 months. We are considering epoxy paint like you see in some restaurants and garage floors. What else can withstand 7 children? Did I say 7 children? I meant 6, oops! ;)

Moe has a new friend. He has been pretty sad and lonely out here on the farm so when John's co-worker asked if we would be willing to take in their very old, retired, horse we were happy to oblige. These two get along great, however, the stinkers have figured out how to get out of the gate and we had a time trying to chase them down last night in the dark in the neighbor's pasture! Ha! Fun times.

Meet T.C.

And these last two pictures are just because they are so stinkin' cute.

I cannot wait to get my arms around this boy!

The Treasure of Family

I have not been blogging too much lately-I have had more important things to do! My grandmother, age 91, from Reedley California is here visiting for a couple of weeks, with my parents. We have been having such a wonderful time with her. I love how she tells me everyday with tears in her eyes, what a wonderful husband I have and a beautiful home and children. I love her so much. She only met Ava for the first time last week, and they have become good buddies. They each learned how to sign 'I love you' to one another.

My dad updated his blog this morning about our time together and I couldn't help copy it and post it here. This is such a true description of my family. He is a deep thinker and a good writer. I like him alot:

.....sitting at the table at Urbans' house it dawned on me the 5 kids that eat there daily are all unique in their dispositions, their talents, their giftings, from 5 continents. Simeon likes to pester, however when it comes to helping the very needy Ava, Simeon is very quick to respond and help. Liesel, abides by all of the rules, always asks for permission and grieves deeply in her heart when her heart is broken. Jude is quiet, has a grin, loves music, and drifts away playing on his keyboard, actually it is quite a bit of pre programming and it sounds like Jude is playing classic renditions. He is very thoughtful. Hope is about 220 volts, very energetic, and her feelings she carries on her sleeves. She can only see when it is HER feelings that are hurt, and could NEVER imagine she might hurt someone else with her actions or words. Great Grandma Nagle defended them well in a family court hearing when we discussed how wise it is to let kids crawl on top of the table from one side to the other.


I've always said, and you can write it on my epitaph, that of all of God's GREAT creations, the Stars, the Moon, the Sun, the human Eye, the reproductive miracle, the most awesome and wonderful was the concept of family...a Great Grandma, a grandparent, mom and dad, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, children..... We did genealogy studies at Urbans yesterday and found ancestors born in 1490. We're looking forward to coming to the USA to watch little Urbans while Mom and Dad go appear before a judge to be legal parents of a little boy Joseph.

World Down Syndrome Day

Today, is World Down Syndrome Day. March 21, representative of the 3rd copy of the 21st chromosome, or 3-21. When a child has an extra, or third chromosome on the 21st Chromosome they are said to have Trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome.

Today I am surrounded by my children, my husband and my parents (and even a 91 year old Grandma from California) and in honor of Ava and Down Syndrome our family compiled a list of 21 things we love about Ava:

1. She "sings" every morning to her teddy bear and baby doll. (Liesel)
2. Her delayed response- When we say 'bye' or 'I love you', it takes a while but she usually says it back. (Oma)
3. She gets so excited when I take her in the stroller to see the cow and the horse, and does the sign and says 'pow'.(Liesel)
4. She is so quiet and full of joy. (Grandma N.)
5. She is forgiving. (Charissa)
6. She hugs me and kisses me. (Simeon)
7. She has blue eyes like me. (Jude)
8. I like when she eats bananas because they are so healthy for her body. (Hope)
9. She is left-handed like me. (Liesel)
10. I love it when she signs my name when I talk to her on Skype. (Oma)
11. I like it when she touches my whiskers. (John)
12. I love playing This Little Piggy with her tiny toes. (Charissa)
13. I like how flexible she is. (Liesel)
14. She makes noise when she pushes the chairs around and slams kitchen cabinets. (Jude)
15. I like it when she imitates whatever I do. (John)
16. I love how she clasps her hands and puts them on her head during family prayer time. (Oma)
17. I like when she puts her feet on me when she wants them to be rubbed. (Liesel)
18. She can put her feet behind her ears. (Simeon)
19. She never cries. (Opa)
20. She exudes love. (Grandma N.)
21. It's cute when she takes a brush and pretends to brush her hair even though she doesn't have any. (Liesel)

Happy world Down Syndrome Day to all who are blessed with the gift of Down Syndrome!
Also, please click here to read a special article about World Down Syndrome Day, adoption, birth family preservation, and Ava. So many things I'm passionate about in one well-written article!

Speaking of alopecia......

I'd like to say a big "Thank You!" to A.J., age 7, who made my day recently. For months she has been growing her hair out with the intent of cutting and donating it to Locks of Love, in honor of my Ava. This picture was taken on Ava's birthday, Feb 20th. Thank you sweet A.J. for your giving heart and your compassion for those less fortunate. You are a big blessing to our family. One day Ava will have hair because of the generosity of special people like you. You are beautiful.

My Ava is world-famous!

A few months ago I was contacted by a freelance writer for a parenting and lifestyle magazine in South Africa. She asked if she could feature Ava in an article she was writing about alopecia in children. Of course we agreed, and she sent me a scanned version of the article yesterday.

Enjoy! (You should be able to click on the pictures to enlarge it if you have trouble reading it).

The irony of it

I find it a bit ironic that I am dragging my children all over town to make photocopies, getting things notarized, letting them watch TV for hours, so that I can work on adoption paperwork and phone calls to prove that I am a fit parent worthy of adopting.

Anyone else find this concept fascinating?

Since yesterday was so sunny and beautiful we all spent the day outside. We let Romeo the goat out of his pen to romp around with his best friend Hope, while the rest of us worked on the barn and on the farm.

Well about an hour later we realized that Romeo was nowhere to be found. We looked and looked, and called and called. We checked in the woods, checked in the barbed wire, checked the neighbors'.

Finally Hope remembered that she had put him in a time out "because he was being naughty". A goat time-out.

In my van.

The image that you have in your mind right now is exactly the image that we saw when we opened the van door. A goat standing on the back seat, and you-know-exactly-what we found on exactly three seats.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

We decided it would be best to let it dry overnight before attempting to clean it up. And so we did.

This morning as we loaded up for church we found the turds that of course we had completely forgotten about. We frantically scrubbed and cleaned and then drove to church in our Sunday best sitting on folded towels. And of course we laughed almost the whole way.

And I'll leave you with this image from the Urban farm. I hope this post wasn't too much information for you. 

Welcome to my world.

In Loving Memory

Barbara Leader

February 6, 1952-March 5, 2010

You will be greatly missed

If I have been scarce it's because I'm up to my ears in adoption paperwork!

We'll be going back to the doctor for the third time next week, to make changes on the medical form. I'm sure he's going to be real happy to see us again. I begged John to go in my place but he used the excuse that he has to work. Phooey!

The last two forms got rejected because the doctor wrote over two letters of his own printed name, and because the notary didn't put enough ink on her stamp. So we went back to the notary to see about fixing it, and found out she is no longer working at that bank. Went to three banks looking for a notary whose stamp doesn't expire within 12-18 months, and who was willing to travel to the doctor's office a block away. No such luck. After calling around we finally found a notary who will travel and whose stamp doesn't expire for two years...but (and it's a big but) she will not back-date it to last week. Excuse me while I scream again. AAAAAHHHHH! I had to send her all my documents explaining all the notary rules, and she said she will 'think about' whether she can back date it or not. Gotta love the pains of dossier preparation. I'd rather take labor pains with no epidural any day thank you very much!

Just a few updates from around here......Jude has been taking piano lessons for about 5 months now, and he attended his first piano festival, where he is critiqued on his performance. The judge gave him superior ratings and we couldn't be prouder of him. (Although I will be glad when he moves on from Jingle Bells and Indian Song, ha!) I had to take this picture of him all decked out, even though we didn't get a picture of him playing the piano. He takes after his dad and his grandparents with his musical talent, thank goodness.

John went to the feed store for hay the other day and came home with these little cuties....You see, we have nothing better to do than feed and water more little creatures several times a day. As you can see, SOMEBODY has been having a great time with the new pets.

Chicks in an Easter basket......

Chicks on a giant earthworm...Jumping chicks.....

Acrobatic chicks......

Nanny got her own private room and she seems much happier to be able to turn the volume of the TV up as high as she wants to. She slipped on some water a week or two ago and ended up with this:

OW....She still managed to walk to the van and go out with us for a Sonic cherry limeade. I sure love this lady!

Tomorrow starts the first Saturday of a very busy soccer season. Four kids in soccer, one in horseback riding lessons, one in piano, and one getting ready start up weekly therapy sessions, I might be very scarce here indeed.

Have a great weekend everybody. I'm off to watch a movie with my hubby!!

Quote for Today

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
-Albert Einstein

A young man with Down Syndrome working at Wal-Mart helped me put my tomatoes in a produce bag this afternoon. After I walked away, he ran back to me with a couple more. It really put a smile on my face.