Thursday, April 15, 2010

Adoption Story

So with international adoption in the news for such a bad reason these days people who have had a good experience with adoption are blogging about it today. The hope is to show both the US and Russian governments that although there are unfortunate endings to some adoption stories most stories are truly wonderful.

Our family came to adoption after my second pregnancy went as badly as it could and produce a wonderful little boy at the end. Todd and I had always wanted 4 children so we were thrilled when we found out we were having twins in the fall of 1999 (well as thrilled as one can be when in complete shock). On April 3, 2000 our wonderful twin girls (Morgan and Shannen) were born several weeks early but healthy and happy. They kept us busy for quite some time....I miss my sleep even now when they are 10.

When the girls were 3 we started to talk about having another child and in the fall of 2003 we found out we were expecting again (just one this time....should be easy...right). Around 18 weeks into my pregnancy I discovered that this was going to be a tough pregnancy....the baby had very little amniotic fluid and in addition I developed a condition called Cholestasis of Pregnancy (ICP) (for more info on this awful condition that is dangerous for baby and hellish for mom see: http://www.itchymoms.com/ ). After a long, emotionally exhausting pregnancy our son Collin was born on May 11, 2004. My OB cried in the operating room because Collin was healthy and asked me to please find a new doctor if I wanted more kiddos. With a high likely hood of the ICP returning with another pregnancy we decided to pursue adoption.

We had a lot of questions....how do you start, what do you do, will we make it through the wait....will we love him as much as our other kids? We had a great agency who gave us guidance and lots of answers. We decided to pursue an adoption in Guatemala. We completed paperwork....and more paperwork.....and yet a little more paperwork and we were matched with a child. I know that life works out the way it is supposed to but sometimes it is too hard to see that when you are living it....3 days before Christmas (the day before Tristan was born) we lost our first referral....we were devastated. We took some time and waited and talked and cried....and finally accepted Tristan's referral at the end of January. Then we waited more........In May of 2005 we touched down in Guatemala and held our little boy for the first time. He was beautiful and sweet (oh and the question about if we would love him as much as his brother and sisters flew right out the window). It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life to place him back in his foster mother's arms and go home. For the next 6 months (yes 6 MONTHS) we waited, and cried, and begged, and waited, and got kicked out of courts, and got back into courts....we got signatures, and waited for visas, and called our senators, and waited.....and finally on December 7, 2006 we had Tristan in our arms again.

He came home with us a few days later to many hugs, and tears, and smiles from family and friends....where he is loved every day....even when he hides my glass candle holder (broken.....after it was "just held....I promise") in his room (gotta love the 4 year old :) )....we could not imagine our life without him in it. Here are some pictures of our little man...

Baby Tristan.

Hanging with daddy.

We will miss you!

Look dad I can sit now.

Guatemala is so beautiful.

Look he is a real person and not just a picture!

Grammy's boy.

I love holding the "baby".

My turn!

So BIG!

Happy Snowman Birthday to ME....I am 4 finally!


So please, for all those families and children waiting....open up adoptions....don't punish everyone for one mistake.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

More Florida Fun

I found some more pictures of the gang in Florida after Christmas and I thought I would share them...


Little Mermaid

I love underwater shots.

Sorry the water is still freezing guys.

Buddies...I think Guinness thinks Tristan is a puppy.

Collin running around "Swiss Family Thomas House"

Heading to Disney (wishing we were there now).

Notice the full winter coats...we all wished we had mittens
and hats....where was that Florida sun???

Collin having fun.

Enough said...when do we go back?

Happy and tired campers.

Ok...I think this is the end of the 2009-2010 Great East Coast Field Trip. I know it was long and we all ended up tired but we did have a lot of fun!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Back....Finally

Well it has been a busy few months and blogging ended up on the back burner. Things have not gotten any less crazy but my pictures are piling up...so I decided it was time to get off my butt and post again. I decided to skip over what I missed, post what we are doing now, and try and catch-up...so you might see posts that are at the beach next to ones in the snow :)

So what have we been doing lately? Our biggest project these days is turning our living room into the rain forest...Shannen's project (with the help of her brothers...they love making snakes) and our dining room into China...Morgan's project (with a great wall and everything).

Here are some early pictures of the projects. The girls (and I) have been learning a ton about the two subjects (I know they are kind of random but that is what the girls picked...). I think the decorations have been a favorite part but they are also planning a presentation night. They will take our "guests" on their world tour....full of facts, decorations, and food (yummy). So this is what we have so far...


"Fireworks"


Morgan is having fun.

One half of the great wall.

Morgan has been writing facts on each section of the great wall.
Our library has been really helpful.

Shannen putting up the vines.

Shannen's snake watercolor painting.

The leaves that will hold the facts about the rain forest.

Those are all the pictures I have now but the house is starting to look like a jungle....so I will post some more from the presentation night.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Our December in Review

Well like all of you December was a crazy month...so there was no blogging for me. Here are some pictures of all the fun things we did leading up to and during the holidays:

In early December we had no snow (that would change...alot) so the kids improvised.


Our great "snowman"

Shannen writing the beginning of her story.

Playdough!

We had a lot of time to play games over our break. We all have our favorites but here the kiddos are enjoying Blokus.


This was an engineering challenge the girls had fun with. I had them grab any 10 toys (I did not tell them what they would be doing) and saw who could build the tallest tower.

They were both bummed that they grabbed all soft toys.

Morgan made the highest tower!

After the tower we made a stuffed animal store. We used Harry Potter money and had fun trying (I stress trying) to make change.


Tristan went to his first birthday party (that was just his own invitation) this month and had a blast. His good buddy Seth had a party at the Children's Museum.

Amazing dad: he knew ALL the bones :)

He will always be my baby.

We headed to Western Mass for the Karate Studio Christmas Party...always fun!

Playing around.
Bring on the tree!!


Our annual shot of Todd struggling to get it through the door.

We love decorating.

Ok...we are ready!

Todd making some cool presents.

Making my dad's famous peanut butter balls.

Yummy...Christmas dinner!

Presents!

It is wicked hard to have a Christmas birthday...
he only had 4 birthday parts :)

More presents.

Mommy's new toy.

Getting in the Christmas spirit.

Our annual visit with Santa.

Playing in the snow...

Really deep snow.

Great snow angel.

Shannen

Collin

Morgan

Tristan

Making gingerbread houses at Collin's school.

Hi Santa

Happy Birthday....take 2

Putting out reindeer food.

For our holiday we did a huge road trip to visit family...I will start a new post to show Christmas morning and the trip but here is a shot Todd wanted to add to leave you with:


The state of the wires in my car at the
BEGINNING of the road trip.