Good to go!

So our agency got all of the paperwork yesterday. Don't worry, I tracked it to make sure! I got an email this morning saying that everything is in order and it will go out on Monday. Yea! Next week sometime our case working will let us know what we can expect from here forward. We really have no idea what the process is. Do we have more paperwork? Will we be able to sort of 'track' our progress as things get approved? What I do know is that there are a lot of steps in the process (although I don't know what they are) and we will only get about 5 days notice before we have to travel. It makes things is little difficult to plan - especially since three months from now puts us right before Christmas. We're just trusting God and know that we'll be able to pick Bada up when it's the right time. Although we certainly won't mind if it's sooner than later. :-)

Read more...

All About Bada

I realize that I haven't written much about her.
Things have been so busy with the paperwork.
We only know the little bit that we were told in the referral papers that we got, but we're clinging to it until we get another update.

Her name: Bada. We want her name to be a part of her life. We always planned to give her a Korean first name and American middle name. Now we're just trying to decide if we'll change her Korean name to something else, or keep Bada. It's a name she knows. It's a part of her life and we want to keep it that way. If we do change her first name, Bada will definitely be a special nickname that we use often.

Her birthday is April 16, 2009. I thought this was sort of fun because April 16 was Orin's due date (he was born on April 3, 2005). She and Orin are 4 years apart and she and Micaiah are 2 1/2 years apart. She was born at 9:50am. She is definitely younger than we were expecting. We said we were open to 0-24 months so I just assumed we would be getting a toddler. Lord willing, if everything goes as planned, she'll be about 8 months when we get her. I don't even remember what an 8 month old needs!

She was born in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. She was in an orphanage until she was a little over 3 months and was then transferred to a foster home.

She was 6lbs 15oz at birth and her height was 19 1/2 inches when she was 5 days old. I guess they don't measure length at birth??? At her last check on August 25, she was 12lbs 2oz and 24 inches. She seems to be growing well which is very important.

Besides her Microtia/Atresia the only other thing the Doctor said was abnormal or could be of a concern was her head circumference. Her head is on the small size. The Doctor said that it can sometimes indicate possible developmental issues. But since Bada seems to be on target and hitting her developmental milestones the Doctor said it's not something we should worry about. I did some research and looked at some studies that said that people of Asian ethnicity have smaller head circumstances so I'm trying to not worry. :-)

Developmentally she is doing great. At 4 1/2 months old she can roll over both ways, babble, laugh, recognize her name, follow an object with her eyes 180 degrees, reach for an object, transfer it between hands, etc. They say she can "creep" on her stomach. That seems pretty early to me so I have a little bit of a hard time believing it.

A couple people have asked about her ear. She has Aural Atresia and Microtia. She'll be going through some of testing when she gets home. Possibly a hearing aid now or in the near future. Probably surgery to correct her hearing in a couple years as well as reconstructive surgery after the age of 6. The great news is that her healthy ear seems to have normal hearing. This means that even if she were completely deaf in her affected ear she would be able to develop normal speech and probably not need speech therapy. When we filled out all of our paperwork while we were doing our home study, we indicated that we would consider many different "needs." Of all of the needs we indicated we would consider, we truly feel that God specifically gave us a child with this one. My mom, Bada's Nina, has severe hearing problems. Even with hearing aids, her hearing is limited. This is something that Bada and Nina will be able to share. We'll never know what it feels like to have hearing loss, and although we can sympathize, Nina will be able to truly understand. We think this will be very special for both of them. I just reminds us once again that God has been in control of this entire process.

The doctor who reviewed her file said that her head has been shaved. We're thinking it's because when they did the hearing test at 6 weeks they had to attach electrodes to her head. As you can see from the hair she has left that she has tons. I can't wait to see what it is like when it grows back in! I definitely need to invest in some clips and rubber bands! Here is another sweet picture of her. I asked the agency if they had anything younger or newborn pictures and they said they don't. It's a little sad that she won't have any younger pictures of herself but I'm thankful we have these.

Read more...

And it's off!

After 24 hours of paperworking I am happy to say that it's in the mail! We got the packet of acceptance paperwork around 12:30pm yesterday and we've (well mostly ME) have been working on it non-stop. The reason we were in such a rush was because our agency only does a shipment to Korea once a week on Mondays. So if we didn't get this stuff to them (in NYC) by Friday at 1pm, we'd have to wait until the next week (Sept. 28th) for it to go. I really, really, wanted to get it there in time.

I was a little worried when I opened the attachment and saw 72 pages! Of all the paperwork we've done so far, this was definitely the thickest envelope I've mailed off. But it wasn't too bad. A lot of it was just duplicating. For many of the documents we needed to have four copies. Unfortunately, they had to be individually completed. It would have been nice to just fill out one and then make copies. Luckily we only had to get 5 documents notarized and we're very blessed to have a few notary's here on the center who will do it for free!

Some of the papers were sort funny. Two of the US government forms were pretty much just for us to prove to them that we can support the adopted child and that she "wouldn't be a financial burden on the US Government." Seriously, that's what the form said. The country requirements are WAY more strict than the US requirements so it almost makes these forms silly. There was a liability form saying that it's not our agency's fault if we get hurt on our trip. :-) Other random forms stating that we wanted to adopt Bada and that we would support her. Lots of copies of Birth certificates and taxes.

I have to say, I've been very impressed by the agency. We've worked with four different agencies so far. The first one was when we started last September trying to adopt from China (before we knew we didn't qualify). We weren't particularly thrilled with them but we really had no other experience to compare them to. Took a long time to get answers to emails, etc... The second agency was when we were attempting to adopt from Kyrgyzstan. We were working on our dossier when that country shut down completely to adoption (and it still is). We LOVED that agency. It was small and we always got great responses. The third, a large agency like the first, was when we were pretty much told Russia was our only option. Again, not particularly thrilled with them. After two months we still hadn't even been accepted into the Russia program. I think that is one of the down-sides to large agencies...lots of bureaucracy. That's when we found the agency we are with now and realized we could adopt from Korea through them. We were only with them about a month before our dossier was sent in (since we were so much further along in the process than people usually are when the start). But it's been really great. And after the last 24 hours I like them even more. Since we received the paperwork yesterday, I've probably sent at least 10 emails to our case worker with questions. She has emailed back very quickly, answering all of my questions, and was very nice (I didn't get any sort of feeling like I was bothering her). She was even responding to questions at 11pm last night. :-) We never would have gotten this done in time if she took 2-3 three days to get back to us like has happened in the past. Another great thing was that they sent "sample" documents for almost all of the documents we had to complete. This was AWESOME. It's always hard to know how to complete documents - especially the US immigrations ones. Seriously, it's like reading another language. I would do searches for examples but never could find any. So, all of this to say, I'm really happy with the agency we ended up with.

The biggest pain of all with this paperwork at to be the check. All of our fees to Korea are due at this time. We needed a certified check from our bank addressed to the Korean agency. Well, we love our bank, but because it's only online (there are no branches), we would have had to mail them a notarized letter requesting the check. We didn't have time for that. So, after talking to a few banks, we had only one option. I made a mad dash yesterday afternoon to a local bank, opened a checking account, then called our bank and had them wire the money to the new account. It was there by this morning and I was able to go to the bank and get the certified check. It really was crazy. Talk about stressful. Because it was such a large amount, my bank had to ask me all of these person questions to verify I was who I said I was. And if I answered any of them wrong I would have to send a notarized letter. I haven't been that nervous about a quiz since college. :-)
So, now it's on it's way. Damien and I must have gone over everything 6 times. We actually scanned most of the documents and emailed them to our case worker to look over. She gave us the OK and I ran out to FedEx around 3 and paid an arm and a leg to have it there by tomorrow. I've totally neglected my kids and they've missed naps the last two days because I've been running all over town like a mad woman. We need some major family time tonight. I just can't wait to get the email saying that the papers are there and that everything is OK. Let's just pray it is!

I am going to write a post all about Bada. With all of this paperwork, I haven't had the chance yet, but I know everyone wants to know more about her. :-) Hopefully I can do it tonight.

Here is another picture of her. :-)

Read more...

Getting the call

Here is some more information about when we got the call from our agency about the referral! There are a lot of details (probably boring for you) but I don't want to forget it!

The phone rang a little after 9am on Thursday, September 10th. I thought it was a little funny because September 10th is my half birthday. We don't get many calls on our home phone and even though we weren't expecting a referral for a while, every time the phone rang, I would sort of hope it was it.

I've only spoken to our case worker once, so I didn't recognize her voice. But when she asked for Damien or Renee, I thought maybe it was her. Then when she said who she was I actually sort of panicked. I sort of worried that if she was calling this soon after sending our dossier to Korea that maybe something was wrong. Of course, this all was going through my mind in a split second. The she said, "We have a referral for you!"

The best part was that Damien was just about to walk out of the door to go to work. It told him it was Sepnce-Chapin and that they had a referral for us. He had a shocked look on his face and I told him to get on the other line so he could listen in. It's so nice that he was able to hear it first hand!

So, she starts telling us the baby's name, birth date, etc. and all I could think was that I really wanted her to tell us what her special need was. On the special needs paperwork we had to complete months ago, we indicated that we would consider a whole lot of needs. However, in many cases we would only be open to certain severity. For example, we said we would consider Limb Difference. However, we would have accepted a missing hand, but not a missing leg. Basically, we wanted to make sure that whatever need we accepted would be something that could be handled if we were living overseas. I always knew it would be devastating to get a referral and not be able to accept it.

So finally, she gets to "and she seems to have a partial ear deformity." Now, after talking to the doctor we know that it is quite a bit more extreme than just that. But, I just remember saying, "That's it? An ear deformity?"

I was also shocked how young she is. We were open to a child up to two years. I figured we would most likely be referred a child over a year because of that. Secondly, children can't be available for International adoption until he/she is 5 months old. This gives them plenty of time to get adopted domestically. She isn't even 5 months old yet. Maybe there are exceptions for kids with special needs...or maybe she is just close enough.

We asked a few questions, but I was in shock. I had a hard time remembering half of the conversation or thinking of good questions. Later that day, I really wished I remembered more of the details of the conversation. For example, I couldn't remember if she said her birthday was April 16th or 19th.

So, at the end of the conversation she told us that she would be sending us the packet of information (Fed Ex overnight) and that we would receive it by the next day (Friday) before 3pm. That was a little bit of a bummer. Some agencies have the info in an email. I guess SWS only sends it paper.

The rest of the day was a lot of fun calling family and letting them know we had a referral. When the call came we were walking out the door go to the Zoo with my playgroup so it was fun to also tell them all of the details. We've been praying together about it for a year. I just couldn't wait until we got the packet! We called the international adoption doctor and gave them a heads-up that we would be sending them the info as soon as we got it. I already love how responsive this doctor is!

They agency sent us a tracking number for the package. On Friday morning we saw that it had been put on the truck at 7:45am. Our mail gets delivered to Damien's office, so he let the secretary know we were waiting for it. Around 11am she rushes over to him and gives him a FedEx package!

So, Damien rushed home (he walks so it's about 5min). I always wanted to video or at least take a picture of us opening our referral information. We've been going through this process for a year (and planning it for much longer) so I've had a lot of time to think about it. :-) But as soon as he walked in I didn't even remember those "plans" and just ripped into the package. I just wanted to see what she looked like. I pulled out the pictures and the first thing I thought was how adorable she was. Now, I may be biased. I don't know. But I knew it was very possible that we might see the picture and not think she was the most adorable thing we'd ever seen. I would have been totally ok with this. But I seriously did think she was so cute.

We couldn't believe how many pictures there were. There are about 20. Pictures of her in the little chair, pictures of her on her tummy pushing up, holding her head, being held by her foster mother, pictures of any little birthmark or vaccine scar. And a couple of her ear. Amazing!

There were nine pages of information. Where she was born, some biological parent info (which we will share with her only and she can decide who she would like to share this information with in the future), orphanage and foster parent info, medical and developmental info. Even a hearing test.

All we wanted to do was tell everyone and share her picture! But the agency said we couldn't show people her picture until we officially accepted her. And secondly, we wanted to get the doctor's report. We had done a lot of research on her medical info, but we knew the doctor could still find something that we didn't notice. We knew that the there was a possibility (even if it was very small) that we wouldn't be able to accept.

It was hard to wait all weekend to talk to the doctor. I think I dreamed about it every night. We spoke to the doctor today and it went well. With all of the research we did this weekend, the doctor didn't really tell us too much that we didn't already know.

Since we don't live around family, it was really special that Damien's mom was visiting this week when we got the referral. Normally we don't get to share these special moments with extended family. I even told Damien a few weeks ago that it would be so cool if we got one this week while Mimie was here. He told me I was crazy and that it was way too soon to get one. :-) I tried not to think about it and on Wednesday I even thought to myself, "I guess we AREN'T going to get one while Mimie is here." And it happened the next morning. :-)

Here is a another picture just for fun. :-)

Read more...

We have a referral!

No, I'm not kidding! Exactly 1 month and 4 weeks after our dossier was sent to Korea we have a referral for a little girl! We're still a little in shock. The wait for a healthy child is 6 months - we knew a referral for a special needs child could be earlier, but this is definitely MUCH earlier! We actually got "The Call" last Thursday. We were told very little information at that time but the agency overnighted her file which we got Friday around 11am. We sent her file to a special adoption doctor and had a phone conference this morning to review the Doctor's findings. We didn't want to say anything about it until it was official - and now it is! We told our agency today that we wanted to officially accept her. All of the frustration with having to withdraw from China, Kyrgyzstan adoption closing down as were working on our dossier, not qualifying for other countries we were interested in, working on a Russia adoption for two months and going absolutely nowhere, and having to go through 4 different agencies seems like NOTHING now. This was God's plan. We never doubted that he had one but I definitely did not always have the patience I should have.

This is Bada Kang. I want to write more details about her in another post. We aren't sure if we're going to keep her first name, but we know that we want it to be a part of her life - at least a nickname or something. But we do want a Korean name. Just not sure yet.

She was born on April 16th, 2009.
She was 6lbs 15oz at birth and 19 1/2in
She now weighs 12lbs 2oz
She lived in an orphanage for three months and is now in a foster home
She has Microsia & Atresia (which I'll talk about more in another post) but other than this need, she seems to be perfectly healthy and doing well developmentally.

There is much, much, more. For now I just wanted to post a little about her and, of course, her beautiful picture!

Read more...

There Will Always Be A Need

RainbowKids.com (a great adoption resource) recently had an article about the future of Korean adoption. As Korean culture changes, as the Korean economy grows, and as the Korean government continues to promote domestic adoption, the need for International adoption will continue to decrease. That's a great thing. However, with these changes, the options for children with special needs remain very limited. Despite the overall downward trend of international adoptions from Korea, children with special concerns will continue to need access to families around the world. It's an interesting article.

Read more...

The Anti-Racist Parent

I found a link to this article called "See Baby Discriminate" on an adoption blog I often read. Originally published in Newsweek, it's about a 2006 University of Texas study about children and their attitudes concerning race. The results are really interesting.

I've also recently begun reading this blog - The Anti-Racist Parent. Multiple columnists contribute by writing articles about race issues. It's a neat resource of ideas for educating your children about race and race issues and helping to raise your children to have an anti-raciest outlook.

Read more...

Catch-up?

Well, I'm never going to be caught up but here are a few things going on.

I've been working on my Blog Book like crazy. I want to get it done. I'm not exactly sure why I'm in such a rush since it will be too expensive to buy - at least until I get some Christmas or birthday money. :-) I already have my 2006 scrapbook finished and waiting to be ordered when I have the money. Oh well. A couple of people have asked about the blog book. I hadn't heard about blog books until a few of my bloggy friends talked about making theirs. I always thought it would be great to have my blog printed in some way, but I had no idea how to do it. There are many different options, but I decided to go with what I thought was the easiest. There are two sites that I know of that can easily print blog books: www.blurb.com & www.lulu.com. I looked them over and decided I liked blurb the best. So, I downloaded the software (called BookSmart). Then I slurped (yes, that's the word they use) my blog into the software and started creating my pages. Unlike my digital scrapbooks I'm not using different backgrounds - I'm just going with black. I was a little worried at first because there aren't a ton of options for page layouts, but I quickly realized that I could edit their layouts or even make my own. Awesome! I'm going post-by-post and in just a few weeks I'm 3/4 way done. I started my blog in January of 2007 so I've decided to put both '07 & '08 into one book since it will be much cheaper that way. I had hoped to not worry about what it looked like so it would go faster, but I was kidding myself. I'm excited to be done with it soon and one day have a printout of my "journal" for the past couple of years.

Plans for the fall are starting to fall into place. I'm still not sure exactly what will be happening since I seem to have to wait until last minute to make decisions. Orin will start going to preschool 3 days a week in the mornings (9am-12:45am) on Mon., Wed., & Fri. Caiah will be going two days a week on Wed. & Fri. I'll be working at the preschool (hopefully in one of their classes). This will offset the cost of Micaiah's two days as well as Orin's extra day. Otherwise we couldn't swing it. On Monday morning's Caiah and I will continue going to Mainly Music at a local church. It was so much fun last year and I can't wait to start. You can't beat an hour of music, snacks, and cuddle time with your kid for $1. Monday afternoons I hope to continue a new Bible Study I've started attending. I really enjoy it and I hope it works out. And hopefully Micaiah will be able to nap while we're there. Tuesday morning is story time at the library which we've really loved the past 6 months we've been attending it. Wednesday is school for the boys and I'm looking into volunteering somewhere. Either here on the center or maybe a local food bank or pregnancy center. Still trying to figure out the details. Every other Thursday is play group and on the off Thursday we often go out with the kids somewhere. Friday mornings is preschool for us all! Saturday mornings are Orin's soccer games as well as practices on Tues. & Thurs. We're still figuring out other schedules such as community group and possibly mentoring as a family. I enjoy being busy and I hope I'm not over-scheduling us. We'll have most afternoons at home and we can always forgo some of our activities if need be. I looking forward to a great fall!

We've joined a community group at church for adoptive & and pre-adoptive parents called Tapestry. We're going to the first time on Saturday and I'm really excited about meeting other parents who've gone through or are going through the "wait" that we are right now. I'm also looking forward to getting lots of advice and some mentoring on post adoption issues.

Damien (and I) have always enjoyed movies by Hayao Miyazaki. He is a Japanese director who makes animated movies. Some for kids and some not. Damien was excited that a new movie came out and was rated G and couldn't wait to take the kids to see it in the theater (with English dubbing of course). Damien took the morning off last Friday and we all went to the 11am showing. We had a gift certificate that was probably 2 years old which we finally used. The movie is called Ponyo. It was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Little Mermaid but very different from the 90's Disney version. It was so great. Perfect for the kids. Go here to see a preview.

6. When we potty trained Orin we kept him in diapers for a few weeks at night and naps. After a couple of weeks he was not wetting his diaper any more so we got rid of them. We attempted the same thing with Micaiah. However, instead of wetting his diaper less and less he started doing it more and more. I guess he realized he could be lazy and not have to get out of bed in the middle of the night. Smart, huh? Finally we decided to just get rid of the diapers all together and just suffer a few nights until he figured out it was better to get up. We told him that if he didn't wet it for 5 nights we'd let him get King (from the movie 'Cars') from the store. It only took 7 nights and he did it. We thought that was pretty good. He's doing great now.

Orin is still loving school. We let him go this summer (2 mornings a week) even though the topics of 'study' were different. ABC's were out and learning about family, animals, food, etc. were in. On Tuesday, after not going on Monday because of Labor Day, he told me that he really missed Mrs. L and couldn't wait to see her and that he bet she missed him too and was looking forward to school Wednesday. We put him in school last September for reasons such as the structure, so he could be around other kids besides his brother, so he could learn to take instructions from people other than Damien and I, etc. I'm sure no one would be surprised to hear me say that Orin is an ACTIVE kid. REALLY active! Since was a year old he has had a very difficult time sitting still. He doesn't have ADD and he isn't hyperactive or is undisciplined (at least I hope not). :-) He can sit and focus on something for ages. But the kid just likes to go, go, go. I knew story time/circle time would be difficult for him. Sitting still and being quiet for 20 minutes is NOT easy. So it didn't surprise me when I recently asked the teacher how he was doing and she said he has a tough time. It's not the sitting still as much as the being quiet that gets him. He often talks a little, gets a quick time out and then does fine the rest of the time. Mrs. L was so encouraging about it though. She was quick to encourage me that he was sweet, intelligent and obedient (for the most part) and that some 4 year old's have a harder time than others. Anyway, we've been doing a lot of practicing at home. We have our own "story time" for 20 minutes and he has to be quiet the whole time. We'll practice sitting and not talking. He does great. It has helped a little at school. Wednesday he talked once, was corrected and then was quiet the rest of the time. I'm just praying that my little boy can learn to zip those lips!

Recently Damien had to attend a few meetings on Child Safety here on the center. Everyone was encouraged to come. One of the BIG focuses was teaching your child about appropriate "touch". Lots of statistics were given and lots of warnings about really knowing the people you leave your children with. It's pretty scary to think about how often children get abused by trusted friends and family. Anyway, it was a good reminder that we really needed to talk to Orin about it. One of the biggest defenses against abuse is having a child who is educated about it. We got a book from Orin's school and read it a couple of times and talked about it. I'm glad we've done it but we really need to remember to bring it up every once in a while. The book was called, "My body belongs to me." At the end, Orin asked, "What happens if someone takes my body?" Good question, right? I mean, his toys belong to him and if someone takes one he'll try to get it back. So, in his mind he needs to know what to do if some takes his body. Should he get it back? Anyway, it was hilarious at the time.

The kids were looking through some pictures of our wedding. It was 10 1/2 years ago so many of our family members now look quite different. Micaiah recognized Damien but as he was looking at it he noticed something that confused him. He pointed to Damien's shirt and said, "What is THAT?" You'll never guess what it was. A tie! It may be possible that you can count on one hand the times Micaiah has seen Damien in a tie in his lifetime.

Orin & Caiah have a small light in their room set to go off on a timer. It goes off at the same time each morning and they have to stay in their beds until it does. The entire purpose of this is for my sanity. It was so hard for me that they would get up at 7:30 one day and 9 the next. So, we were at the zoo today and Micaiah couldn't wait to see the Tigers. Unfortunately, they were no where to be seen. We told Caiah they were sleeping and that we'd come back around in a while once they woke up. And Caiah says, "Yeah, the Tiger is sleeping and he's going come out when his light comes on." I guess Tiger mommy's set lights too!

Read more...

Pizza & Pirates

Pizza night tonight!
The kids enjoyed it.
Orin ate the scraps of dough left in the mixer while Caiah helped daddy put the toppings on.
I got a great dough and pizza sauce recipe from allrecipes.com.
Next time we'll cook the dough a little before adding the toppings.
And I'll make sure to have more cheese!
We need to do this more often.


Caiah had to sample the cheese of course. Maybe that's why we didn't have enough?


Orin has these two 'robots' (one isn't really a robot - I think it's supposed to be a washing machine or something)
Their names are Gulp and Gulp Gulp.
Every night while we're doing our routine of singing, books, praying, etc., they have to come into the room and talk to us.
They talk about their day. Maybe a little about how they are feeling.
It's almost as if they are Orin's imaginary friends.
It's really cute - although I don't always have the patience for it.
But it's part of our routine and now night's wouldn't be right without them.
Gulp on the left (we got him first) and Gulp Gulp on the right. They both came from the boutique. That place is such a huge blessing.
The other night they wanted to dress as pirates while we said goodnight.
How could we resist this adorable face?
Micaiah hasn't slept in PJ's in months. Orin has recently decided to go 'sans pj's' too, but some night's he'll want them. I don't mind that I've had noticeably less laundry!

Gulp Gulp talking to us - saying something very profound I'm sure.
Micaiah takes this pretending stuff very seriously.
Orin wanted to take a picture with us with the robots.

Read more...

Daycation

Daycation, Staycation - everyone seems to want to use these terms this summer. So I figure I need to conform and have a blog post with that title.

We had a full day out and about last Saturday. I made Chili on Thursday night which reminded me of how much I miss Hard Times Cafe. The best chili anywhere in my opinion. So my wonderful husband tried to find the restaurant in Dallas with the best Chili. He said there weren't too many to choose from. The best was about 30 minutes away in Grapevine, TX. So we planned our day around that. We went to small Botanical Gardens park in Grapevine. It was so nice. Great weather, beautiful flowers, few people, and kids who were in good spirits (the most important part.) We hiked around and went on an adventure as Orin called it. Whenever we hike he likes to be our guide and calls himself "The Way Man." It's so funny. He'll say, "The way man says to go this way so you have to follow." Here are too any pictures of our fun.

Examining nature. Orin was really interested in these walnut thing's that were falling from the trees.
Their favorite part was this cement pipe. We spent forever here just playing and climbing.

There was a small hole in the top which was very useful for fun things.I love this one of Micaiah peeking through the hole.
Orin took this - not bad, huh?
It is so hard to get a real smile out of this boy - this is a great one!
More fun with the hole.Do we have a "tree hugger?"
Caiah was scared to climb the tree so he enjoyed practicing the beam.
Our attempt to get a nice picture by the fountain. Oh, well. I can only seem to get one smiling at a time.
There was also a wonderful playground next to the gardens.
He is definitely having fun here!
Nothing necessarily significant about this sign except for Micaiah walked up to it, stood there for a minute and told me, "It says, 'Grapes and cool whip.'" Grapes and cool whip is a favorite of his so he must have been getting hungry!
We got to Main Street. As we were walking to the restaurant the kids saw this statue and just thought it was the coolest thing. Orin would have sat there talking to the guy forever.
We stopped by this neat little craft fair-type-thing. Lots of items that little hands can't touch. They had some interesting and creative things - a little too pricey for us though. :-)
After all of this I forgot to take pictures at the restaurant. Sad. The chili was good - but it was no Hard Times!

Read more...