Memorial Day Weekend

The Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend my SIL, Matt's sister, got married to long-time beau (by long time I mean 10 years, they started dating their Sophmore year of H.S.) and the twins were the flower babies. So on Friday night we went to the rehearsel then to the rehearsel dinner. The kids did great, we had one melt down but fortunately it didn't last that long; we fed the kids before the rehearsel so at dinner we just ordered some fries to keep them happy, Avery started throwing a major tantrum but we had no idea why for, ended up all he wanted was the plate that the fries came out on. Once he got his plate he was just fine. Silly boy! Saturday was really crazy! We had to be at the church at 1130 to take pictures then the wedding started at 1pm. Luckily our church also has a preschool and our pastor's wife is the preschool teacher and she allowed us to let the kids have free reign of it after the twins ate their lunch and we attempted to get their pics taken with the bride and groom, needless to say it didn't happen pictures I mean. The kids did really well in the wedding. I think they stole the show but I am a bit bias. They were supposed to carry a little basket with rose petals in it. I sat in the pew waiting for them to come to me and Matt released them. Izzy held on to her basket and as she ran her petals came out but Avery dropped his basket at the door. It was sooo cute and funny watching them coming down the aisle. I know I had a terrible face going on because I was trying not to cry or laugh at the same time. Izzy did great during the service but our little show off, Avery, "talked" through almost the entire ceremony. But the happy couple made it through the service without a hitch and Matt's baby sister is now a wife, to a really great guy too I might add. They are a match made in Heaven. After the ceremony we took the kids home, we were going to take them to the reception but they had had a full day and were not in the mood to be in public. It also started pouring down right after the service was over and kept pouring til about 2 hours into the OUTSIDE wedding reception. My grandma came over and watched the babies so we could actually enjoy ourselves at the reception. The reception was beautiful and I'm sure it would have been even prettier if it hadn't been so muddy. But everyone had a great time, the food was good and the beer was even better. Matt left before I did and let me tell you I was so wishing I had left with him on Sunday morning. But I did have a great time out by myself, meaning no kids. Sunday morning the grooms parents had a brunch at their house which so very nice of them and was really good food too. Plus we got to see the bride and groom open their presents. The rest of Sunday was just a lazy day which was so very nice after the last two crazy days we had had. Monday we took the kids to the petting farm, unfortunately the actually getting to pet the animals was from 3-5 and we got there at 1 but the kids did enjoy seeing the animals and running over the bridge. After that we went home and cooked out. All in all it was a busy but really fun weekend. Now to the pictures.

Daddy's little girl

After bath we went down to the living room to play for a little bit before bed time. Both the kids were on the couch with Matt. One of our rules is: NO standing on the couch. The kids know this rule, unfortunately they just don't follow it very well. Avery especially is really bad at following the rules and due to this he is always getting into trouble. Isabelle on the other hand is really good at doing wrong but in a way that she doesn't get into trouble as much. Last night was no different in this. Isabelle acted like she was going to stand up when Matt told her to sit on her bottom, she then smiled at him sat down and crawled over to him and kissed him. Now of course she should have gotten a warning to not stand on the couch but instead Daddy melted and she didn't get that warning. She is not even two years old and already knows how to get on her Daddy's good side. We are in sooo much trouble! LOL!

Milestones

Sunday (march 20th) marked the twins being with us longer than they have been with anyone else. And today is our 1 year referralversary. I can't believe it has been a year since we received the call and email that changed our lives forever. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I will never forget the feeling of seeing the email titled referral or of seeing Avery and Isabelle's faces for the first time. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I remember being at work pacing the floor waiting for Matt to get here so we could open the email together and getting mad because he didn't get here as soon as I wanted him to. I also remembering seeing that I had missed a call from our agency and after hearing the message just saying "please call me back" thinking that they were missing some paperwork, since we had only been waiting 2 months to the day. Not in a million years would I have thought we had gotten our referral. Seeing the email title I just broke down crying and in total disbelief of what I was seeing.

Parenthood is a lot harder than I ever could have imagined but so worth it. Getting to be mommy to Avery and Isabelle is the reason I was put in this world and I wouldn't change a thing.


Isabelle's referral photo


Avery's referral photo

Ethiopia: Day 2

So today was the BIG day, we got custody of our children. We got ready, packed our backpack (i.e. diaper bag), ate breakfast, and left for the orphanage. We needed to be there by 9am so we could go to meet our lawyer at 10am. When we got to the orphanage they put us in the room that I had seen on youtube.com and other families blogs. Every time I would see a video or picture of this room I would envision our meeting with our children. Let me tell you it was better than any of my daydreams. Knowing that these two precious children were to be handed over to us by their loving nannies was much more than I could have imagined. Before they brought the twins to us the orphanage gave us a bag for each child with a traditional Ethiopian outfit in it. They are so gorgeous, I can't wait til they are able to fit into them. They also gave us back all the care package items we sent to the twins. We kept the photo books and the disposable cameras but gave the toys and clothing back to the orphanage. Then we signed the form that said that we were now soul guardians of our babies!! We changed them into clothes that we brought so that the orphanage could have back the clothes they were wearing. We then found out that our meeting with the lawyer wasn't until the next day at 11am. We all went back to the guest house to get acquainted with our babies and eat lunch. When we got back to our room Matt asked me "Now what?" which I had no answer for. I had done all kinds of research on the How to's on adoption but not the How To's on parenting. We were a bit lost the first couple of days but we soon found a routine and it became a little easier. After lunch we went shopping in the Post Office District of Addis. We only went to one shop though because it starting raining Monsoon style right before we were getting ready to leave this shop. Going to this shop was the most difficult part of our trip so far. We hadn't been face to face with the poverty until this point. There were people everywhere wanting us to buy items from them or just to give them money for food. It was very hard to walk away from them but if we gave them any thing we would have been mobbed by all the street people and with three young babies, we were with another family, in tow that would not have been safe at all. So we had to no to everyone.After that we just went back to the Guest House and hung out there. That night when the children were sleeping Matt and I would jump at any sound they made. It was really funny but a tad bit tiring too. Thankfully we learned not to be so jumpy after that first night, or we would have been the walking dead the rest of our trip.

Ethiopia - Day 1 (better late than never)

We arrived in Ethiopia at 7am and were ready to get to our guest house for a shower and a nap. First we needed to get our luggage and our visas and find our driver. Easy Peasy! While Matt went to change dollars to Birr I stood in line to get our visas. We got our visas found our luggage and found our driver. We were out of the airport at around 8am. Pretty darn good for International traveling. To say walking out of the Bole International Airport and seeing our surroundings was a culture shock is not saying enough. People tell you about the poverty and you see pictures but it is nothing until you have seen it first hand. This was my first time out of the U.S. and I thought I was prepared for what I would be seeing and experiencing but I was not. Our drive to the guest house was only about 5 minutes thankfully because we were so tired and ready to get clean. When we got to our guest house we were greeted by the friendliest people ever. They took us to our room and then were taken to the dining room to eat some breakfast. This is where we met Susan and her mom, Maureen. This is also when we found out that we would be meeting our children later that day. After breakfast I went up to take a shower and to start unpacking. Matt came up shortly afterwards but before he could take a shower we found out we would be changing rooms. This was good because we were originally in a very small room with only one crib, two kiddos and one crib is not a good thing, especially the way our children sleep. So now we were on the fourth floor and had two rooms that were connected. It was great except for the climbing the stairs carrying a child and the fact that the air is much thinner in Addis Ababa than it is in Central Illinois. It was good exercise though. We both finally did get our shower and a small nap. Matt slept fine but I was all worked up. Many feelings going on at once. One: I was ready to go home, the culture shock was too much for me the first couple of days there. Two: OMG we are parents to not one but two infants. What were we thinking. Three: I am about to meet my children for the first time in just a couple of short hours. I can't believe that we are finally here. And many more thoughts were there also but those were the main ones. At 3 o'clock we left to go to the orphanage, we made a quick stop at the Hilton so Susan could get her little girl's lap ticket verification. The Hilton is beautiful BTW and it has some great little shops in it. We finally started for the orphanage, the moment we had been waiting for for so long. I videotaped the journey but unfortunately I deleted it on accident. As soon as we got to the orphanage my camera said that the memory was full so I also didn't get any shots or video of us meeting our babies for the first time. I know, we were so unprepared. We did get shots of us after we sat down and I was able to get a new memory card in our camera. After visiting with the twins we went back to the guest house and unpacked, ate dinner and crashed. We needed to be well rested to pick up our babies the next morning.

**As soon as our computer at home gets fixed I will post pics with each day of the trip.**

Well Fall is in the air which means it is time for the slow cooker to be dusted off and put on the counter to make some great recipes. The recipe below I made last night and is so good I just had to share it with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.



MOM'S TURKEY BREAST DINNER

-4 POTATOES, PEELED AND SLICED
-4 CARROTS, PEELED AND SLICED
-2 TO 3 LBS. TURKEY TENDERLOINS
-10 1/2 OZ. CAN FRENCH ONION SOUP

PLACE VEGETABLES IN SLOW COOKER; ADD TURKEY BREAST. POUR SOUP OVER TOP. COVER AND COOK ON LOW SETTING FOR 6 TO 8 HOURS. SERVES 6.

*SIDENOTE- I DID NOT PEEL THE POTATOES AND THEY TURNED OUT FINE. PLUS I USED BABY CARROTS IN THE BAG WHICH ALSO TURNED OUT FINE.*

evaluation results

An Occupational Therapist and a Physical Therapist came out yesterday for Early Intervention. Both kids did good with the Occupational Therapist's tests, and Isabelle did good with the Physical Therapist's tests but Avery is below 30% with the Physical test. He will be getting physical therapy once a week for as long as needed. I wish we didn't need this due to the fact that we have to pay $70/month for it but if it will help him no price is too much. Avery at the moment can not put himself into a sitting position if he is laying down, pull himself up to things, and he only army crawls. We are hoping that in about six months he will be close to walking. The therapist is positive that he can get to that goal. This means too that Matt and I need to do our part in helping him. The therapist will be coming to our home to work with Avery but mostly it will be to teach me the exercises we need to be working on with Avery. Matt and I want what is best for our son so I know that we will do whatever we need to do to help him gain the strength he needs to get him on track. I am only worried about having two walkers soon. LOL! Right now we only have to worry about Isabelle getting into things since Avery is a much slower mover. Isabelle is now walking with help from us or a toy walker. She is so darn cute when she is with the walker as she knows how excited we are and she gets all smiley and laughs the whole way. Unfortunately walls keep getting in her way. She hasn't quite got the turning thing down yet, but I'm sure she will soon.

Now that we are home with the twins I do not have time to keep up with the blog. Atleast not right now anyways. So I have decided that I will try and post pics when I get a chance but that will be it. Hopefully once life gets a little less hectic and I am used to having two children I can start posting about all the great things they are doing but not now. Thanks for those who have been reading and I will be posting on Facebook, it is a lot easier at the moment. See ya.

Traveling

On Wednesday Matt and I left around 1:00p to go to Indy for our 7:55p flight. Of course when we got to the airport we had plenty of time to kill before we flew out. So we went to the airport bar and had a few drinks to pass the time and to calm our nerves. Our flight to Boston sucked due to the fact that the plane was extremely cramped, which made it very uncomfortable. Luckily it was only a 2 hour flight. When we got to Boston we asked where we were to go to catch our next flight that was in 2 hours. We could not understand the man that gave us directions so we took the long way to get our destination. Matt and I made a pact that we would not snap on each other while traveling so we just laughed about our detour and finally found our destination. Our flight to Paris was nice. The flight was not full so Matt and I got a row of three seats to ourselves, which was nice since it was an overnight flight it made sleeping a lot easier. We had a 10 hour layover in Paris but we were not able to leave the airport. The airport is on the outer edge of Paris and thus not close to any tourist attractions. We wish we would have gotten a hotel room at one the airport hotels so that we could have taken a shower and gotten some sleep but we didn't think about it until it was too late. So we ended up people watching and exploring Charles DeGalle airport instead. Nothing too exciting happened while we were at the airport though. I had wished something funny or exciting would have happened though, atleast I would have had something to blog about. Our flight to Ethiopia was an overnight flight also but not as comfortable as our flight to Paris. We had a man and a young boy sitting behind us and the both of them kept putting their knees into our backs making very difficult to sleep or to be comfortable at all really. But in all our flights went well and were really uneventful. We arrived in Ethiopia at 7am on Friday morning. We were so happy to finally be there.

We are home!

Well we have been home for a little over a week, but this is the first chance for me to be able to post anything. Our trip was wonderful yet terrifying and saddening at the same time. We met some great people, but the best ones of all were the twins. Unfortunately I do not have video of our meeting but another family did get it on her camera so I'm sure when she gets a chance she will send it to me and I will post it. I will try and post pictures soon too. It has been quite hectic around here with two kids and all. Matt and I were sick for the first week back also that did not help matters any. Well I now have two extremely cute kids wanting to play so I will have to post more about our trip later. But just so everyone knows we are doing great and loving being parents.