The Artistic Phase

Both Jackie & Hunter are into drawing & writing. Jackie draws flowers, hearts & family until her heart's content. Hunter prefers good guys v. bad guys. These are Jackie's drawings: I have my green hoodie on & Daddy has just shorts on. Apparently, Daddy is a black man.

Daddy & Mommy, as if I need to explain.


While this looks like Mutant Girl riding on Devil Dog's back, it's actually Daddy riding the horse Jackie wants to keep in our back yard.

Tears of Joy and Sorrow

“Jackie, I’m packing your clothes to go to Asheville. What do you want to take.”

“You can pack my clothes, but I’m not going with them.”

Vacation of sorts

Since I had the shittiest of weeks and Dave has been to 3 states in as many days, we thought it would be a good idea to spend a few days together in Charlotte, as a family. Let me be clear, my favorite part of the weekend was the ride there, with all four of us in the car, kids asleep, traveling in the darkest of the night. It was deafeningly silent and peaceful. Dave and I had a full conversation, w/o interrupted thoughts. And I remember why I married the guy. It was 2:30am in the morning, but still.

Of course, Dave had to work the first day. So the kids and I spent the morning at Discovery World, and the afternoon at the pool. Since we’re preparing for the return of Noah’s Ark, we ran out of things to do, but the kids didn’t run out of steam. So they ran the hallways on every floor, all 15 of them. Cameron was wheezing by the end and Jacqueline was coughing up a lung. But they slept well! Tomorrow, Dave, DEANE & the kids head off to Asheville for a few days. I’m staying behind. It will be a dream come true!

Discovery Place is like Marbles, but has older kid activities as well. This was a self-activated chair that rises when you push the buttons on the handles. BOTH kids loved this thing.

Special Olympics Subgroup: The Asthmatics

Watching an asthmatic blow bubbles is very entertaining. Almost as entertaining as watching them blow out their own birthday candles. But then I watch their spit blanket the cake & it’s not so funny. Who am I kidding- a little spit won't ruin the lard-infested buttery goodness!

I let her win at CandyLand...and no one gets hurt.

When we were kids, my sister & I loved to play the game ‘Operation’. Maybe that’s what began our delusion of becoming doctors. It certainly fueled my love of tweezers. Anyway, we recently started playing ‘Operation’ with the kids. Like most, Jackie jumps 6 inches off the ground when she gets the buzzer. Cameron purposefully holds the tweezers to the metal to get the obnoxious buzzing sound. And he only lets up when Jackie or I can’t take it anymore. Then he waits patiently until we’re preoccupied with winning CandyLand. He peeks out of the corner of his eyes, then hits the tweezers to the metal, with a grin from ear to ear. And in just 5 short days we’ve already replaced the batteries.

This picture was from my blackberry. Cameron wanted to 'be' Jackie by sitting in her seat and wearing her glasses.

At Mia's all girl b-day party.

And the winner is...

It’s been so rainy lately that everyone is stir-crazy. But today was 70 and sunny, which meant it was Tractor Racing Time. Chad & Dan rolled out their John Deeres and Hunter & Tanner pulled up in their Jeeps for a race around the circle. The moms all drank wine, admiring the Redneck Races and gripping fiercely onto to the little ones so they wouldn't chace after the tractors.

There appeared to be some lane violations & jostling by the big boys. Even some grass clippings were tossed around in an attempt to slow down the other drivers.

Anna's team was the obvious winner and who I'm going to hire to cut my lawn. This is the Car With No Fear. These boys will give us some gray hair.

Isn't this a sweet picture? Amanda took all the photos on her new camera! Thanks Amanda for sharing!

HR sucks donkeyballs

I hesitate to write another blog entry b/c I want to leave Sooryeo's picture at the top of my browser. I can stare at her all day long...

In other news, I called HR today to iron out the maternity details. According to the FMLA, if I gave birth to my child, I would have 6 wks PAID. But b/c she didn't come from my body, it's UNPAID. After much discussion with friends, colleagues, & HR once again how that can't be, it turns out that it is. It's an NC state law for companies to pay the 6 wks FMLA, but b/c Smiths is based in the UK, they don't have to pay. I guess it's the first of many prejudices we will experience as a family w/ an internationally adopted child. It's still all bullshit and HR sucks donkeyballs.


Happy St. Patty's Birthday to Uncle Aaron (yesterday)

Chapter 12: Good photos

In his spare time, Dave spent a few hours scanning in the original photos from the referral. Isn't she amazing?!

Grandparent-pa-looza

Another day of rain...another day at the museum. The ‘spit pit’ was a favorite, but likely the cause of the kids’ cold. Grandma Holly and JBird built a Lego house fit for a princess while Grandad and Cameron played goal tender at the race track.

Enjoying a rare minute sitting down, Grandma Holly watched the HSM video while Jackie recited every word, line by line.

Chapter 11: Thumbs up

Dr. Joe reviewed the medical records today for Sooryeo and gave us 2 thumbs up! Let the paperwork party begin!

Jekyl & Hyde

'Gramdad' & Grandma Holly are here! The excitement is palpable. Jacqueline & Cameron waited at the top of the stairs this morning peeking under their door. The light was on, so they began the stakeout. The kids were so sweet...

...BUT yesterday, Jackie asked me if I loved her more than Cameron. So I gave her the speech: “No way! I love you both equally...bla bla bla.” Jackie thought about what I said. Then she responded “I love you more than Daddy. But I love Dee the most.” So I retold the conversation to Dave. He asked Jackie if she loved him the least. Her response: “No Daddy! I love CAMERON the least. THEN you.”

For the last few days JBird has been PUMPED that Grandad & Grandma Holly are coming to see her school. Grandad enjoyed painting at the easel almost as much as Jackie did.

Check out the grins on both their face. CMan making snakes with Grandma Holly.
Cameron & Grandma Holly admired the real snakes at the NC Museum of Life & Sciences.

Good times.

Chapter 10: Meet Sooryeo

This is Sooryeo Hong! She was born Aug 30, 2008 in Gyenggi-do, South Korea. Weighing a pint-size 6 lb, 7 oz. ‘Soo’ means prominent and ‘Ryeo’ means pretty. We’re fairly certain it’s pronounced ‘SORE-ee-oh’, like ‘Oreo’. Sooryeo has been living with her foster parents since birth. My mom & I will travel to Seoul to bring Sooryeo home in about 4 months. This is just the beginning!

Chapter 9: REFERRAL!!!

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL TODAY!!!! It's a GIRL, born Aug 30, 2008. That's all we know. We'll meet with our social worker Thursday morning to learn everything about her!

Almost Disney

Since Deane is away, we went to Nanny’s. In Burlington, they have this really cool ‘amusement’ park that the kids loved almost as much as Julie & I loved watching the people there. (I’m not even going to pretend I didn’t judge.) The pictures are from my blackberry.

From snow to 60 in 3 days

When it snows, my kids eat snow b/c that’s the most obvious thing to do with it. I, on the other hand, enjoy looking at the crisp white snow on the tree branches from the warmth of my kitchen. After all, we moved south to get AWAY from the cold and snow. We are Southern now, y’all! And we are hoping to make a few more grandparents North Carolinians too. Hint, hint.

Snow slushies. Bird reminded me NOT to get the yellow snow.

My favorite view.

The Case of the Missing Snowman

After our torrential snow storm on Monday, we* built a terrific snowman (well, snowlady really). And she is now missing. No melted snow in her place. No hand-knit pink scarf, no wooden spoon arms. Just plain gone. If you have any information pertaining to the kidnapped snowlady, please email. Reward** offered.

*we = Cameron, Jackie, Sebastian, Thomas & me

**reward= homemade sugar cookies

Medusa

Hello Beautiful! This is what Jackie looks like after 3 days of barfing, no bath and no hair brushing. Apparently it was norovirus on top of strep throat. My little bird was really sick! She’s fine now and stitches are out too. She’ll even let you feel them. Brushing out her dreadlocks was another story.

Here’s a rare picture of our budding reader w/Daddy-O. Rare b/c I do all the reading at bedtime due to Dave’s inability to stay awake for books longer than 6 pages. I’m guessing that by the time Jackie is 7, she’ll be reading novels to Daddy and putting him to sleep! BTW, the jammies have been washed in the past 72 hrs.

Chapter 8: Bummer

We got official word today from Barker that referrals are taking at least 8 months for girls. That's 2 months longer than when we were originally told. So, at the EARLIEST, we would get a referral in July and baby home in early fall.

Field Trip

On Thursday, Jackie’s class went to the NC Museum of Life & Sciences. (This is the field trip I had been planning since early January.) They had a bird program with a red tailed hawk and a silky chicken. And the kids disected an owl pellet- which is a turd of regurgitated food that has been steralized. The kids open it up to reveal a skeleton & hair of some sort that they try to identify. They also had an observation journal, which was basically a treasure hunt. The kids had a great time, no one was injured and we didn't lose anyone. Good times. This is Kate, one of Jackie's teachers. She is the BOMB!

JBird disecting an owl pellet. Hers included a mouse skeleton. Just what we need, more mice!

Chicken Little was trained to stay on newspaper.

Misha, the red tailed hawk, was the class favorite.

Watching the birds. L-r is Tucker, Lana, Jade, Liam. Leslie, the one in the striped shirt, is JBird's other teacher. She also rocks.