Adoption Update

Since Darrick left for Deployment, our second adoption has been on hold.  UJIMA, our adoption agency, asked us to contact them when Darrick is about a month from coming home.  So I am happy to report that today I made the call. I am happy for 2 reasons: one, because that means we are close to Darrick coming home and two, because we are getting the ball rolling again for our second adoption!

Today I found out that since we bought a home and moved our first step is to update our homestudy.  Our Social Worker needs to come out and see the new house and file the papers for approval again.  Once we are approved then we can be matched with a child.

This process is a lot different from our African adoption experience.  Today I gave the agency what we think would be the right fit for our family: a girl, 2-4 years old, any race excluding white and legally free.  Legally free means that the birth parents rights have been terminated and the child is able to be adopted.

Everyday our agency receives lots of emails looking for families or foster families all over WA state.  The agency then watches for a child to come up that fits our requests and they think would be a good match.  Then the childs social worker will be contacted and then if they think it will be a good fit we will make a time to met the child.

Darrick and I decided today that we are both going to start praying each day for the little girl God has planned for our family.  Will you join us?

CALIFORNIA

Right now we are in California!  We arrived here on Wednesday and will be here for a couple of weeks.  It is so nice not to be alone and to have help. 

We spent the first few days relaxing and the kids have been swimming in the pool my dad set up.  On Saturday the boys and I had a special day out at Universal Studios and today I took Naomi out to lunch and to Build a Bear.  Today it was really hot and I even got in the pool!

Goodbye Frogs

About a year ago we caught some frogs and they became the boys pets.  We loved watching them grow and the boys enjoyed watching them eat mealworms.  But since we were getting ready to go on vacation and they have been losing interest in taking care of them.

So we brought them back to where we found them.  One by one we said goodbye and them go.  We stayed and watched each one until we couldn't see them anymore.  They seemed to really enjoy being back in the wild which made the boys feel happy.

End of Swimming Lessons

 The kids two weeks of swimming lessons went by so fast.  They learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  One of last things the boys got to do was to go off of the high dive.  After a pep talk and instructions from Luke they each took a turn!  Good job boys!

 Naomi also loved her lessons and mastered blowing bubbles and floating!

Merchants Baseball Game

Our church sponsered a night out at the Merchants Baseball game.  Not too many people came but we still had a great time.  The field is just about 5 minutes from our new house.

 The kids favorite part was catching foul balls.  If they were able to get a foul ball they could turn it in at the concession stand for $.50.  This kept them very busy.  Micah got one and Jacob got two.  Jacob was so sweet and gave one to Naomi so she could turn it in!

Field Day

To celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer Port Gardner has Field Day

The theme was Circus.  We got our faces painted.  There were rootbeer floats and popcorn.

Pizza and a dessert potluck

All kinds of games like Pin the nose on the Clown with prizes

Circus Masks and crafts to make

It was a blast and everyone said it was the best Field Day ever.  Oh and this year I was in charge if it!

End of the Year Open House

At the end of each semester the school holds an open house where we can display what we have been doing at home and we can see what they have been doing in their classes.

One project Micah worked very hard on was doing a research report.  He did his on King Tut.  When he completed the report he built a LEGO set from Pharoah's Quest and set it up like a scence from Tut's time.

Jacob did a lot of learning and experiments with plants and he chose to display the leaf rubbings showing vein patterns that we collected from trees around our house.

Micah also did a WA state report.  He had an awesome time learning all about the state and at the end we took a field trip to the WA state History Museum.

One of Jacob's best friends did an awesome project with his Grandpa which was welding together a skeleton as he studied the human body.  It's name was Bones.

The boys took a super fun class this semester called "Cooking the Continents".  Each week they would cook a dish from a different continent and then read a children's book that talked about the dish they just made.  At the end of the class they each got a cool cookbook with all the recipes they made in it.

These are all projects from their Spanish Class.

A fun day at Port Gardner



During this school year our school had a name change.  We went from Home School Alternative HSA  to Port Gardner.

I decided to bring my camera one day and capture some of the fun and learning.  In Jacob's class they were trying different ways of bending a tube and seeing if a marble could travel through it.

In Micah's Science class they were given task cards and then they had to build a car that was able to do the things the task card said.

For the second half of their class they had a special guest "Yo-Yo Man".  He did all kinds of cool tricks having to do with motion and balance and things they have been studying.  When he asked for a helper from the audience, Micah was picked!

The first thing Micah did was to learn the special bow to do after his trick.

He then told us that Micah has going to learn such amazing tricks that the whole crowd would be chanting "Micah, Micah!"

Micah's first trick: he held the string while Yo-Yo Man placed the yo-yo in his own palm and then said "Sit" then "Stay".  He taught Micah a few more similar tricks and before he knew it the crowd was chanting his name!

One thing we love the most about our school is that it is very family friendly and kids of all ages interact with each other.  Sometimes Naomi even gets to participate in class.  In art class this day all the kids were drawing cupcakes so I drew one for her.  Then the teacher gave her a chance to show her coloring just like all the other students.

The same day one of Naomi's friends, a fellow sibling, showed up wearing a very similar dress.  They thought they were so cute!

Cadet Rocket Launch

At the end of this year of Cadets, they had a BBQ and rocket launch.  They built the rockets themselves so they were very excited to launch them.  There was only one problem...it was raining.

Micah was excited to launch his but as they were loading it onto the pole the connector broke off.  So they made a plan B and set it up on the ground.  No one was quite sure which direction it would go so everyone  stood at a safe distance.  It went straight when it launched which made Micah happy. 

By the time it was Jacob's turn the rain was really coming down but he still wanted to do it.  It went  really high.

No one was really happy to cook our hot dogs in the rain but Naomi enjoyed her smore!