It's so hard waiting!

Our first homestudy is Saturday (the first of 4) and I am so nervous and excited!  I think the hardest thing about adoption is the wait.  I just want to know if sweet Manasa will get to be ours.  I know that if we get her, it will be even harder to wait for her, but at least I can start sending her photos and little goodies.  Conner has decided we need to adopt a boy, a girl, and a baby.  This is down from 3 boys and 2 girls (not including himself and Madi, which would put us up to 7 kids!), so I'll take it :).  He is pretty suck on a boy, a girl, and a baby.  I don't think he realizes the baby would be a baby, but ALSO a boy or girl, he he.  He does make a good point, though.  If we adopt a boy, a girl, and a baby, they can play in our grass.  I guess that's what it boils down to, right?  Adopting children so they can play in your grass?  Gotta love that little guy, he is quite the little thinker! 

Please keep us in your prayers this week :).

Enjoying our grass

We have really been enjoying our grass.  We had a slight mishap with over watering it, and therefore watering our dirt and street too, but short of that, we've been spending a lot of time runnning and playing in it.  Today we decided to have a picnic outside.  The weather is getting warm but it is still enjoyable.  We do not have a playset yet, but are working on that.  We are still waiting for the handicap accessible matting the grass grows through to be delivered as well.  All in due time :). 

In other news, I'm glad to say Madi's poo is back to normal.  When you have a kiddo with spina bifida, you worry a lot about poo and if they are getting constipated or not.  Lots of kiddos with spina bifida do not feel the pressure when they have to go.  Others feel the pressure but cannot push well enough to get cleared out on there own.  Lots of kiddos go on bowel management programs.  We do not do a bowel management program yet, so I have to watch her closely.  We were out of town for the weekend visiting family and ate more processed foods than normal.  Then Madi's papa fed her cheese noodles.  We all went gluten, dairy, wheat, and peanut free a while back, so Madi hasn't had food like that for a while.  It lead to lots of tummy aches and constipation, which is just no fun.  After lots of beans and a morning with little sleep and lots of nursing, I am happy to say all is flowing well again in the Veprek household.  Today Conner was dancing around showing Madi how to push by making silly faces, and Madi was laughing hysterically (which helps her push).  I was wondering to myself, "do other famillies do this too?"  Probably not, but that's ok. 

Too cute not to share

Tonight we were on a walk before bed.  When we were almost home, our neighbor boy was in his car, with his music up loud enough for all to hear, shouting the 'f' word and screaming with his friends.  Gotta love it (insert sarcasm here).  Anyhow, Conner asked what the noise was.  David told him it was teenagers.  Conner asked...

"Daddy, do teenagers only come out at night?"

Ha!  Yup, kiddo, you pretty much got that right :)

Woooo Hooooo!

Pictures to come later but WE HAVE GRASS and it is beautiful!!  We can't run on it quite yet (though we let Conner have a little run anyway), but it looks awesome!  Today I ordered this http://www.boddingtons.us/ground-reinforcement/turf-reinforcement-mesh.htm to help make the entire area wheel chair and HKFO accessible and to protect the roots of the grass.  This way, the entire surface is usable to Madi, but it's also affordable.  We were looking at a rubberized surface and they are just way too expensive (we're talking over $20,000 just under the playground area alone!!).  The mesh cost about $1,500 including shipping and the metal pins needed to install it, which may seem like a lot, but when you compare it to other options, it is very, very cheap.  It feels so awesome to finally see it all coming to fruition.  Now to find a playground :).



Just realized I took a picture on my phone to send to David when he was at work, so I do have a picture, though it's a crummy one.  You can't see all of the grass, but I'll post more pictures in a bit that show the part around the corner that you cannot see in this one...

Let there be SOD!

I went out to do dishes and heard the truck pull up that was delivering our sod!  It was 10:00 at night and I was in my pajamas, so I stayed in until the truck left.  After it left, though, I ran out back like a kid in a candy store!  WOOO HOOO!  Tomorrow my dad and his crew come to lay it on the ground.  I couldn't be more excited!  I've been wanting a slip-and-slide, for the kids, of course, for so long.  This is going to be an awesome summer!  Off to order our matting for on top of the grass.....


Oh, and another funny, really quick.  Two days ago, I was outside with the kids working on organizing garage sale goodies.  Conner asked to go inside to go potty, and since David was working from home, I told him sure.  I was just about to go check on him when he came back carrying a bag of bagels (homemade gluten and dairy free) that he took out of the freezer and heated IN the bag all by himself.  I guess he pushed the learning tower over to the microwave.  He told me he just pushed one minute so they would not get too hot.  He was also carrying a kid's knife (like a little kid's butter knife that they use when they help me cook) and David's peanutbutter (Conner eats homemade cashew butter).  He told me he made us lunch.  HA!  My little man is growing up!  I couldn't believe he did all that by himself, and was also a little blown away that he could.  It's a great example of why I do not leave my kids alone for any amount of time :).

Loving Our Amtryke, a Few Funnies, and a Few Updates

The weather has been beautiful outside so we have been spending as much time as we can enjoying it.  Madilynn has been really loving her Amtryke and, in fact, loves it so much sometimes she refuses to get out of it to eat, so I have to set up a make-shift table on the chair.  If I have to put away laundry, I pop her in and push her around with me.  Because her feet cycle when I push her or she uses the hand petals, it is amazing for her circulation.  I had to take a picture because it's just too cute!  In this picture I had tried to take her out and had already taken off her shoes and unstrapped her, but I put her back in when she started breaking down, which is why her feet are undone.  Normally her feet are strapped in as well.

And a few recent funnies from our house....

#1:

Me- Madi, how old are you?

Madi- (holds up 5 fingers and shouts) 3!

Me- Madi, you are not 3, you are 2.

Madi- No!  Madi 3!

Great, she's already trying to be older than she really is! 

#2- I was roasting a chicken on the rotisserie.  I already feel morbid enough while I do this and don't enjoy.  Then you add in Madi shouting, "Mmmmm, baby chicken!  YUM!  Baby chicken!  Cute chicken!" as I do it.  After I took it out to serve, I was cutting it in pieces and Conner kept pretending to make it talk saying "Ouch!  You are cutting me!  I don't like this!".  Thanks for the help, kiddos ;). 

Updates:

- We get our grass in TOMORROW!

- Our first homestudy is in two weeks!  I guess we need 4 because we are trying for International.

It's DONE!

Our initial adoption paperwork, doctor's visits, autobiographies, fingerprints, and everything else we needed to do to start the process is finished and officially in the mail!  I was hoping it would not take so long, but when you have to stay up at night, after picking up the house and doing dishes, to write your autobiography, it takes a while.  And when you have a husband that hides funny things for you to find in his autobiography, just to see if you are really reading it, it takes a while.  Yes, David, I know I was no good at clarinet in 6th grade.  Thank you. 

In other news, our garage is filling up with goodies to sell at our big sale in April.  We have been SO blessed and so many people have given to us.  It is absolutely amazing and touching.  There is so much stuff, I know we will end up doing multiple sales.  I might actually do one the week before and one the week after.  I plan to save everything that does not sell and do another garage sale (or two or three) when it cools down in the fall, then a few more before we get to bring our child home, whichever child that may be.  We are still pursuing Manasa, the one year old in India, but I know she may not be the child God has for us, so we are trying to be open.  It is really sweet to hear David pray for her, though, and it's impressive that it is without any prompting.  I know she is on his heart, as she is on all of ours.

And now for some amazing news......  Our homestudy will be $1,250 to Oasis.  Then, if (I'm afraid to say when, I'm not sure why.  I feel like I will jinx it which is silly since I don't believe in that sort of thing) we pass our homestudy, we will immediately need $890 for Immigration fees, as well as $6,000 for Oasis fees.  Well.... our tax refund was pretty much exactly what we needed for these fees!!!!  We will still need plenty more, as the fees are around $22,000 and there is travel on top of that, but WOW, that is an amazing start!  If anyone wants to look at the fees, they can be viewed here http://www.wacap.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=s0edZ%2fiEITc%3d&tabid=117 though they do not include fees to Oasis, fees for a private lawyer to finalize everything, fees for doctor's visits and other things you need to get cleared, travel, and a few other things.

Thank you for sharing our journey with us.  Hopefully I will have updates soon!

I know I'm pretty, even when I'm covered with sauce!

Mom! You didn't tell me you were going to show this picture to my girlfriends when I'm older!