Bad Blogger and Happy Adoption Day Girls

I have been  terrible blogger. We have been super busy this summer with finishing up paperwork for Taite, going on vacation for 2 weeks, and just getting stuff done around the house. To catch up I will just go topic by topic on what I need to catch up on.

Taite- We are all done with our homestudy and on Wednesday we are going to go do our fingerprints down at USCIS. Hopefully a few weeks later we will have our approval, send our dossier the embassy for authentification, and then off to China it goes. Our deadline to get our dossier into China is October 12th so I feel that we should be able to make that deadline for sure with how fast USCIS approvals are taking.

Vacation- Well we started off at Massanutten resort in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. This resort has become one of our favorite spots because they have so much for the kids to do. The kids had a blast and I was pleased that the big kids even enjoyed touring Monticello. They got a lot out of that tour and learned a lot about Thomas Jefferson that they never knew. We also spent a lot of time at the pool, watching the wildlife, doing go-karts, and hitting up the waterpark. Although we had a great time the end of our stay in Virginia was not very good. On Thursday night my mom fell down the stairs and broke her ankle. You could say that put a damper on the trip. She was supposed to go with me to NY after VA so I had to go with the kids alone and my dad and Keith all headed back to GAwith my mom. She is doing fine know but you know that has to ruin your trip. From VA I was brave an took the kids to my friends house in NJ and also was able to visit NY. We had an awesome time. The kids loved seeing our friends and their kids and were totally enthralled by visiting Manhattan. We also visited the beaches in NJ so it was an all around do all trip.

 Our family at Monticello

 Learning to write with quill pens

 Delylah working on her tan

 Mommy and Lennah on the go-karts

 Logan on the bungy jump

 Waterpark fun with Lennah and Delylah

 Zach working the ropes

 Arcade fun with Heather

 My best friend and Jaime and her daughter Victoria

 Pile up at the Jersey Shore

 Enjoying Ralph's Ices

 About to hit up the Staten Island Ferry

 Logan and Heather in the subway

 Zach and Heather on the Ferry

Burying Logan in the sand

Adoption/ Gotcha Day celebrations- Saturday was Lennah's Gotch Day. It is hard to believe that 5 years ago we were in Vietnam becoming parents for the first time and here we are only 5 years later with 5 kids and about to be 6. She is such an amazing little girl and I have to thank God every day for allowing us to be her parents. She is still the wild, fiesty, smart  little girl we met 5 years ago. Lennah is such a joy and we just love watching her grow. Today was also both Lennah and Delylah's adoption days. Even though Saturday is Lennah's gotcha day her adoption did not formally take place until July 23rd. Delylah's adoption day actually took place before we even met her and were notified via phone that the courts in Ethiopia granted her adoption and we were offically her parents. So we were doublely blessed on July 23rd. We had some cupcakes for the girls and got them a little gift each to celebrate their special day. I can't even imagine our lives without these amazing, beautiful, smart little girls who we love more than anything else. We are one blessed family.

Pre-K Graduation

Lennah's Pre-K graduation was this past Saturday. It is so crazy to think that this little girl was brought into our lives just a few short years ago. Time is going so fast.
Her graduation was so cute.The kids did several songs for all their families and they even put on a little play of the Three Little Pigs. I think we also have a tiger dad on our hands because Lennah's part was holding up a painted tree and Keith asked me later on that night why Lennah didn't have a speaking part. For some reason Lennah's Pre-K teacher says Lennah is shy and doesn't talk much in class (I find this hard to believe since Lennah is our wild child) so I think maybe she was just too quiet in class for a speaking role.
Our big girl will be going to Kindergarten in just a few short months. I wish I could keep her little forever but she is growing up before our eyes. I hate to say but my parents were right when they said when you have kids that it goes super fast. We love Lennah so much and are so proud of her. I am so thankful that we get to take part on her journey through life.

 Lennah's Big Screen Debut in the Three Little Pigs

 Lennah and her friend Jamillah

Jamillah, Lennah, and Mallorie

Mother's Day and Lennah's Gymnastics Show

Sunday was Mother's Day. I don't get too caught up in any holidays but Christmas but of course it is a lovely day to be appreciated. My hubby got me some beautiful cards and I told him not get any presents because of our next adoptionand I got my mom a gift for her and I, but of course he did not listen. He got me a beautiful jewelry box from the kids. He is so awesome and always thinks of me. Anyway to get to my mom's gift we are going to get massages in three more weeks together and then are heading to a restaurant in Atlanta that we have talked about going to for years.  To end my day Zach came to me before his bedtime and handed me his card that he had personally made. The schools always have the little ones make stuff; Lennah made me a bath crystals jar and Delyah had made me a fan at school but this from Zach was truly a special gift. Zach had made a card that told me how much he loved me, how I made him giggle, what a great mom I was (I don't know about that because sometimes I feel like I make too many mistakes), etc. It was so touching because he has been with us just under a year and for him to be so emotional and lay his feelings out there was amazing. It is a gift that I will always treasure.

Last night was a busy night since Lennah had her year end gymnastics show. She did so awesome and it was wonderful to see how much she has learned from this class within the past year. I am so proud of her and all my kids for trying there best at whatever they are doing.

Zach's Mother's Day Card



Officially Paulsen

Officially a family forever

Yesterday was a big day in our home; Heather, Logan, & Zach became official. Wow adoption is such a rollercoaster ride that I never thought would end. The kids have been with us for almost a year but unlike international adoption you do not get to officially adopt the children until they have been with you for a while. Our meeting with the judge was fairly quick since our lawyer had everything ready to go but we can officially say they are ours forever now. Our wonderful social worker also joined us for the celebration and so did my dad.
I know the kids were super happy and we are super happy that we get to share our lives with these children and will hopefully led them down a path that will make them successful adults. We don't want anyone to take our use of the term succesful as meaning in terms of money but what we want for our kids is for them to become caring, responsible, and understanding people who try their best to make the world a better place. We are excited that we get to lead these children on their journey through life. God has blessed us so much and hopefully we will take care of his children to the best of our ability.

Dancing Delylah

Saturday our little girl had a beautiful recitial. Delylah has been in dance for this whole year and she has done so awesome. She definitely has a little talent. We try to ensure that all the kids get a chance to do activities so this way they can build confidence and build their social skills but of course it also gives Mommy and Daddy the chance to have bragging rights about our great kids.

Delylah was so brave and just got up on stage and danced her little dance. I hope that she loved dancing as much as we loved watching her. Our little girl is growing up too fast. Next year my baby is going to Pre-K and I am having a hard time swallowing how fast she has grown up. Where has my baby gone?

Working our way

Well we are still working our way to completing our dossier for this adoption. It seems that our homestudy is slow to go with these child abuse checks and just getting our last visit in which isn't for another 2 weeks away. Hopefully our homestudy will be in our hands shortly after that so we can apply for our I-800a. Once we have that approval we can get our dossier in. Those are the last two pieces of the puzzle for now that we are waiting on.
Over the weekend I was lucky enough to get a quick update on our baby girl and a photo. I hate that it will take months to get her here. I guess I have to look at the positives since I will have time to work on Heather's room being moved into my office and getting Heather's room ready for Taite to move into.

Other than the adoption we are all eagerly awaiting the end of the school year. We also have a busy few weeks ahead since Delylah's recital is coming up this weekend and in two more weeks we have Lennah's PreK graduation. It is all going too fast. I also got transferred to another school closer to home for next year so that will put me at having more time with the kids at night since I can shave some time off my commute. I think Heather and Logan are also excited to be heading to a brand new school with me too.

Update on Taite

a not very happy Taite

Over the weekend we were pretty fortunate enough to receive the last several updates on Taite from New Day Foster home. Well when I opened them up they were all in Chinese. Thank goodness for such wonderful people we have met on the advocate for waiting children in China yahoo group because I put a post up and low and behold we had several people offering to translate for us. Two people came through and translated our updates that we received on Taite that dated back to last June when she was only 6 months old.

We learned a lot about our baby girl. One thing is that she is still a bit quiet. I am sure she will get over this soon since she'll be in a loud family. Overall she does like to play and especially likes puzzles. She also was referred to as the most beautiful baby in the orphanage in her March 2012 update (of course we also think so). Taite loves to be read to. As the caregiver read to her she was trying to mimic and read along. I think this is amazing. I am an avid reader and have always read to the girls at night before they went to bed so this is great that someone is already doing this for her. We are also happy to see that when she started crawling she was using her right arm. See Taite has a right arm that is considered paralyzed so this was awesome to see that she is using her arm. We are just so much in love with our little girl and cannot wait to get her home.

Ohio

Hi have been so preoccupied with baby Taite that I am behind on a typical post from taking a trip. Two weeks ago for spring break I packed up the kids and took them to Ohio. Yes! I am a brave one to take five kids alone. Keith had work and with family vacations and the impending adoption we thought it would be best if I go solo to Ohio. There were two reasons for the trip' one being taking the big kids to see their grandma and for the little ones and myself to visit with our friends Jamie, Chloe, Wesleigh, Lilly, Abel, and Frank.

I have to say that amazingly all 5 kids were pretty well behaved in the car. That was monumental because you would expect that 5 kids would totally drive me crazy trapped in a car for several hours. We dropped off Heather, Logan, and Zach for a few day visit with their grandma and they were able to visit their foster mom and their aunt while visiting. The little ones and myself headed up to Cleveland.

We had an awesome time visiting with the Sereikas. They are such wonderful people and we love spending time with them. Too bad we live so far apart and we only get to get together every once in a while. We had a great visit to the natural history museum, science museum, and a totally awesome market while we visited our friends. We also went to a great Ethiopian restaurant whiel there. I was shocked because Delylah typically has not enjoyed Ethiopian food and she chowed down that night.

The kids also had a lot of fun and it was wonderful seeing them together with their friends. It is amazing that Lennah and Lilly were once in an orphanage in Vietnam together and Abel and Delylah were once together thousands of miles away at an orphanage in Ethiopia. Abel was so amazing he even remembered when I came to the orphanage to get Delylah and he was playing in the car I was brought to the orphanage in. I am so thankful for the friendship and bond that has forged between our two families and I love that our kids can grow up and maintain these special bonds.

We officially have PA

First photos we have of Taite

Taite Annabelle

Our most recent photos of Taite

Taite
Lennah

After 2 and a half weeks of torture or so it seemed we officially have Pre-approval for our baby girl. We had a little hiccup with our agency last week but they got it in gear and got our approval. This means we have exactly 6 months to get our dossier to China. We have already started our homestudy and that will take several weeks to finish, them file for our I-800a, and then off to our agency our dossier will be. Yeahhhhh! On that note we are proud to introduce our daughter Taite Annabelle born on December 16, 2010 in Hohhot City, China. We are thrilled and I will have to do the comparison shots of her and Lennah but we find their younger pictures to have a lot of similarities. Here is our girl.