We get to keep him!

During this journey, it has always been exciting when the Fedex man rings your doorbell. And that happened yesterday. I wasn't expecting it at all, but what was delivered was BIG!!! We received our consent to adoption form from our agency. This means they approve of the placement and we are cleared to go to court to finalize the adoption. I got the last few papers ready for our attorney, dropped them off this morning, and she immediately went to the courthouse to petition a court date for us. You have to petition 30 days in advance and since we are flying home for Christmas we needed to make sure this happened today. And it did! We have a court date. On December 19th, we will officially adopt Neylan, he will legally have his new name, he will automatically become an American citizen, and he will be able to get a new birth certificate. Big steps!!!

The other exciting news of the day is that I finished Neylan's photo book and got it ordered. His little foster sister was issued her visa today, which means that her family should receive their travel call on Monday. So, in order to ensure that they got the book to hand-deliver, I just had it printed in their town and the mom is going to go pick it up and pack it. So, unfortunately, I won't get to see how it turned out unless I order one for myself. The book is simple, but I think his foster mom will really like it and appreciate it.

We're learning- slowly

This week, my goal is to have a few structured "learning" activities for the boys to do. We had gotten these two little pumpkins a few weeks ago and now, I finally have to time to do something with them. We started by just feeling the pumpkins and talking about their texture.

Then we wiped them off

We took the lids off and let them have a spoon

Then this OT mama took the spoons away! Neylan jumped right in with his hands and started pulling seeds out.

Grayson was much more hesitant and needed a lot of convincing that this was fun. Had no idea he had such texture issues. We will definitely have to continue some messy play activities!

Mr. Touchy-Feely was all about playing in the seeds

Then we rinsed the seeds in a bowl of water

and got them ready to roast.

We ended up with a pan of roasted pumpkin seeds and 2 roasted pumpkins for pureeing

We have been home now for 5 months and are slowly learning what Neylan likes and dislikes. This was a fun activity with him. He has no hesitation touching different textures. We have even had people comment on how much he likes to touch things. He's a tactile sensory seeker for sure. So, what will we learn next?

Another cool story for you

After a very long week and a long day yesterday, I finally got home and settled with a chance to check my email. In my mailbox was a facebook notification and an email from a stranger. I opened the facebook message to see who it was and how they found me and then read the email. It was another adoptive mommy with a cool connection. Wanna know?! She is the mommy of the little girl who Neylan was living with when we picked him up. She had posted a picture of her daughter and her foster mom on facebook and another adoptive mommy that I am friends with on FB recognized her and made the connection that we had the same FM! She emailed her to tell her to get in contact with me. This family is expecting to get their travel call at the end of the month to go pick their little girl up. When we picked Neylan up in June, his foster mom told us that she also had a little girl in her home who was a few months younger than him. We never got to see her though. Well, now I know who she is and where she is going. She is going to a city in GA not too far from where we already have family!

So, when I saw that they are expecting to travel soon, I emailed her back to ask if she would be willing to take something to their foster mom for us. I had begun working on a digital photo book for her in September and had planned on sending it with a family from our area who was traveling. Unfortunately, I never finished it before the family left. Now, I know the reason why! It was meant to travel with this other family who can personally hand it to our foster mom, not just to the office staff. How cool is that!!!!!! So, I best get to working on it so I can make sure they have it before they leave in a few weeks.

I am quickly learning how wonderful the adoption community is and how many friends with different connections can be made. It's been wonderful to get to know so many people we never would have had we not gone through this process. It's such a blessing to be on this journey with so many other families who share the same passion.

My new Christmas ornament

Someone posted on our adoption forum that Hallmark was coming out with this ornament this year. So I waited patiently for months for it to be in stores. And, I got to buy it this week. It's a little hard to read, but the door says "forever family" and the heart says "held together with love". So true. What a perfect ornament for anyone whose little one became part of a forever family this year.

October Friend for Adoption

Julie and I have completed our first month as "Friends for Adoption". We have been talking through email this month and have exchanged our first gift. I sent her this cute fall mug and made her some spiced friendship tea.

And she sent me a Starbucks gift card.

How funny that we both got each other "drink" gifts this month. But perfect gifts as the weather gets colder.

If you are in the process of adopting or have already come home and would like to have a "friend for adoption" check out the button on the right side for more info.

November is National Adoption Month!

This video is one that a mom on our forum put together to celebrate the many children who have come home to their forever families. Many of the families are ones that we have gotten to know and share in their journey. We have waited with and watched many of these families travel within the last year and they have celebrated and supported us in our journey too. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to get on the forum anymore, so I missed the memo about getting a picture in for the video. I'm bummed we missed out on it, but will try to remember to do it next year.

Do you have room in your heart for one of these?