Cullen LOVES Water

Cullen can not ride a bike or tricycle for that matter (much to my frustration). He just doesn't seem to have any interest in it. He doesn't have much interest in playing catch for very long and I have to hit him in the stomach with the ball to get him to actually catch it. But Cullen LOVES to swim and shockingly (shameless mother bragging here) I think he's pretty good. Picture this, Cullen is at swimming lessons and his little arms and legs are moving a million miles an hour with his cute little belly hanging over the front of his trunks. He swims to grab a ring off the bottom of the pool (it's not that deep) comes up and blows water out of his mouth all over and yells, "I a whale". All I could think to myself is, um, yeah ya are!

Tonight Cullen took a VERY long bath, while I tried to remove the lipstick he smeared into the carpet. (I got most of it up but there is still a bit of a reddish pink tint on the carpet.) I'm still wondering where the heck the lipstick came from. Anyways, in classic Cullen fashion he enjoyed his bath like it was a full service spa!

On our way back home from La Crosse I took my Grandpa by Wisconsin's largest tree- here are a few pictures of Bob and Cullen by the tree.

I said I would post some pictures of this weekend but I didn't really take many (my Grandpa Bob is the cute guy on the left and my Mom is the hot woman in the middle not looking at the camera).


You might notice that there is a birthday cake in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. How many birthdays can one kid have? Who doesn't LOVE a birthday month?

I'm slowly but surely getting ready for our trip to Africa, tonight I went out and bought some of the odds and ends that we will need to bring with us. I'm anxious to get a travel date- I just need to know when everything has to be done by. I feel like I've been running a really long race, I'm starting to get a bit exhausted (Does the paperwork ever end?) and every time I turn the corner I think the finish line will be there and it's not. Hopefully we will hear in the next two weeks when this portion of the race will end and a new journey begins!

Mama x 2

I realized today that I have not yet posted pictures of Geremu so here he is! These pictures were a part of his referral so they are already about 7 weeks old. We have not made a decision about his name yet, we are waiting until we meet him to decide if we will keep Geremu for his first name or change it to his middle name. I can not wait to meet him!

We talk with Cullen a lot about Geremu. He does seem to understand what is going on. Everyday when he wakes up he asks, "Mom and Dad go get Geremu today?" I know he understands that we are going to bring home his brother but I'm not sure he understands how long we will be gone for. He also has this idea that Geremu is going to bring all sorts of toys with him (I'm not sure why he thinks this). He'll say to me, "I share my toys with Geremu and Geremu share his toys with me". Ready or not... "Your toys are Geremu's toys."

Weekend Away

Cullen and me went to my parents house for the weekend and Nick went to Madison. I only had a half-day of school today so we got an early jump on travel. Grandpa Bob drove to our house this morning so he could make the trek with us. The weather in the state today was so different from city to city and the gas prices are only going up. I'll try to post some pictures of our day tomorrow. The Big Guy has a game at noon, it's suppose to snow in the morning- yikes!

Good Friends

I have two REALLY good friends at school. My sisters always thought we were the same age because of the way I talked about them. Last year we had a school picture taken of the 3 of us. Yep, somehow the picture people managed to squeeze all 3 of our big heads into one small school picture. That's how my sisters figured out that we aren't quite the same age. Michelle, is 10 years older then me and Amy is my fathers age. Despite the age difference we have a lot in common (I would like to note that they are WAY more immature then me). Throughout the adoption process they have helped us through so many of the difficult decisions and step along the way. Every mile stone that is passed we have celebrate together, below is a picture of the cookie they gave to me today (they are just so nice). I've been waiting to make it through court to eat chocolate and celebrate the day.

I think they may have gotten my hair color mixed up with Nicks:)

April 22, Our Lucky Day

We just might be the luckiest and happiest people alive! Today, on the day our first son turned 3 years old, we also legally became parents for a second time. We made it through court in Ethiopia today and Geremu is all ours! We couldn't be any happier. Next step, wait some more- but now there is an end in sight. We have to wait 1-3 weeks for a birth certificate, then we should get a travel date shortly after that.

Cullen had a wonderful birthday today, it was low key but fun. He brought cupcakes to the sitters today and shared those with his friends, I'm sure Cullen was LOVING all the attention. We came home and played outside before doing a small celebration with just the three of us.

Leaving the Hospital

1st Bithday 2nd Birthday3rd Birthday

3 Years Ago

Three years ago today I went to school just like any other day. I had to leave school in the afternoon for a doctors appointment, it was a Wednesday and I had another stress test to see how the baby was doing. I remember laying on the table while they were preforming the test. The nurses tried to wake the baby then have the baby move because they were not getting the results that they wanted. I didn't know going into the appointment that I wouldn't leave the hospital or have another meal until after the baby was born. It would be another 2 stressful days until Cullen was born.

Fast forward 3 years to a similar situation. Who would have ever thought on the same day 3 years later I would be completely stressed out again about another member joining the family? Two days until our court date, please pray for us!