Announcement

Queue music...Announcements announcements what a horrible way to die, what a horrible way to talk to death, what a horrible way to die, announcements announcements...

On a serious note about 5 years ago we started this blog to keep people informed about what was happening in our adoption of Aaron. Since then we have brought home two boys that have changed our lives forever. And this is a good thing. So we have decided to do it again.

We have decided to go to the Philippines for our 3rd adoption. When we began to look again we initially thought we would go where we could ask for a girl. The more we got into the more Perry and I felt we were to go to the Philippines. Why this matters is in the Philippines you can not declare gender. So we could be adding a boy or girl to this adventure or maybe even a sibling group. Our one request is to maintain birth order which we did not do last time.

Why announce this today. Well today we sent in our Dossier. For those who are unfamiliar with the process of international adoption. This is a large amount of paperwork that has to be done and then you begin a period of waiting. You are done with the part you can control and must learn to trust others to take it from here. With Aaron it was almost 2 years and with Andrew it was only a few months. With the Philippines it somewhere between 18 months and 3 years generally. So it may be a long wait but we feel this is right for us.

So what do the boys think. Andrew said we should have 5 more but doesn't want another Aaron. I take this to mean he wants a sister. Aaron likes the idea but wants to know how long. To help Aaron get an idea we use kindergarten. Aaron knows he has to 5 to go to kindergarten so we are telling him his brother or sister will probably come when he is ready to start school. Andrew wants to make sure the house is big enough. I think this might be due in part to Grandpa Barbee getting a new house. Andrew wanted to know if we have to get a new house to have a new brother or sister. We answered no but he now wants to know where Abuela is going to sleep. Our present spare bedroom is called Abuela's room because Abuela has sometimes slept there.

So we begin again. I don't expect this process to be fast. I must reset my mind because Andrew was so quickly. So I must learn once again to be patient and trust God's timing. So adoption updates will probably be infrequent but we just wanted to share our big day.

We begin our wait...

...Announcemeeeeeents.....

This and That

We have been working on finding a routine. I think that we are getting close to finding it in a new year. Aaron has started back to swimming and I am actually getting more of my house work done. Andrew is loving school. He is taking soup everyday and still likes his pink lunch box. He likes school but when ask he usually tells you about recess and lunch. Every weekend he asks when he can go back to school. At least for now this is the match for him.

One of the kids in Aaron's swim class is Andrew. I introduced the boys and Aaron on the way home informed me that he wanted to keep the old Andrew. This led to talking about the fact Andrew would always be his brother and other Andrews would just be friends. Also he is telling everyone that when he is 5 he will get to go to school.

We have been talking to the boys about things on TV that are pretend especially cartoons. As result Andrew was watching a car race and said it was pretend. We then had explain that this was real because you could actually go to the place and watch it and it just wasn't on TV. Andrew was not convinced.

Both boys have had headers recently. Andrew joined the fun with a fall. Somehow managed only to scrap his forehead and lodge a small stone in there for good measure. Perry successfully removed it and after convincing me that no stitches were need, it has healed nicely.

So this is this and that from the Barbee house.

Part 3

We checked out the Aqurimum. Here is Aaron checking out the sea lion. We did do one day at the amusement park. Aaron loved this ride and was allowed to go by himself since he was big enough. He wanted to try the roller coaster like Andrew but was too small.

Both boys loved the bumper cars and Andrew was allowed in the "big" ones with and adult. As you can see I am the passenger on this ride.

We ended the night with fireworks which Andrew loved and Aaron thought were loud. We had visions of the boys sleeping in the next morning. Nah...

We ended the week with two visits to Uncle David and Aunt Kim's. We were glad to see them and the boys were so excited. We checked out Uncle David's work one day and the boys had fun running airplane to airplane. Yes this was a mommy plot to burn energy. We enjoyed some pizza back at David and Kim's. The next day after a traffic delay we had a whirlwind trip to the zoo and a picinic. It ended with a trip for ice cream. Grandpop would have been proud.

To end the retelling of vacation here is Andrew on one of the rides. He loves rides and the shows as well. Uncle Gabe in a few years we are going to need you to take this boy upside down.

Part 2

The next few days we checked out some sites in Norfolk and at Jamestown. This is Andrew at the Nautilus trying to steer a boat. We also took a two hour cruise but we didn't end up on Gilligan's Island just back where we started.

The boys on the boat. Aaron napped through a greater portion of the cruise. Uncle David waved to us from work. Andrew was thrilled.

As I mentioned earlier, we made another visit to a historical site at Yorktown. The boys enjoyed the boats and watching how they made canoes. It was a nice morning. It should be noted both boys were free at the historic sites and Perry and I got a reduced rate for doing both.

We only ate out one meal a day so we tried to avoid fast food. But we also wanted kid friendly. This was a place called Jungle Jim's. The food was good and the boys got a kick out of their menus.

Besides site seeing the boys enjoyed swimming. We probably could have done nothing but swim and they would have been happy. Oh yes and play at the parks around the place we stayed.

The Last Trip of the Summer Part 1

We began our last trip of the summer in Williamsburg, VA. Perry and I got up at O dark 30 and drove to make the trip easier. We arrived at Yorktown on Sunday afternoon. We thought we would try the history thing and if it was a wash we would know better for the rest of the week. It did work but it should be noted if you want to leisurely read the signs or really teach history a 3 and 5 year old only get so much. It did work and we later checked out Jamestown later in the week. It should be noted that August was game in the colonies. Andrew especially liked trying the games. Aaron and I having a snack before going in to the park.

Teaching how to shoot a canon. They asked Perry to take Aaron off his shoulders. This turned out to be a good thing because Perry jumped when they fired the canon.

One of the things Andrew enjoyed was following the paths and counting canon at the different points. These were embankments made for the defense of both sides.

Andrew getting to hold the musket. Overall an enjoyable start to the holiday.