Saturday, August 7, 2010


FINGERPRINTING accomplished! YAY! Thursday morning, we awoke, all piled into the car and off we went for a family day in Atlanta. First up, World of Coke tour. The boys loved this. They have been asking to visit for about a year (yes, we are real on top of things!) so we thought it a great opportunity to take them. They loved the tasting, the creating, the quizzing, the 4D movie and the gift bottle of Coke. MK took it all in and enjoyed it as much as could be expected....she, however, was not so much impressed with the 4D movie...."that movie so scary to me" were her words as we left. Next up, federal fingerprinting. Three times now we have done this, two for MK and one for baby M. Always an adventure. On Wednesday we were a bit unnerved when C spiked this random temp and complained of being tired all day. And then we were even more unnerved when MY eye turned this dark shade of pink, much like MK's eye has been for almost two weeks now. For those of you in adoption land, you know as well as I do that missing this fingerprinting appointment is like missing your own funeral.....it just isn't allowed to happen. So, with Tylenol and antibiotic drops in hand, we persevered, arrived early to the site, stepped up with all three children, and the nice gentleman, after taking a good look at our information, asked us to step inside. We stepped inside, stepped over to the left, filled out a form, stepped over to the right, sat down, stood up, did a little ink printing and, poof, we were done.....thirty minutes it took us, our best time yet! With an afternoon to make the best of, we then headed to a local mall We walked inside, took a look at the mall map and our boys immediately started yelling, "They have an Apple store! Can you believe it? Can we go? Please, please!" I was busy scoping out the American Girl store and Pottery Barn Kids, two of life's essentials when parenting a girl, you know, just to LOOK. Ryan was holding MK who, out of ALL of the many things to see at this particular mall, spots the carousel! We all parted ways, MK and I to do the "girl" thing and the men in our life to do the "boy" thing. I was so hoping MK would forget about the carousel upon entering the AG store. However, that was not the case at all. She looked at one doll, looked at another, did a quick take at a baby swing and announced, "Now, I go to ride the carousel?!" Hmmm. Carousel was ridden, all electronics that Apple has to offer were fidgeted with and we were off to eat at our fav restaurant ever, the Cheesecake Factory. Yum. A great day for us all. And a huge step forward in our adoption. Now, we wait for our approval notice, do a couple more certifications/authentications and we will be successfully finished with our first phase in our second adoption! Next up, our paperwork goes to China!
Pryce thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the statues.
Colin loved tasting the many different Coke creations that our world has to offer....or, maybe, not so much (note that the second pic is not a pose, it is a genuine look of disgust!).

After selecting our very own gift bottle of Coke, we made a united decision to enjoy them as a family in honor of our daughter/sister-to-be when our fingerprinting/approval notice arrives!
On a medical note, Colin's fever subsided, Pryce spiked one on Friday - weird, it literally lasts all of a day. MK and I took a visit to her doctor on Friday. I stated to him that MK has had this eye thing for almost two weeks now. Mine just started. Essentially, I was example "A" - the "before", I look, right now, just how MK did two weeks ago. MK was example "B" - the "after", her eye, though the pink is gone, is now showing signs of hemorrhaging. So strange. The ped named a virus, we talked about the symptoms and they all matched! The bad news is that we may be making a trek to the eye doctor next week.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Another Little One Coming Home!

Please join us is welcoming another little one home from China! Little Junie Gruskin, 18 months old, was united with her parents in Guangzhou, China today. She will be welcomed home soon by three big brothers who can't wait to get their hands on her! Take a look at their site www.littleboyhugsandladybugs.blogspot.com. We are sooo excited for their family!