The Influence of Brothers

MK: "Mom, I really, really want to get one of those grafarries!"

Me: "You really, really want WHAT?"

MK: "I really, really, really want one of those grafarries like we saw, you know?!"

Me: "Those froggies that we saw?"

MK: "No, one of those red graffarrie cars, you know, like what the boys want!"

Me: "Oh, you want a Ferrari car? Is that what you want?"

MK: "Yes, that is what I tell you. I really, really want one to drive all by myself!"

Seabrook

Oh, how we love Seabrook.

Ryan and I made an executive decision and decided to cancel our trip to Seabrook for the weekend. The children got wind of this decision and quickly overruled us! Three to one, go figure. So, we checked the weather, packed only what needed to be packed and we hit the road for one.last.beach.trip.2010.

Beautiful decision. With nets and buckets in tow, we hit the beach running early Saturday morning. There were minnows to be caught, crabs to be captured, football games to be played and castles to be built. Did I mention running and giggles too? Even a picnic to be eaten. All in a perfect day at the beach.

(This is Pryce's signature face at the beach. He loves catching minnows and each time he makes a catch, he turns and yells as loud as yell can yell that he has "caught one!")

Following our beach run, it was off to the crabbing dock for a Christmas photo event. Take two is in order following the not so cooperative littles in our home! Who could blame them? The crab traps were much more fun to explore than taking pictures - on this, they would all agree.

And then, it was off to the Lollipop Shop for a candy fix. Only, there was NO Lollipop Shop! To see and hear the children's disappointment was so disheartening. We did what all parents would do, we took the pitiful faces over to the ice cream shop and sulked while indulging in our fav ice cream creations. Colin's was most interesting - sweet cream, cool mint and Butterfinger. This tactic seemed to work and the children were up and swimming in no time. Yep, they went swimming next. Outside first. Inside next. They created a game called Sea Animals and frolicked in the warm, indoor pool. Next up was dinner and bed. Friday night, the three big kids told stories and laughed for quite sometime after the lights were out....Saturday, I believe they were all fast asleep before they fell into bed!

On a nature note, we were taken with the abundance of butterflies seen all over the island. They were everywhere! And, of course, there were also plenty of deer....we even saw a buck as we were approaching the dune to North Beach. Very cool site.

Saturday we headed over to the other side of the island to explore North Beach. There is a huge sand dune that one must conquer while walking to the beach. MK does not like "that big hill!"

Once we tackled the "hill," we came upon another startling find - a DEAD shark. EWWW.

We had a little science lesson and carried on with our beach duties - sand castle building, football playing, minnow catching, giggling and shell finding.

It all came to pass too quickly and we found ourselves, yet again, saying goodbye to Seabrook.

Todays Comments

The children and I are reading Anne Of Green Gables. We are at the very beginning and we have just been introduced to the little orphan girl that is to reside with the Cuthbert family. Colin said, "Hey, she is like an eleven year old Mason-Kate." Not really understanding if he was referring to MK once being an orphan or exactly what he meant, I asked, "What do you mean?" He smiled and said, "You know how MK talks ALL the time? Well, it seems that little girl has the same problem!"

And moving on through the chapter, it speaks of how Anne can imagine away most anything - her eyes, her freckles, her living circumstances - anything except her red hair! She states that she cannot imagine away her red hair no matter how hard she tries. The boys and I were discussing this and P chimed in and said, "Well, she should just try adding a little food coloring to her hair then. That would make it a different color!" Yes, indeed, it would.

In other news, we came home yesterday to an update on little Maddox! She is so precious and I cannot wait to share photos of her on our blog! The update states that she is taking a few steps on her own, she is standing alone, she likes to eat "biscuits" to which I noted that in the pics she is holding this round, putrid green looking cracker/cookie thing and she has clearly taken a bite of it, and her lip was repaired on September 3 - the very day that our paperwork was sent to China! We were so thankful to receive the update and photos - mainly the photos! She has changed so much and her eyes are beautiful, her hair is no longer a fuzz - it is actually hair that will look so precious in a big, big, BOW, LOL! She is currently 14 months old, the same age MK was when we brought her home!

PA! PA! PA! (and other things)

Pre Approval for Little Miss Maddox Ren Drafts! It arrived today and we are more than excited to know that we are well on our way to our little girl who awaits us in China! Now, we wait again. This time we are waiting for a document called the Letter of Acceptance and it will take somewhere in the neighborhood of two months to arrive. Let the countdown begin.....

Backing up a bit, we arrived home late last Sunday evening from our Florida trip but that did not stop us! We suited up, accomplished some academic priorities, and began our week with piano, drum lessons and boyscouts. That was Monday. Tuesday came, we had speech for MK, then it was off to co-op where MK's class took a field trip to a local fire station, ballet class - she loves this and comes home every week speaking a new French dance term and dancing around our house - and baseball.

Our co-op preschoolers

Wednesday arrived and we were very excited to, again, do some academic priorities first and then it was off to a local farm to explore with fellow homeschooling friends. There were animals of all sorts, a hayride, pumpkin decorating, a big pillow for jumping and these really cool, big slides. Poor Pryce, who rarely complains about not feeling well, even when he really doesn't feel well, was miserable. Not long after our arrival, he came to me and said he just wanted to lay down or go home - he was feeling so tired. I knew something was definitely not right because we were at a place that I knew he would take full advantage of to have fun AND all of his best buddies were with him. We ended up at the doctor that afternoon and began taking meds that evening. The good news is that his arm, which still looks questionable after his wrestling with the trailer, was examined again and it is continuing to heal.

This is the response I got when I suggested we take a family shot!

Thursday, with a fever free Pryce, we headed over for yet another field trip. This time, a local airport. The children were all taken with the private aircrafts they were invited to explore, and they were elated to learn that one can take flying lessons at the age of 12! Notice I state that "they" were elated, their mother, not so much :)

Friday proved to be a day of rest for the most part. MK and I attended her IEP meeting and we are pleased to announce that she still qualifies for speech services through our local school system. She does continue to speak well and the therapist was quick to note that she "is barely squeaking in" but we will take it! Her challenges lie mostly with her wanting to speak quickly - we have to remind her to S-L-O-W down and put the ending sound on all of her words, not just some of them.

While We Wait

Thought I would share a bit about our girl. I was wanting to write a big, "hip, hip, hooray" post today stating that we did receive our Pre Approval. No such luck - we are getting nowhere fast at this point, sigh. So, in the meantime, here are a few tidbits about our girl

• She will be around 19ish months old when we bring her home making the age difference between the girls 2 1/2 years.
• She is a deep sleeper - hopefully this stands true
• She is described as being active
• She is a tiny little peanut - born tiny and most likely will always be petite.
• She laughs aloud
• She is in foster care and has been since she was two months old
• She had her lip repair done in China about a month ago and we are curious to see some updated pics!
• She has big, brown eyes and fuzzy black hair in her referral pics - reminds us of MK
• She has two teeth
• She is crawling and sitting
• A year ago, while we were visiting the beach being reunited with the family that traveled with us in China, a little baby girl was born on the other side of the world and God has chosen her for our family
• Six months ago, on the very day that we were celebrating two years with MK (Gotcha Day), little M was having her photos taken and her paperwork prepared for her adoption
• And, finally, her name will be Maddox (insert a very meaningful part of her Chinese name here) Drafts. Ryan has never agreed right away with any of our children's names. He has always had a comment. With Colin he was concerned that nicknames would be used - hmmm. With Pryce, who is named after Ryan's own grandmother, he just didn't care for it - not sure why but after our sonogram, where Pryce was photographed all snuggled up sucking his little thumb, I put my foot down and said his name was going to be Pryce - he just looked like a Pryce! With Mason-Kate, her name was always to be Mason - any child that came into our lives and was female, was to be named Mason. I worked with an attorney before I got married and his mother's name was Mason. I loved it and decided at that time I would one day have a little girl named Mason! It was original for a girl AND it was a family name to boot! Well, I caved somewhat when Ryan suggested the name Kate. I liked Kate but everyone, it seemed, was being named Kate. During the adoption process, I called her Mason, Ryan called her Kate and the boys came up with the idea of Mason-Kate...thus, Mason-Kate's name came to be. So our little Maddox. Truth be told, I actually got the name out of a baby name book while visiting a bookstore with the children. I came home and suggested it to Ryan, who to my surprise said, "I really like that!" Finally, on our fourth child, he likes a name from the get-go. The part that brings it all together, is that Maddox happens to be the last name of a very special family I grew up babysitting for. They were a family who had six children and whom I remain close to today. They were and always be very special to me, from the children all the way up to their parents. Because of them, because of the experiences I shared with their family at their home or traveling the United States, I knew that one day I too would like to have a large family of my own. There was definitely never a dull moment. So for us, naming our little girl Maddox is bringing it all full circle.

Roughing It

One thing that we enjoy doing with our children is traveling. They all three travel well, they love to see new sights and it is just fun for us all to be together on our own little adventures. Ryan and I gave them a choice of going up north to DC or going to Florida to travel the coast....they chose Florida. Last Thursday morning, with breakfast being our first stop, we all set out on our trek to Florida. We breezed through Daytona so the boys could see the race track.

Following our stop for dinner, MK began asking where our house was. When I told her we were staying in a tent, there was a gasp and then she said, "What? Oh no, the monsters will get us!" It was at this moment that I thought our trip could be really good OR it could be really bad depending on MK's liking of the tent. Thankfully, once we got settled in she was more than excited about the tent. We chose to camp at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground. The beauty of this was that there was so much to do at the campground itself that our children never once asked to actually go into a theme park. They played tether ball, rode scooters, caught little baby frogs, dug in this nasty black sand, roasted marshmallows, sang songs at the sing-a-longs, watched the lakeside fireworks, watched the outdoor Disney movies, went swimming, and the list goes on.

They loved looking out of our "window" every morning to see who was waking up as early as they were! And of course they loved their breakfast choices....while others were cooking up eggs and bacon with the likes, our crew was devouring powdered sugar donuts, a delicacy that is not often found in our home!

One part about camping that always has me more than concerned is the bathing facilities. Well, not at Disney. At Disney, EVERYTHING is magical, including the showers that are adorned with tile!

On Friday we ventured over to Kennedy Space Center. The boys specifically enjoyed this adventure when testing out the shuttle launch experience. They were both quite nervous entering the room but they both came out with smiles on their faces, requesting to go back and ride it again! That evening we ate at one of our favorite traveling spots, Rainforest Cafe, and for the first time, MK didn't cry! She was unbelievable and so brave. We all cheered her on!

Saturday we took a monorail ride/boatride/busride over to Epcot's boardwalk area to have lunch at the ESPN Zone. We arrived just in time to watch the Clemson game which made all of my boys happy. This place was amazing, it even had tvs in the restrooms - as someone commented, "It was definitely designed by a man!"

Sunday we intended to spend the day in St. Augustine touring the "Ancient City." However, we awoke, visited with some new friends we had met while camping, stopped by Downtown Disney for lunch and then finally headed north towards home. We did stop to tour "the fort" and though we were all tired, it was an enjoyable time. We are currently studying the explorers so being in St. Augustine for even this short period of time, was interesting. The boys each recognized names on display cases and of course they recognized the different types of weapons used for defense.

Meanwhile, MK was busy being our girl. She was in a mood to be photographed and while the boys were not so tolerant of my lens, MK was shouting, "Hey, take my picture like this!"

Pre Approval

Our paperwork journey, to say the least, was a bit of one obstacle after another - partly due to our overlooking some specifics and partly due to others overlooking some specifics. Unfortunately, it seems as though our post-referral journey is going to be defined as one obstacle after another as well. We were a bit discouraged Friday to learn that our Pre Approval for little M has not yet arrived. Pre Approval is the first document that is received after you accept your referral. PA, as it is referred to in adoption land, is basically a document stating that China acknowledges your wish to adopt a specific child and they "pre approve" you to do so. Others received theirs last week. We did not and the really bad news is that we will not receive it until next week due to a Chinese holiday. Patience is being practiced in our home. Meanwhile, we are so excited about a fundraiser our friends have put together for us. The support that our family has received during this adoption has been phenomenal and it simply takes our breath away to know how much this little girl is already loved by so many!