At the Farm

Thanks to my brother-in-law Richard being kind enough to change his schedule for us, we were blessed enough to enjoy the farm once again.  (He travels on business and often uses the farm, which is their second home, instead of a hotel.) It was Heidi and Lisa's first time there.  They loved it.  They were brave enough to do every activity we offered them.  Here are a slide show and some video clips of the fun.  I was too busy to take a lot of pictures, but my sister Connie was there with her friend's kids, so when I get her photos, I'll try to post more.

Naomi's Adoption Day

Wow!  We finally did it!  Naomi's Gotcha Day was today.  Here are some facts to think about.

• The whole process took 998 days, from the day we got the phone call and picked her up from the hospital, until today. (Hannah's adoption was completed when she was 767 days old.)  
• During the time since we got Naomi, DFCS personnel visited our home about 70 times (but that's over now).  
• Naomi has been very healthy.  She has had no major illnesses or injuries.  (We are so thankful for this.)
• The adoption case worker was the same for both Hannah and Naomi (per our request).
• The same lawyer filed both Hannah and Naomi's adoption paperwork (per our request).
• Since May of 2007, we have been foster parents.  As of today we are just plain parents.
• We rejoice over this occasion and thank God for making it possible and also our friends and family for supporting us in our journey to adoption.
  

A Cool Day Hiking

The morning started out cool for a change, and it was a Saturday!!!  Heidi and Lisa made a delicious breakfast today and afterwards we took them to Red Top Mountain State Park to enjoy the first fall-like day of the year.  It was awesome.  The sky was so blue and the humidity was low.  We all did some courage building on some fallen logs.  That's a great thing about going to the woods.  There are these surprise playgrounds.  Hannah and Naomi saw that beautiful water and it was hard keeping them from swimming in it.  It was a very satisfying day.