P1020199

P1020199
Originally uploaded by msparks874

New Blog

I'm moving! Come see me here from this point on and make sure to change your links in your own blogs.

I want to also add...did you know that you can preserve your blog memories now with www.blurb.com with a book very inexpensively?

It was a Birthday Blow-out Weekend...

Leah started her birthday celebration on Thursday and continued the festivities through Father's Day. Three parties for turning three!

We are fortunate enough to know this wonderful family whose adorably cute daughter, Lily, also shares the same birth date as Leah. So we joined forces on Saturday and had a wonderful birthday celebration at a gorgeous park. Here's a peak into this fun day...















More photo's can be found here. Thank you so much Leslie & Larry for sharing your daughter's special day with Leah.

Here's a few more pictures from other parties...








and finally...this is what Shawn looked like after we finished all our birthday and Father's day celebrations (Oh, he's going to kill me for this)...




Happy Father's day to all the dad's out there...especially to my awesome dad, Leah's wonderful daddy, Yee, and Uncle Andrew & Brad.

Happy Day!

Look who's 3! Oh, beautiful baby girl, you are the light of our lives! Mommy and Daddy are so humbled and forever grateful that you were given the chance to be born and found your way into our arms. You have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives and we can't wait to see what this year brings.

Happy birthday my sweet, amazing Leah...we love you so much!

Bring it on...

It's looking more & more promising that little Miss Kate could be home for Christmas, maybe Thanksgiving...or at least Valentine's day...or certainly before St. Patrick's day. I hesitate because it's a not-really-that-funny running joke among adoptive parents...that you don't really commit to a time frame, because it's a constantly moving target.

We started the adoption process for Kate in October 2006 and sent in our MCC (Medical Checklist) to our agency, CCAI, for a potential referral of a minor SN child in October 2007. The wait at the time was around 10-12 months. However, the waiting child program is experiencing an unexpected boom right now and we have a great shot of receiving a referral this summer. Now, how much fun is that?

Coinciding with this cool news, is that our U.S. approval to adopt is set to expire...figures. So we are in the midst of completely refiling all of the requirements to extend our approval status from the department of immigration to be eligible to adopt. The paperchase includes: medical physicals, birth certificates/marriage license, several financial disclosures & proof of income, reference letters, criminal background checks, FBI fingerprinting and another home study visit/recommendation.

Piece of cake.

Cruisin'

and loving every minute of it....

Shawn & I have collectively lost over 40 pounds since the beginning of March. That's so much fun to type. We've titled our "get fit" journey as "getting back to us".

Life's stresses and pressures over the last several years had taken a toll on us and we just weren't taking as good of care of ourselves as we should have. I thought we were looking AND feeling just terribly...old. Shawn is former 3rd degree black belt instructor and I'm a former college tennis player and instructor, so we both love being physically active. We are so happy...no, I need a better word...ELATED to get moving again and to feel like our "normal" selves.

So now we are both at the weight we were when we first met 9 years ago and have set a "college weight" goal, which we should hit around July. It's been a blast and I'm seeking out new ways to exercise, thus the fab new cruiser. Isn't it pinkalicious?

If you haven't tried http://www.thedailyplate.com/, I highly encourage you to give this free web site a chance. It's a great way to track your fitness & food intake. We are never hungry and have had so much fun using this site as a guide. My extended family also started using this site and have lost a lot of weight as well. Congrats Mom, Dad, Rich and Rachel...you look fabulous!

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More pictures of our fantastic, fun vacation to Watercolor, Florida....

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