Weekend with the boys

Trying out their new sleeping bags and watching Cars
The boys and me in front of a tank at Fort Leonard Wood

Mark and the boys swinging (well mostly just Mark swinging)

Mark and M on the cow ride at the Pumpkin farm

Z and M helping Mark find some pumpkins

We were able to have the boys for the weekend and we had a great time! We kept busy with a trip to the pumpkin farm, a visit to look at Army machines, and we rode bikes to the park. They seemed to have a great time and we surely did! It was our last chance to have them before we moved so we are glad we were allowed!! It is getting harder and harder to say goodbye to them but we are counting down the days until they can live with us forever!

Time with boys

M wanting the football
Z got it!

My boys!

Mark can't be serious...

Z and I at Pizza Hut

We have been trying to see the boys as much as possible and yesterday we were able to spend a few hours with them. We took them to the park to play football and then went out to eat at Pizza Hut. They are really great boys and they LOVE Mark! We are very excited that they will be ours in a few months.

Last month with Nate

Super cheesy smile...with crazy hair!
In daddy's socks and shoes

The boys reading

Today was our last day with Nate. We only had him for a few months but we really bonded with us. We will miss him tremendously but we are so glad he's back home with his grandparents.

Our first meeting

We met the boys and their foster mom today. We met at a park in Springfield and we got to play with them and chat with their foster mom. She is great and has done an amazing job with the boys! They didn't know why we were there but we had a great afternoon with them and can't wait to see more of them! We feel truly blessed to have them in our lives!

We are parents!

After a week of waiting we got the phone call we had been waiting for...we are going to be parents! We were chosen to be the boys' parents and we are very excited!! We are definitely in shock right now (mostly because we didn't think we would be picked) but we can't wait to meet them. They are not allowed to move with us because of paperwork (ICPC- Interstate Compact for Placement of Children). Usually ICPC takes 6 months to complete but because we have already started licensing in Kansas it should be shorter. They are currently telling us a few months...so fingers crossed they will be with us by Christmas (and fingers double crossed that Mark won't be in Iraq yet)

More respite

You can see how our week went! Mark holding down the fort!
Kids in a tent

Our car fits 3...but it's tight!

Sophie...16 months...she is smiley here but most of the week she was screaming and crying!

Gavin (2 years old)

We did repite again for a sibling group of 2 (ages 2 and 16 months) for 5 days. It was nice having a girl in the house for a bit and a snuggler at that! And Nate had a playmate so he was entertained as well. We are glad to be back down to 1 though!

Staffing

We had our first staffing today. For those that don't know a staffing happens when kids are available for adoption. We were being staffed for 2 (possibly 3) boys. Mylique is 5, Zayvion is 3, and they have a 5 month old brother who is still in the foster care system. We were interviewed by about 8 people who asked us questions to determine if we were "the ones". After an hour of questioning and us trying to keep Nate (our 2 year old foster child) at bay we were done. We don't have high hopes for this staffing because we are moving but fingers crossed!