Visa Approval!

Our Visa approval came in the mail this weekend for our future child! I am so excited to finally be at the end of the paperwork trail. Tomorrow I'm going to send off our Dossier to our adoption agency and cross my fingers that everything is done correctly.

Now we wait...our best guess is that it will be at least a year before we receive a referral for a child. A lot seems uncertain at this point, but we know it's God's will to provide for the orphan and He has directed our steps, so we are trusting Him to provide us with another little Esterling!

"Big Poop"

When working in healthcare, especially in the hospital setting, I have come into situations in which I wish there were things that the human body did not do, mainly pooping. I have never had a problem with anything else; i.e. blood, vomit, phlegm, urine. Needless to say, when I get home I want to be safe from this. After having kids I realize someone else's poop is unavoidable from my home life.

There is something about kid poop that grosses me out, but I still feel the need to acknowledge Harper's accomplishment on the toilet. Harper loves to read or watch a video on my phone while doing #2. If it takes her more than 2 short videos or more than 1 book, I know it's more than just #1. Tonight was one of those nights. For some reason I think it is a good thing I praise her for having a larger bowel movement than normal. As she stood up from her duty I said, "Man that was a big poop!" She promptly replied with satisfaction, "You like that daddy?"

Well, yes I guess I do my child, and I don't really know why.

The man of the house's 1st post

So I thought it would be time for the man of the house to make a grand entrance into this blog thing. Are blogs supposed to have 2 entries in 1 day? I have never blogged and I really don't ever read blogs. But here I am trying to contribute to our family log of events.


Amanda has been working hard throughout each day with having Harper memorize verses. For a while we wondered if she would ever learn 1 verse. But it seems that she has managed to get 3 of them down and is working on her 4th. They are:


Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.


Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters.


Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all heart and do not lean on your own understanding.


Psalm 1:6 - For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will PERISH (harper puts an emphasis on perish - she is really into judgement)

The definition of backwash

We are recovering from the weekend today, which includes cleaning our floors after babysitting for 7 children Saturday night. I got Harper to run one of our sweepers, I need to put her to work more often! Busy hands stay out of trouble, right?

We also got some kind of stomach bug this weekend. Finley had a temperature over 102. All she wanted to do was snuggle last night, so cute! You can tell she's so tired still, look at those cute, but very tired eyes.

Harper always wants to drink out of a cup these days, she'll ask for something in a cup and then say "I'll be very careful". She does pretty good...but the backwash is nasty! We had peanut butter cheese crackers for a snack this morning, can you tell? I think if Webster wanted a picture to define backwash, I could now provide one!

Bad Habits

We went to get fingerprinted yesterday in Naperville at a sort of immigration office. This is part of the requirement to get a Visa for our future child. We were the only white people there, another couple came in that were white and they started speaking Russian together. Needless to say, we were the ones everyone was staring at...especially because of our very talkative daughter.

The girls were good on the long drive back and forth. One funny moment was when I caught Harper picking her nose and told her to stop. This was her solution...

First day at PALS daycare

Today was the girls' first day at PALS. When we picked them up, we asked Harper what she did. This is her day, in her words:

"I played, I took a nap, I cried, I played outside!"

"I pooped in my underwear! Then I went on the potty, I tooted, it was gross!"

Awesome.

Finley's take home sheet said "Finley had so much fun on her first day that she only slept 20 minutes".

Thank you PALS for a very crabby baby tonight.

We have a new child!

The last few days have been really fun with Harper, she is like a brand new kid! She is so happy and energetic. She used to dance a lot and the last 6 months or so it was really hard to get her to do it, these last few days she's been dancing again. I also have a running commentary all day of what I'm doing or what I've already done, I can't get her to be quiet! Her imagination is also taking off, she's always going to the store or taking care of babies or cooking. It's awesome!

I am just praising God for helping poor little Harper out, we had no clue how much the lack of sleep was affecting her.

Here's a fun video, she thinks she's pretty hilarious...

I've got to include some cute Finley action too...she's been pushing and climbing on everything. She really likes to climb on this car, sometimes Harper pushes her around, it's all very dangerous:)