Papercuts

We have officially been thrown into the whirlwind of adoption paperwork! We had been warned this was coming but now we are living it. We know that in the end it will all be worth it, but it's definitely taking its toll for now! This not only includes actually filling out tedious papers, but also collecting many documents (doctor's notes, birth certificates and financial statements (just to name a small few). We are starting our homestudy which is responsible for much of this paperwork, and will also include several meetings with our social worker. Soon we will begin our dossier. This is just a large compilation of papers that clarifies our ability to adopt an international child. They want to thoroughly and completely make sure you are qualified to handle this big responsibility. While I completely understand all that is required in order to adopt, I can't help but wonder how I was able to have 3 children already without a single question being asked of me! :)

There are many people who have asked us about the time-line of our adoption process. While there's no way to know exactly how long it will be until we are able to travel to China and bring our daughter home, we do know that the process can take a while. Our totally random and un-official guess is somewhere between 2 and 3 years. We started this process when we did because we knew it would take AT LEAST this amount of time and we wanted Micah to be older and a little more independent by the time our little girl comes home. Micah is still very much a baby (and quite needy) and we are not ready for the responsibility of another child just yet. But, by starting this journey when we did, our hope is that it will still allow all our children to be fairly close in age as we would like all FOUR of them to grow up together and be great (if not BEST) friends!!

Road Trip to the South

We always enjoy our visits to Seguin to visit PaPa, Eg, Abby and Austin...and this trip was no exception. The weather was beautiful and the family time together was wonderful!

 Micah took his first steps at PaPa and Eg's house! 

 Although he still much prefers crawling...

 Austin caught a butterfly...

A few McGrew men...

 Candyland with PaPa

Eg reading one of the boys' new books...and a new favorite for Reid! Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

 Abby and Micah

Our newest little soccer player??

 Reid and I were reading books one morning while daddy and Landon were drawing...this was Aaron's picture...

 Flowers from my Reider

Playing with Harley 

 We took a ride in the boat one morning

Fone Pics Friday

*For some reason blogger wasn't allowing me to upload pics so I had to do this from my phone which made the quality awful for some reason.*
I usually like to allow my pictures to do the talking on my "Fone Pics Friday" posts, but the one above might could use a little explaining. One morning Reid was absolutely convinced that he needed some medicine because he had the "big bless-yous". After I put a little water in this medicine cup he insisted that it be the pink medicine...so I added a little food coloring. He was cured!   "Little Sister" has been added to our prayer jar!

Chicken Enchilada Soup...YUM!! I actually took some things from a couple of recipes to make this and it turned out to be de-lish!! I'm gonna be sad when soup season is over because I've found several yummy soups to make this winter! Here is the recipe:   2-3 Chicken breasts 2 cans chicken broth 1 cup water 1.5 TBS taco seasoning 1-19 oz. can enchilada sauce 8 oz. velveeta OR 1 can fiesta cheese soup/sauce 1 small onion-chopped 2-4 garlic cloves-minced 1 cup corn 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed *4 corn tortillas-minced (I used a food processor) 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup colby jack shredded cheese (cheddar would probably work too)   Saute onion and garlic together. Put everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4. About an hour before serving shred chicken and return to pot. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, etc. We added some home-made corn tortilla strips! *The minced corn tortillas are optional...it will make the soup a little thicker and creamier!