Thursday, July 14, 2011

Our Adoption Process

Since I blogged about it last, we have offically been approved by Gladney (our adoption agency), finished our homestudy, been pyschologically evaluated (we're sane), been fingerprinted twice, and completed a mound of paperwork, gotten documents signed notarized, corrected, and done again.  We are getting to the end of the paperwork phase.  We are now gathering the last few documents for our dossier (the paperwork that goes to Honduras) and we are waiting on an approval letter from CIS (citizen immigration services). Once the approval letter comes, then we will go to Honduran consulate and receive the last document for dossier which will then go to Honduras and then we will breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Are you still with me? Hopefully these last steps will happen in a timely manner, so our physicals and various letters do not expire and have to be redone.  We are making progress though, and that is good.  
In, the meantime we are thinking and praying for our little girl who may or may not already be born.  I also have done a little shopping to help with all this waiting.  Oh man is little girl stuff fun to shop for! I've done good though, I've mostly shopped garage sales.  I got this smocked Strausburg dress for $1 and that adorable dollhouse for $10.  And until we bring our little girl home, buzz lightyear and batman have been putting that dollhouse to good use!



Friday, July 1, 2011

Colby


just love this picture of my little Colbs

Friday, June 10, 2011

3 years old!

I can't believe this little boy is 3. He can't either. Well, really he just refuses say he is 3.   The night before his birthday he prayed to God that he would just be 2 again on his birthday.  We are working on it.  He did however love his 3 year old baseball birthday party.  Here is our little birthday boy...


 The boys with their matching baseball shirts

Hanging out in the hammock with cousin Luke

 "Happy Birthday to You"




 And what is a 3yd old birthday without a little meltdown?

and a visit from the cops.

Friday, May 20, 2011

HAM

This kid is so funny and so animated.  Here is just a typical night a dinner...he makes these faces all the time and he's got many more!  My sweet Colby will do anything for a good laugh.  Love him!
  




Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Easter

Here are pictures from Easter (a little late) We needed to take some family photos for our adoption paper work and so we made both sides of the family do the dreaded self timer family photo.  Speaking of adoption paperwork there are about 60 pages on our kitchen table ready to be mailed to our agency. (yeah!) We've done our 1st out of 4 interviews for our homestudy.  We are getting there...
It was sweet this year teaching Caleb about why we celebrate Easter.  We read a book over and over about Easter and Caleb can tell you "jesus died and we were sad, but he didnt stay dead...he's alive!" And my favorite quote from Easter...After Caleb went to sunday school on Easter, he announced "mommy, Jesus died without his shirt on!"





the Rechtzigel's

and the Chandler crew

Bedtime snuggles

Chad and Colby snugging before bedtime... 

This face is his "I'm so stinking cute and I know it" face

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tybee Island

Here are some pictures of the boys from a couple of weekends ago when we went to Savannah.  Both of my boys love the beach and that makes Chad and I so happy.  This is the first time Colby has been since he could walk and it was so fun to watch him explore.  And that's Caleb down there running in and out of the waves in his whitey tighties (silly me for thinking it was too cold to get in the water).







Thursday, April 14, 2011

Adoption update...


Okay, I realize I am a little behind blogging on adoption news, I just wanted to make sure....so anyway we have officially switched programs from Ethiopia to Honduras.  Right after we turned in our application for Ethiopia their government came out with all sorts of changes and there were lots of unknown in terms of how adoptions would be handled.  Since we were so early in the process, we decided to explore other programs and landed in Honduras.  We got the process started and now have a mound of paperwork .Seriously, there is ALOT of paperwork.  We also are begining our homestudy. I'll try to be better about updating, but most likely we'll be in the paperwork phase for a few more months.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Baby Animals

we had the coolest oppportunity yesterday.  a couple from our church owns a petting farm and had all the baby animals available for picture taking.  Caleb just loved them! He was so sweet and gentle with the animals and held them close and kissed them.  Colby liked them too, though he hasnt learned how to be quite as gentle and by the end of the afternoon thought the ducks were meant to be stepped on (luckily they were much faster than he). It was a beautiful afternoon and we got some sweet pictures.





look colby!

this is Colby laughing at the little chick

i wasnt gonna let little colby hold one, he doesnt know what gentle means, but i looked away and he just grabbed the little fellow. he was fine.

when we asked caleb what his favorite animal was he said the baby duck

Thursday, March 17, 2011

New Do's

We made our first trip to the barber shop this week (uncle josh has done it up until now).  Both boys were fabulous and sat so still...really surprised us.  Both haircuts were free too (Kennesaw Barber does baby's first haircut for free!) And just a little disclaimer, though the boys were definitely in need of haircuts, the way the ladies combed their hair for the before pictures is a little ridiculous. i didnt do it like that! 

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Monday, March 14, 2011

just because

took these pictures yesterday and thought they were fun...

feel like this picture pretty much describes our life

just being sweet

Just look at those big baby blues! He looks so sweet, but I'm pretty sure he is trying to figure out how to get away with something naughty...I also love that he's got a bruised forehead and sweaty hair...gotta love boys!

Firetrucks!

When you Pop is a retired firefighter you get to do special things.  Caleb and his buddy Luke got go to the fire department and touch and feel everything and run wild....a  dream come true for a 2 year old boy.  These two had a blast  checking everything out.  And just before we left, the firefighters got a real call and we watched the truck turn on its lights and drive away. So fun!

two little boys and a big truck
Luke and Caleb
driving the truck
wearing a the helmet
Pop & Caleb
Colby liked it too!