More evidence of normal children:

Good class

We had a good class this weekend. There were 7 couples there. All of them adopting internationally. Naturally, Katie and I went into this class thinking that we knew everything. The biggest take away for us was gaining awareness of the fact that we are adopting a child from a different race.

Honestly, this was not something that we have pondered a whole lot. Up to this point, we simply thought "whatever.... it doesn't bother us".

But we haven't thought about what Melia may think of the whole thing. We began doing an inventory of her life. Her parents: White. Her siblings: White. Her teachers: White. Her extended family: White. Her neighbors: White. Her doctor: White. Her dentist: White. Her piano teacher: White...... White. White. White.

You get my point. Katie and I realized that after our adoption of Melia, we will no longer be a "white family". We will indeed be a mixed-race family.

I'm not even sure what this exactly means, but this class and our new awareness is a good start. I'll keep you posted as I figure things out.

PIP Class

Now we're moving along!

This coming weekend, Katie and I will be traveling to Iowa for a "How to parent your adopted child" class. This was one of the requirements from Holt (our agency). I tried to get some sort of waiver hoping that 3 years experience would count, but no-go.

I have the attention span of a 10 year old, so I'm not looking forward to sitting in a classroom for two days.

But I AM looking forward to a Road Trip vacation with my wife!

(yes, even a 3 hour road trip to the middle of Iowa counts as a Road Trip Vacation)

Homestudy Part 1

We had our homestudy today. (Part 1 of 3) It brought back fond memories of Zac's homestudy. For those that don't know, the first part of a homestudy is basically where we sit around and talk about ourselves for a couple of hours. I can't think of anything I love to do more than to sit around talk about myself. Therefore, the homestudy was quite a wonderful time!

I can't help but think how stressful and intimidating a homestudy may be for first time parents. For us.... not so much.

As I travel upon the road leading me toward 4 children, I find that fewer and fewer events cause me stress and intimidation.

Case in point, as I type this blog entry I am mostly unphased that Zac is screaming for Hallie to let him out of the dog kennel. Ho hum. Just another small moment around here.

Children

I'm so excited that we're adopting again. Just the thought of bringing in another child into our home to shape them and mold them into a wonderful person is so exciting for me.

Afterall, I think we've done such a great job with Zac. He's so wonderful, smart and amazingly.... normal.

See for yourself!

Homestudy

Well, the check cleared for our homestudy. (Our first big check) We still have a few police clearances to come back before they can start. I guess they don't want to waste their time if it turns out I'm a convicted felon.

But assuming I have not committed any known crimes, we should be starting the homestudy in the next few weeks. We've still got our fire extinguisher from the last time we went through this.

Ironically enough, we almost had to use the fire extinguisher just the other day as something that Katie was cooking caught on fire. :)

Zac-ism

A few days ago, Zac was saying a little prayer for his meal. It went something like this:

Dear God - Thank you for my food and I hope Melia likes Chinese food.... because she's Chinese. Amen.