Trivia to pass the time

OK, a little trivia for you. On my way into work this morning I was listening to the radio and a song came on you may know, "If Your Going Through Hell" by Rodney Atkins (yes, I do live in Tennessee, I HAVE to listen to Country music...I know all my Pioneer girls are laughing at that one), So as I'm belting out the song (yes, I do know the words, stop laughing...) I realized I have a bit of Rodney Trivia! Here goes, he was born in the town I now live in, GO VOLS! Also, he is an adoptee, like myself, and of course my sweet wonton(s). And his adoption was through, drum roll please ...the same agency we are using for our home study! So how many degrees are we from famous here? I know you all are just intrigued with my tidbit of trivia.

Obviously nothing is happening with the adoption so I am grasping at anything to keep my mind off when the home study will be ready to send to JOH for first review. Should be today, keep all your fingers crossed! J

Emma & Oliver

Ollie

So I added pictures of Emma & Oliver (the other "babies" in the house). How could I have neglected adding them in the first place?! Well, it happened like this...Emma was our first baby and she enjoyed her superior position for three long years. But I thought she was lonely so we got Oliver, this adorable furry ball. She wasn't very thrilled at all, but they got used to each other over the years. Then, the real bomb dropped...Simone came home. They went from being our favorites, our loved and spoiled pooches, to being in the way. From being called sweet babies to being called move it & stop barking- very Lady & the Tramp like. It's been almost four years and finally its working out- as you can see their favorite spots to be are with Simone. Oliver is the first one in her bed each night to cuddle with her till she falls asleep (which she loves - and they are still spoiled, trust me!). So what will they think of baby # 2? We'll just have to wait & see! J

What is in a name?

You may have noticed baby #2 has no name yet. We knew the first baby would be Simone before we even sent our paperwork to China, as she is named after Adam's grandfather, Simon. And we knew she'd be a girl, so that made it easy too. And once we met her, there was no doubt - she is sooo "Simone". So now we have "baby #2" coming soon and that's how we've been referring to it, just baby #2. Simone has come up with her own list of names, like Jake and Taylor, oh and my personal favorites, Bogater and Moe - not sure we're really attached to any of those. But real the problem is we can't decide if we should pick names now - say if it's a girl, Sally, if it's a boy, Tom, or wait till we see the referral picture and decide it really is a Harold or a Trudie. (I promise, those won't be the choices...) I figured with #2 it would be as clear as with Simone, but it's proving to be much more difficult. So, what is in a name...should it be a family name passed down, or one that carries the culture of the child, or one that you pick because you just really like it. Do we wait to see what the baby looks like (like with Oliver, he just looked like an Ollie dog...) or pick one and hope it fits. Once we choose and start using it it'll have to stay, right? You can't get the baby home and think, oh no, that name is all wrong, please start calling it.....Well, I think we'll keep it "baby #2" until we we can sort it all out. We'll keep you posted! J

Background for adoption #2

Old picture I found while trying to complete our "Photo Pages" to be sent to Taiwan for review by ...The Judge! Here's a little background as to how we have come to our second adoption, this time from Taiwan... About a year ago we decided we loved being parents and were enjoying Simone so much that we wanted to add to the wonderful experience with a new baby. We contacted Holston Untited Methodist Agency (a local agency that does Foster, Foster-Adopt and Homestudy services-they are great, for the record!) We thought we would adopt from Korea or China, as those were our first choices last time. Well, Korea did not work out for us. We contacted New Beginnings (our agency for Simone's adoption) reg. China and they said the wait time could be, hold on to your hats, up to 4 years...4 years, Simone will be 8 and we'd have a bitty baby, yikes! So we checked out other options, Uzbekistan came up, but after much thought and some prayers we decided it just wasn't right for us. Vietnam was our next thought, but sadly that too isn't a possibility. We were given information about Taiwan, at that time expecting a program for an older child. After lots of research we came across Journey's of the Heart. I spoke to them a few times and we just knew this was the path we are supposed to follow. We are so positive in our hearts that our baby, and Simone's sibling, is there. So here we are, most of our paperwork is in and we could have a referral within the next 4-6 months (sooner would be real sweet though!) Thanks for joining us and keep checking in, I am learning how to add all sorts of stuff!
J

Starting a Blog...

I've decided to start a blog so that our family and friends can follow our adoption journey for baby #2. We decided about a year ago to add to our family through adoption again. After many ups and downs with trying to find a program that suited us we have finally begun the process to adopt from Taiwan. We have our Homestudy complete and most of the papers needed in order to get us put on the "waiting list" have been sent in. We are all very excited to expand our family and give Simone a baby brother or sister. We have been so blessed and fortunate with Simone and are very excited to open our hearts to another baby.
As many of you remember, we did a yahoo group for our trip to China for Simone, this should make it easier for you all to follow every step of the way. I am new to this, so please offer any blogging advise you have!