I am OVER you at the moment. I had a friend that always said that company that stays past 3 days starts to stink. Well, the stench of summer has spread to the boys, and they are ripe - let me tell you. Spending this much time together has lead to more fights and grumpiness in the last few weeks to last me for a while.
Don't get me wrong - I have loved summer, for the most part. I love the lazy days filled with whatever we wanted to do (or didn't do). I have loved vacations, swimming, pajama days, etc. I used to not understand why moms were all like, "Yes, summer is here!!" until I had a kiddo who had to be somewhere every morning at 8am. Then, I was one of those, "Yes, summer is here!" moms. Now, I am a bit over it and crave a few hours ALONE each week. Sue me...
We really have had a great time this summer. The boys are finally to a stage where travel is easy. Whew! That took long enough. When one got the easy stage, then we had another one that was at a point where napping was crucial to making it through the day. Now, they can all last the day without a nap. It isn't pretty all the time, but they can hang. It is a glorious thing.
We went to the mountains with friends and had a great time. Eight adults, 10 kids in one cabin sounded a bit chaotic - I'm not even gonna lie. And then we got there. It was great!! Everyone had a playmate or 2 or 8, the kids wore themselves out and went to bed, and the adults got to all gather at the end of the evening and have adult beverages and conversation. I had almost forgotten what that was like!!!!
We hiked, played in cold mountain streams, went to Dollywood, went to caves, and just enjoyed being away from routine. Our little clan got away again a few weeks ago and headed south to the beach. I didn't even take any pictures with my real camera, but it was so much fun.
Like I said, we have had a really great summer. Schools start back here this week, but the boys don't go back until the 17th at their school. That seems really FAR right now. I'm really not looking forward to being out the door by 7:45 each morning, but the thought of a few hours of quiet sure is tempting. And can I just say that I think 8 hour school days for a 2 1/2 year old sound wonderful. Can I get an Amen from anyone else out there? I mean, wowzers, he sure is a cute one, but that little one is a HANDFUL. And only his Mama will do for almost everything, so there isn't a lot of downtime when he is awake. On vacation, he slept with us, and one morning he woke up, put his hands on my face, and said, "I lub you so much. You're da best mommy ebber." Well, I would have bought him a pony if he had asked right then. And then about 30 minutes later when he slugged his brother, I came back to reality.
Many of you have asked about the adoption process and how that's going. Well, we are trucking along. We are done with our home study, and it is being written. It should be finished in a few weeks, and then it can be submitted to the state for approval. What that means is that the matching process will begin soon!!!! Yay!! We can ask about specific children to see if they match what it is we have specified we would like to have. I sent a list in a few days ago of children that had caught my eye. The list looked like a United Nations poster :) All races, all ages, boys & girls, siblings, and anything in between. Y'all, I will be honest - the hardest part is yet to come. Once we are matched with a potential child who matches our family, Jason and I will have to meet them. For the older kids, they know exactly what is happening, that basically they are being interviewed for a family. This makes my gut knot up just thinking about it. How nerve racking must that be for them? I cannot even begin to imagine. And to be clear, we are looking at older kids, mostly teens, but we have said we would consider siblings. We still need lots of prayers as we continue this process. I'm not anxious about the timeline of things because I have faith it is all working out exactly as it should. My prayers are for the child God has for us that they not become discouraged or anxious - that indeed, there is a family out there that will love them soon!! So there. That's the adoption update.
And now back to regularly scheduled programming: Did I mention I'm ready for school to start? Hmmm, I think I might have. We went to buy school shoes today, had lunch at Moe's (a favorite of the boys), and then I took them to Monkey Joes and Dairy Queen for dinner (for all you health nuts, just hush - I realize this wasn't my shining moment in nutrition). We are trying to survive up in here. A little older lady in Dairy Queen - and can I just say it was like the people of Wal-mart, Dairy Queen edition tonight - sat down and just started chatting. Of course, the first thing she said is "Wow, 3 boys." People always say that. Almost as if I had no idea I birthed 3 boys. I promise, given the number of times a day I have to tell someone to stop touching their penis, I am well aware I gave birth to boys. It's just funny to me that that is always the first thing people say. I say God knew full well what He was doing to give me boys. I can collect bugs and play in the dirt with the best of them. Don't get me wrong, there was a bit of mourning when I found out Tucker was a boy. I was at the high risk OB/GYN (because I'm old) to get the gender ultrasound. I couldn't even hide tears when she happily said "boy", and I felt horrible because all those women were there because they were truly high risk, possibly having real anomalies with their babies and I'm in the bathroom sobbing because my baby had a penis. I can no say, without a shadow of a doubt, that I am so much better suited for boys. Girls would be so fun to dress, but we would have some serious headbutts with the attitudes. And now I'm rambling...I've been away from the blog for far too long.
I have had a ton of people asking about how things are, so I thought I'd update. Continue to say some prayers for us! We appreciate all of them!
Love to hear the update and the fun you had this summer. Hard to believe summer is almost over. I have no kids at home now, so my schedules are constant. I do want to know where you stayed in the mountains. My immediate family is soon to be 18, with my 2 new grandbabies on the way, so we need large vacation homes. I think of you often and am praying for you. I know what you are going through as my daughter and son-in-law are trying to adopt.
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