Oh a Camping We Will Go

(this is the leaders tent poster)

Girls Camp is this week. I've been getting things ready for the last few weeks and now it is crunch time. I'm hurrying as fast as I can. It's going to be fabulous. So many fun things. I can't wait (except that I can because I'm not quite ready yet :-). So, I'll leave you with our cheer. And see you all when I get back on Saturday.

We are the 6th Ward,
We set our sights high.
To Eternity and Beyond,
We'll strive to keep the spirit nigh.
Go, Buzz Lightyear!

(and with that, I'm sure you can guess our theme)

Theme: Source of Strength (stake camp)

Each ward is a superhero

We are: Buzz Lightyear

Our motto: To Eternity and Beyond

When: Tomorrow! Bye! I need to go get ready!

So Very Close

One week completely in big boy pants

Only one accident

Progress!

Telling me he needed to go potty at the store

Major Progress!

Stopping to go potty while swimming and playing with friends

Fantastic Progress!

We might just be able to do this after all.

Not too Shabby

We had our yard sale a few weeks back and it turned out pretty good. We had so many donations and were busy getting things ready just about every day the week before. Here we are that morning bright eyed and bushy tailed all set up and ready to go. Me (left), Kim, and Mrs. R.

And this cracks me up of Kim & Flavio with their pass along cards. They are hilarious. We just love these guys!
Here's Mr. R promoting adoption with his t-shirt and all. And giving killer deals to BYU fans (notice the hat). Funny that he has on a bright red U of U apron though much bigger than his hat. (OK, not really U of U, but very red indeed).

Kim & Flavio not hiding behind their pass along cards. :-)

Mrs. R, looking fabulous as always.

Ron & Jessica at their concession stand. In their Families Supporting Adoption uniforms and all.And all the stuff. So well organized that you would have felt like you were shopping in a store. lol

The man table. Mrs. R's brilliant idea. It sucked the guys right in and let their wives enjoy more time at the scrapbooking table.

And really, the best part about the entire day was that we were able to talk about adoption all day long. We shared our adoption stories, passed out a TON of our adoption cards, answered all sorts of questions regarding adoption and how the process works and really felt like people left knowing a bit more about adoption. Here is our display with our adoption profiles, cards and adoption brochures.

And the price tags on each and every item had all of our adoption blogs and a thank you for helping all of us get one step closer to our adoption goals.

So, Thank You to everyone who donated items, everyone who came and enjoyed the yard sale and every one who watched the kids while we got ready for and had the yard sale. It was great, fabulous. We made some mula and have already gotten the ball rolling on our adoption paperwork.

And, because it was such a great success. We are going to be having another yard sale on August 16th because we still have a ton of stuff. In the meantime, we are still taking any donations you might have so let me know and I will come and pick them up. Thank you everyone! It's been fun.

Like My Shoes?

I am finally getting a few minutes to go through some pictures of my own from the last few months and laughed so hard at this picture.

Let me set the scene. This was after church. The Gent had taught that day. We come home and The Gent says, "Leish, do you like my shoes?" I glance down as I am getting the kids some lunch and say, "yeah, they look nice." He stops me and says, "seriously?"I take a second look. We both bust up laughing. Call it tired, busy, in a hurry, or whatever. He didn't notice until we were sitting in sacrament meeting (which for us is the last hour of church). I didn't notice at all even when he asked. What can I say, it had been a long week for both of us.

Ups & Downs

This is our adoption pass along card which I am in love with even though I realize The Girl has changed so much in the little amount of time since I took that picture.

We should be old pros at this adoption stuff after two fabulous adoptions, right!?!?!?! That's what I thought too. I'm feeling like an adoption newbie since calling the adoption agency to get our "official" paperwork going. Man oh man. And I am also realizing that we got the sweetened condensed version of the paperwork with The Girl's adoption and in my mind, I thought that's what we would be getting again. Simple as pie. Get the papers, take a few days to "update" everything and walla. Good to go. We filled out everything in a day or two for The Girl's adoption and it seemed as though it couldn't be simpler. So, when The Gent said, "why not go get the paperwork when we are doing all of this other stuff anyways" I didn't think twice about it. I just did it. Why not?!?!?! Now I realize why not. Because now I am stressing out! lol Who knew that I would feel so many different emotions since we turned in our first bit of paperwork. We know we should be doing this right now but I can't help but feel torn. For oh so many reasons that I wish I could make sense of right now.

I am also coming to a strange realization that while there are so many people who are completely and utterly excited that we are pursuing adoption again that there are more than I'd like to admit that question why. Whether it be that we already have two and should be "happy" with that or because there are so many other families out there with no children who would just love one, or because there are many a days where we feel a bit scattered and crazy. And while I know that their opinions and thoughts on the matter really don't change the fact that The Gent and I know this is what we are supposed to be doing right now, I can't help but wonder if it would be different if I were pregnant with our third child. Would people say these things still? I can't help but feel like they wouldn't. They would be happy, excited, delighted and never question the reasons and thoughts behind why we decided to get pregnant again so why question the feelings and promptings that we have had that we are supposed to continue growing our family through adoption. I guess this is when my little infertility friend gets the better part of me. And I just need a little pity party about it sometimes. So please just indulge me for a minute.

There are many days that I just wish my body would figure things out. Why am I just broken? Yet at the same time after so many years of doctor's visits and negative pregnancy tests at this point I feel like the biggest idiot for even stopping to imagine what that might be like. I really try not to dwell on that but it creeps in as we go through the entire process of hoping to adopt and thinking how nice it might be to just be able to get pregnant.

And then the guilt sets in because I know in my heart that doesn't matter one bit. I have two of the most beautiful and amazing children in the entire world because of the greatest, selfless love of their birth parents (We love you Dee, Lys & P!). Their adoptions are some of the most spiritual experiences that I have and probably will ever experience in my entire life. And the things that The Gent and I have experienced together through infertility and adoption are the things that have truly defined our relationship and brought us closer together. We don't expect everyone to understand those experiences because they are personal to us. Because of them, I thought my little infertility friend had maybe taken on a new, friendlier form. I guess not.

As we continue our adoption journey, we are aware that there are so many different scenarios that could happen. The Boy & The Girl's adoptions were both so different. There were so many reasons that we waited three years for The Boy to join our family (none of which I realized while waiting for him). Yet we were supposed to put our adoption papers in when we did (for so many reasons other than the fact that we wanted a family). And there were so many different reasons that The Girl came when and how she did (the two week whirlwind that started the night before our cruise for our ten year anniversary that I know I have yet to write about). They both happened when and how they were supposed to. While we don't know what to expect or how long it might take, we do know that we need to follow the feelings and promptings we have when they come and do everything we can to allow it to happen.

In the brief, quiet moments that I have to myself, I find myself crying thinking about it. I am afraid. At the same time, the Spirit is so strong and is letting me know that everything is going to be OK and I know without a doubt that we need to be doing this right now. I just need to focus and not let my worries, thoughts and fears get the better part of me.

Potty Training 101

Where is potty training boot camp when you need it?
Seriously.
I am talking, ship him off and get him back a week later completely potty trained.
That's what I need.

I think I have officially gotten an F- in potty training. Our first attempt was over a year ago. I cannot tell you how many attempts there have been since then. What I can tell you are dozens of poop and pee stories around my house, my in-laws house, the back yard, etc. but if I were to do that no one would ever come over again. All I can say is thank heavens for Mr. Clean and Lysol. I promise everything is sanitized! :-)

So, a few weeks ago I officially gave up. Dropped out of potty training 101 and walked away with the F- I had felt for months was inevitable. And out of the blue, guess who decides to go potty. The Boy! He has only had a handful of accidents in the last week and has started telling people if he needs to go potty. It is unbelievable. He even went #2 all on his own and finally got the frog out of his "potty bucket" that he has been dying to play with for months now. He has stopped freaking out every time he realizes that he does need to head to the potty and will just run in and do it. I am shocked. I am so proud. I am hoping it sticks. As soon as he pooped we wanted to call everyone we know to tell them. Boy was he excited to share the great news and so was I. Please let this be it. Please let it not just be another attempt. How nice it would be to have one child out of diapers (well Pull Ups in his case with our many attempts).

Today as he headed to the park with The Gent's parents, I reminded him that he needed to let them know if he needed to go potty and he looked right at The Gent's mom and said, "yeah, because I'm a big boy!" Yes, yes you are. A big boy that ALWAYS goes potty on the big boy potty when you need to! Let's hope and pray this is it. I've had more than my share of cleaning up poop and pee and seriously might freak if I find one more "present" waiting somewhere.