Our Other Babies

When I sat down at the computer this morning I saw the adorable wallpaper on Allison's desktop of Kimball being eaten by the Thashers mascot during Bark at the Ballpark, then I switched over to mine and it is Louie with a feather on his nose looking like he'd say "do I have something on my nose?" if he could talk, then I remembered that Aleks' is Romeo dressed up as a lamp. We love our dogs! I really don't know how I ever lived without four-legged furry buddies running around. They are so special, here are some of the cutest photos we have of them.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Big Weekend

I almost went to bed without posting this, but I figured I better not procrastinate any longer. Aleks' step dad came into town for a regatta by the pier and stayed with us for a few days, he was the last grandparent the kids needed to meet. Gabriel loves him, he keeps asking when he is coming back and is sure to tell me which character Grandpa is in the books I'm read him. Allison also enjoyed her time with Grandpa, he introduced her to Thai tea and ankle bracelets, what's not to love about a guy like that? Grandpa actually owns a sailboat factory in TN, he trained Gabe up to be the next family sailor. Allison might try sailing this summer through a camp, Antonio should do it with her.
Then on Sunday night we went to XiiR (extreme international ice racing, as if you didn't already know that) at the Forum with Kasey and Loyda. I will be honest, I was sorta tired by Sunday afternoon and Allison's behavior over the previous 4 days wasn't stellar, so I didn't know how much fun we were going to have. BUT...it was awesome! Allison totally loved it, Loyda's other friends were cool, Gabriel and Kasey were too cute and I actually got into the races myself. Alli and I became fans of #22 Hippy and #5 The British Bulldog. Hippy signed Alli's hand (she chickened out of the forehead by the time we got to him) and the Bulldog put Gabe on the table and gave him the hat off his head after he signed it!! Not bad! Anyhoo, this is exceeding the amount of work I planned on putting into anything tonight ;)
XOXO Carrie

Oh, Lo asked me to be in her wedding today, so excited!!!! I had to put a puzzle together that she stamped with the a little poem. I suck, I was trying to put edge pieces in the middle...let's hope I don't end up in charge of anything too serious.

Oooo, I have to add this last little part. Aleks' Granny has collected Madam Alexander dolls since before he was born and in the valentine package from Grandpa and Mom mom Granny sent Allison a little doll named "Pussy Cat" (if that is her name on the tag, I guess it could refer to something else) and Alli so LOVES it. Right now I have her sitting in a bowl in the china cabinet, but Alli gets her out to carry her around. IDK if she should really be handling her, but I think the value is mostly going to be sentimental...and she is already priceless in that department.

****A million hours after last typing! I couldn't pick any crappy OTM music to accompany this slideshow, so please enjoy in silence~grrrrr****

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

OMG!!!!!!!!!

Our caseworker was supposed to get back to me last week about when the court date for a non-relative placement would be, but she didn't. So, I called her a million times over the weekend and this morning. She said she had court today and she'd make sure to ask the attorney. I got a call at 5:30 saying that the placement came through and we are the legal caregivers!! Today is day 1 of 90, let the count down begin!

They say that no news is good news, but that’s just not the case. We have had the kids unofficially living with us for almost 3 months and the proper steps to have them legally placed still haven’t happened. Every fifth night I have to take them “home” crying and pouting because they can’t be out of their “bed” for longer than 4 nights in a row. Our fingerprints have been lost, the request for background checks was submitted to the right department but they didn’t submit it to the FBI, my (not Aleks’, suspicious) FBI clearance letter said foster rather than adoptive and that caused major problems, we couldn’t get a reasonable appointment for our NEW fingerprints so I had to complain, our background checks finally came through but expired while we were waiting for other issues to get resolved, so now we are waiting for a THIRD round of background checks before they can be legally placed with us and we can start counting the 90 day wait period to get consent for adoption and then about a month to get a court date for the finalization. On Tuesday we are hopefully getting them here in a non-relative placement (for those of you who know about George and Amber, it’s that same arrangement), not quite ideal because it will not count towards our 90 day wait period, but at least they won’t have to go back to their foster home anymore. And I’ll get to sign her school papers and mover her to another school. I could go into crazy detail about how horrible her school has been about all this, but I think for my mental stability I’ll just say that they are not as supportive as you probably think they would be.

Enjoy some January pics! I took Allison’s hair down and she wore it straight for a few days before I rebraided it, which I think I am getting pretty good at. The trampoline has been a big hit, Gabriel always begs to get it wet. And sadly, there is a new queen of the dogs ;) I guess I can share!

This was taken 3 years ago, during my reign :)

The Photo Shoot

A while back we had a photo shoot for the Heart Gallery, you might remember. These are the best shots. Also, we signed some palcement paperwork that had a spot for the chilren's future names. We had to decide if we were going through with the first name changes-we did.


So, here are Allison Elizabeth Preston and Gabriel Joshua Preston!

Bitter Sweet

Adopting older children has been great for me and Aleks. Precious and JJ fit here so well, it is obvious that we are meant to be a family. There are aspects of this situation that I didn't anticipate though. Recently, I found out that JJ has CDs with baby pictures on them, tonight I got them. The emotions that I went through looking at my son as a baby were intense. I wish we could have had them here all along, I wish I could have held him while he was sleeping...




...I really appreciate the foster family that valued his development and knew that these pictures would be important to us one day.

Happy New Year!!

2009 already, can't believe it. We were low key this year, just watched the ball drop at home with some fairly cheesy, FL friendly ground sparklers. Precious was really impressed with herself for holding a sparkler, apparently she hadn't ever done that before. She was marching around proclaiming that she was a beauty queen, it was very innocent of her (for a change). JJ was in hyper mode the whole time, I don't know how we all didn't get 3rd degree burns from him. I just shook my head when he stared me down and told me that it barely hurts when the sparks touch your skin...great. We set the fireworks off at like 10 though, and JJ started getting tired soon after. Aleks had to drag him out of his room at 11:30, but he curled up next to me and fell right back to sleep. At 11:57 Aleks started waking him up and he cried, but he did keep his eyes open for the countdown. The next morning I said "Happy New Year, it's 2009 now!" and he was somber and said "I know, I saw the ball drop." Poor kid, such is life.

The children still haven't been officially placed here. According to the caseworker this weekend is the magic date-right. I've heard that before. The calming "ahhh, that wasn't so bad" that should come with finalization can't come soon enough.