Happy Birthday Isaiah!

As of today, we have a teenager in the house. Isaiah is now 13 years old. I got up this morning and surprised him with bacon, eggs, sourdough toast, and one of the world's best donuts from Rise 'n Roll for breakfast. I think he was pretty pleased. Now I need the rain to stop so I can grill pork burgers tonight.



Sawyer had to get in on the donut action this morning too.

Geothermal & Ice Cream

OK so I've been doing a poor job of actually documenting what is happening in Beachyville. This having 4 boys thing is keeping us busy. Here's a little update of a few things going on.

Geothermal

Two years ago I had looked into converting my heating system to geothermal but the payoff just seemed to take to long. Thanks the the federal tax credits for energy efficiency and the energy efficiency rebates available through the state of Indiana, the payback on a system conversion is much more appealing so I'm "going green". We're going to have a closed loop system with the ClimateMaster TMW Water-to-Water geothermal unit.

For the closed loop, we're having a horizontal loop put in, which means they'll be burying pipes in the ground between 3' and 6' below the surface in about 350' of trench. Since we're in the woods, that means we need to clear some space so that they can put the loop in. This actually works in our favor because we've been wanting to add onto the yard so we can move the swing set over closer to the deck. The last couple days have been spent cutting trees down and burning brush. Sawyer and Brennan really got in to working out there with us.

Here's a few shots of the action...











Ice Cream Run

Did anybody else see that Dairy Queen commercial with the family who ran through the car wash to get in their car and chase down the DQ truck? Well, we saw it Sunday night around 7:00 and saw that Sunday was the last day you could buy one blizzard and get the 2nd one for $0.25. Being the spontaneous folks that we are (speaking sarcastically), we threw the kids in the van and headed for DQ. We went through the drive through, ate in the van, and then drove back home. It was a good time and the boys loved it.

Funny Brennan Story

Brennan has been wanting to act "older" lately and last night he told me that he wanted to wake up and get ready for school by himself. I didn't think much about it at the time. Well this morning all of a sudden Brennan was standing beside our bed and he proudly told us that he was ready for school. He had gone potty, brushed teeth, ate his breakfast, and put on the clothes we had laid out for school today. There was only 1 minor problem....it was 4:00 AM! After we told him that he still needed to sleep for a few more hours, he hopped into bed with us. Just as he was drifting off to sleep he pointed at the ceiling and frantically said "there are bugs in the house, there are bugs in the house". Either he has amazing night vision or he was just pointing at the green light on the smoke detector.

For a little further explanation, Brennan's desire to act "older" is because he wants to be like his older cousin Isaiah who is 12. For those who don't know, Isaiah (my sister's son) moved in with us in the middle of January and is in the 7th grade. Since then Brennan has tried to grow up quickly so he can do things like Isaiah does. Thus, he woke up this morning to get himself ready for school all by himself. If only he could tell time like Isaiah can.

Oh Christmas Tree

First of all, sorry for the no posting slump I've been in lately. It's too the point where I feel like I need a home run post to break out of the slump, but I've given up on that and I'm hoping a bloop single over the second baseman's head can help me end the slump. OK, on to the actual post...

The last few years we've been putting up my parents "fake" Christmas tree. This year I was dreading the process because it turns me into a scrooge every time. You have to take every piece and spread apart the branches and I was sick of it. I decided it may be time to venture out and go get a real, live Christmas tree.

So, last Saturday we bundled up and headed to Wilfong's to find and cut down our own tree. It went pretty well. We may have started a tradition. We walked around a bit trying to find the "perfect" tree but at some point you just get really cold, the kids start fussing, and you need to cut down a tree and get out of there. I'm not sure we found the perfect tree but it looks pretty good. We got an 8' tall Douglas Fir. The other kinds had looked pretty good but they were twice as much money.

Here are a few pictures of the adventure.












Jeremiah turns 1 on Friday so that should give me enough motivation to put together another post. Maybe it will be a double in the gap. Jeremiah isn't walking yet but he's likes to stand up beside anything he can grab ahold of. He's managed to find the kitchen cabinets.







Upon further review, based on the number of pictures I've included in this post, I feel like it at least qualifies as a hard ground ball through the infield. Forget this bloop single stuff.

Kindergarten

Today was Brennan's first day of Kindergarten!


We all (minus Jeremiah who was still in bed) walked out to the end of the drive this morning and waited with Brennan for the bus to pick him up.


When the bus pulled up to our driveway, Brennan walked right up to the bus and hopped on. The bus driver told him to turn around so his mom could take a picture. Brennan gave a quick turn, said "cheese", and headed for a seat. And then he was gone...


When he got home in the afternoon he said that riding the bus was his favorite part of kindergarten. I think he enjoyed a few other things too, but he wasn't too impressed with nap time. Kids just don't understand how great that concept is. Who wouldn't love a designated 30 minute time period to lay down and rest in the middle of the day?

Sawyer wants to go to kindergarten too but sadly he's got 4 more years until he can join Brennan on the bus.


Here are a few Jeremiah pictures taken over the last few weeks. He continues to do really well. He's such a happy, laid back little guy. Plus he's ridiculously cute in my biased opinion.

I had to include this picture of him in his Bears onesie for his little buddy Silas B.






Monica and her three boys.


Random - the Goodyear blimp flew right over our house today. Not sure where it was going.

Trip - Days 5 & 6

OK, sorry for the long delay in posting...

Day 5 - Sunday

Sunday morning we ate breakfast with the Ralph’s and then left for church around 10:00. We went to their local MKC (Meserete Kristos Church) congregation. They don’t attend there regularly because the service is in Amharic (can't say I blame them). The service starts at 10:00 but the first 30 - 45 minutes is people filtering in and kneeling or sitting at their bench to pray. They are vocal prayers! I guess it was good to experience the service but after awhile I was ready for the service to be over. After church we went back to the Ralph’s for lunch and then packed our stuff up and Jim drove us to the Union Hotel. The Ralph's were SO great to us! Hosting us for those first couple days was a huge blessing to us.

The Union Hotel


Here are a few pictures of our room.


This bed may as well have been a sheet of plywood with a sheet on it. I'm sure there are some Room 106 alumni out there who can attest to this.


We were glad to see we had a crib in our room.




After we got checked in, we started looking at our window to try to see Hannah’s Hope ("HH"). We couldn’t see it from our balcony but when we went up to the 2nd and 3rd floors we were able to easily see HH.


I convinced Monica that we needed to walk over there. It was so close, how could we not? We agreed that we wouldn’t knock on the door because we didn’t want to mess up their schedule by showing up a day early. We could hear the older kids playing inside and at one point a ball came over the wall and I threw it back over. We took our pictures by the gate to HH and then headed back to the hotel.




When we got back to the hotel, we saw an American in the lobby. We weren’t expecting anyone from the AGCI travel group until later that evening, but I asked her if she was there with AGCI. Her and her husband were there with Holt International, an adoption agency that has an orphanage next door to the hotel. There were 4 couples at the Union adopting through Holt. They invited us to go out for pizza with them Sunday night at the Addis Ababa Golf Club. It was fun hanging out with them and getting to know them a bit. After we got back from supper, it was time to get to bed and get ready for the big day. I took some sleeping pills just to make sure I’d get plenty of rest.

Day 6 - Monday (Gotcha Day)

Monday morning we went down for breakfast and that’s when we got to meet the AGCI families in our travel group. There were 8 families in our group. It was good to meet some of the people who I had gotten to know through blogs and emails. There were a few mystery families in our group who kept themselves hidden from blog land. We had a great group!

Around 9:00 or a little after Almaz showed up and we went over a few things and worked on the I-600 and I-864 forms. We also placed our coffee order at that time. I ordered 10 kilos which is somewhere around 22 lbs and it only cost 600 birr ($55).


After we got through that stuff it was time to the real walk. Only one family in our group was getting an older child, the rest of us were getting infants. We all got to see Jason & Kala meet their son who is 4 years old. It was a very special moment. He ran right up to them and was hugging them and was so excited to see them. If you didn't tear up a bit watching that, something is wrong. Kala said later that meeting him went better than she could have ever dreamed.


After that we went inside the main building where the babies were. One of the first babies I saw when were standing inside the front door was Troy & Amber's little boy Silas. We still haven't met Troy and Amber but we've exchanged a lot of emails so it was great to see their son.


We waited while a few other families met their children. Then Almaz took us to where Bemnet was. He was sleeping in his crib so we just looked at him for a bit. He was napping in courdory pants and a long sleeve onesie. As if that wasn't enough to keep him warm, he was wrapped up in a thick blanket plus he had a comforter on top of him. Oh and they had an electric space heater running in the room. It was by no means cold outside either. No wonder they give those kids 2 baths a day.


Here's Monica getting her first peek at our little guy.


After a while one of his special moms came and woke him up and handed him to Monica. What a great moment!




Here's a picture of a few proud and happy parents.


After spending some time holding Bemnet and seeing the other families and their children, we had to get ready for our appointment at the US Embassy. We went to the hotel, got our stuff, came back to HH, got Bemnet, and got on the bus for the Embassy. I think we left around noon for the Embassy and our appointments were at 1:00. The actual appointment at the Embassy was very simple. After all our families were done, we loaded back up on the bus and headed back to the hotel.

On the bus ride to and from the embassy and while we were there, Bemnet was such a trooper. He just took it all in and was happy and content the whole time. Back at the hotel Monica was showing him pictures of his brother and he would get excited and laugh when she said "brothers" or "Brennan and Sawyer".


That evening I took a few of the guys over to the golf club to get a few pizzas. The plan was for us to get extra so that we could leave some in the fridge in our room for later. Unfortunately the power was out most of the next day. It got pretty warm in the fridge. Had I been at home, I may have eaten it but I didn’t want to risk getting sick on this trip.

If you didn't see it before, here's a link to the blog entry I posted from Ethiopia after that first day with Jeremiah Bemnet.

Misc. Picture Update

Our friends, Gavin & Amy loaned us their exersaucer for Jeremiah to use. He always wants to stand up and after awhile our arms get tired so this thing is great. He's really enjoyed hanging out in it.


Sawyer likes hanging out around the exersaucer and trying to play with whatever Jeremiah is playing with. Brothers...


Jeremiah keeps finding this really cute kid to look at on the exersaucer.


This is what happens when you watch too much baseball instead of putting your son to bed.


At the beginning of June, Brennan learned to ride bike without training wheels. He's been pedaling like crazy ever since. He loves it! He's been on several "long" bike rides since he learned (2+ miles). He has to take some breaks on the longer rides to look back and see how far he's gone.






Sawyer enjoys the bouncy seat more than Jeremiah does. He's always crawling in the thing. He thinks he's pretty funny. Hopefully it can last at least a few more months.


Sawyer has been a full fledged mama's boy since we've come back from Ethiopia. This picture shows one of the happy moments but there are plenty of annoying "mommy hold you" comments that Sawyer makes along with other whining and screaming when mommy is holding Jeremiah or needing to do something else. This too shall pass...I hope.


We live in the woods and we've got a pretty good crop of wild raspberries right now at various spots in the woods. We've been out picking a few evenings over the last week. Tonight we were all out picking. Sawyer eats them as fast as he can pick them. It's pretty funny. There are a couple good shots of him, post raspberry eating.