3 months home ... a week of celebrating!

Finally a quiet moment to myself. I feel like since I've been back to work I don't have any time to just sit and relax. As a special treat, today I only worked for an hour to allow myself 30 minutes to just sit. I know my blog audience is dying to know what's going on, so I decided to dedicate a little portion of my free time to update the blog. So, here is your update. You're welcome. ;)

Our 3 month home anniversary was Monday, August 9. We didn't really plan this week to be so full of adventures, but it was. It was a great week of spending some extra family time together.

Last Tuesday the social worker from our adoption agency came out and did our 3-month post placement interview. She was here for about an hour and a half. In addition to having to watch my 2 kids out of the corner of my eye while I chatted with the social worker, I was watching 2 of our neighbors' kids. The neighbors got food poisoning and needed help watching their 5 kids so they could recover. Between the 4 kids every toy in our house was scattered around the first floor. I think I did a good job of not showing my anxiety as the mess got bigger and bigger.

The social worker asked me a lot of questions about the kids, how they are adjusting, how they've grown, what they've learned, etc. This report will be sent back to Ethiopia along with 5 pictures of each kid. From the sounds of it, it seems as though these reports are then given to the birth families. I need to clarify that, but this is what I thought the social worker told me. I think it would be very exciting for the birth families to see and know that Michael and Liliana are doing great with us and that they are very well taken care of.

Wednesday was my Dad's birthday. We had a small family gathering to celebrate his birthday. This was a special treat for our kids since dinner wasn't even served until 7:00, which is their bedtime.

Thursday night we went to the Dakota County Fair. We weren't sure what to expect from the kids, especially because it was over 90 degrees that day. But, much to our delight, the kids absolutely loved the fair. Michael went on a few rides with his cousins, Natalie and Emmie. He also played a game and one a prize (although the workers cheated so he would win... very nice of them :). We checked out all the animal barns which both the kids loved. Except the cow barn. Michael absolutely LOVES cows. We have some cows near our house and it's always the highlight of our trip in the car if he gets to see the cows. On our way into the cow barn a giant (and I mean GIANT) cow started to run away from the skinny teenager trying to pull him back into the barn. To make matters worse, the cow was moving directly towards Michael and Matt. Matt grabbed Michael just as the teenager got control of the cow again. After that, Michael wanted nothing to do with the cow barn. Poor boy.

After the animals we had some treats: cotton candy, pronto pups, cheese curds, and frozen lemonade. The kids liked everything except the cheese curds (good - more for me!). After we had seen everything, we were getting ready to leave. At that point an older gentleman came up to us and said, "How did that happen? You two with those two?" [insert long awkward pause here] "Oh, must be adoption." Weird. That's all I have to say. Weird.

Friday night we left to go visit Matt's grandparents in Crosby. We left at around 7:00 and arrived there at 10:00. The kids slept for about an hour in the car before we arrived. They actually did a great job at going back to sleep once we arrived and gave everyone hugs. The next day we spent time with great-grandma and great-grandpa around the house and at the park. After dinner together we headed home for another late night in the car. The kids slept well again in the car and transitioned back to bed without even waking up. They were still quite tired Sunday afternoon and took long naps.

We were sad to see our fun-filled week come to a close, but were glad it ended with a fun party at the park for Dad's birthday. The kids got to play with their cousins and Michael even went swimming despite the chilly weather.