Video!

We figured out about a week ago that Harper (kind of) knows that Pledge of Allegiance. They must say it at daycare everyday. Pretty cute.

Pottying is Always an Event

Components of a good poop:

1. Younger sibling must be around to witness and pull at toilet paper.

2. Younger sibling must check on status if process is taking too long.

3. Sometimes pooping is exhausting and you need a snack.

This past Monday Amanda and I called up Andrea to see if Adalai wanted to go to the library. They had some balerinas from the Nutcracker come and show us some moves. Needless to say I was very intrigued by the nutcrackers performance. There were not very many men there. But, I have 2 little girls so I better get used to these sorts of shows. Here are some pictures of Harper and Adalai with the snow queen and another balerina in a brown dress. Pretty exciting. The bottom picture is Harper getting ready to go to the library.

Who wants to come over for dinner???

I love how little kids want to help...with everything. When I do laundry, I have both girls bringing me handfuls of clothes and I have to pick each on up and let them throw the items in the washer. By the time the washer is full, my back hurts.

I used to let Harper help me make dinner, but that kind of stopped when Finley started to want to help too. Two babies standing on chairs is just not a good idea. So, I finally thought of bringing a side table to the kitchen...the perfect size! I hope I'm the kind of mom that always takes the time to let them help, and I hope they always want to!

Halloween!

This was our first year to actually go trick or treating. It was so much fun. Finley was like the claw machine at restaurants, she would keep trying to grab at the candy until she got the handful that grabbed the most. Harper had a hard time getting out "trick or treat" and "thank you", I think the big problem was that 90% of the houses by us have dogs which Harper didn't like. But she wants one someday...I hear about that every other day. She will say to us, "I get a doggy someday and I will pick up poop." We tell her the only way she can have a dog is if she will pick up his poop.

All I Want for Christmas...

Chris is working on a project and Harper was telling me how much she really wanted tools. They need to be the same as Daddy's but smaller, and definitely need to be red and blue like his too. When she told Chris, he told her she needed to talk to Papa Roro because that's where most of his tools came from. This led to a persistent 2 year old needing to talk to Papa Roro...who is in England right now. I convinced her a video on the blog would work, so Dad, hopefully you are keeping up with the blog.

In case you were wondering, she's been having some GI issues today:)

I Can't Make This Stuff Up

Lately Harper has been saying more adult/funny things that I don't think she's ever heard us say, here are some examples:

I got the girls breakfast and asked Harper "How's it going?", to this she responded "I'm not talking yet". That is TOTALLY the Chris in her.

Another day we bought a princess bag from a garage sale and Chris was teasing Harper and saying that we should throw it away and it was garbage. To this she responded "It's not garbage, it's perfect".

Just today, after naptime Harper told me "I had a dream at naptime" (she's never said she's had a dream before). I asked her what she dreamed about - "I dreamed I was Cinderella". That must have been an awesome dream for her:) So cute!

We Are Really Waiting Now

This week we were informed that our Dossier (incredibly thick document proving we are good parents) was authenticated in Washington D.C. and has now been received in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to be translated and prepared for court.

What does this mean? It means that our paperwork is all in line and in the correct place and we just need a child referral! We would appreciate continued prayers for our adoption. Our agency hasn't informed us of increased wait times, but they also have not been receiving many referrals so we are sure to be in for a long wait.

We are so thankful for everything God has given us, and we hope that His will is to add to our family soon!

This was 13 Months in the Making

Pumpkin Festival Parade

We went to the pumpkin festival parade last weekend. The day turned out to be pretty sunny. We were a little curious to see if Harper was able to get the hang of grabbing candy. She caught on quickly and moved from being cut-off by older kids to grabbing candy with both hands at once. Finley had a fun time sorting through all of Harper's candy and trying to eat candy with the wrappers on. Here are some pics.

Finley's 1st Birthday and some Sisterly Love

Finley turned 1 last weekend, it's so sad! My girls are getting so old. Last weekend Finley also started pretending to give babies bottles, crazy!

She's so cute:)

Finley still isn't walking, but if you watch the video you'll see that she probably could if she wanted...I think she's a chicken.

Later that day the girls just started randomly hugging each other, they were doing it for about a minute before I had the sense to start recording it.

White Girls Can't Jump

Anytime we want to be entertained, we simply ask Harper to show us how high she can jump. If you are wondering why she's only in her underwear, it's because she loves it. She walks around rubbing her belly saying "I'm naked as a blue jay".

Finley turns 1 year old this Sunday. Harper and I went shopping for her and I made it clear that we were buying something for Finley and she needed to look for something Finley would like. Harper tried to convince me that Finley wanted Cinderella memorabilia...which is weird because Harper wants to watch that movie everyday...hmmm. So needless to say, she gave me no insight on what FINLEY wanted for her birthday.

Another funny Harper story: I picked her and Fin up for daycare and then told Harper that we were picking up Daddy from work as well. To this she replied with much concern - "He's big, mommy...He's HEAVY". I never realized that she probably takes that phrase literally because when we pick her up from somewhere, we usually literally pick her up. I love how little minds work!

I feel guilty that I don't have any fun videos or stories about Finley. She does the cutest stuff all day long, but nothing that people would find that interesting outside of mom and dad. One day...perhaps a birthday cake eating video is to come???

Visa Approval!

Our Visa approval came in the mail this weekend for our future child! I am so excited to finally be at the end of the paperwork trail. Tomorrow I'm going to send off our Dossier to our adoption agency and cross my fingers that everything is done correctly.

Now we wait...our best guess is that it will be at least a year before we receive a referral for a child. A lot seems uncertain at this point, but we know it's God's will to provide for the orphan and He has directed our steps, so we are trusting Him to provide us with another little Esterling!

"Big Poop"

When working in healthcare, especially in the hospital setting, I have come into situations in which I wish there were things that the human body did not do, mainly pooping. I have never had a problem with anything else; i.e. blood, vomit, phlegm, urine. Needless to say, when I get home I want to be safe from this. After having kids I realize someone else's poop is unavoidable from my home life.

There is something about kid poop that grosses me out, but I still feel the need to acknowledge Harper's accomplishment on the toilet. Harper loves to read or watch a video on my phone while doing #2. If it takes her more than 2 short videos or more than 1 book, I know it's more than just #1. Tonight was one of those nights. For some reason I think it is a good thing I praise her for having a larger bowel movement than normal. As she stood up from her duty I said, "Man that was a big poop!" She promptly replied with satisfaction, "You like that daddy?"

Well, yes I guess I do my child, and I don't really know why.

The man of the house's 1st post

So I thought it would be time for the man of the house to make a grand entrance into this blog thing. Are blogs supposed to have 2 entries in 1 day? I have never blogged and I really don't ever read blogs. But here I am trying to contribute to our family log of events.


Amanda has been working hard throughout each day with having Harper memorize verses. For a while we wondered if she would ever learn 1 verse. But it seems that she has managed to get 3 of them down and is working on her 4th. They are:


Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.


Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters.


Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all heart and do not lean on your own understanding.


Psalm 1:6 - For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will PERISH (harper puts an emphasis on perish - she is really into judgement)

The definition of backwash

We are recovering from the weekend today, which includes cleaning our floors after babysitting for 7 children Saturday night. I got Harper to run one of our sweepers, I need to put her to work more often! Busy hands stay out of trouble, right?

We also got some kind of stomach bug this weekend. Finley had a temperature over 102. All she wanted to do was snuggle last night, so cute! You can tell she's so tired still, look at those cute, but very tired eyes.

Harper always wants to drink out of a cup these days, she'll ask for something in a cup and then say "I'll be very careful". She does pretty good...but the backwash is nasty! We had peanut butter cheese crackers for a snack this morning, can you tell? I think if Webster wanted a picture to define backwash, I could now provide one!

Bad Habits

We went to get fingerprinted yesterday in Naperville at a sort of immigration office. This is part of the requirement to get a Visa for our future child. We were the only white people there, another couple came in that were white and they started speaking Russian together. Needless to say, we were the ones everyone was staring at...especially because of our very talkative daughter.

The girls were good on the long drive back and forth. One funny moment was when I caught Harper picking her nose and told her to stop. This was her solution...

First day at PALS daycare

Today was the girls' first day at PALS. When we picked them up, we asked Harper what she did. This is her day, in her words:

"I played, I took a nap, I cried, I played outside!"

"I pooped in my underwear! Then I went on the potty, I tooted, it was gross!"

Awesome.

Finley's take home sheet said "Finley had so much fun on her first day that she only slept 20 minutes".

Thank you PALS for a very crabby baby tonight.

We have a new child!

The last few days have been really fun with Harper, she is like a brand new kid! She is so happy and energetic. She used to dance a lot and the last 6 months or so it was really hard to get her to do it, these last few days she's been dancing again. I also have a running commentary all day of what I'm doing or what I've already done, I can't get her to be quiet! Her imagination is also taking off, she's always going to the store or taking care of babies or cooking. It's awesome!

I am just praising God for helping poor little Harper out, we had no clue how much the lack of sleep was affecting her.

Here's a fun video, she thinks she's pretty hilarious...

I've got to include some cute Finley action too...she's been pushing and climbing on everything. She really likes to climb on this car, sometimes Harper pushes her around, it's all very dangerous:)

My very first post

Uhhh...I don't know what I'm doing! I'm like a 70 year old trying to figure out the internet. So sad, what have I become. I don't have anything else to say, I just want to see what this will look like.