Another Adoption Update

September 1st will mark 1 year on the family waiting list for Ethiopia.  We are getting excited lately because this month our agency has had at least 7 referrals plus 2 sibling groups of 3 kids released.  We won't know how many for sure until they send an update in September.  But this means we are probably in the 50s and maybe in the 40s on the family waiting list.  If this movement keeps up it won't be that long till we are announcing our next kid!

Please keep praying for children that are in need of families to be released for adoption and the country to remain stable - we appreciate it!

New Milestone!

Harper spelled her name all by herself tonight.  I am so proud of her!  I tried to take a picture of her beside her name.  The only one where she was standing nice was when she was covering up the "H".  Of course, she's not wearing pants because after a long day of daycare they just need to come off.  

Can you see the HArPEr???

Harper and Finley Tubing

Over the summer we have gotten both girls to go tubing. 

This is a pretty courageous activity for Harper girl, when the ride gets bumpy she is done riding.

Finley was mainly concerned with keeping her sunglasses on.  After awhile she'll start leaning on you like she's going to fall asleep.

Post Nap Blues

The only part of the day I dread with my girls is when they wake up from naps.  It doesn't matter how long they've slept, most of the time they are CRABBY.

For some reason ice cream cures the blues real quick like:)

Worst Movie for a Three Year Old

ANNIE (yep, the musical)

Harper watched part of this musical almost a week ago.  The questions I have gotten since then:

1.  When you and Daddy are gone, will a mean lady watch us?

2.  Where are Grandma Haefli's and Grandma Jo's dads? (um, they are dead)

3.  When is Daddy going to die? (I don't think anytime soon)

4.  Tomorrow? (no)

5.  Are you going away soon? (nope, not in my plans)

6.  But where is Grandma Jo's daddy? 

I think part of her logic is that if her great grandma's parents are dead, then it's almost time for us too. 

Annie is one scary movie. 

Pinterest Inspiration

I recently saw a post on how to fold shirts and put them in drawers to create more space.  I actually tried it and love how well it works!  I even got to fit my tank tops in what used to be my 1.5 drawer space for shirts.

Before:  Only Shirts

After:  Shirts in bottom and now tanks in the upper half (bathing suits and hose are in the other half).  And now I can find shirts much easier too.

Seriously, how did I survive without Pinterest??

I have to include the girls too.  This is a picture from the other day when they were watching Super Why.  Harper is so much like Chris, she finds a blanket and cuddles up.  

Sometimes when she watches TV, she'll wrap the blanket around herself so she's just peeking out of it. Can you find the Harper girl in this picture?

Moms vs Dads

Let me be honest, I can get really annoyed at Chris.  He just does parenting differently (aka not as good as me, right?).  Because I work 3 days a week and many of these fall on weekends and 2nd shifts, Chris gets to have the girls all to himself- and chaos ensues.  

I keep an eye on my children at all times, I can't help it.  It's my job.  I don't think Chris considers it his job and he'll tell me about things that happen and I usually don't understand why they happened.  The usual excuses lately have been "I was doing dishes" or "I was on the computer".  Why can't guys multitask?  

I received these pictures in my email while at work last week.  Apparently Chris didn't notice they dismantled a closet and diaper bag:

They were taking turns changing each other's diapers (weird):

Harper came up to Chris and told him she found a bandaid:

Yep, that's what you think it is.

It is pretty funny, but that night I was irritated when he showed me the pictures.  I just wonder what really bad stuff could happen and him not notice.  His response?  "Well Harper would have been able to take care of any huge injury herself with that BIG bandaid".  Grrrr...

Summer Shoes

One thing I love about summer is that kids only need one pair of shoes.  These are this summer's essentials.  The only problem is Sunday.  Harper's at least look good with summer dresses, but Finley's I think are rather ugly, practical, but ugly.  We usually try to make her wear other shoes on Sunday and that girl gets very sad.  She loves her crocs.  The day she grows out of them will be a sad one.  

Kitchen Remodel

Our kitchen isn't too bad.  The cabinets are pretty old and the paint is chipping.  The layout isn't very functional.  Not our style.  We've always known we would probably redo it at some point and since our adoption has taken longer, we are deciding to attack the job in the spring.  I'll have to do before and after pictures at that time.  Right now we are getting estimates - man it's expensive!  So we'll see how much I'll be able to get to do.

Here are some pictures of kitchen's l love (thank goodness for Pinterest, right?)

I love the look of a large farmhouse table in the middle a white kitchen, we'll do the same with the table Chris built.  We have 2 long benches right now with it and we'll keep a bench on one side and then have chairs - and I'm thinking white too!   Don't worry, the walls with be cream for a splash of color.  Ha!

We want to do white shaker style cabinets with white subway tile backsplash.  This style usually has carrera marble or black counter tops, I think we are going to try to find a carrera marble look alike.

We want a more rustic looking floor with color variation so you can't tell how dirty it is.  Other details I like - farmhouse sink, mudroom component since the main floor is one big room, a single drawer dishwasher with a cabinet drawer underneath for more space, and open cabinetry.  Ewww, and these lights over the table:

What do you think?  Am I dreaming?  We'll see as the money starts adding up...

Adoption Update

We were warned before, we knew our chances of having a rocky road were great, but we still are discouraged it's happening to us!  To say that adoption can be a roller coaster ride of emotions is true, but in reality it is more like the ride is frozen.  So frustrating to not know what's going to happen or never happen.

That is pretty much the update:)  Will be our update probably for another year.  We talked to our adoption agency about a month ago and we were around #70 on the waiting list (In January we were around #90 to give some perspective).  The positive side is that our adoption agency seems to be getting more referrals lately, so hopefully that continues.  In the last two months they were able to match 12 children with their forever families, if this trend continues it could be next summer when we know who the next Esterling is.  We know anything can change at anytime, so we continue to pray for God's provision.  

Last night at work, I saw a toddler boy with an afro and it just made me smile.  For some reason I am thinking we'll get a little boy and he just might have to sport an afro because I think they are so stinkin' cute!

In the mean time, I've become really motivated to do some major home renovations.  Maybe this is a form of nesting because I keep thinking "having three kids is going to be crazy...I need to update this house NOW...or else it could be YEARS".  

I'll have to share some inspirations for our future kitchen, unfortunately my dreams are bigger than our budget.  

I'm Back!

So, I'm really having trouble getting into this blog thing, our life is pretty boring overall and I struggle with wanting something really interesting to say before I blog.  The truth is though, that I love reading other people's blogs, even if they are just about everyday things.

It takes 30 days to create a habit, right?  So I'm going to try 30 days of blogging...we'll see how it goes. Chris and I also said we are going to start exercising everyday starting Saturday, that may not last long either.  Tomorrow is always the best day to start something:)

Here's a picture to start our 30 day adventure (I've also gotten lazy about taking pictures of the girls) from this morning.  It's a lot of wishful thinking, but Finley had fun trying:

That's all for now, I don't want to reveal to much about our lives the first day!