Family Update

Baseball

I haven't been blogging much but I wanted to give an update. Daniel started coach-pitch Little League and loves it. John is the head coach but has some awesome Assistant Coaches. Daniel loves it and is getting so good. I will post a picture when we get them back.

Adoption
We sent our dossier to Ukraine on April 14 and it was delivered to our facilitator on April 17. We got an email from her this morning saying the she will put us on the list for submission tomorrow. We will probably have to change some paperwork because I guess lots has changed in the last couple of months. I hope we will still hold our place if that is the case. We are still hoping for travel during the summer.

School

Daniel is doing well in school. He is a reading machine and loves math and patterns. He is doing much better with his handwriting (I can sometimes read it:0)). Of course he loves the social part of it and all of themes. He is learning about ladybugs this week. He has had so many field trips and parties this year. These Kindergarten teachers are amazing. He goes to drawing club after school on Wednesday and loves it. He is so proud of himself because drawing is not a talent that comes easy for him. I think I will put him in piano next year. I think he will like it because of the music portion and it will be good for finger strengthening and coordination.

Work

John and I both still love our jobs working in the school. It is very nice working so close to home and being on the same schedule as Daniel. John has great people who he works with that have help him during this difficult time. Jill loves Augusta Ranch and all whom she works with there.

Baby Kate

Last but certainly not least, Baby Kate. She might not officially be ours but we feel like she it. She is so adorable. He little walk and her little run. Her persistance and her laugh. Daniel can just look at her and she will laugh. They are pretty much best friends. It doesn't matter that she is a 15-month baby girl and he is a 6 year old boy. He tells me that she is his funniest cousin, just in front of Kaleb. She is pretty funny. She even does tricks. She is such a joy in our lives.

We are in Mourning

James F. Rhode
February 20, 1929 to March 7, 2009

On March 7, 2009 James Fredrick Rhode, John's dad passed away of a sudden heart attack. He has not been well for a while but this was a huge shock. We expected to have all of our documents by the middle of March but now we are trying to get through this tradegy. We will still try and get every thing put together by April but we will see.

John is taking it up a notch

I am so proud of John. He is really doing his part getting all of the documents together. We really wanted to have everything before spring break in a week and a half but now we need new blood tests from the Dr. because the other ones are too old. He got us appointment for tomorrow which is unbelievable in Arizona in the winter (lots of sick snowbirds I guess). But then we will have to wait for the test results. Oh well, everything has gone so fast so far I have to believe that it will continue to move along. We had our fingerprint appoints at INS on February 6th and our homestudy was sent a couple days later. We expect to have our I171 back by the end of March. We still need a couple more items but I think the Dr. letters are going to take the longest. This is so hard because it is such a delicate timing situation. We don't get done with school until May 22 so we really don't want an appointment before June but then we start school again in August so we would like to be home before then. This only gives a small window of opportunity. But we just have to go on faith and know that it will all work out.

Adopting Again

So, we again begun starting the process of international adoption. We are looking at Ukraine and going independently through Ukrainian Angels. Everything so far has been very quickly. Our Homestudy is done and our fingerprints have been taken by INS. We are working on our Dossier right now but it looks much easier than Russia. We do have a couple of obstacle but we know that we will be able to overcome. We are going to the temple tonight to get some spiritual strength and maybe some answers. We love Ukrainian Angels already and we haven't even signed up with them yet. They are so helpful and other people that have previously adopted from AZ have already email me with promises of any help they can give me. Pretty cool.

Daniel's Birthday

Daniel turned 6 on January 31st.
This happened to be on a
Saturday so he was able to have
his birthday party on his actual
birthday. It was
pretty cool. We had it at Xtreme
Play and Daniel invited lots of
friends from school, church and
the neighborhood.

First they played video games

Kate's First Birthday

Yesterday, Kate turned one. She had a big party with a BBQ and pink cupcakes. She tasted sugar for the first time which Courtney was forced into. She was so good and was a little social butterfly. Daniel was a little overprotective and wasn't too sure if he liked all the people holding her and playing with her.

Christmas Breakfast at Gary and Kathy's

First, we ate a wonderful breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns and juice. Then, we opened presents from Courtney, the Grandparents and each other. Then, we played with the presents and video games. We had lots of fun!