Wordless Wednesday...Young Love

Strawberry Picking

Yesterday we took Ryan Strawberry picking and we had so much fun. It was the perfect way to end a great weekend and it was such a great experience for Ryan. He loved collecting the strawberries but he loved eating them even more. Every time we would turn around he was taking another bite of a strawberry...so cute!

Picking strawberries...
Having a taste...
Yum....
Finding strawberries...
Helping daddy pick strawberries...
Our end result...

Cheer Up Cooper!

Dear Cooper,

We hate to see you so sad and miserable....

We know you hate that we don't have grass for you to lay in...

And that our new house doesn't quite feel like home to you just yet....

But don't worry, we will have grass again soon and our house will start to feel like a home to you before you know it. Transitions are difficult, even for doggies. Cheer up Cooper!!!!

We miss....

Our happy....

Boy!!!

Wordless Wednesday...Corn on the cob

Adoption #2 Update....

A few weeks ago our agency sent us a letter informing us the recent and unexpected changes being made to Korean Adoptions. Here is what the letter stated...

"This email is being sent to AIAA families who are in the home study process for a referral of a child from our Korean Program. We want to update you on the current situation with our counterpart agency in Korea, Social Welfare Society.

The Korean Government has established “quotas” for the number of children that the four Korean agencies place for international adoptions. Each year for the past few years, they have reduced the number by 10% with the goal of eventually phasing out international adoptions. Most years, SWS reached their quota in the Fall.

In 2011, intake of children had increased from previous years. As a result, more referrals were made in the first four months of the year. I was just in Korea last week and was told that SWS had reached their quota for 2011. This means that AIAA will not be receiving any further referrals until late Fall of 2011 and the children will not be ready for travel until 2012. Also, we anticipate that there are no guarantees that the babies will be under the age of 12 months at time of referral.

We know that this is disappointing to you in your pursuit to adopt from Korea but, at this point, I have no reason to believe that children will not continue to be placed internationally in the foreseeable future."

Yesterday our caseworker came over for our home study. We only needed a home study update so the home study this time around only consisted of one visit. Our caseworker told us that our home study will not be sent to Korea until "sometime" this fall. After that little is unknown as to when we will even receive a referral and little is unknown that once we do receive a referral how long until travel. SO, with that information all we can do is put this process in the hands of God and wait. I guess things happen the way they do for a reason. In the end, we just want our little Annie. So if the wait is longer and she is older than we originally hoped for, we are just fine with that.

Until then we will enjoy our time with Ryan and enjoy our new home.

Ryan's 2 Year Photo Shoot

Lately Ryan has been TERRIBLE when it comes to taking pictures. Whenever I get the camera out he starts whining and turns away so it has been difficult to capture a descent picture of him. Even if I ask him to smile he does a fake smile and says Cheese in a whiny voice. SO, I have been putting off his 2 year pictures for a while because I knew it would be a challenge and I knew he would not cooperate with any one no matter who was taking his picture. I decided this morning that I would try a candy bribe just to see what would happen. Well, it worked and I was able to capture some nice pictures of him. I had to keep putting Tee-Tee on my head to make him smile. Here are a few pictures from today....

Ryan turns 2!

WARNING...long and picture heavy post....
Last week Ryan turned 2! I'm a little behind on blogging due to the fact that we just moved and are in the midst of our busiest month (I'll save that for a different post). We had such a great time celebrating with Ryan. The morning of his birthhday he woke up and he had a present waiting for him. It was a new "beep-beep" of course!!!! Later that day his BFF Mia came over and brought him a new present and he was super excited to play with her. That evening we had Ryan's favorite for dinner....PIZZA and then we sang Happy Birthday to him which is his favorite. He got to enjoy his very own "cup-cake-cake". ! It was such a sweet day.

Standing by the cupcake decoration...

Such a big boy...

He is saying Twooooo.....

Loving his new "beep-beep"...

About to blow out his candle...

The following day we celebrated Ryan's birthday with our family and had a great time. Turned out to be a beautiful day and best of all, Ryan got to spend the day playing with his cousins!

Ryan's Construction cake that Joey and I made...

Clapping after we sang Happy Birthday...

Blowing out his candles...This pic cracks me up!

His new bike....

Here's what Ryan has been up too...

*Ryan is repeating EVERYTHING at this point. Some words he says perfectly and then other words are his own version of it.

*He is 32.5 Inches Tall and Weighs 24.4 pounds. Dr. said he will be roughly 5'5-5'8!

*He loves playing with this trucks and cars the most.

*He loves playing outside...especially loves collecting rocks and going for rides on his new bike.

*He and Cooper (Booca) are THE best of friends.

*Ryan can count to 4 and will say A...B....C...

*He has started singing and it's hilarious!

*He still loves music and loves to dance.

*He loves his baseball bat and ball. He calls it "Beat-ball"

*He loves helping out and still loves using his tools to fix things or help daddy.

*Ryan is still hit and miss with his eating.

*Ryan has a love for older kids and is becoming VERY social. He loves giving kids hugs and saying Hi to everyone with a wave.

*He is becoming more obsessed with his blanket (Tee-Tee). He started saying "Tee-Tee where are you"...it's the cutest thing ever. Now he will add (Mama or Dada Where are you) as well.

*Ryan has a special love for book which makes me very happy. I hope he is a lifetime reader.

Ryan has come so far in his short little life and as parents, we couldn't be more proud of him. He's a friendly, sweet, loving, impatient, whiny, silly, sensitive, serious, smart, handsome, and funny little boy who we are truly blessed to call our son. I still can't believe that I've been blessed with such an awesome kid. I love who he is and what he has become and I look forward to watching him continue to thrive. Happy Birthday to our sweet little monkey! Can't believe you are 2!!!!
We just....
Love this....
Little boy...