Pala's Birthday Video

Judge signed!!!

We are officially Pala's legal guardians!!! This judge is not messing around!!! Can't wait to get our "legals" and see all the stamps and signatures for myself, especially that NOC that took so stinking long!!! :) Come on passport office.... get us through fast! Well, we actually need it to take at least a week... our paperwork was just sent in for mine and Shad's tourist VISA's and they take 3-5 days from arrival! lol

CASE APPROVED!!!!!!

Oh my word!!!!

Our case was approved!!!

That was super super quick!! We weren't expecting to pass court before the end of the month when they close for the Durga Puja holiday! I am still in shock!!

Now the judge will sign our case next week and then ISRC will apply for her passport! Wow!! In about 4-5 weeks I will finally be holding my angel!!!!

Thanks for all of your prayers!!!

Getting so big...

A family traveling to bring their daughter home took these pics and had this to say...

Pala was the most curious of the older children at Anju's office location. She was standing in her crib and watching EVERYTHING.... very happily. I am sorry I didn't have them put Pala's oufit on (the one Maggie sent for her) but they had just finished dressing the kids and I couldn't bear to ask them to change her! I hope Maggie enjoy's the pics! :)

Thanks guys!!
Wishing you safe travels home!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY PALA!!!

Just in case you didn't know...

Pala is 1 today!!!

Yesterday, we celebrated with family at camp.
As always, when we host a BBQ there is too much good food!! BBQ chicken, roasted corn, etc.
We started a video diary for Pala's keepsake box to let her know how much everyone loves and misses her on her birthday... and every day that she's not with us!

We each had special t-shirts on for the day and of course I had to be a kid and lick the cake like she would have done. :)

and just when I thought I was really crazy....
we got a puppy for Pala !!
(well, actually for mommy but Pala's birthday was an excuse)

This is Molly!!

I'm hoping to get a video around of the party later this week.
We are still waiting for Scrutiny so no more new news. The Nix Family traveled last week and took this small gift to our little princess, so we are hoping to have some new pictures soon. We sent this outfit and photo album of our family for her. Let's hope it fits! :)

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend!!
God bless!!

Our summer hodge podge of fun!!!

It's so hard to believe that the summer is almost over. We've had a lot going on while we wait patiently to bring Pala home.

Treyton and Cooper both participated in the summer soccer program.

Of course due to their age difference were on 2 diff teams so that made a lot more running for me... but isn't that moms do anyways?! RUN, RUN, RUN!!! Ha!

We've enjoyed a trip to the County Fair and also took a few craft classes this summer...

the boys made their own dream catchers, sewed tote bags, and made special birthstone bracelets for Pala and mom.


Attended Shad's company picnic. They host it every year up on Little York Lake just outside of Cortland. We always have a good time going. More food than you could imagine!!

Squeezed in a couple of trips to the Science Center in Ithaca and then Darien Lake.


Watched the Summer Recreation's production of Beauty and the Beast. Treyton and Cooper were the wolves. The kids all practiced Monday thru Thurday for about 8 weeks. They did a really great job!!! Way to go everyone!!

Celebrated India's Independence Day on August 15th at India Day in Corning, NY. Good food, great entertainment and of course... Henna tattoos!!

Somehow we still managed to make it to camp!!
(It feels like I'm forgetting about something!)

And....... celebrated Treyton's 10th birthday!!! Yep.... 10! Wow!! Time flies!!

Next week is FULL of dentist appointments and eye exams! Yeehaw!! :)

Austin is missing from most of the photos because he was busy taking guitar and golf lessons and then spent a week in Myrtle Beach with his Uncle Shawn and Aunt Roberta. I have yet to see photos from his trip... hint hint!! but I AM constantly hearing what a good time he had and about "the chick in the pink polka dot bikini at the beach"!! :)
Thanks guys for having him down!!!

FAMILY IN NEED!!!!

I'm sharing an email that I received from our adoption agency today with you all in hopes that someone out there will be able to help this little boy in need!! Please pass this on to as many families as you can!! If you would like more information please contact me and I will forward it to the family.

Dear Families,

We hope this email finds all of you doing well. We are contacting all of our India families to share with you about a little boy named Ben.

Ben is a 7 year old boy adopted from India/ISRC. He joined his family right before his 1^st birthday. Ben was diagnosed in 2007 with systematic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Ben has become very ill in the recent weeks and is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. In an attempt to help Ben’s family find a possible match for Ben we are sending this to all of our families who have adopted a child/children from India. If you are an individual of Indian Heritage and/or you have an adopted child from India that is 18 years of age or older you can go to the following link and order a kit: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html and submit it back to the Bone Marrow Registry.

Please feel free to pass this along to other families that you think might be able to help, especially those of Indian Heritage, and please be praying for the family. Thank you!

We have NOC!!!!!!

Finally!!! Ms. Roy received our NOC today!!! According to Tami she was just as excited as we are!!!! Just after I posted my last whiny post, Tami called to tell us the good news!!!!

Thank you for your prayers!

And the days go by...

Well, another week has passed us by and we still do not have our NOC! CARA is telling us the same thing they told us 8 weeks ago... "it's on its way". I am so thankful to have such a wonderful support system to help me deal with this unnecessary wait. It doesn't seem to bother Shad as much as it does me for some reason. I guess because he gets up and goes to work every day and I don't?! I'm with the boys 24/7 and I keep imagining Pala with us at all of our little activities here and there that I "drag" the kids to. There are 11 month olds everywhere it seem s like... at camp, my God daughter is a week younger than Pala... at the boys soccer games, there's a set of twins that are her age!! If I see anyone with a baby I find myself inclined to ask how old and how much they weigh... weird eh?! More out of longing for Pala than curiosity I guess. It helps me to feel connected to her. We did receive an update on her last week and she is a little over 26" tall and 16lbs. I'm finding that most 4 month olds weigh that here in the states!!! She looks soooo much bigger than that in her pictures!! The report also said that she is doing VERY well and can pull herself up to a standing position while hanging onto her crib and walks along it. She's crawling ALL over the place. All of her reports have been positive so that helps!! I have no doubt in my mind that she is well cared for and I believe that she will be walking by the time we are able to bring her home. I wonder if I can convince them to start potty training...jk!!!! This long delay has thrown all of our plans for her for a loop! When we accepted her referral in March, I really really thought that we would be traveling close to her birthday. This long wait for NOC makes it almost impossible to make it through courts before they close for a month at the end of September. Which means... we won't be traveling to India until Thanksgiving time!!! Which means... I will miss the birth of my nephew "Cameron"! Ohhhh... (sigh... sigh...). Maybe I just need to sit back and look at this one day at a time!! I still don't have Pala's bedroom done!! Both Shad and I agreed that we would start it when we had NOC... really thinking it was going to be around Memorial Day and then we stretched it to 4th of July!!! Ha! Boy were we way out to lunch!!!

I really wasn't expecting this post to be so long so I'll save pictures of some our activities for another day.

A big congrats to Seneca and Liberty on their new referrals!! Best of luck to Kristi on your move to Boise!

Not any closer...

Tomorrow Pala will be 11 months old and we aren't any closer to bringing her home. Our paperwork has been at CARA for over 17 weeks now and they have no explanation for the delay. Families have been passing by us lickety-split while we just stand still and watch! It's sooo not fair to my baby!! Ms. Roy (orphanage director), our SW and myself have all been calling CARA with no progress. We keep being told next week! Well... next week has come and gone many many many times!!! So where is it?! Awhile back, Ms. Roy was told that it had been issued but not mailed yet. Then she received a call asking for additional paperwork, then a week later asking for the same paperwork AND letter from my boys! Someone at CARA is NOT doing their job! Our paperwork has been sent a dozen or so times. It's been emailed, faxed and DHL'd! I am at my wits ends with this!!