Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Increased

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Increased

Posted using ShareThis

March fury!

We've had a couple of really beautiful days lately Pala and I have been able to go for walks and play outside. It seems nice to have blue skies and sunshine again. We've had post placement visit #2 and should be able to petition the courts for final adoption in early April. I have had a rough go around with the social security office the past few months but finally found someone who would hear me out (and boy did she ever hear me out!). I was quite nasty but they are finally going to issue a SS# for Pala! It is a federal office so the rules are across the board. FYI- once your child has his/her green card you may file for a SS#. You will need their passport/VISA and the green card...that's it. Do not let them tell you otherwise! The card will only have the child's name as it appears on the green card. You will have to amend the SS card after finalization to include the child's middle and last names and adoptive parents names. A simple task but it took me 3 trips to our regional office and a very nasty attitude. I had documentation that was sent to me from one of the reps that I spoke to through the 800# and they still argued with me that it couldn't be done. YES! It can!

This time of year is busy season for us we have all kinds of March birthdays to celebrate and Treyton's Odyssey of the Mind competitions. This year his team and 5 other teams from Wellsville placed 1st at the Regional tournament and are now off to States at Binghamton University next weekend (which also happens to be Austin and Cooper's birthdays!). We will be gone the entire weekend!! A little break away from the ordinary. Cooper wants to go to
Chuck E. Cheese one day so that is on the agenda at some point. It happens to be right down the road from our hotel! :) Austin hasn't really decided what special thing he would like to do yet so I guess we'll figure it out when we get there.

and as if between 3 niece's, 3 cousin's, 2 of my boy's birthdays, and Treyton's OM I decided to squeeze in Pala's Christening this Sunday! Ha!! Hello... March is off limits from now on! :)

Pala LOVED playing in the snow for the first time! The temp was way to cold for her to be out a lot but we did manage to get out a few times this winter.

This is just before church one Sunday! Everyone adores her! Then again, who wouldn't! Ha!:) We attend a very small church and she has the run of the place. It's been that way for all of my kids actually. It's kinda like having 10 extra sets of Grandparents for them! :)

Austin is trying out for the High School golf team this year! He's only in 7th grade but wanted to give it a shot. There isn't a modified or JV level otherwise he would stay with his age group. He's young and will has LOTS of opportunities to tryout again if it doesn't work out for him this year. Pray that he doesn't lose his spirits along the way.

Treyton and Cooper are playing Little League Baseball again. Practice begins tomorrow night. They will most likely be on different teams this year. Treyton has the opportunity to move up a level if he wants to tryout. I'm all for it!! I know it sounds crazy but I strongly believe that each of my children deserves to shine and not have to compete with each other to be better than the other. It will mean more running for me but I feel it would be selfish of me not to give Treyton the chance to advance just because it would be easier on me. Many people have told me "but Treyton shines in OM...". Come on!!! Is he only allowed to be good at 1 thing?! I have NEVER held my kids back from trying new things! That's how they learn and grow as individuals! Life is full of opportunities. It's our jobs as parents to teach our children how to find them.

That's a little bit of what we've been up to since my last post. More to come after the Christening, birthdays and OM competition! :)

Calling all you thrifty moms (and dads) out there...

I'm on a mission to "trim the fat" in our budget here at home. I thought I was doing extremely well until I looked back at some old magazines (2005... I know...why are they still laying around?! right? Ha!!) that I had and I came across a "getting out of debt" article. I've read tons of these as I'm sure you all have. Some advice makes sense and some may not for your family. It really got me thinking of when I first got married. We got married young...I was pregnant and in college...Shad and I were both living with our parents and after the wedding moved into a mobile home...Shad did have his college degree and had moved back home about a year before we got together to take a full time job. We were starting a family on less than $20,000 a year!! Ouch!! How did we survive?? Yes, that was 14 years ago and times were different but OMG!! I have to admit I was spoiled and back then if there was no money in the checking account I broke out the credit card... if that didn't go through I applied for another one. Very foolish, I know. Now... I am a nag about where ever penny is going!! It killed me to eat at Red Lobster this past weekend. I finally gave in after being hounded to death by everyone and after we paid the bill and were in the car headed home everyone agreed with me that our "Seafood Feast" at camp is WAAAY better. More food for more people and less money!!! Although it did bring back a funny memory for Shad and I... Austin must have been about 10 months or so (he'll be 13 next month) when Shad and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster and we were enjoying the evening with our son. Austin has had seafood since he could eat solid food!! Talk about spoiled!! :) He was just gobbling up the lobster and crab legs... well so we though... Ha!! On the way home we found out that he was storing it all in the roof of his mouth! Everytime I turned around to check on him he was chewing on something... he was teething so I didn't really think much of it until I saw him moving something white around in there... the roof of his mouth was jam packed... he was laughing so hard when I found his "stash"! Remember I said we were POOR... same dinner, our credit card was declined!! Ever have that happen?! It's quite embarrassing!! Especially when that was your only means of paying for your dinner!! Shad and I sat and stared at each other for about 10 minutes. I remember thinking "Oh shit... what are we going to do?! I'm not going to do dishes!!" Let me tell you a little bit about myself back then... I did not do anybody elses dishes but my own and it was easier to buy new then it was to do laundry. I remember looking around for the closest exit trying to figure out how to get out of there. We had about $20 still in the checking account so we could swipe the debit card for part of it but that still left about $30 to come up with. It was a good thing that I didn't clean out all of my spare change in the car and my purse because we took turns going out to the car trying to scrounge up enough money to pay our bill. After about an extra 20 minutes of drinking water and eating the free biscuits we had enough to pay our bill... we left it on the table and got out of there as fast as we could... $10 cash that Shad had in his wallet and the rest in change... needless to say the waitress didn't get a tip!! We were lucky to have enough to cover the bill. We were laughing so hard that Shad had to pull over!! Ha!! We laugh just as hard to this day whenever we pass a Red Lobster!! I hope my little story helps to bring back a memory that tickles your funny bone!!

OK... so back to my point of today's post. We are a one income family like many of you are and the question gets asked almost everyday by someone out there... "How do you do it?" Well, How do I do what? It's almost always about affording Pala's adoption but this time it wasn't... this time there was no awkwardness in the question. A genuine question about raising 4 kids... the stress, the groceries, all of it. This inspired me to reach out to all of you and ask you to share ways that you save or have saved in the past to get out debt, save for retirement or just to cut back. How do you cope with the stress of the kids and hubby? I haven't posted very often because I don't feel like I have anything to write about but you know what... LIFE is worth sharing. This is a very challenging time for many and I think that by sharing our tips and struggles can help each other. My challenge for all of you reading this is to occasionally throw out there a "thrifty thought" or "tummy tickler". Who knows, it might be the encouragement someone needs to get through the next day.

Thrifty Thought for today...

What is the most inexpensive dinner you have ever made for your family? Give the approximate cost of the entire meal, how many it fed (were there leftovers?) and please share the recipe if it requires one. Title your post "Thrifty Thought Recipe"

Challenge others to get on board!! Happy blogging!!

Just a few pics of Miss PEA

Tried on one of the outfits that we bought in Kolkata. It's a little big but should fit by the time we finalize her adoption. We are hoping to get a court date some time in May. We have postplacement #2 this Thursday and then I can gather all of our documents and submit them to the courts. We are not required to have an attorney and not to mention it saves us about $1500 by doing it ourselves.

I was packing up some of Pala's clothes that are to small and remembered that I had bought this chicken costume for her last Halloween with hopes that she would be home. Ha!! I couldn't pass it on without at least trying it on her. A little small now but it would've been perfect last Halloween. It looks so ridiculous that maybe that's why God pushed our travels into November... :)

She has made this face since day 1!! Goofy as all get out and there are noises to go along with it! Ha! :)

She loves to sit in "Mr. Chair" and help mommy fold clothes. Pala does not like to share "Mr. Chair" though. My sister brought my niece over to play a couple of weeks ago and when Elly tried to sit on "Mr. Chair" Pala went bananas and shoved Elly out of it. FYI: "Mr. Chair" now has a friend. So... now we have 2. 1 blue and 1 green. :) Garage sales are awesome! I have less than $10 invested for both!

Pala actually sat and let me put beads in her hair! They were sooo cute!! I kept telling her to show everyone her beads and she would run up to whomever I was talking about and shake her head to hear the beads rattle. Adorable!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!! We will not be celebrating tomorrow but instead on Tuesday. Long time friends of Shad's family lost their house to a fire while away and there will be a benefit for them on Tuesday. We felt that that would be a much better way to celebrate the holiday of "LOVE". We already know that our house is filled with an overflowing amount of love so as a family we will be sharing it with others! May God fill your hearts and bless you all!!

Small world!!

Over past couple of weeks I have had the privileged of connecting with a few families that are adopting children from SKB in Karijipally India. That's the orphanage where my niece was at and we visited when we went to pick up Pala. I cannot even begin to tell you the joy and excitement that it brought to my heart knowing that I had met their children and could share the special time we had shared with them. We made a special connection with these children and I so glad we were given the opportunity to do so. I really hope that I have given them a sense of peace knowing that their children are well cared for and very much loved. I'm very excited to see how much they light up once they are with their forever families.

I found it very hard to leave one little girl in particular. We'll call her "Angel" to protect her identity since she does not have a family yet. She arrived at SKB a couple of weeks before we went to visit. She is 8 and very beautiful and smart. I don't know her circumstance nor do they matter to me... she has a place in our hearts. We spent a lot of time with her while there and talk about her all the time. The timing is not right for us but God put her in our hearts... so we are just trying to listen to him. I'm not sure if he's telling us that she is meant to join our family or if I'm supposed to advocate and help to find her her mommy and daddy.... I pray every day hoping for an answer or something but still nothing. We sent her a teddy bear (wearing an angel dress) and an angel necklace just to let her know that someone in this big world is thinking about her and praying for her. What ever our ever loving Lord has in store for us we are listening. If it is meant for us to pursue adopting her, the agency will not even start the process until we have been home for 1 year with Pala... so we are looking at about 2 years before being able to bring her home. My heart breaks but ideally she needs a family that is "paper ready". So... if you think you might be "Angel's" mommy or daddy please contact me so I can tell you all about this wonderful little girl that has captured my heart.

Please say a quick prayer today!!

Hi everyone!!

As I said in my last post, Shad's brother, his wife and older daughter are in India picking up "S". Well a trip is never complete unless there is hiccup some where right?! Well they hit their hiccup... they were due to fly home Friday at 4 am India time and their flight was delayed until 2:30 pm... and delayed again until 4:30 pm... which means they will completely miss their connecting flight here in states by well over 12 hours. They are having trouble finding a flight home because there are 4 of them. We ran into this on the way to India and there were only 2 of us!! They have been there 2 weeks and just really want to come home to their other 2 children. It had already been a rough past couple of days and they really didn't need this. There were over 50 flight canceled leaving Delhi in the last 2 days due to smog. Please keep them in your prayers... along with anyone else that has been effected by this.

Thanks so much!!

Prayers answered!!! With delays and rerouting they arrived home safe and sound on Saturday evening. A little on the tired side but other than that they are doing great. "S" loves her little sisters and seem to have a natural bond.---- Thanks again for keeping them in your prayers!!

Better late than never :)

I know I'm a little late on posting Christmas pictures but I misplaced my camera cord and finally found it. I've been a bit scatter brained lately!! They are out of order but I'll try to label them as I go.

Some of the cookies the kids made with Mama Dee

Pala's holiday dress

Much bigger crew at the Alsworth holiday gathering. I think my in-laws are up to 12 grandchildren. (2 are missing from the photo) Poor Kira insisted on her mommy holding her for the picture because she was afraid of Santa.

My kids and nieces and nephew on the Peet side during our Christmas Eve celebration.

Pala in her holiday dress for the Alsworth gathering.

Pala just looking cute!

Pala with Santa at the Alsworth gathering.

Decorating cookies at Mama Dee's

Enjoying a good laugh with Aunt Annie

Helping mommy with the laundry

Santa was good to all of us this year. We actually are blessed to have most of our family near by. Pala fits in perfect with all of us. As I've mentioned before we had been on a dead run from the time we got off the plane from India with her. We no more than celebrated Thanksgiving and we start right in with Christmas. We celebrate the holiday with Shad's family 2 weeks before Christmas, then have our annual cookie day with my mom the Saturday before, celebrate with my side of the family on Christmas Eve, then of course Santa visits us Christmas morning. In between there are all of the boys holiday concerts and parties at school and some how I even managed to do my shopping. Not much fun with a 15 month old I might add.

Pala had her 2nd doctor visit since we've been home and everything is going great!! Still tiny for her age but doing well. She's a whole 18lbs and 30" now. She is catching on to things quick. We've begun signing to help with the whining and it's helped quite a bit. So far she has learned "eat", "more", "thank you" and "milk". She is eating everything under the sun and loves to share her half eaten apples (or anything else she's eating) with anyone who is willing... it's not usually me... gross. Very kind of her but soooo gross! :) Pala gives kisses and "five" all the time. She is a little busy body!! We've had to tot lock our kitchen cabinets because she is exploring every little inch of the house. She does tend to favor one side over the other so we are going to contact EI for an evaluation. We'll see what they say. I could just be over reacting but hey... she's my daughter, I'm supposed to worry.

Matching "Mommy and Me" bracelets.

The boys were off from school for 2 weeks and we took advantage of our museum membership and ventured off to the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Rochester Science and Discovery Center during their break. The Buffalo Museum of Science was not worth the 2 hours it took to get there but we will be going back to Rochester. The kids had fun there and learned a lot. Treyton and Cooper are playing basketball this winter and Treyton has begun another exciting year of OM. World's are in Michigan this year... hopefully we'll be scheduling another road trip this spring. :) Wish them luck!!!

My brother-in-law and his wife are in India now. They picked up our niece on Tuesday and are in Delhi now filing paperwork and doing a little site seeing before coming home. I can't wait to see "S" again!! With their permission, I will post pictures of their homecoming next weekend.

A recap of 2009...

Well, the day after Christmas marked our 1 month anniversary of being home as a family!! We've have been blessed beyond belief this year and it's had to believe that it's almost over. It was a year that I thought was never going to end. Pala's adoption seemed to drag on with one delay after another but I was reminded over and over again that EVERYTHING is in God's timing and IT will make for a perfect story in the end!! We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas as a family and plan to bring in the New Year quietly together this year playing "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Rock Band". :)

2009 brought our family many many joys!

In January my brother-in-law and his wife accepted the referral of their 4th daughter "S" from India. Although at the time I was extremely jealous because as you know I was still waiting for our "call". By the way they will be leaving to bring "S" home on the 10th!! I am so glad we were able to visit her while we were in India... it's a memory that can never be erased.

March was the birth of my niece Elly, both Austin and Cooper's birthday's... and the much awaited "call" about our precious Sweet PEA. I think I was on cloud 9 for quite awhile don't you all agree?

April began our LONG dreadful 19 week NOC wait.

May brought us another niece, Lexi... born on Shad's birthday!! He kept telling his sister that she was just going to have to wait until his birthday and what do you know... Lexi listened to her Uncle Shad!! :) Treyton's OM team traveled to Iowa for OM World's Competition. We all had a blast... it was a great trip for all of us and it helped keep our minds off the adoption for a week...and we also lost our dear friend Bobby unexpectedly.

June, July were our typical camping months along with our Compassion child's birthday. So glad the Lord allowed us to visit him in India... emotions are starting to flow again...

August was Treyton's birthday. Wow how time flies!!

September we celebrated Miss P's 1st birthday without her but found out we were granted guardianship in record time!! This began our wait for her passport.

October was Tony and Meghan's wedding.

and... November... well what more can I say... November was the month that we were finally able to meet Pala in person!! An emotional trip that will never be forgotten!! :) As much as I had screamed and hollered because the day wasn't coming fast enough... it was HE who knew what was best. The Lord had it all planned out right from the start. I was meant to be be here to witness the birth of my new nephew Cameron... he was born and the very next morning I received the call from our caseworker giving us travel approval. Coincidence? I think not!! Through faith and prayers we were brought home to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family. November also began Shad's dream of being in politics... uhg, let the fun begin right?!

We end the year with December and the birth of Christ... what better way to celebrate!! (and the engagement of Bridget and Tom!!) :)

Although we experienced a few hiccups along the way the Lord blessed us many times over in 2009 and for that I am thankful. May the Lord walk with you and bless you as he has blessed our family in the New Year!!

Trying to catch up!!

Things are so different around here!! Not that I'm complaining or anything but... I find myself so tired and exhausted at the end of the day!! :) Wow!! It's a lot of work having a tot weeble wobbling around the house again!! Fun... but exhausting!! I'm out of practice. I don't remember the boys being so much work and there were 3 of them. There's only 1 Pala!! Do you think being 8 years older now could have something to do with it?! Ha!! Not to mention we came home right at the busiest time of year for us so we have been on the go go go!!

Our doctor's appointment went great! Pala is a whole 17 lbs and 28" tall. At 15 months she is only wearing 6/9 months clothes!! She is the same size as both of my nieces which are 6 and 8 months old!! A little peanut!! We had a bout of lice and because of her hair being sooooo thick it has taken forever to get the nits out. So needless to say, she does not like her hair played with anymore. :( Other than that she has some definite signs of malnutrition and a small belly button hernia. The spot on her bum that was believed to be vitiligo is nothing more than a birth mark. She is eating (at least trying) everything that we have for our meals. Fish, chicken, bananas and oatmeal seem to be her favorites. I cannot for the life of me get her to use a sippy cup... milk/formula in a bottle and juice or water in a regular cup. At first she didn't like taking a bath but now I can't get her out of there!! :) Pala is sleeping all through the night in her own crib and in her own room!! The co-sleeping didn't work for her... not that we didn't try. She was up and fussy every couple of hours when she was in our bed. I put her in her crib one night so I could get a couple of hours of good sleep and she slept through the night and has done it ever since!! I was amazed!! I'm kind of sad actually because I thought it was a big part of the bonding and attachment and I thought I was going to mess that up some how but believe me... that is going wonderfully!! Some days she is a little velcro monkey but I'm used to it now. She loves to cuddle and love on mommy!! That won't last forever so I guess the housework can wait!! (Don't tell Shad I said that please! Ha!!!) She has this little thing with crossing her fingers and pointing at you and growling... haven't figured that one out yet! Assuming it's something her brothers taught her!! Ha!! Yeah... can't wait to see what else she picks up on!! I just remember all of the mean things I used to do to my sisters growing up.... eeeks!! They are all really wonderful and helpful with her. She is a true blessing for us. The Lord truly knows what's best for us and he couldn't have given us a more perfect gift this Christmas!!

From the fullness of his grace we have received one blessing after another. ~John 1:16

We're alive... for the most part!!! :)

A Thanksgiving with a blessing!!
This picture was take Thanksgiving afternoon!
That was the morning we arrived home from India!!
What a precious little smile!!

Well last week was certainly a test of patience from the Lord but with all of the support and prayers from everyone back home we made it through!! We laugh now that it has been 23 months of "pregnancy" with 10 days of excruciating labor!! :) We are all adjusting well. I'm still a little tired but we have also been on the go since we got home it seems like. When we got off the plane in Buffalo I saw the most beautiful site in the world... my 3 boys waiting for us!! Pala saw them and started babbling! It was too cute! She wanted down so she could run to them... what a sight... she reached her arms out for Treyton just like she had been with him since birth! The way she is bonding is like we were just away for a mini vacation!! She is a true blessing!! We have our 1st post placement visit today. I don't think Anita believed me when I told her how wonderful Pala is adjusting. I know there are some rough times ahead but the way things are going right now will make them easier to get through. We will take them one day at a time.

I want to share a little bit about our trip... If you had asked me last Wednesday if I would ever go back, the answer would have been "NOT A CHANCE!!" That's how bad I was feeling about the trip. I've had time to reflect and pray about it a few days now and both Shad and I agree that WE WILL VISIT AGAIN but with no agenda!! Cooper asked us how many planes we were on during the trip so we listed them all out showing the boys our boarding passes. You are not going to believe this... in 10 days poor Shad had been on 11 different planes and I had been on 9. That is ridiculous!! It was exhausting just remembering all that. :)

Here's my two cents...

Don't try to do everything in one trip. Start out with the attitude that you WILL go back some day with your child. Make this trip about your child not about what you may or may not miss out on. You'll enjoy yourself a whole lot more and if a "hiccup" occurs you won't be devistated by it.

Our "GOTCHA DAY" was nothing like I had anticipated. I had it all played out in my mind that Pala was going to want to come right to me. All I had to do was go slow and she would warm up quick. My heart was broken when she didn't want anything to do with me!! I loved this little girl long before I had ever seen her face and I didn't even get a smile. Shad and I stayed at ISRC for 2 hours waiting for her to warm up to us. She warmed up to Shad a little but screamed blood murder if I even looked at her. I knew from reading and talking to other families that it was a possiblity but after hearing from other traveling families what a wonderful little personality she had I thought "That won't be the case for me." Things quickly changed and Pala is certainly my little angel.

My recommendations for hotels are the Kenilworth in Kolkata and the Hyatt Regency in Delhi. I found a better rate booking the Kenilworth online directly through them and requesting the "Winter Package". It included all of our taxes, airport pickup, head and foot massage, breakfast and dinner, and a few piddly other things. Do get your massage... what a treat!!! Don't get the head massage on a day that you plan on being in any pictures though!! :) Use their driver... Nayeem. He is wonderful and worth the extra that you have to pay. He speaks Bengali and helped soothe Pala while we were in the car. He really went above and beyond for us!!! He even knows a little Passport photo place that is super cheap!!! Get them in Kolkata and out of the way before going to Delhi. Nayeem's mobile number is 9830899357. Request him when you make your reservations!!
We stayed at 3 different hotels in Delhi and my favorite was the Hyatt. Quite pricey but I felt very safe and never went hungry! :) We stayed at the Intercontinental on our first stop in Delhi before visiting our Compassion child. It was a very nice hotel but we felt like every time we turned around we were getting screwed. They hated giving change... big or little! The food was OK but nothing like the Hyatt!! The third hotel experience was with the Parkland.... all I'm going to say is "Stay at your own risk!!". The room was nice but service was awful. It was loud and the food sucked!! Not to mention we had been transferred from a different Parkland because they didn't have us in the system and then after an hour when they found our reservation they didn't have a room for us.... this is being taken care of by our travel agent. Erle was very kind to us and was not happy when he was told of the problem. I don't think you'll have to worry about Erle at Azumano Travel recommending the Parkland again after it happening to both the Labonte's and us all in one week. I can't say it enough... bite the bullet and stay at the Hyatt. I'm sure you can find cheaper rates online than what we were forced to pay since we just showed up desperately requesting a room after being at the Parkland. Let's put it to you this way... we were so unhappy at the Parkland that we paid for the night that we checked out just to get out of there. The service was horrendace. We asked for a driver at 8:30am and at 10:15 he was still not there. Why? Oh, because they never called for one until 10:00 because they forgot!!! That was for our "Embassy Day". HYATT, HYATT, HYATT!!!! Our driver at the Hyatt was wonderful too!! Kishan... request him!! His mobile number is 9818736618. Tell him you want to go to the Chicken Inn for lunch!!! Yummmmmmmo!!!!! Kishan took us there when we told him we were starved and wanted to go somewhere that was airconditioned with good food!! We pulled in and he said "How's this?" Shad and I both just looked at each other and then looked at him and he said "Just trust me!" Glad we did... it was great!!!

I'm off to take Pala to her first doctor's visit with Dr. Kassas. I'm leaving you with a few photos from our travels and a couple since we've been home. I'll try to post a bit more details about our journey when Pala lays down for her afternoon nap.