"Pala Day" video

Here's a little video of our "Pala Day" through to her Christening. Her Christening Ceremony was exactly 4 months to the day from the first day we met our little Sweet PEA!

Happy Birthday Cooper!!

Yep, another birthday here at our house!! I told you it was another big day!! I didn't plan that very well now did I?! Ha!!! My not so little guy anymore is 9 today!! Hard to believe!! To add to the excitement we are headed to Binghamton today for Treyton's OM competition so the birthday boys get a bonus of going away for the weekend and staying at a hotel. Wahoo, right?! Ha!! I'm a little nervous about Pala... she likes her own bed so it could be a very long weekend. Not to mention she HATES to ride in the car unless we are just ramming around town. It's about a 3 hour drive for us.... did I mention Pala hates riding in the car. :) I think a nice glass of wine should be waiting for me when we pull in to the hotel. :) One can dream!!lol Pictures to come next week!! Happy weekend and congrats to everyone who got guardianship this week!!! Yeah!!!

Happy Birthday Austin!!

Well, my son is now a teenager!! Eeeeks!!!! Today Austin turns 13. Not until 7:10pm of course :) Any teenage advice would be appreciated!! Ha!!! He has asked me to prepare an India meal tonight so I am off to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I had already anticipated this "want" so I gathered all of my spices at The Asian Market a few weeks ago when we went up to my niece Subha's birthday!! Good thinkin' Mama!! I will post pictures sometime next week when things settle down!! Tomorrow is another big day for our family... stay tuned!! :)

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Increased

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Increased

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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.