Today Eric and I had a great day. We invited the Bush family down to the lake with us. We had a fun time fishing, swimming, eating, boating, and just having our two families hang out together. I think the pictures and movies below speak for themselves on what kind of day we had. It was very hot and the lake felt a little like bath water but we still had a good time. I hope everyone else is having a great weekend too!
Today Eric and I headed on down to Harpersville for the Japanese Summer Festival. It was so cool! Especially with our minds on our little one on the way. All I can say is that the kids there were super cute. I have never felt the urge to kidnap before but it took everything I had in me not to snatch one of those cute little kiddies up! 
The event was very well put on. They had drummers, dancing, archery, karate, yummy food and more. It was great getting to eat and drink all the local foods. We absolutely loved the new soda’s we tried.
Since we were already there we decided to head on out to the blueberry vineyard. We were able to get 1 gallon of blueberries for $10.00! That is crazy cheap compared to grocery store prices. As we drove off the rain came pouring down but it was such a nice day until then.
Tonight we helped out a friend of mine that was running the recreation area of his church’s Summer Vacation Bible School, thankfully instead of actually having to play sports or invent games for little kids to enjoy they had a petting zoo. It was more of a van filled with somewhat illegal animals than an actual zoo but the kids liked it all the same, and Lauren probably had more fun than the kids did but that’s a different story. There was a goat, turtle, raccoon, miniature horse, and a couple alligators in a box. The most exciting thing was that the little kids would continually try to stick their hands, feet, and sometimes their entire head into the gator box – resulting in a very dangerous situation; always made more exciting by Lauren standing nearby watching. After a couple hours all the groups of kids had come through our rec center and the night of volunteering was over; we had a good time and I think the kids did as well. Look forward to doing it again next year, possibly without the petting zoo and with some actual outdoor activities.
Today Dana and I joined my parents for a long boat ride at Lake Martin. And let me be clear it was a very long boat ride…it was around 6 hours straight. Since my grandparents sold the lake house on that lake there is nowhere to hang out outside the boat but it was still so much fun! We love going to Lake Martin and checking out all the pretty houses so it was perfect.
We did get off the boat to go through an open house on the water (I am still dreaming of one day buying the house we toured) and have lunch.
We also peaked into the window of our old lake house we grew up in since no one was there. It was so beautifully decorated on the inside now! So maybe one day if I have an extra million dollars I can go back to buy this house so our kids can grow up playing on this special rock (see picture on right). Who would have thought so many memories and great emotions come back from seeing a rock!
All in all it was a great day, great weather, and great sun tans to last us all week! I hope all of you had a nice weekend too!
In honor of Lebron James big special announcement tonight we have decided to announce some big news about us….I am just kidding but we really were planning on posting this tonight and I thought the media hype over a basketball player picking a team was too funny not to mention. So anyway our big news is…
WE HAVE STARTED THE ADOPTION PROCESS!
We are SO excited about welcoming a new child into our family soon and could not wait to share this with all of you. We also know that this is a little different than us announcing we are pregnant so many of you may have questions about what all this means so let me try to fill you in real quick on some of those answers we do and do not know now.
What we do know…
We have always wanted to adopt. I know many of you probably do not understand this feeling but like all other adopting/adopted parents God gives you this special desire deep down in your gut to go out into the world to find your child that is waiting to come home to you. It is an indescribable feeling of this overwhelming urge to bring our baby home.
Yes, No, Maybe so. I know that is not a real answer but we have always wanted to adopt one and have one. That has been the plan since we started seriously dating really. So when the time came for us to get ready to start a family we did try to biologically have a child so we got every test under the sun, got poked and prodded too many times to count, and had a couple of heartbreaks along the way but in the end realized God was shutting that door for right now. We know that with God all things are possible so maybe one day we will have a biological child but for now we have closed up shop and not desiring that at the moment.
No freaking way! That was our biggest fear of sharing that we had tried with others to begin with. Our soon to be adopted child is SO wanted, desired, prayed for, and already loved in our hearts it is 100% #1. We are at more peace with adopting now than we ever were with trying so we know that as we grow our family maybe it was just meant to be for us to adopt first and the future is yet to be decided.
Just like with any pregnancy (or life come to think of it) nothing is guaranteed. So we have really no idea what God has in store for our future. All we do know is that we have asked the agency if it was time to share with others and they said yes. So we have passed enough of their requirements so far to feel comfortable enough to saying it is looking like yes we will be adopting a baby.
The process starts out with an application where they review general stats about your ex: age, length of marriage, financial info, spiritual info, etc.. After that stage you move into the homestudy process. This is a 4 month + process where you get background checks, fingerprints, deeper look at finances, home tour, check out the dog (not kidding), personal info, personal info, and more personal info. Once the homestudy is complete you have to be approved by DHR and immigration. If all is good to go your dossier (portfolio of everything they have about you) is sent to the country you are adopting from. You wait for a referral (the day they call and tell you there is a match) and if we accept the referral we head on over the country to pick up a couple of months later once the legal paperwork is ready.
Right now we are in the middle of the homestudy portion. We have already submitted tons of info and have the meetings with the agency going. If I had to guess we have about 1-2 more months of homestudy depending on how long it takes DHR to approve our fingerprints (that we had to get taken at the jail…with inmates! A blog story for another day.) but all we know is that we are working hard to complete what they need from us as fast as possible. The rest will be in our governments hands for a while so they can process all our legal info. So be praying for God’s favor on all our documents and that they will not sit on some government employees desk for weeks without reviewing.
Yes, yes, yes and yes again! Like any other expecting parents we are so thrilled and love talking about it. Our “pregnancy” is not one filled with morning sickness and belly kicks but non the less we love talking about our process in starting a family. Eric and I have been kidding each other that the two hours we have been spending a night doing paperwork and required reading courses we are very much having a gestational period that requires a lot of aches and time but ours is headaches and hand cramps for a time that is unknown.
Boy: Oliver Lucas Bush
Girl: Lila Kendall Bush
and the question that I know you have been dying to have answered…
A swamp of course! If you don’t remember I wanted to have an alligator at my wedding and all of you doubted me and it turned out just fine so just trust me on this one…it will be beautiful. And yes the kid is getting a swamp room boy or girl. You can’t change my mind so don’t even try I have a vision in my head that must happen. So you will just have to wait and see how it looks. (This question was answered by Lauren alone…who else would be this intent on a swamp room?)
Questions we do not have answers to yet…
Right now we are thinking South Korea. Our agency is currently in process to get approved in this country. So be praying that God will open up the doors there if that is where we are supposed to be. All we do know is that we are really thinking it will be an Asian country. Again that is a God given desire that is really unexplainable.
We really do not know. A lot of it is not only out of our control but our agencies control too. The waiting game is with the governments involved and the perfect match too. But on average it takes 9 months to 2 years in South Korea. So we are really hoping to have a baby home not by this Christmas but next. But who knows it could be as soon as the spring. All we do know is that we have our perfect child out there waiting on us so I do not want to rush it or slow it down. At God’s perfect timing we will bring our little one home.
The average age coming home from South Korea is 9-18 months. So not really sure how old. Unlike China more boys are given up for adoption than girls so more than likely it will be a boy but only God knows.
We know that many of you may have more questions regarding our process so please don’t hesitate to ask. No question will offend us. We realize that to a good bit of you adoption is a new and unfamiliar thing. We would love to talk about the simple questions as well as any concerns you may have. We want all family and friends who will be a part of our child’s life to be a part of their process from this point forward so feel free to email us or call us to chat.
But hopefully we answered some of your questions and gave you a peek into what is going on around our house. We really hope that all of you pray for God’s perfect plan and direction in growing our family. Thanks so much for all the sweet cards, emails and congratulatory gifts that some of you have sent us already. It means the world to us to know that you are supporting us and share in our excitement. We can’t wait to keep all of you in the loop on bringing home baby Bush!
And just in case you are completely out of the loop and did not hear Lebron James will play for the Miami Heat…
This weekend Lauren concocted another plan to somehow turn a vacation time off work into a slave-filled sweat-box that started out as “cleaning the garage” and ended up involving a complete re-do of the outdoor space where we park our cars and store tools/scooters. It began on Saturday morning and wasn’t over until late Monday afternoon; after a thorough cleaning of the garage (that Lauren compared to the movie Arachnophobia) we painted the three walls with not one but four coats (Lauren changed the side walls color from the original Banana yellow to a more subtle fire-orange). Next it was time to paint the floor in what must have been not paint but actual pancake syrup – spreading it on not with a knife but with a large roller that was at least six-feet long. The most exciting part of the process came during the new floor-procedure as I danced around the garage to the new Taylor Swift album spreading sparkle dust like I was being cast for the next Disney animated feature. The results speak for themselves, once more Lauren came up with a plan during her sleep and it ended up looking fantastic – even though it took my entire 4th of July weekend and I wasn’t allowed to move my car back into the garage for a good seven days the end product is awesome, one more project in our house to check-off the list.
Before:
During:
After:
I hope all of you have had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! This weekend was a very productive one for us. What started as a short 1/2 day project on Saturday ended up being a huge 3 day weekend ordeal. I will post more of that project later but we managed to take a break for a short bit on Saturday night to head down to the lake for the fireworks shows. We got down their early enough to get our front row spot for the boat and it was so worth the drive and wait. The show was so beautiful and a lot of fun watching it with Eric, my Mom and Dad, Claire and her friend and Gan-Gan. Below are some pictures and a movie clip of our night…
Tonight Paula who is a one of my good friends from growing up stopped by with her family on the way from their house in Ohio to the beach. It was extra special because I got to meet sweet little Eli for the first time. I was SO excited to have them over. We really loved getting to spend time visiting with Paula and her husband Andy and of course playing with the baby. He was so sweet and super cool for a little one. He let me hold him practically the entire time! It was great. I can’t wait to see them again soon.
