We have been busy!
We spent last Friday at the beautiful home and farm of a dear friend of mine. (This seems to be the summer of animals!) The girls LOVED spending time there playing, seeing the animals, picking blueberries, flowers, riding around the farm, and getting to know her children better. I enjoyed spending time with Karen and her wonderful family. It was a very fun day!! My girls were so tired that they both slept all the way home.
Olivia LOVES animals but isn't quite sure about touching some of them. She is showing me a horse in this picture. Can you see the true bliss in this face?
Sitting on Mr. Kevin's saddles.
Evan, Olivia, Anna Kate, and Ansley having fun seeing inside a horse trailer.
Anna Kate and Ansley picking blueberries (and flowers) at Mrs. Judy's house.
Having fun on the inflatable water slide! We literally were dodging rain showers all day!
Looking for fish in the pond.
COWS!
Ansley, the city girl, is serving as farm hand here.
It poured down rain while we were there, but Mrs. Karen had some arts and crafts for the kiddos to do.
Anna Kate and Ansley having fun with play-doh and coloring.
The weekend weather was very rainy, so we weren't able to spend a lot of time outside. We did, however, have time to play in the rain. It is important to note that Olivia was the first to play in the rain and then big sis joined her…..not without first getting her raincoat and rain boots. :) We also went to Chuck E. Cheese when we got cabin fever. Both activities were huge hits with the girls.
She loved playing in the rain!
Jumping in the rain puddle
Ansley's growing up too fast!
Showing me the horse's eyes and trying to figure out how it goes up and down.
Talking to Bob the Builder
We received a surprise in the mail this week: Olivia's Certificate of US Citizenship! I wasn't sure when we would receive it, but it only took 2 months. (For government work, I think this is pretty fast!) This proves that she is a US citizen and was as soon as we set foot on American soil on May 1st. It is important for us to have this document. The main reason being that it is the only document we have that proves that she is a citizen. We have the official adoption paperwork from China, but this is our US citizenship proof.
This brings up another subject that I have not blogged about: re-adoption. In the state of Tennessee, we are not required to "re-adopt" Olivia for legal purposes. However, I have been reading that people recommend that we do "re-adopt." You see, she does not have a birth certificate. If you think about it, you need a birth certificate for many important things: applying for kindergarten, getting a driver's license, applying for college, getting a US passport, traveling (before you get a driver's license), and some other things. If we don't "re-adopt," we would have to provide many, many documents and jump through several hoops at each of these important events. Therefore, we have chosen to go through the process now of "re-adopting." Wait, let me rephrase that: I think it's called "recognition of foreign adoption." In any case, when we are finished, she will have a "record of foreign birth." Still not a birth certificate, but something that will have our names on there as her parents and will work like a birth certificate. I am also getting ready to work on getting a social security number for her. I learned today that I must physically go to a social security office with many papers in order to get this done. I'm going to try and get this done next week. Should be a fun outing - not.
Olivia went to day care for the first time today, and she did great! I had planned to leave her there for only 3 hours (after lunch), but when I called the school, they said she was doing great! So, I decided to leave her a little longer and see if she would take a nap. I was concerned that she might have trouble around nap time and expected a phone call after lunch. But, she did great during nap time and stayed the whole day! This little girl is just amazing, and I am so proud! (Ansley went in and checked on her once during the day and reported back that she was painting.) She has a fascination with washing her hands (running water) and now with the potty.
Both girls enjoy going to the swimming pool and are swimming very well.
We go tomorrow morning for Olivia's dental surgery. I have already gotten a little taste of what it's going to be like for the rest of our lives not having any family or medical history. I have fielded two phone calls from the surgical center asking questions about her medical past and her family history. All of my answers were, "Not to my knowledge." I had to eventually stop the ladies and explain the situation. They were both very understanding, but it didn't help them with what they needed to know. With all of that said, we aren't sure what to expect tomorrow. She will be going under general anesthesia. Please say a little prayer that all goes well; I'm a little concerned with how she will do when she wakes up. I've heard from other parents to expect a lot of tears, and some possible sickness. We pray that these 2 teeth are not infecting her other teeth, and we pray that he is able to cap them and not have to extract them. But, if we need to extract for her overall health, we will. We are supposed to be there at 9am and should be finished around noon. She is not able to eat or drink anything after midnight tonight, so also please pray for our morning. She typically wakes up very hungry and is not going to be happy in the morning when she can't have ANYTHING. Philip is going to take Ansley out for breakfast in the morning before she goes to school. That way, Olivia won't see her eating anything. I will do my best to post an update tomorrow night.
I am sorry that this is such a long post!! Thanks, as always, for your support!!
Take care,
Jill
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