Sunday Snapshot: Fishing

One of the many great things about living in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is that, well....there are 10,000 lakes. And to be a Minnesotan means you take full advantage of each and every one of them. Whether it's 90' outside or 20 below, there is always something to do at the lake.
We swim, we skate
We fish from the dock, we fish through an ice hole
We go cross country skiing, we water ski
We go boating on the lake, we drive on the ice.
It's great, really. Always something to do and never a long drive to get there.

Today was a fishing day. Well, a wading and fishing day actually. It was supposed to rain so I didn't think we'd be there for long, but the rain held off and the fish were biting.

The boys LOVE fishing! Not many birthdays go by these days without something on the list that has to do with catching the big ones.

Rods, lures, tackle box, net, minnow bucket, fillet knife, rubber worms, you name it, they want it.

The best part about going fishing is that it is just about the best free thing to do as a family.

Today, my sister and niece joined us along with 2 of Tyler's friends that slept over last night.
We made a picnic for lunch. Thank goodness my sis always has her hand sanitizer with her cuz their hands were dir-her-teeeee. Although I'm pretty sure no kid ever got too sick from fish slime and a bit of worm guts....I'm just sayin'.

I love to see hubby helping the boys with their casting and catching.

I love to see their faces when the bobber starts to, well....bob.

I love to see the huge smiles as they show off a 2 oz. sunny.

I love the excitement of seeing them catch their first northern or bass.

I love seeing Trae, who is my neat-freak-of-a-kid grab a worm and cringe when he has to break it in half.

I love that I can sit on the blanket in the grass and just watch and relax....this is dad's territory (though I was quite the fish catcher and cleaner in my day)

These days, I relish the role of observer and official picture taker.

Most of all, I love to see something that ALL of them love to do together.

Cuz just like 'there's no crying in baseball'....there is no arguing in fishing and THAT, to me, is priceless.

Where we're at

It's been a while since I laid out exactly where we are at in our adoption process. Last thing I explained was when we found out about China's new law that put us back a few months. Since then we've been working hard to get all the paperwork and legwork done in order for our dossier to be complete. The dossier is the entire compilation of everything we've done up to this point and then some. It gets sent over to China for approval and THEN we can get matched with and locked into a child.
Some of the things that are included in this process are....
~background checks and fingerprints (both with our local authorities and the federal immigration office)
~more writing about how, when, and why we want to adopt....very specific (think, 5 paragraphs...first says this, second says that, third states your "definite desire" to adopt...be sure to use the phrase "definite desire") The Chinese are nothing if not particular....whew.
~again, a very specific collection of family pictures (i.e. no posed shots, only things showing activity, 4 with dad and kids, 4 with mom and kids, front of home, adopted child's room/bed, etc....)
~new fees
~employer letters stating our work position, time at company, salary, etc.
~certification of Jason's out of state birth certificate through the Illinois Sec. of State
~letter of good standing for each of us written by our local police station saying we are upstanding citizens
~tons of financial documents
~more fees
~physicians forms that are so specific they had to be done as much as 3 times by our doctors.
~new marriage and birth certificates issued again because they have to be issued within the last 6 mos. at the time China gets it
~all MN documents sent to our Sec. of State for certification
~fees, fees, fees.....did I mention fees

So, there's that in a nutshell. And that's not even everything, but you get the point. It's madness.....I swear, they act like you're trying to adopt a kid or something. :)

The one good thing about having to do all this before getting locked into a child is that it won't have to be done AFTER we're locked in which is how it might have been otherwise. So, I'm hoping that this means we won't have as much time between our lock and travel. Hope. Pray. I'd still love to go by the end of the year, but I'm less sure of that than I was.
We did hear from the woman at the agency that watches the special needs list for matches and she said that there were definitely kiddos in the last batch added to the list that matched our family, but we couldn't be called on them since we don't have our dossier logged in yet. Hmm.....I wasn't sure if I was sad to hear that or happy. Sad cuz we could have had that picture by now....happy though to hear that there are girls out there who need us and who would be a good match for us. I have to believe though that this timing is all for a purpose and that when we finally do get matched and we finally get to travel to the other side of the world to get her, we won't be able to imagine it being anyone else. She's already been chosen, we just have to wait until we're privileged enough to meet her. I can't wait.

Couples Retreat

This past weekend we had our retreat weekend for our Couples in Christ group. We went on Friday evening and stayed until Sunday morning. We had such a great time! We used Friday night to just make some pizzas, hang out, play games, and....have a few drinks....hey, Christians can drink. :) I was snapping pictures all weekend and we did kinda joke that we would have to make 2 videos, one with us being very good and one with us not. I'm kidding, of course, we were model citizens. We spent some time in the morning and then the afternoon to do a marriage workshop lesson. That was really nice, actually because we broke into groups of men and woman. We don't ever do that in our monthly meetings throughout the year and I thought it was very good. We talk to each other differently when we're with our same sex peers. We opened up more about stuff about what kind of wives we are and what kind of husbands we have.
I think when you can spend a weekend in the same house with 3 other couples and not get annoyed with anyone or feel awkward around anyone, you have yourself a great group. We feel very blessed to have this group and look forward to our future as friends.

Memorial weekend

We broke in the camper this weekend. The boys always look so forward to going camping and so do I, but I forget just how much work it really is to get ready. It's worth it though cuz we have such a good time. Camping has become our favorite family time thing to do by a mile. I love that we can do something that costs so little (we paid, for 3 nights, less than we would have for dinner and a movie with the kids) and makes such great memories. We love having the camper cuz we can treat it like a home away from home. We don't just do cereal for breakfast and hot dogs for every other meal. We do fun stuff.... Like make eggs, bacon, and pancakes in the morning.... ....and walking tacos for dinner. These were a big hit! We also have a lot of fun things to do. This campground is great for having activities for the kids.... like candy bar bingo and crafts... relay races... shuffleboard... and, of course, swimming... making sandcastles, finding a turtle, and catching tadpoles. After packing everything up on Monday, we headed to a concert in the park given in honor of all vets for Memorial Day. It was great music and a perfect way to spend the day remember what this weekend is really all about. It's important to us that the boys don't see Memorial Day as just a day off of school and camping weekend. It's very purpose of honoring our vets is key and we wanted to do something to remind them of that. They played of a song where all military branch theme songs were played. During each, the vets from that branch were supposed to stand up and be recognized...all while one of the band leaders ran around making sure to shake the hand of everyone standing. It was awesome to see such a tribute.

Snapshot Sunday: The Vet

It's easy to decide who to do this week's Snapshot Sunday. In honor of Memorial weekend and all our vets, my very own Marine will be the subject.
Jason entered the Marine Corps right out of high school. And as sad as I was to watch him leave for boot camp....it was sorta cool having a Marine for a boyfriend.

For the next 4 years, he did his duty and we wrote lots of letters (something all of today's emailers and texters won't have a huge box of to pull out someday and read).
We got married in 1995, and as much as I'd love to say all eyes were on me...the bride...truth is, it's hard to resist watching a man in Marine Corps Blues.

I became a Marine wife, and I think my old bumper sticker was true....it was one of the toughest jobs in the Marine Corps. I watched him deploy 5 times over the years for 6 mos. or longer. Each time with new challenges for me to handle on my own...

and more things for him to miss while away.

After 8 years of active duty, he transferred to the Marine reserves and we moved back home. After spending 8 yrs. as a full timer, the weekend pumps were a breeze for him. But then, in 2003, he was activated once again.
This time into battle.

Saying goodbye to his 3 little boys and a pregnant wife.....not an easy thing to do.
I remember watching him walk away that day and, quite honestly, not really knowing when...or God forbid, if....I'd ever see him again.

So again, we wrote. No emails or cell phones...no skype or even updates from his command. The only way I even knew he was safe was because I hadn't gotten a visit from the Marine Corps telling me otherwise.

It took 3 mos. of him being away before he got a 10 minute opportunity to call home.
All we both did was cry and say I love you. It was the best phone call of my life.

He returned home just 7 short days before I gave birth to our 4th boy.
Talk about an emotional delivery.

It wasn't long after that that he got out of the Marine Corps. He misses it dearly, but he said he didn't want to put his family in a position of losing him ever again. He watches the news about deployments and he feels guilty....like he should be there too.
You see, us civilians have our loyalties. We're loyal to our families and we're loyal to our friends. We're loyal to our jobs and we're loyal to our faith. But unless you've served in uniform....unless you've slept in a desert half way around the world next to a guy who, just as you, hasn't showered in 6 weeks......unless you know the feeling of having someone have your back 24/7 and it's in a way that can mean life or death.....you don't understand the loyalty that my husband has to the Marine Corps. It can't be explained, it can't even be taught. It just is.
And all I can say is. Thank you God for that. Because without it, we wouldn't have the freedoms that we are so privileged to have. And we wouldn't know what it's like to worship, speak, or live freely. What a blessed Nation we live in.
Go out of your way to thank a vet tomorrow. Whether someone you know or the old man who just got out of his car with a WWII Vet License plate. They deserve it.


It's The Soldier
-Father D. E. O'Brien

It's the soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the PRESS.

It's the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of SPEECH.

It's the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to DEMONSTRATE.

It's the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a FAIR TRIAL.

It's the soldier who salutes the flag,
Serves under the flag
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protester the right to burn the flag

Unfair

Timmy has had a pretty tough year with his grades. He's always been that kid that has to work hard for a C and Jay and I are fine with that. We've never been very 'grade oriented' parents.....we put far more importance on their effort and behavior/character at school. If the grades slip because they're slacking off or not doing their homework.....that's one thing, but when they do the work and struggle with the classwork and tests, that's another. That's the situation with Timmy. All along the teacher has been sending us grade notifications by email when he has a D or, once this year, even an F. She's very good about letting us help him redo the test he failed and she'll give him partial credit back and we've done plenty of extra credit work this year.
So, yesterday I was up at the school and happened to run into her in the hallway. We talked about him and how I didn't really know what to do to help him. I feel like he's getting into middle school years now and it will only get more difficult and he'll just keep getting pushed along. It's like I want to put my hands up and just say "okay, hang on...just stop for a minute....let's get him on track and then we can continue with the school year" but....unfortunately it doesn't work that way. I had the idea to check into getting him some extra summer help. Maybe something that could get him caught up a bit before starting 6th grade, or maybe something that could help him learn to study in a way that he could retain info easier...something. I remembered that when we had Tony at the public school for kindergarten last year, they recommended he attend a six week summer class a few mornings a week. It was paid by the district so there was no cost to us. I wondered if there was anything like that for a kid Timmy's age so when I left the school I went to the district building. The lady sent me to the office of the person who could help me. I told her what I was looking for and where he went to school. Here's where I explain why I titled this "unfair".
Yes, there is a summer program offered through the district for kids his age needing a little extra help.....unfortunately, because he is not registered in the public school system he is not eligible. Because all funding is based on the number of kids in school, he (and any of my other boys for that matter) can't take part in any district help. Um...let me get this straight......I pay my taxes just like everyone else.....one of the benefits of paying our taxes is the opportunity for public school education.....but because we've chosen to send them to Catholic school, we have also forfeited all rights that the rest of the neighborhood kids get. Yah, that sounds like a government plan.
This lady I was talking to was actually very nice and I could tell she agreed with me when I said 'well,that kinda stinks'. She gave me some helpful suggestions like having his teacher give us a pack of stuff to work with him over the summer or looking into some community ed. There would be a fee, but it would be cheaper than getting a tutor (not that we were necessarily gonna do that, but we were open to anything)
I don't worry about Tim when it comes to the long run and his future. I have no doubt he will do great things and he'll find what interests him and something he'll be great at. And he won't need to be great at science or math to do it...LOL. I just don't want him feeling like he's always one step behind for the next 7 years of schooling. The years are only gonna get harder. Well, something else to pray about.
By the way....he would die if I told him I was trying to find some summer school for him. Haha....