First Carousel Ride

I made a last minute trek to Houston for a few days while Bryan is working night shift.  There wasn't much going on in Temple so I hit the road last night after dinner with my little man!  We are having a fun time in Houston and went to The Woodlands Mall today with Granny.  We took Caleb on his first carousel ride and also made a quick trip to Pottery Barn Kids to check out their cribs & nursery bedding! :)

Caleb loved watching the carousel go around while he ate his lunch.  He was so excited to 'pay money' and give the carousel operator his token.  On the first ride I put him on a stationary animal - a tiger - so that he wouldn't get too scared.  He really enjoyed it!  On ride #2 Caleb wanted Granny to accompany him.  I thought he'd be ok on one of the animals that went up and down, and boy was I wrong!  He was nervously saying "Up! Down! Up! Down! Mooommmmmmyyy!" as they went round and round.  Eventually Mom had to take him off the zebra and hold him for the rest of the ride!  Luckily he wasn't terrified or crying - just a little uncertain.  It was a fun thing to do today that we wouldn't have the chance to do had we stayed home in Temple!

Caleb excited to 'pay money' with his carousel token

Getting ready to go get in line

Excited to ride the tiger!

Round and round we go!

Riding the zebra with Granny

Granny reacting as Caleb gets more and more nervous!

New "Roar" Towel

Somebody is a tad bit excited about the new lion towel I got for him at Kohl's yesterday...

He loves it so much that he cried when I told him it had to be washed before he could use it!

Stick A Fork In That Home Study.... IT'S DONE!!!

Wahoo, we completed our home study yesterday!  That is our final requirement to be eligible to adopt with our agency, so now we can 'hurry up and wait'!

The agency director (who will be our caseworker) and the social worker (who will be the birthmother's caseworker) came to our house at 10 am on Monday morning.  Caleb was Mr. Personality when they arrived, showing them all of his cars and grabbing both of their hands when it was time to show them his room.  As he held their hands to go down the hallway he yelled out, "Run!! Fast!!!" because he wanted them to all run down the hall together!  As you can probably tell, he's a shy child.  ;)

Although Caleb was being cute, he was also a big bundle of energy and excitement with visitors in the house.  I was relieved that my parents were in town to come get Caleb at 10:10 on the dot so we could focus on the task at hand!  The home study itself went really well.  I think it helped that we knew what to expect and what kinds of questions they would ask.  It also helped that I understood they'd look at our house but that it wasn't a white glove test to see how clean the house was.  I didn't make Bryan powerwash the exterior of the house like I did for Caleb's home study! Ha!


We completed the inspection of our home, our interview together and our individual interviews.  The whole process took a little under 2 hours and we were done!  I've already heard from the social worker that she completed our home study today and will submit it to their head social worker for final approval.  Once we have final approval, we will pay our approval fee and our profile can be shown to birthmothers.  We will also have our profile on the agency's website so that birthmothers visiting their site can learn more about us (and other prospective adoptive families, too).

Bryan and I spent a fair amount of time over the weekend researching and talking about which risk factors (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes) we will consider.  We attended our agency's 6-hour training on Saturday and one of the many topics they covered was medical risks.  We have a true peace about the parameters we have set for this adoption and are thankful that Bryan has access to great medical research - and has the ability to understand it!

Our agency director said they recently had 2 birthmothers who they had to send to another Christian agency purely because they were having children of another race and she did not have families who were open to adopting outside of their race.  We are open to a child of any race so that alone makes me hopeful that we may be chosen quickly.

Most of all, we desire for God's will to be done in our lives, in our child's life and in the life of his or her birthmother.  We cannot wait to see how God shows His faithfulness, provision and love for us through this next adoption experience.  We pray that we will be a reflection of His love as we go through this journey to grow our family!

Today

A few funnies from today:

-Caleb and I ran errands this morning and he brought his new Thomas the Train toy that is like a little matchbox car.  He calls this one "Little Thomas" and the larger one is "Big Thomas".  Lately he is constantly singing the chorus to the Thomas theme song - "Thomas and his friends!".  It often sounds like he is trying to impersonate the British accent on the song.   Caleb serenaded everyone in each store we went in with the Thomas theme song.

-The Fire Marshall came to our house around lunch time for our fire inspection.  Caleb was in his booster seat eating lunch and was screaming, "FIREMAN! FIREMAN! FIREMAN!" constantly throughout the inspection.  If the inspector went out of his view he would scream louder for him!  Good thing this guy had a sense of humor AND his own 2 1/2 year old named Caleb!

-This afternoon Caleb was watching Bob the Builder while I got a meal ready to take to a resident family who has a new baby.  He was belting out the theme song to that show too, except instead of saying "Bob the Builder!" he was yelling out "Bob Ba Dilder!!!!" as loud as he could.

-And last but not least, Caleb decided to try on my new sandals this afternoon so of course I took some pictures.  When his toes came out of the shoes and he could no longer walk in them he was not happy!

What Caleb Thinks About Paper Baby

We really haven't mentioned too much to Caleb about our second adoption.  We decided to ask him about it at dinner tonight.

Me:  "Caleb, where is baby Jacob?" [friend Lisa is due in September]
Caleb:  "Baby Jacob in EEE-suh's tummy."
Me:  "That's right, Baby Jacob is going to be Katelyn's baby brother.  He is going to live at her house!"
Caleb:  "Ooooohhhhhhhh!"
Me:  "Do you want to have a baby brother or baby sister come live at your house?"
Caleb:  "Cars.  Cars please."

And there you have it.  No brothers or sisters, please.  Just more cars.  Caleb did go on to tell me, "Babies sad, babies cry waaaaaaaahhhhh."  We may be in for a long road!  :)

Paper Baby Update

I've been working on some of our 'straggler' documents this week that I didn't have ready when I turned in the bulk of Paper Baby #2.  In the past week, we've finalized Bryan's life insurance, had our fingerprints for federal background checks done, submitted our 'Dear Birthmother' letter and completed our photo collage, and finished our birthmother scrapbook and ordered it online.

Our Birthmother Letter & photo collage is what our agency will show to birthmothers to help them select a family.  It was a very daunting task to write this letter!  How do you put into 1 page all that you would like to say to someone in that situation?  We took the agencies advice and talked about our relationship and struggle with infertility, adopting Caleb, our home and jobs, our personalities and what we like to do as a family.  Hopefully our letter will speak to a birthmother's heart.

The scrapbook was a fun but time-consuming task!  I chose to do the scrapbook digitally on blurb.com (the same service I used to turn the first year of our blog into a book) rather than do a traditional scrapbook.  We will bring the scrapbook with us to our 'match meeting' when we meet the birthmother for the first time.  Our agency said it's a great way to break the ice and have something to look at together and talk about.  The birthmother will be allowed to keep the scrapbook after placement, and we will keep a second copy for our child.

Although it will not interest most of the readers of this blog, I want to record all of the documents I have gathered as a part of "Paper Baby #2".  Luckily none of these documents had to be driven to Austin to be state authenticated! :)  In addition to gathering these documents, we've also done a 3 hour orientation, will attend a 6-hour adoption training this Saturday and will have our home study done next Monday.

• Level of openness agreement (agreeing to open adoption arrangement)
• Criminal background check
• Fingerprinting
• Copies of Drivers License
• Floor plan of our home including dimensions and room purpose
• Directions to our home
• Autobiography for each parent (approximately 35 essay questions)
• Statement of income (last year's tax return)
• Copy of savings and checking account statements for the past 2 months
• Copy of any additional savings accounts (IRA, Mutual fund, etc)
• Proof of health insurance coverage
• Proof of life insurance coverage
• Felony affidavits (if applicable)
• Pet vaccination records
• Five references 
• Proof of employment (pay stubs)
• Good employment record (resume for each parent)
• Copy of marriage license
• Copy of birth certificates
• Statement from physician about the health of husband, wife & children
• Sign Acknowledgement of Behavior Policy
• Sign Authorization to Photograph
• Fire Inspection completed by local Fire Marshall
• Environmental Inspection of home
• Childcare Commitment Action Plan Form
• Type of Child Desired Form
• Birthmother Letter
• Photo collage
• Sign Release of Information for Website profile 
• Birthmother scrapbook

Whew!  I think that's it!!  We have finished all of that, except for the fire inspection (tomorrow at noon!), the health inspection (will be done during our home study), and a copy of my drivers license (which I renewed but have yet to receive in the mail!).  Although it looks like a long list, we have been lucky that our agency is allowing us to re-use many documents from Caleb's adoption, including our essay questions and references.

We will fill out our 'type of child desired' form before our home study on Monday.  At our training on Saturday they will spend a fair amount of time educating us on medical risks so that we can specify what situations we are comfortable with.  I am so grateful for Bryan's medical background as we make those decisions!  We have to specify what, if any, exposures we are comfortable with when it comes to cigarette smoke, alcohol or drugs.  We even have to specify if we are ok with 2 cigarettes a day or 5 cigarettes a day!  It is very specific but will hopefully help us to make a decision that we are comfortable with.  Making the decisions to fill out that form are the most daunting thing ahead of us right now.  We'd appreciate prayers for wisdom as we make those decisions, and most of all that God would guide our hearts to the child He desires for us to parent.  Please also pray for Bryan as he will be doing his own research and guiding those decisions for us as a couple.

We are so excited to move forward and feel like everything will be checked off the list after Monday's home study!  We are so excited to "hurry up and wait" !!!

Playtime in the Park

On Tuesday evening we took Caleb to a new playground at Lions Park in Temple.  The local Rotary Club has built a new park that is completely wheelchair accessible, yet also a great play area for able-bodied kids too!  I read in the newspaper that it is the only park of its kind within a 100 mile radius, which I think is pretty impressive for Temple!  It has tons of ramps, at least 8 slides, a toy race car to sit in and different types of swings that kids of varying abilities can use.  The park also had a lot of activity centers where kids can play with sand, experience different textures, play instruments and spin different things around to make noise.  Of course Caleb loved all of the spinning items!  The only drawback of the park is that it isn't very shaded, which is why we went to play around 7pm once it had started to cool down again.  Caleb had a fantastic time and was constantly on the move.  He was a sweaty little guy by the time we left!  Here are some pictures from our fun new adventure:

Trip to Houston

Last weekend we made a trip to Houston to see all the grandparents.  We stayed with Granny and Daddy Bob and were pleased to see that Dad is doing great!  Caleb was excited to play at their house, especially with the 'shake shake cars'.  He talks about them non-stop.  We joke that these toy cars are like crack for little boys because Caleb is definitely addicted!!  They are plastic cars that are the characters from the movie Cars, and when you shake them they rev their engines and say various phrases from the movie.  Caleb loves all of them and even knew which car was named Ramone ("mone" as he calls him)-- which was something none of us knew after seeing the movie!

We played on Saturday and enjoyed a fun dinner at Lupe Tortilla.  Dad brought along his trusty chest incision pillow which Mom has made several pillowcases for.  Most of them are understated to match his clothes, like black or gray.  She did make one with Caleb in mind, though! It is fabric with the Cars characters on it so Caleb was excited about Bob Bob's pillow.

On Sunday we went to church with Gran Jan and sat in the cry room, of course.  Caleb wasn't being naughty, he just talks all the time and doesn't understand that he has to be quiet in church!  He was talking about the lights, the Jesus cross, and would even announce "song off!" or "song on!" at the beginning and end of each song.  This was especially lovely during Communion when there are lots of short singing parts for the congregation :).  After church we went back to Gran Jan & Pop Pop's (with Pop Pop still gone on a business trip to Singapore) and had a yummy lunch and playtime with the family.

We watched the World Cup Finals and Caleb got to swim with "Uncah Keg" during halftime.  Sunday evening Bob Bob & Granny watched Caleb while Bryan and I went to dinner with my cousin Daniel and his wife Lindsey.  They got married last July in Colorado and we were unable to go to the wedding because of Bryan's work schedule, so it was our first time to meet Lindsey!  We had a great time catching up with Daniel and getting to know Lindsey, too.

On Monday we had more play time at Granny & Daddy Bob's before driving home to Temple.  It was a great visit but sadly I did not take many pictures!  We are thankful that Bryan's schedule as a second year resident gives him longer stretches of time off so we have more family time and opportunities to have weekends away to visit our families!

Caleb playing with the green shake shake car

Sending all the shake shake cars down the 'race cat' aka bookshelf

Gorgeous flower at my parents' house!

Introducing: Paper Baby #2

We'd like to introduce everyone to Paper Baby #2 who will be delivered tomorrow to our domestic adoption agency, Generations Adoptions, in Waco!  Paper Baby #2 is considerably lighter and lower maintenance than our international adoption Paper Baby!  The documents are so much easier this time around since nothing has to be notarized or authenticated by the Secretary of State!

We began to think and pray about our next adoption in January.  I began to research agencies and made a 'short list' of agencies to consider.  We wanted a Texas-based Christian agency that placed a strong focus on ministering to birth mothers and also had a set fee schedule.  Bryan and I had lots of discussion and prayer before choosing to work with Generations, the local agency that did our home study for Caleb's adoption.

We met with Generations in late May for a 3-hour orientation.  The morning before we left to go to the training our friends Nathan & Kristen came to our house to pray over us and pray for the decisions we had ahead of us.  Most of all, we all prayed that God would give us peace and confirmation that this was the right agency to work with.  He truly answered our prayers with that initial meeting!  We love the director and can see that she loves the Lord and seeks to glorify Him in how she runs the agency.  We loved the way she emphasized that God was in control of the growth of our family and they were there to facilitate.

One thing that was truly unexpected about our initial meeting was how our hearts were changed in regards to open adoption.  The term 'open adoption' has scared us in the past and we were not sure we wanted to pursue that type of arrangement.  We came to realize through our agency meeting and also through plenty of discussion that we want to trust God to put us in the right birthparent situation.  We truly believe that He already knows who our next child will be, and that if we make our adoption decisions prayerfully He will be present every step of the way.  While we will still be able to place some parameters around what we are comfortable with, it is likely that we will meet and have contact with our next child's birthparents.  In most cases, this means sending annual letters and pictures (something we already do for Caleb) and a visit once a year.  Are we nervous about this?  Absolutely.  Do we trust our agency and more importantly, God, to help us through it?  Definitely.  We realize that this next adoption may not be without heartache, just as our journey to Caleb was not always smooth.  We trust that God ultimately has good plans for our lives and that He will use this experience to teach us more about who He is.

We are both currently reading a book about open adoption called "Dear Birthmother".  It has been an excellent read so far and has really opened our eyes to the other side of the adoption story.  We have begun to think not just of our fears and concerns but of the birthmother's concerns as well.  We are praying for the emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of our next child's birthmother.  Thinking of her has made me grieve for Caleb's birthmother, especially knowing that she likely had no counseling or support in her decision and that she also probably does not know how he is doing.  I wish there was a way for us to let her know what an incredible little boy he is and how much joy he brings to us.

I have been working for the past couple of weeks on Paper Baby #2.  We were thrilled to hear that our agency would re-use several of our documents from the international home study they did for us in 2008, including all of our references.  It saved me a great deal of extra work!  I have about 90% of the remaining documents completed and will deliver them to Waco tomorrow morning.  We will attend a 6-hour training on July 24 that will educate us on domestic open adoption which is very different from the international closed adoption we did with Caleb.  Our home study will be the following Monday, July 26 and then we'll begin the waiting game after our home study is finalized mid-August!

We've been told the average wait for our agency is 9 months, but could be as short as a few weeks or as long as 2 years.  We are open to a child of any race so that may shorten our wait time since many families only desire to adopt Caucasian children.  Our agency primarily facilitates the adoption of newborn babies, so we are glad we will get to experience all the joys (and challenges!) of a brand new baby.  We are so excited to see what God has in store for us as we grow our family!  We covet your prayers as we begin this big step in our lives, and pray that in the coming months we will have joyful news to share of a new little Pickett!

July Pictures

Pushing Ginger cat around in his push-car

A new, very focused game:  lining up the matchbox cars one by one on the garage and then hurling them down the ramp as fast as possible

Caleb sitting with Daddy in his new race car pants that I made (my first solo sewing project!)

Caleb found a slipper-sock in my closet that is identical to some that my Mom wears.  He insisted on wearing it around the house saying 'Granny's shoes!' repeatedly.

Mr. Mischievous standing on his car box

Another new game:  driving race cars on the blinds

This & That

Since we've been home from Houston, I've slowly conquered Mt. Laundry (only to have it pile up again!) and have enjoyed getting back into our routine.  We've been spending time with friends, going to gymnastics & playdates and also taking Caleb on his first trip to McDonalds for a Happy Meal with his friend Parker.  We also had our first trip to the local water park today which was a total bust.  Caleb was terrified of a large bucket of water that spills every 2-3 minutes.  When we got home he kept telling me, "bucket spill down! more water! more water! more water! scared!".  Maybe we'll try again later this summer!

On July 1 Bryan officially became a second year resident -- he no longer has the label 'intern' anymore!  With his new title comes new responsibility in the ER, including managing one pod (wing) of the ER, helping oversee medical students and interns, taking incoming calls from ambulances en route, as well as carrying a heavier patient load.  I know he has felt overwhelmed at times but within a few weeks he will be adjusted, efficient and performing at his best.  Unfortunately he's had to work many night (6pm-6am) or evening (2pm-2am) shifts since the beginning of second year.  We have both missed him a lot, especially Caleb.  When we got Caleb out of his crib at naptime yesterday he insisted that we both hold him while he patted us and gave us hugs.  It is obvious to me that he is happiest when he is with his Mommy and his Daddy.  Fortunately Bryan will have 8 days off in a row starting on Saturday - so there is one benefit of the ER shift work!

And lastly, I want to document several funny Caleb-isms that have come up lately so I won't forget them:
-Today I put on my swimsuit to take Caleb to the water park and he declared, "Cute Mommy!".  What a sweet boy!  He will be a great husband some day if he keeps handing out compliments like that!

-Tonight at dinner Caleb asked me for a bite of 'so skinny'.  Translation:  zucchini !

-At night I ask Caleb what he wants to thank Jesus for before we say his bedtime prayers.  His first answer is always "Daddy, Mommy"  followed by his grandparents, friends, and on one evening he felt especially grateful for "Pop Pop's pool".

-Caleb can now recognize the make and model of Gran Jan's car out on the roads!  He also has started to point out "Uncah Keg's truck".  He has reminded me several times that "Keg and Shell" let him go fast in his wagon!  Ha!

-On Monday night Caleb went with me to the large group meeting for Medical Campus Outreach, the medical student ministry we are a part of.  I told him we were going to 'bible study'.  While we were there he got to play with older kids in the upstairs playroom, including playing with a race track and cars.  He spent the next day asking me repeatedly to go to 'bible study' to 'play other people toys'.

Coming up next- funny pictures of Caleb playing around the house!

A Week in Houston for Bob Bob's Surgery

Well, things got a tad busy after our final days in Port Aransas... hence the lack of blog updates!  Not too long after we got home we learned that Dad had some blocked arteries and would need a heart bypass operation.  While we were all anxious about the surgery, we rejoiced that God protected Dad from any major heart attacks (or any heart attack at all!) before he had the operation.  He was transferred to St. Lukes in the Houston Medical Center and had surgery on Tuesday, June 22.

It was definitely a trying week for our entire family,  but one that truly brought us all together to cheer Dad on to a complete recovery.  We were so blessed by how many family members and friends supported Dad through emails, prayers, cards, flowers, meals, etc during his hospital stay.  Dad was out of ICU within about 24 hours and discharged one week after surgery.  He's now recovering at home with no complications and doing fantastic!  Although the full recovery can take up to 6 months, he makes great progress with each passing day.

I felt so fortunate to have Bryan with me in Houston before, during and after Dad's surgery.  He was on his orthopedics rotation and when he told them of Dad's surgery, their response to his request for time off was to say "take whatever time you need, we'll be praying for your family."  There are very few residency programs that would offer that kind of flexibility to an intern - let along promising to pray as well.  We were so blessed by their response and thankful that Bryan could be there to give the entire family (especially me!) piece of mind.  Bryan really loved and supported me well throughout Dad's surgery and I was so incredibly grateful for him as my husband.

We could not have made it through the 10+ days we spent in Houston without the help of Bryan's parents, siblings and their spouses.  With little notice, they all rose to the occasion and took care of Caleb almost 24/7 while we were traveling back and forth to the hospital.  Caleb had a fantastic time with Gran Jan and Pop Pop - he loved swimming in their pool, playing racetrack at their house and looking for their cat Princess, aka "Mincess".  He truly settled in and enjoyed himself, often sleeping past 9am and eating huge amounts of food at each meal!  Caleb was sure to let everyone know repeatedly throughout the day that the cars were outside and whether or not each fan or light was off or on.  Gran Jan did the majority of the Caleb-watching and was so kind to rearrange her work schedule daily to fit what I needed as I spent time with Dad.  We were so very grateful!

Here are some pictures from the week.  Sadly all the pictures of Caleb with Gran Jan and Pop Pop are on their camera, which is with Pop Pop in Singapore!!

With Granny at the hospital before Bob Bob's surgery

Playing at Granny & Daddy Bob's house

Swimming with Daddy

Visting with Granny while she takes a brief break from the hospital after Dad's surgery

Waiting for Daddy Bob to come home

Dad is home!!

That does not look like a man who just had a bypass if you ask me!

Getting a new bus from Bob Bob