Officially Matched!!!

It's hard to know where to begin this post.  The past couple of months have been pretty amazing on the adoption front.  Only two weeks after we were officially approved for adoption, we were contacted by a birth mother in Utah.  H. had found out about us through a family connection.  I felt an immediate connection with her from her first email and phone call. 

We have kept in contact mainly through email.  I am continually amazed at H's selflessness and desire to turn her difficult situation into a blessing for us.  I have been so impressed to watch her turn toward Heavenly Father instead of away.  The choice she is making is heartbreaking for her, but demonstrates her love for her baby in a way nothing else can.  H. is such a special, special girl and I feel blessed to be getting to know her and am excited to have her as an extended part of our family.

Last week, our commitment to each other became official.  We are now on a "firm hold" with H.  She has chosen us to be the parents of her baby!  That means our adoption profile is no longer viewable to other birth mothers.  We are off the market.  Now, we just wait and continue to support H. however we can.  She is not due until September.  We are planning a trip to Utah in June to meet her for the first time.

H. had her first ultrasound yesterday.  She emailed us these pictures.  I nearly cried looking at them and get chills every time I look again.  The timing and circumstances of our meeting were too perfect to be coincidence.  They are a testimony to me that this is right, but it's still hard to believe it's happening to us!  We've waited so long and I never expected things to fall into place so quickly once we were approved for adoption.

More than just excitement about the possibilities, this situation just feels so right to me.  I can't say that I'm positive this will work out because there are so many factors involved, but I do KNOW that we are supposed to be in contact with H.  We are supposed to have this experience and develop this relationship whatever the outcome may be.  For now though, we are moving ahead with faith that this baby is coming to our family.  I can hardly believe these ultrasound pictures are our baby!  He/she is just coming to our family through another amazing woman.  I feel so blessed to be a part of this process!

2014 Luckython

Yesterday was Uberthons' 3rd Annual Luckython.  They held the race at The Reserve golf course in Aloha again.  It's perfect for this race because the rolling green hills make me think of what Ireland must really be like.  Not that I would really know though. :)  

Spencer and I ran the 1k Kid's Race together.  There were 80 other kids this time and Spencer did great again.  He wanted to stop and walk a few times, but I reminded him that he's run further than that before and that he can do hard things and he kept going.  I also ran the 5k in a decent time of 23:19.  Spencer loves to hang out with Grandpa and Dad at the finish line and watch other runners finish.  He was kind of mad when I made him leave so we could get to our ward party on time.

Whoa - grouch face!  He really wasn't grouchy, but I guess his arms were cold.

Good job on another great race Uberthons!

Spencer's Contributions

Our old chore chart lost it's novelty and effectiveness a while ago.  Spencer was only required to complete one job (empty dishwasher, take out trash or put away laundry) for a week at a time.  The battles were getting silly though and I knew Spencer should be helping out more, so I logged into pinterest to come up with some new ideas.  I wound up with this door hanger and thought someone's idea of calling chores "contributions" was genius.  We've only been using it for about a week and it hasn't been battle-free, but Spencer has bought into the idea of contributing to the family much better than just doing jobs for the heck of it.

Spencer is required to make three contributions every day: make his bed, read, and do homework.  Then, I add one additional job like wiping off doorknobs, wiping baseboards, putting away laundry, etc.  These four jobs have to be completed before he earns his 30-minutes of screen time/day.  It hasn't been perfect, but is a big improvement from what we've done before.  And, it's awesome for me to actually have some help doing real jobs around here!  Hopefully, it will continue to go well and I can add more contributions as he gets the hang of these.

Reading is by far Spencer's favorite contribution.  He still doesn't like to read aloud to me, but will read silently to himself for an hour!

100th Day of School

Last Thursday was Spencer's 100th day of Kindergarten.  (Yikes!  Where have the days gone?!)  His teacher really hyped the day up so Spencer was super excited when it finally came.  He could have dressed up like a 100-year-old man, but Spencer wanted nothing to do with that.  So, he's my cute 5-year-old boy instead:

Once at school, they did all kinds of fun 100-related activities.  They counted to 100 several different ways, made paper 100 glasses, did 100 exercises, etc.  Making necklaces with 100 fruit loops was Spencer's favorite, I think.  He didn't eat many of them before eating pieces of yarn got too gross.  BJ the Clown even visited the class!

I'm so glad Spencer loves school so much and has a teacher who makes learning so fun!  The school year is now 2/3 over.  Craziness!