Austin Silly Hair - Trinity Gloves

Austin and Trinity were silly while we went riding on the backside. Austin took off his helmet and said "Look at my HAIR" the helmet had done a number on it. It was funny.

Trinity put on Jeremy's gloves and pretended she was a monster while we were driving. They were hilarious.

I told Trinity our Rhino was like a horse, when it goes up and down (when we go over bumps) it is like a horse, so you need to try and ride with it.

So by the end of the ride we were laughing at the Rhino and saying "Getty up horsey". We now have a sleek black stallion named "Rhino" :)

Whatever it takes to make the ride seem fun, and not just bumpy. :)

More Sand Dunes Pics

Sand Dunes

We just had a FUN weekend trip down at the Sand Dunes. Austin tore it up on his Motorcycle. We all had a great time, with lots of sand and sun. (Lots of Sun, I am burnt :))

Austin, Birthday - Bike

More Easter Pics

We had a ton of fun this Easter. We stayed at the White Sands campground down at the Sand Dunes. We also celebrated Austins birthday down there.

Adoption drama

Oh my goodness adoption is a VERY long, VERY hard road. You would think adopting an older child in the foster care system would be much easier then adopting internationally, adopting a baby, or even giving birth. You would be dead wrong.
After getting out hearts set on adopting a little boy we just don't seem to be able to give up on the process. I asked Jeremy the other day how he felt about it, how often he thought about it and where his mind-set was concerning adopting. He looked at me and said "I just feel that something is missing, I don't feel we are complete." "We are either adopting another child, or we are having one naturally."
Well that decided that for me, if he feels that strongly, then we will do what it takes.
We were still considering adopting from Ukraine, but our adoption agency was only able to come up with two kids, one that is emotionally and educationally okay, but nothing clicked with him, and I just don't see a fit.
The other one, seems like a cute boy, and my heart goes out to him, but he was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, has a learning disability. They think his learning disability is because of his mildly crossed eyes and that glasses and eye therapy may help improve that.
I don't think I am prepared to take that one, along with the language barriers and other country issues.
So now we are looking at adopting domestically.
In order to adopt an older child domestically they have to be in state custody. We have to complete a brand new home study, (our international one isn't good enough?) There is only one agency in all of Utah that is approved to do foster care adoptions (can we say "monopoly") and there is only one group that can approve you for a foster child to come into your home. This one group requires 32 hours of on site in classroom hours. These classes are only provided Tuesday and Thursdays from 5:30-9:30 so flexibility in schedule is not allowed. This also means the kids I currently have get to go without parents during these times (not fair to them). But then to top it off, that is only good for six months. So hope you get matched up quickly.
In international adoptions you don't have to do any of that. In baby adoptions you don't have to do any of that.
I understand that older foster children come with more baggage and they want you to be fully prepared for the kids sake, but not having any flexibility in the training and only one agency in Utah is ridiculous. Oh and I get to pay for the training, the new home study and all of that. Yippee...
What a joke.