The Break is Over. Sniff Sniff.

Well, today was the last day of my week off before summer school. I report for duty tomorrow at 8 a.m. I had a great week off, got to spend a lot of time with Connor, and take lots of naps. I love naps!

Here's what I did on my week off:

Friday- Went out to eat with the guys and took Connor to the very run down, Zuma Fun Center. He had fun anyways! I think we'll stick with Chuck E. Cheese from now on! We ended our Friday with hot Krispy Kremes!

Saturday- Did absolutely nothing until late afternoon. Took Connor to Nana's and Greg and I had a date night. It was a relaxing day.

Sunday- Spent time at my parent's house. Ate a delicious dinner (My mom makes the best fried chicken in the world!), took Dad's convertible for a spin, and ate some awesome ice cream. Another relaxing day!

Monday- Greg and I took Connor to open playtime at the Bounce House. He had a blast. I will admit, I had fun too! Those slides are fun! I did come out with two injuries on my elbows....only me! If you are a mom, you must take your kids! It is so worth $5.50! After a nap, I suffered through grocery shopping (I HATE GROCERY SHOPPING!), and then we all went on a picnic at the Sequoyah Hills park. After a long walk, we headed home. Another relaxing day!

Tuesday- I took Connor to Dollywood and Splash Country. The kid loves some Dollywood! He loves to get wet and made me ride that River Rampage ride. Of course, we both got soaked. He giggled all the way through it! After Dollywood, we headed over to Splash Country. This summer he is tall enough to ride a lot of the big water slides. I was a little nervous about taking him on them, but he loved them! He even thought the one that is completely in the dark was fun. He is so brave...maybe a little too brave! He laughed all the way through every slide! It was a fun day, but exhausting!

Wednesday- After an exhausting Tuesday, I decided to just lay low and hang out around the house. I did boring stuff like laundry and cleaning....exciting, I know. The day ended with an unsuccessful trip to Wal-Mart to buy play sand for Connor's sandbox. They were out, so I'll have to drag myself over there again....YUCK! There is nothing worse than having to go to Wal-Mart for just ONE thing!

Thursday- I woke up at 5:45 with the intention of running, but then I thought, this is my last day to sleep in until July. What am I thinking? I went back to sleep, and all day have been reminding myself how lazy I am! After I did get out of bed, I headed to the dentist and I HATE THE DENTIST! I hate the sounds, I hate all the instruments they stick in your mouth, I hate the taste....ugggh! I had to have a cavity filled and it was just as awful as I remembered it! That was at 11:30 a.m., and finally, at 7 p.m., I could feel the right side of my face again. I picked up Connor from school after his nap and we ran around for a little while. He loves to shop with his mom! The guilt of missing my morning run kicked in and I managed to make it out tonight and do yoga...not feeling as lazy now....still not feeling ready for shorts and bathing suits.

Tomorrow night we are planning on taking Connor to the drive-in to see Shrek 3 and Spiderman. Saturday afternoon, we're going to a Kids Reading Festival at the World's Fair Park and then that evening some friends are coming in town for a visit. Sunday, I'm hosting a tea with my friend Mandy. We've got a busy weekend!

Connor starts swim lessons next Tuesday, so be looking for some pictures! I am so excited to see how much he learns this summer. Tuesday at Splash Country, he was doing such a great job swimming! He loves the water...he is definitely my son!

Just Finished

This weekend I finished, "The Strength of Mercy" and "A Treasury of Adoption Miracles". They have taken me forever to read because the end of the school year was so busy! They were both extremely inspirational! I kept thinking as I was reading them, these women are amazing! Why in the world am I supposed to be an adoptive mother?

I just got "Lost Daughters of China" in the mail yesterday and plan on starting it tonight. (And by the way, I know book titles are underlined, but this program won't let me keep the font underlined, even when I cut and paste from Word -- I didn't want anyone who knew I had a degree in writing to be diappointed in me!)

Last night Greg and I watched the "China's Lost Girls" documentary. I cried all the way through it. It was so good! It took viewers through the whole process of the Americans who arrive over there to pick up their girls. It also had a lot of candid interviews with locals.

I am off for a week before teaching summer school. I am planning on doing lots of fun stuff with Connor, so be watching for extra cute pictures of my little man!

China

People have asked us a lot of questions about China. Why are we adopting from there? What's the deal with their one child policy? What goes on over there?

Below is a link to an article in the Washington Post this week. I cried every time that I read the article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18812874/

Everything has settled down around here lately, and a lot of the excitement has faded a little as we wait until February to begin our paperwork. This week, I have felt a little numb to it all, and I have been praying God would keep me going and respark some of that passion that I felt when we began this journey. I stumbled upon this article, and it was just what I needed. I needed to remember why we are doing all of this.

I have always wanted a little girl, a little sister for my Connor, and the fact that in a couple of years, our little girl will be born and given away, just blows by mind. A mother who had an 8 year old girl, but really wanted a boy, was asked about the fact that she had to pay a fine in order to have another child. She said, "It's worth it, I finally got a son. In our area, if you don't have a son, you haven't made it. In the countryside, if we don't have a son, who will take care of us when we are old?"

I just found this so sad! And then I began to think about the pain of the mothers who have always dreamed about having a precious little girl, but have to give up their daughters because they need a son. One of the next books I'm reading is "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son."

I also have ordered, "Lost Daughters of China" and am planning on beginning it as soon as it arrives. We are planning on watching Lisa Ling's documentary (which has the same name) tonight.

Please read the article! Hopefully it will give our friends and family a little more insight into what goes on over in China and why we're doing this.

What a Day!

Today was one of those days that you just have to laugh at to keep from crying after you actually can sit down! I just have to share:

6:25 a.m. Wake up VERY late!
7:10 a.m. Rush out the door to work, wearing the first outfit that I found that didn’t need ironing.
7:30 a.m. Miraculously arrive at work on time!
7:40 a.m. Pull my classroom together and try to figure out what I’m doing since I was out on Friday.
7:55 a.m. Realize that in my rushing, I forgot a bag full of important papers that I have to have today.
7:56 a.m. Start trying to call Greg and BEG him to bring them to me…promising anything that he wants!
8:15 a.m. Greg finally calls me back and SO NICELY agrees to bring them to me (what a nice guy he is!)
8:15- 9:15 a.m. Try to teach and convince a bunch of third graders that I REALLY am taking grades these last four days of school and that this year is not over (Yeah, right!) while on the phone trying to find a place to enroll Connor in swim lessons. Everyone is booked! I finally find an opening!
9:15 a.m. Greg arrives with papers…my hero!
9:30 a.m. After finishing a book study, I realize some of my kids have never even had hot chocolate (the characters celebrated with hot chocolate in the last chapter of the book), so I remember that I have a bunch of hot chocolate from a staff luncheon and give a bunch of third graders their first taste of hot chocolate (Can you imagine? What do I ever have to complain about?)
9:45 a.m. My awesome mother arrives with Panera coffee and bagels and helps me get all of my end of the year paperwork done.
9:45-2:30 p.m. Continue to try to convince my kids to be good!
2:30-3:10 p.m. Bus duty
3:10-3:40 p.m. Meeting
3:40-4:40 p.m. Work on end of the year paperwork
5:00 p.m. Pick up Connor WAY LATER THAN USUAL from school- he’s in a terrible mood!
5:15 p.m. Connor busts out crying in the car and tells me “I had a terrible day!”
5:20 p.m. Finally figure out Connor’s terrible day is because one of his friends pushed him while they were playing and
it “really hurt my feelings.”
5:20-5:30 p.m. Pick up stuff from the store, three year old throws tantrum while I'm trying to pay...entire store stares at me
like they're about to present me the "Worst Mother of the Year Award"
5:30-6:30 p.m. Cook dinner, eat dinner, clean up
6:30-7:00 p.m. Try to convince a three year old who hasn’t used the bathroom since Friday, that pooping really isn’t scary!
7:00-7:15 p.m. Lay in the hall with my three year old where he has collapsed crying and upset and just hold him. He says he
just wants to go to bed! My heart breaks because at three, he is NOT supposed to be having these kinds of days yet!
7:15 p.m. Decide to fix his bad day with ice cream!
7:20 p.m. Arrive at Mc Donald's to find there is no "Shrek Ice Cream"..their machine is broken...try to avoid
meltdown...head to Bruster's!
8:00 p.m. Pooping success and then bubble bath
8:30 p.m. Floss and brush three year old’s teeth while trying to convince him that the “big girl” at school was wrong and his heart really is in his chest and not in his shoulder. “Are you sure, mom? The big girl at school says it’s right here!”
8:45 p.m. Prayers, kisses, hugs, bed
9:00 p.m. “I’m thirsty!”
9:15 p.m. Aaaaaahhhhhhh! Finally!

And shortly after posting this blog......Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Ooops! Has it really been two weeks?

I realized Friday night that I haven't posted anything in two weeks! I can't believe it has been that long! We have been so busy! The school year is wrapping up and we have had a million other things going on.

Friday is our last day of school for this year! It has flown by! I have a week off and then I am teaching summer school for the month of June. Yes, I know it's stupid to give up a month of vacation, when I'm getting paid to do nothing, but the extra summer school money is great! Plus, it will pay for both our beach vacation in July and some of Disney in October.

Mimi is visiting right now, and we're having a blast! Of course Connor is being spoiled beyond belief. He told me on Friday that Daddy and I should leave and go on vacation. I don't think he likes sharing Mimi with anyone. Next weekend we're heading to Indianapolis to visit our friends, the next weekend we're having friends in town, and then after that hopefully things can slow down for a couple of weeks at least. But we wouldn't be the Adkins family if we weren't always crazy busy, now would we? I don't think we'd know what to do with ourselves if we didn't have something going on. I'm so glad I share my life with two boys as equally restless as me!

I haven't posted a funny Connor story in a while, so here's one for you! We have been planning on seeing the new Shrek movie today for a few days now. Well, this morning, we changed our minds at the last minute, and ended up going to see "Meet the Robinsons" in 3D. It was really fun! Connor sat through the whole movie and seemed to love it. As we were walking out of the theatre, we asked him how he liked it, and he said, "I thought we were seeing Shrek!" with a really confused look on his face. It was so funny that he didn't say a word until it was over.

Tomorrow Greg is leading worship at church and I am singing as well. Connor is also doing something for Awanas during the service, so all three of us are involved. Hopefully we'll all get a good night's sleep and have a great morning.

I'll try to post again soon with some actual pictures. I haven't had the camera on in a couple of weeks and need to take some pictures! If anything, this blog has made me be better about taking pictures!

I must go. Greg bought the Planet Earth documentary series tonight, and if you know me well, you know I LOVE documentaries. I have to watch now! Yes, I am a dork.

New Haircuts and Other Stuff

This week has been exhausting!

Connor and I both got a lot of hair cut off! Greg says mine is still long, but mine hasn't been this short in a couple of years, so it's short to me! Connor is glad to have his spikes back!

I have been so tired this week and we've had something going on every night! Today I didn't even leave the house until we went downtown to eat dinner late this evening. We had planned on going to the Rossini festival today, but it rained. I can't say that I was disappointed because I totally enjoyed relaxing! Connor got to do this bungee trampoline thing that was set up in Market Square before we ate dinner and totally loved it!

This week at work has been so long! The kids totally have spring fever and I'm getting worn out keeping them under control. One of my favorite student's mother got arrested in our parking lot this week, not to mention all other kinds of drama that happens daily in the life of an inner city school. My intern is coming back on Monday....thank goodness!

I completely overhauled my MySpace page today, so take a look. I hadn't changed much other than pictures in the past year, so it was time for a new page!

The Adoption

Okay, so as the word is spreading about our adoption, here are the two things that I am hearing pretty regularly.

1. "Oh, can you guys not have anymore kids?" As far as I know we are perfectly capable of having more children naturally, and we might even decide to do that someday. Who knows! Just because someone adopts, it doesn't mean that they can't have more biological children. And even if they couldn't, is that a question you should really be asking? It might be a bit painful for the couple.

2. "Oh, now you don't have to throw up for nine months again!" Yes, my pregnancy with Connor was less than ideal. As a matter of fact, as my friend Mandy says, there is probably a reason I threw up for nine months. With my personality type (I am a control freak, impatient, and selfish) the complete opposite of what adoption requires, I would have probably had a harder time softening my heart to the idea if having Connor had been a breeze. BUT............nine months of throwing up and two and a half hours of drug-free pushing to deliver a 10 pound baby is NOTHING in comparison to the journey we have ahead. We have to wait THREE to FOUR years with unbelievable patience and put quite a financial strain on ourselves to bring this little girl into our family. But without any doubt in my being, this is what we're being called to do.

These comments are amusing to me because these would have totally been my thoughts a month ago if I was on the outside looking in! It's amazing how much can change in a short time.

The Zoo

We have not spent any time together as a family in a week! I've been in Florida and Greg has been running sound for a musical at CAK at night. Today is the first time since we've all been together for a substantial amount of time since last Friday night's dinner out to celebrate our decision to adopt Claire. (We ate Chinese! Yes, we totally admit it is cheesy, but it was Greg's idea!) And by the way, my fortune cookie read, "The one you love is not as far away as you may think."

Greg has been dying to take Connor to the zoo. Connor has only been to the Knoxville Zoo one time with his Mimi while Greg and I were in Mexico. I guess you can count the Animal Kingdom at Disney as a zoo too. So, Greg pulled me out of bed this morning and basically had to drag me to the zoo. I am not an animal person and it was raining, plus I had spent way too much time at theme parks this week, so this wasn't my idea of a perfect Saturday. But, the rain let up and we had a great day. Connor couldn't wait to see the penguins and said, "Look, it's Happy Feet!" Despite all of the animals, he really just wanted to run around and play. He loved petting the goats, milking the fake cow, and most of all playing on the playground at Kids Cove. It's funny how I can do something I don't really want to do, but I love it anyway because of the joy on Connor's face. I love that little boy!

Back from Florida and Soooooo Tired!

Oh my goodness....talk about being tired! I just flew back from Florida about an hour ago. I am so exhausted and dreading going to work tomorrow. I don't even want to know the damage my kids have done on a sub for three days! I bribed them to be good with the promise of pizza on Friday, so hopefully that worked!

I was in Orlando for four days at a conference. The classes were okay, only about two of them were worth going to, but the fellowship and friendships that were made were worth the trip! Disney offers an after 4 pass, at half price to people staying on their property with a convention, so we were able to hit Epcot, MGM, and the Magic Kingdom in the evenings. It was so weird being there without Connor and Greg, but I still had a great time!

My friends Jessica, Tina, and I were taking the backlot tour at MGM, and they pulled Jessica and me out of line and had us come out on stage for the first part of the tour to act out a movie scene. We got absolutely soaked (they totally tricked us, thus the classic, Jessica pose you see in the pictures-me with my hands on my hips). The lady "directing" the scene said she'd never seen a crowd laugh as hard as they did with Jessica and me. We were such goofballs and we had an absolute blast!

It was good to get away after the emotions of last week. I was spending some time by the water at the resort on Monday, and it finally hit me everything that has been going on, and I couldn't help but just cry. I cried because I'm scared, because I'm excited, because I don't understand it all. I cried because despite all that, I still feel peace. I know that everything is going to work out in God's perfect timing.

I am so excited to be home with my guys and I'm so excited to sleep in my bed....right now!

Connor is Going to be a Big Brother

I sit here tonight physically and emotionally exhausted from the week that I've had. Last week, while visiting a close friend in the hospital who had just had a new baby, I finally began to think about expanding our family. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted another child, but I just didn't know when we were supposed to get pregnant. I just couldn't come to a peace about it. Adoption has always been in the back of my mind. I have been around a lot of adoptive parents throughout my life and always admired them. I always thought that if we adopted, I'd like to adopt from China. Every time I see a little Chinese girl, I get goosebumps. It's always been this weird thing, but I just didn't know if we would have that calling. The people I know who are adoptive parents are some of the people I admire the most because of their faith, heart, and strength. I would never consider myself as strong as them. And then it came.....

We were walking downtown last Saturday to a parade and having a conversation about having a baby, I kept thinking about adoption. I was too scared to say anything because when I had mentioned it before, Greg had always said that he would be open to discussing it if we could figure out how to make it affordable. I never knew how in the world to make twenty thousand dollars sound affordable, so I just didn't bring it up. I was thinking to myself, I really want to talk about this, but I can't, and then I came around a corner and saw a little Chinese girl with adoptive parents. I became very emotional and was hiding tears behind my sunglasses. We got home later that afternoon and I prayed for God to open up Greg's heart to adoption if this is what we were supposed to do and that night we had our first real conversation about adoption, and neither of us seemed so closed to the idea anymore. I began a journal, just in case any of this came to pass.

As I sit here tonight, one week later, so much has happened. It has been the most incredible week of my life. I have never seen God as much as I have this week. He has done amazing things and I have experienced what it is truly like to listen to God and follow his will and so..........as of last night, we are adopting a little girl from China. It will be at least three years until she joins our family, but through patience and obedience, we will bring her home. We are at a holding phase right now. We cannot submit our application until I am 29 1/2, so that will not come until February. After February, we will prepare our dossier for about 6 months. Hopefully by my 30th birthday (the age at which China will allow you to adopt) , we can mail our dossier to China and begin our 18-24 month (or more as we begin researching on current trends) wait for a referral. We will then have two months to prepare for travel, and then we will fly to Beijing and spend 14 days in China, before bringing her home.

I would love to share all of the God moments that I have had this week, but I'd write all night. Now, I just begin counting down to my thirtieth birthday so we can mail our paperwork to China. I never thought I'd be counting the days until I was 30! Then again, I never thought God would choose me to do something this amazing and important! It's been a good week!

My precious little man is excited. He's already talking about "sissy". I pray our daughter has the same sweetness and kindness as our Connor. He is an amazing little boy and deserves an amazing sister.

Connor is Going to be a Big Brother!

I sit here tonight physically and emotionally exhausted from the week that I've had. Last week, while visiting a close friend in the hospital who had just had a new baby, I finally began to think about expanding our family. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted another child, but I just didn't know when we were supposed to get pregnant. I just couldn't come to a peace about it. Adoption has always been in the back of my mind. I have been around a lot of adoptive parents throughout my life and always admired them. I always thought that if we adopted, I'd like to adopt from China. Every time I see a little Chinese girl, I get goosebumps. It's always been this weird thing, but I just didn't know if we would have that calling. The people I know who are adoptive parents are some of the people I admire the most because of their faith, heart, and strength. I would never consider myself as strong as them. And then it came.....

We were walking downtown last Saturday to a parade and having a conversation about having a baby, I kept thinking about adoption. I was too scared to say anything because when I had mentioned it before, Greg had always said that he would be open to discussing it if we could figure out how to make it affordable. I never knew how in the world to make twenty thousand dollars sound affordable, so I just didn't bring it up. I was thinking to myself, I really want to talk about this, but I can't, and then I came around a corner and saw a little Chinese girl with adoptive parents. I became very emotional and was hiding tears behind my sunglasses. We got home later that afternoon and I prayed for God to open up Greg's heart to adoption if this is what we were supposed to do and that night we had our first real conversation about adoption, and neither of us seemed so closed to the idea anymore. I began a journal, just in case any of this came to pass.

As I sit here tonight, one week later, so much has happened. It has been the most incredible week of my life. I have never seen God as much as I have this week. He has done amazing things and I have experienced what it is truly like to listen to God and follow his will and so..........as of last night, we are adopting a little girl from China. It will be at least three years until she joins our family, but through patience and obedience, we will bring her home. We are at a holding phase right now. We cannot submit our application until I am 29 1/2, so that will not come until February. After February, we will prepare our dossier for about 6 months. Hopefully by my 30th birthday (the age at which China will allow you to adopt) , we can mail our dossier to China and begin our 18-24 month (or more as we begin researching on current trends) wait for a referral. We will then have two months to prepare for travel, and then we will fly to Beijing and spend 14 days in China, before bringing her home.

I would love to share all of the God moments that I have had this week, but I'd write all night. Now, I just begin counting down to my thirtieth birthday so we can mail our paperwork to China. I never thought I'd be counting the days until I was 30! Then again, I never thought God would choose me to do something this amazing and important! It's been a good week!

My precious little man is excited. He's already talking about "sissy". I pray our daughter has the same sweetness and kindness as our Connor. He is an amazing little boy and deserves an amazing sister.

Another Relaxing Saturday

Two relaxing Saturdays in a row! What is going on in the Adkins house? Greg and Connor were kind enough to let me sleep in since I woke up with an awful headache (No doubt the result of a stressful week of work due to Standardized Testing and No Child Left Behind.... don't get me started!) When the migraine pills finally took effect, we headed downtown to watch the Dogwood Arts Parade. It was a dreary, rainy, and cold day, but we still had a great time. After the parade, we ate at a new restaurant in Market Square called Trio. It was awesome! It might be our new favorite! We walked off our lunch looking at the different booths and letting Connor explore all the different stuff that they had for the kids. When we finally made it back to the car and asked Connor what his favorite thing in the parade was, he said, "The Motorcycles!" After thinking for a few minutes he also blurted out, "I saw a llama poop in the street too!" Three year olds are a little too observant!

Money for Jesus

Every Wednesday night, Connor goes to his Cubbies group at church. For two hours, he listens to a Bible lesson, makes a craft, sings songs, and plays a few games. They all wear these cute little vests and earn patches as they memorize verses. He loves Cubbies! Each week they are asked to bring an offering. When Connor started wanting to put the money in his piggy bank to buy a train, we had to tell him that it was his money for Jesus. Well, last week, this totally confused Connor because he wanted to see Jesus to give him the money. I explained to him that he couldn't see Jesus, he could only feel him. Greg and I went on to explain that Jesus lives inside of your heart. Well, tonight I gave him his "money for Jesus" and he started hitting his chest with it. He said, "I can't get it in." I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm trying to give the money to Jesus, he's inside my heart. I can't get in there." I didn't even know where to go from there and I could not stop laughing.

By the way, Connor's new favorite drink is "Apple Spider" from Starbucks. Don't tell the Health Department!

Connor Says the Funniest Things!

Our house is out of control because the three of us have had an insanely busy week! I decided to send Connor to school until I had cleaned the house, because well, it is just easier to do without a three year old "helping." I had already told him he was just going to school until lunch, and then I'd pick him up. He came into my room and said, "Mommy, I'll miss you! Make Daddy clean the house." I just looked at him while he paused (Greg and I didn't say a word!) and then he said, "Oh wait, Daddy doesn't know how. Mommy has to do it." I love the things that come out of his mouth. He is the best!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a great Easter Sunday. We had an awesome worship service at church. Greg did a great job of making the service creative and run smoothly. We had nearly 1400 people come to our three services today. After church we went to Nana and Granddaddy's house for an awesome lunch. Unckie, Aunt Jennifer, and Marion were able to join us. After lunch, the eight of us froze to death hunting for Easter eggs, but Connor and Marion had a great time, so it was very worth it. We made it over to G's house later in the evening to hang out with him and Uncle Adam for a while and then headed home to eat leftovers. Connor was extremely tired after no nap and headed to bed a little early. It was our best Easter yet!