Wagner Family Secret Pal!

Wow! What a great day! We received our finaly gift from our wonderful secret pal. Back in October we decided to join a secret pal swap with our DTC group. I knew that we would be traveling before the other families that were going the NSN route, but it was really fun to shop for our secret pal as well as look forward to getting a package from our pal. Since October we have received some really cute gifts. My favorite was probably the Chinese tea set. I love tea pots so this was a perfect gift! Anna loved the books for December and Cameron still has his Chinese New Year laterns hanging. Each gift was thoughtful and really meant a lot to us. This is the final month and the Kilgore family from PA sent us a beautiful quilt for Julia with the Chinese character for love in the center. It's just amazing. We also received a bag of Hersey kisses! ooohhhhh! Another treasure was a small Liberty Bell! Philly is on our list of places we'd love to take the kids to when they get older.

So...Thanks again for all the gifts and we hope that the wait for their new daughter will go fast and we can't wait to see pictures!!!

Julia and the quilt. 

Julia showing how she likes the pretty fabric! :-) 

A close-up of the Love character in the center 

The quilt sent by the Kilgore family for Julia 

The Accidental Adoption

I got this from our DTC group. I thought it was cute and wanted to post it. :-)

An Accidental Adoption

Have you ever noticed that you hear all the time about "accidental" pregnancies,
but never about couples who experience "accidental" adoptions?

Can you imagine:

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.

What is it?

Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went out to the mailbox today and ... well, we got an I-171H.

A what?!? An I171H? As in, we're going to have another baby?!?

It looks that way.

But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I600A forms.
Didn't you hide our home study update?

Of course I did. But don't forget, there was that one night...

What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night. But it was only once. We were just messing around.
I didn't print clearly.

I didn't even use ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun.
(giggles)
It was, wasn't it?

I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.

So now we've got our I-171H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it?
I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?

I already did.

And?

I'm five documents along.

Five documents!

And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated… okay? There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the notary's middle initial,
but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.

Thank God.

And you honey? Are you feeling okay?

I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.

Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens,

but of course I'm happy!

Julia and her Audiologist

Julia had her first visit with Dr. Brenda today. She checked Julia for fluid in her good ear, that was all clear! YAY! She also completed an OAE. That came back as normal too. I'm not going into details tonight about those tests. They are very easy and painless for Julia and she did awesome. She never moved or flinched. It went great. Julia's next appointment will be next Tuesday at 10:00am to see Dr. Mendians, her ENT. That will also be a very routine visit. He will refer us to another hospital (I hope) for Julia's MRI. We need to know whether she has hearing in her microtic ear. I personally think she does, but...we won't know till then.

So...Cousin Kate, if there's anything else you can think of that we need to know before Julia's next appointment, let us know! I can't find your email address so I hope you read this soon! Take care and I hope school isn't kickin' your butt too bad. ;-)

Love you all!

Oh yeah, enjoy the latest group of pictures. Anna's party at the Fury hockey game as well as some of Julia eating a cupcake.

I love rice and chicken! 

My pirate girl, AAARRGGHHH 

Anna posing for the camera 

Ohhhhh....green frosting! 

Mmmmm, I love cupcakes! 

Cameron enjoying dinner 

Julia fell asleep waiting to get ready to leave 

The new van! Oh and Anna! 

Anna inside the new van 

Anna before the game, showing off how much our snow has melted. It was 67 degrees in Muskegon last night! 

Anna and the sleepy girl 

Anna waiting for the game to start 

Anna and #11, Jeff Nelson...She LOVES him! 

Anna's player on the other side of the ice 

more of the game... 

At the game 

Birthday Bear enjoying the hockey game 

Adoption Thought of the Day

I bought the book The Waiting Child by Cindy Champnella. It's a great story of how her adopted daughter Jaclyn holds out the hope that her friend Xiao Mei Mei will be adopted too. http://bookbuzz.com/champnella.htm

This is an excerpt from the book that struck a cord in me...

"Love is mighty powerful thing to fight. I have loved, been loved and been in love. The one thing I know about love is that either it wins or you're miserable. There is no compromising love. There is no 'make a deal' with love. It wins or you lose. Love is not logical. Love doesn't care if boys like wiggly things. Love is not practical. Love doesn't care if you have the money or not. Love is not reasonable. Love doesn't care if you have the time or the energy or not. Love doesn't care if you are already exhausted. It doesn't care who needs therapy. It doesn't care how full or dirty your house is. Love doesn't care if you are old or afraid. How can you fight love and hope to win?"

I hope this has inspired you as much as it did me. Many hugs from the Wagner Clan!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Yesterday was Anna's birthday. She is officiallu 6! She wanted to make Shamrock cupcakes for school and so we did. I missed out on the kids eating the cupcakes, but did get a few pictures of the class hanging out afterwards.

Anna wanted to go to Traverse City and to Boone's for dinner. Well...we decided that Scotty's was good enough, so that's where we ended up. I think she was happy with it. It was our family, my parents and grandparents and my sisters. Oh and Tyler. He happens to be Julia's favorite. :-) Then after dinner we came home for some cake and ice cream. Anna ended up spending the night at her Grammy's house. I think Anna gets spolied more than me! :-)

Well, I should go tend to Wayne...he's feeling really sick. Have a great Saturday!

Playing peek a boo over the couch 

Julia telling me that it's "stinky" in the bathroom! 

A close-up of you know who! 

Singing the birthday song to Anna!!