Friday, September 8, 2006


All the kiddos at the game Posted by Picasa

The other part of our crowd Posted by Picasa

Part of our baseball crowd Posted by Picasa

Cam seeing the scooter for the 1st time!! Posted by Picasa

Anna looking at the scooter and wanting to ride it so bad Posted by Picasa

Cameron showing off the new scooter Posted by Picasa

Julia smiling for Momma! Posted by Picasa

Daddy helping Anna to ride with no training wheels Posted by Picasa

Daddy getting ready to hang the pinata Posted by Picasa

This is one of my favorite pictures...Mackenzie, Cam and Max Posted by Picasa

Doing what boys do best...watching each other play with a gameboy. Posted by Picasa

This is a typical Wagner/VanderVeer family get together for the pinata...Kate, there is someone missing from this picture...We missed you!!! Posted by Picasa

Kiara and Julia having a good time with the blowers Posted by Picasa

Julia taking her turn to crack open SpongeBob Posted by Picasa

After this pinata was broke, can you say CHAOS?? Posted by Picasa

Uncle Jeff showing his favorite candy Posted by Picasa

Julia and Lauren showing off their "loot"  Posted by Picasa

A picture of our camper (a shameless plug for Sunset Creek made by SonnyBrook) Posted by Picasa

Uncle Greg and Max at the party at our campsite Posted by Picasa

Cameron loving his jersey that Uncle Greg, Aunt Kathy and Max got him. Posted by Picasa

Cameron guarding his cake from his sisters Posted by Picasa

The "other" card table...minus me, who was taking the picture! Posted by Picasa

What a great looking group of euchre players Posted by Picasa

Clouds that were producing thunder and lightening, but it never rained or really clouded over us. It was really weird! Posted by Picasa

a very cool cloud Posted by Picasa

Thursday, September 7, 2006

OT (off topic): My short vent about another adoption blog

I'm not sure this is really the right venue, however, seeing how this is MY blog; I can post what I want. :-) Ahhh...the beauty of the internet never ceases to amaze me.

I've been following one particular family in their adoption journey since we started Julia's adoption in May of 2005. I was never sure who was really writing in the beginning, was it the future mom or dad. I was continually shocked at the awful things that this couple had to say about families with biological kids. As I mentioned in post back in May, I felt that they were very cynical (and still are). Like God had purposely picked them to be infertile. Now, having said that, maybe if Wayne and I were infertile I would feel some of those same things. That is something that I will never know. Wayne and I were blessed with 2 beautiful kids of our own. I guess if I had a "beef" with God, it would be over Anna's hearing loss. I sure didn't order a kiddo with a special need. Now, looking back I can see that God had a much bigger plan and Anna was the catalyst for that. Had Anna been born with normal hearing, we would have never been lead to Julia. We probably wouldn't have even adopted.

As I was reading this family blog (they are now in China and have their daughter) they keep going on about how small she is. Um...if you had read anything about international adoption (which I'm not sure they did, jeepers! who is their agency?? and with all the time they had to prepare...they were DTC in June of 2005 in the NSN program, I would have thought in the past 14 months they would have done SOME reading) ANYWAYS....If they had read anything about Chinese adoptions and girls...they tend to be small, much smaller than their counterparts in America. They can be healthy, just smaller. The Chinese people are not all Yao Mings! Goodness! Julia was on the smaller side when we got her as well. Did I dwell on it? Hardly! I wish I could just spend 2 minutes with this family and tell them to stop looking at what she isn't (your biological child) and realize what she is. Someone else's daughter that you have been given the priviledge to raise. Julia will never be a cutout of Wayne and I like Cam and Anna are. She is her own person 100%. We can give her our morals and foundation to become a happy healthy adult. Phew!

My fingers are tired from typing all that. You think that I'm being too hard on that family? Maybe. Do you think they need time to adjust and get used to being parents. Possibly. Time will tell. I can only hope that they give that little girl all the love and care that she needs. Blah. Maybe I'm being a tired crab. Hahaha!!

Either way, thank for allowing me to vent and get that out. I'd love to start a class about international adoption for waiting families. Giving them a real-life look at what it's all about. ~heavy sigh~ Maybe in a perfect world.....