Tidbits

Adoption News:

Rachel emailed me from Acres of Hope. The Liberian staff is hoping to have JJ's case finalized in Liberian courts this month! It was so encouraging to have news. Rachel warned me that there are several cases needing to make it through this month, so we'll have to take a wait and see approach. I'm just thankful to know where we are at in the process. After finalization, we have three final steps:

1. Apply for and recieve JJ's passport to leave Liberia and travel internationally.

2. Apply for and recieve JJ's visa, giving him permission to enter the U.S.

3. Have him escorted HOME!!!!

Unfortunately, it is still impossible to predict how long these steps will take, but I'm hopeful. : )

Baby News:

My first ultrasound will be this Thursday at 8:30 AM. I hope to have an ultrasound photo to post on Thursday of our little Peanut.

My Big Kids:

Karissa has taken off with her reading. I can not express how much fun Pat and I are having watching her reading. It amazes me that our little girl, who came to us as a blank slate, learned to do that! Her favorite books to read right now are the Step Into Reading Books (especially the Disney Princess ones). They are leveled Steps 1-5. She's reading the Level 2 Books pretty well right now. Instead of reading her a bedtime story tonight, she read to me!

This was my bedtime story tonight. She bought it with her Barnes and Noble giftcard from Grandma and Grandpa Morton- Thanks Joe and Nancy!

I have used the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book for both of my girls.

Amy (4) loves to do her reading lessons with me and is 1/4 of the way through the book. The lessons are completely scripted and take less than 15 minutes. I was very inconsistent with Karissa. We started the book when she was four, right in the middle of my season of miscarriages, and it got pushed aside. The thirty lessons or so we were able to do gave her a great foundation for doing a lot of self-teaching after that. The teacher in me is having so much fun with this! : )

We are also having a blast with the Fancy Nancy books. If you have a preschool - early elementary aged little girl in your home, you've got to check out Fancy Nancy from the library. We did and ended up buying two from Barnes and Noble to own. (more Christmas giftcard from Grandma and Grandpa) : )

These are fun books, but I also am having fun reading the girls the Oz books as our bedtime stories. We are on the second book, and I've loved seeing how much they are enjoying the adventure and how good it has been for them to be exposed to higher level vocabulary. I like having balance in the books we read, so that not everything is simple sentence, picture books. There are some great classics that I'm excited to read aloud to the girls. Ok....enough teacher talk.

Have a good night, bloggy friends. : )