Update!

Tyler Quote of the Day:

"Mommy? Daddy is new."

Oh yeah?

"He took all his hairs off...so he is new."

His hairs, honey? You mean he shaved?

"Yes! He shaved all his hairs off so he is new. When the hairs come out he is old again so he has to shave them off to be new."

Ooooh! OK! So...does that mean I am new because I have no hairs to shave?

"Right Mommy. You are new."

OK. Whew. Good to know son.

We heard from our adoption agency via letter last week. We passed our home study! Yay! The letter asked for two copies of our updated portfolio (and a check for $800) so I spent the afternoon on Sunday putting some final polish on the document that is designed to catch the eye of a birth-mother who is parent shopping.

It's a really weird feeling knowing our lives will be served up like a coffee table book for viewing by these scared and confused young girls (and occasionally women). I saw the family room style sitting area, where these women go to look through their selection of portfolios, the last time we visited the agency for our orientation meeting. It's very homey and comfortable. Portfolios from perspective adoptive families are spread out on the coffee table like a magazine selection at your dentist's office..."Have a cup of coffee while you look?" Weird!

I can only imagine how odd it is from the other side of the equation. Sitting on a sofa with stacks of binders, folios, and photo albums sitting in front of you. Trying to concentrate on what all these different couples are writing about and what makes them different from each other...hoping to spot "the one" that speaks to you on that sub-molecular level and screams THEY ARE THE ONES.

She will spend the rest of her life wonder if we really ARE the ones...if she made the right decision...guilt, fear, doubt, shame, sorrow, regret...who knows what other emotions going throughher mind.

I just hope our portfolio conveys how thankful we are and how much we appreciate what she is going through.

Tyler Update:

Ty has become a total video game junkie. His latest passion is Super Mario Brothers on my old Game Boy. Here he is, in deep concentration:

He can get through the first level of Mario Bros. all by himself. Amazing!

Tyler is finally drinking milk (for those who don't know, he has refused to touch milk since he stopped drinking formula and we tried to wean him to milk). He has been drinking calcium fortified OJ and other juices and getting calcium/Vit. D via supplements and cheese.

On a whim, John got him these Spiderman themed chocolate milkshakes at the supermarket and he LOVED them! Sadly, we haven't been able to find them lately so we tried Hershey's brand chocolate milk instead and he likes it almost as well. I'm so excited!

Now we get chocolate milk for him whenever we go out to eat. I'm so relieved.

Just in time for it to be all over the news that drinking animal milk may not have the nutritional benefits it was once thought to have. *sigh* At least it's high in protein.

Office Reorganization Update:

Just when I thought I was done cleaning...John got me a laptop for my birthday. Added bonus? They had a deal on photo printers if you got one at the same time...so he went for it. I have a new photo printer too! Problem...it was TOO BIG to fit on the shelf where I had my old printer. *sigh* Back to the drawing board with the office reorg. The DVD towers of terror had to come down. So after some more cleanup and switcheroo work, voila! My office has never looked so...empty.