Middle of Summer Pics

Here is an awesome pic of my great husband.

He was out fishing with the boys.Trevor, Andrew and I rode our bikes along

Lake Shore Drive

It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

We stopped at Lincoln Park Zoo

Can you believe I have never been there before

It was really nice, and free too!!

This was at one of the many beaches along the Drive

This is at Navy Pier

View from Navy Pier

More Summer Pics

It was raining on 4th of July

But this was a beautiful picture of our flag.

All the cousins and Uncle Gerry playing

a double game of Risk

Our friends from church

The Busch Family

George Family

We had an awesome time together.

We were able to teach the kids all

new activities

"The summer of trying new things"

Austin with a beautiful sunset
Andrew with Samson

We are having a great time relaxing at the lake.

I received news from our Social Worker that our Home Study has been submitted for review from the home office. All of our paperwork is complete. We will wait to hear from them to let us know what the next step will be. We Wait.

Relaxing

Well the week has been wonderful. We had Toms family down for the 4th of July and the weather was not great. We did however enjoy tons of games. Settlers of Caton, Risk, more Risk, yet more Risk, and LCR. It is great when all of the cousins can play the games and it gets all the ages involved.

Sunday was a beautiful day and were able to play on the lake. The kids favorite is still the "Extreme Tubing" that we do.

Austin is taking his airplane flying lessons today so I have to go now and pick him up from the airport. Enjoy the summer.

Lake House

It sure feels good to be at the lake again. I will be here for most of the month, Tom will go home to work. It will take a while for the kids to decompress but I'm looking forward to relaxing. Most of our paperwork is ready, we r just waiting for the homestudy to be approved. We are getting really close now. Maybe by this time next year our daughter will be here enjoying the lake. Hope you all have a great summer.

Camp #2

Here is Kelly at Great America, she is waiting for her favorite ride

The Viper

We took Austin and Nathan, we had a great day, but it was very hot

Can you believe Trevor had football camp this week?

The temp was way above 90 deg, and Trevor

said that on the field it was way over 100 deg.

He loved it though.

It is hard to tell, but that is him in all white

with a dark blue helmet.

He is playing some sort of linebacker I think.

Is this to weird.

Andrew went to camp the next day after

Trevor, and guess what? He got the same

cabin and same bed that Trevor had.

He does have a different counselor.

His name is Steve-O Andrew and Matthew in front of the infamous cabin

1 week down

Here is Andrew at Camp, we were picking up

Trevor and listening to the awesome music.

Trevor had to make a trip to the emergency room

on Friday night at camp.

He started having a hard time breathing and his eyes were getting puffy.

The nurse thought he was having an allergic reaction (to what)?

Doc checked him out and he was fine, but I wonder what that bill is going to cost.

Cha Ching, can you say ATM (Automatic Tommy Money) to the rescue?

Camp was awesome though for Trevor

that is his leader with the bandana his name

is Ryan, and those are his bunk mates.

Here is Nathan and Andrew

at VBS

This was Monday night snack

For those of you who don't know, I help run the VBS at Westmont Alliance Church, this is Toms church where he grew up. They have wonderful people who love the Lord and want to reach out to the community there but lack some of the funds. Kelly, Julie and I help out so that this church which means so much to all of us go back each year and help out. It really is a blessing to us to have God move mountains (schedules) to see this church fill up with 70 or so kids and have laughter and smiles grace the halls. We had 5 kids accept Christ and it was such a renewal in my heart that God uses all people and all circumstances to help build His Kingdom.

Summer Time is here

Heres my wittle buddy playing a mean game of soccer

They won 5-3

Andrew did great!

Look at that technique

for his throw in! Heres my # 2 graduating from 8th Grade

Man my guys are good looking
Off to Marmion for Austin

Here is Trevor in front of his cabin

Surgery on my mouth went well. I am a little swollen on the left side but doing pretty good. I am on a liquid diet, maybe this will help me loose weight? I doubt it, I already had my 2nd bowl of ice cream with chocolate on top. Umm Umm good. Today I took Trevor to camp, he was so happy he got to go in the same cabin Hickory Hill. He was very excited to be there and couldn't wait for the fun to start. I will miss my sporto buddy.

our ATM is very busy

Our ATM is (Automatic Tommy Money) is getting very, very low. I mean this week is a killer, Trevors Teeth, Sally Teeth, Austins Teeth, Dogs to the vet, kids needed their physicals, it just keeps on going.

Things are moving right along now for the adoption. I received my I-600a confirmation letter in the mail today Yeah, and Tom had his finger prints done. I went to have my finger prints redone. Our Letters of Referals are being done and I received the rough draft of our homestudy today.

I'll be getting my bone implant for my implant in my mouth done on Friday, YUCK, YUCK I hate the dentist and everything in the mouth.

Hopefully we will have some nice weather because it sure is yucky out.

Field Day/Sox Game/Graduation Dinner

Here is Andrew at his Field Day.

He is getting ready to throw a softball. This is us before we left for the Sox Game

On the drive in

this was a pretty view

Here is Austin and Andrew.

The Sox Game, 1st Inning

Scott Podsednik on 2nd.

Sox Lost Big Time

5 - 0

10th time shut out this season

most in the MBL (Blaaaahhh)

Pretty cool firework display afterwards.

They were really neat

Austin wanted to go to

Buffalo Wild Wings

Here is the gang celebrating

Fingerprints Done

Today I (Sally) went and had my fingerprints taken again. I did them earlier for DCFS, but apparently if you want your fingerprints for State of Illinois and the FBI you have to go and pay more money. It seems all very silly since my fingerprints didn't change and everything is done electronically now. I don't get it! Tom was way to busy with work to go today so he is going to have to go next week the place is only open on Thursday. Good news is that Tyler does not have to go this time.

Last night, I droped off more paperwork at the FedEx (sorry Pam/Jim). They only use FedEx so I had to open an account and send off my pound of paperwork to them. Then I have completed the rest of the home study paperwork and send it off to Julie our social worker. You wouldn't believe how much paperwork there is for adoption. Every government is different but I think I have knocked down a couple of trees worth.

Home Study Interview - check

Yes we had our home study interview last night and it went really well. Julie our social worker came and interviewed Tom and I and then the boys for about 2 hours. She looked around the house to make sure that our house is big enough to have another child. Everything went well, I have some more papers to fill out but overall it was good. We are another step closer to our princess.

Parenting class??

Yes, we had to attend a 6 hour parenting class, which actually Tom and I could have taught. It was helpful with some of the information about policy in Russia. Truthfully I knew most of it just by reading info on the Web. Tom and I also found out that we have to do another 4 hours via the internet to finish the required time from the state of Illinois. Oh Joy. We have finished with most of the paperwork. Kelly, I need to have you notarize some more papers! Thank you. When that is done we have to just wait for the Federal Immigration paperwork to clear us and to have our finger prints taken. We will just keep doing more and more paperwork until then.
Not much happening in regards to the kids. Soccer, Soccer, and more Soccer. End of school activities for the boys, trying to find time to go to the lake (not sure if that will happen until July), trying to enjoy Tom on a date.

Memorial Day

Since I will be gone this Weekend, I wanted to post now how much I appreciate all the men and women who fight for us. You give EVERYTHING, so we can have EVERYTHING. I don't want to take YOU for granted.

WE CAN'T FORGET THEM!!!!

End of School Events

It really has been a productive week with school awards and end of year commitments. Last night Tyler was recognized by the High School for his service in the Student Congress. I didn't get any pics of it because he told me "no mom, not tonight", so I listened and didn't embarrass him.

Tonight we had a band concert at school

Trevor playing the drums for his

Jazz Band "Too" Austin is there in the middle,

he is 1st chair for the Saxaphones

He played really well despite the fact that

he had a terrible headache.

Citizen of the Month

Andrew

Citizen of the Month

You Rock!!!

I'm so proud of you.

Happy 75th Birthday Mom

Ruth McIntosh Schaefer

at 1 1/2 years oldGraduation from Harper High

1952

1954

May 2009

Our Familys Teeth

This pic is great, our ortho is getting a great deal also, Tom, myself, Austin, Trevor and Andrew all need/have braces. Can you say Cha Ching? I went today and boy did he do a number to my teeth. I have had braces on now for 3 years, yep I can't belive it either. I only have about 3 weeks left, ya right. Then, I need to go to a specialist to have a fake tooth put in, only problem is that I don't have enough bone left in the empty space (why I went to ortho in first place), so Doc has to do a bone transplant from my lower jaw. Ouch! I hate all dentist and such. Trevor went to the ortho and the Doc says he has to have 3 baby teeth pulled. He still has 9 baby teeth and Doc wants them out. Our dentist says he can't do it because of how 2 of them are in the bone so now I have to take him to a specialist. Cha Ching! Tooth Fairy where are you? Come and take this boys teeth and leave us money. Tyler seems to be the only one spared from all this yucky ortho stuff. He has really nice teeth THANK YOU GOD.

Signed with Agency

O.K., we are on a roll now. I signed with EAC adoption agency. They are a large adoption agency out of Ohio. After much prayer I feel this will be the best agency for us. Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers, please continue to do so. Our next step is to finish the Home Study process. This is so awesome!!!

Happy Mothers Day

This is a picture that Austin gave to me.

Hope you all have a great Mothers Day!

I got the best present

yep

Tom has agreed

so have the kids

to ADOPT!!!!!

Informal Meeting

Last night, Tom and I went and had a meeting with an adoption agency. We were there with another couple who just started looking into adoption as an option for her Infertility. It was nice because Tom was able to ask questions and have it answered by someone other than me. We are still commited to pray about our decision. Thank you all for praying with us. This is an awesome journey with many ups and downs and Tom needs to be sure.