Hodge Podge

One week after dropping my dad off at the airport, we traveled back to the airport to drop off my mom. Can I tell you how much I hate saying goodbyes? Whether it's for a few days, few weeks or forever I am just not good at saying goodbye. How I wish Texas and Ohio were closer to one another.

But it will be just a 3 hour plane ride away the first week of October. After skipping the month of September, Gabe and I will accompany Matt back to Ohio when he goes to Youngstown for work. Matt reserved our tickets today and we can't wait!

Speaking of not being able to wait, in just 2 short weeks we'll be visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It is going to be beyond spectacular. Rest assured I will have a lot of pictures to share with you.

The weather has been beautiful the past couple of days here. By beautiful, I mean waking up and it being 68, going for a mid-morning walk when it's only 85 and having a high of only 95 for the day. Gabe and I went for a walk this morning, me walking and he driving his car. In hindsight, taking the car all the way to the park wasn't the best idea in regards to my back but Gabe sure had fun. What also was fun, maybe my favorite part, was the fact that I wasn't covered in sweat after the mile walk and swinging fun. After a million (or just 50 or so) days of the temperature topping 100 degrees these past few days have been wonderful. Here's hoping for more!

In regards to weather, moving to Texas has caused us to encounter 2 different types of weather conditions that we're not used to: hurricanes and wild fires. While we haven't done all we could do to prepare for a hurricane yet, we've been hearing a lot about wildfires. They are wreaking havoc all over Texas, a large one being just 15 or so miles north of us. We are safe but so many others are not. Evacuation orders have been issued in some places and houses are being engulfed by flames. Please join us in praying for the safety of the people that live in the areas affected and for the fire fighters battling these fires risking their safety for others.

Another weird thing about Texas (not a total subject change) is that all the pools close on Labor Day. It's still going to be hot and now we'll have no where to swim. It's understandable that the pools close in August in Ohio because come on, the weather has been in the 60's the past couple days there. But closing all the pools when it's still 90 out seems a little absurd. Good thing the splash pad is open through October or Gabe would be one sad little lad.

Abrupt change of subject...

Tomorrow Gabe and I are going to battle the Houston traffic to visit his new opthamologist. Dr. R recommended her and even dictated a letter to her while we were there. I'm hoping she's as fabulous as Gabe's new neurologist is and hoping she's more on the ball then Texas Children's Hospital's therapy services. We have yet to hear back from them regarding his PT and/or OT evaluations. Gabe's been out of therapy for almost as long as he's ever been (he started therapy at 4 1/2 months) and this mama is starting to get really frustrated with TCH's system. Who cares if your one of the best children's hospitals in the nation if your services are so hard to access?

And then Thursday, Matt is going to get his TB shot checked and our doctors are going to sign our medical forms stating we're fit to adopt. Our notary (a super kind woman from Matt's work who's going in late to work in order to help us - Dora, if you read here, you're fabulous) will then notarize their signatures and our other two forms that we needed to redo and then Gabe and I will head over to FedEx and overnight the paperwork to AGCI.


Overnighting ensures that our caseworker will recieve it Friday and as long as everything is in order, we will be on the waitlist on Friday! Woot woot! I am so ready to have this waiting game start (and end!). We just can't wait to be a family of 4 (or 5).

And now a few more of our favorites from Gabe's photo shoot with Erica Camberare Photography. I finally ordered the photo's today and can't wait to get them, put them in the frames and share them with family.