Quick post!

We received amazing news last week!  Our Article 5 has been picked up and delivered to CCCWA and we should hear very soon when our Gotcha Day is.  I threw around a few dates with our adoption agency, but we have to see what consulate’s calendar looks like.  ALMOST THERE KENNA BABY!

Look how cute the girls’ room is coming along!  Sam’s letter M’s turned out fabulous.  If you look closely you can see their names down the sides.  I still need to get sheets on McKenna’s bed (teal), but Maddie (pink) is sleeping in her room now. YEAH!

This is another “little” project for me to tackle – recovering these cubes so they match the décor.

 

One last tidbit – our annual Mother/Daughter Forever Family Day picture:

 

 

 

Sending BIG hugs!

Love, Marlo

Happy Forever Family Day Maddie!

Yesterday was an important day in the Gregg house. Five years ago I held the tiniest, most beautiful little creature in my arms and I fell head over heels in love with my baby - Maddie Moo Moo. Each of my children's births created another limb on our family tree, so we celebrated our little twig and we continue to wait, impatiently, to add McKenna to our tree too.

 To celebrate Maddie's special day I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she said TACOS! My poor ethnically challenged child.

She had a wonderful day because she went golfing with her Daddy, and at school she finally got to give her classmates their Valentines. It seems there was a substitute teacher last week who asked the children if they “would like to share” the Valentines they brought with their friends. Maddie decided she would rather keep hers. Yep. She came home with all 22 Tinkerbelle cards! I emailed her awesome Kindergarten teacher, explained the mix up, and asked if we could share ours a little late. Life Lessons...that's what her teacher said. I'm pretty sure it's just my five-year-old taking everything literally.

The girls' room is coming along great. Sam and I got the accent wall painted with three coats of pink, tackled painting one small dresser white and put two coats of primer and one coat of teal on the beautiful corner headboard that Scott and Brian dropped off on Sunday. Sam and I inhaled in A LOT of paint fumes this weekend. I mean A LOT!

I can't wait to finish this project up. McKenna's bed arrived and so did the bedding. Sam made totally cute letter “M”s with each girl's name on them. But now we’ve decided there is enough pink and teal in the room and we need to work on bringing in more soothing gray tones. Since we only have a few hours together at night after work, we will probably have to wait until the weekend to complete the transformation.  Stay tuned for cool pictures!

Miss Madison really wants us to bring her little sister home...like, right NOW! Last week she told me she didn't want me to go to China and have to fight people to get McKenna???? Does she think we have to fight Ninjas???? Hmmm, not sure. This week she told me she wanted to come with us to China. It was so hard to tell her no, but she has school, and John and I need to bond with McKenna. I still remember our trip to Vietnam. It was magical and we had such a wonderful time getting to know our little pipsqueak one-on-one without having to share our time and attention with everyone. Hopefully Maddie doesn't hate us for leaving her. I know Sam will take exceptional care of her and the boys, but a mommy worries. I've started to come up with little gifts to give her for each day we are gone with a countdown to us returning.

The other news of odd and bizarre is Sam broke her toe (the little piggy that did not get roast beef).  I wish I could blame the paint fumes for her accident, but she actually did it last week while putting on her pants. Mmmm-hmmm…you read that right. Putting on her pants! Bless her little heart.

And poor Carter had to have two baby molars pulled by the dentist because they weren’t allowing his adult teeth to come in.  He’s still nursing a sore jaw on both sides.  We did get a wonderful gift from the dentist’s office though – 62 tubes of toothpaste and 100 toothbrushes to donate to McKenna’s orphanage!  We LOVE Dr. Holm and his staff!

So...no adoption news, but I will keep you all posted.

Big hugs!
Marlo

WATCH OUT! It's a landslide!

My life has become a landslide.  I touch one thing, and several other things start to fall, and then all the falling things start to accumulate, and then BAAMMM we have a landslide of things rolling, rolling, and rolling.

Here is Carter’s new room.  This is where the landslide began.  It looks pretty good, all things considered, but it isn’t done yet.  The headboard needs to be tackled and there are some “decorative” touches which require Mom’s attention.

  

 

 

 

 

               Unfortunately, this is the girls’ room:

This is where all the extra “stuff” started rolling when Carter’s room was being tackled.  And then we decided to have a garage sale, and more “stuff” came out of the cupboards and closets and hiding places and also landed in here.  We managed to paint the closet – which required us to take all of the “stuff” out of said closet and put it into the landslide debris that now fills the room.

Poor Maddie is sleeping on a mattress in my bedroom, along with all the “baby paraphernalia” I’ve been accumulating for McKenna. (READ:  Also a MESS!)  Included in the paraphernalia piles are bottles I just found out have BPA in them!  YEAH!  Now I need more BPA-free bottles! (READ: Dripping with sarcasm.)

The hallway, or as it is now being referred to as “the storage way,” is a slalom course through bedding that no longer fits the beds we own, dirty clothes, things for Goodwill, boxes of diapers, an unbuilt baby playpen and several Polly Pocket people who seemed to have taken up residence there.

This landslide is now rolling down the stairs into a heaping pile on the landing, where you might find wooden letters to spell out the girls’ names, a ridiculously huge box of baby wipes, an eclectic assortment of books and a handful of wooden paint stir sticks.  Odd, right?  Well, I can explain the baby wipes - COSTCO - see them on the bottom right?

Somewhere in the house is one new bedspread for the girls – the other is still in transit…I think…along with the other twin size bed frame. 

While the landslide keeps flowing through the house, we were blessed with an amazing gift last week!  Our friend Brian B. and a co-worker, Scott M., are going to build the corner unit for the girls’ room.  They are so sweet!  I just couldn’t justify paying $550-$650 for the actual Pottery Barn Kids version.  I think the DIY version will be MUCH better.  I’ll take a picture once it is painted and installed…if we ever get the landslide under control and make room for it.

Just to add insult to injury, I was taken out of play by the nefarious, notorious, debilitating - common cold!  Seriously?  I have too much to do, and not enough time to do it in! 

Hope you are all having a better week than me!

Love,  Marlo

Your Forever Family

Today I thought I would take a minute to introduce you to your Forever Family.  Of course you will meet Mommy and Daddy while we are in China, but you will also have a lot of people (and critters) waiting at home for you too.  Here is the entire motley crew:

Madison

Well, I thought I would start with your big (little) sister, since you will probably be spending most of your time with her.  She is a huge reason why we wanted to have another little girl.  I LOVED growing up with my sister, and I know Maddie loves Sam, but Sam is an adult now and we thought you two girls would be great for each other.  I know Maddie is super excited to finally meet you, McKenna.  She asks several times a week if today is the day we are going to pick you up and bring you home.

Maddie is adopted too, just like you, except she was born in Vietnam.  She was a little peanut of a baby when we brought her home and she is such a blessing to our family – just like I know you will be too!

Maddie is in Kindergarten and also attends pre-school for the other half of her day.  She loves reading, her iPad, cartoons, Tinkerbell, swimming and golf.  She wants to teach you everything she knows and is going to be a great big sister for you.  She even requested you two share a room – which we are in the process of putting together right now.

Your sister is super funny and makes us laugh every day with the crazy things she says.  Yesterday she woke up and her throat was scratchy, so I jokingly asked her how many packs of cigarettes she had smoked.  She didn’t skip a beat and told me, “13.”  Yep – she’s a smart aleck just like me.

Carter

Your brother, Carter, is the sweetest, most sensitive, cute, loving boy ever.  He will be totally embarrassed I wrote this about him, but he really is awesome.  You will always be safe with Carter around because he takes his job as your big brother seriously.  He will also drive you and Madison totally and completely INSANE!  He is a boy through and through and loves annoying his sisters – and I’m sure he will delight in having another little girl to irritate when you are home.

Carter loves sports, riding bikes, swimming, UNLV and hanging out with his friends.  He is neat and organized and a great helper around the house.  You are so lucky to have him as one of your big brothers!

Codi

Codi, Codi, Codi.  You will quickly learn that Codi is a unique person.  He is super creative and extremely smart, but he likes to keep to himself and spends a lot of time in his room.  He can spend hours playing video games, working on the computer and drawing.  Some of Codi’s artwork hangs in our house and Sam’s place too.  He always has an interesting perspective on things and is knowledgeable about all sorts of topics.

Codi used to love building with Legos, and I have several pictures to prove it.  Now he channels his creative side into painting, drawing and computer graphics.

Samantha

Sam, or Sissy, as we call your oldest sister is the glue that holds us all together.  She has set the bar high for you kids.  She graduated high school with an honors diploma and an associate’s degree.  She then went on to Texas Tech University and graduated Summa Cum Laude two and half years later.  She starts her graduate program in August in Glendale, Arizona, and when she is done, she will be an Occupational Therapist.  You will have a few months to get to know your big sister before she leaves for school again, but don’t worry; she will always make time for you and will move mountains to be here for your milestones. 

Sam has a huge heart and is always volunteering to help others.  She roots for the underdog, loves children and animals, is a voracious reader and a BEAST in the gym.  I hope you and Maddie take a page from Sam’s book and become young, independent, fierce girls just like your big sister.

 

 

 

 

Shelby

The Fuzzy Crew

We have three dogs now.  I introduced you to Daddy’s newest addition, Sophie, earlier.  You also have two Yorkies to keep you company and play with.  The oldest, Shelby Elizabeth, is a good dog now, but when she was a puppy Mommy called her “Satan’s Spawn.”  She was an escape artist, loved to piddle all over the house and chewed everything she could get her cute little paws on.  Now she spends her days lounging on the couch and snuggling with anyone who let her sit in their lap. 

Our other little love bug is Jazzy, or Jasmine Mei.  She is four and a half pounds of fluffy fury.  She is super protective of the family and hates people coming to the door.  The poor pizza delivery guy always has a look of sheer terror on his face when I open the door. This crazy little girl is actually the most lovey-dovey animal you will ever meet.  She sleeps curled up against me or your brother, Carter, and loves to be held.  I think you two will become fast friends.

So this is family that is waiting…impatiently…to meet you.  We already love you so much and can’t wait to show you.

Love,

Mommy