Spring is here!

Love this weather!! It was 75 and sunny in the great midwest today! Gotta love that after icky snow and ice storms all last month. It was great to get out and bike ride with the kids, play basketball, and play at the park! I want to get in better shape before our trip to Vietnam so I won't get worn down and can also keep up with 3-kids at my ripe old age!!
Some friends of mine are planning a celebration shower for me and I'm looking forward to it. Two of my nieces will be here from California and we'll be celebrating with pictures of other babies from her orphange, stories, drinks, food, and great friends and family! In the meantime we're all waiting for the next travel group to get TA! They've been waiting forever! Two of them have baby's in our little one's orphange so we are hoping they get pictures and maybe a video shot of our doll.
Next week Soccer season starts already. And our son has his 10th (I can not even believe it!) birthday! He wants an ipod because his mp3 player isn't as cool as his friends. He also wants more DS games. He loves figuring out cheats to get further in the game. We look them up online. Everything is so technical these days!
I feel like I have nothing to say! Same old, same old! My creative brain is just gone! My memory goes back about 30 seconds and that's it! I seriously have LOST my memory! I have to constantly make lists! Any suggestions?

Love the Media

I've had several make comments to me still about Angelina's adoption from Vietnam and don't we wish we were her so we could get our child within 3-weeks. Seriously, you can't always believe what you hear from the media! My response is just, "I'm thankful that little boy now has a home and parents." Here's what her agency said..

Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:20 pm (PST)Heidi Gonzalez, Vietnam Adoption Coordinator for Adoptions From The Heart, has issued the following response to inquiries regarding Angelina Jolie's adoption from Vietnam. "In applying to adopt 3-yr-old Pax Thien, Ms. Jolie followed the same course as all prospective adoptive parents who apply to our Vietnam program. Throughout her adoption process, which began in the summerof 2006, she has received no preferential treatment from the Vietnamese government or Adoptions From The Heart, and contrary to earlier reports, her application was not fast tracked. Despite rumors that she chose her child, Ms. Jolie received a referral, just like any other parent adopting from Vietnam. In late 2006, she was referred a child who had been legally determined to be available for adoption and who fit within the parameters for which she had been approved to adopt. She accepted the first and only referral given to her. In addition, we can confirm the statement given by Nguyen Van Trung,Director of Tam Binh Orphanage, that Ms. Jolie has neither made, nor promised to make, any financial contributions to his orphanage. Adoptions From The Heart celebrates the miracle of adoption with the Jolie-Pitt family, as we do with all of our clients, and wish them much joy."

How Could You Know?

As you lay sleeping far away as still as you could be...
How could you know the joy today this photo brings to me?
A few short Months and you'll be mine, and "I" will soon be "We".
How could you know the love I feel? It's something you can't see.
So have sweet dreams, my precious babe. Sleep well and tenderly.
Some say that you're the lucky one. How could you know it's me? !!

-Kris Laughlin

Waterpark fun

Buds exploring at the Museum
Let's see how long we can stay on this snake!
Girls posing for that perfect shot!
Ok now their really showing their model quality!
Little guy, M_____, is even showing how it's done! We had a great relaxing time away for a couple days doing nothing but exploring, swimming, and relaxing. One of their friends is missing in these pictures. Sorry, K____! She was too busy swimming in the lazy river to be posing for pictures with them! An indoor waterpark is a great thing since it was only 18-degrees outside at the time! Family from CA said, "what? an indoor waterpark? !!" Umm hello! This IS the midwest you know. We never have perfect weather here. Either it's freezing cold with ice and snow, or hot and humid with lots of bugs! EXCEPT for the last couple of days when it got into the high 60's! We were in heaven! Oh NO! Am I getting old? I'm starting to talk about the weather! Yuk! I tease my father in law and Mom because their always talking about the weather good or bad. They LOVE the weather channel. In my opinion, why bother? I'll just deal with whatever is dealt when I get up the next morning. We were actually without electricity a couple of weeks ago for 24 hours! Luckily it was in the high 30's and never got below 60 in our house. But I really wanted to take a hot bath or shower as we got to that 24 hour mark. I quickly took one as soon as the power went back on. Now we have a generator in case that ever happens again. How strange it was to be without power. No tv in the background, no computer. We turned on the battery operated radio and danced by candle light watching our shadows on the wall and played games. It was rather peacefull!

Please say a prayer for the babies in the orphanages waiting for their parents. May god watch over them and their nanny's and keep them safe and well! Hopefully some friends of ours will travel very soon to get their babies! I love to follow their trips via their blogs. It's very exciting that their time is getting so close.

Birthday girl Leah!

After the stress of waiting, and waiting for any kind of adoption news, it's always fun to enjoy the company of friends!

Hope you had a great b-day Leah!

The Angelina & Brad Saga

They are supposed to have their giving and receiving appointments tomorrow and bring home their child this weekend. Hmmm, for most of us we'll be there for 2-3 weeks! The benefits of stardom! As long as their adoption is ethical I'm ok with it. I'm not jealous or envious of them. They chose their careers and have many positives and negatives that go with it just like the rest of us. She does do a lot of humanitarian work that she is well known for which I admire. I am also in love with her boyfriend but I secretly hate him for leaving Jennifer! It was said after she gave birth to her daughter that they instantly started paper chasing for another adoption. Here's what was posted earlier about their adoption.

HANOI - Vietnamese authorities have speeded up Angelina Jolie's adoption of a Vietnamese boy and the Hollywood star could be able to take him home by next month, the country's top adoption official said on Wednesday. Officials at the communist-run Southeast Asian country have approved most of the paperwork, said Vu Duc Long, director of the Justice Ministry's International Adoption Department.
"We have completed the adoption paperwork in Hanoi but now the relevant authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are still processing remaining documents, so it is unlikely everything will be finished in March," he told Reuters.
Long added that the boy could leave for the United States in April. Last week, he said the adoption would likely be completed in about three months, faster than normal, partly due to Jolie's fame.
Jolie, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an American agency without her partner Brad Pitt because under Vietnamese law, an unmarried couple may not adopt a child.
In Vietnam, adoptions have been known to take as little as one month if background checks and issues of whether the adopting family can support a child are quickly resolved.
However, the process can take six months or longer in some cases.
Long had said the child was a boy aged between 3 and 4 years from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. But on Wednesday, he declined to confirm the details, adding: "We have been asked to keep the boy's details confidential."
Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage. They have one biological child, Shiloh Nouvel who was born last year, and two adoptive children -- son Maddox from Cambodia and daughter Zahara from Ethiopia.