It is a very sad day...

Well, as you may or may not know, Francesca's Grandma Pauline (Keith's mom) has been sick for some time now and yesterday afternoon she decided to leave our world and join the angels above. When I received the phone call from Keith, I was heart broken. I can't tell you how much I truly loved this lady and how much she meant to Keith, me, and Francesca. I know she is in a much better place now and I also 'feel' that she is now watching over Sofia and taking care of her until we are able to bring her home. She was truly a remarkable woman that will live forever in our hearts and prayers...

Francesca and I are headed out this afternoon for D.C.

I promise...once home again...I will post some photos from our weekend at Peddler's Village. We had such a great time.

Last weekend in D.C.

Here are some photos from last weekend that we spent in D.C. The ride down took Francesca and I almost 8 hours (because of construction on 81)! And the ride home took over 7 hours! Francesca did so great in the car...it was me that was having a hard time just sitting there in construction traffic. We had a wonderful weekend that seem to end too soon. We went out for pizza on Friday and stopped at the local Kmart so Francesca could ride their merry-go-round (which she looks forward to every time we are there). On Saturday, we spent the day at the mall and again Francesca found another merry-go-round to ride there...several times and that night, we had dinner with some friends at a local Portuguese restaurant (the food was out-of-this-world). On Sunday, we went to see Grandma Pauline which is always a delight (my mother-in-law is such a wonderful and beautiful person) and had dinner with Keith boss and his family at their house. Monday, we headed home....so you can see we had a full weekend.

Francesca riding the merry-go-round at the mall on Saturday. She just loved it!



Saturday night dinner with our friends (taken outside the Portuguese restaurant that we went to). From left to right...Glen, Tara, George (Tara and George are expecting their first baby this August), Francesca, and Keith.


Inside the restaurant...Francesca and Tara playing with some bubbles (look at how all the boys gathered around Francesca...that's my girl!)



We are headed this weekend to Peddler's Village down in Bucks County in Pennsylvania. It is a last miute trip that we are so looking forward to.

13 MoNthS!

13 MoNthS LID for Sofia!

Can you believe that we have been LID for Sofia...for over a year now! We are still working on our home study update with our social worker (which to say in a nut-shell...is moving very slowly), I sent in our application for our I600a, and I am working on getting our police clearances, child abuse clearances, a letter from Keith's employer, and a few other things that we will need for our home study update. We are really praying that we hear something soon and that our home study update gets completed soon....

Our pirate...Grandma time...New swing set...and Daddy!

Here are some photos from this past weekend. I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I know we sure did! Like I stated in an earlier post, Grandma, Francesca, and I went out to lunch on Friday at Cooper's Seafood Restaurant and had a great time. Here is Francesca wearing her pirate hat from that day....













Grandma came down to our house for a Mother's Day breakfast celebration. Since G.G. is still in the hospital, we figured Grandma could use a good meal and some time at our house. These photos are of Francesca helping Grandma open her present (that was hand picked by Francesca).











Saturday, Keith and I went to Toy R Us to purchase Francesca a swing set. It only had 48 pages of instructions and took Keith 12 hours to put together. All I can say is that Francesca is loving it! Here are some photos of her playing on it with our neighbor, Mary and her little boy, Gavin on Sunday morning...











And these last set of photos are pictures of the two most important people in the world to me...(no other words are needed....)











We are off to D.C. again this weekend to meet up with Daddy (and save him a trip of coming home). I am hoping that once we get back, we'll know something more about or home study update (keeping my fingers crossed).

the paper chase begins again for Sofia...and updated music

Friday, we started the process of renewing our 797C clearance for Sofia's adoption. Since we didn't have to renew any of our paper work during Francesca's adoption, this is all new to us. We received an email on Thursday morning from our agency that our 797C and fingerprints are about to expired and we need to get them updated. So Friday morning, I contacted our social worker regarding an update on our home study that is needed for this process (I am hoping our social worker will have the update done within the next month). The one thing that I can do now is send in the I600A application again with our birth certificates, Keith's divorced decree and our current marriage licence which needs to be attached to the application. Once our home study update is complete and sent to the USCIS by our social worker, they will contact us to get re-fingerprinted and reissue our FBI clearance. So like I said, the paper chase begins again.

(I am not sure what our social worker is going to require for our home study update, but this should be interesting....)

Update - I finally got all our information together and I600A application filled out and ready to be mailed tomorrow....

Also Francesca has requested that I add Disney's The Jungle Book's Bare Necessities to our music list. Seeing how the Jungle Book is Francesca new favorite movie and she is always singing this song...how could I resist!

a few new photos....

The weather here in northeastern PA has been either super nice or total rain. The past two days have been nothing but rain here. But that rain didn't stop Francesca from having some fun inside (and keeping dry).

Having some fun with her baby's stroller...(yes, she did strap herself in).



We have been keeping busy (during the rain) with playing some board games (a favorite of Francesca's), working on her flash cards, and listening to her story reader book.

Today was an extra special day for we took Grandma out to lunch in celebration for Mother's Day (long very story short, I don't like going out on Mother's Day...for many reasons!) Grandma choice this year was Cooper's Seafood Restaurant. The restaurant is built to like a sea coast light house and giant pirate ship with tons of stuff decorating the walls of life at and in the sea. We were very lucky to be seated in the "train room" (our area is known for its trains) and Francesca had a blast. Our booth was right next to the giant fish tank and with the train traveling around on a suspended track from the ceiling....she was in heaven! (not to mention the ice cream and sprinkles she had after her meal). It was a super special day for us "girls" of totally dressing up, eating some great food, and just having fun!

Francesca...all ready for our girls' day out dressed in her new Cinderella dress from Grandma.

(isn't she just beautiful!)

I also have to mention that my darling Francesca actually sat through the 2 hour lunch today without any problems! We never had a problem with her and eating out, but 2 hours and no problems....that amazes me! I can't tell you how proud I am of her....

Tagged!

I have been tagged by a truly beautiful person and my wonderful friend, Colleen at http://crazy-eight.blogspot.com/

So here are the rules...post three things about yourself...link to the person who tagged you and tag 5 other bloggers (let them know by posting a comment on their blog).


1) We (Francesca and I) must eat out at least 4 times during the week. Since it is just her and I, eating out is so much easier than cooking at home for just the two of us. (we usually hit a local diner about two times a week and on our visit there last week, I forgot my wallet, when I mention it to the waitress she just laughed at me and said she'll put it on my tab. I guess you can say we are "regulars"...and -by the way- we went there today to eat and settle our bill.)

2) I am totally obsessed with Showtime series, 'The Tudors' and Discovery Channel 'The Deadliest Catch'. Everyone knows not to call me on Sunday and Tuesday after 9pm....because I won't answer the phone and this goes along with my Saturday and Sunday morning fishing shows (which I have mention before...)


3) Every morning no matter what I am doing, I always do my hair and make-up. The way I see it, you just never know who is going to stop by or where you might have to run out to....

So there you have it.

I am going to tag...

Sara at http://footballandfriedrice.blogspot.com/

Sue at http://biddlebloggers.blogspot.com/

Linda at http://parkersparadise.blogspot.com/

Julie at http://emmaandtheboys.blogspot.com/

and

Amy at http://thechristopherfamily.blogspot.com/

Just not ready....

As many of may know, Francesca still is not potty trained. It has been a "subject" in our household for some time now and we have tried everything...with no success. This past weekend, we tackled the issue again (using some different techniques) and by Tuesday, Francesca and I were both at the end of our ropes. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that this isn't easy for a lot of children and families, but I never thought it would be this hard. After I had a melt down with my mom when she stopped by our house and she experienced first hand what was going on...she suggested I call her doctor. So that's exactly what I did...actually I called both her pediatrician and gastro doctor....and both said to stop the process immediately because she is just not ready. It was at that moment that I realized that it doesn't matter if she gets potty trained now or at a later time (when she is ready), but what matters is that she is happy and not stressing herself out (she was at the point of not wanting to eat or drink and holding both her pee and poop...she is one strong willed little girl!). So with the doctors' help and suggestions, we are starting a new process to help her understand more about going on the potty and why it is important that she does....on her own time. According to the 'schedule' that they agreed on, it should take about three months...starting with making the bathroom the only changing place...and should end by with her asking to go on the potty, willingly. We shall see how this works, but after trying almost everything, it is worth giving it a shot. When I explained to Francesca that we were no longer going to be putting her on the potty for a some time, she just looked at me and said, "I'm sorry." At that, I just grabbed my little girl into my arms and held her so close telling her the whole time, "You have nothing to be sorry for...you are just not ready." And with that...we are starting again a whole new process of potty training that allows her to go at her pace without the stress.

(I'll keep you all posted on how she is doing...)