Home Study Update and Thanksgiving Greetings

Our social worker came over this morning and completed Lili's final post-placement review and interviewed us for our home study update. It was all very painless. Her goal is to have everything done and to USCIS before Christmas. Assuming USCIS isn't taking too long, we should have our dossier completed and submitted to the agency shortly after the first of the year.

This will most likely be my last post until after the Thanksgiving weekend. We have extended family here from California visiting now and will have more family arriving from Texas and New York over the next couple of days. It's going to be a fun, food packed weekend and of course it's Lili's first Thanksgiving home. Having her here is going to make this year's Holiday season extra special.

Because I'm going to be busy with preparations and family I won't be spending time on-line, but I do want to wish all my blog friends a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Favorite Foto Friday

Another week has come and gone. It has been a busy week in the Weeks' house as we have been trying to get our basement ready before our guests arrive for the Thanksgiving weekend. Big progress was made this week. The sheetrock is finished and with the help of our son Josh, everything is painted (although some spots need a second coat). Yesterday the carpet guy came out and put down new padding then re-stretched and laid the carpet. This weekend the trim goes in and on Monday the carpets will be cleaned. It's finally starting to look like we'll have a usable basement again.


Today has been spent gathering more documents for our Ethiopia adoption and shopping for the Thanksgiving weekend. I found a 25 lb turkey, which isn't always easy to do. And yes, I mean a 25 lb turkey. We are going to have around 20 people here for Thanksgiving dinner and I want to have left-overs. Next week I'll buy my fresh produce and on Tuesday I'll start baking my desserts. I love entertaining, although it is going to be a little bit of a challenge this year. I may have to put Lili to work on some pie crusts :-)


Since we were out the majority of the day, Lili is worn out. She fell asleep in the van on the way home and woke up when I got her out of her car seat. However, by the time we got into the house, she was on her way out again. I laid her in the recliner and she's been asleep ever since. Of course this gave me a great opportunity to snap a couple new pictures for FFF.


I think she's tired.

I'm The Mom of a 28 Year Old

Yes folks, the title of my blog post is correct. My oldest turned 28 today, but he's still my baby. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that Ryan has Autism. As a result, we try to avoid parties that could potentially over-stimulate him, but instead try to keep everything low key. Tonight Dave, Josh, Ben, Lili and I took Ryan to Carlos O'Kelly's for dinner. He had his favorite, queso dip and chips and was all smiles. After dinner we went back to his new apartment so he could open his gift. It was the first time Josh and Ben had seen his apartment and they were impressed. Overall, it was a nice evening out and one that Ryan appeared to enjoy quite a bit.

Here are a few photos of the birthday guy.

Ryan (77 on his shirt) and Josh at Carlos O'Kelly's.

Ryan at his apartment after opening his gift.Getting a good picture of Ryan is quite the challenge. For a matter-of-fact, just getting him to look toward the camera is a success. I'll try again at Thanksgiving and hopefully we'll have more success.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!!

FFF and It's Actually on Friday

I wasn't sure what I was going to post for FFF, but Lili answered my question a little earlier today while I was preparing lunch. She came in from the family room where she had apparently been busy trying to undress herself.

This is a new thing for her, as of today. I put her shirt back on her and she proceeded to try and take it off again, quite successfully.

She's so proud of her new accomplishment.

Hawaii - Day Five

Our last day on the Island of Kauai was a bit challenging. Our flight was due to leave at 10:05 p.m., however, check-out was at noon which meant we had several hours to kill without a room for resting. We put on our swimsuits, checked out of the hotel and had the hotel store our carry-on luggage and then headed out to the lagoon to enjoy our last day on the island. Before reaching the lagoon we stopped to get some drinks and found our new friend from Guatemala. She finally had the opportunity to meet Lili and seemed so overwhelmed with joy to meet her. As we talked I discovered why. At the age of 2, this young woman was also adopted by a U.S. couple. She and her parents lived in California and then relocated to Kauai. Her parents were no longer living, but she is now married with two young children of her own a son and a daughter she named Lilliana. In addition, the man she married is from Korea and he too was adopted by a U.S. couple as an infant. Therefore, adoption is very near and dear to their hearts and they hope to someday be able to adopt from Korea and/or Guatemala. We spent a few minutes discussing adoption and exchanged contact information. We saw our new found friend a few more times that afternoon and I look forward to staying in contact with her. It was a very special day.

After spending the afternoon at the lagoon, trying to wear Lili out for the flight home, we headed into the hotel. Fortunately, arrangements had been made with the hotel for those families who were leaving later that evening. They set up a room for us to use in 1/2 hour increments so we could get cleaned up and ready for our flight home. Of course a 1/2 hour isn't long when you have to get 3 people ready to go, but we made it work. They also set up a room for us to sit, relax, and enjoy some free snacks and drinks while we waited for the shuttle that would take us to the airport. Our shuttle was due to leave at 7:30 p.m. and shortly before departure we were all informed that our flight had been delayed. Instead of leaving at 10:05, we would be departing somewhere between 2:30 and 2:45 a.m. The airline requested that we still arrive asap as they needed to re-route all of our flights to get us home. So, we all loaded onto the bus and headed to the airport. We stood in line for about an hour before finally making our way to the counter. Our original flight had us flying from Kauai to LAX (with a 5 hour lay-over), then to Dallas and from Dallas to Bloomington. Our flight from Kauai was now going to be so late that we would miss our connecting flight to Dallas so we were re-routed onto another airline going through Atlanta and then onto Bloomington. In our attempts to keep Lili going all afternoon so she would sleep on the flight from Kauai to LA, we now had to try and keep her going or sleeping all night. This was not a good ending to our trip so far.

Our flight left Kauai sometime around 3:00 a.m. or a little after. When we landed in LA we had just enough time to get our connecting tickets, grab a quick bite to take on the plane and make it to the terminal for our flight. However, when we got to the counter we were asked for the ticket that the previous airline had given us changing airline. They hadn't given any of us a ticket that would allow us to change airlines. So, after making the change for one of the couples in our group, there were 3 couples standing at the counter being told we had to walk over to the other airline, stand in line, get the connecting ticket and then return, stand in line to get our new tickets issued. This was not going to happen without us missing our flight, so two woman with the airline got on the phone and after about 20 -30 minutes of conversation we had tickets in hand and were quickly making our way to security.

Security at LAX seems to move fairly quickly and we were soon first in line. Shoes off, everything on the belt to go through the scanners and we would soon be on our way to the terminal. No, we were "randomly selected" by the airline to have a more thorough search of our luggage done. They pulled us aside, frisked us and began going through all our carry-on luggage, wiping things down and running the samples through their machines. The young lady going through my belongings finally told me that I could pack my things back up and we could go. I have to admit that it crossed my mind to tell her to repack everything since she was the one who took it apart, but I didn't think that would go over well and I really wanted to get home at this point. So I quickly put everything away and we walked as quickly as we could to the terminal. When we got there they were calling our names. We ran over, handed them our tickets and headed to the plane. Just before boarding we were told there was no more room in the overhead bins for our carry-on luggage and it needed to be checked. Seriously?!!!! Fortunately, they tagged everything to check it for us, but the reason we take carry-on luggage is in case we get stranded somewhere for the night or need a change of clothes. The way things were going we weren't convinced we would make it home before the next day and we had already spent 14 hours just getting to this point and still had another flight after this one. We were really wishing we had stayed in Hawaii by this point. Once we got on the plane we discovered a completely empty bin just above our seats. So much for the airlines making sure they are giving correct information. And, Lili's diaper leaked onto my pants so a change of clothes would have been nice.

We got on the plane, but weren't seated by each other, although we were close. Two young ladies sitting nearby offered to give us their seats so we could sit with each other and we took them up on their offer. We were in the back of the plane, but we didn't care, we were on the plane and getting ready for the next leg of our flight. As we sat there the woman sitting next to me asked about Lili wanting to know where she was born. I told her and she went on to say that she too was the mother of two young ladies born in Russia. We spent several minutes of the flight talking about the kids and our journey through adoption which certainly helped relieve much of the stress I was feeling.

Our flight was pretty much on time and we landed in Atlanta without incident and headed to the terminal for our next flight. We also had enough time to grab something to eat and all 3 of us needed something to eat by this point. As we headed toward the terminal one of the woman in our group was walking the other way and informed us that the plane at the terminal wasn't going to Bloomington, it was going to Springfield and they didn't know anything about the flight to Bloomington. Nothing shocked us at this point, but we decided to be patient and went to get something to eat. After all, there wasn't anything we could do that was going to make the plane appear. We got our food and headed back to the terminal. Fortunately, there wasn't a problem. The flight was running a little late, but at this point we didn't care as long as we got home.

Before we knew it, we were on the plane and headed down the runway. Lili had been such a trooper through everything. The adults were falling apart, but she was having a great time. She slept pretty much the entire flight from Kauai to LA. She slept a couple hours of the flight from LA to Atlanta and on the flight from Atlanta to Bloomington she was becoming antsy. It was time to break out the portable DVD player and put in an Elmo DVD. It worked!!! She was entertained. Granted, she got a little upset when we had to put it away to land, but it was nothing major.

Finally, we were on the ground in Bloomington. When we left Kauai it was in the mid 80's and when we landed in Bloomington it was 39 degrees. We were no longer in paradise and had to face reality.

Yes, our travel home left a lot to be desired, but we created a lot of memories on this trip, including the memories of our trip home. We would go through it all again to spend another week in paradise and hope to one day return to Hawaii. In memory of our trip, I'll share some random photos from our trip. I hope you've enjoyed reading about our journey.

Lili enjoying the big rocks at the beach.

Lili roaming around the hotel.

I just love palm trees. I also love warm weather, blue skies and sunshine. Boy, do I live in the wrong state :0) I actually captured this shot on the last day as we were walking around the grounds of the hotel.

Lili checking out the Koi fish in the pond.

This is a shot of the beach right by the hotel.

One of the thousands of flowers on the hotel grounds.

Another photo from the hotel grounds.
Blue Hawaii.Aloha!!!!

Hawaii - Day Four

Day Four started much like every other day. We woke up bright and early, went out on the balcony to check the weather, see the ocean, and hear the waves as they hit the shore. Ah, almost like being at home. Not!

We got ready to go and headed to breakfast. We had eaten at the same restaurant the first two mornings and decided to try another restaurant this time, so we went to Tidepools. We walked down past the pool and over a small wooden bridge to enter the restaurant. The bridge was the walkway over the Koi fish pond. Was Lili ever excited to see all those fish and a swan as well.

We found a table near the waterfall. There is nothing more relaxing to us than the sound of water. Shortly after we sat down one of the employees came over to greet us and started talking to Lili. She asked me what her name was and commented on how beautiful she was. As we talked she asked where Lili was born. I told her, "Guatemala." She went on to tell me that she had a friend that worked at the restaurant next to the pool who is from Guatemala. She gave me her name and wanted us to find her. She said she would love to see Lili. Later that afternoon we went to the lagoon, but never found her friend from Guatemala. Maybe tomorrow.

Day Four was a special day because a friend of ours, who we hadn't seen in years, was flying up from Oahu. I was really looking forward to seeing him and visiting. We used to work together in Washington and had become very good friends. We left Washington and moved to Illinois. He and his family left Washington and moved to Hawaii. I think the last time we had seen each other was about 10 years ago. Our friend arrived around lunch time and we got to spend a couple hours catching up on things. It was a great visit, although not long enough. Next time we come to Hawaii we'll take a trip to Oahu as well.

We decided to wait for our friend down in the lobby area. This area of the hotel has beautiful plants, flowers, trees and even birds.

While we were waiting Lili watched a couple taking turns standing by one of the birds and taking pictures. She decided she wanted to do the same thing. For a minute I thought we might actually be getting some cooperation for this photo.

Apparently she liked watching more than participating in the photo op.

Later that evening we were leaving Lili with the sitter again for another group dinner. During the afternoon we found ourselves wondering how she would react when the sitter walked in. We both thought she would quickly realize what was happening and start crying. We got ready for dinner, got Lili cleaned up and ordered room service for one. While Lili was eating her dinner the sitter arrived. When she walked in the door Lili looked up at her, gave her a big smile and waved. Hum, guess she wasn't traumatized by us leaving her the first night after all. We talked to the sitter for a few minutes, gave Lili kisses and left. As we walked out we again expected to hear her cry, but nothing.

We headed downstairs to meet us with the rest of our group and enjoyed the beautiful evening on the terrace overlooking the ocean and then headed to dinner. There were tables of food set up all around the perimeter of a large grassy area and more tables set up inside the ballroom. In the center of the grassy area were Japanese style tables with pillows for sitting. The patio area leading into the ballroom had regular sized tables and even more tables were set up in the ballroom for sitting. Each food table was catered by a different restaurant at the hotel and some other restaurants on Kauai. Each restaurant prepared samples of somewhere between 2 and 4 dishes for us to sample. We would go choose 2 or 3 different samples, take them back to our table to try them and then make our way to the next food table. While walking to try another sample we ran into the employee we had met at breakfast that day, but she wasn't alone. Her friend from Guatemala was working with her that evening. Since they were working we didn't have much time to talk, but now we could put a face with a name. We chatted for a few minutes and told her that we would try to find her the next day. Also, since she knew what we looked like, she could look for us as well. It was very exciting to meet someone from Lili's birth country.

After several hours of sampling food, listening to the live band and enjoying the company of Dave's co-workers, we decided it was time to head back to our room so the sitter could go home. We got back to our room and Lili was sound asleep. The sitter told us that she had brought some toys and some pots and pans for Lili to play with. Lili had fun putting her french fries from dinner into the pots and pans and playing with the new toys. When she got tired she cuddled up to the sitter and fell asleep. Not one tear was shed during the evening. Success!!!

It was another wonderful day in Kauai.

Hawaii - Day Three

Day Three in Hawaii was our day to explore at our leisure. We were provided a Jeep, a car seat for Lili, a picnic lunch and a map of the island. By 8:20 a.m. we were on the road, and after making a couple wrong turns were on our way north along the east side of the island. The scenery was spectacular.

We saw several guys on surf boards with paddles in the water or getting ready to enter the water. I have no idea why they have paddles, but it was fun to watch.

The interesting thing about the island of Kauai is that there is only one main road on the island, but it does not go all the way around the island. We went about as far north as we could and stopped at a beach. There was a man selling fresh coconut from the back of his pick up truck, so Dave bought one for us to try. He cut the top of the coconut exposing a hole in the top and placed a straw in the hole so we could try coconut water. Here is Lili and I with our coconut. I have to admit, neither of us were impressed.

After trying the water, and dumping the rest, the gentleman that sold it to us cut it open and removed the meat of the coconut for us. Again, I wasn't impressed. It was not at all like the flaked coconut we buy in the store. Dave also found out that the round, brown coconuts we are used to seeing are the same coconut as the one we tried, except as they ripen they become brown. It's pretty much the same as a banana.

Across the street from the beach was a cave. We didn't want to go into the cave, but I did get a fairly good picture.

Although this was not quite the end of the road, it was pretty darn close and we decided it was a good place to turn around so we could drive to the other side of the island. We drove south for a little while and stopped at another beach for some lunch.

And we had some guests for lunch.

There are chickens roaming all over the island. We found out that chicken coops were opened during the last hurricane to try and save the chickens. Many were saved and now reproduce and roam free. Lili enjoyed our visitors, but I'm not sure they enjoyed Lili.

I'm sure this chicken was yelling, "Run, she's coming, she's coming."

After lunch we headed around to the other side of the island. The west side was more industrial and not quite a pretty, however, we decided to take another road that headed up Wiamea Canyon. Mark Twain calls Wiamea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Islands. The road winds up about 4000 feet with several lookouts along the way.

As we made our way further and further up the road, we became more and more nervous. There are virtually no guardrails along the road, just plants, trees or nothing between you and the drop over the edge. We went about 1/2 way up and decided to head back down. Later that day we found out that because of the clouds you couldn't see anything at the top, but what we saw on the way up was well worth the drive.

We decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest. After leaving at 8:20 a.m. we were back to the hotel by 2:30 and had seen the majority of both sides of the island. Considering the top speed limit is 50 mph and we had to go through many small towns along the way, it gives you an idea of how small the island actually is. There are some other sights that we could have stopped to see along the way, but Lili had been such a trooper and we didn't want to push her over her limit.

When we got back to our room Dave sat down in the chair and glanced over at the bed and found that we had a friend on our bed skirt. Our little friend needed to be outside so I escorted him to the balcony and took a couple pictures.

These aren't the best pictures, but our little friend was a gecko that had found his way into our room somehow. He was a tiny little baby and Lili loved him.

The other thing to note about Day Three is that it was Election Day. We couldn't wait to turn on CNN to watch the election results come in. There is a 5 hour time difference between Hawaii and the East Coast and we were having a lot of trouble pulling ourselves away from the t.v. although we had to since we had reservations at one of the restaurants on the island. I was in the bathroom drying my hair when Dave came in and announced, "Barack just won the election." I was elated and will forever remember that I was in Hawaii, blow drying my hair when Barack won. It was another great day in paradise.

Hawaii - Day Two

We woke up in Hawaii before the sun came up. Even after a long day of travel we were still on Illinois time. However, when the sun did come up we went out on the balcony and this is the view.

Obviously I zoomed in on the last two shots, but I want you to all feel as if you were there too.

After enjoying the view we headed to breakfast and then walked around the grounds of the hotel. Here are just a few of the sights.

Yes, we were truly in paradise. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. The hotel and the grounds were absolutely gorgeous. Kauai is also known at the Garden Island, so there were plants, flowers and trees everywhere.

The hotel had a pool, another pool for adults only, a water slide, hot tub and a salt water lagoon. The lagoon had a beach-like setting and was perfect for Lili as she could easily wade out into the water or play in the sand.

The other nice thing about the lagoon was the hammocks. Lili and mommy enjoyed the sand and water while daddy relaxed under the shade of palm trees in a hammock. A fun time for all.

I think most of you know that this trip was the result of an award my husband's division won. Dave was one of the employees selected to go on the trip as a result of his hard work over the last year. On this particular evening all employees and their primary guest were required to attend a dinner event. This required that we get a baby sitter for Lili. Until this particular evening, Lili had never been left with a sitter and we weren't completely sure how she would handle being away from mom and dad for a few hours. We had been given contact information for two different sitter services prior to us leaving for Hawaii, so arrangements were made. Dave and I got ready for our evening and Lili was in her p.j.'s ready for the sitter. Dave was wearing his Hawaiian style shirt and I was wearing a Hawaiian style dress (no grass skirt). A few minutes before the sitter arrived we put an Elmo DVD in the portable DVD player and Lili was in Elmo world when the sitter arrived. We spent several minutes filling her in on Lili, her likes, dislikes, warning her about her temper, etc. and it was time to leave. Dave and I both gave Lili a kiss goodnight and told her we would be back later. We then headed toward the door and waited for the screaming and tears to start, but alas, Elmo was more important at that moment. We did find out after returning from our evening that Lili did in fact have a melt-down, but it was about an hour before we got back and was primarily due to her being extremely tired. The sitter, being a mom herself, handled it like a champ and Lili was down for the night. We crossed a major hurdle on this trip.

Our evening was wonderful. The hotel had closed the lagoon to guests earlier that afternoon to set everything up and when we arrived we were greeted at the entrance and a lei was placed around our neck. We were then escorted to a line to have our picture taken. After pictures we went to find the rest of our group. Along the way we saw table after table of food, bars and a stage with a live band. We had good food, good company, and a perfect Hawaiian evening. What made the evening even more special is that Dave and I were celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary that day. It's an anniversary that we will never forget.

I hope you enjoyed reading about day one and seeing some of the sights via photo. Check back tomorrow to read more of our adventures on the Garden Island of Kauai.

Hawaii - Day One

In an attempt to give you all the pertinent details of our trip I've decided to do separate posts for each day of our trip.


We left our house last Sunday at 4:15 a.m. and headed for the airport knowing it was going to be a long day of travel. Our flight from Bloomington to Chicago was on time and after boarding the plane Lili became antsy. I was concerned that we were in for a very long day of travel. However, once the plane took off down the runway her entire body began to relax and she was asleep within about 5 minutes. She didn't wake up until we stood up to exit the plane in Chicago. Maybe things would go well after all.


Since we had a couple hours before our next flight, we were able to sit down and enjoy some breakfast at the O'Hare airport and then headed over to the terminal so Lili could run off some energy before our next flight. I'm not quite sure how the other passengers felt about her running around, but I can honestly say I didn't care. I wanted her to be as worn out as possible for the flight from Chicago to LA.

Our flight from Chicago was on time and Lili did awesome. She watched some Elmo on the portable DVD player we brought with us and then fell asleep for a couple hours not waking up until shortly before we began our descent into LAX. The pilot had even managed to get us there 20 minutes early turning our 4 hour and 40 minute lay-over into a 5 hour lay-over. Fortunately, my sister lives in S. Cal so she, along with her husband and one of their daughters picked us up for a few hours of California sunshine. We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen then spent some time outside at one of the many outdoor malls enjoying the sun and Starbucks. We sat by a fountain outside of Starbucks where Uncle Ron taught Lili how to throw pennies into the fountain.

After our LA outing we headed back to the airport for our next flight. Again, the flight was on time, but since it was the longest leg of our journey we just weren't looking forward to this part of the trip. Lili fell asleep for a couple hours on this flight as well, enjoyed some Elmo and climbing up and down off the seats. I can honestly say that she did better on the flight than Dave and I did.

We made it to our final destination, Kauai. Unfortunately, it was almost 9:00 p.m. and dark so we couldn't enjoy any of the sights. However, it didn't deter the bus driver from playing tour guide and pointing out the sights along the way. LOL!!!! For a matter-of-fact, he would point something out by first saying, "You can't see it because it's dark, but here is the ......." It was hilarious.

We made it to the hotel around 9:30 and proceeded through the various lines of check in. Because this was a company sponsored event there were a lot of details to take care of, which meant there were several lines we had to stand in, but it was definitely a well oiled machine. First we got our hotel room taken care of, then we signed forms for our activity that week, got some money for meals (bonus), were allowed to pick out Hawaiian shirts for our trip and then made our way into the ballroom where they had tables of food set up for us.

After we put some food in our tummies, we made our way to our room. First, let me say that this hotel is "HUGE" but we didn't know just how big until the next day when we could actually see everything. We did have a good idea though based on the fact that it took us somewhere between 4 and 5 mintues to get to our room from the elevator. The walk was well worth the wait though. The room was large and the bathroom was about as big as some hotel rooms I've stayed in before :-)

That's it for Day 1 of our Hawaii trip. Please visit again soon for our Day 2 adventures along with many more photos.

We're Home

We've only been home about 20 minutes so I won't be blogging details about our trip until at least tomorrow, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are home safe and sound. We had a wonderful time and I'll be posting more over the next week or two along with some great photos.