Ready for Students

I have been so busy this past week setting up my classroom and getting ready for 24 new students. Yes, the numbers went down and I'm so happy with only having 24. That means that we'll have a little more room to spread our bodies out. This part of the year always seems overwhelming because there is so much to get done. I'm the kind of teacher that has to set my room up before I can even look at lesson plans for the first week. Now that I have that accomplished, the fun begins!

This year we are using the theme, "Oh, the Places We'll Go!" and I think it will be a hit with the students. We will discuss reaching our goals and how this is a journey that each student takes. We have compasses for the first day of school and it will be used as a reminder of the "direction" they are headed. Dr. Seuss has so many great quotes that go along with this and I'm using many of them this year.
Here's one of my favorites:
"Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way. " - Dr Seuss

Here's how I designed our classroom door.


I have such an incredible job! I get to be with inquisitive children all day. They ask so many questions and they all want to learn so much. I don't think that I was like that at all when I was in school. I just went to school and came home. Kids are so different now. I can't wait to see what my class will be like this year.

Here's my classroom-all ready to go!



No new information on our adoption and I can truly say that I'm very happy that my mind is completely occupied with my classroom. I may email our agency this week and see what I can find out. Another family from our agency may be traveling next week to pick up their child. That would be great news for all of the waiting families. I'll let everyone know if we hear anything.

Another Tiny Step

Can you find Scott in the photo? Look way to the left...he's the one without a hat.

Yesterday we heard more on our case. At this point, any tiny bit of information makes us feel comforted. Our case worker had this news for us:

"The Ministry of Education in Moscow has provided a letter to clarify how cases will be allowed to proceed. You'll also see mention of the databank release letter; I'm not sure if you know what this refers to or not so I'll explain -- it's an official piece of paper from the federal databank office in Moscow that states your child has been on the databank registry listed as an orphan, for the correct length of time and it "releases" her for international adoption. It's usually one of the last pieces of paperwork that the judge gets before setting a court date."

Our letter needs to be resent because it had an error. This sort of news doesn't really surprise me anymore and it all sounds very good. What I took from this is that we WILL be traveling to get Our Precious Girl and that's all that matters. We're not sure when the travel date will be and until then, we'll just keep praying that she is happy and knows that we're coming soon.

I'll begin setting up my classroom next week and I'm super excited! I have a great team to work with and this will be our second year in the 3rd grade. It's always nice when you change grades and you get that first year completed. Now I know the curriculum and I'm ready to have some fun!!

I told you that Scott was in the Middle East last week and I'd like to post a few photos from his trip. He gets to go to some amazing places!

Summer is Winding Down

The house is very quiet today and there's a wonderful breeze blowing through the kitchen. I flew Sarah home last Friday and the house always seems empty without her here. She's such a ball of energy and we're always doing something. We ended her last week here with diving lessons and vacation bible school at night. She really had a great summer. Only a few scratches on her chin and not nearly as many bug bites as last summer.

It was also nice to finally have Scott home after being in the Middle East for over a week. He always comes home with great stories and a deeper appreciation for the USA. Now it's just the two of us again. We cherish the time we have alone because we know that will be changing in the future.

We haven't heard any adoption news about our case and we don't think we'll hear anything for a few weeks. It's been over a month since we received the news about our agency. The courts in Moscow gave them 3 months to remedy the situation and we're hoping that it all gets worked out quickly.

With all of this waiting, I've really amped up my running. I try to run 4-5 miles every day. It's such a great way to clear my mind and I'm always relaxed when I finish a run. I'll be running in a race on October 11th and I'd like to run a 9 minute mile. At least that's my goal for right now. I put a new widget on our site to show my running progress. I thought that this would motivate me because everyone could see if I was running or not. I love the Nike+ running chip!

I have 2 more weeks left before I head back to my classroom. It's going to be an exciting year with the adoption happening somewhere in the middle of it all!

Here are some highlights from the summer...

Bike Riding in DC

We found a great family sport to occupy our time while we wait to hear any news on Rylie. We now all own a bike and we love to go on adventures together. This weekend we ventured down to DC and we took the bikes on the metro. It was so easy and we wondered why we hadn't thought of doing this sooner.


If you've ever had to walk to all of the monuments around DC, you know that it's very tiring. The bikes today were easy, fun, and actually kept us very cool. The weather was gorgeous and we saw all of the monuments in under an hour. That NEVER happens. We also went to the Smithsonian castle and saw a special exhibit on the Olympic medals. I was most excited because I absolutely love the Olympics. They had many medals from past athletes and they also had some of the torches. It was all very cool!
Here are a few photos from the ride...