J Cooper Photography

During my little photo shoot with A she decided it was only fair to turn my camera on me.  She usually hates going out for photo shoots but was such a willing (and fun) model that night that I let her take over my camera for a bit.  She posed me on my yellow chair…told me to look over my shoulder at her (she’s good isn’t she?)  This photo is proof that this photography thing really can’t be that hard.  I told her “make sure that little box lands on my face” and this is what she produced.

So as I see it I’m left with the following options:

1.  Hire her as my assistant.

2.  Set her up with her own business license and get her earning money for our adoption.  Anyone want a session?

3.  Dress her up in high heels and let her sub in for me this fall when my shooting schedule gets a bit hairy.

What do you think?

Yesterday I found my girls quietly picking out sweet melodies on our piano.  They had earnest looks of concentration on those sweet little faces as they carefully chose each note.

Then along came “Mr. Rock and Roll” and our house was really jive’n with some loud tunes!  Is he all boy or what?  The funny thing is…he is really pretty good!  He plays really fast (as can see by his blurry hands!) but he doesn’t just bang…and if you play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for him he will boogie for you all afternoon!

Last little piece of Cooper news for today…

That’s our COMPLETED home study packet before I dropped it off today at our local agency!!  Can I hear a WOOHOOO???  At our consultation a few weeks ago, the director told us an international home study usually takes about 4-6 weeks to compile.  Mr P. looked at me and then back at the director and said, “you don’t know my wife…she’ll have it done in two!”  So I had to take that as a challenge.  And I hit it EXACTLY at two weeks   We also sent in our official application packet to All God’s Children International.  We should hear back from them this week sometime and can hopefully get started on our dossier!  It feels great to be able to do something active…I know there will be MANY months of waiting where I will be wishing I could fill out a form to speed up the process!  The ball is definitely rolling!

{by the way…just realized it is Tuesday AGAIN (how do they come so quick) and I did not write this in my usual 10 on Tuesday format…super sorry…maybe next week!}

I am totally, completely, forever in love with this girl.  She is my intellectual.  My compassionate heart.  My talker.  My thinker.

She is so beautiful to me.

Here she is at SEVEN  {at an impromptu photo shoot at our backyard park}

WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT?  soccer, riding horses, schoo, violin…I guess there’s lots of stuff!

WHAT ARE YOU NOT SO GOOD AT?  backward rolls, eating (I make a mess spilling everything), and counting my money

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?  green cause it is bright and pretty

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?  horse…don’t know why

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE PERSON NOT IN OUR FAMILY?  God

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?  an animal doctor

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FOODS?  plums, peaches, pears, blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, honey dew, strawberries, apples, and pears…oh and cookies and cake!

WHAT’S THE MOST AMAZING THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?  The big waves at the beach in North Carolina

WHAT IS MOMMY LIKE?  good, a little strange, pretty, not fat, taking pictures, getting lots of chigger bites

WHAT IS DADDY LIKE?  very strange, nice, kind of gross sometimes, lots of fun

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT HAVING A SISTER?  always having someone to play with!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR BROTHER?  watching him do funny stuff like spin in a circle and run into things

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?  I don’t know if I can pick…Junie B. Jones.  They are long, and good, and she is disgusting, strange, and naughty.  AND YOU LIKE THAT?  yeah.

FAVORITE THING TO WEAR?  shirts with horses or funny shirts.  shorts,  jumpers, and fluffy tutus

FAVORITE PART OF SCHOOL?  counting lunch?  ok.  lunch and specials.  and recess

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WORLD PEACE?  what does that mean?

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RECYCLING?  it’s good cause it’s not messy

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO OUTERSPACE?  about 5 minutes (she’s almost right you know)

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE THINGS TO DO?  art and swimming at the crazy pool place

WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?  at the pool with my cousin Carrie

WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE IN THE HOUSE?  my room

I have lots of prayers for this girl.  I pray that God will protect her compassionate heart…that she’ll never lose the ability to feel for others…and that she’ll grow to be the kind of person who uses that compassion to take action.  I pray that her love of learning will blossom and take her farther than we could ever imagine.

I pray for her child-like faith to remain…simple and pure.  That she’ll always know the God who created her loves her more than we ever could.  I pray she’ll never lose her individuality…that quirky sense of humor that defines her in such a fun way.

I pray for the diligence and hardworking nature she already displays to take root in her life and take her wonderful places.  I pray that she’ll always remember to add a healthy does of fun (not too worried about that one!)

I pray that her faith be bold…lived out in her every day.  I pray that God will use her in BIG ways.  I pray and thank God that I am the lucky one who gets to be her mom.

That is my girl at SEVEN.  Full of spunk and potential.  On the cusp of BIG GIRL but still hanging onto a snippet of LITTLE GIRL for just a bit longer.  Happy Seven Anna.  We love you more than you could ever imagine.

Whew…no wonder I feel old this week   Yesterday was my day.  Nothing extraordinary happened.  Just a regular day at our house with the people I love the most.  A friend treated me to lunch.  We got quite the stares with the out-to-lunch-business crowd when we walked into Mi Ranchito with 2 toddler boys and 3 little girls…and we didn’t even have the school girls with us!  Another sweet friend brought by a handmade chocolate cake and card.  I pampered myself to a haircut.  And when I got home I had these expertly crafted gems waiting for me!

I don’t need a parade…or a big fuss.  Just a simple day with the people who already make my life SO FULL!  I have loved my 30’s.  Love that I know who I am.  Love that I have a house full of littles that call me mom and a husband who is thoroughly enjoying this journey called life right alongside me.  Those 12,750 days have been more good than bad….and for that I am SO thankful.  I’m thankful for the “I love you”s and the simple gestures of love and friendship.  Mr. P got these flowers for me…pretty sweet, huh?  I love that he planned ahead and brought them home from work without even being late.  I’m so thankful for the 4910 days that he has been officially mine.

And I’m thankful that he is as excited as I am about this next chapter in our life.  A change of perspective…our family is SO full of blessings!

That’s our homestudy packet that is nearing completion!  Just waiting on one reference form, a birth certificate, and our criminal checks to be processed.  One step closer to meeting the newest member of our family!

12,750 days.  Life is grand.

Work with me here people.  My head is swimming.  So I missed it…my mom didn’t even call me as a reminder (Mom, where are you?)  So let me explain why I can’t seem to get my days straight!

1.  Yesterday consisted of:  driving the carpool for all the neighborhood kids on our block, forgetting that my babysitter couldn’t come for J’s violin lesson, taking J and a not-so-happy-to-be-at-violin-lessons toddler to said lesson, getting fingerprinted and mailing off results to the KBI, getting my criminal check forms notarized at the bank, mailing our criminal checks, seeing the specialist at KU Med to review recent medical tests, taking the written test to re-new my driver’s license, standing in lines to get my renewed driver’s license, a trip through Marshall’s for a birthday gift, and watching a video on trans-racial adoption.  If there is a facet of U.S. government bureaucracy that I missed I challenge you to find it   I was a wee bit tired this morning.

2.  When I asked J how her day at preschool went today she said, “Oh it was wonderfully encouraging!”  Funny little 4 year old.

3.  Sam.is.into.everything.

4.  My mind is starting to wander to how I will reposition everyone in their new rooms once baby comes home.  The girls are going to share a room (and they are pretty excited about this).  I just found THESE quilts at my local Target and went ahead and purchased two since they had 2 left on the shelf.  If I go with these the room will coordinate great with the playroom (they are adjacent) and I won’t have to re-paint or change out any of the furniture.  I’m really sad to move J out of HER ROOM though…it was such a labor of love   Maybe I will auction off her quilt to raise money for the adoption?!?  Our little man will also need to move to that room in his big boy bed so we can use the crib for the new baby.  So now I am also looking for bedding for him…cause I CAN NOT SPEND $400 to buy him the BEDDING that matches his nursery.  It IS cute…but HOLY COW!

5.  Good news:  I made over $600 on my kids clothing garage sale last week.  Bad news:  I still have LOTS left.  So if you are looking for baby boy or toddler girl and live locally…can you please come buy the rest?

6.  I’m really hungry while typing this and need to find my bag of M&Ms.

7.  I HEART FALL.

8.  My sister (The Librarian) joined the blogging world to document her journey towards her daughter in Peru.  STOP BY and leave her an encouraging word if you are so obliged.

9.  Since it is Wednesday and I am doing “10 on Tuesday”, I suppose I should get a photo ready for “Wordless Wednesday” that will actually fall on Thursday huh?

10.  It is about to get CRAZY BUSY with fall sessions…get ready for some serious sneak peaks coming up on the blog!

I love parties.  My Mom gave me that passion I think…she was the ultimate party planner.  She loved to plan out all the little details to make our birthdays extra special.  And who doesn’t love a party, really?  Especially when ponies are involved!

My girl A…seven.

The day started with a soccer game for the birthday girl.  Mr. P called me on the way home from the game…our birthday girl had SCORED A GOAL!  She was on cloud 9.  Mr. P gets the gold medal for taking all three kids with him to the game so that I could get the party set up and ready for all the little guests.  They walked in about 5 minutes before the party…perfect timing!  We ripped off A’s soccer uniform and threw on her party duds.  This may have been the first birthday I didn’t make her a special outfit to wear.  We compromised on the pony themed Littlest Pet Shop tee (found that on the Walmart clearance rack for $5) and a pink tutu from my prop closet.  When she picked it out I distinctly remember saying, “Really?  A tutu to ride ponies?”  But the birthday girl wanted fluff…and who am I to deny that really?

A wanted a pink and brown color scheme so we went with pretty pink plates and napkins (from The Dollar Tree).  Early this summer I found these Ty Beanie horses for a STEAL at a local department store that was clearancing them out.  I picked them up for under $2 a piece!  So each guest got a little brown sack with a horse beanie, pink bandana, and little plastic horse toy.  The horse toys came from The Dollar Tree as well…they came in a pack of two with a mommy horse and baby horse…the mommies went inside each bag…and the babies graced the top of the cupcakes   On the back of each of their chairs was a cute pink cowgirl hat (got those at…yep…you guessed it…The Dollar Tree).

I couldn’t find a cute horse cake at any of the local bakeries that I liked.  I even priced out cupcakes from a local cupcakery…but when they quoted me THREE DOLLARS per cupcake I about passed out.  Heck…I can make 24 cupcakes for that price with good ‘ol Betty Crocker!  So that’s what I did…I don’t think the kids would have even noticed the difference!

After a pizza lunch we got down to business making our craft:  HOBBY HORSES!  I found this article in M Magazine and showed it to A several months ago.  She is a complete CRAFTING NUT so of course she went pony wild when she saw it!  The girls had so much fun making these…they turned out adorable!  I was SO THANKFUL to my sweet friend who stayed at the party to help me with craft time…we definitely needed the extra set of hands!

After we took a gallop through the yard on our new ponies…we had to stop for a quick group photo!

Then we headed back inside for some fun opening presents.  A has the sweetest friends who put so much thought into her gifts:  craft kits, pony sets, books…she is in heaven!  She is such a fortunate little girl to have so many sweet little friends!

The girls were getting antsy at this point…they knew what was coming next!  And they could hardly wait!

We had THREE live ponies!  Since A was the birthday girl she got to ride one of the ponies the entire time.  I even tried to coax her down off of it so that her friends could get some more pony time…but was quickly reprimanded by Kathy of “Kathy’s Custom Parties”.  So I kept my mouth shut and let the resident pony princess ride to her heart’s content.

We have a nature trail that winds back behind our house and throughout the subdivision.  It made the perfect spot for pony rides!  And of course J and my little man took a couple of turns as well!

I took pictures of all the guests…but I’m saving those for their thank you cards   And I know a few of the moms will be checking out the  blog…don’t want to ruin the surprise!  After all the rides we gobbled up the cupcakes and stopped to open just a few more presents.

And then it was time to wrap up the afternoon!  THANK YOU to all of our friends who helped to make A’s birthday a super fun day!  We are SO blessed to have so many wonderful friends that are always there to help us celebrate!  Here are my girls with their best buddies…we take this picture every year together…so special!  Here they are at 8, 7, 5, 4, and 3.

To my spunky new SEVEN year old…Hope your day was PONY PERFECT!!  We love you!

First off…THANK YOU for all the wonderful comments, emails, and phone calls regarding our BIG NEWS!  We are so very excited about the journey that we are embarking upon.  God has been tugging at our hearts for awhile now we realize, and we feel so blessed that we can work towards this change for our family together.  While we were asking friend and relatives to write our reference letters this past week, I found an email Mr. P had sent out that said this…”Over the past month or two God has really shown us that we need to share the blessings we’ve been given and that we need to open our home to a child who can not help themselves.  It’s amazing how opportunities have opened up and other distractions have disappeared – looking back it feels like we’ve been getting set up all summer for this decision.”  Amazing how my guy who only wanted 2 girls has had such a change of heart…I LOVE that about him!  We have been working hard on our home study this past week, compiling information, forms, and writing, writing, writing.  Our home study is conducted by a local adoption agency (we are using Adoption & Beyond for all you KC folks) and helps us prepare every type of documentation you could ever dream of.  Here’s the list of what is required!

1. Birth certificates

2. Marriage certificate

3. Income Tax return (first page of latest Federal Income Tax 1040 Form)

4. W-2 Forms

5. Medical Insurance Verification

6. Family Photo / Home Photos

7. Driving Directions to Home

8. Reading Agreement

9. Home Safety Handbook

10. Grievance Policy

11. Home Study Application

12. Autobiographies

13. Criminal Check Waiver Agreement / Statement Form

14. Criminal Record Check

15. Child Abuse Central Registry Check

16. Confirmation of Employment

17. Personal Reference Forms

18. School Reference Form

19. Health Statements from Physician

20. Adoption Preference Form

21. Release of Information Form

22. Authorization Form

23. Identifying Documentation (photo copy of driver’s license and SS card)

24. Fee agreement

25. Home Study Fee

26. International Post Adoption Fee

Tired yet?  WE ARE!  I have hit the paperwork with guns blazing…doing my best to get everything filled out and turned in as quickly as possible.  I know the entire process is long…and the waiting will be the hardest…and working on our home study is something I can control (at least a little bit).  We should have the entire home study finished by mid October.  From there we will begin preparing our dossier (immigration papers).  Once all of that is complete we will WAIT (and wait and wait) for our referral of our beautiful BABY!  The wait time could be 6-8 months…it could be less.  We do not plan on specifying a sex for the baby…which means we will likely get a boy (there are more boys available right now in Ethiopia).  Once we accept our referral we will receive our court date…and once we pass court our baby will officially be ours and we can travel to meet him/her!!  We will be working through All God’s Children International.  And our baby will come from Hannah’s Hope Orphanage.  (Follow the link to see video footage and a slide show of images taken of the orphanage)  It is so amazing to be able to see images of the exact spot where we will meet our newest little one!  I have heard wonderful things about the women who work and pour their lives into the children in this home.  I can’t wait to make the journey to see it firsthand.

There have been so many people who have inspired me through their stories over the past few months.  But this video in particular really captured my heart.  I had been struggling in my heart for several weeks about adoption when I found this video on You Tube.  I could barely breathe.  It is beautiful.  Once I saw this video I knew that I couldn’t turn back.

Over the past few weeks I have emailed with Kristi and she has been a HUGE source of encouragement.  We are finding all sorts of connections locally and through the internet of other families who have already walked down this road.  At times I am thrilled beyond belief…and as the day wears on…I second guess myself and my ability to handle the roller coaster of adoption.  But in the end….I know God will take care of the details.  It is strange thinking that we have a family member on the other side of the world waiting for us.  I can’t wait to hold and hug our little one.  And in the meantime, there is SO much to do.  I have two little girls who will be sharing a room and a little guy who will move to his “big boy” bedroom.  And the paperwork. And the waiting…

We are thrilled to be on this journey as a family…thrilled to add one more special child to our already crazy and chaotic lives…thrilled that God has an ultimate plan…just thrilled!

which involved lots of pink, cupcakes, and ponies galore.  The party ended an hour ago…more to share soon!

1.  Remember my dream home?  Still a bit sad that we didn’t get it. But God had a different plan.

2.  We used my “hardwood fund” (intended for my dream house) to build the play room for the girls.  I’m in love with this room.  Money well spent I think!

3.  About a month ago we got several bids on putting a sun room/photography studio addition on the back of our house.

4.  We started searching for financing options for our house addition…getting excited about having a bit more space and a special photography spot in my house!

5.  I started decorating the space in my head…pouring over magazines and catalogs…envisioning Charlotte perched nicely in front of a wall of windows.  But something wasn’t quite right.  We couldn’t take the plunge?!?

6.  I started spending countless nights on the computer researching.  Reading blogs.  Following the stories of people’s lives.  Reading how their “additions” changed their families forever.  I started thinking…

7.  I grilled my sister “The Librarian” on her journey so far.  Asking a billion questions like “how did you know it was time to add on?” and “where are you going to get the money?” and “will you have enough space (in your heart)?” My priorities were shifting…

8.  THIS woman and THIS woman and THIS woman talked to me about their precious additions.  And we knew.

9.  God has been preparing our hearts for an addition for a long time.  We are finally making it a reality (and I’m not talking home renovation here people!)

10.  Our newest addition will come in the form of a sweet Ethiopian baby…sometime this next year.  MY HEART IS FULL!!!!!!!

(more to come I promise!)

Love.  Pure and simple.  And I was lucky enough to document this special bond between these two beautiful people.  We go back.  Way back…back to sleepless nights in college, endless music classes, and singing in the Kansas City Symphony Chorus together.  My three kids and her busy career have hindered our late night chats.  But the friendship remains.  And to document their love…what a special treat!

They were complete naturals.  And they didn’t even grimace when I asked them to lay down in all sort of itchy, buggy fields.  Awww….a photographers dream

It was a beautiful night.  Overcast with just a hint of sun and cool.  We caught up on our chit chat and walked the path that winds through my neighborhood.  We stopped for a few smooches on the way of course

This gal is so beautiful…inside and out…with a heart for God and the sweetest smile.  She’s near perfection if you ask me!

I know their special day will be filled with beautiful, thoughtful details.  I know it will be a day to honor the special people in their lives and to cherish family.  I just can’t wait to see them tie the knot!

Thanks you two for such a fun night!  I hope you don’t wake up tomorrow full of bites   We all had a few close calls…with the spider web and creepy crawlies.  When I felt something scurry down my back I knew it was time to wrap things up!

You are beautiful.  Honest.  Thoughtful.  Sincere.  And a whole lot of fun.

Enjoy your sneak peak