J Cooper Photography

We spent the weekend at the lake lounging around, sailing the sunfish, working our thighs on the paddle boat, and eating from the cooler.  The cabin is just about done and we were the first official visitors.  It will be a fun family place in the years to come I’m sure.  It was mostly just a grand time (minus the grumpy 2 year old who wanted to electrocute himself on the open outlets or eat random tools).

We rushed back to our house on Sunday afternoon to ready ourselves for a busy week of 4-H.  You read that right.  I successfully passed down my geekish love of the COUNTY FAIR and ALL THINGS 4-H to The Brainiac.  I have never felt more proud.  She joined a 4-H group this summer along with her horse riding lessons and will be spending every waking moment sweating and shoveling poop at the county fair this week.  I’ve never seen a child more excited about horse poo ever.  She’s a rare breed (pardon the pun).

There are things that come in handy when living in the cornfields.  And a good pair of cowboy boots is one of them.  Who knew there would be a shortage on size 3 boots the week before the fair.  Things you learn when you move to a new place.   (We ended up with purple ones so the world can go back to spinning now).

This one spends her days reading about horses (she’s read the entire Black Stallion series twice), drawing horses, quizzing me on horse breeds and their coloring, writing horse stories, and eating (like a horse).  She’s obsessed in a good way.  I find her obsession endearing and charming although I secretly worry that her classmates at school have dubbed her “The Horse Girl” (you remember her from your 4th grade class don’t you?)  She’d love nothing more than to plaster her newly re-done bedroom with horse posters.  So I’ve been scouring Etsy for some horsey photography and paint by numbers.

Her love affair with horses started sometime between the ages of 3 and 4.   She begged for a horse quilt.  Then she wanted a horse Webkinz.  And then it spiraled out of control from there.  And she’s been a lost cause ever since.

It’s fun to watch your kids find their passion!

If I am honest here…I will admit to being very down lately with Danny’s physical progress.  This summer has been HARD as we have had to give up our busy therapy schedule due to our insurance.  Unfortunately, his progress halted once the weekly therapy sessions stopped.  Even with a brand new walker and new orthotics….things have been slow going.

I find myself wondering if her will EVER walk?!   And then I feel immediately guilty.  It doesn’t really matter does it?  But…yes…it does.  I want my boy to walk more than anything!

At this point he can cruise, pull to a stand on just about any surface, get up and down with holding onto something, pull up with just one hand, walk holding hands, and walk with his walker (he is getting fast).  But his balance alone has not been stellar.   He hasn’t been able to stand on his own (which is of course…essential to walking!)

But this weekend at the lake he surprised us and started standing on HIS OWN for a few seconds!

{watch the entire video so you can see his best effort at the very end!}

I don’t know what is cuter…his incessant clapping for himself…or the rambunctious praise from his siblings?

This little man certainly has himself a cheering section!  Now if we can just build his confidence…I think he might take a step!

We are home from vacation…have one day to unpack and re-load…and are heading out tomorrow for the LAKE!  For posterity sake…I wanted to quickly post some Instagram pictures from our Colorado trip.  I’ll even caption them cause I’m nice like that  Just a few fun little memories I want to tuck away!

{Happy Campers heading out.  Notice the new seating arrangement…our attempt at crowd control}

{Smiled for the first five minutes}

{It’s an omen}

{Screamed for the next 6 hours and then fell dead asleep.  Slept for 45 minutes, woke up screaming…and screamed right into my in-laws driveway}

{Stopped of at the cabin for lunch…someone was literally climbing the walls}

{The munchkins at Cripple Creek – Oh Sam, why do you never look at the camera?}

{Hiking partners}

{Up they go!}

{Great hike minus the run in with the cactus.  Cactus = 1,  Miss Middle = 0.

{Love me some little hiker girls}

{first ride in a Jeep}

{With Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lessie…thinking they are WAY cool}

{Our forest friends liked the Ritz crackers}

{Duck feeding with Grandma}

{Ducky feeding frenzy}

{Got dirt?}

{Obsessed with Grandpa’s hat}

{Only thing better than dirt is MUD}

{Grandpa gets a moment alone}

{Me and Lessie and the little “soybean” – hers not mine}

{Best part of her day…her hair fits in pigtails!}

{Best part of her day…wearing her new electric blue Nikes!}

{Happier on the way home – as long as he got to drive

Do you do Instagram?  I think I’m in love.  But it was a constant battle between my DSLR and phone.  I carried both around with me the entire time and had a hard time deciding which to use.  I love how easy my phone is…but I can’t get over the BIG, crisp images from my camera either.  What do you do on vacation??

I’m jenncooper on Instagram if you want to follow along!

I meant to post each evening of our trip out to Colorado.  I did great on the first night with my post Sunday evening.  Monday we headed out to a nearby lake for some fishing and picnicking.   The kids played in the dirt, chased wildlife, waded in the water, caught a few craw fish, and narrowly escaped a thunderstorm at lunch time.  It was a grand morning.  After lunch we headed out in search of a river for more wading and fishing.  The river was too full and we couldn’t find a great place to set up camp…so we left for home.   Somewhere along the mountainous drive home, I started feeling bad.  Probably a touch of carsickness…maybe some altitude sickness…rolled together with my gastroparesis….and things started going downhill fast.  By late that night I was on my way to the ER wishing I could just die and get it over with.  I remember the drive to the ER as well as several hours of testing, poking, and crying.  Then they gave me some more drugs and the rest is a blur.  They offered to admit me (I know better than to say yes at this point) and we headed home.  I slept until 5:00 pm the next day.  I’m pretty sure my kids had fun that day with their grandma and grandpa…but I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what they did.

Today we hopped back in the car and headed home.  Danny Boy gifted us with a quiet car ride (cue the Hallelujah Chorus) and the munchkins are bedded down in their own beds.

Never a dull moment in this family.

Tomorrow I will do the laundry and convince my stomach that it likes real food.  Then Friday we head to the LAKE!  Trying to squeeze every last bit of summer out of the season this year!

We hopped in the car early Saturday morning for a long trek to Colorado to see grandma and grandpa.  We got a few hours of solid crying for Danny Boy under our belts first thing…then stopped off for lunch at the cabin at Johnson Lake (Mimi and Baboo just moved in last weekend and we wanted to see the progress).  After lunch we endured another 4 hours of continual crying until Danny finally gave it up and fell asleep (too bad that only lasted for 45 minutes before the yelling commenced).

We’ve been enjoying the beauty of the mountains!  Today we took a day trip to ride the old steam engine in Cripple Creek.  We had one HAPPY little four year old on board who kept yelling “Thomas is the number ONE engine!”  Too cute.

We’ve done some hiking and sightseeing…tomorrow we plan to picnic and fish.  I’ve been trying to snap a few pictures on Instagram along the way.  I’m jenncooper there if you want to follow along!

I’m without photo editing software here but I wanted to remember some images from our fun day!

Looking forward to a few more days before I have to get back in the car with “The Screamer”…man that kid has some lungs!

Thanks for the many words of encouragement regarding our big news!  We are excited/scared/thrilled/worried and a mix of other emotions…but are ready to move forward.

This all started 2 years ago.  We made a commitment as a family to be open to bringing home another child as soon as we decided to adopt Danny (before we even knew he was Danny).   We felt it was important for him and the rest of our family to have another sibling that was “different”.  Danny loves us.  We are his peeps.  But there will come a day that he is going to look at us and say “what’s going on here…why do I look like this…and you look like that?”  Of course it is something that is woven into the fabric our daily conversations.  But, more than anything, we want a sibling for him that he can relate to culturally as well.

With the course of Ethiopian adoptions lately, we weren’t sure we would be able to pursue another adoption in this country.  We would have been fine adopting from any country (or even adopting domestically) even though our hearts are connected to Ethiopia in a way we can’t describe.   But we kept getting pulled back to Danny’s home country after researching other options.  Our original plan was to jump right back on the list once we were home with our sweet boy.  But we needed a bit of time to sort through some of the challenges we were facing with his health.  That delay in getting back on “The List” increased our time line until bringing home an infant from Ethiopia no longer seemed feasible for our family.  We kept saying “when Danny walks we’ll move forward with another adoption”.  But the truth of the matter is…we don’t know when he will walk…and yet we still feel called to bring home another Cooper.

No time like the present.

After quite a bit of research, pursuing waiting children, and soul searching we landed with Children’s House International.  We are hoping to bring home a little girl age 4-6.   This keeps our big girls still the biggest, keeps Super Sam still the big brother, and keeps the baby the baby….we just have another little princess to love on.   We are expecting a 3-6 month wait once our dossier is finished before we can see her sweet face.  We have done our part of the home study paper work and are just waiting for our last visits with our social worker before she can write it up!  We are hoping to have our home study and dossier ready for submission by early fall.

We know this will be quite a challenge.  Bringing home a baby from across the world is one thing.  Bringing home a little girl who has had 5 years without a family is quite another.  We are earnestly praying for her little heart…that she will be ready to accept a family and the love that will come.

I catch myself daydreaming about what life will be like a few years from now.  It is easy for me to picture the hard times.  Life is busy with four kids…and I’m sure it will be even busier with five.  But I’m praying there will also be MANY love-filled moments too.

Without God’s divine intervention…this little cheese ball wouldn’t have know the amazing love of his Baboo!   Oh, how I look forward to another one joining us and having the opportunity of family!

We appreciate your prayers!  And of course…will keep you updated on our progress as we move along!

We’d love to have a nickname to call her as we wait to see her sweet face (and learn her real name)…we’re open to suggestions!  Come on…help us give our little girly girl a name while we wait!

Can you guess what this….

and this have in common?

After LOTS of form filling out, running around town, and getting physicals…we are well on our way.

We have something FUN to share….

We are doing it again!

We are heading back to Ethiopia to bring home the next Cooper princess!

I think this summer will go down in history as the summer of work.  We’ve been so busy working on stuff.  It hasn’t been the summer I envisioned…it’s been good…just different.

We’ve been working on The Brainiac’s bedroom and bath consistently for the past month.  The bedroom and bath room were both a khaki-ish brown.  The bathroom was a disaster area…nasty and stained and non-functioning.   We are working on a minor overhaul.  We kept the basics (floor, vanity and shower) and just updated the cheaper fixtures (counter, lights, faucet).  We’ve painted all the trim and walls…everything is fresh and CLEAN!  Just waiting on a new counter top to arrive.

Apparently the room was once plum…than turquoise.  Then it got a coat of ugly brown (I think they liked that color!)  Now it is a fresh barely there aqua.  Aww….there is order in the world once again.

I will share some updatds pictures soon.  ANYTHING would have been better than the nastiness you see below.  Ooooh!

We’ve been working on getting her bedroom painted as well….and building in some new bookshelves.

We’ve been working on finding some “big girl” things for her room that don’t scream PINK and FRILLY (not by my choice, mind you).  I’m still all over the pink and frilly for my girls.  But, alas.  They are growing up.

We’ve even been working on some fun ways to personalize her space with art projects.  {not the completed project!}

We’ve been working hard at my parent’s cabin at the lake.

Some of us have been working a little TOO hard. {Hey…aren’t you supposed to have a couple of broken ribs?}

We’ve been working on expanding our collections.  {Hope you like your friends Bertha Compton}

We’ve also been working hard on our violins.  Can you believe my NINE year old can play this?

We’ve been working on a few other things too.

I think it’s time to PLAY.

Is it Friday yet?  I think this has been the longest week of my life.  Do you ever have those?  I’d like to share more about all that is happening at our house right now.  Give me a few days and I will be back to chat about a few things.

But for now….THANK YOU to all my friends near and far (all 3 of you – ha!) who have been so sweet  to text and email and call about The Brainiac.  I realized earlier today I haven’t given an update on how she has been doing!  Overall she is MUCH better!  We are still working through some lasting problems.  She is taking three new medications and they seem to be keeping the painful episodes at bay.  I can’t say she is back to 100% but all the tests that have been run have come back negative so we have ruled out much of the scary stuff.  If the symptoms persist through to next week, we will be scheduling an endoscopy to try to figure out what is going on.  It is possible she got a terrible super bug (viral or a bacterial infection) and her body is just trying to regulate itself now that the bug is gone.  I’m just happy the pain has subsided and she is back to her talkative, playful self!

Now…I know the Fourth of July is SO yesterday.  But I never shared my crafty Fourth of  July wreath that adorned our front door this year!

I made this one afternoon while I was couped up at home with a sick kidlet.  I scrounged around through my craft room and whipped it up using stuff I had on hand:  Burlap ribbon, twine, scrapbooking paper, book pages, glitter letters, and some pinwheels

I know I’ve been ridiculously boring on my posts these last few weeks.  Life here this month has me feeling a bit like a piece of celery in a blender.  How ever that feels.  See….even my metaphors are lame.

I’ll do better next time, I promise.

Summer is flying by faster than I can photograph it.

So here’s what we have been doing.

{afternoon snuggles}

{art}

{vacation bible school}

{grocery runs}

{bedtime snuggles…and bedroom construction}

{corn eatin’}

{happy hour}

{half price shakes}

{puzzle marathons}

{ice cream runs in our jammies}

{pool time}

I’d say we’ve been fairly successful at having fun.  We didn’t even get around to our summer list this year.  Even making a list felt to constrictive for me this month.  But we’ve found plenty to do to keep us busy.

What have you been doing?