Thoughts of China...

I know that the next few days will be a whirlwind, so I have decided to blog some of my thoughts today. The first thought that I have is of our baby Killian. This will be our 5th Christmas without him. Logan asked me about him yesterday and was asking why a baby would die. Logan is really understanding death at this time, since his Grandpa recently died, but struggled with his younger brother's death, because this does not make sense... yes I understand that too, but his is our path in this life. And although I would trade any lessons I have learned, to be my shallow self before his death, I can't deny that my life has changed since loosing him. I am grateful for my healthy and happy boys. I appreciate family more, and have to believe that we are adopting a daughter now because Killian knows this will heal us. Killian is always with us... I can feel him and see his signs from time to time. And our baby in China... so many unanswered questions. Is she born, where was she abandoned, is she loved this Christmas, is she warm, is she being held, is her belly full??? All these questions that we don't know the answers to.. we can only hope that we will be holding her soon.

Revving up for Christmas!

Well the Vogel house is revving up for Christmas. We went to see the man in red yesterday. That was fun. Of course when they saw Santa, they completely changed their list... ugh! The picture below is of them waiting in line. I wasn't allowed to take a picture of them with Santa, unless I wanted to pay for it, and we said no thanks. I think that if I tried the lady would have tackled me to the ground and taken my camera. As it was I had to walk through to the exit while they talked to Santa. The bear in the picture is Winston. Winston travels through Logan's class and then the kids have to write about their adventures with him. It was very exciting to take Winston to the mall with us!!

There were 2 really great things that happened at the mall though. The first is that Logan reminded Santa not to come down the chimney because he will be burnt by the wood burner. The second awesome thing is that Jacob gave some of his money to the bell ringer. This is a big step for Jacob, because he is somewhat of a miser. It was really cool to see him donate his money, independently. They are both such sweet boys and we are really blessed.

We also made cut out cookies. Well at least the first batch, because they have both eaten 5 each today alone and the cookies will never make it to Christmas. They have a sweet tooth, like their mom!

We will update again to tell everyone how Christmas turned out :)

Thanksgiving Reflections...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I love Thanksgiving, it is definetely my favorite holiday. I would have to say that I am thankful for my health and my family, extended and immediate. It was a busy weekend for us. We had a split Thursday with celebrations in both Pittsburgh and Beaver. That kept us moving. In Pittsburgh the boys enjoyed playing with the marshmallow shooters that my brother made for them, and playing with their cousin Nick. The food was great as well as the company!Then it was off to Beaver for dessert and more merriment. That was fun too and it was nice to see everyone. Now it's off for the Christmas rush... fun, fun! Take care everyone!

Fall Fun!

Hi everyone.. Just thought that I would post a quick update. Halloween was great. I spent the afternoon volunteering at both of the boys school parties, which I really enjoy. The kids are so funny and nice, and the way I see it, they are only this young once. Then we went to town for trick-or-treat, also a good time. Logan was a motocrooss rider and Jacob was a Hounds football player. They have also been having fun playing in the falling leaves. There are always plenty to play in at our house.

To update on the China journey for our daughter. The news continues to be a longer wait. It could be up to another year. The wait is uncertain at this time, but we will continue to be in this until the end. I just have to believe that there is some fate behind all of this and that the timing of her adoption is being planned this way for a reason. If anything it keeps me sane!!!

Nine is Fine!

Our oldest son has turned 9. This is both a blessing and a challenge. A blessing in that Jacob has been here with us, creating memories for 9 years, and a challenge because 9 year olds are tough to raise. He has become so independent and is really growing up. He is starting to test the household boundaries and can be defiant at times. All of these behaviors are trying, but healthy. It's really quite interesting to see Jacob trying to find his interests and place in this world. He is really growing up.

We had a wonderful party for Jacob at a local recreational place. Jacob and all of his friends had a wonderful time. It was a great party and this really celebrated his 9 year old birthday!

Happy Birthday triple cheese... we love you!

Happy 5th Birthday

Well I'm posting a little late, but there has been too much sadness and I just couldn't do it yesterday. I looked in our Killian photo album for a picture of Matt's dad and Killian, but we don't have one, 10 weeks is not alot of time for photo opportunities. Anyway with Matt's dad passing, it really makes you appreciate what you have. I have a wonderful husband, 2 great boys, a china doll on the way, and 10 weeks of precious memories that I will never forget. Happy 5th baby Killian..."This is not at all how we thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you, we had so many dreams

But now you've gone away and left us with the memory of your smile

And nothing we can say, and nothing we can do

Can take away the pain of loosing you...

But we can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end

And we can pray with hope

And we can say with hope

There's a place where we'll see your face again."

School and football- Fall is coming!

Hello everyone. I thought that I would do another August update of the past week. First the boys went back to school this week, and this year I was feeling alittle sad. We really had a wonderful summer with the boys. They were alot of fun to be around- minimal fights and lots of hanging out at home. Jacob started 3rd grade and Logan started 1st grade. This is really crazy - they are growing up way to fast!!!

And there has been some really exciting football news! Jacob played his first game today in the high school stadium. It was very amusing. Jacob plays Defensive back and wing back, and pretty much has no clue of what he should be doing, like all the other 3rd graders. It was really cute though, and he was so pumped up after the game. He had a great time!!! In the pictures below Jacob is number 77.
I'll update more as we advance through the Fall months. Matt has a new job and now that the boys are in school they do not see him as much, and they are going through some serious withdrawal! We are all doing well and patiently waiting for the baby- on which there has been no new news. The room is slowly coming along, though I can't quite figure out how I want to finish the walls. Unfortunately I have time!!! Take care everyone!

Summer continues, but not for much longer!

Hello everyone. We are halfway through August and it hard to believe how fast the summer has passed. The boys return to school on August 26th, so there is really not much more time for them. They are continuing to have a great summer. There is one new thing for this month, and that is football camp! We're talkin' pads, helmets, tackle, 5 nights a week, 2 hours a night. It is crazy and quite a commitment, but Jacob is really having a good time. During the second week, Jacob had shin splints. These are very painful, but Motrin with 20 minutes of heat and 20 minutes of ice before practice seemed to do the trick. They are still bothering him, but that's football.

Logan is doing well also. He enjoys going to the camp during the evening, and playing with kids he knows from school. Logan told me that he is not ready to go back to school and is not excited. It should be an interesting first day. Hopefully new shoes will motivate him to walk out the door.

As everyone knows, the Olympics are finally underway, so we are hoping for a speedup here in the next few weeks. There are some glitches right now with updating out fingerprints, but we have confidence that our adoption agency will work this out for us. It really does not look like we will be traveling until February anyway, unless of course there is a miracle.

We will keep everyone posted! Thanks for reading!

July Update

I have been thinking for weeks now that I should update this blog, but the boys have been really keeping us busy. We had our annual trip to Kennywood, and lots of Graduation parties to attend. The boys have been very busy, from morning to night. Slipping and sliding, riding quads, and catching fireflies. They also spend lots of time fighting and playing together!

Matt and I are doing well. Matt has been laid off for the summer, so he has become Mr. Mom and does a good job. The boys are really enjoying their time with Daddy! For the 4th of July weekend we all met at the Cabin. It was fun and the kids had a great time with their cousins. There was a lot of quad and dirt bike riding, but we have turned a leaf. It was the first time that there were no accidents or injuries! I think everyone is getting the hang of this.

As for baby Mia, we wait. Things appear to be speeding up already as China has announced that adoptions will be not be completed until after the Olympics, but they are sending out more referrals, that's good news. The bad news is that now our agency has not been accredited and we may need to change agencies. The agency is appealing the denial and we are hopeful that things will work out. Their sister agency received the accreditation, so we can use them if worse comes to worse. We have waited long enough already and hope that things will go smoothly. I have picked the paint color and will begin the room soon. We are at least at the home stretch. We'll be sure to keep everyone updated. Happy summer!

Party, Party, Party....

Well, the end of May has been very busy. Logan turned 6! We can't believe it, he's gotten so big so fast. He had a wonderful birthday, but there were lots of crazy events that occurred. First I'll recap his birthday. Logan started the morning with a blue and black DS. He has to be just like his older brother.

He was really excited and then came the friend party. 10 6 year old boys and 1 girl. It was CRAZY here. Pizza, cupcakes and trampoline. What else do you need, until the boys decided to take a nature walk around the dirt bike track. A guest came back up to the house covered in mud, and then he showed us his knee. Split down to the bone. I felt terrible. Chris was here and was able to patch him up until his parents arrived. The poor thing needed 9 stitches and is on crutches. We made it through the rest of the day with no other major medical problems.

(Logan and cousin Nick at the party)

The next day was my birthday and the family party. Nothing to report on my end, it's sad how fast I've grown up (ha,ha!) Anyway the day started off busy preparing everything for the cookout. Everyone came for a picnic, birthday celebration and some quad riding. Everyone stayed around the house to ride at first, we opened presents and sang happy birthday. Shortly after Matt's mom and Grandmother left and the party opened up. Matt took the older nephews and our nieces boyfriend on their quad down the street to the trails. Until my nephew ran over the boyfriend's head with the quad. Not good, but could have been worse. Just scrapes and cuts and he was wearing a helmet, so the noggin was OK too! The party broke up after that. Anyway, those were the really terrible things that happened. I want to say overall it was a busy and really fun weekend.

The boys get out of school on June 5th, so we'll see what the summer brings. It should be interesting, never a dull moment with those 2!!! As for Mia we are all patiently waiting for her arrival. The Olympics are coming up, so things will be at a standstill in August, until they are over, and then our agency is hoping for a speedup. Also the series of destructive earthquakes has many of the orphanages unstable and they are caring for the babies in tents outside. We hope and pray that she is OK.

I'll post again in June. Happy summer!

May 2008

May is always a busy month for us, so I thought I would do 2 posts for this month. Jacob had his Spring Program and it was really cute! The kids sang songs and told jokes. It was a good time!

Jacob is the one in the suit next to the drum set. He's so cute!

Logan is gearing up for his birthday and an upcoming weekend of partying!! Logan received an early birthday suprise yesterday... his own quad! He was shocked and really had a great time riding it!

Jacob stood in the woods and monitored Logan's progress on the quad. He only posed for a second for this picture. Jacob is out of commission with his quad. He was jumping it so hard he broke the frame in half!!! Time to find a welder.

Matt and I are doing well and enjoying the warmer weather. Here are some crazy pictures of us with the boys.

Lastly I took this picture of George and think it's cute.

Everyone take care and Happy Mother's Day!

April Update

Hello everyone. Just figured that I would give everyone an update. We actually had a task to complete for the adoption, which was really stressful because we haven't done anything for so long. Our adoption agency wanted us to apply for fingerprint and update our orphan petition. We did, so that's one step closer.

The boys are doing well and really enjoying spring. They are outside as much as possible, even in the rain! They are having a great time in the woods and with the new bikes they got for Easter from mom and dad, the bunny only brings chocolate.

I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the bright light next to Logan in the picture is because we had 2 inches of snow the Saturday before Easter!

They also had new school pictures taken, which I'll share below. They are pretty cute boys if I do say so myself.

Matt and I are doing well and working too much I think. There is always something to do. We will be having a bash at the end of May and all are welcome. It should be fun. We will continue to plug away at daily life while we wait for our baby. The boys ask about her constantly and are really planning for her arrival. She, even though we don't know her yet, and even with our stretched patience, will be a wonderful addition to our family and we all can't wait to welcome her. Take care everyone!

March Update

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone! I thought that I would take a moment to do a March update. On the adoption front, we are still waiting, but we are one step closer and now in the matching room. This is another"room" that are paperwork moves into after it has received a final stamp of approval. The weird thing is that when they match a baby from the orphanage to a family, they look at the passport pictures of the parents, specifically the father, and look for some type of similar feature. That's great.. another one like Matt, actually who are we kidding. We are whiter than white and she'll be asian, there won't be any similarity there. I dont really care what she looks like, I just want to get her home.

Jacob is doing well, and the weather out here is starting to break, finally. He is able to spend more time outside, which is where he likes to be. He also completed a male bonding activity with Matt and they made a birdhouse.


Logan is doing well also, and giving his Kindergarten teacher a run for her money. Logan has deceided that he does not want to do school papers all the time anymore. He also wants to run the classroom. Interesting... I always knew he'd be our rebel. The pictures below are from a Valentine's program at school, that was cancelled and rescheduled a bunch of times.

Matt and I are also doing well. Same old, same old, different day.


We'll keep everyone posted!

We're still waiting...

Hello everyone. We did not fall off the planet, we're just braving the Western PA winter. I finally got the pictures from Christmas developed so I'll post my favorites of the boys. As for our baby in China, we are still waiting and aren't sure how much longer. We don't anticipate that we will have her for next Christmas. BUMMER. The boys ask us all of the time where their sister is and when is she coming home. We all can't wait for her to get home. Otherwise we are all well and have been fairly healthy this winter. The boys are really growing and changing everyday. Unfortnately so are their attitudes, but they are a lot of fun! Well, we will be sure to keep everyone updated!!