Happy October

I do hope you are sitting down...otherwise it may come as too much of a shock that I have finally managed to sit down and post an update.

We are so thrilled to report that as of Monday, October 12th the twins are finally legally free for us to adopt and we have started the adoption paperwork process. Our adoption home study has been updated and as soon as our adoption case worker gets back from her Hawaii vacation we will complete the "disclosure" paperwork (this is basically just saying we know their background and yes we want to move forward with the adoption). Once that paperwork is completed it will be submitted to the regional office for processing which takes about 3 - 4 weeks. It will then be sent to our attorney who will finalize all of our paperwork and set the court date. We are hoping to be able to wrap everything up by the end of the year but it may slip in to January. Either way - we are well on our way to becoming a "Forever Family"

Sam took his first steps to me on Mother's day and hasn't stopped since! Sydney has been a bit slower to walk but started about a month ago now and is cruising around at a pretty good clip already. She has had some gross motor skill delays but has Occupational Therapy every other week here at home. We have seen a lot of progress in a short amount of time!

They are saying several words now and know several signs - they can sign "more", "thank you", "please", "water, Please", "dog", "all done" and Sam signs "shoes". They say Mama, Dada, baby, Bobpa, Nana and shoe and others. They love to read books - Sam is especially fond of reading to anyone who will listen. They are learning some animal sounds - "ruff ruff" and "meow" are the current favorites. They are also quite eager to point out their nose, eyes, mouth, hair, and especially belly buttons! Another favorite activity is tickling - not only do they like to tickle Mommy and Daddy - they will tickle themselves and crack up laughing.

They have also really started to play together quite a bit - especially peek-a-boo! It is pretty funny to watch them crack each other up. Tonight we had some music playing and Sam went over to Sydney and took both of her hands and started dancing with her - sure wish I had been fast enough to get a video of that!

Here is a photo album with a taste of what we've been up to for the last 6 months. I will try very hard to not let so much time go by before the next post.

Click here to view these pictures larger