Life as a Lewis

Remember that immigration paperwork we were worried about last week? Well, it arrived in the mail yesterday. It's so nice to have that hurdle out of the way. Because of my poor computer being completely full, I spent HOURS last night backing up my pictures and files on CD/DVD. I thought I was fairly caught up, but I guess not! Also spent lots of time researching external hard drives, online storage options, etc. Tomorrow is our big travel day. Camden and I are flying to Tulsa to be with Micah, Becky, and the boys for a couple of days. I'm very excited about it! Camden is thrilled to be going on an airplane. Of course, he's quite the seasoned traveler - Korea, Japan, France, Utah, Colorado, Illinois, but all before the age of 2 so he doesn't really remember it. Hopefully, all will go well. We bought him a Leapster and a Cars game which I plan to surprise him with when we board. I've also loaded up on candy and snacks to help keep us busy. Here are 4 layouts I finishe...

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that at Camden's 4 year check-up Dr. Heil declared him healthy as a horse, full of energy, and a delight! But, of course, we knew all that! He is 39.5 inches tall and weighs 34.5 lbs. He is right at 40th percentile, so pretty much average! We just love our pediatrician! Not only is he very knowledgeable about international adoption, he's just a great doctor! Camden loves him and always interacts with him really well, which is surprising because Camden is pretty quiet around adults he doesn't know well. Of course, Camden's first year home we became close, personal friends with Dr. Heil since Camden was sick so often! The weekend was pretty basic. Lots of just day-to-day life stuff happening, none of it particularly exciting! Camden is getting really good on his bicycle and cracks us up with all his make-believe stories. He is playing by himself really well these days. Well, either playing by himself or torturing poor Ruby into...

We've got a busy Friday planned. We're headed into Nashville for a family trip. I've got a hair appointment, Camden has his 4-year check-up, then we promised to either take him for ice cream or maybe to the park if he's good at the doctor. Then it's off to grocery store to shop for the week and to get passport pictures taken for Camden. Tonight is family night at VBS so we're headed there later on. We have to get the passport pics taken because we're working on Camden's Certificate of Citizenship. It's just one final step in solidifying his U.S. citizenship. We technically do not have to do this, but there have been a couple of cases lately where an adopted child got into legal trouble and even though this is not supposed to be necessary because they didn't have a COC they were deported. Now, of course, we want to do everything possible that would prevent that. It's quite ridiculous because basically our government offices do not have interf...

No one get excited - nothing earth shattering here! We've now been officially on the waiting list for 2.5 months. They originally quoted us a 6 month wait so we're almost halfway there. Our funds continue to come in, and we have been blessed by gifts from our wonderful family. We still have a ways to go, but the financial side of the process is going much better than we anticipated. I am quite concerned about some immigration paperwork that hasn't arrived. We were fingerprinted May 15 and still haven't received that paperwork. I'm hoping to talk to our caseworker today and maybe she will have some advice on how to find out if there's been a problem. You know we had serious mail issues during May and June so I'm concerned that the mail was returned to the government, which would NOT be a good thing! I feel pretty good about the wait so far. We've been in process for 8 months now and I will admit to starting to feel a little anxious as the time goes on. I ...

You should just see how excited Camden is every night when he gets home from Bible School. He is loaded down with papers and crafts (and wired from the koolaid) and he tells me the Bible stories, which get a little mixed up in the translation, but it is so cute! I walked with Mayme again last night - this time we went to her house. I have two words for you: big hills. I'm sore this morning! When we first found out that Becky had breast cancer I don't think that any of us realized how it was going to affect all of us, but the doctors quickly discovered that the particular kind of cancer she has is generally caused by the breast cancer gene. After doing some family research, we discovered that a great aunt and second cousin had breast and ovarian cancer and had tested positive for the cancer gene. Because this was all on my dad's side, he was tested for the gene and yesterday we found out he tested positive. Now this doesn't mean too much for him, but what it means for me...

One of our friend's churches is hosting VBS this week. They have a wonderful church and a huge VBS and have a ton of fun so we thought we'd send Camden this year, especially since our church just had a one-day carnival instead of the full week. Brian took Camden last night, and he had a blast!! So, while Brian and Camden were at VBS, I walked with my friend Mayme. I think that neither of us wanted to do it, but we made ourselves and it was fun. So much easier to walk with a friend than by yourself or with a 4 year old! I've been thinking I'd like to get one of those jogging strollers so that I could take the baby walking when she arrives, but let's not get ahead of ourselves! Here's one page I finished up last night. I am almost finished up with my 2005 pictures - this may be the last page. I'm so happy to be finished! I've already got 2004 finished and 2006 isn't far behind.

Our grand total from the yard sale is $820. We are thrilled with that and so grateful to our family and friends who helped out! My house is a wreck and no laundry was finished this weekend because of the yard sale, but I did manage to read almost all of the new HP book. I plan to finish it up tonight (and then get to work on my house!). I spent any spare time reading so no new scrap pages today!