The Tomlinsons: New Wheels

Day 171 (Wednesday 9-11):

This is the day we bought a new (to us) vehicle. It's a mini van, I'm officially THAT mom, and I'm okay with it!

We had been driving my parents car up to this point, so I took everything out and cleaned it for them. The carseats sat on the porch for a couple days. The kids love the carseats when they aren't in the car. :)

VAN, we named him/her Boomer

Day 172 (Thursday 9-12):

The Ravans came to visit, that's my sister Kristee, her husband, Jason, and their daughter, Deanna. They adopted Deanna while I was out of the country, but I was actually able to surprise them on the day the adoption finalized. We were coming back to America to have Kora (hadn't planned on that originally), and decided to surprise our family. We showed up at the court house and were there the day they announced that she was officially "Deanna Grace Ravan"! I still tear up when I think about it, such a special memory. Kristee was so shocked to see me and then she told me later that she had been crying the night before wishing I was close by! Isn't God good? Crazy how he works things together.

Before they arrived, Grampa was working on building a stand for the new projector at church. Kees and Kora attempted to help. Kora was kind of getting in the way, so I devised a plan to have her wash the little people we brought back with us from Thailand. She ended up in the bucket, but who's surprised by this...

Spreading the wood glue with their fingers.

He loved hammering! Deanna got to hammer when she got here later, but I didn't get any pictures. :(

Yep, that's Kora undoing something...that's when I went for a distraction for her.

Little People! We were given these little loves by our co-workers in Thailand, the Os. They have sentimental value because they were a special gift and I used them during my language study time as well. Sweet memories. (Does anyone have a tissue...not that I need one...)

She rejected the action heroes.

Filling in the tiny holes with putty.

Reading with Gramee and re-discovering some of our "babies" that we had in Thailand.

She loves these babies.

Kees hammering.

I guess she wasn't thrilled that I went in without her, but she was wet, so I had to get a towel and bring it out.

Anyway, so the Ravans were coming for a quick day visit. And when they showed up they had quite a surprise for us, they had heard from DHS that they would be getting a little boy and girl through the foster to adopt program. Not only were they coming, but they were coming the very next day. We quick figured out how Gramee and I could make it out there for the big day. Gramee travelled back with them. Doug headed to OKC to get our van worked on (air conditioning) and I drove my parent's car to the Ravan's place the next day to meet the kiddos and give my mom a ride back to her place. In the meantime we enjoyed our visit and brainstormed about what needed to be done to get ready for the new kiddos.

I also, shamefully spent entirely too long detail cleaning the inside of the new (to us) van. Remember I have a slight case of ADHD and tend to hyper focus. I went a little crazy in the van, but Kristee was good natured and sat out there with me while I cleaned. We also recruited the kids to help a little. P.S. Dear sister, I apologize for being a jerk during your visit and spending an exorbitant amount of time cleaning the van.