We've moved...kind of.

You can now find our blog at...

http://www.abrotherforlleyton.com/

If you just really prefer typing in the old address, knock yourself out, you will be redirected to the new address.

Thanks again for following along with us.  We are excited for an eventful year as we move towards bringing our newest little guy home.

Easter around our house.

The Easter Bunny made a stop at our house on Sunday and I think the kids were pretty happy with what they found in their baskets. 

Amongst Lleyton's basket full of goodness was a pair of work gloves and binoculars.  He put those to good use while protecting Addy from bad guys.

During a very brief break from the seemingly constant rain this past Saturday, we took the kids to an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood. 

The kids were all smiles prior to the event, with visions of finding dozens of eggs and claiming their prizes. 

The smiles for Lleyton only last so long, as he was pretty disappointed with his haul from the egg hunt.  This is the face of little guy that only found three eggs.

After seeing this pitiful face, we reminded our little guy that we would be hunting for eggs at our house as well, so he could find more during that search.  He said he wanted to find 100 eggs.  His wish is our command.  We stuffed upwards of 200 eggs, almost ensuring that we wouldn't have to see the same sad face from Lleyton after our event. 



Friday Night Fun

As we have become accustomed to this week, the weather was awful this evening, so we set out to keep the kids entertained with coloring Easter eggs and eating Easter themed s'mores.   While the little ones decorated the eggs, it was Parker's job to assemble the delicious looking Peep s'mores.

By the looks of these pictures, he was happy to take on his task.

The little ones worked together to turn a dozen hard boiled eggs into works of art (by worked together I mean they stood next to each other). 

If I haven't told you before, Addy is a bit of a diva.  She really likes having things her way and if she deems things are going that way, she isn't afraid to tell you.  This was quite evident during this evening's fun.

She didn't really dig the idea of sharing the egg spinner with Lleyton, so while it was his turn to decorate and egg or two, this is what we saw...

A slightly different side of her came out when it was her turn...

Never a dull moment around here.

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Oh, I almost forgot to share with you how Addy likes to tell us she is finished with her dinner.

Does she politely push her bowl to the side and wait for us to grab her?

Does she say "All done"?

Does she offer her brothers whatever may be left over?

No. 

She dumps her bowl on her head.

Thank you Rainbowkids.com.

Upon making the decision to consider another adoption, Sara began spending more and more time on Rainbowkids.com.  Rainbowkids is a website that not only houses a plethora of information regarding adoption, but it is also home to lists of waiting children with special needs throughout the world.  On one of those lists is where we found our little guy. 

Our first three adoptions were borne from Sara and I's desire to form and expand our family.  This one is a bit different.  This one we set out to hopefully find a child with special needs that we were comfortable that we could address.  Our family could have been complete with three kids, but we have chosen to open up our hearts and home to one more because we feel that we have what it takes to offer the same loving family to another needy little person that Lleyton, Parker and Addy enjoy.

The little guy that that we can't wait to meet and welcome into our family has a heart defect that will need to addressed with surgery.  He has been diagnosed with moderate to severe ASD/VSD and heart failure.  Long term prognosis for him should be good after the surgery that will be required to fix what is ailing him.  One good thing that has come from our recognizing, diagnosing, understanding, and dealing with Lleyton's special needs (I have yet to write about what Lleyton is dealing with, but I will at some point soon) is that we have come to know more than our fair share of really talented doctors and therapists at the Children's Hospital in Cincinnati.  One of which is a cardiologist.  After discussing our little guy in Korea's issues with her, she seemed confident that the surgery can be done with very high success rate and no long term affects on his health.

Unlike Lleyton and Addy, who spent their infancy in an orphanage, this little guy (whom I should come up with a blog name for so that I don't have to keep writing "this little guy") is living with a foster mother.  She lives in Seoul, which is where we will travel to pick him up when that time comes.  From the looks of the video we received of him last week, the conditions he lives in far exceed our expectations. 

More details to come as we move forward.  As of now we are gathering necessary paperwork kick this process into gear.

Please keep our little guy in your thoughts and prayers.

Book Buddies

Springtime has arrived.

Both Sara and I took the day off today to spend some quality time with the kids since this week in Parker's spring break.

On tap for today was a morning visit to the zoo.. 

Thank goodness we took our camera with us on our adventure, because the tulips were out in full force and I took advantage of that and took plenty of pics.

Before we get to the tulip pictures, Lleyton ran into Dora right when we entered the zoo, and how could he resist having his picture taken with one of his favorite characters ever.

One of the highlights of the day, albeit a brief highlight, was the boys getting to feed a giraffe. 

What the kids think.

By far the biggest part of our decision making process was the determining the effect adding another little one to our roster may have on Parker, Lleyton, and Addy.  Sara and I debated for days (if not weeks) before coming to the conclusion that we were prepared to move forward with this adoption. 

The decision wasn't made without consulting the little ones, and here's what they thought...

Parker - He was really campaigning for an older sister (he must not have remembered how difficult our adjustment was with him).  Once we brought him back to reality he was very excited about the possibility of a baby brother and he has been lobbying to share his room.

Addy - She seemed to be in favor of becoming a big sister, that is as long as we could guarantee her that the new little brother wouldn't try to drink any of her milk.  Don't get between our little girl and her milk.

Lleyton - He was our wildcard.  When asked if he would like a little brother, his response was, "No...I want to keep Addy."  After she was able to curtail her laughter, Sara assured him that we weren't trading Addy in for a little brother.   Upon understanding that Addy was still going to be around, most likely imitating his every move, Lleyton came to the conclusion that he was in favor of the new addition.

Our little guy in Korea has a few very excited older siblings waiting for him to join the party. 

Hope he's ready to be showered with kisses upon arriving at the airport.  The kids are already smooching him through the computer screen.

Last stop...South Korea!

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I announce that Sara and I have made the decision to add onto our family one more time.

The little person that is going to have the pleasure of having Parker, Lleyton, and Addy as siblings is a very handsome little boy from South Korea. He was born July 2, 2010 and will probably have about another year of his low key lifestyle in Seoul before we are able to bring him home and introduce him to the daily excitement that exists in our household.

The journey we have taken over the last 4 years since deciding to form our family through adoption has been nothing short of incredible. The places that we have been, the people that we have met, the countries we have fallen in love with have changed our lives for the better, and I am planning on this experience being no different.

I vividly remember a conversation Sara and I had as we ascended an escalator at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport on the afternoon of July 3rd last summer. We had just finished the 3rd of 4 legs of our trip home with Addy as she screamed in our ears. Fatigue was at an all time high when we looked at each other and agreed that three children would be enough.

Who knew that just the day prior, half way around the world, the boy that will become our 4th child was born.

Our feelings changed after getting home and settling in and getting used to life with three very vibrant and energetic little ones. We decided that if the right situation presented itself we would be willing to jump back in and adopt again...and here we are. The adoption process never seems to be easy, but we are ready to take it on once again.

There’s a little guy 6,800 miles away that we are very eager to meet and bring home.

Wish us luck.

Stay tuned for what will hopefully be a few really cool fundraising ideas that we are very excited about.

Quote that confims being a dad is the coollest thing ever...

It's 10:28pm and Lleyton is having trouble sleeping because of the high winds, so he is hanging with me on the couch watching the news. 

Our kids are on a pretty strict schedule.  Each night they are in bed by 8 o'clock and Sara and I enjoy the quiet time after they are resting peacefully.  But Lleyton being awakened by wind and being up late has been well worth it on this night because this is what he just told me...

"Daddy...you're my best buddy, but Mommy is my best friend."

How lucky are we to have such great kids.

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UPDATE

It's now 10:38pm and Lleyton just switched gears on me and came up with this quote on an entirely unrelated topic:

"Daddy...if I eat dog poop, I'll throw up."

Here's to hoping that he chooses not to put that theory to the test and that he does decide he needs to get a little shut eye tonight.

Lleyton's Soccer Debut...Take 2

In the NFL, many times when a player is injured and is unable to finish the season he will be put on the PUP list.  PUP stands for physically unable to perform.  I have determined that if youth soccer has such a list it may be called the MUP list...mentally unable to perform. 

If that list existed, Lleyton would have been put on it before the his first game last season.  He had all of the skills to potentially run circles around his comrades, but he lacked a bit on the other side of the game.  What he had in dribbling skills was outweighed by his lack of attention span.  What he had in speed was countered  by the impulsively that drove him to dart off of the field in warm ups straight into a busy parking lot.  He wasn't unable to focus enough to sit on the sidelines and cheer his teammates, choosing rather to stay right by our side. 

With all of that being true and with those memories from a year ago fresh in our minds, we set out this afternoon to give soccer another try...and our little guy far exceeded our expectations.

He did great!

We have clearly come along way in the last year (with the biggest strides coming in the last few weeks). 

Does this look like a kid that lacks focus?

How about this one, taken while our little soccer player stared down the competition during pregame warm ups.

Lleyton is usually asked to hang on the sidelines with Addy and cheer on Parker while watching him play, so he was delighted that the tables were turned and Parker and Addy were the ones cheering him on.

He was very assertive and aggressive on the field (maybe too aggressive at times...sorry to those little guys that he ran over).  Here is taking Bob the Bobcat for a little ride down the field.  Bob the Bobcat is the name of the ball in the league he plays in.

Sara and I beamed with pride while watching our little guy play this afternoon.  He has really made progress recently and we are thrilled about that.  Our biggest point of pride wasn't his passing skills, his ability to control the ball while dribbling, and certainly not his slide-tackling, but rather we were most proud of our little guy for this...

Sitting on the sidelines rooting on his teammates. 

Onto next week.  He is excited about getting back on the field, and we are equally as excited to watch.