Officially a family of six!

Forgive me for being a day late in relaying the news that we had been waiting to receive for what seems like forever, but yesterday afternoon, to our surprise, we got word that Camden's EP was approved. 

What does that mean to the layperson?

It means that he is officially ours and that we will be traveling to Korea in no time flat.  In fact, just this evening we booked flights that will take us to our young man's homeland. 

As I tweeted yesterday, we are feeling quite a few emotions right now, not the least of which is overwhelmed.  We have so many things to do before the time comes for us to board that outbound plane to Seoul, but we are also feeling very thankful, fortunate, maybe a bit nervous, certainly excited, always realistic, and completely thrilled. 

It's been a long road...meaning the road we have traveled to ultimately bring home Camden has been long, but so has the road that led us to the family that we have.  We consider ourselves very fortunate to have been able to form the family that we have and we are overcome with feelings of what's life going to be like with another little person in the house.   Worry not, the kids have assured us they will be stepping up to the plate and welcoming young Camden with open arms.  Let's just hope that Camden has the same feelings in regards to welcoming all of us into his life. 

I can't help but harken back to almost 2 years ago today when we brought Addy home.  About half way up an escalator in Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, after a long journey that had taken us from Cincinnati, to Dubai, to Addis Ababa and then from Addis back to Dubia through NYC and onto Atlanta before boarding a flight to Hilton Head, Sara and I agreed that three kids was it.  Am I ever glad we realized that decision was a direct result of a 24 hour period of nothing but a screaming kid on a plane with two people who she only saw a strangers. 

Life most likely won't be easy when we bring Camden home, but at least we know that.  We wouldn't have set out on the journey we have if we wanted life to be as easy as possible.  We are ready for the challenges that may face us, and we are thrilled to be another day closer to getting over there and meeting the little guy we have loved since the moment we first saw his picture.

Stay tuned...

Maybe #5 will be shy.

In the back of both our minds Sara and I were kind of hoping that Camden is a shy, quiet young man that can be a calming influence on his soon-to-be siblings.

Judging from the pictures we received of him earlier this week our hopes may not be realistic.

BTW, I was only joking about #5.  

A family of 6 sounds like a good place to land on.  

The call we have been waiting for!

We have been waiting for "The call" from our agency for quite awhile now, the call saying that Camden's emigration permission paperwork had been submitted to the ministry in Korea, and to our delight that call came this morning. 

In layman's terms that call means that our little guy should be on his way home in the near future.  Our family of 5 will be turning into a family of 6!

To celebrate our big day we surprised the kids with a trip to their favorite restaurant and a cake from a beyond-delicious local bakery.  I'm not quite sure Addy understood the significance of the day's main event, as she broke out in
a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Camden.

The time frame moving forward is fluid, but we have been told that the paperwork should be approved anytime from three to eight weeks from now with travel shortly thereafter.  We are hoping that means that Sara and I will be on a flight bound for Camden's homeland in mid-July.

Side note:  I typically bribe my kids into giving me good looking smiles for pictures by telling them that after I get a good one I will take a funny face picture.  Case in point...

Class of 2012...Pre-K Style

Dozens of proud parents, grandparents, and siblings were in attendance last night as Lleyton and his fellow preschool friends graduated and set their sights on next falls arrival to the big show...Kindergarten.

The ceremony did not disappoint.  Lleyton and all of his little buddies were out in full force as they sang and danced while the cameras clicked and the video cameras rolled. 

Hats off to the the teachers for thinking out the spacing of the kids.  It was no accident that our little guy was on the end and his equally-as-crazy best friends were at least two less-crazy kids away.

Prior to seeing this picture I would have said that Sara and I were the proudest people in the room, but Lleyton looks his pride was at an all-time high after getting the much sought after diploma.

Look who was right there to congratulate his best little friend after the ceremony...

Speaking of his equally-as-crazy little friends...

Addy wasn't bashful about showing her support for her best friend as well, as she shrieked "Yay Lleyton!" from Pop's lap to everyone's delight.

Our happy crew.   Addy was certainly happy for her big brother, but this toothy smile could also be the result of enjoying an ice cold cupful of lemonade.

We're still here.

The extended blog break can be directly associated with the monumental task we have taken on of finishing our basement.  With another little guy joining the family in the coming months, it became quite evident to us that we could use a little more room for the kids to spread out, hence over the past 8 weeks pretty much all waking hours outside of work have been spent transforming our basement from a scene from Hoarders to a usable space that we are hoping to begin enjoying before too long.

One of the driving factors behind finishing our basement was that we felt we needed to add an extra bedroom, as we couldn’t envision any of the kids getting any decent sleep while sharing a room.  Low and behold, for the past couple of months Lleyton and Parker have been inseparable at bedtime and have been sleeping in the same room.  Shows how much we know. 

When Sara and I head upstairs to turn in each night it is always entertaining venturing into Lleyton or Parker’s room and seeing how the young men wound up sleeping that night (options have been…under Lleyton’s tent, on the floor, two wide on a full size bed, two wide on a twin bed, under the bed, in the closet, dressed like superheros, etc.).
 

It is a joy seeing the boys enjoy each other so much.  That on top of how much Addy idolizes Lleyton makes for some very cute times around the Ritzmann house. 

 

 We would like to send along a big THANK YOU to everyone who has kept Parker and the rest of us in your thoughts and prayers.  The blogging this year has really fallen off, and as I explained a couple of months ago, it had a lot to do some extremely difficult and challenging times we were having with our young man.  I am very happy to report that those truggles are now occurring much less often…which is such a relief for us all.
If you’re wondering about how things are progressing in regards to getting Camden home, we are wondering the same thing. We are hopeful that we could have some good news to share in the coming weeks, but as we have come to find out about international adoption, things can change.  We did recently get new pictures of our little guy in Korea and are very happy to report that he is looking great.  It’s sad to see him grow through pictures, but hopefully our wait is nearing an end and we will be able to get over to Seoul and introduce ourselves to our very handsome soon-to-be son. 

While we wait  we will stay busy in the basement, and starting last weekend we also will be spending time on the diamond watching Parker hone his skills. What better way to kick off our big man’s baseball season than by taking in a Reds game.
 Who won you may ask…I’m not quite sure, as our time was spent mostly in the kids area on the play set and during the time we were in our seats I was a bit preoccupied with making sure Lleyton and Addy didn’t chuck anything onto the unsuspecting people below us, and they didn’t.  So in that case, we won.

He's full term.

Yesterday marked the completion of our 9th month of waiting for Camden to come home.  If only adoption mimicked pregnancy and we could induce and get our little guy home sooner rather than later.  Don't think it works that way.

At this point we are hopeful that our wait will be over with in the next 6 months...which would put us traveling to Korea to pick up our very handsome then-to-be 2 yr old this fall. 

Who knows, maybe we will be pleasantly surprised and he will come home earlier than expected (our hopes are not up). 

Nurse, Football Player, or Magician

Parker has always contended that he wants to be a football player when he grows up.  I have made sure he understands that not many people are able to play professional football so a backup plan may be in order.  That must have sunk in because when I recently asked him want he wants to be when he stuck to his guns and said football player, but he also clued me on his desire to be a nurse. 

I am sure there are plenty of kids out there that want to be a nurse.
I am sure there are plenty of kids out there that want to be a football player.
I'm not so sure there are many like Parker that want to be one or the other.

Everything regarding Parker's career aspirations changed this past Saturday morning in the cafeteria of the elementary school near my office.  That's where he met Magical Dan. 

Who is Magical Dan you might ask...

Magical Dan is a magician/balloon artist that came to entertain the crowd at the annual Kiwanis Pancake Day breakfast that Parker was helping me work.  While I was working my fingers to the bone making my locally renowned sausage gravy back in the kitchen, Parker was joined at the hip with his new idol.  Taking in anything and everything that Dan was doing.  I knew he was enjoying himself, which was really nice to see, but I didn't know quite the extent of his enjoyment until we were on our way home after our shift and he proclaimed that he wants to be a magician when he grows up.

Parker spent much of Saturday afternoon on Grandma Monica's iPad looking for magic tricks that he could perfect. He's still a little rough around the edges with his magic, but he's got time to perfect his tricks...at least a year.  I am hoping we can reunite Magical Dan with Magical Parker at next year's Pancake Day.  Imagine the crowds that combination would draw in.

Back in the saddle.

Things in Korea have been frustratingly quiet for the last few months, but I am very happy to report that as of today that's no longer the case and the processing of adoptions has restarted.  What caused this months long delay remains to be seen, but that is neither here nor there now that we are moving forward again.  Our original wait time estimate was up to 14 months from the time our paperwork was sent to Korea until the time we travel to go get our little guy.  Conceivably, that time frame has now grown to possibly 16 months, and if that is the case we could travel sometime this fall. 

In a nutshell, we are excited that things seem to be moving again in Seoul and we can't wait to board that plane bound for Camden's homeland. 

One thing that will be boarding a plane bound for South Korea before too long is a care package for our little guy.  We are very hopeful that Camden is getting the packages we have sent and that his foster mom is sharing all of the pictures and other package contents with Camden.  My favorite part of the care package that we are sending to him very shortly is the Korean version of one of our kids' favorite books, Goodnight Moon. 

Camden doesn't know it yet, but he has three very excited siblings waiting on him here who can't wait to welcome him home (and in Addy's case, probably show him the ropes...remember, she thinks she runs the show around here).  

The King and his Court

Be it that today is the eve of Fat Tuesday, we thought we would treat  the kids to a little break from the norm after dinner and introduce them to the traditional Mardi Gras King Cake.  Can you guess which our no-so-little ones found the baby in the cake...

Can you see the baby's feet?

Parker feverishly ate his cake in search of the baby, and more importantly the title "King of the House."  But it was the much more meticulous Lleyton who slowly worked his way through the delicious cake and found the baby.  Addy, who I would have pegged as one that would have loved the idea of eating cake and possibly being called Queen didn't seem too interested.  My guess is that no matter whether or not she found the baby, she considers herself the queen of the house. 

Think Lleyton was excited to be crowned our King?

As the tradition outlines, the King or Queen is responsible for the following year's cake.  So we'll have to see if King Lleyton can hone his baking skills over the next 12 months.  I am guessing he will be recruiting the help of his jesters come next Mardi Gras eve.

Happy Valentine's Day...Lleyton style

Cute or Scary?

I would probably side with scary. 

This is what Lleyton woke up to this morning...
 

That's one unique wake-up call.

Said wake-up call must have left a pretty big impression on our very impressionable young man, as tonight he decided to sleep in his doorway for the first time ever.  Maybe he thought that Batman wouldn't be able to get in if he blocked the door.  Can't wait to hear the reasoning behind the move from his bed to the floor tomorrow morning when he wakes up.

Camden lives where?

A) Seoul, South Korea

B) My sister Emily's belly

If you have been reading this blog for any period of time you would know the correct answer is A.  You might also think that Camden's future brothers and sister would know the same, but we aren't sure that is the case after the other night when Lleyton told Sara that he thought that Camden lived in Emily's belly. 

No matter where he lives, there's no doubt he is a very handsome young man, which is quite evident from the pictures we received of young Camden this afternoon....

Working our way through a difficult time.

My lack of blogging hasn’t been because nothing is happening around our house, after all since I last posted we have celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family, Santa and Grandfather Frost paid us a visit and a new year has been rung in.

My lack of blogging is because nothing that is very much fun to talk about is going on in our household as of late.

Adoption can be hard.

Adopting older children can be hard.

We have lived through it, especially during the first few months after Parker came home with us. Those were tough times, and during those times I wrote about it. So I figure there are some families out there that may be going through or have gone through what we are now, so why not share.

Parker has hit a rough patch (which is an understatement at times). To those outside of our house, Park couldn’t be much more thoughtful, polite, caring, intelligent, and sweet than he is.  Parker is each of those, but sadly for him and us, we see a different side of him on occasion. Those occasions used to be pretty infrequent, but to our chagrin they have become much more prevalent over the past couple of months.

I don’t feel like getting into everything that is going on with him at this moment, but it would suffice to say that the last couple of months have been downright upsetting, frustrating, scary, unsettling, and confusing.

Way back when we were first experiencing all of our difficulties with Parker we could kind of rationalize what might be causing them, as we couldn’t communicate with him very well since we spoke different languages, he wasn’t used to living an environment like the one we provided for him, he was probably scared, and he probably missed everything that felt comfortable that he left behind in Ethiopia. As his language progressed and he got into school, his behavior improved and his outbursts became less frequent. Things from that point on have never been perfect, but we had gotten to a point where we hoped that any issues we had with him were just those common issues that any parent runs into with a 6, 7, or 8 year old boy.

Those feelings changed recently. Changed to the point where we realized that we can’t address this situation alone and we reached out for professional help. This past Tuesday evening Sara and I headed south to Lexington to meet with a family therapist that came highly recommended to us. It was something we knew we needed to do, but neither of us wanted to have to do (I hope that makes sense). We don’t want to be a position to seek counseling for one of our children, but we know it’s only fair to him, us, and Lleyton and Addy to do so. We needed help and hopefully this therapist will be able to provide that for us.

Over the past couple of months, whether it be during one of his outbursts or during a quiet moment, we have tried many times to gain and understanding regarding what is ailing our big guy and why he feels it’s necessary to react and behave the way he has. We have gotten a few different reasons, some troubling, some of which we doubt, and some of which break our hearts.

We didn’t go into adopting any of our children under the false pretense that is was going to be easy or perfect, but at the same time we didn’t go into any of the adoptions thinking it would be this hard.

We wouldn’t change anything about how we formed our family.

We love Parker.

We love Lleyton.

We love Addy.

That’s not going to change. The fact is that many times when kids grow up in hard places, they deal with difficult things and those things don’t go away when they are welcomed into loving homes. Sometimes they linger and present themselves at the strangest of times. To one extent we are happy that Parker has only acted out around us to this point.  Yet, on the other hand that can make trying to explain what is going on at home more difficult b/c no one else has seen this side of our young man.

So if you’re reading this and have made it this far, that’s the explanation behind the blog absence. But now we’re back and hopefully very soon we can get back on track with fun stories about the kids…like the other day when Lleyton and his sidekick/shadow/best friend/cling-on/biggest fan joined forces and fended off bad guys while dressed in Batman masks.

20 minutes + 180 pictures + 1 potty training accident + 4 antlers = Christmas Card

Last Monday night we set out to make our annual Christmas card.  Not unlike last year's card, we got off to late start on putting together our annual mailing, but we were hopeful that the kids would come through with at least a few good pictures that we could send out to family and friends. 

They didn't disappoint.

As the title of post would indicate, we took alot of pictures in a little bit of time.  The majority of them were more comical than frame-worthy, but I was pleasantly surprised to see we did have a handful of gems. 

Below are a few of the non-card worthy outtakes. 

What the title might also indicate is that Addy is now potty training.  Monday was her first full day of no diapers, and she had done remarkably well...that is until just after the picture taking was wrapped up and a major clean-up was called for.  We were thankful that she at least waited until we got a few great pictures taken before rendering her Christmas card outfit unwearable.

Here's the finished product...

Parker questions the man himself...Santa Claus.

Parker's inquisitive nature (aka obsession with asking questions) has been well documented on this blog.  From the moment he could speak understandable English he has been busy asking questions. 

Endless questions. 

Some good, some bad, some funny, some hilarious. 

With that being true I shouldn't have been too surprised when I got the chance to see the letter that he recently sent to Santa.  To our delight, jolly old St. Nick responsded to Parker's letter and sent back Park's original letter so that he can hang onto it .  In his letter to Parker, Santa even noted how many questions our ever-inquisitive son asked. 

The following letter made my week. 

As you will see, he had plenty of questions on his mind when he wrote this.

Some good, some bad, some funny, some hilarious.

Enjoy!

(For those not as adept at reading the handwriting of an 8 year old, I have provided an abridged version below the pictures)

Dear Santa,

Hi Santa.  I have a ton of questions.

Is Rudolph real?

Are you real?

What's your reindeers' favorite food?

Do you ever die?

Is there an elf named Alison?  If I know, do not fire her.

When I grow up can I be an elf?

Are you magic?

Can your reindeer fly?

How many elves do you have?

How do you make toys?

Did anybody shoot you before?

Has anybody seen you before?

How old are you?

Did you ever fall off a roof?

Is the North Pole cool?

Is it fun?

What's the elves favorite food?

How old is Mrs. Claus?

Is the workshop cool or fun?

How old do you have to be an elf?

Is there a guard at the North Pole?

Do you eat steak?

There you have it...22 thought provoking questions for Santa.  I personally can't help but laugh each time I read them, especially the last one. 

Hope you enjoyed!