Our Family

Thank you for checking us out! We set up this site so you can track our progress to adopt a baby from China. We also added some info about cystic fibrosis and other issues in our little corner of the world.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Josie's Backpack

Josie loves her backpack - it is adorable the way she pronounces "pack-pack!" She loves to wear it, and to pull out her treasures...sunglasses, play cell phone, photo album...



Our Busy Days


Josie is growing up too fast!!!! Here she is in crooked ponytails....she won't keep them in for very long.



Helping daddy in the yard.



We belong to the only support group in the nation for couples who live with Cystic Fibrosis. Our coordinators received a grant to create a video to be presented at a medical conference in the Fall, to teach people how to facilitate these groups. Last night the camera crew came to our house and set it up for a photo shoot: they interviewed us and two other couples re: life with Cystic Fibrosis. It was nice to be able to answer specific questions, and helped me to think more about our situation and how much our life has changed in the past four years since Jim was dianosed: that's what they mainly asked me about since we are the only couple in the group that found out one of the partners has CF AFTER we were married. They also asked about our decision to have children in light of all the challenges that CF brings to daily life. It was fun to have everyone in our house, and Josie enjoyed checking out all the wires and cameras and umbrella lights everywhere!

Friday, May 25, 2007

A Day at Home

Here is a little of what I see during the day. I have a box of miscellaneous dress up clothes, and Thursday the girls came up to me with these handkerchiefs, trying to put them on their heads. I put them on, and they spent a good deal of time sitting on the steps and admiring each other.
















Josie got ahold of Jim's Instant Breakfast the other morning.









Thursday, May 24, 2007

Our Profile

I updated our profile on the right side of the blog since I realized that it was way outdated (it said we were waiting to adopt our baby.) But I am putting the old information here to save it for posterity, and in case someone down the road starts reading the blog they will know a little more about our story.

Jim was raised in Green Bay, WI. Colleen grew up in Wadsworth, IL as one of 11 children. We met at church in Chicago in 1993, and were married on August 20, 1994. We lived in San Diego, CA until June 1995, and then moved to Norfolk, VA where Jim was stationed on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt with the US Navy. He spent most of the first 4 years of our marriage at sea. He got out of the active duty in 1998 and continued to serve in the Reserves as an Intelligence Specialist while attending Old Dominion University. He graduated with a BS in Accounting in December 2001. We decided it was time to return to the Midwest in June 2003 and are loving it here in Wisconsin. We celebrated 10 years of marriage in 2004 with a dream vacation to the French Quarter of New Orleans and then a 7-night cruise that included gliding in the Jamaican jungle, swimming with stingrays in Grand Cayman, and exploring the Mayan ruins of Tulum. We were thrilled to adopt an amazing baby Josie from China in June 2006. Now Colleen does home daycare and watches Josie grow up quickly!

Monday, May 14, 2007

First Mother's Day







It was a wonderful Mother's Day. We spent Saturday in Illinois with my family, and Sunday at home in Madison. Jim cleaned and took Josie out for a while so I could nap (the best present ever!) He also got me a video camera so I can start taking some videos of Josie. Josie got me an adorable Winnie the Pooh card and some chocolates. Then Jim made king crab legs for dinner - YUM-MEEEE!! I am wearing a beautiful corsage that my dad gave me.










Colleen's dad cooking fish for a cookout on Saturday. (Fish was caught by my brother Jim - see his wife's blog at ://www.midlifebliss.blogspot.com/ to see pics! She started the blog a few weeks ago, and it is so interesting!)

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Our Baby is Growing Up







It's very sad to see Josie growing up so fast! But it's lots of fun too!! She is saying and doing new things all the time. She is very expressive, and has the best facial expressions. They're very difficult to capture on camera. She's been spending lots of time with Ammi and Poppa lately, and talking about them throughout the week. She would visit them every day if she could. It's hard to give an update of what she's up to, because she's doing so much. One of the funny things that the poor child has learned is that "bye-bye" means that people walk out the door and then come back for their keys! Whenever I leave the house, she says "bye-bye" very sweetly. Then when I'm gone she looks at the door and says "uh-oh keys!" and waits for me to come back for my keys! This is true for daddy as well. She will never know (at least not for many years) that normal people say "bye-bye" they just leave and don't come back for a while. Here are some cute pics.




Swinging with Poppa



Dancing with Ammi










What did you find?