Maddie recently had a visit with the Orthodontist at Texas Children's Hospital. We wanted to ensure the Orthodontist had an opportunity to evaluate Maddie's potential issues with future orthodontic care. This was one area that we anticipated Maddie having the biggest need for care. To our surprise, her future care in this area will be not complicated. The doctor reported that she has all of her bottom and top teeth that she should have. She does have a slight overbite that should be easily correctable. The few top teeth that are near her cleft have an angulation problem (they are angled incorrectly). The doctor suspects that her permanent teeth will come in relatively straight and without issue. All great news!!! The best news was that her palate is wide enough for her mouth and will not require any sort of device to stretch the palate!!!!

After our visit at Texas Children's we were off to our last Family Summer Vacation - maybe one of our last as a family of 5 or at least our last with Christopher for a few years.

We stayed at a Lake Resort in Lake Conroe and definitely had some great family time together. Some of the highlights from this trip were:

- playing pictionary with the kids (many good laughs came from playing this game)

- Tubing on Lake Conroe (Christopher coached me several times not to hold on to the tube - which subsequently resulted in me being thrown from the tube into the water)

- Water Sliding with Lizzy, Lilly and Maddie (We had lots of pool time and fun in the sun)

Christopher is leaving for Camp Champions for 3 weeks tomorrow morning and Lizzy is leaving with her friend to vacation at a dude ranch for 1 week. Maddie will certainly miss them when they are gone - I know I will.

Maddie has been working on sleeping in her own room and has made some progress. I hope to have her sleeping in her room full time before school starts in the fall. Please be praying for us as we make this big transition.

Stuff..

Board Games are the "In" thing at our house

As the summer is in full swing, lots of things are happening. We celebrated the 4th of July this past weekend and had a relaxing weekend with family.

Christopher's summer league basketball is over and he played like a rock star! We had been traveling with the team to several summer tournaments in cities around Louisiana. He is now preparing for his last year as a Senior Camper at Camp Champions in Marble Falls, Texas. He leaves on July 17th and will be gone until August 6th.

Lizzy decided not to go to summer camp at Camp Champions. The first time in 6 years. I think she just wanted to be home with me and needed some mommy time as she prepares for her big transition to high school. That was okay with me. She had a friend from New Jersey visit as well as her one of best friends from Austin come and visit. I have been having a great time shuttling the girls around doing fun stuff like Painting with a Twist, Movies, pedicures, etc. We will be taking the family and both of Lizzy's friends to Lake Conroe for a long weekend of fun in the sun.

Maddie finished a week of swimming lessons and she has improved so much from last year. Her swim instructor has high hopes for her future swimming ability - she has suggested as soon as she is of age to put her on the local swim team. Maddie has an orthodontist appointment at Texas Children's Hospital this Friday. She will follow up this appointment with a return evaluation with the Speech Therapist next month.

We finally finished all of our required Adoption Training and Home Study visits. We are now waiting on our FBI background checks (which is something new required by the State of Louisiana). It has been several weeks since we submitted our request - we are expecting this document any day now. Once we receive it, then our social worker can complete the Home Study and we can file our I-800A with US Immigration. This process is moving along - slowly - but moving.

My mom and dad have finally sold their home and will be building a new home right next door to me. They hope to have it completed and be in before we bring home a new child, so that they can help in any way possible. Having them next door will definitely help with Maddie's transition with being "Dethroned" as Queen bee.

I am loving this summer - even though it has been quite busy - the times with my children are priceless.