The Story of the Three Busy Bees

This summer started at my Mom's traveling to Oak Park to see the city's park benches painted and decorated - TV Style. We traveled to Great Grandma Rose's house. We made a trip to Aunt Rita's to see Uncle Jim's awesome sparkly red Harley. We headed to Elmhurst to the free History of the Comic Book museum. We made several trips to downtown Chicago (this past week being trip number 2). Hayden had space camp at a book store, right after meeting Spiderman at a local toy store. Two children and one public museum, all free of charge thanks to our family superpass.
Plus lots more and the summer isn't over yet. Though the summer started with a hint of sadness (knowing that a huge vacation would be out of the question), we have been uplifted with giggles and amusement with our Family Fun Days (usually Wednesday). I have found such a reward, hunting down the cheap or even free (which many of our excursions are/were) places we have gone. Usually just spending money on gas or food (and even then sometimes packing a lunch).
With that, we are eager to look back on our summer and put together our memories. Thus making our huge vacation. Hayden has enjoyed every bit of our travels, whether we find a new park or head to the library for a few hours. Having this time during the summer, being able to have Michael home everyday - is priceless and we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Onto our second trip to the city... we had the opportunity to meet our coordinator from our agency. We knew we couldn't pass this chance up, especially with "K" being able to take our paperwork home with her (saving on stamps!!!).
So we hopped back on the train on Wednesday and met her for lunch with another client of hers, two sisters who are going to be single moms. We were thrilled to hear the one sister is waiting patiently for a Kyrgyz child. In addition, we found out our coordinator "K" is from Kazakhstan. Having lunch with her gave us the chance to chat with her about the process a little more and get to know her. Plus it's always nice to put a face to the person who is helping you bring your child home. :)
Afterwards, we took Chicago's free trolley to Navy Pier, used our family superpass once again and got in for free at the Children's Museum. Hayden had a blast digging for dino bones, playing in the Waterworks, etc. When we finished we lingered around till it was time to catch our trolley to the subway to the train. Whew... Yet again another hot hot day. LOL

This week Hayden starts bike camp (meets once a week with his P.T. for 4 sessions). He's psyched. I'm gonna need coffee, we need to be out the door by 7:30am. *Yawn*
Meanwhile, Michael needs to head to the bank for cashiers checks, I need to scan some forms to email to our agency while we wait on our Dr. to notarize... (this will help us along in the process and our agency can get started on translating our paperwork). We are eager to see things moving again.... starting to feel real again. A feeling that had once dissipated.

Anyway, it's late and I have been dying to watch Design Star (then Big Brother, if I can stay awake).
Us busy bees will keep you guys posted with news as it comes available, in addition to our travels (new slide pics posted on the right).

Posted by Mel at 10:00 PM