For the Family...

Our extended family has been asking for new pictures of our yard and flowers. So, here they are! If you are novice blog-readers, you can click on any picture and it will show full-sized in your window. Then, after you have viewed the picture, use your back arrow to return to the full post. Have fun!

Yee-Haw!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! We took Will to the Cowboy Chuckwagon Festival this weekend. Our little cowboy had lots of fun roping cows, watching cowboys cook over the fire, and making cowboy crafts. Bill & I enjoyed sampling all of the great campfire food. What a true Oklahoma experience!

One quick funny story about Will. We stopped at lunch time to take a break and sit down so Will could eat. We grabbed a spot on a hay bale in one of the music tents. There was a man with a guitar singing old cowboy songs - really nice. Bill and I were enjoying the rest and the music, and Will was munching away on his hot dog. He finished eating, looked up at Bill with a smile on his little face and said, "Dad, this is SO boring! Can we PLEASE move on?" We both just laughed and realized yet again that our sweet little boy is officially becoming a kid!! :)

Q & A Game!

So the blogger crew is doing a question game right now so we can all get to know each other a little bit better. Here's the questions:

1. Tell us something totally unusual about you.
2. Aside from your adoption process, what is your greatest accomplishment this year?
3. What is your favorite holiday?
4. Tell us the most interesting, funny, or embarrassing story from your wedding.
5. Where is your favorite place in the whole world?
6. Aside from your new little one, what are you most looking forward to about your trip to Vietnam? (Or for those who have already gone, what is most memorable for you?)
7. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
8. What is your best character trait?
9. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?
10. How has your adoption process changed you for the better?

Here's my answers:

1. I have designed and built a couple of ten-story buildings. (No kidding, I have a degree in structural engineering and worked on projects around downtown Chicago for almost ten years.)
2. Enjoying my time as a mom to Will. I’ve only been at home full-time for a little over a year, and I am really enjoying a lot of the little things about being a parent.
3. Christmas – I’m a Christmas decorating nut! We go Christmas crazy every year, but it’s really fun, especially now that Will can really enjoy the traditions too.
4. Our reception was outdoors, and it rained for about the first 15 minutes of it. It is a lot of brides’ worst wedding nightmare, but for us, it turned out great. There were 300 people at the wedding, and the ones that were friends of the family but not our nearest and dearest didn’t come to the reception. So, when the rain was over, we really got to spend time with the people we cared most about.
5. Sitting next to my husband in a totally quiet gallery in the Art Institute of Chicago
6. Seeing the gardens in Saigon. My Vietnamese friend keeps telling me how exquisite they are.
7. Homemade peach on the Fourth of July
8. Empathy
9. Sunsets – one of my favorite things about Oklahoma
10. I’m more thankful than I was at the beginning of the year. God’s been reminding me how the whole process is such a gift from Him – not just the child at the end!

Summertime & The Livin' is Easy!

Well, summer is officially here for our family. It's supposed to be 80 degrees all week in Oklahoma City, and we have moved into our summer mode. To the left is a picture of one of the blooms on our hydrangea bushes. They are so pretty, and now there are a couple of hundred blooms - literally. Hooray - I got about half a dozen blooms all summer last year, so I'm thrilled! Will's last day of school is this Friday, and then the fun really begins - sandboxes, swimming pools, Popsicles, and Redhawks baseball games!

We had our first homestudy appointment this weekend. Our social worker was so kind and helpful. We really appreciate the people that work for Dillon - every single one has been kind, honest, and helpful. The homestudy interview felt very comfortable, and we got a lot of our lingering questions answered. We don't have our second interview for almost three weeks because of the Memorial Day holiday time, so we have to just sit back and wait. I guess that means more time for enjoying the garden and watching Will's summer fun. Bill & I are really trying to be intentional about enjoying our time with Will right now. We are, of course, so excited about the new baby, but we also have loved our time as a family of three. So, we're going to cherish these next few months as much as we can. (Oh, and we have promised ourselves to appreciate our current ability to sleep through the night! We know that one is going to go by the wayside for awhile when we come home with the new baby!)

Hope you all enjoy your summer too. Have a hot dog and a lemonade for us!

Shameless Pride!

We have a couple of really good new pictures of Will this Spring. The shot below is at the Dallas Arboreteum at Spring Break. To the right is at the playground at the Oklahoma Redhawks game - Go Hawks! :) He is having such a great time learning all about baseball. He really likes watching players run the bases and of course, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game!"

Introducing Ourselves

We thought it was high time we introduced ourselves. We are Bill, Paula, and Will Cook, and we live in the Oklahoma City area. Will is four years old and the light of our lives. Now we are so excited that God is blessing us with the opportunity to adopt another son from Vietnam.

Some things about Bill:

• He loves the mountains
• He is in a medical field
• He'll forever love his Baylor Bears
• In some cultures he's tall enough to be considered a god (No kidding, he's more than 2 meters tall - a sure head-bonking issue in Vietnam!)


• He travels a lot for his job


• He works from home


• He continues to follow the Chicago Cubs long after they deserve it!
  

Some things about Paula:

• She is at home full-time with Will right now
• She previously worked as an engineer
• She is a great cook
• She loves to garden
• She likes to watch baseball and football games
• She likes to read Agatha Christie mysteries and the Yada Yada Prayer Group novels
• If she could, she would have a Starbucks Mocha every single day!

Some things about Will:

• He's just so cute!
• He wakes up early and happy each morning
• He loves to play with Playmobil & Matchbox cars
• He's excited about our upcoming trips, swimming lessons, & VBS this summer
• He is so thrilled to be a new big brother soon
• He likes to count to 100
• He's really into baseball right now, but likes the Cracker Jacks best of all

Some things about our new son:

• We don't know his name yet (hopefully soon!)
• He may not even be born yet
• We are hoping he will be less than a year old when we first meet him
• He is going to have a baseball-themed bedroom
• He will be from one of five orphanages in the south part of Vietnam
• We already love him so much and we can't wait to meet him!
  

Happy Mother's Day!

Welcome to our site! We are finally up and running!

We are so excited to be on this adoption journey!