handsful

Remember the ladybug house we had, with 9 little ladybug larvae? About a week ago, they all obediently turned into little pupas. Then, one by one, they all crawled out of their pupa shells (we got to see a couple of them do this…it was so cute how they wiggled their little bottoms out!). We kept them in the ladybug house a couple of days, and they feasted on a few raisin halves. Yesterday morning, we let them go. After each one crawled out, we placed them on our yellow lantana plants, right outside our front door. Of course, I snapped tons of pictures! Here are a few…

Come on little girls, time to go! (see the 3 at the bottom?)

Marley introduces them to their new home

Hang on!!

The ladybug house instructions said that if we release them in the morning (which we did), our ladybugs should stay close to where they were released. So, we hope to see them again!

Since we arrived in St. Augustine too late last time to do any tours, we decided to go back for Part 2 last Thursday! We were able to tour inside the Castillo de San Marcos fort and the Lightner museum. I just love history, and being able to see and touch things from the past is such a privilege. To stand in front of a throne chair and know that some nobleman or king sat there…amazing. The kids especially loved learning about the cannons at the Fort and standing where the sentrys stood to keep watch over the St. Johns river.

The Lightner museum used to be the Alcazer hotel, built in 1887. It held the largest indoor pool of it’s time (so they say), which now holds a cafe at one end. The original pool floor is still there. Abbey counted the steps and compared them to a photo showing the pool…she wanted to know how deep the water was!

We’ve still got more to do in St. Augustine, so we’ll be back :) Here are a few more photos of our day…

Can you imagine standing in that little tower all day?

See?! It’s quite small inside!

A model of the fort…this is the shape of it from above. The middle section is an open courtyard, with rooms all around. The top is where the cannons are (obviously)

Guard room, complete with straw-filled mattresses. Comfy!

“Pool” at Lightner (see cafe tables at the end?)

Photo in the back of when it WAS a pool!

As of today, our paperwork has been in China for 9 months. Our “paper pregnancy” is full term! We are hopeful that we’ll be matched with Lainey in the next 3-6 months, through our agency’s Waiting Child program. Our Waiting Child paperwork has been with our agency for 6 months…the AVERAGE wait for a WC referral is 6-8 months. I think average sounds just fine! We’ll keep you posted.