Vivianna's Adoption Story

I thought I would do a couple of posts on our kids' adoption stories. I have several blog buddies that are in the process of adopting or thinking about adopting that are like me and love reading other's adoption stories...so I thought I would indulge ya'll with ours! I am going to do Vivi's first because a year ago this month we were put on the list of waiting families at our adoption agency, Generations Adoptions in Waco, TX. This will probably take 2 posts, so have patience with me as I get through it. Then on February 6th, I will post on Isaac's adoption story because that is the day he came home to us and the date we celebrate every year.

So here goes with our sweet baby girl...

We have always wanted our children to be less than 3 years apart, so two days after we finalized 2 year old Isaac's adoption in court in December 2006- we drove to Waco for a Christian adoption agency's orientation. This was with the director and another couple. She told us about their agency and about how domestic adoption works. She then gave us our formal application packet and sent us on our way to fill it out and get it back to them in our own timing. Thankfully because we had just done Isaac's adoption, all of our paperwork was in one place and just needed to be copied and added to our packet. We filled out our applications and wrote our paragraphs of why we wanted to adopt and sent it sometime in early January 2007. Then I made our family scrapbook on Shutterfly that showed pics of our house, our family, fun things we had done over the years, etc. The best news was that we did not need another homestudy to be completed because our foster care agency had one on record that was less than 6 months old (the time frame for home studies to be updated). SO that sped up our process a bit and got us on the waiting list by the end of January. But we had to wait until March 3rd to go to our agency training day. So February rolls around and we get an email from our director stating that they had a birthmother come in due in early March with a multi-racial baby girl. Would it be okay if she showed her our profile? We were overjoyed and said yes, we could not believe it was so soon!! So after 2 weeks of agonizing waiting, on March 2nd, the day before our training, we got a call that this birthmother chose us to place the baby with! We were in shock. But the biggest shock came when she told us that she had been admitted into the hospital with high blood pressure and might deliver that night, and wanted us at the birth!! Billy called to make arrangements at a hotel and began to get our car seat ready and diaper bag packed while I raced to Carter's to buy a "going home" outfit! With shock and excitement we phoned our family and friends to tell them that we would be welcoming a girl into our family!

Well, we soon got a call that she had not gone into labor and was sent home. The next day our director set up a time for us to meet the birthmother after our training. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night!!

Stay tuned for the conclusion in a coming post....

Family Fun Night

First we made the dough.
Then we had to pat it and roll it out.
Then came the sauce and cheese.
Isaac loved arranging the tomatoes and turkey pepperoni.
Voila!

Game Night!
Icecream!!
Chocolate....mmmmm


Friday night was a fun night for us. Isaac and I made a pizza together, crust and all. He really liked patting the crust and rolling it out. He had fun wearing the apron and sprinkling all the toppings on too.

Then we got in our pj's and had game night, which we have never formally done with him before. He thought it was pretty special that he got to stack ALL his games on the coffee table, plus he got to enjoy bowls of chex mix. He doesn't usually get a snack before bed so when he does, woo hoo!!

And finally to wrap up our Family Fun Night, Billy and I said "guess what Isaac, we have a surprise...ICECREAM!!!" we shouted this and jumped up saying hurry, hurry get your shoes on! Keep in mind we are all in our pj's- so he wasn't sure what hit him! The look on his face was priceless, I wish we would have gotten a picture of that! He was so excited. At the drive thru, he wanted yellow icecream (his favorite color). They didn't have anything yellow. When I told him, he said in a quiet voice "I want yellow, though." It was sooo sweet. But he was content when he got chocolate!


Vivianna had fun too as you can see, even though she didn't get any of our fun treats and the only part of game night she participates in is chewing up the game board and cards! Vivi!!

The Munchkins

In case you have been wondering how the kids are doing (I've been too sick to post). Here it is! As you can see from Isaac's very mismatched pajamas...daddy dressed him. Billy has begun a contest with himself to see just how tacky he can get Isaac's evening apparel. This was truly the worst. He has even sent him out with his underwear over his pants in the attempts to elicit a laugh out of me. I really don't want to encourage this. If we ever had a house fire and had to stand outside for hours, what would the neighbors think? But other than bad fashion, Isaac is doing really well. He has not cried at preschool about me leaving him for months now and today went to Mops without ANY tears for the first time. Woohoo! This a far cry from the boy a year ago who we would always get paged about at church. Way to go, Isaac! Play therapy is going well, when I remember to take him. Man...I have been off lately. :(

But despite my flightiness, exhaustion, and short temper- my child seems to be flourishing. Go God!

You've read a recent update on my youngest munchkin at her 10 month post. But I had to share this, we tried out a new hairstyle with little miss Vivianna...two pony tails!
I loved it, but daddy is partial to her "pebbles do"
Back View...cute ain't it?!

Don't ask me how I get her to sit still...it is like wrestling a baby tiger, claws and all.

Besides getting into a serious amount of mischief (She is sorry about that vase at Grandma's!)...this is one of Vivi's favorite activities.

I should get a t-shirt that says...

"Make the neighbors wonder...consider transracial adoption"

http://www.cafepress.com

In the jungle....the mighty jungle

Our lion sleeps through the night!!

That's right folks...for the past two nights we have put our little lion cub to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and haven't heard a roar out of her until 7 a.m. Success!! It started Sunday night when she kept waking up and finally at some bleary eyed hour we decided to let her cry. So she did for awhile which had me thrashing around thinking I should just cave and go make a bottle. But I didn't! And now she is sleeping through the night...finally at the whopping age of 10 months old!! Of course I believe we will have set backs but I think if we stick to our "no feeding the animals" after bedtime policy, she will be on her way to sleeping soundly until morning from here on out. Yipee!!!

10 Months Old

Trying to take a step.


This has become one of Vivi's favorite hobbies, jumping on brothers trampoline!
Hey, atleast she holds on to the bar!

And trys to eat the foam handlbars...goodness.

Well our little baby girl is 10 months old! This seems like a tough one for me, because I know that one years old is just around the corner. Not that I am not excited for the party and her big milestone, but I have LOVED having a baby and I'm just not quite ready for toddlerhood. :(

Vivianna now has 6 teeth!! She probably weighs 18 pounds by now. She loves to push everything around the house on her knees...shoe boxes, cd cases, Isaac's toy cars, if it can move- she's on it! I thought she'd be walking by 10 months but she is not wanting to use those feet yet! She stands well on her own but when she wants to move forward she just falls flat to the floor. She can walk super fast behind her walkers but on her own...not so much! That is okay though. Babies crawl and I like my baby just the way she is. She talks though! She says "Daddy" and "Isaac" and "Hi" and she said "Grandpa" twice and sometimes says "eat".

She is just so beautiful...I have no problem saying that! Billy and I look at her and admire her sweet toothy smile and wavy brown hair that just won't be tamed...much like her strong personality! She is sweet and funny and fiesty. She has gotten into a bit of a grouchy phase, fussing a lot more during the day. So we hold her and fuss over her and tell her to get over herself! :)

We are transitioning her off the bottles the next 2 months. She is now taking a bottle only before bed and in the middle of the night. Her daytime feedings are all sippy cups and she is doing so well! We will phase out the night bottle as soon as she gets over her cold. Right now it is just the best way to get her back to sleep at 2 a.m.

So happy 10 months, sweet girl! We love you to pieces and all the things you do.

My Weekend

This Saturday, my dear friend Brandi came in town from Austin. We got to spend a very rare day together with NO KIDS!! Our husbands were very sweet to take over all the diapers, naps, feedings, and entertainment so we could scrapbook! My mom's favorite hobby is scrapbooking so she has set up a room in her house with literally everything you could imagine to make the cutest pages. Of course, even with all the best supplies we were a bit overwhelmed so we took a break and made the invitations for Brandi's daughter's first birthday party next month. That was fun and they were oh so cute! Thanks for coming, Brandi! We've got to plan our next scrapbook marathon!

Plan A

"Not The Mama"


Okay, how much am I loving that Isaac is back in preschool!! More time to blog! :) SO after my comical post from yesterday, I wanted to post on a little more serious topic. It is a common thing amongst adoptive moms to hear from others that "as soon as you adopt, you'll get pregnant!" Or "I'm still praying for you to get pregnant." This is something I hear every few months or so. This brings me to wonder if people see adoption as Plan B. I can tell you, we don't! We believe very strongly that this was always God's plan for us to become a family. There was never a chance we would have given birth to our first child (or second) no matter how much we tried or prayed or what dr. we went to. Wasn't going to happen. Why? Because that was not God's plan. Why does it make us sad to hear that others want us to be pregnant or worse think we still want to be pregnant? Because it takes something away from the children we have. As though they aren't truly our "own", as though the ultimate experience a woman can have is to get pregnant and give birth. I disagree. I think motherhood is a calling not a right. And however your children come to you is the best its gets. I remember like it was yesterday watching my baby girl being born and holding her. And knowing in that moment that life just doesn't get better than this. Here is my precious baby girl, the child of my heart that I had dreamed about. Here she is in real life. She is not a consolation prize. We didn't settle. We hoped, we prayed, we dreamed,we planned, we chose, and we were chosen and it came to be.

And guess what! We want to do it all over again in a few years. We want to pray for where our child might be. We want to go get them and we want to bring them home, where they were destined to be. I am not saying that pregnancy is not a blessing, or wouldn't be in our life. But it is not a hope we have, now or ever. Children are precious no matter how they come into your family. We delight over the fact that our babies have beautiful deep brown eyes, tanned skin, adorable noses. They would not have gotten that with our DNA mix! For months Vivi was covered in a fine down of black hair all over and we laughed over that hair and kissed it, our little furry baby...wondering if it would eventually go away. And Isaac has very dry skin and we lotion that skin and grease him up every morning and every night. And I delight in his soft brown skin and scratchy black hair, in his contagious laughter. I delight in these babies every single day. I am so grateful that they are mine. I feel blessed at how they came to be mine. This is as good as it gets, this side of Heaven. So to those of you who are kind enough to pray for us, and we know you have the best of intentions for our family...please pray that God would help us financially so we can afford to adopt more children. They are our heart and our future.

Desperate Housewife

I don't watch that show...but I couldn't resist that being the title to this post. I was up late once again last night on the phone with my friend who is getting married in May and we got to talking about my very dull life as a stay-at-home mom. Now those who know me know I don't like to do a whole lot of staying at home, but there are many days in the week where we don't do much. I have recently become quite obsessed with the mailman...not him personally....but the arrival of my mail. I often listen for him to drive by and rush out to get it seconds after he pulls away. What am I wanting to receive you ask? I don't know. Just something. And nothing ruins my day more than for it to be a bill and two pieces of junk mail. What a waste of a trip down the driveway in bare feet in January! grrrr... And let me tell you, when he doesn't bring the mail until after 4:0o...not good. He unknowingly gets angry eyes from me as he pulls away.

So a really good mail day for me consists of these things...The Pottery Barn Kids catalog, free samples of anything, good coupons, a personal letter from someone, somewhere...doesn't matter who, Isaac's magazines, my Adoptive Families Magazine, anything I ordered from Shutterfly, my Focus on the Family newsletter. So a couple times a month I am lucky for several of these to show up on the same day. Wahoo!!! That can keep me happy until dinner time! (Good thing lasting joy is not based on life circumstances...because as you can see my bar is set pretty low!)

Along with the coming of the mailman being a fascination for me, I am also one to look out the windows when I see anything going on out front...dogs being walked, kids playing football, trash blowing across the yard...you know really exciting things. So I was thrilled when on Monday, a man pulled up with a truck load of recycle bins to give us a second one. We are not trying to go green in the new year, as noble of a notion as that is...more that we use up too much trash and our trash bin overflows. The additional recycle bin is free so we went with that. Anyway...so he brings it and I am wanting to watch him put it on our curb (why, you ask....didn't we establish that by the title of this post), but I can't see over my van in the driveway, and it seems to be taking him awhile to unload a bin. So I proceed to stand on Billy's amp (shhh...) Then I realize the guy has stopped what he is doing and is staring at the windows of my house. I think to myself "what, buddy? Carry on" When I realize he is staring at me staring at him! So what do I do? I wave and smile and run to the kitchen embarrassed. And the thought occurs to me what if he comes to the door because he wants to know if I needed something, and then I will have to pretend I am not home because I don't open the door to strangers when Billy isn't home. But he knows I am home because he saw me staring at him!! Ahhhh!! Thank goodness he finished what he was doing and left.

At this point you must be wondering if I don't have better things I could be doing...you know like engaging my children, laundry, cleaning, cooking...the basic housewifely duties. Well of course I do!! Haven't you ever heard of procrastination? Why do you think I have this blog?

Breakfast

I have not been getting much sleep lately because Vivi wakes up about 4 times a night sick with an ear infection PLUS teething...fun times. This morning I was not in the mood for our usual battle over Vivi not wanting her oatmeal so I let her feed herself. This is the outcome of that!
Forget this spoon...I've got fingers!
Yum...thanks mom!
Of course this resulted in bath time!
And this is a battle as well because she constantly wants to stand.
Real safe there, Viv.

Here is 2007 in Review!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Happy New Year 2008!

Vivi is Rockin' in the New Year and wishing

everyone a safe and joy filled 2008!

We had dinner last night at Fridays with our friends Jen and Jay...

who as of December 1st...

ARE ENGAGED!!!

They are hoping to get married in May and

I am going to be Jen's Matron of Honor.

Congratulations Friends!

Isaac is quickly becoming very attached to Jay...literally.

"Do I have to stay up late for this celebration?"

Blowing horns and shooting poppers in the front yard.

Isaac is excited about the sparkling cider and cake that Jen and Jay brought.
And of course he had to have a curly straw!