Taste of Playing in the snow

Here is a small taste of our adventure in the snow.

First Look at December 2009 Snow

Here is some shots from our snow fall last night.... will post more later, when there is more snow...

Photo Shoot

So I'm realizing that one of the difficult things about having three kids is trying to get a good picture...of all three kids...at the same time. We've been having "photo shoots" at home to get a picture for Christmas cards.

This was from a couple days ago. I love Elizabeth and Josiah in this one, but Isaac is looking somewhere else.

Good one of Elizabeth and pretty good of Isaac, but Josiah is cheesing.

True confession: I was totally going to photoshop the pictures together like this:

But I felt like it was dishonest. AND I don't actually have Photoshop. AND my talent and time are limited, so it wasn't looking quite right. We did get a few good pictures out of the evening, though.

A cute one of Elizabeth and Josiah

David took this one of Elizabeth!

We ended up trying another time tonight and ended up with a fun shot of the three kids. I'll post it later, though, so it can be a surprise in Christmas cards. I've already sent it to the printer, so we may be walking down to get photos in a foot of snow tomorrow. hehehe. Guess that means I actually need to send the cards out this year, huh?

Some Sounds of the Season

We have been very blessed that our children have really not had many cases of the "Give-mes". They will sometimes see things in a store and ask if they can have them, but they really don't dwell on things they want. When people have asked what they want for Christmas, they don't even know what to say. Elizabeth finally said she wants a violin, but does not have anything else on her list.

However, last week we went into a store and I immediately heard, "We NEEEEEED That!" Josiah learned a new phrase...and applied it to almost everything we saw. If it were groceries or something, I would just tell him we already had it or we don't use it. If it was a toy, I would say, "You want that, you don't need it." He kept at it for a few days of errands.

Then, the other day I heard a new phrase. "Oh Mommy, I Loooove That." Guess he's trying a new tactic ;-) At least he doesn't just apply it to himself. We bought something for a friend, and he immediately said, "Oh she'll love that!"

~~~~~~

This morning Josiah was creating his own Christmas Smash-up song.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O-O with a moo moo moo and a moo moo moo
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Old MacDonald had a farm in a one horse open sleigh.

Love it!

Cat in the Hat

Elizabeth brought home The Cat in the Hat as her library book last week (Though I know we have it in the house somewhere.) But she has been so excited discovering she can read it pretty much on her own! Most of the words are her sight words, reinforcing the importance of learning them...yay! And the other words she can figure out if she focuses on the letters and chunks.

It was funny when she first started the book and read that the mother was not home. She was adamant that the children would NOT be home on their own. There must be another explanation. She decided that the mother left a big sister in charge, and the big sister was in the shower. She started reading the book a little bit at a time and took a few days off. So, almost a week after beginning the book, she finished today. Even though she hadn't mentioned it during the week, she brought up the big sister again. HA! I love her reasoning and imagination :-)

Six weeks

Isaac was six weeks old on Friday! Everyone keeps saying that he is bigger each time they see him. Some of his 0-3 month clothing is too small already. Much of it will be very soon. He's beginning to do lots new things, too.

He's finally discovering how to pacify himself with his thumb. It is a noisy prospect at first (slurp!), but then he gets it. The only problem is, weirdly enough, he is using his first finger and his thumb--just like Elizabeth did. We've seen the results of this and will be trying to curb it. I really don't mind him using his thumb by itself.

Yesterday, I got my first real smile from my sweet boy! So cute! It was a big open mouth smile. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it since. So I'm on a mission to get that smile out again...and to get a picture :-D

The night before last, while lying flat on our bed, Isaac rolled from his stomach to his back! Twice! It may just be that he was placed down with his arm in just the right position, but David and I are impressed anyway.

I keep telling this one he needs to slow down! He's growing too quickly!

SNOW!!!

It was an exciting day! Snow that stuck! And before Christmas!

The kids waited in eagerly to go out and play outside. We had to wait a bit as Daddy had some work to do. We probably waited a bit too long. The snow, though still falling, had started melting on the ground. But the kids still had fun!

Isaac had to go out in his first snow! He was definitely bundled up, and totally covered and toasty warm in his stroller.


Snowballs!

Love how you can only see his eyes :-)

Diego loves the snow! One of the downfalls of not having a real yard is we can't just send him out to play. We didn't want to let him off the leash and have to run down to SPCA to pick him up again.

My snow angels

I love these four!

Yes, I did take Isaac out of his stroller cocoon for the sake of a picture, sacrificing his nap and his warm little cheeks. He was only out for about three minutes. Yes, he did let us know he was less than thrilled about the disturbance...the whole way home. He was fine after coming inside, being de-mummified, and getting some warm milk in his belly. The rest of us were fine after curling up with some hot chocolate and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Thanksgiving Blessings

I'm coming to terms with the fact that our blog will never again be completely caught up. I do still want to use it to keep it up for our own records. But I know most of you really just come back for pictures, so I'll try to insert some throughout the text ;-)

I'm embarrassed to put this pic on the internet, but here it is anyway. :-p

Life has been busy. No surprise there! We have loved having visitors down here. We even had a weekend trip to Eastern PA to celebrate my grandparents' 50+ wedding anniversary! With all the busyness, it was a blessing to have our first ever Thanksgiving at home. We missed sharing the day with extended family, and of course all the yummy family recipes (my pumpkin swirl bread was not so swirly). But it was very nice to have a relaxing holiday at home. We slept in and prepared dinner when we were ready. I didn't even have to stress that the turkey didn't seem thawed. We just had steak instead. (We're finally cooking the huge turkey today, so if anyone has not had enough turkey leftover, stop on by!) It was a nice environment to reflect on all the blessing we have to be thankful for!

These are three of our greatest blessings!
And my husband is one of the greatest gifts I could ask for!

I actually got a picture with a good smile, so I HAD to post it ;-)

Elizabeth is growing into such a beautiful girl. Her sweet spirit constantly amazes me. We were pleased to hear her teacher's comments about her personality and behavior, but also about her academically! I don't put a whole lot of stock in Kindergarten testing, especially at the beginning of the year. It is still nice to hear that Elizabeth far exceeds the expected levels on every one of the tests they have done with her. She is so excited to be starting to read and loves learning. I hope she keeps her enjoyment of school. She is also quite the big sister! She loves holding Isaac and has been asking to change his diaper. She doesn't seem to mind that he cries. She has been getting more bossy since school has started, and I'm praying for wisdom to shape the bossy tendencies into strong leadership skills.

Getting ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner! No she did not eat the whole plateful.

Placing her first ornament of the year on the Christmas tree.

Josiah is just sprouting! He misses Elizabeth during the day, and is missing some of the special one-on-one time we had before Isaac arrived. But I am so impressed with how he is doing! He has not said anything any more negative about the baby than asking Grandma to "put that down" so they could play better. He is concerned for him, checks on him in the cradle or swing. He's also blossoming in learning. He sings his ABCs constantly, just mixing up a few of the letters. He's counting to 12 with a bit of reminding in the middle. He even surprised me by counting to six in Spanish the other day...something we haven't worked on with him. His imagination is just taking off! It's so fun to listen in when he and Elizabeth are playing together!

Such a handsome boy!

Placing his first ornament of the year on the tree

We are all blessed that Isaac has joined the family this year. I'm a bit surprised at how much we are all truly enjoying having a baby in the house :-) I do feel like I can't blink because he won't be a baby anymore! At his one month check-up last week, he weighed in at 10 lbs. 6 oz. (Up from 7lbs. 1 oz when he came home from the hospital!) and was measured at 22 3/4 inches long. We thought we were getting a quiet one in this one, but he is proving to be quite a communicator. He coos, grunts, squeals almost constantly...even while sleeping and eating. He spoils us with his head control and neck strength. He's obviously eating well and is starting to stretch out his feedings at night. There is usually one span of about 5 to six hours of solid sleep. He's going to be up and running with the others way too soon!

Just thought he was too cute in the overalls :-)

Strong man!

Happy Thanksgiving, a bit late! Thank you for all of the blessings each of you add to our lives!

Are you kidding me?

It's been four weeks already? REALLY????

Wow, yeah! Isaac is four weeks old! He is growing and changing every time I look at him. He is filling out quite nicely, and may actually be the first of our children to fit his pants. :-) We are constantly amazed at how strong and alert he is.

We are all doing well settling into our new family feel. We're just trying to keep up as the world goes zipping past, and trying to catch some sleep along the way.

Thankful for Small Moments

We've had a pretty good morning. It has been a little bit of an adjustment as we get used to our new normal with no extra help :-) Josiah has been having a bit of trouble listening this morning, partly attributed to something we call "grandparent detox" and partly because Isaac has been awake most of the morning and Josiah isn't getting the individual time he wanted with Mommy.

But we've had a couple of sweet moments this morning. Isaac started fussing a little while lying in his bassinet. Josiah ran over, climbed up on the couch so he could see him, and said, "Oh No! It's okay. Mommy coming!" It doesn't seem like much, but it's a definite step toward showing his brother affection. He didn't get frustrated, just tell me Isaac was crying, or even tell him to be quiet. He went directly to comfort his little brother.

I'm excited watching each of my children grow up and develop as people. But I'm really trying to enjoy the small moments that show who they are now.

**There will be more posts with updates and pics soon. This afternoon, though, the three kids and I are going to attempt to have fun at the park :-) **

My sweet girl

SOOO much to be thankful for right now, and always!!! Tonight I'm especially thankful for my sensitive, sweet daughter.

We had Elizabeth's first parent-teacher conference this evening. The teacher went on and on about how much of a joy Elizabeth is, and how she is such a good friend to all of the kids in the class. She gave the example that today they had a visit from a vet with a large dog. One of the boys was afraid, so he stayed off to the side. But when the vet let the kids listen to the dog's heartbeat, he wanted to join. Elizabeth went over and offered to hold his hand so he wouldn't be scared.

While we were discussing some other topics, she said that one day Elizabeth came back from Library, obviously agitated by something. The teacher couldn't remember exactly what it was, but said something about race and families coming together in all different ways.

When we came home, I asked Elizabeth about the Library thing. Was there a video or story? It took a minute for her to remember, but then she was upset. She said they watched a short video about a black girl who went to a school that had only been for white children. Some of the white children stopped coming to the school because the other little girl was there. Finally, someone said they could all go to school together. She started crying. I asked her if she was upset and why. She said she was sad because the black children and white children couldn't be friends. We talked very simply and briefly about past race relations in the U.S. I told her that I am very glad we live in this time when the laws have changed so everyone can go to school together, be friends, be family. She agreed, but stayed solemn and thoughtful for a while.

I am so thankful my daughter is sensitive to the needs and feelings of other children. We're blessed to have this beautiful girl as our firstborn!

First Sibling Pictures

Here are a couple photos of Elizabeth and Josiah and their first photos with Isaac.


This is the closest we've gotten Josiah to Isaac so far.



Elizabeth is very, very, very excited to be a big sister.



Group photo with the lion cub roaring in the middle.

Introducing...

With the time being 07:35 PM EST, Isaac Willam entered weighing at 7 lbs 9 ozs:


(More pics and details later)

Come Tomorrow...

... Demarie and David will be heading to the hospital. Will be checking in around 6:45 a.m. They have decided to induce Demarie and possibly have baby come into the world.

Please keep Demarie, baby, and the medical people in your prayers.

What a Thursday :-)

(Sorry, it's a long story ;-))

Thursday started out like most weekdays, with the extra bonus of it being Elizabeth's first school picture day! We had her clothes all laid out the night before and she was up and ready in time, so we decided to curl her hair quickly. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea. The temp outside was in the 40s and it was raining...meaning either soggy wet curls or frizzed out curls from her hood. Oh well, she enjoyed having some girly time. She even let me make her eggs for breakfast (she almost always just wants cereal for breakfast, like her Daddy.) She and David headed out the door for school and work.

I DID take some pictures before she left the house--just in case the ever so wonderful school pictures didn't come out as perfectly as they promise ;-)

As we were getting ready, I started getting a pretty bad headache. I figured it was mostly from the weather, but left me not feeling so great. Josiah was awake, so we curled up in my bed and I went back to sleep for a bit while he watched a couple episodes of Super Why on the laptop (yay Netflix!)--his current favorite show.

When I woke up, the headache was better, not totally gone, but definitely not as strong. But it had been replaced with pressure and feeling lightheaded. Normally I would have just written this off. However, at my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, there had been some protein present and my blood pressure was higher than it has been running. Not enough for major concern, but enough to keep a closer watch on it and call with anything abnormal. I needed to go in for some labwork anyway, so with David's encouragement I called the doctor to ask if I could at least come in and have my blood pressure checked while I was there for labs. We made an appointment for 2:30. David came and worked from home for a bit so I wouldn't have to take Josiah to the lab. I spent the rest of the time alternating between worrying something was wrong and calling myself a hypochondriac for having "symptoms" just because the doctor said something could be wrong.

With still feeling a bit lightheaded, David dropped me off for the lab and my appointment, came back to pick Elizabeth up from school, and drove back up to get me...and it was a very good thing he did! When the nurse read my blood pressure it had gone up a lot! She came back and read it 5 minutes later, and it was a bit lower, but still high for me. Protein was better, though. The doctor came in and said he would like me to go to the hospital for monitoring. My blood pressure was not in a dangerous zone, but with it being higher and the presence of protein, they needed to make sure it wasn't preeclamsia starting. So, David drove up and I told him we were heading to the hospital...with both kids in tow ;-)

The kids did great! They were both a bit concerned for me, especially once Josiah saw me in the gown with all the monitors hooked up. Our friend came and picked the kids up for us so they could play at her house instead of hanging out at the hospital. We ended up being in the hospital just over three hours. I had labs redrawn so we would get the results sooner. My blood pressure was changing the whole time, always staying on the high side, but everything else, including protein, was normal. Yay! I did get to watch the monitor as some mild contractions happened, and that was encouraging.

We are home, not under any restrictions, just the recommendation to rest a lot. I have another appointment on Monday. David decided he is going to work from home today, just in case ;-) And my mom is driving out today to stay until after Baby makes his appearance...hopefully he won't keep us waiting too long now!

My big plans for the day are to make sure we have a hospital bag packed and ready to go! No I did not have one ready yesterday. Yes, I was scrambling in my mind, trying to figure out what to send David home for in case they decided to induce labor. This time we'll be prepared...at least with the camera and laptop, right? ;-)

Premonition?

Tonight, as Elizabeth was heading to bed, she kissed my belly and said, "Good night, Isaac. I hope you have a nice trip out of there."

Weird!

So, today for lunch we stopped to eat a quick bite at a fast food restaurant. While we were in line, a lady came up behind Josiah and just started rubbing his hair. I didn't know who she was, but she had a face that looked like it could possibly be familiar. We were just down the road from church, so I though maybe that's how she knew us. Our kids seem to be pretty well-known there now. I knew she wasn't a regular worker with the kids, but didn't want to seem rude, so I didn't say anything. After it had seriously been several minutes, and she kept rubbing his hair, I was definitely feeling weird. She would make little comments like, "He doesn't realize it's me," and "He must think it's you." Both of which could be true. David and I both rub Josiah's hair a lot ;-) He finally looked up at the lady and didn't show any recognition, but didn't seem worried, either. He kind of shifted places, and I thought that was the end of it.

As we moved up in line (this place was seriously slow today!), Elizabeth took off the hat she was wearing, and the lady just reached up and started touching her hair, saying, "She has such beautiful hair." By this point, I decided the kids and I would just go find a seat and let David order the food.

When David finally sat down, I asked if he knew the lady. Definitely not! I asked Elizabeth, and she didn't either. Really weirded out now! I love touching my kids hair, and I guess it's kind of a compliment that this lady wanted to keep touching their hair. I even touch other kids' hair, but would never do it to a child I don't know and don't know their parents. And definitely not for several minutes! I'm not sure how I should have reacted. I definitely don't want to alarm the kids, but I don't want them to think they have to stand there and allow that from someone, particularly a stranger! Any suggestions for a response?

While we were eating, Elizabeth made a comment that everyone thinks Josiah is so cute, but not her. I thought about using that lady as an example since she did rub both their heads, but decided against it. I found some other, more acceptable, examples to remind her that people think she's pretty darn cute, too!

Apple Picking

Today was not quite a crisp fall day, but it ended up being a beautiful day for apple picking! After church we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to an orchard for their apple festival. I love this area! We can be in the city, but have farms and country life just minutes away! And how great to have a view of the city from the top of the mountain, while picking apples! The orchard was a bit more busy than we were expecting, but the kids had fun anyway. We only picked a few apples. We saw TONS of really nice ones, but they were in the roped-off sections. We figure they're saving them so they have more for the continuation of the festival next weekend. But maybe we'll get out sometime during the week to get some more apples.

Here are Josiah and Elizabeth reaching for apples. (With boosts from daddy)

Our "Little Rascal"

Posing Princess

Josiah enjoying some of the "fruits" of his labor

Princess style attacking of the apple

Taking the long walk back to the top of the mountain

What if someday?

Tomorrow marks our one year anniversary of being home together as a family! Someone told me happy famiversary, and I love that word :-) But even as I'm remembering the growth and changes from the last year, and rejoicing at how God has brought our family together, I'm thinking of another who is not home with us.

Our little Jose is not home with a forever family. The last we were told, a few months ago, was that he was still living with his foster mom. I still think about him a lot. But I'm a little more emotional today. Saturday, I read a post about Shadley remembering the referral of her sweet boy now in Jesus' arms. Then this evening, Elizabeth just walked over, took Jose's picture off the refrigerator, kissed it, and told him she loved him and is praying for him. Ouch, my heartstrings are being pulled!

How can I, even after all this time, miss a little boy I have never met? Why do I keep wishing things could have been different, even while knowing that God's plan is perfect? Please do not mistake me. I, in no way, wish that Jose was here instead of Josiah. I know that Josiah is our son and is meant to be here! So how can those thoughts work together?

Well, I start to think, "What if someday....?"

What if someday Guatemala reopened adoptions and somehow they found away to fix or change the paperwork required so Jose was adoptable again. (God has totally done crazier things before! :-D)

What if they called us and offered for us to pursue his adoption? (David and I have already discussed this, and we would do whatever it took to bring him home!)

What if someday all this actually happened, and we had "twin" boys with two different beautiful shades of brown skin? (They are only about 3 weeks apart!)

My head tells me that none of this is going to happen. But there are times when my heart likes to imagine the possibility.

One Year!!!! (cont.)

I knew that going in, our meeting story was not going to be the same as many families. We were not going to rush in and scoop him up and smother him with kisses right away. I LOVE to read those stories, but that's not something we were quite comfortable with. If Josiah had come up to us with a smile and arms open, we would have been more than happy to oblige. But we had a feeling that with him being two, and after seeing some pictures from friends who met him a few days before, we needed to let him lead somewhat. We absolutely loved him already, but felt it would be best for him if we approached it like meeting a completely unknown child for the first time.

We drove over to the (former) Bethany transition house even though it was a very short distance from the office. We walked through the outer door into a small porch area, and then into the sitting room. We saw the house mother. The t.v. was on. Then we saw our son.

He was wearing blue plaid overalls, a red polo shirt, grey socks, too small brown plastic sandals, and a heartbreaking expression on his face. He was in a strange stance where his chest kind of stuck out, his head was cocked over to the side with his chin almost on his shoulder, and his knees kind of locked back. Honestly, some of my first thoughts were, "Oh my goodness, there is something wrong with his spine! I knew something like this was a possibility, but I wish I had known ahead of time so we could be prepared. God doesn't give us anything we can't handle. Is he going to need surgery or braces? Is it because he's so weak?" I hate that those were the first thoughts upon meeting my son.

Initially, we all sat in the waiting room for a while...the four of us, the house mother, Milkiyas, and our driver Abera. Milkiyas kind of introduced him to us. We tried to interact a little bit without overwhelming Josiah and just watch him, taking it all in. Elizabeth didn't have much trouble trying to play with him. He carried around a little plastic backpack filled with lego-type blocks. He was very particular about where things needed to be placed. When he did go back to the bedroom, I followed he and Elizabeth to watch and play with him a little more. He would hand toys to me and then take them back. We had an extra copy of a photo album we had sent. So the house mom brought out his, and we talked about who was in the pictures, pointing to the picture, the people in the room, and saying the names. He did seem to recognize that we were the same people. I did pick him up a couple of times, but just for a few moments.

We only stayed about an hour for that initial meeting. He did warm up to us a little bit as we were there, but he was seldom out of his head-tilted stance. He didn't really crack a smile at all through the visit. He was the only child left in the transition house. I believe the staff would have allowed us to bring him back to the hotel with us if we had pushed for it. We didn't even know it was an option, and I really don't think any of us were ready at that point.

We took the Kladders over to Nesibu and Birtukan's home. Then we went back to the hotel. We were exhausted! Mom and Elizabeth had their own room. David and I went to our room, and I bawled. I blubbered asking him what we had done and if we could really handle this. We felt we were supposed to be open to adopting an older child, but I was thinking it would have been so much easier with an infant. David just held me. I know now that a lot of the emotions were amplified by sleep-deprived state. We both fell asleep hard...didn't even hear another family knock on our door. I woke several hours later feeling a little more rested and a lot more hopeful.

Over the next few days, we started building more of a relationship with Josiah. I'll try to post more about that. But I didn't want to leave this as such a down post. We have all changed so incredibly much in the past year! The other day, Josiah and I did a silly photo shoot to send pictures to Ethiopia for our one year update. He picked this picture over the others because it is a picture of him hugging Mommy. :-)

God knew exactly what he was doing when he allowed us to bring this child into our lives!