Dear Friends of the Wrights,
We all know and understand the effectiveness of the work John, Julie and family have done in Kyrgyzstan – the country they love so much and have been called to. Let’s get them there ON THE GROUND full time! We can do this.
This post is coming out with other blog posts all over the country – people who have blogs that know the Wrights. Let’s shock them with the provision of financial resources and letters/notes of encouragement to help them return to Kyrgyzstan. They want to go as full time missionaries – they just need our help to get them there.
We propose that we raise a minimum of the following:
$20,000 to cover a year’s needs on the home front
• Home expenses – the place to come back to
$30,000 to cover a year’s needs on the foreign front
• Travel in and out of the country with family 2 x a year
• Travel in the country to the different sites
• Family expenses – including the educational needs of one daughter
• Lodging and meals
This is just $50,000. We can do this and we can do it quickly. Here is how. Go to JOHN’S Blog and hit the button that is for the Wrights….support.
AND guess what – you can watch all that is done there on his blog..you will learn to live vicariously in a healthy way by reading and supporting the RIGHT cause. What an opportunity – Will you help?
Let’s do it RIGHT FOR THE WRIGHTS!
Blessings,
Lynn and Ruby from LAMb International
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Whirlwind
I know I am way overdue with a new post (that seems to be a recurrent theme on this blog) but things around this house have been total chaos lately...even more so than usual.
In late January, we celebrated Chipmunk's 5th Family Day. I still can't believe we have been his parents for over five years! It seems like just yesterday we went to the baby house to pick him up. I remember the drive from the baby home to our hotel - Stu and I were in amazement that we actually had our baby. We kept looking at each other and saying "Can you believe they just handed us a baby!?!" We were so naive and had been so focused on getting through the adoption process that we hadn't really thought about what happens once we have the baby. But Chipmunk made it so easy on us. He jumped into our arms and never looked back. Now, a short five years later, he is still our shining star. Although we are starting to encounter bouts of attitude and backtalk (isn't kindergarten a little young for that?!?!), he is the most lovable, tender-hearted little boy. While he now reads to us at bedtime, he still loves to cuddle with mommy and daddy and smothers us with kisses and hugs daily.
We usually don't go overboard on Family Day but decided to let Chipmunk choose what he wanted to do special on that day. He mentioned going to a hotel (the boys think that staying at a hotel is the best thing ever!). So we decided to take the short journey to Nashville to hook up HotDog and Ellie for the first time since they both left the orphanage. While there, we were also going to meet up with this family who has a son from Russia and a daughter from Kyrgyzstan, as well as another family with an adorable little boy from Kyrg and a beautiful daughter from China.
What a fun-filled weekend! We thought that disaster was near when we checked into the hotel and found that the pool was closed due to renovation. The pool was the main reason the boys wanted to stay at a hotel. But tragedy was averted when the hero (Stu) was able to secure passes for the family to go to a pool at the hotel next-door. On Saturday morning, all of the families met up at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and to get to know each other. So fun! We had a big crew (17 people??) and separated into boys and girls tables. I don’t know about the boys (whom I am assuming talked sports the entire time), but the girls had great food and conversation. Besides being absolutely adorable, the Kyrgyz girls have something else in common: they all love to eat! Ellie was eating everything in sight and HD literally shrieked at the waitress when she tried to remove my plate of French toast. A. was forward-thinking enough to bring some play-do to keep the boys busy (including her handsome little boy, also adopted from Russia – Chipmunk and Monkey thought that fact was really cool). She also made the most darling shirts for all of our Kyrgyz cuties! She is so talented and if you are ever looking for an adorable customized shirt for your little one check out her online store: With Sugar on Top .We have two of her shirts and they are my favorite things in HD's closet (which is saying a lot). We get so many compliments every time she wears them.
We followed breakfast with a trip to a children’s museum. It was wonderful with so many hands-on exhibits that were geared towards kids of all ages. I didn’t think that I would be able to tear Monkey away from train tracks at the front of the place; he was mesmerized. The big kids immediately went to explore the bigger exhibits while Maria and I hunkered down on the first floor play area with the smaller kids. It was neat to see how well all of the bigger kids played together. My boys are still talking about C., their “friend from Russia”. And HD and Ellie had such a fun time crawling all over Kevin. He was the human jungle-gym for much of the afternoon! Most of the time I just sat back and watched all of our children interact with each other and constantly thought about how blessed we all are. It was a beautiful sight.
By mid-afternoon, the families started to say our good-byes with promises to meet up again sometime in spring/summer (hint, hint Rachel!). We had such a great time getting to know the other families and I think it is such an important connection for the children to know others with similar backgrounds/stories. We stayed at the museum for a bit longer so I could go and explore with the boys for awhile and then we headed back to the hotel for more swimming.
Later that night we went out for pizza and icecream with Maria and family. It was hilarious to watch our two little girls scarf down big scoops of ice cream!
As we headed back home on Sunday we decided to stop for lunch at the Rainforest Café. I thought the boys would love it! I was half right. Chipmunk was amazed and wanted to walk around the entire time, taking in all of the details. I didn’t even think about Monkey’s fear of thunderstorms however. About 15 minutes after we were seated, we experienced the first roll of thunder (there are “thunderstorms” in the restaurant every 30 minutes or something) and his head didn’t leave my lap for the rest of the time. He ended up eating his entire meal with one hand covering his ear. Three weeks later he is still talking about the restaurant with the thunder and how much he never wants to go back there.
After our return home, Stu traveled to California for the week (for work) and I was anxiously awaiting a trip up to Cincinnati the following weekend to meet up with John Wright and friends. We met John and his family while in Kyrgyzstan on our first trip and were so inspired by the work they are doing. Honestly he is one of the most amazing people we have ever met and the love and support he is offering to the needy in Kyrgyzstan is simply incredible. You can check out his work at: iam1ru.
However, by Tuesday it was evident that Mother Nature had different ideas. Our area was hit hard by an ice storm. I can handle snow and actually enjoy it most of the time. But ice is an entirely different story….especially when I’m stranded at the house by myself (which is in the middle of nowhere) with three young children. By Tuesday night the temperature was dropping and our electricity went out (like almost everyone else in our entire county). Luckily one of my cousins came and picked us up on Wednesday and I was able to ride out the rest of the storm with family. I had contemplated trying to stay at home and just bundle the kids in extra layers. It’s a good thing I didn’t because we didn’t get electricity back for 6 days! It was the worst disaster our area has ever seen and we are still trying to get back to normal after it. Needless to say, there was no way I could make it to Cincinnati and am still disappointed I wasn’t able to see John and friends again.
I was hoping that things would start to settle down once we got back into our house, but of course it didn’t work that way. HD had been fighting a cold and just not acting like her normal self. I chalked it up to being away from home for such a long time. By mid-week I heard the dreaded wheezing in her chest. A trip to the pediatrician confirmed that our poor baby had RSV. Ugghh. Poor girl seems like she is always battling a cold or bronchitis or a sinus infection. We tried to ride it out but she progressively got worse so we started the breathing treatments. Not only does she fight us every time we put the mask up to her face, the treatments make her super-hyper. Thankfully she started to respond and after about a week was starting to act like herself again.
Since then we have celebrated Valentine’s Day and HD’s baptism, both of which were a lot of fun. But add in Chipmunk’s weekly basketball practice/games, Monkey’s ear infections, along with just daily life, and I am exhausted. I’m hoping things will slow down for a little while and we can catch our breath before the fun begins again in late March with HD’s birthday/Chipmunk’s tonsillectomy/spring break/Easter.
Despite the chaos, things are fabulous. HD’s personality shines through more and more each day. She has always been very calm and content and slow to smile. Now she has turned into the smiliest little girl ever. She greets us each morning with a huge smile on her face and it doesn’t leave her face all day. She is actually initiating games with us too. She loves to play pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo (where she covers her ears instead of her eyes…too cute). She just started signing to us too. She definitely signs for "more" and just this morning did the sign for "bite". She is eating anything and everything we put in front of her and prefers table food to baby food now. She finally cut her first tooth and I think another one might be following soon! It seems like overnight she is losing much of her “babyness” and turning into a toddler. I can’t believe we’ll be celebrating her first birthday next month!
On to the pictures of cuteness. I didn't seem to take too many pictures of our fun Nashville weekend so you can check out A's blog and Maria's blog for more.
HD and Ellie (I have no idea what they are both looking at)
The Kyrgyz Cuties
Sweet A. was worried that Ellie was going to miss the fun!
Ellie and HD look a little confused why we keep putting them together!
Adorable Russian boys (who found it impossible to stand still for one picture)
HD flirting with herself in the mirror
My silly girl, playing peek-a-boo
Hanging out with the cousins during the ice storm
The view from my back door during the ice storm. That is not snow on the trees; it is all ice. Yikes!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Holiday Hangover
I know it's been awhile but I am just now catching my breath. I've been trying to get the boys back into the school routine and find room for all of the new toys (oh.my.goodness...the amount of toys these boys have is absurd! I've been doing some big-time weeding of old/broken toys while they are at school or asleep.) But I digress.. We had a fantastic holiday. We were lucky enough to have our family Christmas parties spread over several days. It makes for such a nicer holiday when we don't have to dash from one place to another in a span of 24-hours. We can actually sit back and have conversations, let the kids play with their toys, and stuff ourselves full of food again and again. It was really beneficial to HotDog too. She tends to be shy and clingy when introduced to a new place or a big group of people. After she feels more comfortable she'll get down and explore and interact with others (besides Stu or myself). We had plenty of time at each party to keep her close until she decided she was ready to join the festivities. Most of our extended family met HD at Thanksgiving or maybe a time or two elsewhere, but not for a length of time where she showed her cute little personality. I think everyone was able to see our happy, smiley, sweet, lovable little girl. The boys were a blast. They are at such a fun age for the magic of Christmas - enjoying Christmas light displays, leaving cookies and milk for Santa, wrapping presents, and, of course, unwrapping presents. I think they were both thrilled with what they received from Santa - a new train (or two) for my little train-obsessed Monkey, and a handheld Le*apster for my brainiac Chipmunk. They've both played with them non-stop since then. Santa brought HotDog an activity table, which she loves! This girl is a huge fan of anything with bright lights and loud sounds (much to my chagrin). She had more fun with the wrapping paper and bows than anything else though. As long as she had a bow to play, she was a happy girl.
I sat back in amazement all day that I was finally able to celebrate Christmas with our daughter. I just wanted to pinch myself as I watched my three kids laughing and playing. It was the best Christmas ever!
Last week, HD had her nine-month check-up. She's doing great. Our little girl is a whopping 22-pounds and 28.5 inches long! She's growing like a weed; we call her our little chunk of love. The doctor was thrilled with her progress. Developmentally she is doing exactly what she is supposed to be doing, which evidently includes clinging to me constantly and screaming when anyone else tries to hold her. I know this is huge step attachment-wise, but boy-oh-boy am I exhausted! Not only does she want me with her 24 hours a day (which I usually am), she wants to be held or sitting in my lap. She is pretty much velcroed to me all day long. That doesn't make it easy to get very much accomplished during the day. Right now I'm following her lead and spending all of my time on the floor interacting with her. Soon I'm going to have to put her in the Ergo carrier and start tackling some housework, otherwise the dust bunnies may very well overtake our house.
Her personality has really come alive lately. She is initiating games with the boys - peek-a-boo is a favorite of hers. She has started dancing (more like bouncing up and down) when she hears music. And baby girl has finally found her voice. She has never been very vocal but over the past few days she's beginning to understand that big sounds can come out of her little body. She's shrieking, babbling and trying to imitate the sounds I make. Last night she started saying "uh-oh" when she falls down. It is SO cute! She loves to wave hi and bye to anyone as they enter/leave the room. But she doesn't move her whole arm, just waggles her fingers up and down. So sweet. I'm just amazed at how quickly she is developing. She is losing many aspects of being a baby and is quickly approaching toddlerhood. She is crawling as fast as lightening but much prefers to pull up on furniture and cruise around. She can stand on her own for a few second now too. I'm really not encouraging steps or walking but I don't think it's too much further away.
We have our first post-placement visit for her next week. I can't wait for our social worker to see how much she's changed in just a few short months (she met her the first week home when she was conducting Monkey's final post-placement).
I will try to stay more up-to-date on this blog but the coming month is very busy. We'll be celebrating Sawyer's Family Day next week - I can't believe we've been his parents for almost five years! We're heading to Nashville for the weekend to meet up with some other Kyrgyz/Russia families, one of which was HD's friends in the orphanage. I cannot wait to see these two girls together again and see if there is any recognition between the two of them. The next week I'm hoping to head to Cincinnati to meet up with some wonderful people we met while in Kyrgyzstan. Chipmunk has started basketball season so we have practice during the week and games on the weekend. And Stu is heading to California for work. Boy, I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.
A very tired Daddy and HD on Christmas Eve
The only (somewhat) good picture of the kids on Christmas morning
HD with her favorite present...wrapping paper
Santa's little helpers (HD, Chipmunk, Monkey and our niece)
A picture of mommy and HD, taken by Monkey on his new camera
Smiley girl at our New Years Eve party
Our happy girl
I sat back in amazement all day that I was finally able to celebrate Christmas with our daughter. I just wanted to pinch myself as I watched my three kids laughing and playing. It was the best Christmas ever!
Last week, HD had her nine-month check-up. She's doing great. Our little girl is a whopping 22-pounds and 28.5 inches long! She's growing like a weed; we call her our little chunk of love. The doctor was thrilled with her progress. Developmentally she is doing exactly what she is supposed to be doing, which evidently includes clinging to me constantly and screaming when anyone else tries to hold her. I know this is huge step attachment-wise, but boy-oh-boy am I exhausted! Not only does she want me with her 24 hours a day (which I usually am), she wants to be held or sitting in my lap. She is pretty much velcroed to me all day long. That doesn't make it easy to get very much accomplished during the day. Right now I'm following her lead and spending all of my time on the floor interacting with her. Soon I'm going to have to put her in the Ergo carrier and start tackling some housework, otherwise the dust bunnies may very well overtake our house.
Her personality has really come alive lately. She is initiating games with the boys - peek-a-boo is a favorite of hers. She has started dancing (more like bouncing up and down) when she hears music. And baby girl has finally found her voice. She has never been very vocal but over the past few days she's beginning to understand that big sounds can come out of her little body. She's shrieking, babbling and trying to imitate the sounds I make. Last night she started saying "uh-oh" when she falls down. It is SO cute! She loves to wave hi and bye to anyone as they enter/leave the room. But she doesn't move her whole arm, just waggles her fingers up and down. So sweet. I'm just amazed at how quickly she is developing. She is losing many aspects of being a baby and is quickly approaching toddlerhood. She is crawling as fast as lightening but much prefers to pull up on furniture and cruise around. She can stand on her own for a few second now too. I'm really not encouraging steps or walking but I don't think it's too much further away.
We have our first post-placement visit for her next week. I can't wait for our social worker to see how much she's changed in just a few short months (she met her the first week home when she was conducting Monkey's final post-placement).
I will try to stay more up-to-date on this blog but the coming month is very busy. We'll be celebrating Sawyer's Family Day next week - I can't believe we've been his parents for almost five years! We're heading to Nashville for the weekend to meet up with some other Kyrgyz/Russia families, one of which was HD's friends in the orphanage. I cannot wait to see these two girls together again and see if there is any recognition between the two of them. The next week I'm hoping to head to Cincinnati to meet up with some wonderful people we met while in Kyrgyzstan. Chipmunk has started basketball season so we have practice during the week and games on the weekend. And Stu is heading to California for work. Boy, I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.
A very tired Daddy and HD on Christmas Eve
The only (somewhat) good picture of the kids on Christmas morning
HD with her favorite present...wrapping paper
Santa's little helpers (HD, Chipmunk, Monkey and our niece)
A picture of mommy and HD, taken by Monkey on his new camera
Smiley girl at our New Years Eve party
Our happy girl
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Snow Day!
We received a phone call early this morning (at 5:20 a.m....uggh) announcing school was closed. A quick peek outside revealed about five inches of snow on the ground. The boys were so happy, and I was excited since Stu was snowed in with us. Yahoo!! Stu and the boys quickly bundled up and ended up playing out in the snow for about three hours. I think Stu might have had more fun than the boys did, sledding down the hills and throwing snowballs. I decided to put HotDog in her snowsuit and let her experience her first snow. It took about ten minutes to get her suited up but she looked adorable. As for her feelings about the snow:
It started out great
And quickly went downhill.
She lasted about five minutes and we headed back in and warmed up with hot chocolate (and warm formula for her). It worked out great; the girls stayed cozy inside and watched the boys playing their little hearts out.
I should have known they would be exhausted but silly mommy tried to take photos for the Christmas card last night. You can imagine how it turned out:
I'm tempted to just send this out for a laugh. I'm driving myself crazy trying to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time, much less all smile. I'll give it one more attempt and then I'm finished.
Anyway, I'll wrap it up with a couple of cute pictures. I can't believe my baby turned nine months old today! She's is growing such much right before our eyes. And it's amazing to think that she's been home with us for two months; it really does feel like she's been here forever. I'm trying to savour every single second with my family because time really does fly.....
It started out great
And quickly went downhill.
She lasted about five minutes and we headed back in and warmed up with hot chocolate (and warm formula for her). It worked out great; the girls stayed cozy inside and watched the boys playing their little hearts out.
I should have known they would be exhausted but silly mommy tried to take photos for the Christmas card last night. You can imagine how it turned out:
I'm tempted to just send this out for a laugh. I'm driving myself crazy trying to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time, much less all smile. I'll give it one more attempt and then I'm finished.
Anyway, I'll wrap it up with a couple of cute pictures. I can't believe my baby turned nine months old today! She's is growing such much right before our eyes. And it's amazing to think that she's been home with us for two months; it really does feel like she's been here forever. I'm trying to savour every single second with my family because time really does fly.....
Monday, December 8, 2008
I Think We're In Trouble...
This is what she was doing when I left her room:
This is what she was doing when I came back a minute later:
And this is the look I got when she saw me peeking in her doorway:
Yes. She is pretty much completely mobile now. Her crawling is improving daily and she now prefers to crawl rather than roll. Her favorite spot to crawl: the Christmas tree, of course. The second you put her down, she inches her way to see how many shiny ornaments she can pull and how many presents she can unwrap. Suddenly, keeping my eye on HD has become a full-time job (hence the lack of blog posts lately). It is quite amazing to watch her development explode on a daily basis. Every day brings new discovery and successes for our sweet baby girl. Another skill she has developed is the ability to pick up the snack puffs (the kind that dissolve almost instantly) and feed herself. Of course, only about 4 out of 10 reach her mouth, but she is so proud when she does manage to eat one; and this gives us a few minutes of peace while we shovel food quickly down our throats. You see, our girl has decided that it is absolutely unacceptable for someone else to eat in her presence unless she, too, is being fed. It has been two months now (wow...two months already), but Stu and I are finally able to eat a meal together again. It's the little things that make me happy! It will be nice when HD has some teeth (none in sight at this point) and can eat a variety of finger foods. She's also started to interact with her big brothers, making Chipmunk and Monkey very happy. She loves sitting on the floor in the middle of their madness. They play peek-a-book with her and she laughs hysterically. They tickle her feet and she laughs hysterically. They make goofy faces and she laughs hysterically. Are you seeing a pattern here? Yes, she is definitely enjoying the entertainment my two silly boys provide. I, too, am enjoying it as it allows me to get a few things accomplished around the house. My family seems to be falling into a nice comfortable place. I am sure as soon as I say this, it will all fall apart tomorrow. But I'll take it while I can. Soon enough the boys will be out of school for Christmas break (for 3 weeks I think) and my schedule will go to hell in a handbasket.
Other than that, not much new to report. We are gearing up for Christmas. We enjoyed our town's annual Christmas parade last week, made ornaments at the library, and did the obligatory visit with Santa this weekend. We tried to do it several weeks ago while we were at the mall but the boys refused to talk with Santa that day. They knew they had been naughty that day and they were scared to death of what Santa would say:) This time, Chipmunk went right up to him and had a nice chat. Monkey, on the other hand, would absolutely not get anywhere near him. He stood behind me the entire time and only came out at the very end after Chipmunk said Santa wouldn't know what to bring him. So my dear Chipmunk took his brother by the hand and walked up there with him so he wouldn't be scared. Such rare moments of sweetness take my breath away and help me carry on during the daily struggles between the two.
It is definitely going to be a Merry Christmas for our family.
This is what she was doing when I came back a minute later:
And this is the look I got when she saw me peeking in her doorway:
Yes. She is pretty much completely mobile now. Her crawling is improving daily and she now prefers to crawl rather than roll. Her favorite spot to crawl: the Christmas tree, of course. The second you put her down, she inches her way to see how many shiny ornaments she can pull and how many presents she can unwrap. Suddenly, keeping my eye on HD has become a full-time job (hence the lack of blog posts lately). It is quite amazing to watch her development explode on a daily basis. Every day brings new discovery and successes for our sweet baby girl. Another skill she has developed is the ability to pick up the snack puffs (the kind that dissolve almost instantly) and feed herself. Of course, only about 4 out of 10 reach her mouth, but she is so proud when she does manage to eat one; and this gives us a few minutes of peace while we shovel food quickly down our throats. You see, our girl has decided that it is absolutely unacceptable for someone else to eat in her presence unless she, too, is being fed. It has been two months now (wow...two months already), but Stu and I are finally able to eat a meal together again. It's the little things that make me happy! It will be nice when HD has some teeth (none in sight at this point) and can eat a variety of finger foods. She's also started to interact with her big brothers, making Chipmunk and Monkey very happy. She loves sitting on the floor in the middle of their madness. They play peek-a-book with her and she laughs hysterically. They tickle her feet and she laughs hysterically. They make goofy faces and she laughs hysterically. Are you seeing a pattern here? Yes, she is definitely enjoying the entertainment my two silly boys provide. I, too, am enjoying it as it allows me to get a few things accomplished around the house. My family seems to be falling into a nice comfortable place. I am sure as soon as I say this, it will all fall apart tomorrow. But I'll take it while I can. Soon enough the boys will be out of school for Christmas break (for 3 weeks I think) and my schedule will go to hell in a handbasket.
Other than that, not much new to report. We are gearing up for Christmas. We enjoyed our town's annual Christmas parade last week, made ornaments at the library, and did the obligatory visit with Santa this weekend. We tried to do it several weeks ago while we were at the mall but the boys refused to talk with Santa that day. They knew they had been naughty that day and they were scared to death of what Santa would say:) This time, Chipmunk went right up to him and had a nice chat. Monkey, on the other hand, would absolutely not get anywhere near him. He stood behind me the entire time and only came out at the very end after Chipmunk said Santa wouldn't know what to bring him. So my dear Chipmunk took his brother by the hand and walked up there with him so he wouldn't be scared. Such rare moments of sweetness take my breath away and help me carry on during the daily struggles between the two.
It is definitely going to be a Merry Christmas for our family.
Friday, November 21, 2008
These Are the Days
I wanted to do a quick post as today is Monkey's "Family Day". Three years ago, Stu and I were in a Russian courtroom and legally became Monkey's parents. What an amazing day that was. We picked him up later that night and life has never been the same. Monkey was described by his caregivers as "spirited". And is he ever! I have never seen a little boy so full of energy and smiles. He is truly one of the happiest kids I've ever seen. He never slows down from the moment he wakes up and keeps us on our toes. But he always has a smile on his face or a hug to share. We are so blessed to call him our son.
Amazingly enough, I was looking through some old papers (still on my organizing kick!) and I discovered that today is also the day that we received the referral call for Chipmunk. I can't believe I never realized it before. It is incredible to think that this time five years ago we were just beginning our journey to parenthood; now we have three beautiful children to love. Life truly is amazing.
HotDog is doing great, as always. One big development: She started crawling a few days ago! I was really, really hoping she would wait until after the Christmas tree came down, but there is no stopping this girl. I think she just wants to keep up with her big brothers. She definitely wants to be in the middle of all the action. She doesn't do the traditional crawl or army crawl for that matter. She gets on her elbows, straightens her back legs so her butt is straight up in the air, and then juts forward. We call her our little Inchworm. It's slow-going right now as she has to think about every movement, but she can get across the room if she wants too. And I don't think it will be too much longer before she can wiggle her way in an instant. Guess it's time to start getting my baby-proofing gear back out.
I wanted to add a few pictures too. The first is a picture of Monkey as we picked him up at the orphanage. The next is Monkey today. Can you just see the gleam in his eye?!
Next of course is HD. Is it possible for those cheeks to get any bigger?
And finally, a good family picture taken a couple of weeks or so ago. I think it's the first time where we are all looking at the camera at the same time.
Amazingly enough, I was looking through some old papers (still on my organizing kick!) and I discovered that today is also the day that we received the referral call for Chipmunk. I can't believe I never realized it before. It is incredible to think that this time five years ago we were just beginning our journey to parenthood; now we have three beautiful children to love. Life truly is amazing.
HotDog is doing great, as always. One big development: She started crawling a few days ago! I was really, really hoping she would wait until after the Christmas tree came down, but there is no stopping this girl. I think she just wants to keep up with her big brothers. She definitely wants to be in the middle of all the action. She doesn't do the traditional crawl or army crawl for that matter. She gets on her elbows, straightens her back legs so her butt is straight up in the air, and then juts forward. We call her our little Inchworm. It's slow-going right now as she has to think about every movement, but she can get across the room if she wants too. And I don't think it will be too much longer before she can wiggle her way in an instant. Guess it's time to start getting my baby-proofing gear back out.
I wanted to add a few pictures too. The first is a picture of Monkey as we picked him up at the orphanage. The next is Monkey today. Can you just see the gleam in his eye?!
Next of course is HD. Is it possible for those cheeks to get any bigger?
And finally, a good family picture taken a couple of weeks or so ago. I think it's the first time where we are all looking at the camera at the same time.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Catching Up
Somehow I found a few minutes to do a quick update. Things are great here but I am finding it so difficult to finish any task that takes more than five minutes. Chasing three kids around is a lot of work! So many people warned me that the transition from two children to three was much harder than from one child to two. I was terrified of this, as I had such a difficult time when we added Monkey to our family. However, I’m finding the transition from two to three to be quite easy; due in part to the good-nature of HotDog, I’m sure. If anything, the addition of another child has had a really positive impact on me. I used to be happy in a household of organized chaos. No more. I am currently in the process of organizing everything in our house. I don’t have the time to hunt and search for every little thing. I need to know exactly where everything is; this is essential as I can tell one of the boys what I need and where it is if I’m busy with Little Miss. I’ve also learned the benefits of planning ahead and following a schedule. No more spur of the moment trips to the grocery to pick up a few things I forgot. It’s too difficult to drag all three kids anywhere, especially now that it’s getting cold outside. I’ve started making a detailed list of what I need and if I forget something then it waits until the next run to the store. We are currently in the process of moving Monkey to his own room (he is currently sharing a room with Chipmunk). This is forcing me to finally clear out the guest bedroom/junk room and I’m getting rid of a ton of stuff that we haven’t used in years. It is such a great feeling to drop a big load off at Goodwill or a consignment store.
Last week was our big appointment with the IA doctor and HD did great. She is either on target or ahead of where she is supposed to be in every single area they tested. The doctors were all very impressed with her development and completely charmed with her big smiles and giggles. All of the tests have been negative so far (which is a good thing) although we are still waiting on a few results. The blood draw wasn’t fun but she was a trooper. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get enough the first time around so we had to return a few days later for another blood draw. She was not a happy camper; thank goodness we are finished with that part of it. We did find out that she has gained some weight too. She weighs a whopping 19.5 pounds at seven months old. Such a big girl!
Also, we received HD’s certificate of citizenship this week (it just took three weeks - that must be a record for the federal government) so we now get her a social security number. That should be the last of the important paperwork we need to complete…until the post-placement reports begin in a few months.
So now that the big round of medical appointments is over, I’m hoping that I’ll have time to catch my breath. Of course, the calendar looks pretty busy over the next six weeks: Chipmunk’s birthday is today…Happy 6th Birthday!! Monkey’s “Family Day” (Stu abhors the term Gotcha Day so we call the day we picked up Monkey “Family Day”) is next week, followed by Thanksgiving, then my birthday and Christmas festivities begin.
But this is my absolute favorite time of the year and we are so thankful that HD is home with us to celebrate the holidays. I wouldn’t trade this time for all of the sleep in the world.
Off to celebrate Chipmunk’s big day now. I don’t think there is anything sweeter than experiencing the excitement and joy of a birthday through your child’s eyes.
Life is good…..
My birthday boy
Brotherly Love
A picture is worth a thousand words
Last week was our big appointment with the IA doctor and HD did great. She is either on target or ahead of where she is supposed to be in every single area they tested. The doctors were all very impressed with her development and completely charmed with her big smiles and giggles. All of the tests have been negative so far (which is a good thing) although we are still waiting on a few results. The blood draw wasn’t fun but she was a trooper. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get enough the first time around so we had to return a few days later for another blood draw. She was not a happy camper; thank goodness we are finished with that part of it. We did find out that she has gained some weight too. She weighs a whopping 19.5 pounds at seven months old. Such a big girl!
Also, we received HD’s certificate of citizenship this week (it just took three weeks - that must be a record for the federal government) so we now get her a social security number. That should be the last of the important paperwork we need to complete…until the post-placement reports begin in a few months.
So now that the big round of medical appointments is over, I’m hoping that I’ll have time to catch my breath. Of course, the calendar looks pretty busy over the next six weeks: Chipmunk’s birthday is today…Happy 6th Birthday!! Monkey’s “Family Day” (Stu abhors the term Gotcha Day so we call the day we picked up Monkey “Family Day”) is next week, followed by Thanksgiving, then my birthday and Christmas festivities begin.
But this is my absolute favorite time of the year and we are so thankful that HD is home with us to celebrate the holidays. I wouldn’t trade this time for all of the sleep in the world.
Off to celebrate Chipmunk’s big day now. I don’t think there is anything sweeter than experiencing the excitement and joy of a birthday through your child’s eyes.
Life is good…..
My birthday boy
Brotherly Love
A picture is worth a thousand words
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