Park City!

Well, we decided to take a MUCH NEEDED escape to Park City over Memorial weekend.  Life has been moving at record speed and we feel like ships passing in the night most days.  We decided to leave the city for an escape without distractions, chores and work.  We thought it would be fun to shop, go downtown to a nice dinner and take Macie Faith swimming for the first time! :)  It was SO nice to get refreshed before returning to the grind!  Just what the doc' ordered!

 Macie in her new swimsuit Mommy got at the outlets

 Yeay swimming!

 Swimming with Mommy :)

 Floating on my new raft :)

 Not sure about this...

 Dinner out

Swimming=tuckered out!

This little video was taken when we were getting ready to leave :)

5 Month Update!

We are amazed at how the passage of time brings an infinite number of developments in an infant!  Just as one skill is mastered, it is quickly replaced by a new discovery.  This could not be more true for sweet Macie Faith.  She rediscovers her hands on a daily basis.  She stares and smiles as she explores her fingertips, fingernails and sucks excitedly on them.  Her foot miraculously fit in her mouth (Oh to be that flexible) and she rolls up like a roly poly! She has become mobile and often rolls out of her bouncy seat and across the floor and bed (YIKES!)  She prefers NOT to be restricted and it seems time to open the pack-n-play as mommy can no longer lie her on the bed while getting ready in the bathroom.  We have now found her sleeping soundly on her stomach and scratching her fingernails on the crib bumper.  She pats mommy during a feeding, holds mommy or daddy's hand and touches our mouths.  She delights when we make noises with her hand in our mouths like "BO BO BO or MA MA MA"  She giggles and squeals when we toss her in the air and smiles at EVERYONE!  She blows raspberries and makes little tootie sounds.  She also has begun to turn pages of her books!  This actually happened closer to 4 months of age.  She began sticking her tongue out and panting and when we talked to our daycare sitter she said her girls watch a dog on a video that pants and they walk around imitating the dog.  Macie is imitating them!  She repeats the sounds we make the same number of times that we make them and imitates us when we stick out our tongue and smile.  Folks, we think we have a genius on our hands! :)

She loves to play and talk to her animals.  She is SO social!  She will smile at doctors, smile at the lady at the grocery store and has discovered her furry sister Daisie.  She can be quite dramatic, fussing until someone comes to play with her and then smiling and giggling. 

No check-up for 5 months but we did have one at about 4.5.  She weighed 13 pounds even and was 23.5 inches long!  She moved from 20%ile in weight to 50%ile!  And the poor thing developed RSV so when we took her to the doctor she weighed 13 pounds and 6 ounces less than two weeks later!  She is growing so fast and has filled out.  She is a happy, healthy, amazing kid. 

We think we will have a sweet, smiley, bubbly little one on our hands and we wouldn't want it any other day.

Macie Faith is a perfect example of God's artistry.  We are noticing His craftsmanship in different ways.  Macie has the SAME exact folds in her inside elbow that Mommy has (one on the left, two on the right), can raise her right eyebrow like Daddy (Mommy can't do it!), has Daddy's fingernails and Mommy's toenails, and has the beginnings of dimples on her cheeks like Mommy (hoping they stay)!  Her hairline is Mommy's and she can roll and twist her tongue like only Daddy can.  Oh how we love discovering more every day!

I have continued to enjoy cuddling.  It is my all-time favorite activity of my life.  I love getting her in the morning, bringing her back to bed, nursing and snuggling and falling back asleep!  I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!!!

Here are LOTS of pictures and videos of our precious girl.  Luckily the videos are not long...Just LOVE this girl! :)

Sweet baby girl

Garden Daddy made us, can't wait to make baby food!

Ready for Daddy's softball game in jeans from Aunt Julie Pedlar Dineen

Little Blue-eyed girl

Stinker!

Glow Seahorse from Grammy that Macie LOVES

5 month photo shoot!

This is a classic Macie Faith flirty smile!

Playing with Daddy

A moment Daddy captured

Sick sick girl with RSV

Time with Daddy

LOVE

Cutie

LOVE THIS GIRL!

\

Even sick she is sooo happy!

Oooooh, Paper!

Possibly Mommy's fave' ever picture of Macie!

We tried cereal this month!  Grammy and Grampy were in town.  She LOVES it and did so great!  By the third night she was eating perfectly with a spoon!

This video is a perfect example of our sweet girl's talents.  In this one she makes tootie noises, grabs her feet, blows raspberries and talks up a storm. :)  CLASSIC MACIE FAITH.

Another video of cereal

Macie LOVES to be tossed in the air!

Walking with Daddy :)

Talking to Mommy

More Gibber Gabber

Gabbin' away

4 month update!

I'm a little behind on updating you as to what we've been up to.  We did not have a check-up at the doctor this month, but we know this little squirt is either growing or her jammies are shrinking!  I have a hard time deciding to move up to size 3-6 months or just keep putting her in her 0-3s that still fit!  No joke when I say an outfit looks too big one day and I put it on her a couple days later and it barefly fits!  Oh how I wish I could stop the hands of time...Its enough to make you wanna have another... :)  NOT YET!

My friend Vickie made me the COOLEST binder to keep track of what she does.  It has folders for storing keepsakes and calendars for each month to write down whta Macie is doing on the day she first does it.  Then later I'll easily be able to complete her album and scrapbooks. :) 


Here are a few things she is doing!

Macie can now hold anything and everything you give her.  She rolls over and often gets herself stuck on her tummy and can't get back over.  One day she even began holding her bottle.  She LOVES monkeys!  I'm not kidding!  She stares at her monkey feet on her monkey jammies, loves her monkey from the play gym, loves the musical monkey Grammy got her and loves her sock monkey from her cousin Tyler.  This was NOT something we pushed on her, she naturally loves them!  Lee loves monkeys too so we think its genetic! :) 

Daycare has helped her development.  Not only is she doing new things (that we've made our sitter NOT tell us about to let us see it for the first time ourselves), but she imitates Maliya and Macin, her little daycare friends.  Its easier to leave her there because she smiles and giggles when she arrives.  Her little personality is emerging everyday.  She is SUCH a smiley, happy girl and LOVES to talk and hear herself.  She emits anything from squeals, squeaks and screams to quiet, sweet whispers and coos.  Sometimes she simply whimpers because she wants someone to play with her.  She pants when she sees her bottle.  We love her little voice! She pulls her pacifier in and out herself.  And the list goes on and on and on... 

The best thing that happened this month was when I was holding her upright and she laid her head on my shoulder.  Not to burp or because I held her but just to cuddle.  MELT.  MY.  HEART. 

 Discovering my feet on the way to church

 I can grab my feet!

 I'm 4 months???

 I am 4 months!

 My wonderful in-laws sent me these BEAUTIFUL flowers for Mother's Day!  What a beautiful surprise!

 Macie loves the flowers too!

 Wearing my Carlsbad sweatshirt from Grandpa Tommy and Grandma Jane

 I can hold my bottle!

 First trip to Ethiopian Restaurant!  Gotta get ready for my brother! YUMMMO!

 Changing the stroller bassinet into a seat :)  Happy little girl

Hanging with Mama

12 months DTE!

I cannot believe I am writing this post.  Honestly, I expected our sweet baby boy to be home long ago. 

My intention with this blog originally was to chronicle our experiences in adoption.  It has often been my outlet for thoughts and feelings bubbling up within.  It became an avenue to share the emotions resulting from our roller coaster ride into parenthood.  For obvious reasons it quickly shifted focus.   Our sweet baby girl was born and I was forced to decide to keep only this blog, or begin another new one devoted to her, while keeping this purely for our baby boy.

I thought long and hard and ultimately decided to keep the one blog unifed by the journey to BOTH children.  You see, one child does not exist without the other.  They are BOTH PLAN A.  So...it is time to spend a few moments to reflect on this adoption journey, as our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for a year now and our "paper pregnancy" is still going strong.

 Lee and I are currently working to update our paperwork.  Yep, its time for new fingerprints, FBI background checks, updated financial paperwork and another homestudy.  Its been just long enough I've already forgotten the details involved in an adoption.  I suspect its quite similar to forgetting the labor pains we experience in childbirth.  How quickly we forget.  I think that is God's built-in protective mechanism. :)

So here we are.  12 months in and naturally I begin to reminisce on how we got this far and I see God weaving the tapestry to adoption together since I was a young girl.

In the early 1980s, Ethiopia was wrought with the worst drought in its history.  People were dying on the roadside, water was scarce and food was unavailable.  Parents died and left their orphaned children to die.  When I was about 9 years old I saw the images.  A small bloated child with sullen eyes, flys buzzing round.  It broke my little girl heart.  Our church did a "Crop Walk" to raise funds to help feed these poor children.  I cried as I lay awake nights thinking of them.  I remember telling my mom I'd like to adopt one someday.  I wrote a poem about "Hungry Ethiopian People" for my Girl Scout fair and got a ribbon.  A couple of the lines went something like this:

Hungry people are starving today

They don't even have any money to pay

Hungry people are big and they are small

They don't even have a big shopping mall

I never shook the feeling that God had something in mind for me to do for them.  I remember laying on the snowy ground on Christmas Eve when I was about 4, making snow angels and staring at a star.  I remember feeling God so strongly and knowing He had a big plan for my life.

Fast forward to 2009 when I was laid off.  I had 6 months to pour myself into reseraching adoption.  Lee was somewhat interested but didn't come on board until much later when we attend an adoption support group at our church in Colorado and he saw two precious Ethiopian boys with his own eyes.  DONE.

And you know the rest of our story.  Here we are in our second year of "The Wait."  Our paperchase journey took much longer than most and now we're stuck on a list with little movement.  In 12 months we have moved up and down on the list.  All in all we've only moved up 10 spots in this time.  Not normal.  More and more things are happening to tighten up the adoption process, including most recent developments which state that certain health issues will now make adoption more difficult or impossible.  That coupled with current court delays and US Embassy restrictions are increasing the wait tremendously. In fact, when we first turned in our paperwork the wait to referral (being matched to a child) was only 4-6 months and now it is up to 18-24.  OUCH. 

We are certainly grateful for the new Concurrent Policy our agency instituted that has allowed us to stay on the list even though we were pregnant with and had Macie Faith.  However, having her has only made the longing we feel for our little guy so much stronger.  Luckily, we are busy with the care a 4 month old requires, but that does not speed up the time to bringing home our son and having Macie Faith makes us desire to bring him home all the more. 

We have not given up.  We will fight.  We will spend more money.  We will get more fingerprints, police reports, cashier checks and allow the social worker to dissect us more.  Anything and everything to bring. him. home.

He is precious.  He is desired.  He is loved.  He is anticipated. 

And so darling son, we are here.  We wait for you as we waited for your sister, with joy, longing, and hope. 

We thought you'd be here by now...But we know God's timing is far better than ours and one day we'll look back and our family will be complete and we will know that you came just when you were supposed to.

We love you!  It has been 12 months and we'd wait 120 years more for you.  We can't wait to hold you, kiss you, and love you in person!

And as this beautiful song says...

"I never knew I could miss someone I never met..."

Oh sweet boy, how those words ring so true! 

And now sweet baby boy...this song is for you. It's Mommy's favorite EVER adoption song. And every single word of it is JUST HOW WE FEEL.

PLAY DATES!

It has been SO much fun to enjoy the other children in our small group.  W hvae loved getting our kiddos together!  I dream of the day I can attend weekly play groups! :)  Macie has a best friend named Lucie.  She is our dear friends baby and they re SOOO adorable together!  In fact, we kind of think they look like twins! :)

 Lucy and Macie

 BFFS!

 FRO YO girls birthday night...

 Gabbin' already :)

 Play group!

 Me and my girl

 Mace and Luce

 Liam LOVES lil' baby girls!

 Lucy loves to give Macie Kisses!

A few 3 month videos!