25 May 2011

Thunderstorms? Not As Fun With Kids.

It's been thundering, lightning and raining out off and on all night. It started right after I put Addi to bed and it got really bad while I was putting Makayla to bed. Adam got all kinds of stuff ready for us in case we had to go downstairs. He set up the Pack N Play and made the bed (it's kind of our 'extra bedroom'). We have tons of food down there and our coats are down there, too. Thankfully, things haven't gotten bad enough for us to actually have to go down there.

So, we've been really busy around here lately. I guess we kinda always are, though. And I never seem to have enough time to write about it.

Today, Makayla is 3 years and 5 months old. Addison turned 11 months old two days ago. I can't believe how fast time is moving and how quickly my girls are growing up. They are so precious.

Makayla is still as hilarious as ever. Her new thing is to dance all the time. Seriously. All. the. time. And it is so stinking precious. She keeps saying she wants to take 'ballerina classes'. Gah! We'll be signing her up soon. Girl's got some skillz!!!

Also, she is SO excited to start preschool in September. She talks about how she's going to preschool all the time! I think she wants to go now, but it's summer, so we have to wait. :)

There was a week (a month or so ago) where every time we would go somewhere, Makayla would say, 'You and Daddy are going to drop me and Addi off at Grandma's house and then you are going to go to Ethiopia to get our baby!! Right?' Oh, melt my heart!!!

Almost daily she says, 'We are going to get our Africa baby and our Ethiopia boy!' Yeah, I think she thinks we'll be bringing two children home. I keep telling her it's just one, but that concept is slightly difficult to teach to a three year old, no matter how intelligent she is. We're working on telling her we're only getting one new baby, though. :) She loves to draw pictures of Africa. Like, loves LOVES. And she always draws a heart over Ethiopia. She's quite good, too!

She also says, 'That's really funny! HAHAHAHA!!' in the cutest voice you'll ever hear. Oh man, she is precious.

And if you're laughing at something, she'll start cracking up, too. Even if she has no idea what you're laughing at. I love it.

Addison is as cool as ever.

Every day when Adam comes home from work, she crawls to the door as fast as she can. At the same time, Makayla is running to the door. We have quite the welcoming committee for Daddy around these parts.

She pulls herself up to her knees and then quits.

She just started eating real bonafide people food yesterday! Wahoo!!! We're working on getting rid of the baby food. She's been batting the spoon away for quite a while now, but I've tried solids in the past and she just was not a fan, so I would stop for a while. But, she's golden now. She ate peas and carrots yesterday with no problem. I'm excited!

She still gets up once a night in the middle of the night, but it's cool. As long as I go to bed early enough, it's not a big deal. :D

She is very, very curious and loves to get into everything. Gotta stay on top of this one!

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My mom, the girls and I went to Pennsylvania on Mother's Day. It was a pretty nice ride out there. It was kinda funny though because the day before that, my mom and I were talking about what a great baby Addison is and how she doesn't cry in the car, etc. Well, she cried a lot. She only slept for 45 minutes the entire day and that night was horrific. But, we worked through it and my girls (and me!!) are learning to be much more flexible. Makayla slept on a mattress on the floor in my mom's room at my aunt's house. She did really well...once she finally fell asleep. But getting to that point was hard. Being in a new place is always difficult, no matter how old you are, though. And that was the first time M stayed anywhere in a big girl bed. She did really great!!

We had a good time in PA. Monday afternoon, my grandma fell and broke her shoulder, though. That was a serious bummer. :( By the time we left, she was in much better spirits and seemed to be healing well, so that's good! We left there on the 14th and the ride home was MUCH better.

Let me back up a second...
Adam and I celebrated six years of marriage on May 7th!! SIX YEARS. I can't believe it! We went to an Ethiopian restaurant and it was AWESOME. Some of the best food I have ever eaten. It was an amazing experience. We had a gorgeous waitress and she kept repeating everything I asked her to repeat. Don't worry, we told her we're adopting so she didn't think I was a total nutcase. HA! We did the coffee ceremony and it was hard for me to take five sips of coffee, but I did it! I'm gonna have to get used to it because when you're in Ethiopia, if you're invited into someone's house, it's rude to leave before drinking three cups of coffee. THREE. Good thing they're tiny cups! I'm working on my love of coffee...slowly, but surely!

So, that night was amazing. Adam and I were both in awe the whole time we were there and it made me want to go to Ethiopia RIGHT NOW. Walking into the restaurant was like being transported there. It was wonderful. My heart aches for that country and those people. I love them all and I yearn for our baby. You might think I'm crazy, but that's alright. I don't really want to be sane. I love Jesus and people think I'm crazy for that, so what's a little more crazy, am I right??

Ummmmm, I guess that's about it. Adam and I got our adoption physicals done. We're waiting on our exam papers and our letters to be finished, though. I have a feeling it's going to take them a while, so I'm glad I did it now.

We are making some serious progress in the paper chase, too! I sent our Power of Attorney and Dossier Cover Sheet in to get state authenticated yesterday. The day before that, I got them county certified. I'm just hoping the state will authenticate our dossier cover sheet. If they don't, we'll have to get every paper in our dossier state authenticated and at $5 per paper, that's gonna get really expensive, so please pray that they'll authenticate it!! <3

I'm working on getting our letters of reference letters, too. We need four for our home study and three for our dossier, so I've been asking Adam to call everyone so they do it as soon as possible.

Hopefully, I can make appointments for our background checks soon! We're meeting with our home study agency on Friday for our orientation meeting and I'm totally excited about that!!

I finished reading There Is No Me Without You today. It was really good and informative. That book makes my heart ache for Ethiopia even more, too. There is nothing that can tear me away from this country. Nothing. I'm in love.

Speaking of being in love with Ethiopia, we got to meet a missionary that's from ET!! He was speaking at Adam's mom's church this past Sunday, so we went to hear him speak. We also announced at their church that we're adopting! But the missionary was awesome. Him and his family is so precious and within minutes of meeting us, they told us that any time we are in ET, we are welcome to stay at their house!! How amazingly awesome is that?! What a blessing. They'll be in the states until their third daughter is born and the due date is Addison's birthday! We're planning on getting together with them and chatting some more about the country, their lives, everything. Love it!

So yeah, that's all for now. Was that enough to tide you over for a while? Smooches!

2 comments:

Heart n Soul said...

So very cool .... so many exciting things happening for you. God is already in your future :)

Janet Christine said...

That's awesome! Once your heart is broken for another country you will never, ever be the same. That's how I feel about the Philippines and once Papa made it possible for me to go there it tore me up to leave. To see actual poverty and be among people I loved so much... girl... once you step onto that foreign soil it will rock your entire world and then some. So excited for your adoption journey. If I had money I'd give you tons, but for now my prayers are with you as you prepare for your new bundle of absolute love. <3