Fearless

I always had a feeling that Kiya was fearless. This kid doesn't seem to be afraid of much. She LOVES to climb and LOVES to rough house with Daddy. Nothing stops this kid. Not big dogs, not heights, not her casts, nothing.

So today we went to a festival in our town. It is kind of a big deal around here. Kiya had had a bad night. She was SUPER constipated (over share I know but true). We opted for no nap since she slept in past 9am.

We ate some sweet corn and I do mean all of us. Miss Kiya shared my corn on the cob with me. It was so cute and messy.

We then decided to take her over to the little carnival section. We asked her if she wanted to go on a ride and she said yes. So I went and bought some tickets. $13 bucks worth thinking we may give some tickets to others. We went on this bumblebee ride first. It reminded me of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. She got a little nervous when the bee jerked before the ride started but once we started it was all smiles and laughs.

The kid was hooked. Next we went on the swing ride. She really LOVED that one. We quickly blew through the tickets. She was tall enough to go on some rides by herself but given it was her first time I went with her. I had fun too so it was a win win. She only had to be 36 inches tall to ride some rides by herself. We stood her up next to the chart and she was a tad over 38 inches.

After we realized just how much fun she was having, we just had to buy more tickets. And thus we did. The joy on her face was priceless. She did think though that we were at the park. She kept saying "I like this park. This park is so fun. I come back on Monday." When we were flying high in the air she kept saying, "I go up high. I like to go up high. Weeeeee"

I have had so many fabulous memories with my fearless Kiya that I will cherish and today goes down as another great memory.  We had a great time as a family. If I could hit the repeat button on today, I totally would.  I so completely love being Kiya's mom. She is nothing shy of amazing and I am so proud of her.

Guess what......IT'S A GIRL :)

We got the call on Monday afternoon. We were shocked, thrilled and super excited. It was about 4pm when I saw that I missed a call on my cell phone. I saw the phone number and my heart skipped a beat. I just knew. This was the call about our son. The day we had been waiting for.

When I called back and started talking with the social worker, she first confirmed that we were open to adopting a boy or a girl to which I responded yes. She then said well, I have some news about a referral for you. It is a baby girl. At that point, I probably should have pulled over as I was in tears. We knew it could happen but really thought we were going to have a  boy. We had even started a list of boy names.

As we started to hear the details, things just clicked. This little girl fits in our family. We listened. We discussed. We sent the email of info to our international adoption doctor, the same one we used for Kiya's referral. We waited.

Our doctor called us at 6:15am on Tuesday. We were up and packing to head to the hospital for Kiya's 4th cast. I spoke with her for a few minutes. All medical info seemed in line and good. She is in the 50th percentile in most metrics. She is obviously well loved by her foster mom.

For now she will be called Baby K. She is currently 4 months old and doing very well with her foster mom. She has chubby cheeks and a head full of hair.

We now settle in to wait again. It could be up to 14 months before we travel to bring her home. Kiya is in love already. She sees her picture and says baby sister. Melts my heart every time. We showed her the picture right before we left to head to Chicago. When we stopped at the oasis for food, she asked if we were picking up baby sister now. So we told her no. I think the adoption will allow for a more open dialogue about Kiya's adoption. I know she will be a great big sister. Though this morning we asked her if she would share her toys and she said, "no my toys. not K's toys."

Never dreamed I would be blessed enough to be a mom to two beautiful girls, Kiya and baby K.

Time to shop for her first care package :)

11 years ago

11 years ago, I married my best friend. I am a very lucky girl that is for sure.

I met my husband over 14 years ago and I just knew. I just knew this was the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life. I am looking forward to the years ahead and the many more happy memories.

These last 11 years have been quite a ride. We have had good times and crazy times and luckily have only had one really terrible year. Through it all we stood by each other, supported each other and loved each other. It hasn't always been easy but it has definitely been worth it.

I love this journey we have been on. To see our relationship grow and change and to finally reach our dreams of parenthood.

My husband is my rock. He picks me up when I am down and he can always make me laugh and the best part of it all is he is the most amazing father. I love this. I kind of knew he would be but seriously he is a pretty great dad. He gets up with Kiya, he changes poopy diapers, he reads her stories, plays with her and you can see just how happy having a daughter makes him. This makes me love him even more.

I am so blessed to have this amazing family and I look forward to many more happy years of marriage. I know we may have some rough years ahead but I know we are strong enough to get through them together. I know I don't walk alone in this world and that makes a difference.

I'm Back....

I know it has been almost a week but things got a little hectic. Starting with me getting pretty sick. Sicker than I have been in quite sometime. I am feeling better now and am anxiously awaiting the antibiotics to really kick in and get rid of this nastiness that has all but consumed me in the last week.

So here is what has been going on:

+ Kiya is officially 20 months old :) She is just a dream really. So sweet and eager to learn. She can count to ten and sing the ABC song with you. Sure she doesn't get all the correct words or letters but she is so excited to do it with you. She can accurately complete her animal sounds puzzle and she LOVES to stack all 10 of her stacking cups and then of course knock them down. She is quite fascinated lately with baby dolls. She will hug them and rock them and kiss them. So sweet. She also likes to play pretend. I watched yesterday as she "poured" herself a cup of tea and then "drank" it. She has also become quite fascinated with Dora the Explorer. We only let her watch it occasionally but her potty book is Dora and she asks for that a lot. She is also really into Yo Gabba Gabba, a show I swore I would never let her watch as I find it annoying. She loves it. She dances and trys to imitate motions, etc.  We also think that Kiya might be getting the concept that she has a messy diaper. Sure we ask her if she has a poop and she says yeah and sometimes she is right and sometimes not. But she has started to grab at her diaper when it is really wet or messy. This is a good sign. She has noticed her shadow and is not a fan. She first noticed it in the bath tub and totally freaked out. She frantically did the sign for all done and wanted out of that tub. She has since noticed it on the wall by her changing table and on the wall of the stairs. She is getting less afraid as we are telling her it is friendly and she can fist bump it. She says hi to it and bye to it. It is pretty cute really.

+ Check Kiya's Kare Korner for an update on our Shriner's process

+ Birth to 3 is coming for a follow up meeting tomorrow. Based on the evaluation they sent me, it looks like Kiya will qualify for physical therapy. We are anxious to get started with this and help her move forward. They estimated her locomotion skills at about a 14 month age level which given her muscle tone issues she is really right on track but hasn't caught up yet. In all other areas like speech, problem solving, fine motor, etc Kiya was at age level or higher. We are so proud of her.

+ Saturday is a big day. 11 years ago Saturday, Dave and I got married at Mission Santa Clara surrounded by all our friends and family. I cannot believe it has been that long. To celebrate we are going to the Brewers game :)

So I guess that is about it for now.

Sebastian is 10!

So Mr. Sebastian turned 10 today. I can hardly believe. He was my first baby. He truly is the greatest dog. He was house trained in two weeks. He never destroyed a shoe or piece of furniture. He did and still does love to eat dryer sheets and kleenex.

He has seen me through some tough times. He is truly the best companion. When he was a puppy he would sleep on my chest. When I have a bad day, he is always extra sweet and cuddly. He knows when I am crying even if he can't see it and he comes to sit with me.

Here are some pictures through the years. They are out of order but he is still just as cute even in his old age.

Then

A journey down memory lane of our first few days with our Peanut.

I can't get over just how tiny she was yet still so full of life. Those little hands that were in a fist much more than they should have been. Those little lips that held such a sweet smile. Those 5 little puffs in her hair. She was wearing 0-3 month clothes and couldn't grasp a toy in her hand. She was about 12lbs and 23.5 inches long and 5 1/2 months old. She didn't fit in the Ergo she was too tiny.

We could tell she was scared and nervous and those fingers were never far from her mouth. She was a very serious child while we were in Ethiopia. We were new, she was just warming up to us. She wasn't a fan of being held for too long and boy if she wasn't fed fast enough she was going to let you know. She loved her baths from day 1 and only graced us with a handful of blowout diapers. Our last blow out diaper was the day we returned home from Ethiopia in the Detroit airport. (Yes I am knocking on wood).

She was a tiny piece of perfection. Just looking at us with those big, intelligent eyes. We were hers and she was ours and we were finally together.

Married with Children

Okay I have tried to write this particular post three times and have started and deleted it each time. I have something to say. I just can't figure out how to say it and to be honest I know some of my readers personally as in they are family and well that just changes things sometimes. Don't get me wrong my family is great but sometimes I just have something to say and I don't want all the questions or looks or uncomfortableness. Maybe I need to start another blog....not sure.

The other part of me says that this is my blog and let the judgement begin if you so choose. I will write what I want and not worry about the rest.

Well here it goes.

My husband and I have been together for almost 14 years. Wow. We met in college thanks to a mutual friend. Except for 2 weeks right after we met when my hubby had to pause and figure things out we have done almost everything together and if we couldn't then we spent lots of time on the phone talking about it since for one summer we lived in two different states. We knew within months of dating that we would get married.

After college we did just that. We spent the next 3-4 years in wedded bliss. Things were truly wonderful and it was smooth sailing. We got a dog, we had jobs we enjoyed, we were living among friends in sunny CA, we were living it up and it was awesome.

Fast forward to the year. The year that things started to change. We now lived in WI and we had 2 dogs, an okay apartment, jobs that we both still have yet we felt something was missing. The answer was children. We had always talked about children and when we got married we decided to wait. We were so young. I am glad we waited. We weren't ready but now in 2003 we were. Let's do it. Let's start trying to have a baby. Yeah well as some of you may know that was easier said than done. It brought about 18 months of frantic am or am I not pregnant followed by another 18 months of doctors, needles, surgery, tests, more tests, more needles and more money being flushed down the toilet. It was AWFUL.

Not only because we weren't having any luck at the whole making a baby thing but it was the first time in our married life that we has hit some serious rough waters. There were more tears in those 3 years than I care to recall. It was a very trying period in our lives together. Peace finally settled in when we decided enough was enough time for Plan B. We were going to adopt. Finally our dreams of parenthood would become a reality.

In 2007 we thought we were going to be parents. It almost happened. We were literally days away from being parents to beautiful twin girls. It didn't happen and to date 2007 was the worst year of our lives. Talk about rough waters. Towards the end of that dreaded year we found some calm waters again. We fell in love with Ethiopia. We just knew our first child would be from this beautiful country.

Well we were right. We are the proud parents of a beautiful Ethiopian princess. Life should be great right? Our dreams came true right? Well yes and no. We are both so in love with our daughter. She is the light of our lives. Marriage is tough by itself but when you add children into the mix it gets even tougher. Who knew? We sure didn't. Maybe we should have but we didn't.

I am fortunate to have a husband who is hands on with raising our daughter. He will change dirty diapers, clean up puke at 2am, read books to her over and over, etc. We get the parent thing most days or at least we think we do but we don't have the supportive partner thing down. We are working on it. It isn't easy but we love each other and we love our daughter and we will figure it out. We are taking baby steps to try and better understand each other and our new married life. Parenthood changes everything. Sometimes those changes can cause some unrest. Yet we both know that parenthood is the best job on the planet. I mean have you seen our daughter?? She is truly the greatest gift and she deserves our very best at all times.

The infertility, the failed domestic adoption, the craziness that is parenthood have left scars. Some are deep, painful scars that are fading yet can still rear their ugly head at times. Other scars bring about tears of joy and remembrance as without those scars, as painful as they may have been, they have led us to our life as a family of 3 and hopefully someday family of 4.

All in all I think we have managed to weather the storm fairly well. We have had good days and bad days and really good days and really bad days. We are striving for balance. We have realized that while we aren't always on the same page, we at least need to be reading the same book. So far the book is pretty good and I am looking forward to the next chapters.

The big 10 months :)

KIYA IS 10 MONTHS OLD!!!!!

I can hardly believe it. In a few short weeks she will have been with us as long as she was at the care center in Ethiopia. Wow....

Here are 10 of the many thousands of things we love about our little girl:

1) She is learning how to give kisses.

2) She has quite the range in her vocal abilities from a low monster like sound to a very high pitched sound.

3) She says Dada a lot and when in her high pitched mode she squints her eyes.

4) She is learning to take her first steps. And just yesterday while holding on to the table took a sideways step all by herself.

5) She give hugs :)

6) She reaches up for us when she wants to be held.

7) She can eat Cheerios like a champ

8) Bananas are still her favorite food

9) She is taking baths in the big girl bath tub with her favorite whale cup of course.

10) She loves to laugh with us and just because and it is truly the greatest sound.

We are truly honored and blessed to be Kiya's parents. How this little girl found her way into our hearts and home amazes me to this day. She is a perfect fit. She was meant to be our little girl and I thank God every day for her.

Weekend in review

We had a VERY busy weekend. Kiya's baptism was the main event. She did great really. Got a little cranky towards the end of the service but was a super star for the most part.

Here she is with 2 of her god parents. My brother in law Andy and my best friend Stacy. Not pictured are my sister in law Sarah and my best friend's husband Jim. Kiya at this point was VERY tired but didn't want to miss any of the festivities.

Family picture with all of Kiya's grandparents and her great grandma.

This weekend again proved just how blessed we are. We have a wonderful family and an amazing little girl. I was so glad that Stacy flew out from CA even if only for a short trip but it meant so much for her to be here and to meet Kiya.

Kiya was so adaptable to the disruptions in schedule and was really the star of the whole weekend. She helped open her gifts but mostly just wanted to put them all in her mouth. Her favorite was the tissue paper :) Go figure.

She LOVES to stand up and even attempted to take her first steps this weekend while holding on to my fingers. It was so cute :) She is just getting so big. We have her 9 month check up tomorrow even though she is closer to 10 months. I can't wait to see how much she weighs and just how tall she actually is :)

Picture update :)

So I know I am a little behind so here is a picture post to catch up in the goings on of our family. September 8th was Badger's 6th birthday. Still shocked we got both dogs to sit still for the same picture and pay attention even with food in front of them.

Badger is too concerned about licking up treat crumbs to care that Sebastian is running off with his toy.

Once Badger figured it out, tug of war was on in full force. Well really only like 15 minutes as they ripped the toy and started eating the stuffing and the frog found its way to the garbage.

As you all learned from my last post, September 11th was Ethiopian New Year. We went out to eat at our local Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate. It will be a new family tradition and maybe some day I will be brave enough to try and cook Ethiopian food :)

Kiya couldn't eat the food yet but we did give her some injera, which is a spongy like thin bread used to eat the food. It does have a slightly sour taste so I wasn't sure she would eat it but she did. And wanted more :)

We had our waitress take a family picture to help remember the evening.

In other news, it looks like Kiya isn't quite over her last ear infection. We had a rough night. She started that weird moaning she did before and we knew what was coming next. Fever and vomit and bam we got both. We were able to get some Tylenol in her and changed her pj's but she just wouldn't settle down. We had her in the pack n play in our room in case she got sick again but she just laid there awake for well over and hour just sucking her thumb.

After awhile she started screaming and was getting really upset. Well turns out she had a poopy diaper so we changed that and tried to get her settled back in her crib in her room. Nope. She wanted nothing of it. I wound up getting up and just rocking her in the chair in her room for 2o minutes or so until she calmed down. I put her down in her crib and didn't hear from her again until 6:45am. Poor baby. This whole ear infection and massive teething thing really stinks.

Pictures :)

Here are some more pictures of Peanut. This is one of many taken with Peanut's great grandmother. She was kind of over the picture thing at this point but she is still adorable.

I love this picture because 3 weeks ago, Peanut couldn't sit in the Bumbo much less hold on to a toy and sit in the Bumbo. She is growing and changing so fast. She amazes me everyday.

She was being adorable after bath time and just didn't want to let go of that towel.

Here she is again sitting perfectly in the Bumbo and making a mess while eating at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

And now she was just showing off and being silly. Yes we realize the bib is just about bigger than she is but there are days where that large bib comes in handy. This was one of them.