11-Months Old

We are a little late on this one :-) I didn't actually get to 'celebrate' with Mari when she was 11 months old as I was in Haiti once again. Daddy also didn't think he could handle the photography duty, so pictures had to wait until I got home.

So here we are - 11 months old (and a few days). We are busy. We are getting into everything. We are crawling all over the place, being held, being put down, sitting in our lap, crawling around, etc. Sometimes we attempt to put food into our mouth, other times we think it's hilarious to wipe it all on the floor and wait for us to pick it up. Although she is getting better! She might be ready to eat her first birthday cake!!!

I am also pround to announce that daddy did AMAZING while I was gone! He got Mari to sleep through the night!!!! Oh it has been so great! Although we do have to laugh because one night I was telling Mari how amazing it is that she was sleeping through the night...maybe it was time to start thinking about a brother or sister for her. Low and behold - she got up in the middle of the night! I don't think she is ready to 'share' her mommy or her daddy yet. Which we are totally fine with! It has not been a topic of conversation in this house yet unless we are joking :-)

Seriously....what is that face!

We look forward to celebrating Mari's first birthday. I am constantly in awe by our lifes events this past year. July 15th, 2011 was the day that we were 'chosen' as Mari's parents. July 15th, 2012 we were playing around with our 11 month old! It's just crazy! But we love every minute!

10-Months Old

Once again, here we are showcasing another month gone by! I know I am not the only one when I say that time is just going by way to quickly! I want time to STOP!

Mari is so full of personality, spunk and smiles. She has us laughing so many times through out the day. She is still constantly on the go, stopping to be picked up, only to be put down to go again. It's a constant shuffle in the house. She has about four standard crawls so far. We had the initial inch-worm crawl, which has progressed into the 'crawl with one leg, drag the other leg' crawl, sometimes we do the actual 'normal' crawl, and lastly we do the "jungle book" crawl where we are up on our hands and our feet! Whatever gets her to where she wants to go the fastest I guess!

This past month we spent a lot of time outside, enjoying the swing, going for rides in the ranger, and walks around the yard. She also got to enjoy her kiddie pool a few times and loved it! She could spash in water all day long! She loves waving bye-bye to people and blowing kisses at them. We have been doing a little sign language with her and the main word I am trying to focus on is 'mama' since she only continues to say 'dada' :-) I'm also convinsed that her second word at this point is going to be 'kitty'. Somewhere on the totem pole I'm sure I will get a 'mama' out. She loves pulling herself up on everything and finding whatever treasures she can grab on the shelves and she loves helping with laundry...and by helping I mean crawling on top of the nicely folded clothes.

We took her pictures and she was in such a great giggly and goofy mood. It was funny because I took out the blanket that we use for the back drop trying to get everything ready. I got the blanket set up and Mari crawled right over to it and sat in the perfect spot. She knows what it is for! And she started hamming it up for the camera right away.

All posed and ready to go before mama is even ready!

I was too busy laughing at her goofy antics that I was not paying attention at the pictures - so I got a lot of legs/feet cut off! Better luck next month!

Staying Busy

Life is sure busy with a little 9 1/2 month old. She is on the go! Cory and I always joke that we didn't really take advantage of the 'non-mobile' stage. Once she started moving - we figured that we could keep her confined in the living room because it is a step-down. That took about a weekend for her to master crawling up the step to wherever we are!
Mari continues to love doing her 'inch worm crawl' to get to wherever she wants to go. However she is also figuring out how to crawl on her knees, and loves pulling herself up and standing next to things. However, when she stands, she gets super excited and doesn't realize that she needs to hold on - thus resulting in a puffy and bleeding lip on Saturday. Let's hope that was the only time for a while that involved blood!

So here are some pics of us doing 'daily life'.

Mari loves books. She loves being read to, and she loves reading them herself.

We wanted to clean the garage one night so moved her johhny-jump-up outside.
Mari was one happy little jumping bean.

Showing off our skills at standing up by the window.

She loves riding around in the ranger, which works out well for watering plants, picking up sticks,
or just driving around for entertainment. Gotta keep her safe tho!

Our favorite spot to crawl into - our 2 endtables!

No rest for Mari - Daddy even makes her help put her toys together!

Justin's 1st Birthday in Heaven

Last week (May 26th) we celebrated Justin's first birthday in Heaven by having a balloon release and a great get-together with family and friends over at Heidi's house. It was an amazing evening to partake in - and I completely lost it when someone started singing Happy Birthday.

All the balloons!!!

All those balloons with prayers and thoughts of Justin. Oh how we miss you.

9-Months Old

Mari turned 9-months old last Thursday! 9 MONTHS!!!  Again I can't believe how fast our baby girl is growing up!

She is 'inch-worm' crawling all.over.the.place. Her clothes are filthy at the end of the day because she is constantly sliding around on her belly. She is also working really hard on standing up next to things - which has us very nervous as one of her favorite places to practice this skill is by our fireplace. She babbles a lot, and especially loves to babble louder when anyone else is trying to have a conversation. She wants all eyes on her and you better be listening to her too! She continues to love her johhny-jump-up, however she uses it more as a swing than for jumping. She can get herself swinging pretty good in that thing by running, bouncing and pulling her legs up and swinging around. She also loves to be outside as much as she can - enjoying her swing, riding around in the ranger, or even playing in the grass when I am doing something quick in the garden. Whenever she does an 'amazing act' she will stop, look at you and start clapping until you clap along with her, then she gives her big Mari smile and starts acting goofy all over again. She loves all her baby food and we really have not found anything that she won't eat...in terms of baby food. She absolutely will not eat anything with texture at this point, not even the puffs. O-well we will get there eventually...

We thought we were getting pretty smart by giving her small objects to hold onto while trying to take
her picture to help keep her distracted from the paper behind her...

It realy only gave us about an additional 5 seconds...

                                    

Sunday, May 27th was also the 'one year' anniversary on when I received the phone call from my cousin that would eventually lead us to Mari. A phone call we were never expecting  to receive, a phone call that has brought so much joy to our lives.

Mother's Day

I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day yesterday. It felt so amazing to finally celebrate a day I have been waiting years for! It was full of love, laughter and lots of hugs and kisses from Mari. It was also filled with tears, pain and heartache.

While I was celebrating my first Mother's Day, I watched as my mom celebrated a Mother's Day with a son in heaven. A scab that was all too fresh, was ripped open again with another daily reminder of her son, a son who will no longer be able to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

While I was celebrating Mother's Day, there is a birthmother who longed for the baby girl that she gave birth too. There was a mother who remembered her baby girl kicking her in the stomach one year ago today.

While I was celebrating Mother's Day, I had a mother in law and a sister in law who didn't have their husbands to help celebrate with them...and I'm sure there thoughts quickly turned to, "in a month it will be Father's Day".

While I was celebrating Mother's Day, I remembered the previous years where I, quite honestly, hated this day. Experiencing infertility can do that to a person. It can make a person bitter and angry and jealous.

While I was celebrating Mother's Day, I realized it didn't matter what day it was. All that mattered was that I have a baby girl that I love with all my heart, and a little girl who loves me too. I got to wake up to see her smile and hear her giggles. Today I got to experience the same.

I love you baby Mari. I thank God every day for your birth parents, that they gave us our angel. I know they can see how much we love you, how much we cherish you.

I can't wait to celebrate Mother's Day again next year...but in the meantime we will be celebrating every day with our angel Mari.

8-Months Old

Mari was 8-months old yesterday!!! She is now trying to impress us with wanting to pull herself up on things, however her favorite spot to try and pull herself up is in her little plastic bathtub! She still is not crawling, but can find ways to get to certain things if she wants them bad enough. She also still LUVS her johnny-jump-up, or just jumping if you are holding her. However if you are holding her...don't expect her to do any work. She basically just picks her legs up, and then you are responsible for ALL the work after that.

She has also been blessing us (sarcasm) with a more stubborn side and some mini trantrums. Oh Lordy, I hope this is not a glimpse into our future. She has the whole 'straight as a board, fling head back' thing down.

Our biggest news! She started sleeping through the night! Oh it felt great sleeping an entire night through. But then she must have heard us rejoicing, so she has now decided that three nights of sleeping through the night was enough, and we are back to the once a night feedings. I know she should be able to sleep through the night, but even though I would love sleep, I won't take any of those minutes for granted. So we usually grumble with a smile on our face.

Oh, was I suppose to leave this paper up?

She has also been enjoying the beautiful weather outside and I think she would have no problem literally spending all day outside. She enjoys the stroller a lot, which is good, because between daycare and home we go on a lot of walks!

Long Overdue 7-Month Pics

We are WAY overdue on getting Mari's 7-month pictures on the blog! I attribute that to a) losing the memory card with the pictures for a good week; b) a long week of Mari being sick with double ear infection and pink eye; and c) I just didn't want to blog...I was way more content just holding my baby girl in the evenings.

But here are the pictures. Everytime I look at them I laugh because it's fun to see her personality shine through more and more each month! But her growing personality also makes it more difficult to get some pictures taken. But we are not complaining, as we are SOOO happy she is finally feeling better so we can once again see her smiles and hear her giggles!

I will give you a look into what a 'typical photo session' is for us.

 "Ok mom, I will smile"

 " You already got your picture...now I'm bored"

 " Oh wait, there is some paper behind me I can grab"

 "If I give my mom a smile, maybe she won't notice that I'm playing with this paper"

"No mom, I swear it wasn't me who crinkled the paper behind me"

Mari you make your mommy and daddy laugh on a daily basis. You are finding your voice more and more and you like to go from a high pitch to a low growl. You  are trying so hard to move around more on your own, but you still know that after a few wimpers we will usually help you out. You love your cuddle time with mommy and daddy...and we love it too.

6-Months Old

Once again, here we are wondering where the last month has gone. Last Friday Mari was officially 6-months old and we have loved every moment with her. Mari continues to love playing with her toes, giving us big slobbery kisses and many smiles each and every day. She also loves to squeal and giggle!!!

On Saturday we met up with my aunt, who happens to also be a public health nurse. She did an 'informal' 6-month assessment on Mari and said she passed everything. That was no suprise to us though because we think she is pretty much pure genius. We would love to know what her little mind is thinking sometimes!!!

Baby Girl you light up everyday with your smiles and your giggles. The best part of my day is when I get to pick you up from day care and you smile your big smile and bury your head into my shoulder. It's so easy to get nothing else done other than just holding you and playing with you. We love you baby girl - more than you could ever imagine.

Happy (late) Valentine's Day

Mari wanted to wish  everyone a Happy Valentine's Day...even if we are a few days late.

5 Months

I can not believe that another month has flown by and our baby girl is 5 months old. As you can see, she is starting to sit up more and more on her own. She has rolled over...but really has no desire to continue. She will reach for her toys, and then if she can't reach them, she will just play with her toes.

She is so content...as long as she is being held or as long as you are devoting 100% attention to her while she is playing. She doesn't care what a person is doing, as long as you are holding her and bringing her with wherever you go, she is perfectly fine. She even helped me vacuum our living room last weekend.

That's right....we are starting to sit on our own! Such a big girl!!!

We are no longer content laying on the floor playing with our toys...time to SIT.

But when we are content laying on the floor, the toes are usually in the mouth more than the toys!
She LOVES those toes

 We have also started introducing some cereal just to start getting her used to different textures. I can say that she is certainly not a fan right away...but usually puts up with us trying to shove a few mouthfuls in her mouth. She's so funny because every time she see's the spoon she is super excited to get it in her mouth...then she realizes that there is actually food on there and she is not so impressed.

Not so sure about this cereal yet.

Baby girl, Your smiles, baby giggles, and slobbery kisses sure know how to mend our hearts. I'm hoping that life will start to slow down and you stop growing so fast!

4 (1/2) Month Checkup

Mari had her 4 month check up last Monday. It was really 4 1/2 months by the time we got in to the doctor!!! She continues to grow (no question there) and weighed in at 15 lbs. 10 oz. and 24.8 inches. Again she had shots - but thankfully it doesn't really seem to bother her. She was still kicking her legs like nothing happened during her bath time that night.

At four months old - she is in LUV with her toes. She loves sitting in her exersaucer and playing, and is trying to roll over. She has rolled over a few times, but is usually just content getting on her side. She talks a TON and seemed to have found her tongue back again as she is sucking on her tongue or it is constantly popping out when she is talking. Needless to say, she gives us lots of laughs every day with her little mannerisms. She still enjoys playing under her playmat as long as you are in the room with her - can't get too far away without her getting upset. But this mommy and daddy usually have no problem picking her up!!!

In other exciting news: We FINALLY have a changing table!!! Daddy has been 'working' on it since July, but obviously there have been a few things come up in the meantime and it always got put on the back burner.

Daddy forgot the last tote in the shop...

I think she likes it!!!

Also, this weekend we drove down to the casino as some of our friends were spending the night. We packed up Mari and found a tiny little swimsuit for her first 'pool' experience. She of course just loved it because she got to get naked.

All ready to head to the pool.

Not quite sure about things yet - definitely not as warm as a bath.

We lasted for about 5 seconds - I thought the water was cold - so we quickly took her out and wrapped her in a towel.

one quick family pic.

Strong Enough

I’ve wanted to write a post as a tribute to my brother and my father-in-law. I just never knew what to say, how to say it, or even how to start it. I have all these thoughts running through my head, but when I start to put them in writing it’s a big old mess!

It’s hard to believe that Duane had been fighting his cancer battle for nearly three years. My brother fought for 14 months. I never in a million years dreamed that we would lose them within three days of each other. Never dreamed that it would be the week of Christmas. Never really wanted to dream that it would ever happen in the first place I guess.

I think it was easier to pretend that cancer was not ravaging their bodies on the inside. It was hard watching these two big strong men lose their muscle, lose their body strength, and have to rely on others for help.  I think Cory and I were convincing ourselves that, “It’s our dad…or… it’s our brother…they are strong enough to fight this.”

I kept praying that they would make it through Christmas.  But the Lord had other plans – he wanted them in Heaven for Christmas. It’s easy to be angry and ask God why he would take them away during such a holiday, a time to be with family, a time to rejoice in his son’s birth! But then someone pointed out what better time to go Home.  Jesus was born into the world to bring light! If there was no ‘reason for the season’ we would not have faith that we would see them again.

After they had passed away, I received a message from  friend of ours that we met in Haiti. She told me how she had been praying for Duane and Justin and when she found out that they had both passed away, she also questioned why God would take them both away from us in such a short amount of time. God’s answer to her was: “Because they were strong enough”

I stood stunned – and then it hit me.

There are not enough words to describe their love of life, their love of family, their commitment to others. I could go on and on about the acts of kindness, their generosity, how honorable they were, how hard they worked, etc.

But what really matters is: They were strong enough for God to choose THEM.

Now you have to realize, our friend has obviously never met Justin and Duane. She is going solely on what she heard from the Lord. And she couldn’t have nailed it on the head more.

You see, throughout their battles and especially at the end of their days, their faith radiated. They were both ready to go to Heaven. They worried about us family members left here on Earth, but they were not afraid. They were not bitter. They were at peace. They talked about Heaven, what they would do there, how they would send signs to us here on Earth so we knew that things were ok.

They were strong enough.

My hope is that I will be as strong as them when my time comes.

2011 Review

There's obviously been a slack in my posting. Figured I would start out the new year with a Year in Review. We have had a LOT of changes!

January 1, 2011 - we officially started our adoption journey. We spent our day filling out an online application to adopt from Ethiopia!!! We were so excited to begin this journey!

February - brought us back to Haiti. We wanted to celebrate a very special first birthday with a very special little girl who opened our hearts! Oh how we love her dearly! Although Baby D wasn't there when we arrived, we did get to spend some time with her and see how much she has grown. Cory and I were also privileged to care for two other beautiful baby girls - who have since gone to heaven. We rejoice that they are sitting in Jesus' lap!!! (I can't put pictures of the babies up on this blog - but if I could I think I could have a different picture for the next 5 years!!!)

March - We were notified of a huge change in Ethiopian adoptions which could greatly affect our wait time - however there was so much uncertainty. Cory and I prayed and continued with Ethiopia.

April - can't think of much that happened in that month, other than a lot of questions to God trying to figure out if we were really on the right path and trying really hard to make sure we were listening to him!!!

May - felt a tug at my heart to look into biracial domestic adoptions. Shared some of these 'tugs' with Cory, and we at first thought that maybe our 'next' adoption would be domestic biracial. Towards the end of the month, as we were on the way to the Cities to celebrate a birthday with a good friend and enjoy a Twins game, I received a call from my cousin - that call would forever change our lives.

June - met with a potential birthmother. Anxiety skyrocketed :-)

July - Enjoyed the summer being with friends, spending time at the lake and going camping. We tried to wait patiently for news(but we failed miserably - good thing summers are super busy to keep our mind off of things!!!). On July 15th - we received the BEST news - we had been chosen by a lady and her boyfriend to adopt their baby girl that was due August 24th - that gave us about 5 1/2 weeks to prepare for a newborn, get all necessary paperwork completed, and inform our family. Let the wild goose chase begin.

August - much of the month was spent doing the 'paperwork', connecting with lawyers and getting things arranged!!! But we still found time to head out to Sturgis as well. On August 24th (her due date) our precious baby girl was born!!! We flew out the next morning, and she was in our arms after she was discharged from the hospital! We enjoyed our week in New York, but were so glad when we got to come home on September 1st and surprise our family!!!

September - time spent enjoying our new baby and visiting family members, moving a whole three miles, and Cory quit his job, and started his own electrical company. Yep, looking back I can see why people thought we were crazy. I'm pretty sure we are.

Cory's Hometown Electric

October - celebrated baptism (which made me get our new house somewhat organized) and watched our baby grow.

November - Celebrated Cory's first birthday as a daddy and he loved every minute of it! I also got by easy as his birthday fell on Thanksgiving so I didn't have to cook much. It was filled with much emotion as we watched loved ones continue to lose their cancer battles. I don't think Cory and I really wanted to accept that.

December - With all the joys of celebrating our first Christmas together as a family of three, we had much heartache with the loss of Cory's father and my brother the week of Christmas. Our hearts were  torn once again, but we again rejoice knowing that they wanted to celebrate Christmas in heaven.

So to sum it up, we loved much, learned much, hurt a lot but still trust in our God. He can do amazing things! He can make miracles happen! He can give us peace to start the new year! May you all be blessed this year!