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!

4 Months Old

I absolutely cannot believe that Mari is 4 months old. I just want time to stop. I want to soak up all her smiles, her coo's, her little giggles. I want to bottle up her little toes, her slobbery kisses and her cuddling into our arms.

Watching her grow is just amazing. She is getting much more interactive and it's just so fun to watch! She loves laying on the floor and playing with her toes, playing in her exersaucer, putting everything in her mouth and being naked (that scares her father a little though).

I love how many pictures it takes to get a semi-good picture. The rest of them she is looking at the bears, touching her toes, or giving me the 'what?' face. I will admit though, this picture was not taken exactly on her 4-month birthday. Our lives have been chaotic to say the least these last few weeks. But that is another blog post.