BIRTHMOM!

I wanted to update you all on how it is going with Maria and kids here. We are having so much fun! The kids are getting along great (other than the occasional tiff) and it is so much fun to have them here.

Today we went to the zoo. We were all completely exhausted and everyone fell asleep on the way home. After naps, we mostly hung out here except for a little outing to the candy, pet and party stores.


On a funny note - Maya calls Maria, "birthmom" rather than "Maria." At first it was "birthmom 'Ria" and we told her to just call her "Maria," so now she shortened it to just "birthmom." Imagine the looks at the zoo if people heard her yelling "BIRTHMOM." A little while ago Maria was yelling for her kids to come downstairs. Maya said, "Oh, I gotta go. Birthmom is calling me too." Then I heard her say, "Yeah birthmom" once she got downstairs. Too funny!


I haven't taken very many picture so I need to start taking more, but here is a preview.

Maya trying out her new vanity and Japanese kimono (sp?) that Maria's Mom sent her.

Brave Andre was not afraid to pet the stingrays.

The three of them - Marisa, Andre and Maya

Our crazy week

I am home. It was so much fun to be away for a couple of days. It was an amazing trip! How many people get to be a part of bringing a baby to a longing couple, completing their family? It was completely beautiful! The most incredible part was to witness how one person's pain and sorrow can turn to another person's joy and happiness. Wow! This whole adoption thing is so intense! Meredith and I were completely exhausted when we left the hospital last night. As tired as we were, we still had energy to shop for a couple of hours and then go see Juno (2nd time for me, 1st time for Meredith). It was great to have some good laughs at the end of the day. Well actually we had some good laughs earlier in the day too, but I will have to write that story down sometime soon. Get ready to laugh really hard - unless you read Meredith's blog and already read the story (she is so on top of blogging about it sooner and in much more detail - she is showing me up!).

Back to being home, I don't think my kids missed me one bit. I guess I need to go away more often. They just acted like I had been gone at the store or something :). It sure was fun to see them though!

Now begins a really crazy week for us. Are you ready to hear it??? Tomorrow Maya's birthmom and her 2 kids are flying in to visit for Maya's 3rd birthday. We haven't seen Maria since 3 years ago when she placed Maya in our arms. We have never met her kids. We are really excited! We plan to take them many fun places and show them a good time for the next couple of days. Then Saturday is Maya's birthday party and our anniversary (which won't really be celebrated for another month until we are in Hawaii!!) and Sunday is Maya's birthday and the Super Bowl. Maria and kids leave Sunday afternoon.

Needless to say, I won't be blogging much, but I will try to write a quick post to let you know how it is going. Wish us luck! :)

Guess where I am???

St. Louis, Missouri!!

Most of you know that I work for A Guardian Angel Adoptions out of Utah. I answer phones 1-2 days a week taking incoming calls on a cell phone from prospective birthmoms (oh and I get a ton of other calls that are sometimes CRAZY!).

Anyway, so there was this birthmom who was supposed to fly to Utah on Tuesday to deliver. They bring them to Utah because the adoption laws in Utah are awesome. So she ended up going into labor and having her baby here in Missouri on Saturday night. Plan B was then to have someone from the agency come here to make sure everything happened okay. My friend Meredith (who works for the agency) and I are always trying to convince them to send us on trips and this time it worked - here we are!

We flew in this morning. We spent most of the afternoon and evening at the hospital with the birthmom. She is SO cute and sweet and her baby is delicious. We left for a while to find a hotel and get some dinner... oh and we found a fabulous mall that is close by. Sure can't wait until papers are signed tomorrow night so we can hit some shopping :).

That is it. I will give more play by plays later on (including some houses that we came across tonight that were incredible, but we think they are haunted), but it is late and I am wiped out!

Oh Happy Day!

It is done - Kenyon's adoption is finalized! He is officially our son with all of the rights of a natural born son (I love it when they read that part in court!).

We gathered around our speaker phone at 7:00 am this morning to be on conference call with the courthouse in Florida. Our friend who is an attorney swore us in. The kids were in their PJS, actually Kenyon was in bed asleep - he missed his big moment!

Thank you to everyone for your love, support and prayers during the last 10 month. We certainly felt them! Now we can offer prayers of thanks for this beautiful boy.

We are just thrilled and sometime soon I will do a sentimental post about all the life lessons I have learned through this experience. For now - we are off to party (at music class! :).

Girls vs. Boys

My friend Julie just announced that she is having a girl! When I congratulated her on her blog, I said something about how happy I was for her, yet sad at the same time because girls cost more money and have more attitude. Someone else posted another comment that said she disagreed. Now I do not need to be right all of the time (just most of the time :), but it got me thinking... Do you think girls cost more money and have more attitude or is it just my experience? I also think Maya being the first child factors into it to because she HAD to have everything where now I realize that if Kenyon doesn't get that toy at the store that he reached for, life will go on.

So please take my poll (to the right) and let me know what you think!

Oh and congratulations again Julie. I am just so happy for you!!

Uh-Oh

When our kids are babies and start getting into trouble, instead of telling them "no" all of the time, we say "uh-oh" and move them away. I read about it in a book somewhere and it stuck. So this weekend when Kenyon kept going for grandma's TV, we said, "uh-oh" and moved him away. When he goes toward the stairs to take a dive down, we say "uh-oh" and set him somewhere else. When he stands up in the bath, we say "uh-oh" and sit him down. Get the picture? :)

Since he is hearing this so much lately, he has some new words. He can now say "da-da" and... "uh-oh!"

MLK Day

Have you checked out the logo on google.com today? It is very cute and festive!


Today we celebrated Martin Luther King Day by going to a parade and festival downtown. The kids had the best time at the parade. A reporter stopped to interview the kids. She asked them why we are celebrating. Neither my friend Michelle or I had taught them much about the day so they just stared blankly. At this point, I just want Maya to know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man, but I am not sure I want to go too deep just yet. After all, she is just 2 and hasn't even realized that I am white and she is brown! Overall, the day was a success and it was fun to celebrate with friends.

Waiting for the parade to come...

Look! There is a fire truck!

Kenyon watching the parade and sharing his snacks

Aren't these girls adorable??!!

*Update* - I just looked at the channel 3 news website since they were at the parade. They have a slide show of pictures and Maya's picture is on there. Here it is:

http://www.azfamily.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=7535&nextimage=14

Yuma Fun

This weekend we (the kids, my mom and I) went to Yuma to visit my grandparents. Grandma had bronchitis so that was not fun to have her sick, but it was good to spend time and visit with them.

Maya loved to pick oranges and play in "the forest" with grandpa and Kenyon loved to play with their TV because it was at just his level. We would move him away from it and he would start laughing and race back over to it. If we said, "Kenyon" as he got close, he would turn and smile and then still go for it. Stinker! :)

Birthdays, Birthdays and More Birthdays!

Maya loves birthdays! She loves to sing happy birthday, blow out candles, open presents, wear birthday hats, and the works! Thankfully in December and January we have had quite a few birthdays for her to celebrate - Nana in December, Jared's was last week, Jeremy's Saturday and my mom's was yesterday. She has had plenty of opportunities to have birthday celebrations. The best part of all - her birthday is next in just 2 1/2 weeks. She is so excited (and so are we!! :)

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Today is my husband's birthday. I am so lucky to have him in my life. He is a great dad and both kids love him to pieces. He is a great husband to me dealing with my attitudes and bad moods and loving me anyway. He goes to work super early and works hard to support us so that I can stay home. He has such a fun-loving personality that you can't help but love him. What a man!

We went out and celebrated last night. My parents took us to a nice steakhouse for a delicious dinner and then we were headed to a movie. We had just missed the start of a bunch of them and didn't want to hang around for hours so we opted to rent a movie and come home instead. On the way home he even was okay with stopping and walking around the mall for a little bit - amazing since he doesn't like to do that when it is not his birthday. It was a great night!

Today we are laying low and will just have birthday dinner with cake and ice cream here tonight with our little family.

Happy Birthday Jer!

Here comes trouble!

I turned my back on him and this is what I found:

Is he too young for time out? :)

How can I get mad at that sweet face?!

Take a look at these...

Have you ever seen a cuter ballerina??!! Maya started dance class yesterday. As my younger brother put it, "The dancing world will never be the same!" :)

She has been taking gymnastics, but I switched her to a tap and ballet class. I switched her for several reasons, the most important being that now she goes to class all by herself rather than a parent/tot class like the gymnastics was. She loved it! She kept telling me, "You can't go with me, Mom." That is right - for 45 minutes on Thursday mornings, I only have sweet, little Kenyon to attend to.

Did I say sweet and little? He is growing up and is rarely sweet, but sometimes he gives me hope that he will not send me to the insane asylum. He is finally feeling 100% healthy and will let me put him down every once in a while. In fact, right now he is crawling around the toy room playing by himself since Maya is still in bed. There is hope that he will not grow up to be a complete Momma's boy! :) We sure love him anyway!

Our Weekend

Our weekend consisted of the zoo on Saturday morning, Maya's hair appointment on Saturday afternoon and Maya's braiding session on Sunday morning. Exciting weekend, huh? (sarcasm included :)

They have Stingray Bay there right now where you can pet the rays - very cool! Maya wouldn't touch them.
Doesn't he look excited to see the giraffes? :)
Looking for fish
Good Morning Maya! She must be a wild sleeper, but we never can tell unless her hair is straight.
Her new do. She yelled, "My braids are back" after I finished.

Juno

We saw it last night - Laughed hard, cried hard and just loved it! It is very Napolean Dynamite-like so only go if you like that kind of humor and a little bit of crude humor. It is about adoption and there is a part where the adoptive family meets the birthmom and I was laughing out loud because it hit so close to home. One of my top favorite movies for sure!

Update on Kenyon & Other Stuff

Roseola! Have you heard of it?! It is common in babies and young children. They have a high fever for 2-3 days and then a rash appears and they are better. Yesterday morning when I saw a rash on his body and his fever was gone, I was very relieved to have a diagnosis. So he was pretty happy yesterday afternoon and evening. Then all night he was fussy and today he has been a nightmare. I looked in his mouth and he is getting another tooth. This kid can't get a break!!

In other news:

Tonight Jeremy and I are going to the Fiesta Bowl with some friends - very exciting!

In 2 months Jeremy and I are going to Maui with our friends Adam and Katie! But the most exciting part is that it is a kid-free trip!! The kids will be with grandparents. I sure hope they survive: the grandparents are who I am worried about :).