Odds & Ends

4/26/08
I posted before about going out for the first time since coming home. We did it! Hope had a fabulous time with her Aunt and Uncle that night. From what I understand she was an angel...but then again, we expected that of course. :) Sounds like she played 'just a little bit' (insert sarcastic tone) of "Ring Around the Rosie," charmingly convinced her aunt and uncle to play "horsie," did some puzzles, read some books, ate like a champ, and went to bed exhausted. Perfect! Well, Hope's mama and daddy had a great night as well. Casting Crowns offered up an awesome night of worship and performance. I'm pretty sure that I only suggested calling home to check on things two times or so. OK...maybe three. :) I wasn't worried at all. It just didn't feel natural to be without our daughter. But really, we had an awesome time with dinner and the concert. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Casting Crowns is awesome. Their lyrics speak directly to the heart and as Mark Hall said that night, the listeners never have to wonder what they mean. On a side note, one of the other nice moments of the evening was when the person ahead of us paid for our parking in the ramp. God was at work in St. Paul that night.
Here we are ready to go.


Here are a couple of shots from the concert. We had great seats! We were a little further away than we were last time we saw Casting Crowns, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a bad seat in the Xcel Energy Center. It is a great place for a show.



This painting was done on stage during two songs. Notice "The Voice Of Truth" at the top. It was painted only with parts of the artist's hands, without brushes or use of other tools. It was so cool to watch. We tried to borrow the artwork after the concert so we could use it at church the next morning since we were going to be performing that song, but somebody had already purchased it. Worth a shot right? :)

4/27/08
Here are a couple of shots from Sunday morning. Hope always gets so excited to sing with the microphone and play Grandpa's "dums."




5/3/08
Saturday night we had the privilege of meeting our friends Angie, Garry, & family for dinner. We have loved getting to know these friends of ours since we all prepared for our China travel. They met their daughter Sarah about a month before we traveled to meet Hope. We share some special connections and always have a great time when we're together. You should have seen the two girls! I'm pretty sure that Hope recognized Sarah. It was so sweet to watch them side by side during dinner. Hope also has a bit of a sparkle for Angie and Garry's son Sam. He can crack her up with a glance and it is super entertaining to watch them play. It was entertaining for us anyway. Apparently the lady behind us didn't enjoy the loud laughter so much judging by the looks we received, but hey...you don't go out to the local pizza place for a quiet atmosphere right? Anyway, we are so happy that you sent the email about being in town Angie. We miss you since your move. We hope you had a safe, uneventful trip home and that we can see you again soon.
~ Friends ~


~ All three of the young ones actually facing the same direction ~ It was pretty cute to see them want to share that chair.

~ Saying Goodbye ~


5/4/08
Can you believe it has been 11 months since we first held Hope in our arms? Gotcha day was 11 months ago on this day, a day that seems like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. Is that possible? Hope in our lives is a miracle. She brings us joy beyond measure and we are blessed every moment we are her parents.

We had a fun day. After church we met our friends Mark, Melody, and Hope Brue for lunch and a trip out to the UWRF campus farm. The two Hopes ran around the buildings, giggled at the animals, oinked with the pushy piglets, baa'd with the skittish lambs, got kisses from the affectionate calves, and had a great afternoon together.







~ Mom's Favorite Picture of the Day ~

We left the farm about 3:00 and It took less than 10 minutes for Hope to zonk out in her carseat. We decided to take advantage of the time and the beautiful weather so Ron and I stopped for a couple of geocaches on our way out of town. We let Hope sleep until we got up to Grandma and Grandpa's house to see Great-Great Aunt Vi, and Great Aunt and Uncle Terry and Jim. It was so fun to visit with them and watch them play with Hope. She turned on the charm and got acquainted with Vi over a shared bunch of grapes and bowl of goldfish crackers. It wasn't long before the toys were out and she was preparing/sharing her plates of plastic food with everyone.





5/6/08
And now for Tuesday - Not much to report here other than Hope had her first sliver today. I noticed a red spot on the top of her left hand ring finger. At first, I thought maybe I could blame the teething and recent increase in chewing on those fingers, but it was pretty red. So, after further inspection, we found the sliver. Hope handled herself very well. She let me try with a tweezer, then another tweezer, and finally a clippers. I was able to just clip around it and she hardly flinched. YEA! First summer crisis survived. Hopefully they'll all be that easy.

So - Hopefully I'm all caught up now with news. Thanks for checking in. G'nite all! We're exhausted! :)

April 28th Video & News

Hello everyone...friends...family...others who stop by once in a while...

First things first: I know that I owe an update. First of all I wanted to say thank you to all who've been praying for me. I'm still not feeling great, but I have an appointment Thursday that will hopefully lead me toward some more answers. I know it is hard to read all this without many details, but I'm just not comfortable sharing it with the world. Just know that I'm thankful for the compassion and caring that I've received from many of you. I'm truly blessed.

Now for some catching up:

If you read the previous post/story and had a good chuckle, this video should prompt a belly laugh. This is the little girl who greets my parents every morning. She is happy, playful, and ready for the day. But, on Monday morning last week (4/28) she announced a special surprise. Luckily she hadn't yet had the opportunity to leave any wet surprises in the corner of her bed again. :)

This next video was also taken on 4/28. We went out for dinner with Uncle Brian and Aunt Tami and I guess Hope thought they were pretty silly that evening. Maybe it was her daddy who got her started...I'm just not sure. :) If you didn't giggle with the last video clip, you'll have to along with this one. It is completely contagious. Have fun!

Final big news for April 28, 2008: Hope's first 2 yr. molar (bottom right) showed visible signs of forced entry. We have been going through some yucky diaper stuff, excessive drool, fists in the mouth, and extreme toddler emotions for the past couple of weeks. We've suspected those pesky molars, but now we know. Our little girl is getting so big. Look at this mouth full of chompers! Doesn't Hope just have the most beautiful smile (not to mention fashion sense)?

FYI - Her onsie says "Exquisitly Fashioned by the Father" on the front. The back reads, "Then God saw everything that He had made and it was good." I would definitely agree!

More updates to come. I've started a couple of posts, but need some time to sort and choose pictures. Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the week.

Beth

Have A Laugh At Our Expense

I just have a few moments to write here. I should probably be fixing some lunch for my little angel who just woke up from her nap. I haven't been blogging in a couple of weeks. Sorry everyone. I've been a bit under the weather and have had several trips in and out of the clinic. I'd rather not get into too much detail here, but I've got an appointment next week for some tests and another the following week with a GI specialist (thanks Laura). Hopefully we'll get everything figured out soon.

I have so much to share. Last weekend was wonderful as we traveled to Appleton for a family wedding. Jon (my cousin) and Denise are so happy and we had such a fantastic time celebrating with them. I'll hopefully have some time soon to share some more about them, the wedding, and add some additional pictures. Below are just a few shots from the weekend. The first two are from Saturday morning when we took a couple hours to find some geocaches in the area in attempt to wear out Miss Hope so she'd nap before the ceremony. Well, I'm pretty sure she was tired, but no nap before. She slept through the entire wedding though. She fell asleep on the way to the church. ;)


These next two are after the big nap and a snack before we made our way to the reception. She was such a good girl for the whole weekend. We are so proud of her!


Finally - Here is the story connected to the title of this post. Another mother started a thread on our group about cute stories and things are children are doing. I thought some people here might get a kick out of this one. This was my entry:

Here is one from our Hope portfolio...

So we've been flirting with the idea of using the potty around here for quite some time. Hope is pretty good about it (#1 anyway) if we're consistent about getting her up there regularly. Well, one
morning while I was home over spring break week with Hope, I guess I left her in her crib playing for too long. I could hear her on the monitor laughing/singing/playing with her aquarium, etc. She seemed content, but by the time I went in to get her up for the day here is what I found...

Hope standing in her crib in her P.J.'s. Normal, right? Nope. :) When I picked her up I quickly noticed that she no longer had a diaper on! That little squirt somehow squirmed out of her pajamas, took her diaper off, rolled it up and threw it on the floor. After further inspection I also found out that she'd proceeded to pee in the corner of her crib before getting herself dressed and zipped up again! Can you believe it? It is hard to be frustrated with her. She knew not to go in her diaper, I guess. :)

These little ones sure keep us running!

Have a great weekend everyone -

Beth

P.S. We are going out tonight for the first time without Hope since we've been home (10 1/2 months). Casting Crowns is performing in St. Paul tonight! Hope is staying with Aunt Tami and Uncle Brian. She'll be just fine. Wish mommy luck, though. ;)

Milestone Anniversary

One year ago today I was at work going CRAZY knowing that referrals had landed and were being announced across the message boards on-line. I just knew it was our day. Members or our travel group had been sending email messages back and forth all morning..."Did you get the call yet? No did you?" I can't remember who was the first to hear, but once I knew for sure the calls were coming to say that I was a bit anxious is a drastic understatement. I remember getting the call from the Social Worker that morning. It went something like this:

SW: "Hello Beth? This is Crossroads."
ME: "I've been waiting for your call!" (Immediate tears!)
SW: "You have? Well, I have a referral for you. You have a daughter!"
ME: "REALLY?"

I remember wanting to hear it again. REALLY? We have a daughter?! I couldn't believe it was finally happening for us! I tried my best to copy details...name, birthdate, province, etc., but I was pretty hysterical.
The call:

When I hung up with the agency, I called Ron right away:

ME: "Hi honey." (I tried so hard to speak calmly though I was crying and shaking on my end of the phone,)
RON: "Hi."
ME: "Guess what..."
RON: "What," he said as if he didn't know. He was gracious enough to let me say the next sentence.
ME: "We have a baby girl!"

That was all I could really get out. We made plans to leave work as soon as possible and meet to drive to the agency so we could at last see the pictures of our daughter. What a surreal moment. We spent part of the afternoon at Crossroads trying to absorb the basics. From there we went immediately to have copies made of the pictures for our parents and then we stopped at the Chinese restaurant we like to ask for some help with the pronunciation of Hope's name. That was sort of a funny moment. :) It was so cool to deliver our news to our parents that night. We were so excited to become parents and were already so in love with our little girl.
This was the first picture we saw that afternoon:

Our first glimpse:

Now, 1 year later, we are still so proud and excited to be Hope's parents and we just love her more with each day. I can't believe it has been a year since we first saw those big beautiful black eyes and cute little toes. I remember wanting so badly to pinch those toes. SO CUTE!

Please look back to our post here to see our referral announcement and all the pictures. This post is from one month later and sort of re-lives referral day as well. It has been a blast preparing this post and reading back over all the comments we received after Hope's referral. What a miracle this has all turned out to be.

Happy Referral Anniversary Hope (and all of CR Group 91). So many memories!

One year ago we were waking up and staring into the adorable eyes of a photograph. Today, this is what we get to wake up to:

(I apologize that the video is dark, but you still get the idea. We have one happy little girl.)

Weekend Family

Mark ("Uh Muk"), Andria ("Enya"), and STELLA!!!! came to spend the weekend with us. We miss them terribly and love when we can all be together. Hope can't get enough of them and of course the pup, too (who we'll hear about every day for the next couple weeks I'm sure). Here are a few of the highlights...

Hope had a pretty big puzzle weekend. She doesn't seem to be too challenged by the wooden puzzles anymore. We've even tried turning them upside-down and it doesn't seem to phase her much. Guess we'll have to find some where the pieces actually fit together now. At any rate, she had a great time...and had some help from the pooches too. :)




In the middle of one of her puzzles, Hope decided to take some time for a fashion show for Auntie Andria. Hope had out boots (a couple of different pair I think), sandles, hats, etc., and showed off a bit...always full of smiles. It was funny because at one point, Hope disappeared in her room and I finally said, "Hope? What are you doing?" Her reply was, "I need sandles!" So cute. :)

Hope had the most fun this weekend running "FAST" down the hallway at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She tries to run fast like "Rintoo" on Kai-lan. Let me tell you, this girl is quick!
Ready?




Mama's favorites ~


Running to two of her favorite people ~


Of course, our weekend wouldn't be complete without a few shots of the cousin pups. These two love each other. It is so sweet to watch them play. However, I have to admit that when Ella gets Stella's little head in her mouth and starts with her deep Newfoundland growl, I do have a slight twinge of worry.

Getting Stella Kisses ~ vs. ~ Giving Stella Snuggles



Uncle Mark and Daddy added a little percussion to the music at church this morning.

Don't be thinkin' that Mark got away with bringing up that cool djembe and Hope left it alone...no way. She had a turn.


Thanks for spending the weekend with us guys. We love you and miss you already.

Weekend B&W Favs

caption for the one below???

Midwest Weather

This was Monday (3/31).



This was Friday (4/4)!