The Babies are COMING HOME!!!

The final 2 of the 3 World Child families are on their way to Vietnam to bring their babies home. The first family came home last week and the other 2 should be back in the US by next week :)

Happy Times

A few days ago we received wonderful pictures of Isabella's birth father. We, along with my parents, had sent her birth family money for Tet, a beautiful picture book of Isabella's 1st year with us, and a letter telling them what she has been doing-her likes and dislikes, what she does during the day, etc. Our agency, World Child, has a foundation through which we communicate once a year with Bella's birth family. The pictures actually made me cry-it was like we were seeing a part of our family after a very long time. Looking back, I never imagined feeling this way about our baby's birth family. The reason we chose international adoption was so we didn't have to deal with a birth family. Then we were presented with a choice....an abandoned baby girl born June 26th or a relinquished (meaning her parent/s willingly put her up for adoption) baby girl born June 27th. We chose the baby with the birth family. We thought all the memories we would have of meeting them and knowing something about them would help Isabella deal with any emotions she might have being an adoptee as she gets older. Then came the news that she not only had both parents but 5 brothers and sisters too!! We imagined a single mom around the age of 18 with no other children. Bella's parents were 42 and 50 and she had siblings ranging in age from 6 to 21. Honestly, this completely through me for a loop. I immediately felt competitive, worried, and scared. What if she wanted to meet them later in life? What if she wanted to go back and live there? What if she loved them more than she loved us? I know now that those thoughts were ridiculous mainly because I don't care if she wants to go and see them and I don't care if she grows to love them. She should!! They gave her life twice-once when she was born and once when they handed her over to us. We will be eternally grateful for their gift and will do our very best to convey those feelings to her as she mature.

"One of our own"

While Elisabeth and I were shopping in Limited Too yesterday, the salesclerk mentioned that she wanted to adopt (I am pretty sure she spotted Isabella stripping the underwear table clean) but that her fiance wasn't on board. She said that he wasn't sure if he could love a child that wasn't his' and that she did want to have 'her own' but also wanted to adopt. That just about killed me. And it isn't the first time this has been said to me. People much closer to my heart have said it.....as well as "she'll (referring to Isabella) be just like one of your own children". HUH?

I honestly know people mean well and do not intentionally try to compare adoption to birth but COME ON, PEOPLE!!! I, myself, grew up with an adopted cousin who I described as 'not really my cousin' to his face!!! How horrible is that????!!! I never considered him to be a real part of the family..more like a 'step' cousin. After getting married and having Elisabeth, a friend of mine adopted from India. I just couldn't understand why someone would want to adopt internationally when she already had a child 'of her own'. I SAID those things people say to me now. I guess I just want people to stop and think. I wish I had. Adoption or birth-it makes no difference how a child becomes a part of your family and it doesn't make them any less important the way they join it. I can honestly tell you that both were awe-inspiring experiences. Both girls have equal parts of my heart.

OOOPS!! Found more pictures....

I am pretty sure my brother and his new wife will NOT be happy I put their wedding picture on the same page as our 'brother' dog :) Putter, one of my mom's 4 dogs, is a smooth coat Brussels Griffon. He is modeling my cousin's new daughter's hair bow. The other picture is of my brother Blake and his new wife Alison. They eloped to Antigua and were married on February 15th. He just returned from Iraq a month ago and will have to go back sometime this summer.

Pictures of my Liam and Lucy Lu....

Skating, snow days....

Bella WALKING in her size 8 skates.

These were actually taken at 9:30 at night....the girls were snuggled in Elisabeth's bed watching a Sesame Street DVD. What a great big sister to sit through a preschool video.

Elisabeth had a birthday party at a rollerskating rink on Thursday night. At first, she was thrilled that I was going to bring Isabella and stay. Then she met up with some of her friends. Her story quickly changed. I had Bella IN SKATES (breaking my back trying to keep her upright) when Elisabeth skated by and said, "MOM, get out of the middle of the rink...it is kind of embarrassing!" On one hand, I am thrilled she is growing up and wants to leave the nest a little but on the other hand, who the heck does she think she is. That made me want to lay down and take a nap right then and there. And drool!! I did eventually leave-with Isabella screaming "BISS....BISS....BISS" (that's what she calls Elisabeth). I took for ice cream and she forgot all about BISS....

We had yet another snow day on Friday. One more and we will start to loose Spring Break. We ended up going to the mall...AGAIN. Thank goodness we only live .5 miles from it. When we lived across town 4 years ago, we rarely drove all the way to the mall (it was about 5 miles). Now I make that trip at least once a day as my schools are now 'across town'. No running home for lunch now :)

Great news about my cousin Jacqueline and her husband Jim....they leave to get their baby girl in 2 weeks!!!! I am so excited and thrilled for them :) She is going to call me when she has the baby's bags packed to see if she needs anything else. They haven't had a baby in the house in 19 years....she wondered if she should get "pablam" (did I even spell it right??)...aka baby cereal. Besides the baby starving to death because she can't find pablam, I think they will be awesome parents to this little one :) I promise to post pictures as Jacqueline doesn't have her own blog YET!!

I have been tagged!!

I was tagged by Dawn......

The Rules....

You've been tagged. List 7 random things that people may not know about you. The rules are to link the person who sent this to you and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours. Post the rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, linking their blog. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

SO CONFUSING!!! But here we go....

1. I have 3 degrees....and associates in Interpreting for the Deaf, a bachelors in Speech Pathology and Audiology, and a masters in education in Speech Pathology.

2. The only reason I chose Speech Pathology was to stay close to my now-husband, then-boyfriend Todd. I attended Rochester Institute of Technology, where I met him at the age of 18, and after graduating, I didn't want to move away from him. I found a college nearby (Nazareth College of Rochester), looked at their course list and choose Speech Pathology---not having a real clue what it was!!

3. I am the oldest of 5....I was 13 when my youngest brother was born. My first day of college was his first day of kindergarten.

4. My mother was a stay-at-home mom and my dad worked 2-3 jobs so she could stay at home and raise us. We never knew we weren't rich and never knew it wasn't cool to wear clothes from K-Mart.

5. I had NO intention of EVER adopting a child. It did not enter my mind at any point in my young or old life. After years of infertility (which shocked us because I got pregnant with Elisabeth without even knowing!), I woke up one morning and told Todd that I wanted to adopt internationally. It took him a little more than a night to get used to the idea :)

6. My mother's side of the family are all Canadians. We spent time at my grandmother's lake house every summer as children and now take our own kids there.

7. My cousin and husband, who live in Canada, decided to adopt a baby after they met Isabella. They are in their 40's and have 2 grown children and never imagined they would be parents again. And guess what...they are leaving in 2 weeks to get a beautiful 1 year old baby girl 2 hours from Hanoi :)

I now tag.....
Debbie,
Bunny's Mom
Michelle
Camdyn's Mom

Have fun :)

HIDE THE INK PADS!!!

No explanation necessary :)

Playing, Baking, and Fort Building

Isabella in her new Elmo dress from Jacqueline....

Isabella laughing with Nanny....
Isabella and Elisabeth riding the big slides at Fun Unleashed...check out Bella's face :)
Elisabeth enjoying fries and cheese....lots of nutritional value.

Elisabeth and I made, FROM SCRATCH, cupcakes and icing from the Martha Stewart website. Before we started, we thought we might open a bakery together. Two hours and many cups of sugar later, we have decided to stick to the box mix.

My Valentine's Day Gift

And what a gift it was!!! If any of you watch American Idol, you may recall a guy by the name of Ranaldo Lapuz singing "I Am Your Brother". Well, Todd decided to go to his website and found out that if you paid a mere $19.00, Ranaldo would call your 'special someone' on Valentine's day and sing them his special song. I am not sure how "I am your brother" describes the feelings between a husband and wife, though. Anyway, because Rinaldo was an hour late calling, Elisabeth missed it (but I got to hear all 3 minutes of it). SO...he called back and sang it to her later that evening.

Things I can do besides swear....

At 38 years old, I can......
•eat with a fork/spoon, unfortunately. If I had to eat with my hands, I think I would weigh less.
•can tell us yes or no--always NO when it comes to sex and YES to shopping
•say 5000+ words and can string many words together to make full sentences
•sign about 500+ words
•walk when I have to but would prefer to drive, NEVER run or gallop
•put on my underwear all by myself but Todd usually has to hook my 200 bra hooks
•always poop on the potty except when I have diarrhea and we know where that may end up
•usually pees on the potty except a few times when I have a full bladder and sneeze
•clean the entire downstairs and upstairs while Todd is typing on the computer-oblivious
•watch 24 hours straight of America's Next Top Model re-runs
•sleep 12+ hours a night and then take 2 -2 hour naps during the day
•wear size 12 clothing and size 7.5 shoes
•weigh 175+ pounds...(I am praying to God my father does not read this as he would have a fit. When I was sick with the stomach flu, he thought I should be happy as it would give me a jump start on my diet :)
•has had 100+ haircuts because I look like George Washington when I have a ponytail
•will walk upstairs, if I have to, but will usually run out of breath and have to lay down :)

I think you have a better picture of who I am now :)

Things Isabella can do besides swear.....

At 19 months, my little potty mouth......
•eats with a fork/spoon
•can tell us yes or no--usually no, though
•says 50+ words and has started putting 2 words together (no daddy, come mommy)
•signs about 20 words
•walks, runs, gallops
•gets on her pull-up by herself and pull on her pants, almost
•always poops on the potty
•usually pees on the potty
•cleans the entire downstairs with 1 baby wipe and then uses it to wipe her face off
•watches 20-30 minute of Dora, Elmo, Tiger and Pooh, Sesame Street, and Barney
•has 8 teeth and is cutting the big ones in the back
•sleeps 10-11 hours at night and 2-3 in the afternoon
•wears 18-24 month clothing and size 6.5 shoes
•weighs 26+ pounds...no clue how tall she is but she is in 50th percentile for both
•has had 10+ haircuts and owns every bow Gymboree has ever made
•crawls up/down the stairs but can walk if you are holding her hand

I think that is about it:)

Potty Squared/Happy Valentine's Day

This is a bad picture of Isabella but good of Elisabeth........
Good of Isabella...bad of Elisabeth
Isabella sporting her new Gymobree outfit (notice matching socks AND hair ribbon)....

Our potty training is going quiet well :) So is her potty mouth. For some reason (could it be her mother's filthy mouth??) she has discovered the word sh*t. And she can say it very clearly. And very appropriately. In Gymboree yesterday the handle to her bag broke, she looked up at the employee, and stated "SH*T!". Not once...but 5 times. Then this morning as I was doing her hair, she dropped something in the sink and said it again!! I am hoping if I stop saying it, she will stop saying it. The more you tell her no, the more she says it. I think she should give it up for Lent. On the potty training front, though, she is great!! She can hold it all night, tell me when she has to poop, and goes pee on the potty when I sit her down. I was so proud of her progress that I decided to put her in little Elmo bikini panties (which we she wanted to see so she refused to put her pants on) AND GO OUT OF THE HOUSE WITHOUT AN EXTRA SET OF CLOTHES. What the hell was I thinking?????????? We got the restaurant, went potty, and then ate. We get up to leave, all proud of ourselves, and she says "Uh OH...pee pee" and we think, "GREAT!!! She is telling us she has to go potty!" WRONG!! She had already GONE potty...alllllllllllllllll over the highchairs.....alllllllllllllllll over the floor. We are talking puddles!! Puddles big enough for rain boots! She must have been holding it in since Christmas! I think we will stick to pull-ups from now on until we have better bladder control :)

By the way-Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Another snow day?? UGH!

You know enough is enough when your 10 year old actually wants to go to school after being home for 2 days due to snow. Although I do love the phone call at 6:15 am and staying in my pajamas until noon and having a 2 hour nap every day, this week has been so SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW! Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day in good ole' PA, but Friday there is supposed to be more snow. A 2 day week?? Not bad :)

I took little Miss I. for a haircut today-probably her 10th. Although the back looks great, the sides look like the have been chewed off by a lawnmower. Granted, it is beyond difficult giving a squirming 1.5 year old a perfect looking bob but.......... we are going back tomorrow for a little trim. After the cut, she got a sucker. Delightful. Nothing better than sticky hands and freshly cut hair. We got to the mall and I pitched it (the sucker, not her hair) into a snowy mud puddle and then the screaming and pointing started. She wanted it back and wasn't going to give up until she got it. Being the good mother that I am, I marched over, picked it up, licked it off, and stuck it back in her mouth. All to shut her up.

To all of you who love to shop at Gymboree, there is 20% off and then an additional 20% off the pink and black poodle line. Can I say OMG!! I seriously need a meeting and an 8 step program for GA...Gymboree-ics Anonymous. Pretty pathetic that I work to dress my toddler in the cutest clothes ever. I keep telling myself, though, that when she hits 7 or 8 I won't dress her there anymore because she would look a little dippy in cupcakes and puppy dogs at that age. Right??

WHOOOO HOOOO SNOW DAY!

State College had a whopping 4 inches of snow and everything in the town shut down, including the schools. Everything. After being a stay-at-home mom for 1 day-that is 8 hours-I needed to get the hell out of Dodge but there was NO WHERE TO GO!!! Dollar Store, Barnes & Noble, Pier One...everything closed. And there was no way to sneak back in the house and creep upstairs to the bathtub without being seen. UGH!! They did see me come in and then saw my butt as I ran upstairs :) Enjoy the pictures of our delightful snow......

Pictures from Tet

Elisabeth and Ava coloring....
Elisabeth with Corrie and Clarre Porter (Vietnam) and Sarah (China). Isabella is rebelling on the floor.
Sam Porter (China) reading to Isabella.....
All the children (25 of them!) that attended the Tet Celebration :)

Lent...a little late

I just took Elisabeth out for lunch.. she is in the 5th grade and only at the same school as me for the next few months so I like to do this every now and then (she will move to the middle school in September but we can't talk about that or I will start to cry.) Anyway, she is constantly complaining about this one student in her class...we will call her Miss A. (for Annoying). For some reason, Miss A. and Miss E. get on eachother's nerves something awful. Miss. E. is always coming home yaking about something Miss A. has done...from wearing the wrong shoes, to puffing up her bra, to not paying attention. She will get in the car and state, "Miss A. had her boobs on again today!" meaning she stuffed her bathing suit top with tissues. After many months of moaning, I decided to give E. the 'LENT' talk today. I explained how Jesus went into the garden for 40 days and nights and didn't eat or drink and how it is important to honor Him during this 40 day time period (I know..I am a little late!). Then I gave her the idea of being nice to Miss A. for an entire 40 days-no snippy comments, no arguing, no fighting. She gave me a counter-offer of giving up water. I don't think so. She wondered why I was getting 'all Catholic' on her (we are Protestant, by the way), which made me laugh but didn't stop me from telling her that she needed to start behaving and give Miss. A. a break. To further cement this lesson, I told her I would do something, too, for the next 40 days. I am not sure I will have a tongue left because she told me I can no longer argue with Todd. I think I would rather stop eating or drinking :)

Tet Celebration

No, I don't have any pictures because my camera is hidden in the bottom of the dirty clothes basket. But...we did have a fantastic time at the 1st Annual Tet Celebration in Ithaca!!! It was so amazing to meet all those babies that we have heard about and read about!! I finally got to see Natalie and Jeremy, who are so adorable and so very well behaved!!!! They sat in their little high chairs for over an hour and never moved or cried or whined. And we got to spend more time with Ava Linh, whom we met a few weeks ago for the first time....Isabella is in love with Ava's daddy-whenever we couldn't find her, she was usually sitting on his lap.

I think there were about 20 families with 25 kids!! Thank you, Donna Ramil, for organizing everything!! The food was delicious and the company was even better :) I will post pictures as soon as I dig out my camera!!!

Bella NOT Talking

Here is my lame attempt at showing off Isabella's advanced language skills. Unfortunately, it doesn't speak too highly for my ability as a Speech Therapist :)

Sleep is on the horizon....

We have been having a horrible time getting Isabella to sleep at night and then keeping her asleep until morning. Todd, out of total love, likes to give her a bottle full of milk at bed time. This is the only sure way of getting her to sleep by herself. This is NOT a good idea for her teeth (or lack there of) or for her ability to fall asleep on her own. I, on the other hand, put her to bed screaming and crying, leave her for 30 minutes while plugging my ears and turning up the tv to the maximum level, get her up and bring her to bed with me, put her back in her own bed, let her scream for another 30 minutes, get her up again....and then finally use the Todd method. UGH. Once this is all said and done, she will most likely sleep for a full 3 HOURS before she starts crying again. Back in I go (Todd has now taken off his hearing aids/implant and is completely oblivious) and bring her in with us. At that point, she kicks her little feet, ON MY BACK, like she is running a frickin' marathon and the rubberized pattern on the bottom of her sleeper doesn't help. To say I have had it...it an understatement.

Last night, we started something new out of utter desperation....Elisabeth and I took her to Fun Unleashed (an indoor play place) after school and let her climb and slide for an hour. Then we went home and ate a great dinner (cooked at the local Chinese restaurant), played some more, and then got ready for bed. I put her in double layers so she wouldn't be cold, brushed her 4 little teeth, read her 5 stories, turned on her humidifier for a little white noise, and shut the door. Oh, before the last step, I did put her in her crib and kiss her:) She looked up at me and said, "Milk, Mommy!!" and while I was muttering something about her father being a stupid idiot, I told her "Milk all gone!" and quickly escaped. May I say, that little monster slept ALL night-not a peep from her-AND.......SHE WAS DRY!!!! WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I think I could write a book on motherhood now:)