Category Archives: Everyday Life

Wonderscope

This is a normal post, for those of you who are tired of my Debby Downer posts. 🙂

Two weeks ago, we went to Wonderscope with my aunt. It’s a kids museum outside of Kansas City. We all had a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to do something super fun with your kids in the KC area.

There are rooms with different activities. The first one we went into was the golfball room. Golfballs and all kinds of tracks and other things to roll them down.

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Next up was the farm and market room…
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Really wound up in the farm room.

This is the only other room that I have photos in. The doctor and vet room. My kids LOVED this room so much. My aunt and I were able to sit down and talk, while they played, apart from a few interruptions where we had to get our shots or our blood pressure taken or hold a sick baby.

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What do you mean I’m not really a doctor?

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We have to pull up this cat’s medical records before we proceed.

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And one of the staff members came in to clean up, and she was wearing this (real) snake. Oh, gross. But, my kids wanted to touch it. Notice Reed looking at her like “are you really sure it’s safe?” And then a few days later, he picked up a snake in the woods that he did not realize was fake. I can absolutely imagine him picking up a real snake in the woods!

There were a bunch of other rooms. I just didn’t take photos! But, anyways, if you are local, you should take your kids. We were there for 3 hours, and we only left because they were closing. I think we would have stayed longer if we could have. Reed and Lena both told me several times over the next few days what a great time they had.

Missing

I’ve missed SO many moments with Reed and Lena. So many scary things, when they needed someone to step in and protect them and take care of them. Bronchitis. Chicken Pox. Nightmares. And I’ve missed so many milestones, moments when someone really should have been there with a camera. First word. First steps. First birthday. Things we can never get back, no money can buy those moments back.

Tonight, I poured over every detail I have about Baby A, trying to make him feel closer and not so far way. But, then I read “holds head up at 2 months, roll at 3 months, crawl at 6 months…” and all I could think about was each milestone we miss as time grows on and on. He’s probably walking well now. He probably has lots of new words. How many teeth does he have now?

For better and for worse, I’ve kissed him and held him in my lap. He’s real to me. There is a baby boy 5000 miles away. Learning new things every day. Growing up. And we, the family who loves him, we’re here. We’re missing moments.

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Reed Recently

Here are a few of my favorite Reed moments recently:
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I need to do a whole blog post about this day.

Singing Gungor’s Beautiful Things all the time.

Signing “stay at home and eat breakfast.”

Asking me if he can eat “mushmallows” for lunch.

Asking me about seeing Danae at church and being totally bummed that she was with her “mommy and  daddy.”

Telling me about grabbing a snake off the ground… before he realized it was fake.

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The drawing of a house under a rainbow that he gave Aaron and me to share. Apparently we didn’t do a very good job sharing, and someone ripped it. 😦

Commenting on my haircut, “you’re like a whole different person.”


 

The Art of Losing Myself

“Rain is no measure of his faithfulness
He withholds no good thing from us…
I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain
That broken find healing in love”
-Sara Groves, No Good Thing

I am hurting today. I do not understand all that we’ve been through in the last 7 months, and all that we have yet to go through. And why. I do not understand God’s timing. I don’t understand why our family was chosen for this path. I miss Baby A. And I miss the simplicity, the way things were, before we began this journey.

“Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing You praise
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame.”
-Hillsong, From the Inside Out

One foot in front of the other. Following. Even though I have no clue where we’re going.

Happy Easter.

Hi :)

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in so long. I was sick for about a week there, and apart from that, blog posts just haven’t been coming to me. At least nothing I feel really compelled to share. We’ve had good days and bad days recently. I should update you on some fun things we’ve done sometime.

We’re all missing Baby A. Not a day goes by where we don’t talk about him. That’s actually not what we call him around our house; it’s not what R&L call him. I’ll have to share the name we’ve chosen for him sometime soon.

One thing I’ve been struggling with lately is jealously. We’ve watched families get their court date, travel to pick up their kids, receive referrals, while we wait. I am happy for families who are still making progress, but it is very frustrating for me sometimes. Especially if it is families who we were ahead of in the process before. Honestly, this adoption has been SO fast. I think the reason why waiting any longer is so hard for me is because of all of the ups and downs we’ve had. I feel like we need him home NOW before anything else changes.

We did have an opportunity to send him a little package earlier this week. Reed and Lena colored pictures for him and I took a picture of them with their pictures. I also included some photos of us together from our first trip, a little teether/rattle and a disposable camera. I’d love to get the camera back, filled with photos, but I figure it’s a long shot. I actually don’t know if any of this will reach him, but I hope the orphanage staff will see how much we love and miss him.
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This is the first photo I took of R&L. Then, I made them take a new one, with shoes on. 3/4s of our family likes to be barefoot. Who can guess the one who doesn’t?

Linny just posted asking for questions for a Q&A post. I am feeling so uninspired and I wonder if any of you might have questions for me– about our adoption process, how R&L are doing, or whatever? You can email me or comment and I’ll make a post answering questions. 🙂