ORANGES...AND NUMAN.

I made a snack for myself yesterday. I cut up an orange and as I was sitting down Elijah saw it and decided he wanted some. I didn't think he would like it so gave him a taste. The boy could not get enough. He was slurping away at the juice. Everytime I took it away he would try to attack it with his mouth.

Now...I wanted to ask for a little help. The orphanage that Elijah came from is needing some help and thanks to a wonderful family with the help of our agency they are working to give them the help they need. This family has started a blog to fund raise to help Numan Orphanage. Don and I were able to visit this orphanage before they moved to a different building. It was a wonderful visit but also very hard to see. Sometimes we need a reality check and I believe our trip to Ethiopia was just that. It was a reminder for me to not take what the Lord has blessed me with for granted. I saw through the eyes of someone else and it touched me in a way that I will never be able to put into words. We knew we wanted to find an organization that we could give to monthly that would benefit our son's birth country and this is what we plan on giving to for now. They took care of our baby boy at the very beginning and we are so thankful to them and what a wonderful way to pay it forward. SO...if you feel led to give or if you just want to check it out, I am posting the blog link here. And thank you so much in advance.

http://www.helpingnuman.blogspot.com/

Have a blessed day.

Tina

FIRST POST-PLACEMENT/ACCIDENT!!

We had our first post placement visit yesterday. We LOVE our caseworker! She was so excited to see Elijah and we talked about how God had worked in our situation through Vietnam and then on to Ethiopia. Elijah took right to her. Then he got down and did some showing off for her. She was surprised at all he was doing and how happy he is. It is nice to hear from her how well he is attaching to us. We got to praise the HOH staff and all they did for us and share stories about the wonderful families that we were blessed to travel with. I also shared about a few I have never met but that I pray for often!
THEN...Our visit got cut short!
Emilie got home and visited for a few minutes then headed outside to play with her friends. While we were visiting the doorbell rang and I sent Randy (our son) to answer it. He went outside and about 10 minutes later walked in with Emilie and said...I think you better take her to the ER it looks like she broke her wrist. Don is so laid back and the type to say "just rub a little dirt on it and it will be fine." BUT as we both looked at it we KNEW it was broke. SO...we finished up what she needed really quickly.
Thankfully, Randy stayed with Elijah and then our daughter came over to help him. And Don and I headed to Urgent Care. There we found out that she had 2 breaks. One was small and the other bigger. UC could not set so we had to go to the Hospital. They sedated her and then set it and she is now sporting an ugly white cast up to her shoulder. We are hoping that it stays set so that she will not need surgery to have pins placed. We should know that in a week or so. She is the toughest little thing I have ever seen. She really never cried over any of it. She would say OUCH but never any more than that. I am amazed at her. If it had been me I would have been a mess!
I will try to get a pic of her but today she is trying to get used to the cast and is in a bit of pain. Please keep her in your prayers. We are hoping she is not in this cast during our vacation to the lake in mid June.

Hope you all have a great day.
Tina

TODAY...

Today we celebrate 2 months home with our little guy. Elijah has changed so much in those 2 months. You can tell by just looking into his eyes how much he has changed. He is attaching and bonding well. There are days we feel he is attached more than others but I believe from all that I have read that he is doing well. He knows what he wants and when he wants it. He will come to me and and climb up my leg if he wants to be held. He wants to be rocked to sleep every night. He just started signing for more and the boy loves his snacks!!! :) I just started giving him cheerios and thinks they are the best. He can dance...oh boy can he dance! The other night we were watching some country music award thing and he finally just plopped on the floor and started bouncing and rocking in the crawling position AND he was bobbing his head up and down. The boy has rhythm! Our camcorder was not charged so we will have to try and get him doing it later. It was pretty funny.
We have been so blessed by this little guy. He amazes us more and more everyday. Soon he will be walking. Just last night he went from the chair to me walking. It was about 4 steps. We were so excited for him.
He has started to get jealous of other kiddos. The other day I was holding another child and he crawled over to me and whined and pushed the other kiddo away. When I put the other kiddo own he plopped himself in my lap and laughed!
Today is also our first post placement visit. I am excited to see what our caseworker thinks of him. I have been cleaning like crazy for the past 2 days. I have been letting too many things slide since Elijah has been home. I would rather play and cuddle with him than clean! SO...my new goal is to try harder to get things done maybe during nap time. I just need to organize my time just a little bit better.
I thought I would share some pics with you all. The first two are from the day we were handed Elijah.

Getting read to go up the stairs.

Laughing at Daddy.

Blessed~

Tina

11 MONTHS OLD...

It is hard to believe this precious little guy is 11 months old today or that we have had him in our arms for 2 months! He is such a joy and a blessing to our family. If you are feeling a little off all you have to do is look at this smile and all is good.
He is doing amazingly well. He has his pedi so baffled that he was actually in an orphanage for 9 months of his life. We know God had his hand gently wrapped around our boy. *He is taking a step or two when he feels brave enough. *He gives kisses but usually only if he is in the mood for it. *He claps and does peek a boo. * He loves the stairs and can now make it up all 14 steps with ease. (he has fallen down about 7 of them and no tears...and was ready to go again!) *He will eat some table food but still prefers his baby food. *He will drink juice out of a sippy cup. *He dances... Usually, if he hears a commercial with music in it! Or you can say...dance Elijah and he will dance. Pretty funny! *He will mimic just about anything. I am sure he is doing so much more but I will not bore you with it all. I will say that he is certainly the highlight in our house! We are so looking forward to the summer and all of the fun "firsts" we will get to experience with him.
Now...on to the best part...PICS!!! :)

Getting ready to head up the steps!

In Mommy's laundry basket!

He loves to climb in my laundry baskets while I am trying to fold the laundry.

Mommy is sharing some of her frozen custard with Elijah...YUMMY!

AND...Mommy gets a kiss for sharing! Mmmmm a nice open mouthed one at that!

STATS: 29 inches long 20 lbs 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth coming through

Hope you are all having a great week! We are certainly enjoying the great weather.

Blessings to all,

Tina

7 WEEKS...

We have been home with our boy for 7 weeks yesterday! The time has flown by....I used to read where people would say that it felt like their little ones had been with them forever...and now I feel the same way. He fits perfectly with our family. God's plan was a perfect one for sure! Why should we ever doubt? :)

In these past 7 weeks we have enjoyed so much watching him grow and learn. He seems pretty attached to his Mommy and Daddy and is getting there with his sisters and brother. He will look for me when I leave the room or follow me when I go up the stairs! (Yes we have a baby gate) He is quite our little adventurer and doesn't seem to have much fear, except for when it comes to walking! :)

He will be 11 months this week and I will update more on what he is doing and post pics.

Emilie is doing well and healing. She will get her stitches out this week as well. She is a little nervous about this.

Hope you all have a wonderful week~

Tina

EASTER...SICK BABY BOY AND HURT LITTLE GIRL

Our Easter weekend ended up being quite eventful! We went to Adrian (our hometown) on Saturday and stayed the night to go to church with my in-laws. I knew Elijah was not feeling great on Saturday morning but was hoping it was just the same crud he has had. BUT throughout the day as he would suck on his bottle for only a few minutes and then push it away, I thought maybe it was an ear infection. He never ran a fever! (all three of the other kiddos always ran a fever with an ear inf.) Anyway...we decided to wait and see. Sat. night was BAD! The longest he slept at a time was 2 hours. I finally ended up on the couch holding him up so he could try to sleep. I felt so bad for him! Then he woke at 630 am and sat up with a huge smile on his face! NO KIDDING!!! He got on the floor was laughing and playing like nothing was wrong and he had a great nights sleep. ME?? I was a walking zombie! :)
We went to Church and we ended up sitting right up front. (never a good idea with an active loud baby!) During their prayer/praise time Elijah was eyeing the minister and smiling and talking. He came over and asked to hold him. Told everyone his name and a little about the adoption and then said say HI. Elijah lifted his hand and waved at the congregation!!! Everyone laughed and clapped. What a cheeser we have!
After Church we headed to my brother's for dinner with my family. While we were there Emilie was out back flying her kite. Elijah decided he had had enough and was getting more and more upset. Emilie wanted to stay for the egg hunt but I had gone out to tell her we were going home. I told her I would hide eggs in our back yard and explained about Elijah. She agreed and asked if she could try to get her kite up one more time. I said yes...THEN, as she was running she looked back to see if it was up (before I could warn her) she turned and ran right into a barb wire fence!
SCARY!!! She ended up with 3 stitches in her neck and 4 stitches in her arm. We were told a little one way or the other and things could have been REALLY bad! We have thanked God several times for watching over her!!
Monday I took Elijah to the Dr and found out he has an ear infection and they did not like the congestion so I have to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours for 2 days. He is getting used to them but the first time I did it he screamed the whole time!! I was not a happy Mommy either.
SO...that was our Easter. Certainly one for the books! Hope everyone else had a great Easter.

Emilie at he Emergency room. She did a great job!

At Uncle Joe's house before the crankies hit and the incident! Elijah did love Daisy.

Getting their Easter books.

Easter egg hunt at Mammy and Grandpa's.

Coloring eggs at our house Friday.

Hope your week is a good one!

Blessings,

Tina

GOOD FRIDAY...PROMISES...SPRING

Today is Good Friday...what an amazing day! I like to reflect on what today means to me. I like to read my Bible and reflect on the sacrifice that was made...even for me! It reminds me of the most sacrificial unconditional love. I can only imagine it... **He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32** This year I feel so blessed to be sharing Easter with our new son. The Lord has graciously given us a very special gift and we are so very thankful and in awe of HIM.

Since our bird dog died a few years ago, we have been promising the kids we would get another big outside dog. We kept telling them that once Elijah was home and hopefully, in the spring we would get them another dog. They both wanted a lab. We decided to surprise them for Easter and instead of chicks or ducks or bunnies...we got them a lab puppy. He is 9 wks old and bigger than our almost 10 yr old min. schnauzer. BUT he is pretty cute. We loved surprising Emilie. We had a hard time waking her up even with him sniffing at her. I finally had to call her name. But the surprised look on her face was priceless. She hugged him and then jumped off her bed and hugged and kissed us. His name is Scooby.

I LOVE SPRING...(except for the allergies!) I think even Elijah is battling allergies. But he does love to be outside. When we first sat him in the grass he just looked at me like I was crazy and he did not move. Then he realized he could move and had fun trying to get all of the leaves and eat them!

May you find joy and peace this Easter and remember that sacrifice that was made for you.

And remember this promise: ..."I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." John 11:25