Birthdays

I finally downloaded pictures from my camera... and thought I'd share a few of the kid's birthday party's.

Isaac turned 4 in June- We got to celebrate his Birthday in Nebraska with some family this year.

He wanted a dinosaur birthday

He also got to go "water skiing" on his birthday

Rachel turned 8 in July - She had a space party before we went to the states with her friends and then had a princess party with my parents in England. (in a real castle!)

Her world cake

In Rose Castle's Tower

Levi turned 3 in September - We had a Pirate birthday for him here in Uganda w/ some good friends.

Until next year :)

We've Got A Two Year Old!

Yep our little guy is 2! Here's a list to let you know what he's into these days.

2 favorite words
1. Dadel (Rachel)
2. WaWa (water)

2 favorite books
1. Giggle Giggle Quack
2. Douglas


2 favorite things to do
1. Playing with a ball
2. Jumping (he started jumping in his exersauser at 6 months, and hasn't stopped since)

2 favorite things to eat
1. Bananas (he would eat 20 a day if i would let him)
2. Cu Cu (cookies)


2 things he gets in trouble for ***(make it 3-see below)
1. Killing flowers
2. Throwing things at his brother’s head

2 favorite movies
1. arrrr (backyardigans- abdominal snowman episode)
2. broom, broom (Cars)


2 favorite phases
1. No Dadel, No Dadel, Dadel, NO!!!! (he loves his sister) : )
2. me too

2 things that make us laugh
1. When he dances (his hip thrusts are hilarious!)
2. Running in circles (if he doesn’t become a runner when he is older I will be shocked!)


As you all know we are so blessed to have Isaac in our family! His name means “He laughs”, which as his personality comes out is going to be very fitting. He loves making his sister & brother laugh (& of course has us in stitches as well). HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC! WE LOVE YOU!


***okay i had this all ready to go weeks ago, and was ready to hit publish, when some unnamed 2 year old came up and pushed some button that made my computer crash. & I’m not sure why but blogger didn’t save any of it. : ( & b/c it takes about 15 minutes to attach each photo it took me awhile to get back to it. So here's a very belated birthday post.

Isaac's Hair

We haven’t gotten Isaac’s hair cut in over 6 months. It’s long. Jesse and I have had a long standing debate on what to do with it. Jesse wants to braid it or have locks (dreads) put it. I’ve loved his curls, but now that we are here in Uganda, have felt like we just need to shave it off again. The men here all have shaven hair. & I get a little tired of getting dirty looks when people ask if Isaac is a girl or a boy and i tell them a boy. But I decided to go ahead and try to get his hair done...and hey if it looks terrible then we can always just shave it off, right!?

(a picture to show you isaac's hair)

So off to the salon. We go in to ask how long it would take to get what we want. They say an hour and a half. (we had brought our little movie player with us). We say great. They tell us that they guy who is going to do his hair has about 5 minutes more with his client and then we are up. Since we are at the salon, Rachel and I decide to go ahead and have pedicures done.


Now you might think we are really spoiled to have this done, but trust me our feet get really really disgusting here. We wear flip flops everywhere. and there is dirt and mud everywhere. It’s fine, but it is nice to have them scrap at least the first 10 layers of dirt off. I would put up a picture of our disgusting feet, but I don’t want to scare off any readers :) (especially you Ryan & Candice).

Well anyway so we are getting our toes done, and Jesse is just waiting with Isaac and Levi. and he keeps waiting and waiting. We actually get done, 45 minutes later, and Isaac is now just getting in his little chair. The guy looks at his hair, and proceeds to tell us that b/c his hair is so fine it’s not long enough, and we would not be happy in 3 days when it all falls out. Bummer. I’m glad he was honest with us, but I do wish he could haven told us that right when we got there. So now we don’t know what to do. He said it needs to be about an inch longer. So do we wait it out to let it grow that long, or do we just shave it? I know such a dilemma. : )

Fun With Water

On Sunday we went to one of the churches we have been visiting. After the service they were going to serve lunch and have a giant slip & slide for the kids. They weren't kidding. It was HUGE!


They also had a small little pool out for the kids.


Rachel & Isaac ran right out to play. At one point in the afternoon I look down at Isaac, he has someone's dirty shoe and is filing it with water from the pool and then proceeds to drink it. Just in case you're wondering, no we are not supposed to drink the water here.

Today (Tuesday) we were taking a taxi to a friends house to let the kids play a bit. We are about 5 minutes from home, when Isaac begins to throw up all over the cab. I have to tell the guy to turn around b/c "sorry but my kid is yacking all over the place". The driver was very gracious, but it was disgusting. After helping the guy clean out his car, I go put Isaac in the bath. He's playing fine, and then leans down in the bath and starts lapping up the water... will he ever learn?!

A Year

I'm a little late with this post...what's new...but it's been over a year since Isaac has been home with us. Thinking back about this past year brings up so many different emotions. Joy, disappointment, love, hope, fear, confusion, gratefulness, but most of all I've been in awe of God's goodness.

There are times when I can't believe it's already been a year home with Isaac, and yet it feels like he's been with us forever. By God's grace alone I feel like we have completely meshed into a family.

You all know how I got pregnant... for me the worst timing ever. But God has truly shown me that I may have great plans, but that I need to let go. I had such great plans for Isaac & Rachel and I. I figured that this year Rachel would be in kindergarten and that I would have that one on one time with Isaac just like i had with Rachel. I figured we would go to Gymboree classes, have lots of play dates, and just have fun. My pregnancy ruined that expectation. I was sick..really sick for 6 months. I had to leave Isaac in the care of others. I couldn't carry him, and could barely sit up long enough to even give him a bottle. This broke my heart, and I was mad that God "let me" get pregnant! (I hate to even say this out loud, b/c I know there are so many people who would give anything to get pregnant, and i don't at all want to hurt or offend anyone by this-but i want to be honest.) But through this time there are so many things that i learned.

One was that we have a wonderful church family! A good friend sent an email out explaining our situation and within hours we had people signed up to bring us 3 meals a week for 10 weeks, and we had childcare taken care of for 3 weeks (until my mom could get here). People came and loved on Isaac when I couldn't. They fed us, cleaned up after us. And one family lent us a laptop so I could have something to do while I sat in bed for hours. Jesse & I couldn't have gotten through that time without them! It's really great when you can see Christian love in action!

The other big worry was that Isaac wouldn't bond with us. When you adopt you hear things like "don't' let other people hold them for 6 months", "only you should feed them/change them", "Keep visitors at bay". All these things that obviously we could not follow. I worried that Isaac would never bond with us. But it has been amazing to see how well he has. I do see things that I can tell maybe he's not completely secure in this attachment. He has stranger anxiety...& i know this could be just as much temperament, I also realize this could be related to attachment. But he still prefers us over everyone. He loves to give hugs & kisses. He is a goof-loves to make us all laugh, especially his sister. It's been so fun to see his personality emerge. He was so mellow for the longest time when he got home. He is no longer. He runs everywhere. He has actually lost weight (just a pound) in the last 6 months b/c he is running all the time. He is hilarious, and has the best little smile. The changes he has gone through have been amazing. His first doctor visit home with us, he weighed 17 lbs, was 25 1/2 in. At his 18 month visit he weighs 24lbs 15oz., is 31 1/4inches.


Once the birth of Levi got closer, a new worry crept up. I had been pretty indifferent to him. I'm not proud of this fact, but i was still pretty annoyed that this pregnancy messed up my plans. I started worrying that maybe these feelings would continue after Levi was born. But I have to say that as soon as I held Levi into my arms, I fell in love. I new that this was perfect. Our family. Every child that God has blessed us with. I have loved being a mom to three! Yes, my days are filled with diaper changing, spit up, and cleaning up, but they are also filled with kisses, hugs, and best of all laughter.

I am so grateful that I have a loving Father who knows what's best for me, even when I'm sure I've got it all figured out.

Just some photos

Here's Levi & his future girlfriend Lizzie

My grownup daughter (man where do the years go?!)

My adorable little man. (man, i just want to eat him up)

"little mom" Rachel & Levi


***I know these aren't great of Levi, but one of these days I'll download pictures from my camera...he's a cutie, looks just like his dad!***

BOO!!!

Here's some pictures of Halloween fun. :)

Painting Pumpkins

Carving Pumpkins

The finished product





Rachel with her friends

Trick-or-treating at Aunt T & Uncle Brian's


Isaac had so much fun. He got the "point" right away. Rachel was actually the one who got tired and wanted to go home, Isaac could've gone all night.
I know I don't have pictures of Levi, he wasn't feeling good, so didn't take part in Halloween this year...I guess there's always next year.

Changes

It seems like a lot of changes have been going on, and not even the "big one" yet. So here you go....

#1 The change of teeth. Yep Rachel has lost not one, but two teeth in the last 3 weeks. We asked her if she was going to put them under her pillow for the tooth fairy...she told us that she wanted to keep her teeth & get the money for them. Jesse explained that the tooth fairy would lose her job if she did that, so Rachel decided that she already has enough money, and that she just wants to keep them. So I guess I don't get to be a tooth fairy anytime soon. :(




#2 The change of hair. So as most of you know Isaac has beautiful hair. It's very soft, and he has the best curls ever. Well, they've been getting really long lately, and we've been debating on what to do. He used to sit real still while we did his hair, but not so much lately. & it was getting to the point of having to brush it out at least twice a day or the knots would be impossible to get out. Jesse wanted to put it in locs...I thought he was too young for this.


So Jesse took him to the barber and brought him home like this.


yes, i cried. I actually really like it now, it was just really weird, he looks so different. He seems to love it though...he seriously has 5 times the energy now. I don't know if it was the weight of the hair or just that it made him so hot before, but whatever it is it's given him lots and lots of energy.

#3 Rachel starts Kindergarten. I can't believe that my daughter is in kindergarten. I have to admit this was a lot harder then I thought. I remember last year when she started preschool, and some of the moms would be freaking out & crying, and I just didn't understand. This year, I'm blaming my hormones, but I've cried. I actually didn't cry the day of, but I did before, and I did last night after hearing about how she had no one to sit with on the bus or at lunch. (so unlike my daughter) She usually has about 5 friends within the first 2 minutes of going into any store. It's just weird to see her going to such a big school (K-6th; 600 kids). I know she'll do great, but it's just weird to not have her with me all day.




#4 New Kitchen. Well not exactly a new kitchen, but at least new counter tops. Since we didn't have enough going on in out lives, we decided to replace the counter tops. Next up the floors! (erik you coming to help?!)

Before:


After:

So there's a quick update for you all about some of the things that have been going on with us. I have about 17 days left! We're still not ready...don't even have a name picked out for the little guy...Jesse wants a biblical name, I want something not too common. (please feel free to leave suggestions.)

And just to throw in a couple of more pics...here you go. :)

Happy Birthday Isaac

Can you believe it...Isaac is ONE! We had a birthday party for him on Sunday. It was great timing too, b/c that morning in church we were able to have him dedicated. It was very special. Here are some pictures for you all of the party. : )
The cakes:

First bite of cake. (he was so tired though, we thought he was going to fall asleep right in his cake)



He obviously needed a bath after this. :)

Here's a picture of Isaac, when he first arrived at Hannah's Hope. (i think he is about 6-8 weeks old)


*Sorry that i haven't posted in a while. I am feeling quite a bit better. But I still get really tired, I feel like I have a lot to still write about, so hopefully I will get back into the habit. :)

Finally

Here are some pictures for you all :)