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 :)

And He's Two!

Have I told you lately how much I love this crazy little guy?! Well I do!

Happy Birthday Levi!

Isn't his hair awesome! : ) Jesse keeps wanting me to cut it, but I don't see why!

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!***

A Guest Blogger

Friends, Family and Future Fans,

So, I'm kicking it with my Mom on the couch on Saturday night, listening to the Florida-Miami game, and to Dad ramble on and on about how the Huskers are going to need to put a solid running game together if they are going to compete in the Big 12, how the ACC may be the worst football conference in the history of the world, and how the SEC is overrated. Anyway, I'm kicking along to the ESPN theme music, and someone starts draining the pool. Now, this doesn't bother me - I mean, I was really starting to get a little pruny - but it apparently bothered Mom. All of the sudden she's up and running around - telling dad that she thougth the pool "broke," or something like that; typing on the computer, I guess to figure out if it could be fixed; up the stairs; down the stairs; in the shower; telling Dad what to pack. This can be more than a little disconcerting when you're along for the ride, hanging out upside down in a rapidly draining pool.


We drive over to the hospital at about 11:30 pm. There's a lot of hustle and bustle. Dad seems pretty happy. Mom seems less so. Then Mom and Dad decide to walk a marathon. I don't know why - Mom hasn't walked that far for as long as I've known her, and she knows when she tries that I am just going to make life miserable. She walks for about an hour, and I start noticing that she is squeezing me every 10 to fifteen minutes or so. It's not that bad. They stop for about an hour, and then, out of the blue... up they go again - walking in the same long stupid circle, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. By now, I'm dizzy, and starting to get annoyed at this squeezing every ten minutes. Finally they give up on their marathon to nowhere and go to bed around 4:00 in the morning.

The next morning there's a whole lot more hustle and bustle. At around 9:00, I hear someone say something about an induction. I am thinking, induction seems a little premature, but hey, they know talent when they see it. Having no clue about the difference between being "inducted" and being "induced", I try to relax, and start preparing my induction speech. Oh, I found out the difference. And trust me friend, this type of induction - you don't want it. Those little ten minute squeezes turned into monster bear hugs (you know the kind uncle Matt gives when he's trying to show how strong he is), and they were coming ever three minutes.

At 12:30 on Sunday afternoon, when I thought that I had had just about enough of this "induction" @#$#, this nice sounding woman named Ericka says "it's time to push." I figure, well at least we're done with "induction." Not so fast my friend. "Time to push" is not cool at all. All that means is that Mom (who I thought was on my side) starts helping whatever it is that has been squeezing me to really squeeze the ever-loving %#$@# out of me. And then I start banging my head... on everything. Bang.... "alright deep breath"... Bang.... "come on Amy, you're doing great... "Bang.. "a little harder..." ("A little harder," seriously Dad, if I was anything over 7 pounds, I would stand up and give you the ....). And on it went for an hour and a half.


Suddenly at 2:04 pm on Sunday afternoon, some (I won't say mean, but I won't say nice either) woman grabbed me by the head and suddenly everything got really cold. I started screaming, Mom started crying, I don't know what Dad was doing (I guess he's laughing, but it was just kind of weird), some lady I'd never met started wiping me down, and barking out numbers... "6 pounds, 7 ounces..." "19 3/4 inches long" "10 fingers," 10 toes," people started commenting on my nice dark hair, and how I looked like Sylvester Stallone at the end of Rocky I (you know, after he loses to Apollo).



Since then, things have been going fine. The bruises on my head and face are starting to fade, I'm eating like there's no tomorrow. Heck, I've even tried sleeping for four hour stretches in the night. I got to meet Rachel and Isaac. Rachel even held me for a while. She's great, but a little clingy. I think Isaac wants to pat me to death, so I'm going to keep my eye on him.

By the way, the name is Levi... Levi Zilen Rudy. Just thought you all should know I'm here.

Peace,

P.S. Here are some pictures to confirm my story. Sorry about the delay. Dad's not so good with computers, and we can't ask Mom to do everything.