The Beach

Whenever people ask me how I like living where we do (the Midwest), I'm usually enthusiastic, with a caveat. "It's great, but..." "We love it here, but..." "We plan to stay here long term, but..."

My caveat is the ocean. Until I became a Midwesterner by marriage, I'd never lived anywhere that didn't border the ocean. I grew up an Air Force brat and lived in Virginia, California, England, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and then Virginia again. At the time I thought that I was well-traveled and had lived a variety of places, which was true. But then I moved to the Midwest and realized that all of my former homes had something in common: they were all a day trip away from the beach. I never thought of myself as a beach person until I couldn't get to one if I tried. People here often tell me "but we have so many lakes!" or "the Great Lakes are like the ocean..." Nope. Not the same thing. Being a Midwesterner makes me feel claustrophobic. We love it here, but....

So, at 17 months of age my daughter finally got to see the ocean for the first time. She appears to love it as much as I do:

More Prayers Needed

This time for Evie's Aunt C and Uncle M, who just moved to Santiago, Chile about a week ago. They are safe after the recent earthquake but need prayers for continuing safety. Thank you!

Evie's Uncle M is getting his doctorate in the political science of Latin America and they have been living in Mexico and now, Chile. Here is C's blog, where I'm sure she'll post about the quake once they have enough stability and internet connection to do so: http://unpesoparati.blogspot.com/

Sad News

I am sorry to report that Zeph's adoption plan seems to be over. We are about 97% sure that adopting him is impossible.

Long story short, Zeph's father is fighting for custody. On the one hand we admire C for loving his unborn son and fighting passionately to parent him. On the other hand, we support A and feel sad for her that her wish for her son will not be fulfilled. She dearly wanted for us to raise Zeph and we can't make that come true.

As we told A last night, we don't want to have to tell our son some day that we fought his biological father in court, took him out of state as a newborn and hid him from a birth family that wanted to raise him. This is the opposite of the kind of adoption we have with Evie and the antithesis of the kind of adoption we want for any of our future adopted children.

We can only pray that C and his family will prove A wrong and be a wonderful nurturing family for Zeph. That, or C will have a change of heart and decide to choose adoption for his son. But at this point we do not think Evie will have a little brother this spring. We are sad, and disappointed, but we feel relieved that this is happening before Zeph's birth and before we had a chance to know him and fall in love with him.

If you pray, please keep A and C, Zeph and their families in your prayers. Pray for peace, wisdom and comfort for everyone involved. Thanks.

Wordless Wednesday, Vacation Edition

Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday Y'all! I lived in NOLA in 8th grade and I started this blog from the French Quarter almost 2 years ago. Evie is dressed for the occasion today:

And here is a short video that will particularly entertain her grandparents. The first minute is animal sounds but the last half is less action-packed, if you know what I mean. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

One year ago:The next couple of pictures are of Evie last night, getting ready to attend our church's Valentine's Day party with live music and scrumptious sugary temptations. Evie had her first real cookie (chocolate chip) and everyone there enjoyed watching her bop, twirl and clap in appreciation of the music. The band played a mix of Christian and secular love songs. Evie did great and got to stay up past bedtime, but punished us for it by waking up at 5:30 this morning! Here she is before the party:

And on the way to church this morning:


Happy Valentine's Day!

Ergo Giveaway!

I saw this linked from Diana's blog, that a friend of hers IS GIVING AWAY AN ERGO BABY CARRIER!

I debated whether or not to enter, since we already have one, but decided to go ahead and enter because I have someone in mind to give it to in the case that I win.

I've only had my Ergo for a couple of months but it is fabulous for carrying older babies because it can be worn on the back and your wiggly toddler feels like carrying a backpack of books, which is much easier to carry than the same weight on your hip or front. The Ergo distributes the baby's weight primarily on your hips and is also comfortable for the baby, allowing them to sit in a comfortable pocket that doesn't put undue pressure on their crotch or thighs. I've used several different carriers, but this is the only one that Evie has fallen asleep in since she was a newborn. She fell asleep on my back while we were shopping, at 15 months old. That is saying something, in my opinion.

Anyhow, better late than never...if you read this in time, go enter the contest by midnight tonight, Feb 13th.

Nursery Before and After

Here is what Evie's room looked like a year and a half ago:

And on the ceiling we had this I*kea light fixture:
And here is what it looks like now, with Evie's new toddler bed! (Notice the curtains are different, too. Brown to block out light during nap time.)
And J spent Friday afternoon putting up a new light and ceiling fan. It's hard to see (sorry for the bad pic) but the light looks like the earth and the fan blades have stars and rocket ships on them. It is super cool and Evie loves it. It will be nice to have the fan in her room.

We have decided at this point to leave the crib in Evie's room in order to keep the third bedroom as a guest room. We want to be able to have plenty of guests (like grandmas!) to help out when Zeph comes home. We anticipate, however, that he will probably sleep in the moses basket or in a P*ack 'N' P*lay in our room early on, and perhaps in the PnP in the guest room when we don't have guests. When he gets to 6 weeks or so and starts sleeping better at night (knock on wood) then we'll try putting him in the crib and see how he and Evie do together. I've heard anecdotally that siblings tend to be closer friends when they share a room and that they will get used to each others nighttime noises. We will see!