This Girl is on Fire

I don't know what has happened this week but our baby girl is quickly turning into a child. She communicates more (words AND sign language), whines more, jumps more, climbs more and loves on us more. She's become obsessed with dogs and will wake up in her crib with her high pitch "ruff ruff" call. "Moo and Ruff Ruff" are her favorite and we're working on "Meow and Quack".  Although she's giving us a run for our money, she's our bliss. 

Believe it or not, Madelyn isn't the only one in this household. Shocking, I know! For the last three months Cony has been working as an electrician and hated every moment of it. We look back on it now as a huge blessing for many reasons but mostly to know for certainty he indeed does not want to be an electrician for life. He got a full time job that uses his degree in downtown Atlanta. The commute isn't awesome- however, he found a commuters bus he takes and either reads or sleeps on his way down. So far so good! 

The last few months haven't been easy but we are still alive and happy and more importantly grateful for our trials that help us become better. 

Pudding Cookies

Y'all know I love Instagram and the wealth of knowledge I've gained from others about talents, products & food. This recipe is one of those things and after many requests I thought I'd pass along the goodness.  


Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups butter, softened 
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional) 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside. 

2. In large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar & white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture and add chocolate chips! 

3. Bake 10-12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown and may not seem completely done. Each batch makes about 4 large dozen cookies and freeze really well. 

Let me know how you like them! Also, I've used chocolate pudding mix and they were extra yummy. Next time I plan on using banana! 

Sorry I can't remember who I found this recipe through to give proper credit because you deserve it!

Taking a Little Time

Our reality at the moment is not ideal... for us. Cony works really long days, 6 days a week. I work every day and not able to see M3 until after she wakes up from her afternoon nap. We're doing what we have to do at the moment, and I'm grateful (beyond words) that we have the resources we do. We're finding the balance and I finally took a little time to capture Baby Girl in real time. 

Learning and Communicating

I've been thinking a lot about my communication skills (or lack thereof) and how quickly our little Firecracker is learning. She'll take any opportunity to play with our phones and pretend she's talking to someone. She only says "Dadda, Dadda" so I assume she's trying to talk to Cony. She'll even go to her little play table and sit in her own chair like she's holding a conference. The other afternoon I picked her up when she wanted my phone and I wouldn't give it to her and she looked at me for 10 seconds and I could see her mind just working up a storm. She then surprised me by putting her left hand over her left ear and her right hand over my ear and started talking. We were having a very own conversation with our "ear phones". How she came up with that idea, I'll never know. We've worked on sign language with her from the beginning and "more" has become her favorite new word. Slowly but surely working on "thank you" and "please". 

I'm delighted she loves to brush her teeth but not so delighted when she runs to our bathroom, climbs on the toilet and grabs both of our toothbrushes in both hands to alternate brushes in her mouth. Don't get me wrong, it's the cutest dang thing... until I think about her hands just being all over our toilet.

We've been in our house for five weeks and on Monday I just found the motivation to clean our room. It's not perfect, but you can see the floor. Unfortunately, we both hate our bed and have found we sleep better on our sofa. Pretty sad indeed. As I think about all the things that need to be done before Miss Olive arrives, I would love to have our room completely decorated/cleaned/organized more than any other room (including the nursery!). I think people underestimate the power of a beautiful master bedroom on their relationship. 

Included in that list of things to do is take a photo with Madelyn with my "real" camera. I haven't taken one since before we left Connecticut. It's been our way to document her growth and development and have missed out on so much in the last two months.  Photography has been heavy on my mind the last few weeks and the important role it plays in our life. And I'm not just talking about our personal life, I mean everyone's life.  

Looking back on this week and being blessed with more hours at work and other job opportunities AND being able to reschedule appointments,  it's reminded me that just because someone didn't buy us a new car doesn't mean we weren't blessed with exactly what we needed... 

The How

At times it's still hard to believe I'm 20 weeks pregnant! We are thrilled and wanted to share how this miracle came to pass.  Most of the responses have been ... "That's what happens when you adopt, you get pregnant afterwards!". Well, it wasn't that easy AND a lot of women simply do not have that option. I know those responses were out of love and I have no hard feelings, but it has inspired me to write another chapter of this journey we've been on. 

It's all about the Lord's timing and we know without a doubt that Madelyn was meant to be in our family, but just as importantly her birthmother and family were also meant to be apart of our family. Would this had happened if we already had children of our own?  It's unlikely. We both feel passionately about adoption and hope our journey has helped someone feel it's not always a negative process. In fact we have reason to feel that it's usually the adoptive parents that make the process more difficult and harmful than needed. 

While living in Connecticut, we had amazing insurance (it would have covered IVF treatments) and we jumped on the band wagon immediately to take advantage. We went through a few doctors and this past summer switched to an OB that was finally able to direct me to the right Specialist. At this point, there had been lots of meds and treatments that were  unsuccessful. We would have had an IUI or IVF treatment a long time ago but the meds they kept putting me did not "jumpstart" my ovaries. If you know anything about getting pregnant you know your ovaries have to be functioning properly.  The new Specialist decided to put me on a cancer pill they had recently discovered help women ovulate. At first I wasn't too thrilled about being put on another med, but while in his office a warm feeling came over me it was the right step. The first round was not successful but was successful because for the first time I was able to produce a follicle. With the second round of these meds, I had to be in the lab by 6:30 a.m. to get my blood taken to make sure we didn't miss my surge. I did that for 10 days. If I did surge, the plan was to do an IUI  (Intrauterine Insemination). This is when they take "washed" sperm (your husbands) and directly inseminate into the uterus. By the grace of God,  I was able to be inseminated on 10/11/12 (I LOVE cool dates!)! However, having an exact date to know if the procedure worked emotionally drained me. I barely did anything for a week because I was convinced my cycle was about to start. When the day came to take a pregnancy test, although faint, I knew it was successful! I didn't know what to say or how to say it but I got down on my knees immediately. 

To make the day even sweeter it happened to be Cony's birthday. I quickly drew '1+1=2' on a wooden heart for Madelyn to hand him as his gift. I'm grateful I thought to record his reaction! 

Words can not do our feelings and excitement justice. We know most of you have been praying on our behalf for years and we have sincerely felt them give us strength through this journey. We know how lucky we are to be able to carry a child of our own and to have beautiful people in our life! 

Missing Out

Since moving and working more than I have since baby was born, I feel like I haven't had the time to cherish the little things in our life. Particularly the things our baby is learning and doing. She has changed so much in such a short about of time, I can't keep up. So I've gone back in my  memory to write down a few little things I want to remember....

*She loves to unplug cords from the wall. It takes me way longer to vacuum than it should.

*Cony is the only one who can get her to sleep at church. I've tried and keep failing.

*Mimicking is her ner favorite game. Whether it's shaking her head yes or no or raising her hand. While at Nana's she'll lay with the remote on my mom's bed pretending to watch TV. Last week when she had a bad cold and we were wiping her nose 24 times a day- she tried to do the same to us.

*She'll bring me books all day long and I'll read about 2 pages and she's off to get the next book. She's slowly getting better about sitting in my lap and getting through a whole book.

*Our new night routine for hugs is her laying her head on my shoulder and patting my back. I cherish this because up until now she hasn't been much of a cuddlier. Even if it's only for one minute, I'll take it.

*She'll bring me her shoes and jacket and head straight to the door.

*Points to Gracie and any other dog and says something like "Daaaa"... still working on the g.

*Brought me her favorite book the other day and pointed to the cow on front page and said "maa".

Last night while Cony was putting up her chandelier in her bedroom and she was taking a bath, I caught her slowly sneaking her head up to see me.  Her personality makes my heart full.

Our Christmas in Connecticut

Clearly I'm way behind on keeping up with our own life. Before I forget the last two months of our life, I'm going back in time and documenting some happy moments.

We did something no human should ever do to themselves or their friends... moved the week before Christmas. Our Connecticut family didn't complain once while packing us up or loading our truck. One of the many reasons we call them family. We got to Georgia on Christmas Eve morning and stayed with my brother for a night until staying with my mom and sister for three weeks. Thankfully we found a place in the same neighborhood that fit our needs perfectly and allowed us to sleep in a bed and Maddie in her own crib. We both started work right away and we're very slowly unpacking. The move hasn't been the easiest thing we've ever done but with each passing day we feel more human.

Before we left Connecticut I had the opportunity to experience some Christmas Traditions including, Christmas Tree Lighting at a local green and a Victorian Christmas service at a local church.  Have I mentioned how much I miss CT?