First Barn Experience

This afternoon we went to a friend’s house to see a baby horse that was just born three weeks ago. Annaliese was convinced that she would be able to hold this baby just like she held her new cousin yesterday and was a bit surprised when this came out of the stall!!

 

While there, she also got to see some sweet kittens (one of which is now going home with my sister). 

 

 

Finally, she got to ride a horse! These horses were HUGE. She rode first with mommy…

 

 

...then with daddy…

 

 

 

…then by herself! It really is hard to find anything she is afraid of!!

 

Day Trip

Planned for a fun day today –

First, we tried a new hairstyle. It turned out pretty well, but did not last the full day. I am sure it will get better with practice : )

 

We then drove over to Indianapolis for lunch at the Ethiopian restaurant. Grandma Jane was able to join us for this trip and Annaliese could not wait to show her how to use injera! Jonathan and I had strict instructions that Annaliese was to teach grandma this!

 

 

We ended our day with a visit to Uncle Brian and Aunt Sarah’s house to meet Annaliese’s newest baby cousin. She is so sweet and Annaliese did a great job being gentle with her : )

 

Hair Consultation

Went for another hair consultation today – the hair stylist says that everything looks good and she showed me a few things I could try to style it myself. We will give it a try this weekend…

School Breakfast

This morning, Jonathan and I had the opportunity to go to Annaliese’s school for a parent & volunteer appreciation breakfast. She seemed to enjoy having us there and it was another one (of many) firsts for us having a school aged child! She looked so grown up in that great big building : )

Six Month Post-Placement

Today was our six month post-placement visit with our social worker. It went well – she thinks Annaliese is adorable and Kizzie behaved herself : )

Swim Lessons

Annaliese began swim lessons today. She was all smiles and the instructor could not believe how fearless she was : )

 

Adoption Conference

Today we were blessed to be a part of the second annual Chosen for Life: Mercy for the Orphan conference held at our church. What a wonderful day to be surrounded by other like-minded people and reminded of why we are all called to do our part.

Looking back, at this conference last year we were telling people that we probably still had at least a year before we would receive a referral and here we were this year with our little girl home for six months! How remarkable how hearts and plans can change so drastically!

It was fun to see people we had not seen in awhile (i.e. our SW who did our homestudy) and meet others who had questions that we could actually help to answer : ) It was a great day and we appreciate all of the hard work put into making it a reality.

Also, while we were at the conference, Annaliese got to go to her first friend birthday party : ) She was very excited and seemed to have a great time.

Home Six Months!

Six months – six months ago today – Annaliese came home to America to join our family. Oh my goodness!!

Although the transition has been ridiculously hard at times (the other two are so easy going, I – the type A, less flexible one - probably feel this the most), it has been an absolute blessing to our family as well!

Annaliese fits into our family so well. She is overly independent & strong-willed and absolutely drives me crazy at times because she acts so much like me! On the other hand, she is so fun-loving, joyful, and witty! Her laugh is absolutely infectious : )

She has brought so much joy to our lives that it is indescribable. We feel so blessed to have been chosen to be a part of her story and pray continued blessings on her life.

We know that tough times are sure to be ahead, but we pray for strength and discernment as those occasions arise. In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy life together as a family and do our best to keep Christ at the center - we could not do this without Him!

All Better

No fever all day yesterday and none this morning, so we are headed back to school!

Time Flies

I went to the school tonight to preregister Annaliese for the 2013-2014 school year. It still just makes me sit back and think, “who would have thought?!?!”

Sick Day

 Annaliese woke up saying that her belly hurt and she had a temperature of 100.5 : ( I took her to the doctor since this is our first experience with this and she said her lungs, ears, etc. were clear. So, it’s viral, and there is nothing we can do : (

Even though the fever stayed with her throughout the day, it took her all of a few hours to start asking to go ride her bike, etc.

We will be home at least today and tomorrow because of needing to be fever-free for 24 hours. She misses school, but her biggest disappointment has been that she did not get to use her new lunchbox. So, what did we do? We ate our hot lunch at home in the lunchbox : ) Problem solved!

Funny Memories

Okay – this is probably one of those stories you should not share, but it made me laugh so hard that I have to!

Today when we got home from school I noticed the garage door (from garage to the kitchen) did not close correctly. It was kind of like the house had settled a bit and I had to pull up on the door to make it latch. I did not think much about it until Annaliese and I went to leave the house to meet Jonathan at the YMCA and I could not get the door open. I tried several things but had no luck, so I called Jonathan at work. He did not have any ideas either, but (I thought jokingly) asked if Annaliese could crawl through the cat door.

For those of you who have not been to our house, we have a cat door that goes out to a room off of the garage with the water heater, furnace, etc. It is where we keep the litter box and cat food. So, I went ahead and asked Annaliese if she thought she could crawl through that space. After looking at me like I had three heads, she decided to give it a try : )

Would you believe – she fit right through without any difficulty?!?! Of course, I was very thankful for this, as I was beginning to wonder what kind of mother I would be if Jonathan came home to the door jammed shut and Annaliese pinned inside the cat door!

Once she made it through, all I could hear was, “this kinda scary, dark and Kizzie hiss.” But, she made it out to the garage and opened the big door for mommy to come around. I was laughing so hard I could hardly see straight!

Just don’t tell our social worker – without all of the details, it may not sound so good!!

Dentist

Our first trip to the dentist was today. Jonathan’s boss’ wife had recommended a pediatric dentist in Champaign and we were very pleased with their services. They did so well showing her all of the tools that they were going to use and how they worked. She did a great job sitting while they looked at her teeth and cleaned them.

Best of all – NO CAVITIES!!

Family Day

We had a fun family day today.

First, we went to watch Caleb’s soccer game and then out to lunch with Uncle Mike, Aunt Rachel, and the boys (and their other grandparents).

Then, we headed back to Savoy to go bowling. Annaliese was so excited once she figured out what we were doing! I do think she was a little taken aback, though, when she realized the ball weighed much more than the Wii remote : )

She tried several approaches…

 

 

 

After running a few errands – including buying some cute new summer shoes – we ended the day with dinner at Kamakura. She was excited they were going to cook our food at our table, and then she saw the fire!

 

It was a fun day : )

Spring Break is Over!

Back to school today after 7 ½ days off – she was thrilled!

Back to the Doctor

Jonathan and Annaliese visited the International Adoption Clinic in Chicago today. The appointment went well and we are now working with them to gather all of the appropriate medical information and paperwork to assist with the re-adoption, which will hopefully happen sometime this month or next.

They took an x-ray of Annaliese’s hand, which she thought was pretty neat : )