Happy Referralversary!!

I cannot believe it has been one year ago today that we first laid our eyes on Lindiwe! In some ways it feels like yesterday, and then in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago. I remember shaking when I realized that the new email message on my phone was from the ministry in Rwanda! I was supposed to be eating lunch at work, but my stomach was doing flips!! I called Dan and told him to get to my work as soon as he could... I think it took him about 40 minutes... as we stood together in my office waiting for the email to load, we couldn't believe the day had arrived. We were about to see a picture of our daughter!! It was so awesome! I just wept in Dan's shoulder, she was beautiful! Perfect! What an amazing memory! So, here it is... the picture we received on March 16, 2010:

And my, how she has changed!!! here is a recent one of her these days... I am learning how to care for her hair and the latest is braids :-)

Merry Christmas!!

6 Months ago today!

6 months ago today, we had been in Rwanda for just a day... we traveled down the unbelievably steep, dirt road... came upon the brick barrier walls and the shocking blue gates. My eyes were filling with tears as I was realizing what we were about to experience. This is what we had been waiting for... after what seemed like a few hundred negative pregnancy tests, a few hundred prayers, a few hundred pieces of paper, a few thousand dollars (understatement!), a few thousand miles.... it was all of the emotions welling up inside of me and I could not believe the day had finally arrived.

I am not one for being so open with intimate details, and with this being the 'world wide web' it leaves me feeling a bit exposed!.... this photo almost feels like I'm showing you the moment I was giving birth to my second child :) But, here it is... the moment we first laid our eyes on our daughter; May 23, 2010. I won't soon forget that moment.. and I thank Hanna (I believe) for capturing it with our camera! What a picture!

As I reflect on the past 6 months... I have so much to be thankful for. How blessed we are to be the parents of two wonderful little girls. Evelyn is the best big sister and Lindy is relishing in the attention that comes from her. As we were driving in the car this evening, Evelyn was getting the best laughs out of Lindy... it fills my heart with unspeakable joy. God is good, He continues to amaze me.

Month in Review

Okay... so more than a month! This summer has flown by.... it has been great, but I can't believe it is nearing the end of September!

Dan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last week! I keep thinking that I can't be old enough to have been married for 10 years! HA! But, it's true. And I have to say, it gets better with time... we were so perfectly meant for each other. I am so happy to have him for my husband.

Evelyn started kindergarten! I am in denial that she is old enough for that! She is even riding a school bus! She LOVES it. Her kindergarten class is half day in the afternoon and the first week she said, "mommy, I wish my school was all day"! She also has her first loose tooth... being a dental hygienist myself, you would have thought that I should be expecting that to come. Well, I guess I am in denial of that possibility, too!

Lindy is developing at what seems to be warp speed! She has gone from crawling to walking to now, nearly running in a matter of one month! For the first week, I kept forgetting to put shoes on her because she had always been held when we left the house! She is jabbering a blue streak. She seems to verbalize a running commentary while riding in the car... I wish I knew what she was saying! Right now, the only words that we understand are "uh-oh, momma, and dada". She has been super healthy for quite awhile and we are so pleased with that, the first two months home, her poor body had quite the adjustment to our environment. Our pediatrician was surprised to be diagnosing pneumonia in July! Through it all, Lindy has done so well! I can sense that we are about to be teething her first molars... so that may bring some excitement! :)

We feel very blessed by God in how He has created our family... Even though we have only had Lindy home for just over 3 months, she feels so much a part of us. I tell people often that I just know that God ordained her to be with us... the complexity of it all, the tragic circumstances that led us to her... He had a hand in it. Praise be to God.

We have a friend who is great with a camera and she graciously took TONS of pictures of our family... I'll share a few here.

Family Picture Time

Well, the intentions were good!.... we planned a time to get some family pictures.... the forecast for the day was thunderstorms. We were in a bit of a time crunch due to the fact that my grandmother's health is declining and my parents were headed to Indiana to see her and they wanted to be able to take a family picture that included our newest family member! So, we had a window of time between the storms and well, you know how pictures can be!! Here they are:

Happy Birthday, Dan!!

So, yesterday was Dan's birthday... not a monumental one by any means... 31, for anyone wondering. :-) Anyway, I had ordered him a gift online and was worried that I hadn't received it yet... time was running out. Well, we were sitting on the couch after we had a birthday dinner with family and Dan asked if I had gotten the mail yet that day. I hadn't, so he went out to check the mailbox.... low and behold! A package had arrived! I was so happy that it came in time! He is riding in a local charity event on Saturday and I am so glad he can wear my present to him! Okay, so what I got him was a cycling jersey....not just any cycling jersey! It is from a non-profit group that uses bicycles as a way to help people in Rwanda! It's called Project Rwanda and they look like a really cool organization... Anyway, here he is!! Ready to Ride! He went on a short ride the night of his birthday and got to wear it for the first time. I love the design and the beautiful colors!

Happy Birthday, Babe!! Love you more than you know!!!

Growing in size and in my heart...

Lindy had her first appointment with our 'regular' pediatrician today, up to this point we have been seeing a doctor that specializes in international adoption at our Children's Hospital... Unfortunately, we had to get her up to date on some vaccines, although our doctor was impressed that she has had many of the standard vaccines and really didn't have that much to catch up on! I was also anxious to see how much she has grown... it is harder for me to notice because I am with her everyday, but we have had some friends mention how much she is growing in a matter of a few weeks... they were right! She has grown an inch and gained 2.5 pounds since our medical appointment in Kenya. She is 50% for height and between 25-50% for weight.

Something I didn't think about was filling out the paperwork.... there was an entire section on family history and pregnancy and delivery... It brought me back to the thoughts of her very early days of life... what her birth mother must have been going through... the emotions involved in giving up your child after having gone through the pains of child birth... Evelyn (my oldest daughter) loves to watch the video of her own birth... the video starts out with me in a rocking chair about 3-4 days before she was born, we were watching my belly move around... fascinated by it, and then it follows us to the hospital, a brief section of moaning and groaning on my part and then the glorious presentation of this beautiful baby girl all covered in slime... and various wires and clamps all monitoring her heart rate and respiration rate and temperature and whatever else... And I think of my youngest daughter, with no glorious presentation into the world... no video documentation... I don't know if it was in a hospital or in a home... or who was present... there were probably no wires monitoring her vitals....We are grateful for the mercy of the Lord that allowed her to be brought to the Sisters, who cared for her and gave her the love she so desperately needed and deserved! And we are so thankful that this journey has led us to her! She is home and we are overjoyed!

A little something I have noticed is how my love for her has changed in the past week or so... I am not sure how to describe it, but it just feels like she has always been a part of me somehow. Don't get me wrong, I have loved her from the moment I saw her... even before, and the first time I saw her in our referral picture I knew God had ordained her to be ours... but lately, I have just had a deeper love for her; the love a mother has for HER child. Maybe it is partly due to the fact that I have been with her for seven weeks now and that initial love I had for her has grown. She is familiar, she is mine, she is a gift from God and I am forever grateful. She is what we have been waiting for... and boy, was it worth the wait!