She made it to 6

I remember so well everything leading up to the Wild Child's birth. I remember the move right before she was born from Utah to Kansas. I remember the morning she was born. The way her soft little skin felt against my cheek. I remember the brave face her birth mom put on, but how I could feel her heart break.

From the first moment I held the baby Wild Child, I knew I would be more than her mom. I knew that as she grew we would also be good friends. Now that she has just turned six, I am wondering how she survived that long. For example: She was behind this incident and this one and this one. Then there is her love of "free gum." You know, it's free because somebody else has already discarded it and put it under the table or dropped it on the side walk. Yummy-huh? Well, that is nothing when you consider that she has sampled toilet water at Shopko. Honestly, this kid could survive a biological attack. Her immune system is well practiced.

So here are some pictures of her over the past six years that make my heart ache to have a few of those moments back and a few that make me realize there is still much fun to be had ahead.

Happy Birthday, Wild Child! I love you more than you will know until you have children of your own. Thank you for making my life fun and interesting. Most of all thank you for letting me be your mom!

Birthday wishes!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. Really. Today is the day my sister-in-law, who might as well be just my sister, other than my brother married her and that would be gross, joined this world. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NICOLE!!!! You know I love you, like you are my sister.

Nicole is the person who introduced me to blogs and what they are all about. I can never thank her enough for that. Nicole has a very funny, off beat, sense of humor that I have come to need a weekly dose of. She has three beautiful, funny rugrats, that keep her busy. If you have a minute, please stop in a tell her Happy Birthday.

Life comes at you fast.

I need to start this off by saying, "I LOVE HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA!!!!" Really, I do. Even when it is cold in the middle of winter. My trip was a much appreciated break from the usual mommy stuff that comes with being the mom. I must say being married to the Rocket Scientist has endless perks for me. Not many can boast about being sent on a "momcation" by their spouse and then have him brag about how much fun he had. Yes, he was really bragging about how much fun it was.



While I was there, one of the things I feared, did happen. My sweet 95 year-old grandmother passed away. She passed away not once but twice while we were away. I am not sure if that made it easier dealing with her passing or if just meant getting sad news twice. She has had a pace maker for years. So, as I understand it, she passed away, hospice notified the appropriate people, and sometime later the postmortem nurse shows up to do her thing and finds my grandmother breathing. You know, that pace maker noticed her heart was not beating and started to do it's job. So a day later, she made peace with her pace maker and passed away for good. Sorry, this is little morbid. I have two ways of dealing with death. They are shutting down and being completely dysfunctional or humor. This time around, there is a bit of both. Her obituary can be found at this link. http://www.larkinmortuary.com/opc_sop_o.php?obituary_idx=2856&search=&sort=death_date%20DESC&PHPSESSID=d0b53e7e20f3a8999960ff191f8d8355

If you have ever lost a loved one who had to struggle for quality of life, no matter how short the time, you know what a relief their passing can be. Somehow though, that relief never dulls the sting of the loss. My grandmother was a character. I love her dearly. I didn't live near her until I was a teenager. I can honestly say that she helped smooth out a lot of my teen years. She took me to my first opera and my first ballet. She would negotiate with my dad (her son) on my behalf. I remember one time in particular when my father didn't want to let me go to a church dance. After many tears, my grandma said she would handle it. Turned out I got to go! A day or two later, I asked her how she did that. She smiled and said, "I just asked him how he felt when I didn't let him go to church dances?" She was the best grandma for me as a teenager. She had such a profound influence on my life that the Little Jamaican has my grandmother's name as her middle name. I will miss her dearly.

While I was away on my trip, we found out the Rocket Scientist's company no longer needs us to relocate. What a relief that is. As much as I love Huntsville, I really do not want to move right now.

One last thing........Krista, thank you for the birthday wishes. You are way too good to me. That is quite a bit to live up to. So, I will try not to let it stress me out. :)

Happy Birthday, Jen!!!!!!!

Sometimes in life, you meet people that you like right away. Jen who is Buried With Children is one of those people. Today is her birthday........so stop over and tell her Happy Birthday.

Jen, Happy Birthday. I hope this is your best birthday yet! Sorry that the video is so dark. We are still learning to carry a tune, but our sentiment is heart felt.

The Little Man is 7

When this little guy entered our lives, our world was already upside down. The 1st One had arrived just two short months ahead of him. We were deep in the sweet, delirious depths of newborn sleep deprivation. We were expecting him just the same. When we first decided we were going to adopt, we did some research and found the agency we knew we could work with. Now, if you have ever adopted you know how violated you feel by the time you've finished filling out paper work and all the inquiries into every part of your life. Without a doubt, the ends justify the means. We had a few failed adoptions before we ended up with the 1st One. Truth is though, I knew we were suppose to have two little ones really close together. In fact, I had a recurring dream of two little curly haired kids playing on the floor in the nursery. When I called the agency and told them that we were expecting two for some crazy reason, they went with the flow and continued to present our names to birth mothers. The 1st One's birth mother and My Son's birth mother were roommates at the time. When I met the one, I met the other as well, not knowing how life was going to play out.

After the 1st One was born we heard that My Son's birth mother had picked us. We really loved her already at this point. She had been there with me and the 1st One's birth mother when the 1st One was born. My Son's birth mother came and spent a weekend with us shortly after that. It was a really neat experience getting to know her like that, before My Son was born. He was due towards the end of September according to his birth mom. Needless to say, we were shocked when we got the call in the middle of August to please come to the hospital, My Son's birth mom was in labor.

He entered this world such a lost little man. Well, lost in some ways, in others not so much. Even with his birth weight at 6 lbs. the doctors determined him to be earlier than 4 to 6 weeks. They were thinking closer to 8 weeks early. The little stinker would not eat for for the NICU nurses, he would barely eat for me, but if the Rocket Scientist showed up to feed him, the little guy chowed. He bonded immediately with the Rocket Scientist.

After he was born, I remember the director of the adoption agency asking us if we wanted to back out of the adoption. (I never would have dreamed of it, but I guess it is common to have adoptive parents back out of adoptions when the child they are waiting for is born with some challenges.) She began talking to us about other birth parents she could present our file to. The Rocket Scientist and I were a little shocked. If we were ever actually able to have biological children, there are no guarantees that our biological children would be born free of disabilities and/or challenges. "We love this kid and he's ours," I remember thinking. Assuring the director that this was our kid and we were in it for the long haul we pressed forward. My Son was born with a condition called Peter's Anomaly. This condition required a cornea transplant as soon as they could find a match if we wanted to try for vision in that eye. We felt we had to, since he could decide later in life not to continue to fight for sight in that eye, but if he didn't have a clear cornea in 2 weeks, the chances of his brain wiring that eye for sight diminished greatly. At 12 days old and just a little over 5 lbs. My Son had a cornea transplant.

The first year was rough! My Son had bonded quite nicely with the Rocket Scientist; He was still quite uncertain about me though. In fact, I could barely get him to eat for me. I would get maybe 2-3 ounces of formula in him during the day. The minute his dad hit the door the kid was with his dad chowing. He would eat and eat and eat for the RS. This system was tolerable until the RS had to go back to business as usual at work. The Rocket Scientist is in aerospace and his work requires him to travel a lot. The RS would be gone for a week at a time, leaving me with my precious newborns, trying to figure out how I was going to get My Son to bond with me. Though the 1st Child came into this world head strong and opinionated she was a pretty easy going baby and would be patient with me. My Son, he would just scream till he got his dad.

Eventually he bonded with me. If you ask him now if "he's Momma's boy or Daddy's boy", he will tell you he is Momma's boy.

Happy Birthday My Sweet Son! I love you so much!

I believe we have found the guy responsible for fingers in the frosting. He struck on this birthday cake as well. He was "cold busted" with his fingers in the refridgerator and the tell-tale frosting adhering to them like warts on a frog.

D-D-D-D-D-D-Dora

While it is still on my mind, here are some funny things about the Little Jamaican's birthday. Ever since her 3rd birthday wrapped up, she had been asking me for a "Dora Cake." Usually she is very fickle and changes what she wants often. And I mean often. We can go out to eat and she will change her mind three times between ordering and getting our food at McDonald's for crying out loud. She had been dead set on a Dora Cake for almost a year never wavering. So here it is:I think the bakery did a nice job. If you look a little closer at the "y" and "B", you might notice where someone got a little impatient to taste the birthday cake. I'm not saying I know who for sure, but I put money on My Son or the Little Jamaican. Then there is the inescapable sibling rivalry that happens when one of them gets a new toy. The Wild Child is pouting in this puddle. Kind of makes you wonder about a few things, doesn't it?I really wanted a picture of the Little Jamaican on her new Big Wheel, but she and My Son are way to fast for my "not so expensive" camera. This is the best shot I got. Hard to believe there is three years between them.

And then there were 4 over 4

How did this happen? My Little Jamaican turned 4 today. It just doesn't seem possible that she is that old to me. It is silly that my heart should hurt that she is that old, but some how it does. She came as a spot of sunshine in a very challenging time for me. She is still a spot of sunshine to me. I love you Little Jamaican! Happy Birthday!

7 years old this month

How does this happen? I have asked her to stop. She tells me she can't. She insists on growing up. In fact she's been bent on it since the day she was born. She was wide awake from the beginning, always wanting to learn and grow as fast as she can. That hasn't changed a bit. I can still remember rocking her one night when she was about 6 months old. I started crying uncontrollably because I realized she was going to grow up. She wouldn't always be a baby. And now, here she is already 7 years old. Happy Birthday, my sweet First Child. I love you.