One year

Since tomorrow is a big day for us, I thought I would take a moment to share a few things.

For those of you wondering about my sister's dear friend with breast cancer, she gave birth this past Tuesday to her precious baby boy. He weighed 5 lb and 8 oz and is 19" long. He's doing well so far. Everybody is so happy that he has finally arrived.

Tomorrow we are headed to Dis*ney's not-so-scary Hallo*ween. We've never been to it, but friends of ours say it's really fun and not scary for the little ones. So we'll see how it goes. It will be Madeline's first trip to see the Mouse. Since I've had no time to breathe sew, Madeline will simply be an adorable, little ballerina, and Caleb will be a fireman (like last year, his idea.) I will be dressing up as well, wearing an Early American costume given to me by an old roommate of mine. Patrick says he's going to dress up as a cowboy. But I can't imagine him waltzing around the Ma*gic Kingdom wearing his boots. So we'll see.

But now on to the real reason for wanting to blog today....it's really hard to believe it's been one year since we first saw our precious daughter's face. Tomorrow marks the day! One year! Wowie. It's hard to believe because most of that time was spent separated from her, as we waited forever to get our dossier transfered to our new agency and then the Ha*gue hassles. We were so fortunate during that long wait to be in touch with a young lady who used to live in Madeline's orphanage. She was able to give us updates and photos that blessed our hearts, just when we needed them. But it's still hard to believe it all began so long ago.

This week also marks 3 months home with Madeline Bei. It's mind boggling to think that this really is the same little girl who grieved so much in Wu*han. Oh, her fiesty personality is still here in all its glory. LOL. But she isn't quiet or shy anymore, that's for sure! And Melissa, you are so right....Madeline and Iris are NOT the same little girls drowning in their winter coats anymore. It's amazing to watch these girls blossom right before us. Mommy and Daddy "Ya you" Madeline Bei!

She finds trouble

I know I have often joked on here about how Madeline loves to find trouble. But it's true. Her curiosity gets the best of her. And I often find her fingers doing lots of walkin' where they shouldn't be. Several times a day, I can be sure that when entering the same room where she is, I will catch her throwing something back "into place." Such items include but are not limited to: 1. chapstick 2. pens 3.markers/crayons 4. toothpaste 5. soap etc. Anyway, a few weeks ago, while I was schooling Caleb, I noticed Madeline was silent. While I thought she was in her room, she was actually getting into my make up in my purse. And this is what I found:

Caught! She knew she was in trouble when I found her getting into my make up bag and putting on my chapstick.
Well, not much has been going on since I last updated....just the usual: homeschooling Caleb, running to therapy, baseball, and Madeline just being her cute, curious little self. I am still way behind on editing photos. So I will share what I have managed to get around to lately. I promise to share some cute videos of the kids on our vacation, soon. Enjoy some of the many faces of Madeline.

Peek-a-boo, otherwise known as "Pee-da-doo"

Up to no good

Ready to play catch with Caleb

Recapping the last few weeks

Gosh, it's amazing how quickly time has flown since I was last shared an update. Our days just seem to fly by. So I will do my best to catch you all up on our latest craziness happenings.

Caleb is totally loving baseball! He practices once a week and has one game each week too. The other day I bought Caleb a new glove, which he totally loves. Since Caleb got a new glove, little Madeline had to get a glove too. They are so cute trying to play catch together.

This past Tuesday, Patrick and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. How did we celebrate? By having our social worker come for a post placement visit. LOL. Really, though, she did come. And we had a great little visit. But we actually celebrated by taking a little vacation, or "cation" as Caleb referred to it. We headed over to Palm Coast, just a few hours from home. We vacationed there last year, and Caleb just loved the water park. So we opted to head there again. We invited my sister Deb, BIL, Andy, and niece Leah to join us. And a great time was had by all, despite the Floria Gators losing to LSU on Saturday night! Oh well. (They also lost to LSU on our wedding day, and I thought all my non-Gator friend fans were trying to pull a fast one on me at our reception.)

Caleb's favorite part of the "best cation ever!" was the several story water slide. Last year, he went down the slide many times with Patrick. But this year, he was determined to go all by himself. And that he did......many, many times! We were so proud of his bravery to go it alone.

One thing I was not quite prepared for was how uncomfortable I felt with soooo many people staring at Madeline's arm. Sure, I've read lots of stories from other adoptive families of kiddos with limb differences. So I thought my heart was prepared. But I felt so many people staring at once when we were swimming in the pools, that I had a hard time looking people square in the face. I know people are curious. And I don't mind that. And nobody was rude. There was just nothing I could do get to them to "stop" other than leave the pool area, which I wasn't going to do. So we continued to swim while others took turns staring at Madeline.

One situation I was quite glad for the other day was at Caleb's baseball game. Two little girls approached Madeline with me standing right there next to her while I was chatting with a friend of mine. They began poking and touching her arm. Immediately one of the girl's moms jumped up from the bleachers and pulled them aside and told them it was not okay for them to touch her. I was relieved that she handled the situation so well, to say the least. Little Madeline was so clueless that the girls were inappropriate....she came over to me and said, "See, mommy!" as she stuck her left arm up in the air with a big smile on her face.

Madeline continues to do well. She is such a little ham! She's so dramatic with her facial expressions and the tone of her voice. It's so hilarious. She continues to pick up on English and is doing quite well with it. She continues to eat and sleep well and find trouble be a typical 2 year old girlie.

I have been busy taking lots of photos with my new camera that Patrick bought me for our anniversary (muchas gracias, honey). But now I realize just how behind I am at uploading all of them and editing them. So I have my work cut out for me. Since I don't like to post without sharing photos, here are a few from Caleb's first baseball game and some of Madeline during her photo shoot playing in the yard.

Caleb and his friend, HJ

Playing second base

Swinging the bat

After making it to first base