This Many Days!!

How many are there?

Not very many!

The jar is not full. And that makes us HAPPY.

I like counting them. And eating one everrrry day until she gets here!!

Just Know...

Soooo, if you've been waiting for an update about our recent trip to Florida, just know...
...that it was perfect in every way.

Just know that Kirsten is one amazing young lady who has so much going for her. Her best feature? ...a beautiful heart.
Just know that Kirsten's family treated us like, well, like family. What could possibly be better?
Just know that Donald's love for Kirsten is over the top. Indescribable. And my love for her comes in at a close 2nd.
Just know that God is all over this thing.
Just know that we cannot wait to get her here to meet her baby brother and sister.
Just know that words cannot capture or express our joy, so this simple post will have to do.

Eli's 11 Months!

 

In the midst of the Kirsten excitement, Eli turned 11-months-old! Our precious lil thing. He's still a really happy boy. He smiles all the time and is pretty easy going. He does have a temper though, and if you make him mad, he'll let you know! (like throwing things, screaming...those fun things). He's also been a bit clingy lately, and will grab around my neck if he thinks someone wants to come hold him. I have to pry him off of me sometimes. He still has the gag-reflex thing going on, which is discouraging, but clearly he's not starving. We are slowly giving him more and more "table food," although usually we end up with a big mess to clean up, if you know what I'm sayin'. He just can't handle certain textures and swallowing certain things still proves challenging. But - we will persevere, and hopefully he will be able to eat some cake on his first birthday!! (you think I'm kidding? He may be eating a bowl of applesauce with a candle sticking out of it!!).

Eli still LOVES Charley...thinks she hung the moon. They still play fairly well together, and of course it's usually Charley who gets her panties in a wad about sharing, but in due time, Eli will realize what's going on, and I will be training two children in this area. Yay.

Eli is still a tank. Today at the store, the two of them were in the side-by-side double stroller, and we received TWO "look at the cute twins!" comments (really??). I think it's because Eli's legs are sooo short and his torso is sooo long, that when they are sitting next to each other, they are pretty much the same height, which I guess makes their age difference unapparent. When standing, Charley is like six inches taller! 

Let's see....other things.... He's a fast crawler now, a proficient cruiser, and is getting better and better at walking behind push toys. He actually will use anything as a push toy (chairs, stools, our big kitchen trash can), and prefers those things over things will wheels (probably b/c they're slower and more interesting since he's so curious). He's a good sleeper at night and does okay with naps. His morning nap is now an hour later, which pushes his afternoon nap later, which means he and Charley aren't exactly down at the same time, which is hard. I usually have maybe an hour of overlap time, which I'm grateful for, but it sure will be nice when they take a long nap at the same time!

Can't believe my baby's first birthday is just around the corner! We are so thankful for his life! And in regards to our recent family "expansion," we are thrilled to death that Eli will now have TWO big sisters!

The Happiest Blog Post Ever, entitled "Rejoicing"

In late summer of 2000, my boyfriend told me about a little girl who was almost 10 years old. Her name was Cassandra. Born in Charleston, Cassandra was adopted by a family who loved her dearly (he hoped) and had moved to who-knows-where. She was his daughter, given up at birth into what would hopefully be a better life. He had not seen her since she was a few weeks old when he rocked her one last time, and said, "goodbye," for what he thought may be forever. He was 17.

Baby Cassandra, 3 weeks old, MUSC

We celebrated her 10th birthday internationally. He was in Israel, I was in Vermont, and we had no idea where she was. That little girl never left my mind, and she certainly never left his heart. Years later, my boyfriend became my husband, and we continued to celebrate Cassandra. We thought about her anytime we heard anything about adoption, we thought about her when we saw someone who maybe looked like her, we thought about her when she turned 13, 14, 15, etc. "She's driving now!" he would say. "She probably graduated from high school this year!" he marveled. "Will we ever get to meet her?," we wondered. "Is she happy?"
Fast forward to present time. After Cassandra turned 18, we knew that we could pursue her. But how? We had pretty much zero details to work with. We had no luck in our efforts, but kept trying. The hunt seemed futile. Last summer, the summer she turned 19, we were talking about Cassandra, and, literally, the very next day we ran into her birth mom's husband's brother (follow?!) in the parking lot at TJ Maxx in Greenville. No way!  Donald seized the opportunity, got the birth mom's contact info, but... it was another dead end. He got nowhere, though he thought he was close. Frustration.
Last Monday was Cassandra's 20th birthday. The three nights before, Donald stayed up on the internet, continuing the search, as we both would every now and then, hoping that maybe something had changed since the previous search. He told me that he needed to somehow contact the social worker who handled the case...she was probably totally out of the system now, but she was an aunt of so-and-so, and just maybe he could track her down. Just maybe she could help.
He didn't get that far. On August 9, at 5:00am, Donald got up to shower before a 7:30 flight to Vegas for business. He called me into the bathroom, and I stumbled in, not knowing what in the world was going on. Mary Beth Spann doesn't wake up at 5:00am, so I knew it must be important. He was wide awake (not too odd) but stumbling over his words, saying something about searching for Cassandra or something and then handed me the phone. What happened next was the most surreal experience I've ever had. It was HER. She found him. On his phone was a message and a picture that absolutely brightened our world. Kirsten Marie, Donald's Cassandra, was finally found. How in the world?!? ...It really didn't matter.

Her message and this pic changed our lives forever!

A week has passed, a glorious week, and Kirsten is in our lives. She is sweet, fun, gracious, and talkative like her daddy. She's beautiful. And a million other things that we are still learning. Her parents are amazing and were on board with her reaching out to Donald, which is huge. Kirsten is excited about Charley and Eli, a sister and brother she didn't know she had. A sister and brother who will never remember life without their big sister (Kurrrsten!! as Charley calls her). We are grateful for cell phones, and texting, and Skype and Facebook, because through these things we can get to know her... But, we are even more grateful for air travel. Our flights are booked and we will be on our way to see her next week!! It couldn't come soon enough. The day Donald has been waiting for for 20 years.

Me, the non-crier, has shed so many tears this week, it's ridiculous. I praise God for allowing this reunion to happen. He orchestrated it in His perfect timing, and may He receive all the glory. I am absolutely drowning in happiness and gratefulness, so you can only imagine what Donald is experiencing. It has been the best thing ever to share the news with our friends and family. Everyone's first guess is that I'm pregnant again, and second guess is that we are moving. We haven't even asked people to guess, but people just like guessing (I guess). Wellll....Not pregnant. Not moving. But REUNITED. REJOICING!!

We LOVE you, Kirsten!

Lake Day

We had a Community Group Lake Day last weekend, which was lots of fun! Here are a few pics from the day!

Waiting out a thunderstorm. I thought this was the sweetest picture!!

I love the boat!

What to do next?

This tunnel was lots of fun!

Just hangin' out.

"This is ridiculously fun, Mom!"

Although he looks petrified in this pic, Eli LOVED the boat. He was standing up and holding on like he was an old pro.

Some guy entertaining his cute girls while his wife floated around on a tube... Eating bonbons or something (ha).

UNbelievable Fun on a Farm

Today we spent some time on a beautiful farm in the Foothills of SC. Dear friends of Donald, whom I had never met, invited us up, and it was wonderful. We spent some time in the pool, which was surrounded by the most beautiful, lush garden that belonged in a magazine. We took a ride on a mule (four wheeler, not donkey), picked vegetables out of a garden that was filled to the brim, and visited with a few ponies...one still a baby. The air was fresh and the views gorgeous. God's creation at its finest. We all sweat enough to fill a bucket, but it was so worth it. My mom grew up on a farm like this, but it's in Maryland and was sold many years ago. For my children to be able to experience a little of what she did means so much to me. We were blessed by a sweet family today, and we pray that we can pass it on, in some sort of fashion...even if it's just sharing the veggies we were sent home with! Enjoy the pictures from our day. Of course they don't do it justice...

Overlooking part of the farm.

"Here horsey, horsey."
She was so proud that she could climb up there by herself!

Our curly-head boy checking out the ponies.

Riding the Mule.

Eli wanted in on the tomato-picking action

Amazing!! And we didn't even make a dent!

So fun! And now I am bleaching the shirt that has tomato stain all over it. At least it was white!

Just out of the pool! This is now my FB profile pic. Because he is just so stinking cute.

Hotness. And the Crazy Storm.

Last night our family spent a few minutes in the only room in our house that doesn't have a window or share an outside wall: Our tiny closet. The four of us and Sadie. It had been storming for at least an hour when we were finishing up dinner and Donald notice that rain had picked up and was falling horizontally. The wind was so strong that the huge pine trees in our yard were bending significantly, and all we could see out the window was sideways rain and leaves and debris flying everywhere. We grabbed the kids and went to the closet. We only stayed in there a few minutes, because the wind subsided pretty quickly. Our yard was littered with pine needles and branches and a bazillion pine cones. Our nice outdoor umbrella was across the yard and was snapped in half (serious bummer). My neighbor said her wrought-iron bench slid across the entire length of her deck. Four trees fell in our neighborhood...one completely up-rooted. The weirdness of it all is that I left home after the storm, and just a few blocks away, there was really no signs of wind damage. Weird. We still don't know what it was. We are used to storms and winds and branches in our yard, but this was different. Way different. And scary for a few moments!
Moving on...

So, our summer has been good. But as someone who isn't in school or whose children aren't in school, the definition of summer is just hotness. So we have enjoyed our hotness, although the last couple of weeks have been a little extreme. You gotta love a nice hot breeze and 90 degrees at 10pm. But one thing hotness brings that I do love: ice cream! Every Wednesday we go get ice cream cones (waffle ones, to be precise), and eat them in the yard. I then hose Charley down. Lots of fun and yumminess!
We've spent more time indoors the past month because of the heat, but the kids have fun and are playing really well together. Eli is now 10 months (can you believe it?!) and Charley is 2 years 2 months. Here are a few pics from the last couple of months...

Just a cute bath pic.

I just love smiling. It's my hobby.

"I just know my lipstick is in here somewhere!"
Charley has enjoyed playing dress up with some stuff some dear friends let us borrow.

This is a daily occurrence. However, Eli is the one who LOVES the piano.

Eli takin' it all it at the beach several weeks ago.