July

Baby L is a pretty good sleeper, so we were able to get into a good routine pretty quickly. Little A and I made breakfast together most mornings. Her favorite is berry pancakes. She especially loves to put the butter on all by herself.

We tried to get outside as soon as possible in the mornings as well, to take advantage of the cool morning air. We had a lot of picnics in the backyard, blew bubbles, weeded the garden, etc. Little A thought it was great having Baby L around. She loved showing her everything.

Little A's favorite thing to do this summer was pick food from the garden. She especially loved eating fresh strawberries and peas. She was so excited about the first strawberries that she squashed them in her little hands, lol!

Daddy used up all of his paternity leave in CA so he got in as many snuggles on the evenings and weekends as he could. Little A was ecstatic having us all together.

Allan's work had a picnic. Little A loved all of the yummy food. They had a lot of games too, but she only played one of them. She loved telling everyone all about baby sister though. 

Little A loved to lay on the playmat next to Baby L and rattle the toys for her. Unfortunately I had to ban her from it not long after this because she pushed L off of it onto the hard wood floor. She was devastated. (I was a little as well because it was so darling seeing them play together.)

So far Little A has had no jealousy issues at all. She loves Baby L so much! She always wants to hold her, kiss her, and show her everything. She is very concerned that baby be included in everything we do. Although, she does insist that she is baby and Baby L is sister. Ha!

We had some fun play dates catching up with friends.

These two are so funny! They were so excited to see each other on our first play date back that they ran around holding hands and squealing for about 15 minutes before they played, lol! They really missed each other and talked about each other when we were gone.

Since Little A is no longer allowed on the play mat she lays beside it and plays with sister. :) We've had a few incidences when I've left the room and come back to find Little A dragging L across the floor by her arm saying "Come, sister! Play!" Followed by me having a panic attack, lol! Thankfully L hasn't been harmed, and A is learning that she can't do that to her. 

Baby L is the sweetest little thing! She is a very calm and peaceful baby. She is very social and is always upset if she is not right there with us. She loves her sister, likes to coo at herself in the mirror, eats like a champ, and loves to be sung to. She's also a really good snuggler! And she can roll over! Her doctors have been very impressed by how strong she is and how well she eats.

We started going to speech therapy again. It's a nice walk in the mornings. Little A really loved this huge puddle on the way there the other day. We played and splashed in it for a long time. She was also very insistent that sister splash too, so I ran the stroller through the puddle as well, ha!

Grandma came to help us for a while. It was such a blessing to have her! She made us a whole bunch of freezer meals while she was here. Those meals have been such a wonderful blessing. Making dinner has been tricky because Baby L eats every two and a half hours (sometimes every two) and takes an hour to eat! It's hard to get anything done between feeding her and helping little A! It's been so nice to be able to dump a meal in the crock pot in the morning and call it good!

While Grandma was here we had a family night about feelings. Little A helped me make English muffin pizza with faces on them expressing different emotions. We had a ball making the faces and mimicking them.

We made chocolate covered frozen bananas for dessert, rolled in different candies. Little A loved making them, especially eating the candy.

She looks like she loved eating them too, but really she just ate off the candy and left the banana because it was too cold, ha! It was a really fun night though!

We went to the county fair where little A got the traditional enormous corn dog. She shared it with Daddy because it was too big.

She rode the carousel. She was absolutely terrified to ride it at first. It took a lot of convincing to get her on. At first I just had to stand by the horse, holding Little A, and she would reach over and pet it every now and then. About 3/4's through the first round she sat on it. The nice Carny let me just give him my other ticket instead of getting off and back in line so that she could stay on the pony and enjoy a full ride. 

Baby L drank her milk all scidiwampus in Allan's arms, and then slept through the rest of the fair.

They had a spot where the kids could color on some huge coloring sheets. Little A loved that!

We always go see all of the livestock. Allan loves to see the pigs, I love to see the horses (they have some really huge quarter horses here that are so friendly),

 and little A loves to see the chicks and other birds and bunnies.

A few days later we went to visit Grandad, Grandma H, Great Gram, K1, K4 and their families. They live about 4 1/2 hours a way. It took us FOREVER to get there lol! We stopped at a park along the way so little A could swing while we fed Baby L.

When we got there Grandma H and Grandad enjoyed some baby snuggles. 

 

Baby L got passed around and loved on until she was completely exhausted!

So did little A!

Little A had a ball swimming in the pool,

playing with her cousins,

playing with all of her cousins' toys,

and snuggling up with some cousins and Aunties for a movie.

We got to visit Great Gram as well. She was thrilled to meet her new great granddaughter. She now has 9 granddaughters, 5 great granddaughters, and two great grandsons who are always overwhelmed with all the women surrounding them lol!

We had a lot of fun on that trip. When we got back we had a lot of family time. Playing games, having picnics, and just trying to get settled in. At some point in this time we lost Little A's stuffed cow. :( It was a toy that AG gave to her, and AG has a matching one. Little A wandered around the house for several days saying, "Moo? Mooooo?" It was so sad. After calling around everywhere I could think of and not finding it I bought another one. It isn't quite the same though. A was a little confused when cow came in the mail looking different.

When I brought Little A home from CA at the beginning of the month I got a call the next day asking if I could do the choreography for our stakes dance for the upcoming Temple Celebration. I was already helping to teach the youth the other dances. After a little hesitancy I said yes, because really a chance like that doesn't come around very often, and it was the first time in my life I could use that talent to help build the kingdom of God. I immediately felt a little overwhelmed knowing that I would have an infant with special needs to take care of.  That made this time even more busy. I worked on the Temple Celebration for 15-20 hours a week! It was a lot for our little family, but we were so blessed! I'm so grateful that I had the chance to do that and for my amazing husband who made so many sacrifices so that I could be a part of it! We are so blessed!

Coming Home

We ended up being in CA for 5 weeks. It was a VERY long 5 weeks! The hospital got us plane tickets so we could take Little A home, and then come back for Baby L and fly her home. That was another great blessing!

Little A loved getting lunch at the airport. Going out to eat is one of her favorite things to do. She also loved sitting on the window ledge, watching the planes.

The last time she was on an airplane she was just barely a year old. It didn't go very well. I was a little nervous. I explained to her what would happen and that we would be so high in the sky. That got her really excited because she LOVES to go "high in the sky" on the swings.

I made sure to get a window seat for her so she could have a good view.

The first plane went smoothly. She LOVED it! She looked out the window a lot, we read stories and sang songs.  We were waiting for our next flight when she suddenly threw up! She didn't seem like she was feeling sick, we had literally just been running around. It wasn't very much either. Just enough to get on her shirt and make it stinky. She was very surprised when it happened, lol!

When we got on our next flight I showed her how to use the puke bag just in case. She got a big kick out of that and took some time to practice too, lol!

As soon as the plane was in the air she lay her head down on my lap and went to sleep. She slept for quite a while. When she woke up we did stickers and colors for a while. The man sitting next to us commented on how well behaved she is. That made me feel really good! :)

Allan's mom picked us up at the airport. A nice man loaded our huge suitcase into the car because I couldn't quite get it myself. (An important lesson I learned from this is that we desperately need new luggage!) My sister K5 was headed to our town that day randomly, so she met us at Allan's parents home and drove us home that day. It was such a relief to be home!

We are so blessed to have the friends, neighbors, and community that we do! While we were gone they noticed our lawn was dying and started watering it for us, watered our garden and the trees we'd just planted, picked up our mail, mailed some things to us that we'd forgotten, forwarded a package that we needed, and stocked our fridge with food! We seriously live in the best place! Since we've been home we have received so many gifts and money for Baby L, and everyone remembered Little A too!

It was especially nice for Little A and I to get home and be able to snuggle up for a movie and Oreos! Seriously, I cried tears of joy, lol!

Little A was thrilled to have some one on one time with me. The first thing she said when we got to our house was "Mama! Toys! My Toys!" and then proceeded to run around the house squealing and hugging her toys!

While I was on the phone one day she was playing with her blocks, and she found all the letters in her name, a D for Dad, an M, for Mama, a B for Baby, and an E for the Baby's name. She's a smarty! She was very proud of herself too!

We made it home just in time to celebrate Independence Day. We went to the parade with some of our awesome friends. Then little A was very patient while I bought boxes and boxes of books at the book sale. Some of our awesome friends brought the books home for us since we'd brought the stroller and not the car.

I brought ear muffs for little A so she wouldn't be so terrified of all the loud noises this year, and then I prayed really hard that she would wear them! With some convincing I was able to get her to wear them and with that she LOVED the parade! She loved getting candy and waving to the people on the floats. She also loved sitting in her cute camp chair!

After that we went and swang on the swings while she ate her lunch. We stopped at our friends craft booth on the way home and bought an adorable crocheted fish pond and some cute crocheted sandals for Baby L. 

Then we headed out to the lake to play with our family. A's cousins were in town and it was a blast to play with them! They loved splashing in the water, making sand castles (and smashing them), and riding on the paddle boards.

After we headed to Nana and Pops house for a BBQ. Little A and cousin P love to play with Nana's beads. Cousin B was very obliging and wore some beads for his little cousins! He's such a good kid! He's the oldest by almost 5 years and is always very patient and good to play with his younger cousins.

We also got to go see the Wizard of Oz while we were home. It turned out SO good! Allan sent me a dozen roses! He's such a sweet husband!

The director did a great job! The special effects were fantastic, the actors were fabulous, and the choreography turned out really good! Everyone did such a great job pulling it together while I was gone! The only bad part were the scene changes, they took FOREVER! It's a really long musical anyway and then adding in some extra long scene changes I seriously kept thinking "when is it going to end?!" But, the good far outweighed the bad! Little A loved it except for the wizard and the witch scenes. Thankfully my family was there with us and K6 took Little A outside for me with cousin P during the scary parts. The next day I asked Little A what her favorite part was, and she said it was the Lion. He was fantastic!

Meanwhile back in CA Baby L got her feeding tube out! Yay! 

She also passed her car seat test and was released from the hospital!

Our cousins put the word out that Baby L had been discharged, and their friends let us borrow a Moses basket for her to sleep in.

Daddy didn't let her rest long before he started tummy time with her. She wasn't a fan.

He got her all dressed up for Independence Day.

3 or 4 days after Baby L was discharged our cousins had to leave for a week, so Allan and L were there by themselves. Our cousins left us a key and their car so we could have a place to stay and get what we needed while they were gone.

To cross state lines with a child in adoption you have to go through ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children). Basically, it helps to ensure that there is no child trafficking/kidnapping going on. Usually they don't let you start this paperwork until the child is discharged from the hospital. It takes two weeks on average, but can take a lot longer. Often if there are special needs involved they will allow the paperwork to be started before the child is discharged to ensure the child can get their medical needs met, and that they aren't sitting in a hotel for weeks or months on end.

Our paperwork started good. They said we could start before she was discharged so we were hopeful that we would be able to go home soon after. However, our agency discovered that CA hadn't been following the ICPC laws correctly. When this came to light CA started scrambling to know what to do. After a few days they gave our ICPC packet to someone in their office to handle. This person had never done one before and didn't know how to handle it so she set it on her desk. For a week. Without asking for help or telling her boss that she didn't know what to do with it!!!!!!

After the week (which did include Independence day so we can cut a little slack there, but still) our agency called them. They refused to give them the contact information of who had it or the persons boss. After making phone calls all day they finally got the right information and tracked down our packet, which is when they learned that it had just sat on the desk all week! After a lot more phone calls between this person and her boss and our agency, our agency told them they had until a certain time the next day to get the packet to them or they would be getting the federal government involved by reporting them for endangering a child.

The packet continued to sit, so our agency reported them for endangering a child! Sheesh.  The federal government got involved, we were pretty nervous about that, but it actually went really smoothly. They told CA to have an agency handle the packet this time until they could straighten their laws out. However, it is against federal law to do this so then our agency had to hunt down an agency in CA that was willing to do it. After a couple of days they finally found one that agreed to do it as long as they had a written statement from the federal government that it was okay.

That agency took a day to get the packet done and then submitted it to OH where our agency is. Our agency said over and over again that OH always submits in less than a day. Unfortunately the person who handles these packets was out of town! Seriously the worst luck! Two days later they got the packet submitted to ID. Our agency had contacted the ICPC people in ID to explain the situation and ask them to keep an eye out for our packet. I also called our lawyer and had him do the same thing. ID got the packet submitted in less than a day!

It took so long though that Allan had to go back to work, and I had to fly back to CA and leave Little A with Grandma. Little A was sure happy to see her Daddy though.

I'd been back in CA for three days. That Saturday I took our cousins car to the grocery store with Baby L to get some food and more formula. After I finished my shopping I got back to the car and it wouldn't start! I wandered around the parking lot for a while carrying Baby L asking everyone I could find if they had any jumper cables. The first nice man I asked didn't have any, but he stuck around until I found someone who did. The man who did lectured me on keeping my battery clean, lol! I'm just really grateful for all the nice people that I met that day. Everyone was very kind, and very concerned.

Our agency had called me Monday morning to tell me that they didn't think it would happen that day because our packet had just barely been sent to ID. I was SO bummed! I started some laundry and cleaned up a little. I was just about to call Baby L's birth family to see if they wanted to meet up when our agency called again and said we were clear to go! Such a blessing!

I began throwing everything into the suitcases and looking for flights. There weren't any non-stop flights available, so I had to do a layover which would get us there with just enough time to get home to feed Baby L. Our cousins' awesome friend drove us to the airport. She had about 2 hours notice and her husband had to come home from work so he could watch their son while she took us. The Lord gave us so many great blessings, and put so many very generous people in our path!

Baby L did great on the airplane. She just slept the whole time. The doctors were very insistent that she be in her car seat for the plane ride, and since they bought the plane tickets I obliged.

Our planes were both very late, which got us home with no time to get home before we had to feed her. Thankfully she slept a little longer than usual, and then I just gave her the pacifier for the drive. She's a patient girl. My father-in-law picked us up and then went to the store (after midnight) to get more formula so we'd have some for the night feedings. I had wanted to get more before the plane ride, but I couldn't fit it in our luggage.

Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled to finally meet Baby L!

Little A was thrilled to see me and Baby L the next morning! About noon we were finally packed up and headed home. We got home just in time to greet Daddy when he came home from work! We were all extremely relieved to be together again in our own home!