Real

"Do you know anything about her real parents?"

"Which ones are your real kids?"

Adoptive families often hear questions like this. People don't mean to be rude or insensitive when they label certain children or parents as "real". Most likely they weren't adopted themselves or haven't adopted or been close to adoption, so they just don't know how certain words will sound to adoptive families.

Real parents are parents who make a true commitment to their child. Real parents love and take care of their children.

I am not genetically related to my Dad, but he is the one who has loved and provided for me for most of my life. He has always been my real Dad. Now that I'm grown up, he's still there for me. I am as much his daughter as my brother is his son. My brother is my Dad's child by birth, but there was never any difference between us.

Even though I always knew I was adopted, words like "adopted daughter" or "half-sister" were never used. I was always a real daughter and a real sister. I always had real parents and a real brother.

Ally has been the daughter of our hearts long before we brought her home. We made a promise to be her parents, to love and care for her just as we do the rest of our children.

Now she's here with us and she is a real member of our family. She has real brothers and sisters who love her and accept her. They include her and play with her and help her.

I truly feel that God has answered our prayers and has knit us together. She is just as much our child as the children who were born into our family. She has spent a few very intensive months learning about family...learning what it means to have a Mom and a Dad. I can tell that she understands now, and it's been such a beautiful thing to witness her heart accept it all.

Family is God's plan and so is adoption. I'm so thankful that He made adoption part of my life and part of Ally's too.

Happy Mother's Day

What a great Mother's Day with Alayna Grace home.

Mothering her has been a new experience for me. I'm learning so much and having whole new places in my heart opened up.

She needed a mom and I feel so humbled and blessed that God gave the job to me.

She loves having a Mommy and I love having Ally.

Happy Mother's Day!

Therapy Cat

Before We Had Ally...

My main reason for praying for more families to adopt was for the benefit of the children. So many children need families. They waste away, suffering silently, alone and in need. There are so many families who could be a blessing to the children and give them what they need. I would think, "Sure it's a sacrifice, but when you have so much, you should be willing to help those in need."

Now that we have Ally, and day by day the beautiful miracle of adoption is being unfolded before our eyes, I find myself wishing that other families could have this experience.

Any thought of sacrifice has faded into the background. All I can see is this precious gift that has been given to us.

I greatly lack the ability to use words to express how blessed we feel. God takes our small efforts to  be a blessing to someone else and then He pours more blessings on us than we can possibly imagine. It has truly been one of the most amazing experiences. Our hearts are filled with thankfulness every day that God took us down this path.

I pray that more and more families will get to experience this same joy.

Ally's First Field Trip

Ally had a great time on her first family fun outing. We went to the botanical gardens near our house. Spring finally showed up in the North, so we enjoyed a beautiful day. 

3 Months Home

Amazing how slowly 3 months goes while you're in the waiting stages of adoption, but how fast it goes once your little one is home!

Ally continues to do really, really well. She's gained 4 1/2 pounds. The reflux issues she had are gone. She's been super healthy since we brought her home. Some people in the family have gotten mild colds but, thankfully, she hasn't gotten sick at all.

She is doing so well in all areas...far beyond any expectations we had. It's been one of the most amazing experiences to witness her physical and emotional growth and her learning progress.

"Mama" is one of the first words that babies say, so I've been working with her on the "mmm" sound and saying "Mama". She is very cooperative and works with me, which is so encouraging,  and of course it melts my heart when she says, "Mama Mama".

Within the past couple of weeks she's also learned to give kisses. She gives the sweetest kisses, which further melts our hearts.

Ally loves...

Bananas
Dancing
Going outside
Baths
Blankets
Books
Almond milk
Watching Baby Einstein and Pocoyo
Music toys
Being included
Waving bye-bye and giving kisses before going to bed
Being rocked to sleep
When everyone claps and cheers for her
Our Striped Cat

Ally doesn't love...

Taking her vitamins and medication (which she faces bravely)
Having her hair done (which she does not face so bravely)
Being told "no-no"
Going to the doctor
Not being able to go outside

Her playing has become more complex and she has begun to pretend play quite a bit.

Alayna Grace is such a little treasure and everyone loves her to pieces. She's settled in very well. I'm pretty sure she feels that she truly belongs here and we feel blessed every day that God put her in our family.

Signing Time with Ally

Ally was a little resistant to begin signing but once we knew she could do it, we were patiently persistent in encouraging her to try. And once she decided she did want to sign, she was so happy and proud of herself and has been signing ever since.

Here's Ally signing "more" when she first decided she would try signing.

She is now consistently signing every day. She signs "eat", "more", "cracker", "banana", "milk", "cat" and "dog" and she added "Mama" and "Daddy" this week. We're so proud of her!

Wrapped in Comfort

Our little Alayna didn't like blankets at first. It was hard for her to accept comfort of any kind. It's almost inconceivable that a child needs to learn to love blankets, but now she loves them so much.

She loves to have blankets spread out to sit on, she loves to rock with Mommy and her blanket, and she often wraps herself in blankets she finds around the house.

I love this picture that Jeff took of Ally's beautiful brown eyes peeking out from a quilt that my mom made.

Precious girl, I pray that you'll always be wrapped in comfort and love. We love you so much. Each day it seems like a miracle that you're here with us and we thank the Lord daily for the blessing of YOU!

Happy Resurrection Sunday

2 Months Home

I always appreciate reading adoption blogs where people are honest and open and share the hard realities of adoption. People often say how "it's not all sunshine and rainbows" and that really helps new or future adoptive parents to have a clear idea of what to expect.

Often you read about the "honeymoon" period..when children come home and everything is wonderful, but then reality sets in and things aren't so great for awhile while children test the boundaries and their parent's love.

So I don't know if we're just having our adoption honeymoon, or if this is just Ally, but things are really good and getting better. She's doing great and is such a joy.

Ally sleeps through the night without a peep. She eats well and doesn't seem to worry about food anymore.

She plays happily through the day. She really enjoys playing with the other kids and the pets now. She seems more and comfortable and willing to let us know what she wants. If she doesn't get her way or we have to tell her "no", she cries and then gets over it quickly.

She's walking all over the place. I can't believe she could hardly walk 2 months ago. It really seems amazing that she's learned so much and grown and changed so much in just 2 months.

She's been a little stubborn about signing, but she's finally signing on a daily basis. She signs "more" and "eat" and just added "cracker" and "cheese" and "milk".

Bonding is going really well. It's amazing the difference two months makes. I still rock her for a half hour in the afternoon and a half hour before bed. She smiles and babbles and goes through all the signs she knows and points to her own nose, mouth and ears and then to mine. After she's done socializing, she snuggles in and falls asleep. It's been very special for us to have this time every day.

She is now on daily thyroid medication. They had her on thyroid meds at the orphanage in 2011, but not 2012, and when we picked her up they said she didn't need any medication. I don't know why they stopped giving it to her, but she still needs it every day. Other than that, she's had no health issues, but she does still need to get to the dentist.

So, our 2 month update sounds like everything is nearly perfect, but I guess it's important to share when things go well too. So far, it's going much more smoothly than we ever expected and we're definitely enjoying having our sweet girl home where she belongs.

I'm excited to see how she does this first year. We're anxiously awaiting spring here in The North. It seems to have gotten lost this year, so we're still waiting under snow. Ally's gotten so excited to take a few walks in the stroller, I can't wait until she is able to play outside for real...she's going to love it!