12-7-06

LOTS TO REPORT

The Love of My Life…if only words could express the intense love I feel when this little baby is nestled in my arms looking up at my face.  Her giggles, her expressions, and her immense curiosity make me love her all the more.  Is it possible for one person to feel so much love for another?   She’s still a peanut, less than 18 lbs.  Hair is finally growing.  Wave’s Bye Bye, is “so big”, says mama a lot and started to say bottle tonight.  Loves her baths, hates the car seat.  LOVES the cold MN air!  Day care is going great for her.  She loves playing with the older kids in the gym…my little active gal!

Eating Solid Food… Muriel is finally eating solid foods.  It’s been an interesting journey.  In Muriel’s orphanage, they fed her rice cereal in her bottle…I kept doing that for a while to keep the bonding going.  As much as I tried, getting her to switch to solids was going rather slowly.  Well, low and behold, I finally figured out why.  For Muriel’s age, she should be eating 4-8 tablespoons…I did the math and I had been feeding her 16-20 tablespoons….opps, the poor girl wasn’t hungry for table food!  We’ve got that straightened out and now we are down to about 3 tablespoons + all the table food she can eat…Brilliant?

Turning One…in just 2 short weeks, my little babe will be one year old.  I feel so fortunate to know that I will celebrate this day with Muriel.  People keep asking how I’m going to celebrate with her…well, call me a bad mommie, but it might just be a quiet gathering of us two little homebodies.  Of course I’ll get the free cake from Lunds/Byerlies and share it with Muriel’s day care friends.  By the way, if you have a Christmas tree up, can we come to your house and take pictures so Muriel thinks she had a first Christmas tree…ours only has lights and at this speed, that is all it will have.

Flannel + Minnesota Weather + Wiggly Baby = Flying Sparks…yes, it’s cold in Minnesota and that means the furnace runs a lot and the air inside is really dry.  Needless to say, when Muriel wears her flannel pj’s to be and I go check on her when she’s wiggling around – I see all sorts of sparks flying from static electricity.  That vaporizer just isn’t doing it’s job. 

Welcoming New Friends…Today, Annette came home with Genevieve and Drew, Yuki and Maya (big sister) came home with Amelia.  Tomorrow Julie leaves to go get Tess, they return on Christmas day!  Next week Mary goes to get Vivian and in about a month, Tracie goes to get Abbie! 

Uploading Video…I’ve been trying (in my spare time) to figure out how to put a few little video clips of “Gotcha Day” on the web.  That too isn’t going so well.  But I do hope someday to share with you. 

11-14-06

Last Week of Adoption Leave!

Well, here we are, almost 3 months after Muriel and I were united forever as a family.  Next Monday I go back to work or as someone at work said, come home.  Work is my reality, so there I must go.  We have found good daycare for Miss M.  She test-drove it 1 ½ days last week!  We survived with only a really snotty nose!  That’s my little girl, building her immunity up now!  She’s been home sick most of this, our last week together full time.  Fortunately for both of us next week will be a short workweek with Thanksgiving, so we can ease into the next transition of our lives.

This past three months has been amazing.  Okay, a miracle!  To think that close to 3 years ago a seed was planted.  I prayed, I researched, I prayed some more, I filled out some paperwork, I filled out some more paperwork, I prayed, I filled out some more paperwork and I waited.  And waited, and waited.  And just like a little heaven here on earth, all those prayers were answered and Muriel was revealed to me! 

She is the most beautiful and amazing little girl.  She’s a ball of energy that just won’t quit.  She has a contagious smile and she’s quick to giggle.  She loves me when I’m no fun and have to clean instead of play and she loves me even after I stick that thing up her nose to get the snot out!  (Okay, it takes a while for her to love me after the nose thing).  She’s grown so much in the last few months.  She knows her name, she can clap and she knows she is “so big”!  She also knows how to get mom’s goat! 

We have been blessed so much over the past 3 months with visits and gifts from amazing friends and family.  We’ve developed some new friends that will be ours forever!  I am still working on all the thank-yous…of course with an 11 month old around; I haven’t been as efficient as I would like to be. 

10-29-06

Child of God!