A new year, a new blog

This blog was begun to allow friends and family to follow along our adoption journey.  Well it has been one year since our adoption was complete and nine months since we brought our daughter home.  Time to refocus the blog on family life in general, however, I want to keep this blog intact as a record of our adoption.

So, I've moved over all the posts from this blog and the family posts from my homeschool blog to make a whole new blog!  Come on over and check it out - I've got a new post up about Little E's 8th birthday!  And be sure to "subscribe" - then you'll keep getting updates.

The Potter's Shed

A big girl hairdo

Baby L's hair is finally getting long enough for some more creative hair styles! I can now get her hair into 4 little puffs - so cute. We all think this hairdo makes her look like such a "big girl".

Wanna see?

One year ago today. . .

One year ago today, we received and accepted, the referral of our fourth child and second daughter, Baby L. Here is the first photo we saw of her. . .




And here she is a year later. . .




We are celebrating today with a homemade cake and Jollof Rice - my first attempt at some good Ghanaian cooking. (Aimee - if you are reading this - Jollof Rice!! - and a vegetarian version!)

Halloween 2009

Everyone is anxious for the Trick-or-Treating to begin!

Here's our Jack-O-Lantern.

Daddy and LoveBug (dressed as a flower - the flower headdress made by her big sister).

The Whole Gang!

The HAUL. Our kids have three days of unfettered candy access (and then it all gets tossed out).

Baptism, Birthday, and meeting the Greats

It was a BIG week for our family.

On Sunday, Baby L was baptized! After church we met her Godparents and some other good friends for a picnic lunch to celebrate.









Then on Tuesday, September 1st, we celebrated her FIRST birthday! After the excitement of the weekend we kept it fairly quiet. Just our family, but quite a few presents. :)

Then this past weekend we went up to the Tennesee mountains to finally introduce Baby L to her Great Grandmother and Great Aunt and Uncle. We had a lovely afternoon at their mountain cabin hiking, riding the 4-wheeler, collecting rocks, dipping our toes in the creek, finding wildflowers, and rescuing a butterfly caught in a spider web.

So, it has been busy to say the least.

Baby L says Daddy and Doggie

Well, you can't tell here, but usually WE can tell when she is saying "daddy" versus "doggie". These are her first words! At the very end you'll hear Erik say "SIT". I promise he's talking to the dog (who was trying to eat the camera right out of my hand) not Baby L!

Fourth of July!

Gathering up all the Stuff we needed to take with us for our Fourth of July swim and fireworks party was quite a task: pimento cheese, squash casserole, swim suits, towels, changes of clothes, diapers, bottles, toys, etc. There was one item I really didn't want to forget: a camera. It was Baby L's first Fourth and I wanted to get lots of photos for the scrapbook!

I wandered around the house muttering "camera, camera, camera" until I could get to the cabinet where we keep The Camera. Unfortunately, my mommy-brain was too easily distracted and we went off without it. Oh, the guilt!

Then my friend, Donna, came to my rescue! She had remembered her camera (she has more functioning brain cells than I, don't believe her when she tells you otherwise) and was kind enough to send me some of the photos she took (one of the wonderful joys of the digital age - instant photo sharing). So, thank you, Donna!

Poolside - relaxing in the afternoon shade.

Not so happy.

Happy! Baby L's first dip in the pool!


LadyBug (on the left) and her two girlfriends
enjoy snowcones




The boys (H, or StinkBug, on far left) enjoying snowcones in the hot tub!

Here's a man with a pyrotechnical problem.

Hey, look, it really goes up there!

Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day!!

First Steps!

Yes, we have a baby walking at 9.5 months - that just makes me crazy, but I'm still encouraging her to keep practicing!

We are still here!

Well, our last post was right before a big birthday weekend for my eldest son. He turned 13! We had out-of-town friends come for a few days to help celebrate and a big surprise party planned for the weekend. Erik arranged for a Father-Son camping trip with some of Sander's friends and their dads (most from our church) where a number of the fathers presented a short talk on some aspect of Christian Manhood. Then Erik presented our son with a replica of a Viking sword! It is really impressive!

After that we had to buckle back down to school and try to finish up. I'm not sure we really did, but Tuesday we determined that it was time to start summer. We'll keep reading, together and independently, and playing educational games. Welcome SUMMER!

Here are some pictures from our first day of summer:













Baby L enjoying her "cruising" abilities.













S says he's "dressed for every occassion". Dress-ups don't get boring, do they?











The boys found an old stash of Dixie cups, which were perfect for biulding a great wall. This is about as high as it got before it toppled over.











Every year we celebrate the first and last day of school with an "ice cream dinner". Of course they are all hungry for "real food" within an hour, so we came home to burgers, too.














Not one to skip out on a little something sweet.














Baby L was a bit unsure about the whole thing. She did eventually give it a try and LOVED it, but she looks quite uniterested here. (Although from the look of those legs, you'd think we feed her ice cream all day long!)

So, welcome summer. I'm so glad you are here!

Bath and Hair

Hi, this is Baby L here. Mommy let me have some computer time, so I thought I'd tell you about one of my favorite things - BATH TIME!




Oh my, do I love bath time! Especially sucking the soapy water out of the wash cloth.












See, even big sister likes it. In fact, mommy doesn't know this, but I taught her how to do that.







And after bath time comes lotion time. Mommy gets me good and greased up - I shine like melting Hershey's kiss.










And then hair time. Mommy is putting in some fancy twists for my Sunday "do". I mostly try my best to knock everything off the counter while she does this. My "bob and weave" is getting pretty good, too. But then, mommy is getting good at chasing my head around. Sometimes I get bored, but the results are nice...







See, don't I look pretty?










This week we had our first post-placement visit with our social worker. He was very nice and enjoyed watching me play with mommy, daddy, brothers and sister. Not sure what the big deal was, but mommy was cleaning the house like a crazy woman. Anyway, Mr. Social Worker says I'm doing great! But of course, we knew that!

Getting Her Chunk On!

Baby L on March 19th

(that is conditioner in her hair, by the way)




Baby L on April 28th! Can you see the added "chunk"?

One Month Home!

You know time is a funny thing. It has a way of bending and being oddly different based on experiences, doesn't it? It seems to have a dual-nature. In fact, how often do things seem to have passed by quickly and yet, been the same for a very long time?

Well, that is how the past 4 weeks have been! It is hard to believe it has been a month already that Lydia has been home. And yet, at the same time, it seems she's been here so long!

Here are our updates and milestones for this week:

Eating has been her biggest area of concern since we recieved her. It has also been her biggest area of improvement! She is now taking 6 oz very regularly and eating solids (baby food and some finger foods) happily. She particularly likes bits of bread or toast just big enough for her to pick up.

She is regularly sleeping through the night. Either from 8pm to 4am and then down for a few more hours or 8pm to 11pm/12pm then to 6 am and then down for another hour or two.

We had friends over a couple days this week and she did well with their visits.

Her crawling and pulling up (and trying to cruise around the furniture) is getting more coordinated and determined.

She got new earrings! (see photo below)

And we've gotten some wonderful new products for her hair by Carol's Daughter. We were looking for the Black Vanilla line of products, but our Sephora store didn't have it so we are trying the Tui line of products (shampoo, leave-in conditioner). I think I'm also going to pick up a deep conditioner to try, too.

A bit of news not related to her progress: We recieved her Certificate of Citizenship! This was a bit unexpected...we thought we'd have to apply for it after readoption, but it turns out that she entered the US on an IR3 visa and was a citizen from the moment she was on US soil!


Here are some photos:




The new earrings! Pretty little CZ flowers. We'll save the real diamonds for later, dear.

Uncle Peter, in town for business from Arkansas, got to come meet you. We know Aunt Karen is jealous, but she'll be here soon!

Beth enjoyed getting you to giggle. We all enjoyed watching her be silly.

Our friends Susie, Nancy, Lily, and Rex came to play. Here is Rex playing peek-a-boo!













And here is Susie enjoying those sweet smiles, too!