Archive | July, 2011

Week in Review: July 20- July 27th

27 Jul

Another week down and I honestly believe Zoey’s height has doubled…at least to me it seems like that. I just can’t believe how fast she is growing and part of me really want to freeze time right here but the other half can’t wait until she is talking, walking, and catching frogs with me. But for now I just really, really love her sweet little babbling self!

So this week Nichole and I took the kids to a tiger refuge center. It was cool but a wee bit scary since the only think separating us from these big cats were a chain link fence. But on a side note did you know that you can purchase a tiger for only $300-$400 and keep it in your back yard. Yep..that is right in Alabama there is NO law against owning a tiger! So the majority of the animals in this refuge were from idiots in my opinion who purchased a tiger and then later could not keep it. The keeper at the refuge was telling us that we would be very surprised how many people in the country have wild cats as pets. Crazy huh!!!

After our crazy adventure we headed on back to Gary and Susan’s house to celebrate Felicia’s birthday. Zoey also had her first time jumping on the trampoline and playing dress up thanks to her sweet cousin Bella. It was too funny seeing how concerned that Bella was regarding Zoey’s lack of dress up clothes. But no need to worry…Bella has Zoey a growing stockpile now!

This weekend we also had Tanner, Nichole and the kids to the lake. All the kids were SUPER fun! It was so cool having them all playing and swimming together. Zoey just cracked me up because she just got in her swim tube with her bottle and just chilled and took a nap under her hat while all the kids jumped and played around her. We also got all 4 adults and all 4 kids on the intertube tube behind the boat. It was great…until the rope broke! :) But all in all it was still a blast getting to play and swim with all the kids.

So in some other interesting news my straightener caught my hair on fire this week too! Well not flames fire but it was more like plastic melting with gold and red. I had to get water from the sink to put it out! But another surprise was the Chi actually paid for me to get my hair fixed after I sent them pictures and they also sent me a new straightener. So yay for another large company actually doing right by their customers!

Well what else has been going on this week…

Zoey LOVES going to church! She really, really does. She gets really into the worship and bounces her legs, waves her hands, claps, and her new thing is funny little head bob. It is too sweet and funny to watch her! Now the service is a different story. Most of the time she doesn’t make it that long and since we are still not leaving her with others we don’t do the nursery yet so we just download the service and listen to it later. But it has been worth it to go for the worship for sure.

Oh and how in the world could I forget this big news…Zoey is cutting THREE BIG MOLARS now! Yes three! So that is three times the big large pain. And she will be acting perfectly fine then all of the sudden scream bloody murder. Like we are cutting off her fingers one by one type of painful screaming. This was also accompanied by a fever that even got up to 102.9! So poor little girl was quite miserable especially at night. So this has thrown off her sleeping and napping routine but we have seemed to get it under control by using anything and everything out there that can supposedly help with teething. I feel really bad giving her meds but at night she is just in so much pain and so tired so unfortunately we have had to do it. So her being ill and running a fever has kind of kept us around the house most nights this week but I managed to get out of the house with Dana on Saturday night to see a movie. I headed on out after putting Zoey to sleep while Eric stayed home with her. It was the strangest feeling driving back home after the movie when Dana said “Can you believe #1 you and Eric have been married for almost five years and #2 you have a little girl sleeping at home?!?!” It just hit me that YES I DO HAVE A CHILD AT HOME! It was so weird…I mean I KNOW I do but just taking a step out of mommy mode for a movie and then realizing it was so strange! :)

So that about sums up our week around here. I hope all of you have had a nice week too!

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Week in Review: July 14th – July 20th

20 Jul


Wow! Where is the time going? I can’t believe another week has already come and gone. The going back to work has really gotten to me lately…yes I still cry every morning when I leave. But on a happy note Zoey is doing great! She just gives me a hug and kiss and waves bye bye! But life with a kid just makes the day go by SO incredibly fast!

This week started out by Zoey going back to the International Adoption Clinic for her check up. All of her blood work and stool samples came back perfect. All of her immunizations were up to date, no surprise lead, parasites, or diseases in her blood either! PRAISE THE LORD!!! So all was great! Woo hoo!!

We also had a busy week going to Peach Park with Dana for some yummy ice-cream and toasted pecans. Eric’s best friend Jonny who lives in Seattle came in town to visit with Zoey too. He was so thoughtful and brought her a sweet bracelet! We also went to dinner with Dana and Jonny at Nothing but Noodles. Zoey was too funny eating her sprouts out of her dish. That is one things that I have learned loving about Zoey is all the crazy food she will eat. She really will eat pretty much any and everything! You will not hear this momma complaining…

We also took Zoey to the eye doctor because her bottom eye lashes were turning in to her eye. But come to find out that is normal for asian children. She has VERY long lashes so this was really concerning me because I would think it would be so uncomfortable for her. But the doctor said as long as it doesn’t start aggravating her eyeball and making it red then we will leave it alone. If they have not turned out naturally by the time she is two we will look at doing something then but until that point we will leave them alone. So that was another doctor trip that ended in good news too. She also has great vision too!

I also have to say a quick thank you to Canon for repairing my 50mm lens I got in November for free! I was SO incredibly upset when it broke coming home from Korea because A. I knew we could not afford a new one and B. I knew we could not afford to repair it too. So when they fixed it for free I was SUPER SUPER excited!!! So of course we had to do a mini photo session with Eric’s 3D Harry Potter glasses!

So this week was not too incredibly exciting but fun non the less. We are just so in love with Zoey and she makes every day so fun and interesting. The only thing I do not understand is how something so small can cause SO much laundry and dirty dishes…I really don’t get it! :)

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Week in Review: July 6th- July 13th

13 Jul

One month as a forever family!

I can’t believe we have been a family of three for an entire month. It is just crazy to think about. Tonight when I saw that this little tooth had finally broken through the gums I started crying…like boo-hoo crying. You see when we got her she was not teething at all. She had eight teeth already but non in the process of coming in. So after two weeks home three little teeth started coming in…and I witnessed it! I witnessed the entire process of these three little devils. They caused SO much pain to my sweet little girl but it was a miracle to see it all happen. It really was! It is the little things that I am so grateful for. I feel so blessed to have her here home in my arms and honored to see all of these little steps of her growing up.

Well we have done more over the past month other than sitting around and watching her teeth come in!

We have seen our shy, timid, sweet little girl blossom into well…a loud, daring, fun little wild woman! It has been so cool to see her personality come out. She is truly the funniest person I have ever met. We love just sitting there watching her. She makes life so happy! Oh to live and think like a child!

So she learned to climb the stairs…FAST! So against all my best efforts on keeping our house from not looking like one big baby playroom we had to install a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. We tried putting her wagon there blocking it and first…she learned how to push it…second she learned to crawl under it…third she learned to crawl over it. Now thanks to her just as mischievous cousin Mae she is attempting to master the baby gate too. I know one of these days she will figure it out. Lesson learned…Mae and Zoey can’t be left alone in a room together or it equals double trouble! But all kidding aside…she LOVES her cousins. I mean LOVES, LOVES, LOVES them! She has had the best time getting to know and play with them over the past month too. It has been super sweet watching how much they love her too!

Girl also loves to dance. She loves any and all music and could dance all night. Her favorite tv shows are The Wonder Pets and The Backyardigans because of the music. It is too cute sitting there watching her watch tv. She gets up on her knees and flaps her little hand like a bird, then she gets her little booty going too bouncing up and down to the music the entire time laughing!

What has been the best is this past month we have witnessed us falling in love with her and her falling in love with us. That has been the most beautiful and sweet thing so far. She wants US…she need OUR comfort when she gets hurt…she LOVES us and that is so sweet. I am no longer thinking “How would her foster mom handle this situation?” but now thinking “What should I as her MOM do?”! We have fallen into this routine and our roles as a family and all three of us don’t know what life would be like without each other. Our Zoey is one brave and resilient little girl! She has surprised us all at how fast she has adjusted. We are both so very, very proud of her and the girl we are seeing her become. It has been beautiful to watch! We prayed during the entire process and still pray every night for God to heal her heart. We know we can parent her to the best of our ability but the only one that can make her heart feel whole and fill that abandoned void is Him. We know without a doubt that we have witnessed a miracle with these prayers. We have seen her dramatically do a 180 emotionally over the past month and for that we are very grateful!

So what has this mommy learned over the past month? Sleep is precious! Notice the lack of blog posts…every night I plan on sitting down and typing up my feelings but then I think about the bed and it is much, much, more inviting! :) Yes Zoey is a great sleeper but we are all cosleeping together still so long gone are the days of the deep night sleep!

I have also learned about this crazy, crazy love you can have for a child. It is wild! I loved her before we brought her home but I am SO IN LOVE with her now. We are too peas in a pod me and my little girl. It is so funny what all we have in common and how much we are alike.

We both feel so blessed to have her as our daughter and can’t believe how fast this month has flown by…Oh that is another we have learned too! Life with kids goes crazy fast and doesn’t slow down. Just last night Eric was saying “I want to freeze time. I don’t want her to grow up!” And I agree three teeth this month her mouth will probably be full of teeth and she will be going to school before we can blink!

So here is our weekly review video! Enjoy…

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Zoey’s Birthday Video

10 Jul


Here is Zoey’s Birthday Video! Enjoy…

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Zoey’s Dol

9 Jul

Today we celebrated Zoey’s first birthday with our family. We celebrated in typical Korean fashion (well kind of) by having her a Dol.

Here is some info from Wiki regarding the Korean Dol:

Dol or doljanchi is a Korean tradition that celebrates the birthday of a one-year-old baby. This ceremony blesses the child with a prosperous future and has taken on great significance in Korea. The birthday babies wear a hanbok and a traditional hat: a gulle for baby girls and a bokgeon.
In the past, the death rates for children were high and many children died before their first birthday, so it was an important milestone to the baby and parents. The whole village used to celebrate a baby’s first birthday, sharing foods and wishing for long life and fortune for the baby.
The highlight of the dol is a ritual where the child is placed in front of a table of foods and objects such as string, books, brushes, ink and money. The child is then urged to pick up an object from the table. It is believed the one selected will foretell the child’s future. For example, if the child picks up a brush or book, he is destined to be a scholar.

And celebrate we did. Zoey was all dressed up in her BEAUTIFUL hanbok that her foster mother gave her. The day we met Zoey she tried it on for us and LOVED getting in it. So this morning when I pulled it out of the closet for her to put on she got SO excited….it was too cute! :)

 

We did play the future guessing game too. And what did Zoey pick? The Pororo microphone to be “An Entertainer”! Of course we don’t really believe this will pick her future and I hope for her sake she decides to go a different route but for today I am guessing that was the most enticing! :) Zoey drew the name out of the winning cup and both my mom and Mam-ma one the bag of candy.

Another Korean 1st Birthday tradition is the photo board. I did start out by pasting her photos on a poster board but it was looking WAY too cheesy for me so I ended up decorating her pictures by stringing up some mats. I was very happy with the way this turned out. I set it up over the jars for guesses.

There is also another tradition of a blessing tree. So I spent time making these super cute trees but of course my mommy brain was in full force that day so I completely forgot to tell people to write down the blessings/prayers for Zoey and hang them on the tree! :( Oh well…at least they made for some cute decorations.

The decoration I was most proud of were these Dol Towers. They took FOREVER to make! So any of you mom’s that have not celebrated the birthday yet go ahead and start making them NOW! I completely understand why people pay good money for others to make them for them now.

For food we had fried rice and instead of the traditional Korean Rice Cakes which I had no idea how to make so I did my americanized version which was rice krispy treats as the dessert instead of birthday cake. I figured when else could you get away with no birthday cake. But we did get Zoey a cupcake so she would have something to get messy with. However she did not care to get too messy but did end up grabbing the candle before Eric even sat it down. Needless to say the birthday song stopped right in the middle and everyone gasped…Zoey cried but quickly recovered with not a bad burn at all. :)

We had a great time getting to hang out with our family and spend time just celebrating Zoey. It was so cool to see how comfortable Zoey felt even with all of the people there too! She also learned how to open up her gifts from her cousins. She was too funny with all the new toys. We just love our Birthday Girl so much and feel so blessed to have her in our family. We are also very grateful for all of our extended family that love her too. Both Eric and I left the birthday party with the biggest smile on our faces not because of the decorations, food, presents, or even cute Zo in her hanbok…What made us so happy was seeing how much our child is loved by our family. She is one of them 100% and they have welcomed her with huge loving and caring sweet arms and that right there is so priceless!

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Happy 1st Birthday Zoey!!!

8 Jul

One year ago today my sweet little girl was brought into this world. I wish I knew what it was like to see her take her first breath or how she looked as a wrinkled up little newborn but that I will never know and honestly I am perfectly ok with it now. The months of waiting for her were so hard and I am just so very appreciative to have her a part of my life that I am fine with not knowing. God was there and he knows all and for me that is finally enough. It took months and months for me to get there but I can 100% say now that I am ok with missing the first part of her life because you know what? WE GET THE REST OF HER LIFE! :) And if it is 1/2 as great as these first couple of weeks that is more than enough!

There are many things I do not know but what I do know is that I am VERY, VERY, VERY grateful that one woman chose life for Zoey! I will forever be appreciative for her birthmother making the I am sure hard decision to carry Zoey for 9 months, give birth, then give her up for adoption. I am still processing the emotions I feel towards her birthmother and will one day get back with you when I have them all sorted out. When I start thinking about her I just cry tears of gratitude for her decision. What a gift she gave our family! What an amazing, wonderful, perfect, cute and absolutely precious gift!

I am also very thankful for another special woman who sacrificed 9 months of her life too to raise Zoey while we couldn’t. Zoey’s foster mom was pretty epic and a complete answer to all of my prayers. I could not have picked anyone better out for the job. I believe her kind mothering helped shape Zoey to be the sweet cuddlier, kind hearted, and super funny child she is!

Without these two very important women Zoey would not be the perfect little one she is to us today. So on this very special, special day I can not forget to honor and remember these special women to our family. We will always hold a special place in our family for these two ladies!

So how did we end up celebrating this special day? It started out by Zoey deciding to wake up at 5:00 am which is a first for her! But can you blame her? I remember waking up early on special days growing up too. So this mommy let her go to her room so she could play with blocks. She tossed these blocks around for three straight hours…I am not even kidding you! She also very much enjoys doing a trick her daddy taught her where she puts the bucket on her head and crawls around the room. It is too funny and she knows she is super cute doing it too!

After we both finished up work for the day we decided to treat Zoey to Chuck E Cheese. I know…I know…I wasn’t super thrilled about this decision but she LOVES dancing to music and we don’t have cool kids resturants like the “Rainforest Cafe” or anything like that around here but we thought she would enjoy seeing all the characters at Chuck E Cheese on stage dance and sing but when we got there we found out that the stage is gone! Only TV’s now! We could have had the same experience at home!! But at least we got pizza and Zoey did meet the big CEC. She also really liked watching her dad beat all the video games. It was too funny watching all the little kids stare at Eric because every game he played he would win hundreds of tickets! :) Who would have thought his job would come in handy for kids prizes…

After dinner we stopped by the dollar store to let her pick out a balloon. This girl LOVES her some balloons! She also learned to point her finger when you ask her how old she is. It was too cute so we had to take some pics…

All in all it was a great day! Both Eric and I kept saying to each other “Can you believe this perfect little girl is our
child?” Can you believe she is one?” Both seem so surreal still! :) We can not thank God enough for this special day and our special little nugget!

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Happy Birthday Eve Zoey

7 Jul

Today was my sweet baby girl’s birthday eve! And for those of you who don’t know me very well I LOVE celebrating birthdays…like all week and especially the day before! So of course Zoey had to wear a cupcake or birthday outfit every day this week to lead up to the big day! But she looked super cute and I know I have had a great time celebrating all week!

I scheduled my lunch break today with work so I could take Zoey to a neighborhood play group. She loved getting to go over to Krystal’s house and play with all of the other kids. It was fun and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. Zoey did great and seemed to really enjoy all the kiddeos. I very much enjoyed getting to hang out with the other moms and talk about typical mom things like sunscreen, diaper leaks, etc. It made me feel like a regular ole mom! :) It was a little funny because I was the newest mom of the group but had one of the oldest kids. But that is part of adoption and I know one day I will not personally even notice little things like that. Of course no one there said anything or probably even thought that…they all LOVE Zoey and was super excited to play with her. But for me I 100% feel like Zoey’s mom when it is just me, Eric, and Zoey but sometimes when I am out in public I struggle. Not that I feel like I love her any less or don’t feel like her mom…I certainty do! But it is strange to one day not have a baby then the next have one. I believe ANY new mom whether they adopted or not goes through these feelings but adopting makes it a little tougher. I know people don’t have these crazy expectations of what mine and Zoey’s relationship should be or should look like to others that I have set up for myself it my head but I do. I realize that this is all my own insecurity and it is something that I am working on and praying about. Every day I feel better and better about it but today was a great day. Like I said earlier…I just felt like “a mom”…”her mom” in front of everyone! And that was a GREAT feeling! Maybe it was a little pre birthday present to myself! :)

It is really hard to believe that she will soon be one year. I am just so very, very, very grateful that I get to celebrate this birthday with her. It was SO INCREDIBLY hard when each monthly milestone day that we missed came and went on the calendar. I kept telling Eric if I did not have her by this date he would probably have to admit me to the crazy house. So luckily for him I am not in the looney bin today! :)

But it was also bitter sweet today because my heart was really aching for all the other waiting moms out there. I know how so, so hard the wait can be and with the crazy EP situation in Korea (which you can read more about it here) so it breaks my heart to think that there are many families out there who will not get to be with their little one on their first birthday. Many of you are reading this now and to you I say that I am SO SO incredibly sorry and I am praying for a miracle EP for each and every one of you! For those of you who are just readers please take time to pray for these families and this entire situation because unfortunately who this impacts the most is not the waiting moms and dads but the innocent little kids who have to wait and wait to finally belong to a forever family!

But praise the Lord we just snuck in under the EP. We know of families only days behind us who did not get the EP in time so we fully realize what a miracle it is to have Zoey home for her birthday and for that we will be forever grateful to God and everyone else involved that made it happen.

So I can’t blog long because just last night I started planning a birthday party that is scheduled for Saturday! But I wanted to fill you in on what all is going on around here. I guess I will be pulling out the glue gun and making some Dol Towers tonight! :)

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Happy Birthday Eve Zoey! Your Mommy LOVES you more than you will every know! :)

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Week in Review: June 30- July 6th

6 Jul

Here is our third week in review video! We had a minor meltdown in the car on the way to the lake to which we quickly purchased some Backyardigan Songs so as a treat for you today I have two fun songs from our new family friends! :)

I hope you enjoy….

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Zoey’s Homecoming Video

5 Jul


So today was the dreaded day…going back to work! But luckily I have a super awesome husband who did a great job keeping Zoey today! He said it wasn’t a perfect day but they all survived. Granted he didn’t get to sit down once or even lean against the wall (reminds me of an oh so familiar experience I had about two weeks ago). And they watched a lot of Backyardigans but they made it! We all made it! He said that she wasn’t overly happy nor overly sad so I guess that is good for a first day without momma. I did return to find her without the shorts on from earlier. He said the shorts were just unnecessary with all the diaper changes! :)

And me? It was a VERY busy day at work so it was good keeping my mind off my little girl. But I never tried to get home as fast as I did to see my sweet pea! And I wish I had on video the face I saw as she woke up from her nap to find me home. That smile was worth a million…no a billion dollars! If only somehow I could get paid for her smiles then I could stay home and watch her all day!

So enough about the dreaded day. Let’s all flash back to one very happy day…Zoey’s Homecoming!

A very, very special thank you to Paula for capturing these amazing pictures of this day! Words can not describe how thankful we are to forever have these memories saved for Zoey to see one day…


**To read more regarding Zoey’s homecoming CLICK HERE.

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Happy 4th of July

4 Jul

Happy Birthday America! And happy first 4th of July to Zoey! We have been celebrating all weekend starting out by Friday taking Zoey to the McWane Center. She had a great time getting to play in the tot center. She is getting so strong and brave nowadays. Before she would have never played and crawled around like how she did today.

On Saturday we woke up and headed on down to the lake for Zoey’s first lake trip! I have grown up always going to the lake so I was super excited to finally be taking our sweet little girl down there. She was brave again and surprised us all by riding the inter-tube behind the boat and going on her first boat ride too. She did all SMILING TOO! The only downside of the day was my Paw-Paw falling earlier that morning…he said he thought he pulled a muscle but still hung out with us all day. Acting in some pain but mostly fine and playing with Zoey! But by the end of the day the pain got pretty bad so they ended up taking him to the hospital only to find out he broke his hip!!! Poor guy! Please say a prayer for him because today he is having surgery to repair his hip!

Once we left the lake we went to see Dana at work! I creeped in the store and just stuck Zoey up on the counter so when Dana turned around she was like “Zoey? Is that my Zoey?” It was too funny getting to surprise her! And boy did Zoey love the pharmacy! She was too funny playing with all of the baskets but don’t worry I sanitized her up good when we left! :)

On Sunday we woke up early again and headed on over to the pool for some more fun in the sun. We came back home for a nap, photo shoot with mommy and a strawberry snacks but then later that night we took Zoey to her first trip to church. She LOVED it and LOVED the worship music. She didn’t make it long in the service so we headed out but it was still super sweet to finally have our baby home and worshiping with us!

So what is on the agenda for today? Get ready for Zoey’s birthday which is this upcoming SATURDAY! I can’t believe her birthday is almost here and I have hardly started planning…so I must get everything planned today because tomorrow I have to go back to work!!!! So say a prayer for me…I can’t even talk about now. I am totally blocking it out of my mind until Tuesday!

I pray all of you have a great and safe 4th!!!

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