Thursday, March 27, 2008

what we did on our vacation...part III


The final part of our vacation involved a joyful reunion and a flood of memories. Regardless of whether your child becomes a part of your family through adoption or the birth process, seeing your child for the first time is so amazing. We had the privilege of being with 3 other families when Kate was placed in our arms. You could feel the electricity of anticipation as we all paced about the simple room in the government building on a cold, gray day in December of 2005. A van finally pulled up and the director, nannies and our girls emerged. We stood in a line with hearts pounding as each girl became part of a new family. We will never forget that day, the joy, the wonder of what was to come and the people we shared it with.

We met one of those families in Florida during the final days of our vacation and it was precious.



We dressed the girls in matching outfits and they had the cutest looks on their faces when they saw each other. While Kate was still a bit under the weather, she just lit up when she saw her "sister". They danced, jumped, climbed, held hands, ate ice cream and were so funny to watch.

Both girls had been anticipating the reunion and the time went by so quickly.

Kate's buddy is quite adventurous and jumped up to "pat" the stingrays. (Kate is not in this photo because she was clinging to my neck refusing to even put her hand in the water.) Please note: no children were injured in the making of this photo, the stingrays have all had their stingers removed in what was surely a very humane procedure.

I found that stingrays have a disgusting texture...like slimy, wet velvet. But, they are interesting.

Both girls were pretty taken by the killer whale show. I saw *Shamu* back when I was a kid, so I was excited that she would get to see him,too. (That was several generations of *Shamus* ago.) She thought "Shampoo" was pretty cool and talked about all the splashing for days. Things like, "Shampoo splashed all those people..."

K's Momma brought some really cute and clever things for the girls to play with after our trip to see whales, dolphins, and slimy, wet velvet covered animals.

Both girls morphed into princesses and found a peasant to care for their castle. They did their best to keep their serf in
line, but he's pretty tough to keep under control. Sam was a little alarmed by all the estrogen, but was a pretty good sport.


Our visit was so short, and it made me sad that Kate was not herself yet, but it was so special. Thank you C&K for making the effort to meet with us. Thank you for the memories, the cute toys and fun. It meant so much and Kate was so sad when we left. As we drove away after saying our "goodbyes", Kate started to weep and continued for some time. I asked her why she was so sad and she said, "because I miss K". My heart hurt with her. The only solution, another reunion in the future!

Friday, March 21, 2008

what we did on our vacation...part II

Part II: siblings...silliness...sand...

in spite of feeling like our condo was an urgent care clinic, there were funny moments and beautiful sights on the beach. i bought myself a new camera with some Christmas money and had some fun...

now for the siblings...


...my sister is so cool...



...doesn't everyone wear polar fleece on the beach?



...eeeww, she's kissing me...maybe she's not so cool...


silliness...


...was I dreaming or was "froggy girl" on my bed?



...note fashionable beach wear...fleece top and bikini bottom...


...sand...


...exploring the water with daddy...




...kate's first look at the gulf...



...i love the water...

...ahhh, yes, but there was even more fun and a joyful, precious reunion to come...

Monday, March 17, 2008

what we did on our vacation...part I

most of the time, the moral of the story is at the end, but in this case, we'll open the story of our family vacation with the moral:
expectations - reality = disappointment (remember this point, it will come in handy for you...)

i'll break this story into 3 parts...part 1: panic, flying and poly-viral drama.

we should have known our vacation would be going south (literally) the night before we left. i decided to be ms. uber-organized and basically had us packed for the trip to florida a few days before our departure. all appeared well the night before our flight until we changed sam's diaper and found BRBPR (that's medicalese for blood in his poop.) dread encircled me as i loaded him into his car seat for a trip to the kiddie ER.

as sam climbed all over the gurney, attempted to disassemble the wall suction tubes and and spun on the stool, the registration nurse, the ER nurse, the resident and the attending doc all seemed perplexed about why we were taking up space in the ER. well, just to prove my worries were legit, i produced the evidence: one poopy diaper with a few little streaks of blood. "see", I said, "look...blood in the poop..."

a thorough history and exam found nothing of concern and we were encouraged to go to florida and keep a close eye on him. (i was assured that if they believed florida was a 3rd world country, we would not have been given clearance.)

...the next morning, we loaded up 2 big suitcases, 2 monster car seats for the flight, 2 diaper bags and 2 viral infested kids parading as healthy little monkeys and headed to the airport...

...steve hauled 2 carseats, one diaper bag and kate...i had sam and a diaper bag...and off we went...(not knowing that we lost the key to my car...$$$)

now for the flight...where everything seemed to be fine...or was it just the calm before the storm?




the condo was lovely, the sun was warm, the sand smooth, the waves lapping on the beach and the viruses multiplying at an exponential rate...




...my dreams of a lovely, week were shattered by vomit all over the rental car and white condo carpet, poop filling diapers and my sinuses pounding to the rhythm of my pulse...

can this vacation be saved??? tune in later...

Monday, March 10, 2008

A Little Kate Theology...

Kate has taken an interest in "reading" to Sam lately. She enjoys our bedtime routine of reading stories and has decided to take a more active role. This past week while on vacation Kate decided to read Sam the Bible story about the Nativity and the birth of Jesus.

She flipped open her little Bible and made sure Sam could see the picture.

She then started to share the story...

"Mary and Joseph went to the stable. Jesus was born after the baby doctor came. The baby doctor came and took the baby out of Mary's body..."

she then demonstrated the doctor's "technique" for us. ...the motion is the same one Steve uses to pull start our lawn mower...pretty dramatic in typical Kate fashion.

while we are a little concerned about her understanding of the facts, we are now sure that once she completes her OB/GYN residency, the "Kate Krank" will be all the rage at baby birthing classes...