Long Time, No See!

I have been promising another blog entry for awhile...life has gotten crazy. First, however, I need to get my thoughts out about today's tragic shooting in Newtown...Matt and I had just laid LJ down for a nap when we heard about it not long after they announced it. We were in shock...as a parent, as a teacher, as an American, it is devastating  Matt and I have always talked about how we will educate our children-public school, private school, home school-after tragic events like this, it is easy to say that we never want our children to leave home. We cannot teach them to live in fear though, we cannot feel like we have every ounce of control of our lives and the lives of our children-tonight I say this more to myself than anyone. Now is not a time to talk gun control and politics of the tragedy...save it for later. Now is a time to mourn the loss of so many people, mostly children, who will get to spend their first Christmas in heaven. I am sure for them, the best one yet...much harder for the families left behind. Thinking about them this holiday season.

LJ...he is almost 15 months old! So hard to believe how far we have come! He continues to be the happiest boy on the block...every day he surprises us with something new! It has been so wonderful that Matt has gotten to spend more time with us in the mornings with the new work schedule. It took some adjustment, but we are in a routine now, and LJ loves mornings! I get him up and fed, and then we go get Daddy out of bed...he seems to rush through his breakfast because he knows the sooner he finishes, the sooner he gets to go jump on Matt's head! The smile he gets on his face every time we walk into the room to wake him up is priceless...and I get it every single morning!

LJ is getting taller...we don't go in for his next exam for a few more weeks, but I am sure he has sprouted even more. We can tell when he starts trying to climb the baby gates that his reach is much higher than it used to be. Speaking of baby gates...they will not hold him back for long and thank goodness they are screwed into the wall! He tries to climb everything! He hasn't gotten out of his crib yet, but he sleeps with a few favorite friends and every morning when we get up, they are all on the floor outside the crib...Matt is convinced that he is freeing them before he frees himself so that he has something to play with when he gets out. I sure hope not! He isn't ready for a big boy bed!...or at least this mama is not ready for him to have a big boy bed!

LJ is still not walking. He can stand and he gets around quickly, but he is still very unstable on his feet. Of course I worry, but then again his first birthday was just supposed to be last week. We will give him a little longer. He really wants to walk, and we can see him thinking about taking a step, but you can see that he is very unsure of himself and sits down. We still struggle with food somewhat. We are having to put things in the food processor still to get him to eat table food. However, he can eat crackers, Cheerios, fruit, and a few other select things whole. I am trying to figure out what the issue is...if it is pickiness, laziness (he often just doesn't want to chew), or inability to chew enough to get things down. We will have to see what the doctors say in a few weeks. In the meantime, we continue to get food down any way we can! He also seems to be mastering the sippy cup...we have given it to him regularly since he was 6 months old, but it was just this week that he really seemed to get anything substantial out of it. We are being patient!

On another front though...LJ's vocabulary is growing every day. He still loves doors and saying the word. He says uh-oh, moo, chair, star, picture (although that one has taken some deciphering), ho-ho-ho (today's development). He continues to say "What's that" to everything. He repeats a lot of words! Other words he tries to say but they are not deciferable. And other times he just babbles...and sings. Our son is not going to have a speaking issue for sure...he never stops. I love to listen to him on the monitor in the middle of the night. He wakes up, carries on conversations, and goes back to sleep. Love it.

Our little boy is growing up so fast! He still loves going to the Y, he loves car rides, he loves his family, and he just loves being around people.

As many of you know, Matt and I originally wanted a house full of kids. Things haven't quite gone as planned with baby number 2. Pending a miracle, baby number 2 will be adopted and 2 children will be perfect! We briefly struggled with our options of IVF (with a very low potential statistic of being successful) or adoption, and when it came down to it, we have always felt called to adopt, and maybe this has been God's way of telling us that now is the time. We are super excited about this new journey. We know that LJ will be such a good big brother...he is so sweet and gentle.

We have been busy collecting paperwork for our home study again. We completed this process once before having LJ, but this time we are doing an infant adoption and last time we were planning on adopting out of state foster care. The process is different, so we are starting from scratch. We have our first home visit on Monday. We could not be more excited...or more nervous...than we are right now. You always wonder how an outsider sees your family. Or if your family is "good enough". Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this process...it is emotional, it is stressful, it is more paperwork than I have ever filled out in my life, and it is expensive, but the rewards will make every moment worth it! It won't take too long this time, and hopefully we will be ready to go by the end of January at the latest. We cannot wait to meet the child that God has for us to parent and for LJ to be a big brother to. Exciting times!

I will try to be better at updating...it took a reminder from my mom last night to get this update out there. I kept meaning to, but after a few weeks of writing about your life history (every boring and/or dramatic detail), about you medical history, about any "feeling" you have ever felt, I guess I have just not felt like it quite yet. But that part is done now, so lucky for you, it is my blog readers who again get to hear about my life, my feelings, and my awesome family :)