Amen!

First time touching dirt!

Such a good helper!

Happy Mother's Day, momma!

Mother - that's me - loves flowers, so part of my Mother's Day gift was planting a few spots of color around the house. It is so nice to finally have turned the corner into spring. It was Devi's first encounter with dirt. She loved it. At daycare she made me the nicest kitchen tea towel with her hand prints on it. It, of course, will never be used...only admired! :)

Talking up a storm, Devi has mastered several new words. To the untrained ear, they probably sound like mere utterings of babble, but to this baby linguist they are, in fact, actual words! To her vocabulary list, she's added:
happy (usually said several times like a chant)
hammer
bubble
duck
quack (sounds like cat)
Cayenne (sounds like ay ann)
hum (sounds like ahuma)
apple
belly button (sounds like bulla bulla)
please (sounds like pls)

knuckles (which is followed by banging knuckles with another person like a hand shake)

delicious (sounds like a mouth full of marbles with ish ush and the end)

and countless others that pop up on a daily basis. She sometimes calls for daddy yelling Pat, which is hilarious.

The mischief maker in action.

The cutest of all has to be the word she says with the most conviction and loudest voice. Amen! which really sounds like All-me! She waits until we finish grace at meals and shouts it out or else you can hear her running through the house saying it over and over again. We are waiting...imagining that hallelujah must be next?

Following what is happening in the International adoption world has been extremely difficult lately. I would like to think that the recent upheaval is part of an effort to improve the processes for all that are concerned. In many cases, I believe this to be true however, as Pat and I consider building our family in this way for a second time, we've been met by nothing but road blocks and difficulty. Partly due to our ages and partly because of the changes in international governmental rules, the door to this opportunity seems to be closing a little more for us each day. If only this process was as simple as matching a willing couple with a child waiting for a forever family, but it is not that easy. As we've become more educated about different agencies, countries and processes, we've also encountered numerous stories of heart ache as the result of less than reputable adoption agencies in the United States as well as orphanages in all countries. Most difficult to hear are the stories of those who have come to love a particular child only to be caught in the middle of governmental disputes leaving them longing for that child whom they will never be united with. They did their homework, just as we did, but somehow, due to circumstances beyond their control their outcome was so very different. This eye opening information, that we somehow managed to be spared from while pursuing our first adoption, has made us realize how incredibly lucky we are to have our daughter. Just as the miracle of birth calls for near perfect conditions in the womb to produce a child, so does the circumstances surrounding an international adoption. For our Devi, we feel so deeply blessed and daily say All-me....I mean Amen!!!

Bite, momma, bite!