Beach Day!

I am so behind!! Yesterday was 5 months home for Ryah, 5! That means next month will be 6 months and that means she'll have been here for half a year, that is just crazy!!As I've said before, the days are sometimes slow but the months are flying! Anywho, at the beginning of May we took a little trip to the beach for the day, it was Ryah's first time and I couldn't wait to see what she thought of it since we love it so much.  And we love that we are just a short 2.5 hr drive from a beach whenever we want to take a quick trip like this. I had a feeling she would love the beach- and I was right! She ran around pointing and saying "water, water! and "snow"- that is what she calls sand and she refuses to believe be that there is a difference haha! I don't know if it's because she saw snow first or what, but she is determined to call sand, snow, and for now I'm going to let her.  And she LOVED the water and waves, she was fearless! She just kept going further and further out and saying "whoa!" every time a wave hit her.  Even when some hit her in the face she didn't care- she loved it! The water was still pretty cold and we had to drag her out of it when it was time to go even though she was clearly shaking, she didn't want to leave. It was amazing to be able to see her see the ocean for the first time- just an awesome experience! It was a great family day and we can't wait to go back!

Ryah's 1st Easter Home

Here are some pictures from Ryah's first Easter home! We were so excited to celebrate our King with our girl finally home! She is just learning what all these holidays are- and she experienced her first, very low key, Easter egg hunt. She sat all the way through the service at church for the first time, it was a great weekend and we spent it reflecting and praising God for all he has done in our lives! And of course, even though we are Saturday night church goers now, we had to put this girl in her Easter dress, and she LOVED getting all dressed up!

Rooted in Love

     I know- I haven't put any Easter pictures up yet from Ryah's first Easter home, I will get to it I promise! Probably next week, but for now I have something else I want to share with you.
Most of you know, that our trips to Ethiopia were not our first time overseas.  We have been on mission trips to several different areas of the world over the years.  However, these trips to Ethiopia were different.  Maybe it was because I am different. It is hard to be in such a trying, faith stretching process like adoption for 3 years and not come out a different person.  We prayed for so long for God to break our heart for what breaks his, and he has done just that.  Those first days in Ethiopia were hard and overwhelming, not just because we were meeting our long awaited daughter for the first time, but because we had never seen poverty like that before.  It just hits you in the face and the gravity of what we were doing and where we were was overwhelming.  The reality of our daughter's story and so many others like her was right in front of us.  We fell in love with the people of her beautiful country, and we wanted to do something.  We knew we needed to be involved beyond bringing our sweet Ryah home.  Ever since we came home our hearts and minds have been whirling trying to figure out how we can make that happen, what is the best way to do it. We wanted to empower the people already there, because we are by no means the answer.  For me, this is where Rooted in Love comes in! Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook a few days ago telling about a little about this, here are more details!
     Throughout the adoption process, I learned about many organizations around the world selling fair trade items that have been handmade by artisans in different countries.  The items are beautiful and unique, but the best part is that by selling these items, the artisans making them are being given a sustainable job to provide for their family, pay school fees for their children, and be able to break the cycle of poverty in their life.  Many of the women have also escaped trafficking and are being given the chance to start over and hear that their life has worth.  These jobs are providing them with dignity and value and restoring their self worth as well as helping provide for their families.  Rooted in Love is a boutique that was started by Laura, one of the mama's I met through the adoption process who is also waiting to bring home a little one from Ethiopia.  RIL works with several of these organizations and sells the beautiful items through hosting home shows, going to craft fairs and also the online store.  RIL is Gospel centered, and I am honored to have the opportunity to partner with them!  We are still ironing out the details of what all this will look like, since RIL is based in Alabama and I'm here in NC, but for now I'm hosting my first show at my house this weekend and I'm so excited! I will also be going to different shows around our area over the summer along with maybe a few more home shows(let me know if you want to host one!) and would also love to find some space in a local business to help tell the story and spread the word!  Laura is doing an awesome series on the RIL blog called Tell the Story leading up to Mother's Day, where she is sharing the story of several of the women involved in these organizations.  Please check out the first two posts here and here!  Mother's Day is a great time to find something special for your mom and also help empower women around the world as they provide for their family.  I would love for you to check out the online store and share the Rooted in Love story with your friends! And of course if you're local please come check out the party on Sunday! I will be posting more about this on this little blog because I'm eager for more people to know about opportunities like this, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and make a difference in someone's life.  These stories below are just 2 of the organizations that RIL works with, take a minute to hear their stories and then share them!





Starfish Project - Restoring Hope to Exploited Women - Promo Video from Starfish Project on Vimeo.

Ryah- 3 months home and 2.5 years old!

      Apparently having a busy toddler leaves little time for blogging, as is evidenced by the amount of time in between my posts :) but I wouldn't trade it for anything! We are having so much fun with our sweet girl! It is hard to believe she has been with us a little over 3 months now- time is going by so fast! I want to try to document things as she grows and changes, but time just keeps getting away from me! So I'm going to try to catch us up to where we are now in this post.  At three months home- we are still doing some aspects of cocooning.  We are not allowing anyone but us to meet her needs just yet(feeding, diapers, comforting, holding for long periods of time, etc) and this has been good for all of us.  We can tell that while we have a bit of a curious social butterfly- she still needs a little help in being reminded who mom and dad are and what they do.  We think she is doing great, for being here just 3 months, and these reminders are more of reinforcement now than they were a few weeks ago.  I still wear her in the ergo when we go new places for the first time.  We finally ventured to church a few weeks ago- and although we haven't made it through the entire service yet, she has been doing great learning to sit with us for a good bit of it! We also took her to small group for the first time 2 weeks ago and she did great! That was the last area of our lives we had not introduced her into just because she would be in close proximity with quite a few people and we wanted to make sure she was ready.  She really is a champ in any new situation we take her into. I think we are more anxious about how she will react than she is.  She has been so great at adapting to life with us and everyone who sees her comments on how happy she is.  She has come a long way from the sad, scared little girl we first saw a year ago! That's another thing- it has been a little over a year since we saw her face for the first time! Crazy!
         As far as how she's doing otherwise- she is still eating and sleeping like a pro. She doesn't sleep quite as long as when she first came home, but I think part of that was a coping mechanism for her. But now she sleeps at least 10-11 hrs, sometimes longer at night, and anywhere from 45min-2 hrs for a nap during the day.  Those 45 minute days are long sometimes- but we power through! She eats pretty much anything we put in front of her still- and she loves juicing with daddy in the morning.  I don't know how she does it some mornings when she comes upstairs afterwards and I can smell the overpowering smell of celery- but she loves it and chugs it! We have been to numerous doctor appointments and collected a handful of stool samples trying to kick the giardia, which I believe we finally have, thank the Lord! Nothing like a vial of poop in the fridge- just another day in the life of an adoptive parent.  Language is still coming along- it seems like she picks up a new word every other day and I've lost count of how many she knows now. Her relatively new words are: careful, car, heavy, light, cold, wet. Those are just the ones I can think of right now. She is still using a few signs that I taught her, but she also says the word when she does them- she is so smart! She is starting to repeat words that we say more often- I can't wait to see where she is in a few months! Every time we've been to the doctor, he has commented on how well he thinks she is doing and how pleased he is with how she interacts when she's in the office, reassuring words for a first time parent who is constantly questioning whether we are doing this right or not.
       We are just so blessed by this little girl! She has started to love music and dancing even more and is getting into playing with her baby dolls- which she hated when she first got home. Anytime we would offer her one she would throw it back at us.  But now she is such a sweet little mama to them and covers them up and feeds them and rocks them.  She has come so far and experienced so many new things. She loves shoes, books, bananas, peanut butter, oatmeal, and Super Why seems to be the only tv show that will keep her attention right now, although she has started to ask for Pooh frequently which makes this momma happy! Yesterday we took her to her first concert- which was a whole new experience for all of us to say the least, but she did great and was clapping and dancing with the music- we love some Ben Rector!! We are venturing out on more playdates now as well and it is so cute to see her with little friends that we have waited such a long time for her to be able to play with.  As always- thank you all for the prayers and continuing to follow our story- you are such a blessing to us!

   

Joy

Joy, that is the word that comes to mind when I think of our precious little girl.  She both has so much of it, and gives so much of it to us.  I just can't imagine having missed out on this because her age and needs weren't what we had originally planned.  Yes, there are days that I want to pull my hair out because she's 2 and has some major sass in that little body.  There are days when I get nothing accomplished that was on my "list"  and I count down the minutes until daddy gets home to take over for a bit. But most importantly there is joy.  Joy that we get to be her parents and raise her to know and love God.  Joy when she lays her head on my chest in the morning and says mommy. Joy when daddy comes home and she squeals at the top of her lungs to see him walk through the door.  11 weeks ago, this little girl didn't know what a daddy was, and now she does and it's awesome!  There was joy this weekend when she got to experience a playground for this first time( we tried it before but it was way too soon and she was totally overwhelmed) but this time she experienced it and there was joy! She ran from slide to slide and was so excited to try each one of them- even the big ones!  It was so amazing to see the joy radiate from her as she felt comfortable and free to run and play and I just watched- honored and humbled that I get to be the one to see her experience this.  I get to be the one who sees how excited she gets over a banana, or a bath or a ride in the car.  She is just one amazing little girl and I am thankful, so so thankful that God's plans are always greater than ours.  I pray he gets all the glory from her joy and ours.