Happy Halloween!

Last week dressed for church

After the Halloween festivities

Swinging with Cousin Brianna

The little chicken's conscience is asking, "Would your mom want you to cross the road?" She's thinking it over...

2 Year Anniversary

It was two years ago today that we found out I was pregnant with Adelle. It was a Wednesday, and I hadn't felt good all week. I was in my Block B classes teaching in first grade, and I knew that the next day, Halloween, I was supposed to dress as Woody from Toy Story to be observed by my clinical instructor. I went to class in the morning and went to work from 12:30 -3:30. Then, Jesse got off work at 4 from Wal-Mart. Working in TLE, Jesse had to get cleaned up, but I had already told him that I thought I was pregnant. As he got out of the shower, I took the test. It was supposed to take a couple of minutes to be sure, but it immediately showed a little plus sign, and my eyes welled up with tears. Jesse said, "Look at me. Look at me," but I was like, "Whoa! Look at that!" And I was shaking and crying in disbelief, even though I could feel that it was true. We both cried on the bed that night, thinking our lives were over. Jesse worked at Wal-Mart and I didn't even have insurance. We didn't know what we would do or where we would go when I graduated. We were scared. We prayed together a lot and knew that God's will for us was better than ours, but we went through some rough patches questioning where His will would lead us.

Two years ago on Halloween, we told our families. The following day in first grade I told my cooperating teacher and partner. A couple of weeks later, we told our Lifegroup, and everyone was shocked, but excited and supportive. Two years ago, the message at Christmas time at New Hope was on having hope because of Christ, but I cried through the entire message because I felt hopeless. (Looking back, some of it was probably because of hormone changes, but at the time, I had held onto this idealistic picture of what my life was supposed to look like and having a baby right after graduation just didn't fit.)

I had felt so much stress and anxiety about how my life was going to change, I didn't even consider that my child could bless my life, strengthen our marriage, and grow me in humor, creativity, and humilty. At the time, I had felt crushed, yet I am able to look back and celebrate the anniversary of that day because I never knew:

• the pride of bringing a beautiful, innocent soul into the world
• the fascination and joy I would feel when she learns something new
• the excitement of exploring the world around us together
• the miracle of sharing life with someone whose DNA is half me and half Jesse
• the closeness of nourishing and providing for someone's every need
• the beauty of seeing her unique personality unfold
• the intensity of a mother's love
  

She may have been a surprise, but let the whole world know, Adelle was no accident. She's here to show us all the miracle of creation, the love of the Father, and the heart of a child. And she's here to bring me hope.

Sweet and precious!

Adelle always amazes us with the amount of sweet and precious things she can do in one day. Yesterday, she had some toy animals out with her playdough to keep her contained in her highchair while Jesse was cooking cinnamon rolls. I said we could each get one animal, and I asked her if she wanted to be the rhino or the lion. She grabbed the rhino, so I said, "What if my lion wanted to chase your rhino?" And I made the lion chase her rhino around the tray on the highchair. Then, I asked, "What if my lion wanted to fight and he started growling?" Adelle promptly put the rhino's mouth to the lion and made a kiss sound to stop any animal agression! She's definetly a lover, not a fighter, just like us!

Today, Jesse and I were asking her for high fives. Adelle used her left hand to give me five, then Jesse five and did that a couple of times. Then, she looked back and forth between us like she was thinking and put out both hands to give us high fives at the same time! She's a problem solver for sure! Its only a week and a half until she's 16 months....

Today we had a blast going to her Parents as Teachers playgroup, the library, and an unexpected trip to Collins Park with her grandpa and uncle Max. Then, she was so worn out that she slept for 3 hours, 2 of which were on my lap. I'm just trying to treasure every moment. Every night as Adelle falls asleep, I recap the day's events for her, not only to help her get to sleep, but also to try to create a lasting imprint in my memory of the good times we've shared.

Play time

Adelle recieved her very first tea set a couple of days ago as a gift from her daddy. She absolutely loves it. The picture is from her very first time playing with it.

Today was the Halloween party for MOPS. We got our kiddos dressed up in their costumes to play together and take fun pictures. There was a pinata, pin-the-face-on-the-pumpkin, and the hokey pokey was involved. Adelle didn't mind showing off in her cute little chicken suit one bit. At one point she became trapped in a playhouse with a growly dinosaur! I told the little guy, "Aw. She's scared. Show her you're a good dinosaur." He kept with the scary face and grrr actions, felt teeth snarling and claws clawing. Adelle in her sweet Adelle fashion looked up at me like, "Is this kid nuts?" and I held the door open for her to narrowly avert danger.

We missed some good photo opportunities taking Cookie to Lawrence and going to Hannah and Miranda's football game as I thought my camera was dying, but its back in action for your viewing pleasure.

Halloween fun!

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Bad News/ Good News

The bad news is our camera is probably dying. That's not so terrible, I know, but when Adelle is so cute, I never want to miss any stage of her growing up.

The good news is - there is always truly Good News!

I think it was last Friday that I had that feeling again. I have dealt with it for days off and on since before Adelle was even born: a feeling of discontent. I hate being anxious, but somehow it creeps in, usually after I've had a nice long season of growth and happiness. The worst part is that its always my selfishness that makes me discontented because I could always pray and have my burden relieved. That particular day, I was longing to buy a house before the tax credit is expires, even though we aren't even close to having a large enough savings, and then, there was that old desire to teach full-time, and have a "real" purpose, yadda yadda, etc.

Basically, I was busy that morning and hadn't gotten a quiet moment to seek God, so that afternoon, instead of seeking Him first, I was moping. Then, Jesse took Adelle into the kitchen, and I had some time to just be still before God in the bedroom. While praying, I felt lead to the book of Hosea, and I realized some of my moping was because I felt guilty for being discontent in the first place. The words I found there were like water to my soul. I was reminded again that no matter how far away I feel that I've strayed, God will never leave me or forsake me. Remember how Hosea was called to reconcile with an adulterous wife in the same way that God shows His love to idolaterous Israelites? He restores us through His love, too.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt." Hosea 2:14,15

God is still pursuing, still restoring, still providing hope. That is something to sing about!

Little Pumk'n Paints a Pumpkin

She really got into her artwork. Our camera ran out of batteries or we would have pictures of the finished products. More to come soon...

On track and the verse that started it all

Today, Adelle had her 15 month check-up. She's right on track in every area. She's in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight and head circumference. She eats and sleeps well, and she can demonstate her proficency at all of the developmental milestones they track. She's eating with a big people fork, and she's so proud of herself about it!

The verse that inspired this blog is Ecclesiates 3:11:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

It is so fitting when I think about our life as a family. All of the pain and difficulties, hospital bills and substitute teaching, runny noses and throw up in my hair, its all had a purpose in making us more faithful. And closer. Beautiful. How could you not take one look at Adelle and see the promise of eternity in her tiny little heart? We have so much. I cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end; I can't even comprehend what He's doing right now. But it gives me hope to know He's doing something incomprehensibly good in the universe. And something beautiful in me.

Mama's Little Helper

As I was fixing a salad for lunch, Adelle took all of my vegetable scraps to the trash and tossed them in. The only bad part was that once I had sliced the lettuce and green peppers, all I had left was cherry tomatoes. No more trash. Adelle would have none of that. She stood at the counter with arm extended upwards going, "Uh, uh!" So I gave her a good piece of green pepper to eat and told her it was good and she should eat it. We all know where it ended up - the trash. Then, I gave her a couple pieces of lettuce to toss in, even though they were fine, too, and we enjoyed the fruit and vegetables of our labor.

After lunch, she slipped and hit her forehead on the dining room table. Her head actually dented in as it was hit on the corner. She's fine now, just a little red mark left. There's never a dull moment.

Jars to Be Opened

Today Adelle is practicing opening lids by making a twisting motion in the air around them. Then, she sniff the jars' contents and says, "Oh," while wrinkling up her nose. She's also been saying, "Chip, chip," for us to give her more Doritos, but we've been firm. I let her have a piece of cheese, and now we're making her wait for dinner.

Jesse's making chilli, which is perfect for this weather! Last night, he made some cake balls. I had tried one at the first MOPS of this school year and looked online to find a recipe. You bake a cake from a cake mix and crumble it up. Then, you add in a can of cream cheese frosting and roll that into little balls. You stick that in the freezer for a minute or two to firm them up. Then you coat them in almond bark. Since he's working on third shift, he was able to do the whole process while I slept. I awoke to the above cake balls and chocolate heart. I feel so loved :)

Now or Never

Adelle is just too cute to go without creating a blog about our lives with her. So, here it is.