Babies!

When did my friends and I grow up and have babies?  Must have happened recently.  Love how big Stella's feet look bc of the angle of these pictures!

The biggest baby of all is sucking her thumb.

We're working on "gentle"...the photo shoot ended about a second after this picture.

New Eyes.

I am being mindful to take life more slowly these days.  I was on the phone with someone yesterday and she said to me, "They say that, when you're raising kids, the days go by slowly and the years quickly."  I really needed to hear that yesterday when life was somewhat frustrating: temper tantrums, coloring with crayons on the floor, fridge, and cabinets when I wasn't looking, lots of busy-work to get done during nap-time.  So, today, I decided to take things more slowly.

I clean a friend's house on Wednesday mornings.  I love that job.  I love the feeling of putting things in order and blessing a family in that way.  I prayed for each member of the family for whom I clean - special prayers for each person based on what's going on in their life right now.  It made the cleaning job more meaningful to know that there was spiritual work taking place at the same time.

I spent all of Stella's nap with God - bliss.

Stella and I went to the bank after she woke up from her nap, and then we walked around Durham for about an hour, doing whatever she wanted to do.  Have you ever experienced the world - really tried to see the world around you - through the eyes of someone who is seeing most things for the first time?  She stopped to smell every flower she saw.  She played in the crunchy leaves for about fifteen minutes straight, picking them up and throwing them in the air while shouting, "Weeeeeee!"  She said, "hi" to everybody we passed on the sidewalk.  She talked to me about how pretty her princess sticker was, the one she got at the bank for being so patient.  We got home and colored in her coloring book together - when did I stop coloring?  Why?  Thank you, God for a chance to start again.  

I am so thankful for this chance to see things anew.  I know that God delights in me in an even greater way that I delight in my daughter.  She is a gift to me to help me see the world fresh.  I love my life when I look at it through her eyes.

Stella is not the ONLY one with new glasses...

One Thousand Gifts

I'm reading a fabulous book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp - it is hitting my heart in all the right places.  I find myself thinking about this book more than anything I've ever read besides Scripture.  It is a book to meditate on and re-read over and over...and it's shaping how I see the world.  Among so many other things, Voskamp models an attitude of thankfulness; however, her thankfulness isn't just for the sake of being grateful and feeling good about it, but rather it is a discipline which results in a closeness to our Creator by seeing the world through His eyes...with joy and perspective.  Here are some of my one thousand:

1. The feeling of giddy anticipation anytime I think or talk about adoption.

2. Hot chili and crescent rolls.

3. Sleep sacks.

4. Honesty in my marriage.

5. Clean dogs.

6. Baby Soap.

7. Pursed lips of Stella's sweetest kiss.

8. That she wants my comfort anytime she is hurt.

9. The burnt orange of my front-step mum.

10. Dog's hungry noses on our walks.

11. Stella squishing yogurt ("yog") in between her hands - delighting in the squishy sound and sensation.

12. Monarch butterfly on a flowering bush - GLORIOUS!

13. A fridge full of groceries.

This is only the beginning!  Thank you God for fresh eyes.

New Patch.

We took a trip to Concord for Stella's regular visits to the pediatric opthamologist last week...and we picked up some new fashion while there.  Stella got a cloth patch so that we don't have to keep using those evil adhesive patches.  She looks so darn cute and it's not nearly as frustrating for me when she takes off this patch bc it goes right back on without any waste or fighting.

Our little south paw?

I really think she's ambidextrous...

Or perhaps she's a righty?

Puddle Jumping - Part 2.

The rain continues today...here are some more shots of puddle jumping yesterday.  I love my family so much!

"Stella, slap me five!"

She will undoubtedly sit down in the puddle...cracks me up every single time.

Wet bum.

Trippy shot but she is so JOYFUL!  Thanks be to God!

Puddle Jumping

Team Pink.

Since well before Tim and I got married we have been accidentally dressing alike.  Our best moment came when we went to a staff conference in St. Louis almost eight years ago...we were dating but didn't live together and therefore didn't pack together.  When I met Tim in the hotel lobby on the first day we both had on the following outfit - no joke:

• white button down shirts
• sweater vests
• tan corduroys
• brown leather shoes
• I think we even had the same color socks

Tim wasn't having it - he promptly went up to his room and changed.

Well, I'm happy to say that today all THREE of us dressed alike accidentally.  I know I'm the one dressing Stella, but I honestly didn't think about the fact she was wearing jeans and a pink turtleneck...until Tim came home wearing jeans and pink button-down shirt.  And I looked down at myself wearing a pink shirt and jeans.  I proudly present to you: Team Pink:

Kid's Best Friend.

Several times a day I think I'm insane for having two dogs and a seventeen month old child in a 900 square foot apartment.  Then this happens (every day) and I feel better about our little arrangement:

Best friends forever.

This is either:
a. Caroline singing opera.
b. Caroline getting ready to eat Stella.
c. Caroline yawning.

Caroline: "I want your juice, Stella."

Stella does this and says, "Hug."

Red Striped Reading - My Favorite!

This is Stella and my friend, Denise, at the church nursery.

This is Stella, doing one of her favorite things, reading books in my favorite chair.  Also, she is wearing one of my favorite dresses of all time - given to her by a favorite person of ours, Emily Copplestone.  One more favorite before you see the pictures:  her feet in every photo.  Why are baby feet so much cuter than big people feet?  Baby feet are my favorite.

A little cross eyed, which makes this even more of my favorite!

Saving.

In light of our hopes to adopt a daughter, I've been thinking a lot about savings lately.  I am asking myself honest questions about how important it is to have saved for the future when there are people, especially children, in this world in the greatest places of need.  I wonder how I can stand before God someday and answer him for the fact that we have saved for a retirement we may never see...when there is a child out there somewhere RIGHT NOW who does not having a mother, a father, food, clothing, shelter, and ultimately love?  I don't know if it will come to us using retirement money to fund adoption, but I welcome the chance to really question our life choices and to answer the questions in light of what the Bible teaches.  What does God think about retirement and saving for tomorrow?  

Give us this day our daily bread...it takes on a whole new meaning when you take steps toward adoption.

A Visit to the Eye Doctor.

Stella had her follow-up visit to the eye doctor today.  She is doing great!  The doctor was really pleased with how her glasses are fully correcting the lazy eye - and the patching is doing the trick by helping the weaker eye to regain its strength and sight.  Both eyes are working together more effectively with the brain and the doctor even said we might decrease and eventually take a break from patching sometime soon.  Stella got some new lenses (thankfully they were covered under warranty) because both of hers were scratched in the line of vision.  

Before Dr. Morse visited us.

Swirly chairs are fun!

Waiting for her new glasses - bike rack doubles as a pony.

Daddy and Stella share a bagel.

We had a playdate this afternoon after our busy morning at the opthamologist's office, and when I went to take Stella out of her carseat I realized that one of her brand new lenses had popped out of her glasses - yikes!  I found the lens in her carseat and I called Concord Eye Care; they said they'd take a look at them, to come on in.  Living over an hour away we can't just drop by and when I told the optometrist we couldn't afford to make the trip again after just being there this morning she said she'd send a whole new pair in the mail in the next week.  We will return the faulty glasses when Stella gets her new pair - great service and it won't cost us anything more than the cost to mail the glasses back once the new pair arrives...phew!  Thank you God for kind doctors and good patient care!

Adoption.

I just got off the phone with Bethany Christian Services - an adoption agency.  Tim and I are in the "information gathering" phase, exploring the possibility of bringing another daughter into our family.  Next month we will attend Bethany's information meeting at their NH office in Candia.  This afternoon I am meeting with a friend who went through Bethany to adopt her two daughters.  I don't really know what to say other than I feel excited every time I think about it.  I actually get goosebumps whenever I have mentioned the idea of adopting to a close friend or family member.  

I can think of few things that would bring God more glory than giving a child a family - one who otherwise would not have a home, a mom, a dad, a sister, and the knowledge that they are completely loved and wanted.  I honestly don't know what this whole process is going to look like, where the money will come from (I trust it will come from somewhere...God is so good), and when it will happen, but I'm so excited for the journey.  I pray God will remind me of my excitement when the process gets hard, when we feel anxious about God's provision, and when the path ahead is unclear.  

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1: 27

U-Turn

So...Cape Cod didn't look so much like beaches and swimsuits this time around,

It actually looked more like this on Saturday afternoon:

Thanks to a flat tire (due to an unusually high man-hole cover and a not-so-successful-U-turn), we spent part of Saturday afternoon at the tire store.  We had planned to go to a free concert at Pine Hills in Plymouth...well, $115 later (thanks to the aforementioned flat tire replacement), it ended up being the most expensive concert I ever attended.  Thankfully, my bad attitude eventually made a successful U-Turn and we were able to go back to the concert just in time to see one of my favorite musicians, Edwin McCain, take the stage.  Stella, mom and I had a great time and we also enjoyed other fun memories from our weekend visit including...

TV time with Uncle Kris.

Stella and me at the concert.

Mimi trying on Stella's hat.

Just taking a break, looking up at the trees.

Riding mimi's elephant coffee table.

Hammock!

Playing with cousins in Eastham.

Cape Cod here I come!

We are visiting my mom on the Cape this weekend and I am oh-so-excited because we get to do some of this:

And this, this, and this:

Stretching.

Tim and I are planning on running a few road races this fall.  We were inspired by our cousins from Virginia who are running a half-marathon in November.  Personally, I am not a big fan of running but it will help both of us to have a goal and to do something together.  Today, after my run, Stella helped me stretch.  Love these pictures - a little blurry, but Stella is so cute when she stretches!

Warm up stretching involves big smiles.

This is called the "I ate too many french fries" stretch by Stella.

So big!

Thinking about touching her toes...

Big Stretch!

High Fives!