If Only I Had Known

This post is sort of a mismatched conglomeration of thoughts I have had recently. However I will throw in a few pics of the kids just to keep your interest=).

If only I had known when I was "young married with no kids" how important it was to help couples with children, I would have helped more. I would have saved them money by keeping the kids and not letting them pay me.

Because I do know, now I will remember....
when our kids get a little older and easier to deal with, we will "adopt" a young family in our church that doesn't have family living near them and help them out. Invite them for dinner. Love on their kids.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I will raise my children. How has God called Brian and I to raise our family?  What will He have us do?  How will we point our kids to Christ?  What will they see in me that points them to the Lord?

I have had several conversations with friends/mentors that have older children than mine about this.  My oldest is only 2, and I have already encountered times that I must explain to her that "this is what our family does*," and "that may be ok for them, but it is not ok for us."  I realize at 2 1/2 these are not earth-shattering moments. But at 10, 13, 16 they will be. I don't want those to be the first times she hears that "our family is different" and "this is the way we do things because we believe that is what God/the Bible teaches us."

(a sweet little church friend; she's on our approved to marry list)

We are currently looking into doing a study of the book, "Growing Kids God's Way."  One friend told me something she learned from this book is that we as parents are not here for our children's happiness, but for their holiness*. wow. That really stuck with me because in our world, it's all about making our children happy. Giving them the best, the latest, the newest, etc.  But as true believers, God has called us to something different. 'Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.' Colossians 3:2
I don't want to keep up with "the Jones'" and do what all the other parents are doing with and for their children. I want to do what God has called me to do. And this is no tall order. And I fail miserably every.single.day.  Thank goodness for a forgiving Savior.

(too sweet not to post)

I'll leave with a story......

I was bathing the kids one night and singing, "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."  I began to explain to Natalie that sin was when we disobeyed God, etc. She then asked me, "why blood?"  I told her that because of our sin Jesus died on the cross to save us and when he did, he shed his blood. side note: at this point I realize I'm kind of in over my head and trying to figure out another way to explain this to a 2 1/2 year old inquisitive mind, but I'm not doing a very good job!
So then I continue by telling her that God did this because He wanted us to live in Heaven with Him one day.  To which she replies, "yeah but not right now because we gotta take a bath." ha! way to keep it simple, kid.

**Thank you Shelley and Beth for your words of wisdom. I'll be coming back for more!

Good Times

 

For those of you that know NJ, you know she loves books. If she is playing independently (which is rare!) is most likely with a book and not a toy. So, you can imagine her excitement when she received some mail from Mimi and Poppi and it was a new book! A Biscuit book! This is her new favorite character (not Mommy's=/). She also loves Little Critter, Franklin, Doc McStuffins and Clifford.

 

 Can I just mention how old she looks in this first picture. Oh my! Where di my baby go?

She was equally excited to get $1 for ice cream money! This girl loves her ice cream. Thanks, Mimi and Poppi for making her day!

 

This is one of Natalie's favorite pasttimes aside from reading her books: playing doctor. She has been obsessed with her doctor kit that we got her for her 2nd birthday. Now she has switched to tools to operate. Poor pig. He never saw it coming.....

Joaquin is sitting up nicely these days (although an occasional fall is still pretty funny to witness) which makes it way more fun for him to play and for us to interact with him. He really seems enamored with this toy from Grandpa. He's reaching and grasping for things well and never ever sits still. 

 

I am SO very glad that he is at this stage in life. See, unlike most women I do not enjoy the first 4 months of life for a baby. I just make it through until they hit 5 or 6 months! Let the fun begin now.

Finalization

Friday we went to court in Dallas to make our adoption final. Joaquin Zavien Weir is now officially a part of our family according to the state of Texas. In a few weeks we will receive his birth certificate in which we can use to get his Social Security card.

The process was quite simple (especially when working with an agency because they take care of every tiny detail). We showed up at 8:15 and met with our lawyer who went through the paperwork and then reminded us what to expect. We waited our turn to be called into the courtroom which was about 45 minutes. While we waited we had the opportunity to meet two new families from Generations that we hadn't met before. I love networking! We enjoyed conversation with them while we waited and all swapped adoption stories. I had a bag of tricks for Natalie so she behaved very well while we waited!

Once we were called in, we raise our right hands and swore to tell the truth. Our lawyer proceeded to ask Brian about 6 or 7 questions to which he answered 'yes' to all of them. He then looked to me and asked if I, too, would answer yes to every question and I said absolutely!  The judge then declared that it was in Joaquin's best interest to be in our family and declared it legal! The lawyer took our picture and we were off! It literally took 5 minutes=)

After that, we waited on "the bench" again for a good little while until the lawyer brought our official documents for the adoption decree! The rest of the day was spent with family and friends and we couldn't feel more blessed!

6 months

This begins my favorite stage of babies........6 months! From here on out, I'm good!
Happy half-birthday, buddy!

Here's a comparison of my two beauties at the same age.  It's fun to see the difference and look back at my sweet girl all grown up now!

I had a bit of trouble getting JZ to sit still, quite playing with and eating the plate, and SMILE! The shots you see here was Take 2 for the day. I started out the morning when he was all smiles (or so I thought). He went blank face on me and keep grabbing the plate. Then he nearly rolled off the couch. Meanwhile back in my bedroom, Natalie was 'resting' she said (yeah right!) and had an accident in our bed ( I had just changed the sheets). Ugh. I gave up.  Take 2 wasn't nearly as dramatic, but he still was giving me a stone face despite my goofy looks and sounds. Nothing. So then I started singing some dumb, made-up song using his name and viola! All smiles! Whew.

So here's what he is into these days...

ROLLING! This little man rolls ALL over the place.  We had to expand his play area and he still rolls off of it in seconds. He's crazy fast and never sits still!  He is constant moving, fidgeting, kicking, etc. He wears us out!

Joaquin is eating 6 ounces every 3 hours (exhausting!) but if he eats more, he spits up too much!  We have tried and tried him on rice cereal and outmeal but he spits most of it out and doesn't seem to know how to eat it.  We finally had a breakthrough last week when I mixed pureed apples in it! He ate it and swallowed it. Thank goodness! On to veggies this week. Let's hear it for green beans and peas.

He weighs 16 lbs-- 30%

His height is 26 "---- 50%
His head is 16 1/4"---- 10%
Doctor gives him a thumbs up on all his milestones, and it looks like some top teeth are coming up soon.

He is so much happier than the first 5 months and it is refreshing!  His tickle spots are growing.....sides, back, neck, thighs. I love it!

I try not to compare him to my crazy girl talker but he doesn't make much noise unless he is fussing for a bottle. He is relatively quiet and doesn't babble yet.  Maybe that is a boy thing?

Mimi & Poppi's House

This year Brian and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! The original plan was for us to spend a week in Hawaii, but with the adoption and several other expenses that have come up, that wasn't going to happen. So, we settled instead for a week at home with no kids! Just as good, right?! Sometimes it is.  More on that topic in another post.  This one is all about the kids and their time spent with Mimi & Poppi!

The kids and I met my folks in Texarkana on Monday.  We have a normal meeting spot at McDonald's right off the freeway. Some of the workers even remember us we have met so often! Or maybe my kiddos are just that memorable! After a lunch, we loaded up their car and away they drove with my babies. I tried very hard not to cry and only let a few tears slip. I knew they were in good hands, but a week is a long time to not love on my babies. Thankfully, Natalie didn't cry or cling to me. She jumped in the car and was ready to go! Whew. I knew Joaquin wouldn't know the difference.  I also knew they were going to have MORE fun with them than at home with me!
Here is how they spent their week:

Monday and Tuesday that spent hanging around the house and playing outside. In fact here is the text mom sent me Tuesday morning: "We played in the sand, watered flowers, played house, swung, and all before 9:00. Now we are on the porch with the favorite bird watching humming birds." Ha! cracked me up. I told her it was going to be a LONG week=)

 

 

Wednesday and Thursday was cousin fun time with a little trip to see Granny.  They did a little swimming, playing on the floor with Joaquin, watching movies, reading with Aunt Ashley, and napping with Uncle Josh.

 



 

I'll have to admit I was a little bit sad to be missing all the fun and memories. But she was probably better off without me there making her cranky (because that seems to be what happens when I'm around anyway)!

I'm very thankful to have these sweet memories for the kids to look back on. It's all Ashley and I ever wanted for our families.

 

 

This boat picture of Natalie absolutely cracks me up. A big ol' pool and she prefers the dinky kid one! Now I'm convinced if that is all she had, she wouldn't want it.

Poor JZ has gotten left out of most of these activities due to his infant ways, so here is a couple of collage pics of his time with Mimi and Poppi.

 

He and Poppi are pretty tight apparently.  That is one sweet face to snuggle with!  Love how Poppi always gets on the floor with them.

And Nat's trip to Mimi and Poppi's would not be complete unless she got to ride "the big red truck" at least a hundred or more times=) She loves that thing and every grandkid has fallen asleep on one of those rides. Good memories, indeed.

Mimi is getting her workout here with NJ!

Besides playing with Natalie (doctor, school, babies, etc) this is the other way to win her over......popcorn! It's her new favorite thing and she gets super excited about it so we save it for special times!

 

What a great week for the kids while we worked our tails off in the garage. Wishing family was closer but thankful they are only a half day's drive away.

 

The Many Faces of Natalie

I have mentioned to many people that nobody truly sees Natalie's personality. She is a totally different child at home than in public; even at church where she goes all the time.  NJ is really a very funny child and keeps us rolling all the time. She's too big for her britches which creates funny moments as well. Here's just a taste of her silliness.......

The last one is my favorite! This one is her "do you understand me?" look. This is one she sees a lot for me, but it is funny because it is the look she gave her daddy the other day when she was being bossy to him. Cracked us up.

Love this girl.......

until bedtime=/

This, That and the other

A recent family photo was snapped to send to our agency. Sadly, Mother's Day was the last family shot we took.

 

So I took these photos a few days ago for fear of me forgetting on the actual day. They are so darn cute!

NJ posing and rocking her sunglasses

 

This is a fresh hair do I did, playing with beads for the first time. I've discovered that not much hair can fit through those beads.

 We will be celebrating the 4th of July with some dear friends and their kiddos swimming at the pool, grilling some burgers and dogs, and topping it off with cake and ice cream!

Doesn't get much better than that, folks!

 

 

On a side note, we took NJ to the theater for the first time to see Monsters University. She is a big fan of Monsters, Inc so we were hoping for a fun first trip......

She made it about half way through the movie before getting antsy and a bit uninterested.  Luckily, we were on the back row with no one on either side OR in the row in front of us. Whew.  She walked the aisle beside me, stood beside me, leaned over the front, etc. We made it through without a disaster but decided it would be another year before taking her to another one=)

The best part was we had 1 FREE ticket thanks to Grandma and the new movie she bought us, and since NJ was going to "sit in my lap" they didn't charge for her. So we got 3 matinee tickets, small popcorn, and large coke for $12! Plus the candy we smuggled it ( that helped keep her at bay as well)!

 

And on a note for Mr. JZ, he is growing up so quickly and I love it. He's not as fussy and way more fun to be around. He's so big, we let him sit in the cart with NJ for the first time!

So glad he is not in his car seat! Hate that thing.