Picture Day!

We had some photos taken of the beautiful Miss Nevaeh today. She did absolutely wonderful. I think she rather enjoyed herself. I wanted to photograph her in the traditional Ethiopian dress and scarf was wearing when she was placed in our arms forever. I also used some Ethiopian flags as props, but the pictures didn't turn out they way I envisioned them in my head. The dress is now almost too small, and the flags, well we got one or two good pics with them. Here is a sample:
We took some picures in a more casual outfit:


Afterwards we went out and had some ice cream, visited Great Grandma, and then home to watch some football. All in all, a great Sunday!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Still Here!

OK, so I am not a very good blogger. I admit it. It has been almost a month since my last my post. I promise I will try to do better in the future. It's been a crazy month. I went back to work, Nevaeh started daycare, there were the holidays, and we celebrated Nevaeh's first birthday. There have been many firsts and a lot of changes.

Let's start with work and daycare. On December 21 I went back to work after being home with Nevaeh for 12 weeks. To be honest, I thought it was going to be harder than it was. It was a nice week to start again as it was a short week due to the holiday. The week after there was New Years so that was a short week as well. It was a nice time to get my feet wet again. It also helps that Nevaeh is doing so well at daycare. She is interacting great with all the other kids and her teachers just adore her. One day she came home with the cutest little puffs in her hair. It was so adorable and I don't know how they got her to sit still long enough to do it. I couldn't even get her to sit still long enough just to get a picture of her new "do".

The holidays were wonderful and it was nice to start some new traditions as a family. Nevaeh had so much fun opening gifts but as a typical almost one year old she was more interested in the paper and the cardboard than the actual gifts themselves. Here she is modeling one of her presents.

On January 9, 2010, Little Miss Nevaeh turned one. We celebrated with a birthday party and she was Princess for the day. Of course she is a princess every day but on this day she wore a crown, and of course she had her own birthday cake.

We have been home almost 4 months now and we are all adjusting quite well. Nevaeh is growing and her development is right on track. She is crawling really well now and she is walking around furniture. She is now beginning to use words such as hi, bye, mama, and dada and she is constantly waving.

I can't even imagine what life was like before she was with us. We are truly blessed!

Officially 3

It's official! We readopted Nevaeh in our home state so now we are officially a family of three. Again, let me clarify, three humans that is. I cannot forget our beloved chocolate lab!!! (He has been with us for almost 12 years now.) Basically the hearing was just a formality, but we legally changed her name and we will now file for her certificate of citizenship. The judge was super easy going. As soon as we sat down, Nevaeh started grabbing for the microphone and she started blabbing loudly into it. The judge made a funny comment about her being shy so it really lightened things up for us. Not that this wasn't a happy occasion, but we were in court room, with a judge in a robe, a bailiff, and a court reporter. We had never been in a courtroom before. It all seemed so formal, until his comment. He said this hearing would be a snap after all we have gone through to bring her home. I told him she was worth every home visit, every piece of paperwork, every second of our wait, etc. The whole thing took about 15 minutes with the hearing, pictures, and paperwork. The judge even had three different stuffed animals Nevaeh could choose from. A moose, pig, and cow. She chose the pig.

Mother Nature Changed our Plans

Nevaeh, today you turned 11 months old. We were going to celebrate by finalizing the adoption today in front of a judge. Mother Nature had other plans. We had our first HUGE snow storm of the season. 17 inches of snow fell upon us. Needless to say our court hearing was postponed. We spent most of the day digging out, but we were able to get you outside so you could see and touch snow for the very first time.

Two Months Home

Yesterday marked two months being home with our beautiful daughter. We couldn't be more pleased with how things are going. She is happy and healthy and attachment seems to be going really well. I am just amazed at everything she has accomplished in the short time we have been home. She can sit up on her own, stand with some assistance, wave hello and goodbye, roll across an entire room, clap, play peekaboo, etc. She sleeps through the entire night and is now starting to eat "grown up" food such as toast, pancakes, waffles, cheese (a must for Wisconsin), pasta, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables. Her bottom front tooth just cut through last week with another one just about ready. She is genuinely a happy baby and she is just a joy to be around.

I am going back to work on December 21. This week she spent an afternoon at her daycare to help her with the transition once I do start working again. It was hard, and I would love to be a stay at home Mom, however, it's just not in the cards at this time. I think she will enjoy being around the other kids as she spent most of her life in a room full of noisy babies. They are going to put her in the "One Year Old" room so she won't have to transition to another room when she turns one in January.

Well, that's it for now. I am still trying to create a slide show detailing our trip but for some reason I am having trouble viewing certain video montages.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

We Made it Home!

I don't even know where to begin. We had the most amazing trip and met some wonderful families. We returned home last Friday afternoon and since then we are adjusting to being a family of three (three humans that is). I don't have much time to write as our new duties as parents are keeping us extremely busy. In the coming days I will detail our trip and provide a slide show of pictures. Until then, here is our baby girl on her first walk around the neighborhood and another one of her chillin at home.