Finally A Blog Post

It has been WAY to long since I blogged.  I kept thinking I would do a catch up post on everything.  That didn’t happen so now I’m just going to start where we are at. 

We just finished celebrating Easter.  On Saturday we took the kids to our city’s Easter egg hunt.  Hudson had a blast.  We don’t give him much candy at home so it’s a real treat anytime he can have candy.  He was hovering over his basket when he said “I’m going to eat this candy up ALL by myself”.  The organizers were very smart and filled half of the eggs with prizes.  Makiah is ten months old.  She is the sweetest baby ever!  She is happy and content most of the time, hardly ever cries, not even for shots and blood draws.  And she’s had a lot of those lately.  I will write more on that later.  Sunday morning the kids got their Easter baskets.  The Easter bunny filled them with summer gear; swimsuits, sunglasses, beach towels and sandals.  On Sunday afternoon we went to Corey’s parents’ house for Easter Dinner.  When we told Hudson that we were going to Mimi and Papa’s he did a happy dance in front of the dishwasher.  Where he could watch his reflection………. of course.  Corey’s Uncle and Aunt were visiting from Oregon.  It was fun to see them again.  Dinner was delicious!  At the end of the day the kids were exhausted but happy.  It was a beautiful Easter. 

 

 

Hudson is enjoying gymnastics and music class.  We are so grateful for the warmer weather.  We have had more park days and outside play time.  He had his assessment with the school districts early intervention program.  He did not qualify for the program.  Which, I am feeling pretty good about.  He had some distractions during his testing and was able to work through them.  So I think he will be ok in preschool.  I took a tour of a preschool close to our home.  The Director feels confident that they have a teacher that will work well with Hudson.  And she said they can put him front of the class where distractions will be less.  Oh, I am not sure that I even blogged about this before.  Hudson was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder.  It’s very complicated.  But basically his brain processes the senses of the body differently than most.  Sometimes he seeks more noise, pressure hugs, and weight blankets.  Other times he can’t stand noise, smells, and tastes.  He has been seeing and OT and has made a ton of progress.  He is a high energy super fun little boy. 

Makiah is just learning how to crawl.  She can roll and army crawls all over the house.  She is content to play with toys and watch big brother.  As long as she is fed and dry she is happy.  Her laugh is contagious.  And I just love her smile!  Makiah has had to have some medical tests because her bone age is more like a 22-25 month old then a 10 month old.  She had an MRI to check for a brain tumor.  Thankfully she does not have a brain tumor.  However, her brain development is more like a 5 month old then a 10 month old.  The neurologist is not too worried about it, and believes that she will catch up.  She has a repeat MRI in six months.  The endocrinologist ordered some lab work to help diagnose what is going on with sweet Makiah.  Unfortunately, those results had to be sent to a specialty lab in California and we won’t know results for about three weeks.  She seems to be moving forward in her development.  Maybe a little behind her peers but as long as she is still growing and learning I’m trying not to worry about it.  She is happy and that’s really all that matters.  We are so grateful to have her in our family.  She keeps everyone smiling.  I love both my children so much.  I know how blessed I am to have them.  I’m grateful every day!

 

Manager of Miracles

Tonight I sat down to prioritize my responsibilities as a mother. While I thought my list would include chores, errands, and projects. I’m very pleased that this is what I came up with instead. I feel so empowered!   And just had to share.

 

Manager of Miracles

(MOM)

·         Teach you can have do or be anything. 

·         Teach good manners, values, work ethic.

·         Teach positive personal image and self-worth.

·         Teach acceptance, tolerance, love, and compassion for others.

·         Teach determination, strength, and endurance.

·         Teach gratitude and service.

·         Teach don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.

·         Provide opportunities for education and personal growth.

·         LOVE  with all your heart.

 

Who Knew?

Nine years ago I married my best friend.  Our life looks so different than what I pictured it would be.  It’s so much more amazing then I ever could have imagined.  I’m talking about this wonderful gift that we know as adoption.  I think back to the days that we struggled with miscarriage, surgery, and infertility.  The days that we thought we would never have a family.  And that we would have to learn to be ok with that.  Shame on me!  How could I have even thought about giving up that easily?  I am so grateful that we found the strength to fight for what we wanted most out of this life, to be parents.  Both of our adoption had their unique challenges and obstacles to overcome.   The blessings from enduring are worth WAY more than any and all pain we ever felt.  And even now as I write this I just can’t believe how blessed we are that this was our path.  I feel actually grateful for that dreaded word, infertility.  Without it I wouldn’t have what I have now.  And I just can’t imagine that.  Anyone who is reading this post and is waiting for their little one to come home I encourage you to stick with the process and know that it WILL happen.   I’m grateful for the strength that those difficult days have brought me.  I look forward to the next nine years and beyond.  What a gift!

 

 She has the most annimated facial expressions.

 



I love this look she gets when she's really checking something out.

 



Makiah's first Camo outfit.  Nevermind that it's size 6-9 months and she's 3 months old.

 





Hudson was running from me and saying "take Sugar Lumpy's picture". 

Sugar Lumpy is Makiah.  What happened to my photogenic boy. 

 



 

Heavenly

Heaven on Earth

I’m not sure where to even begin.  Makiah is now 6 weeks old.  She is doing SO well!  We are just amazed at how beautiful she is.   I hope you all can excuse me for not writing Makiah’s adoption story sooner.  It all happened so quickly.  I mean without ANY notice.  We have spent the last six weeks focusing on bonding as a family, taking things slowly, and enjoying every moment.  Hudson is so proud to be a big brother.  He has definitely taken the roll of nurturer.  He helps with feeding “baby sister” any chance he gets.  When she is crying he is right by her side holding her hand and usually saying “it’s alright baby sister Mama help you”.  Then he will tell me to change her or feed her, whatever it is he thinks she needs.  It’s been amazing to watch Hudson in his new role of big brother.  He even swatted a little boys hand away from her when he tried to touch her head, oh boy.  Makiah is a sweet baby with a BIG attitude.  Just like everyone else in this house, HAHA.  She is PERFECT!  She can already hold her head up and roll from her tummy to back.  She is working hard at learning to roll from back to tummy.  And she can army crawl forward if we put our hands on her feet so she can push off of them. 

Hudson and Makiah one month old.

OK deep breath, Makiah’s adoption story…………

June 2, 2012

It was Saturday morning and we were getting ready to take Hudson to the Eagle Mountain City parade.  I was putting on my make-up when my phone rang (about 9:00am).  I thought it was my Dad calling to tell me if he would be in the parade for sure.   I had talked to the “match lady" from the agency the previous Tuesday.  And she told me that she didn’t know of any birth mother’s expecting a baby girl.  So I thought it would be a while before we got a call.  But of course it was the “match lady".  A baby girl had been born Friday night, four weeks early.  The birth mother had not had a chance to choose a family.  Of course we said we would like her to look at our profile.   We decided to take Hudson to the parade.  And he had a BLAST, we all did.  He even got to sit with Grandpop on his motorcycle in the parade.  A soldier from Eagle Mountain had just returned from Afghanistan that morning and my Dad is a Patriot Guard Rider. 

When we got home from the parade at around 12:00 I checked my phone.  Not really expecting to have heard anything.  SURPRISE, I had a text from the agency with a picture of our baby girl.  The text said “Hi Mom and Dad call  _____ to find out when you can come and pick me up”.  My eyes filled with tears and I couldn’t read the message again.  I held my phone out to Corey and asked him if it said what I thought it said.  He immediately started freaking out.  After a series of phone calls it was decided that her birth mother would have the day alone with the baby and that we would meet the birth mother Sunday morning for breakfast.  We would sign papers after breakfast and the baby would be discharged from the hospital on Monday. 

Sunday morning was absolutely nerve wracking.  I just kept thinking what if this birth mother changes her mind after she talks with us.  Because I still thought there must be something horribly wrong with us.  As I was walking down the stairs I thought, hey I should grab the car seat and hospital bag just in case.  After debating with myself a little I decided to just grab it and we would have it in the jeep for Monday.  My brother and sister-in-law came over to hang out with Hudson.  Thank God for them!   It was such a relief to know that Hudson was in good hands and having fun hanging out with his Aunt and Uncle.  I tearfully kissed Hudson good-bye and set out to meet our daughter for the first time.  

We picked up flowers and breakfast and sat nervously in the hospital waiting room for the agency representative.  When she arrived she walked us up to the birth mother’s room.  I remember taking a lot deep breaths and telling myself to just be myself.  It was so important to me that she liked me for who I really am.  Our first meeting was brief.   We shook hands, smiled, said we were happy to meet each other and then she went out for a smoke break.  It gave us some time to hold and admire our baby girl.  As soon as I felt her sweet little body in my arms I knew it was going to be ok.  She settled right in and everything about it felt perfect. 

Her birth mother came back into the room and we sat down to eat breakfast.  Although none of us felt much like eating.  We talked about what was important to her birth mother.  She said it was important for her to choose a family that already had an African American child.  And it was important to her that we taught her about her heritage.  Of course teaching Hudson and Makiah about their heritage is important to us as well.  Makiah's birth mother enjoys writing, and I enjoy writing.  Corey also enjoys writing.  Corey is an amazing poet.  We talked about our love for the outdoors.  She also enjoys the outdoors.  She talked about her many reasons for deciding to choose an adoption plan.  I won’t go into to it here.  As you can imagine, It was a very personal and difficult decision for both Makiah's birth mother and birth father.  She thought she was having a boy.  Makiah’s hospital band even says that she is a baby boy.  Corey asked the nursery nurse about it and she said “Well I just changed her diaper and she has a vagina”.  Oh, I love the bluntness of nurses.  ;)  We asked Makiah’s birth mother if we could name her after her.  Corey and I both felt very strongly about it and her birth mother loved the idea.  The spelling is not the same.  And again I will not go into that here for her privacy.  When we decided to name the baby McKenna I always felt it was not quite right.  It had good meaning and I loved the name.  But at the end of the day, before I fell asleep, I would have thoughts of it being close but not quite right.  When the “matching lady” told me the birth mother’s name was Makiah I immediately thought, THAT’S IT!  Our conversation with Makiah’s birth mother went very well.  She is a beautiful, intelligent, loving woman.  And I’m glad we got the chance to meet with her and talk so intimately with her.  Her birth father sounds like an equally great man. 

After we met Makiah’s birth mother she decided she wanted to be discharged from the hospital that day.  She didn’t want to take the extra day in the hospital that she could have taken because she had a c-section.  Despite being a little early Makiah was doing AWESOME!  That meant that Makiah could be discharged as well.   I was so glad that I grabbed Makiah’s car seat and clothes before we left the house.  Corey’s parents just happened to be driving back from Wendover at the same time Makiah was being discharged.  They were the only Grandparent’s that couldn’t make it to the hospital when Hudson was born.  And the only Grandparent’s to be able to make it to the hospital during that very narrow time window that adoption papers were signed and Makiah was discharged.  Life is so crazy….

When we walked into the house with Makiah  Hudson was THRILLED!  He was squealing and dancing.  The only other time that I saw him dance the way he did was when he got his bike for his birthday.   The feelings of happiness, love, and gratitude were overwhelming in the house that day.  And those feelings are still very strong today.  We are so grateful to FINALLY be together.  We are so grateful for our family.  Although life with a newborn and a two year old is never dull, it is always heavenly.