This is our sweet Nora girl. She has made her appearance a few times on the blog but not since becoming my daughter’s best friend.
The adore each other. On Nora’s side it might be because Mary Alice sees it as her personal job to make sure Nora gets plenty of food from her high chair.
Nora is the first thing Mary Alice asks about most mornings. Choruses of “puh-pee” resound throughout the day.
There is nothing sweeter than a girl and her puppy.
We celebrated Memorial Day in Houston, Texas this year seeing one of my dearest friends tie the knot! It was our first time in Houston, my first time in Texas and we had a blast.
It was a beautiful weekend and the wedding was perfect. It was great to catch up with a few people from college and to see the bride (and meet the groom!)
The First Dance
Somehow I didn’t get any photos of her from the front but I thought this was cute. She was playing peek-a-boo with one of the guests.
Hanging out with Daddy
The BEAUTIFUL Bride and I.
Family picture…unfortunately MA was getting pretty tired at this point. She also got a wardrobe change. That poofy dress didn’t fit well in the carseat so we changed her right before we headed home.
Kissing Daddy
While we were in Houston we stayed with one of Matthew’s cousins and I was able to meet her husband and daughter. She and her son came to our wedding (almost) five years ago so I was able to meet them then. Her daughter is about 8 months older than Mary Alice and her son is almost 7. They had a lot of fun having a baby to play with. They also had a pool so Mary Alice was able to swim for the first time. She was able to get in the pool a little last year but was only 6 months old. It took her a little while to warm up to the pool but once she did, she had fun.
Not so sure about the water…
The drive was about 8 and half hours each way and Mary Alice hates sitting in her carseat to even go across town. Needless to say the drive to Houston was pretty interesting. By the drive home though, she was so tired she basically just slept and watch Lady and the Tramp (3 times in a row)…
That long of a drive with a screaming baby…you find small ways to entertain yourself…
Oh…I forgot to mention…guess who got to go to IKEA in Houston????? THIS GIRL!!!
Being a mom has been a HUGE learning experience. Becoming a mom by way of adoption has been an even bigger learning experience.
I really felt like I loved Mary Alice before we ever met her. I did love her. Then I met her. Then I thought I loved her. 4 months passed, more love. Her one year birthday, even more love.
Now we are coming up on our one year anniversary of meeting Mary Alice and I feel like my world has been turned upside down. In the past few weeks I have a love for her that isn’t what I had when I first saw her face, met her, knew she loved me, or any experience previous to this.
It isn’t a fun love. It isn’t like falling in love. It isn’t like anything I have ever known. One year after meeting our daughter and I feel like I love her like a momma. I tried to explain it to Matthew yesterday and the only way I can describe it is that I love her so much it hurts. We watched a news story about a mom who saved her 2 children from a tornado by laying on them. During the time that she was laying on top of them her house was lifted off the foundation and part of the house fell on her legs. She had make a split second decision to let go of her kids and save her legs hold onto her kids and lose her legs. She lost both of her legs.
As we were watching it I totally understood that kind of love. I would give anything for Mary Alice. My legs, my life, anything. I didn’t always feel that way. I didn’t feel that way until recently. I didn’t know this kind of love existed. In a head knowledge kind of way I knew that I would sacrifice anything for her well-being but I didn’t feel it deep in my soul. I do now.
I know that my love for her will just continue to grow and I am looking forward to it. I have learned that parenting is a relationship just like any other. I love Matthew differently and more deeply now than I did when we were first married even though I had never loved anyone more at that moment. I am looking forward to my love deepening for both my husband and my daughter. Watching my heart change and grow. Watching them change and grow.
The main reason I want to share these feelings is to encourage other mommas who feel like it is taking them longer than they expected to feel that momma love for their babies. I know that for a while after she came home I kept thinking, “is this what it feels like to be a mom?” It wasn’t a feeling much deeper than what I had felt for children I had taken care of before. I think as mothers and especially adoptive mothers we pressure ourselves to feel how we think we are supposed to feel about our children when that kind of love takes time.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. Itdoes not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I love blogs.
It is a problem. I find a blog I just love and read the archives until I feel like I am that person’s BFF. It ‘s a little embarrassing.
I have seen a few other blogs do a roundup of sorts where they link you up to things they are reading and I have always found some great stuff to read so here we go:
This was floating around a lot during Mother’s Day week and I linked it on Facebook but loved it so much I want to link it here too. A letter to moms of adoptive children.
An excellent (and hard) post about adoption ethics. This entire blog is moving and inspiring. I am reading through the archives right now…I am in June 2012…
A super sweet letter from a mother to her toddler daughter on Mother’s Day.
Some interesting thoughts on parenting in America.
This conversation between an adoptive momma and her son’s birth momma.
Another great adoption ethics post.
What blogs are you reading??
To celebrate Mother’s Day, Matthew and Mary Alice took me to Fairhope Pier to get some good pictures of Mary Alice and I.
We needed a good picture to put in my new “mom” frame that I got from MA. I also got my first hummingbird feeder!
Here are some of our pictures we took for the frame:
This was the winner!
We couldn’t leave Daddy out..
And since she was being generally adorable here are a couple of just MA
Sometimes all you need at the end of the week
is a picture of a cute kid
standing in front of a window
smiling
to help you remember
that every little thing
that seems so hard and complex
can just hold on for a couple days
while you relax
and realize that you life is full of blessings
I hope you have a great weekend. Happy Mother’s Day!
Even though I missed updating months 11-14, I figure I will pick back up with 15 months.
MA had her 15 month check up a recently and weighs 17 pounds 12 ounces and is 28″ long. That puts her off the chart for both height and weight. She is just a tiny thing! She is wearing 6-9 month clothes, size 3 diapers and size 2 shoes. She has two bottom teeth and I don’t think there are anymore getting ready to break through right now.
She is walking! She took her first serious steps (26 in a row to be exact) on May 2nd and is now walking about 40% of the time. Mostly just a few steps at a time and still pretty cautious but oh so cute.
She is starting to become more verbal but mostly the words she says are just getting clearer. She says regularly; daddy, mama, puppy, touch, stop, no no, eye, mo’ (more) and uh-0h. She can point to her eye, nose, rub her belly, wipe her mouth, sign more and all done.
She is drinking whole milk in the morning and at night and water during the day. She is eating well (almost as much as we are!) and even had her first cookie this week. Needless to say, she was a fan! 
Her favorite foods are blueberries, green peas, blueberry bread, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and eggs.
Her personality is really starting to blossom. She is becoming really silly and starting to do things to make us laugh on purpose. She will crawl around in circles really fast and then lay down flat and freeze for a few seconds and then roll around. It is so adorable. She shares well right now (I’m sure that will change soon).
My favorite thing that she has started doing is that she is becoming snuggly. She has not been really snuggly as long as we have known her. She will now lay down with me on the couch or on the bed and just play with me and snuggle. She has even gone to sleep with me a few times which has NEVER happened. I love it.
It feels like her and I have come to a place almost one year after I first met her that we have really bonded and she really trusts me. I know it sounds crazy but I really think we may have just turned a corner in our bonding and attachment journey. I’m not sure how much of it is purely developmental and how much is actually from a building attachment. The way she relaxes against me when she is tired and comes to me as soon as she feels scared or gets hurt instead of just sitting and crying until someone comes to her. It is something I can’t quite put my finger on but I know it is there.
So instead of doing a ton of catch-up posts, here is one big post to catch you up on everything important since the last time I posted. Warning: contains a ton of adorable pictures of the cutest kid ever.
Since December 12, 2012 (my last post before the bloggy break) you have missed:
Baby’s First Christmas:
MA turned 11 months old:
MA turned 1 year old:
We welcomed a precious new nephew into the world:
One year referral-verary:
Mommy got together with an old friend and MA made a new one:
MA wore her first ponytail:
MA turned 13 months old:
Had a play date with her cousin:
MA turned 14 months old:
MA’s cousin turned 1:
MA turned 15 months (my favorite age so far):
I think that is everything major…I didn’t realize how many monthly updates I missed!
So sorry to have been away from the blog so long. This is why; I planned to take time away moving towards Christmas through MA’s first birthday (Jan. 28th) to focus on and really relish all the firsts that were happening. Well…that was a couple months ago. Now, I have a 15 month old who is walking like crazy and just making things super interesting around here. I will probably do a few catch up posts about some of the major things that have happened over the last few month but, I am back and hopefully posting regularly!!
Here are a couple recent pictures of our sweet girl. 
