Eva's 1st Family Vacation - Day 1

Day 1 - July 14, 2011
Road Trip

The day started early at 7 am. John still had to pack and I had a couple of last-minute items to get in the luggage. After getting breakfast and doing some banking, we were able to hit the road around 11:30. We made our way to Pittsburgh where we spent the night. About 30 minutes from our hotel, we decided to take a rest area pit stop. Miss Eva needed to stretch her legs and get out of that car seat for a few minutes.

We were supposed to visit my grandmother so that she could finally meet Eva but had to postpone because she was not feeling well. We got to our hotel around 3:30 and didn't leave the room.

We ate dinner in our room about 6 o'clock and soon after that it was lights out. Tomorrow we fly to Boston and the real adventure begins!

Happy 8th Anniversary!!

July 24, 2003. Hands down one of the best days of my life. I was so happy, peaceful and calm on my wedding day. Not an ounce of jitters. I knew John was the man I was meant to be with for the rest of my life because I knew that God brought us together. I am so thankful that I trusted Him enough to keep my heart open for John. This was our gorgeous day 8 years ago:

These last several years have been met with a few ups and downs and challenges that we could have never foreseen. But we've gone through them together, side by side and been each other's total support system. We have a few more gray hairs (me, not him) , put on a few more pounds, acquired a few more little aches and pains, but we've also laughed more than we've cried, loved more, loved stronger and loved harder which has allowed us to expand our family. In this last year, we have gone from a family of 2 to a family of 3:

Happy Anniversary to my best friend, life partner and best blessing. I love you!!

4 Months Home Already!

 On July 4th, along with celebrating the day with a good friend of mine, marked 4 months that Eva has been home with us. It's been so amazing to watch her learn and grow and become the person that God has created her to be. I try not to think what would have happened to this precious little being if her birthmother had not loved her enough to give her a better life. It just makes me weep. At this time, Eva has been with us the same amount of time that she was at Hannah's Hope. In the year that she's been alive, Eva has had 5 different women care for her at 3 different locations. We are so blessed that she can now find some comfort that John and I will be her forever (and last) caregivers.

There has been such great progress with her. She just had her 18 month check up at the pediatrician. Eva now weighs 20 lbs and is 31 inches tall. She is the normal height of an 18-month old. She was so happy being at the doctor's office until that dreaded DTaP shot came. Admittedly, I didn't know they were gonna give her a vaccination. It just never dawned on me. Check up to me means to check her out and make sure everything is going well, do a little talking, get any questions I have cleared up and leave. I tried to be a brave Momma. I held her while she sat in my lap, spoke softly to her. But the minute she got stuck with that needle and she screamed and cried, all my tears came flowing as well. I hate to see her in pain. She's had enough in her short life.

Being the brave, strong girl that she is, Eva was just fine 30 seconds afterwards. I, on the other hand, was still trying to wipe the tears away and get it together 

She is also 17 months old now and doing wonderfully with her motor skills, eating, language skills. In fact, last week, I started suggesting to her that when she needs me to just say "Momma". It took a few hours but now EVERYTHING is Momma. So now we're trying to find the happy balance of all the words she does know and addressing me as Momma the way she addresses John as Dada. She's even got a quicker pep to her step. There is an ever-so-slight jog to her walk now. It's so cute. Before long, she'll be on a track   

Yesterday we had our 2nd post placement meeting with our social worker. We'll have another one at 12 months and then we do our own every year after until Eva is 18 years old. Eva was so great. Usually she's wary of strange people or even people that she doesn't see very often. In the case of our social worker, Stacy, I thought she would be very clingy....just the opposite. Eva went up to Stacy with arms wide open...literally! She went over to her toys taking a couple over to Stacy to to show her, took her pen and started drawing with it, struck up a conversation  What a beautiful sight!! Stacy is so wonderful. She's never there long enough for us. We love chatting it up with her.

This last week has held some really great and precious moments for us. We are so blessed. And so excited for this vacation that we're going on. Stay tuned...there will be LOTS of blogging about that! 

Swimming

For the last 4 Saturdays, Eva and I have been taking Parent/Child swim lessons. Eva is going on her first cruise in a few weeks, so I wanted her to get used to being in a pool, experiencing the smell of chlorine. And while she loves taking baths, it's very different when you're in water that you can't sit down in and can't touch the bottom. So I found this wonderful place that actually gives lessons as young as 6 months old. The age range of our class is 6 to 18 months old. SIGN ME UP!!

The very 1st class I went in with no expectation. I just wanted Eva to have fun and not cry or have a meltdown in the pool. This little girl never ceases to amaze me. When we first got into the water, she clung to me. That lasted for about a minute and then she immediately wanted to be on her belly in the water. She LOVED being moved around in the water. We did some fun games and some exercises that encouraged her to kick her legs and move her arms (things she was doing before we even started the exercises!) Towards the end of the class, I wrapped a noodle around her so she could float without me. I thought it would freak her out but she loved it. By the end of the class, Eva thought she could swim. She was trying to push my hands away as if she didn't need them to keep her afloat. That girl has no fear 

The 2nd class went just as well. When we first walked into the building we had to pass the olympic pool in order to get to the kid's pool. Eva pulled me to the olympic pool right where the stairs are and thought she was going to climb down into it. When we got to the kid's pool, she was so excited...doing her happy squeal and talking up a storm. She was just as happy to get into the pool as the first time. We played a lot more games that involved dunking her underwater. She loved it...couldn't get enough. She would come up out of the water and start smiling. We did the noodle again and Eva just couldn't wait to start floating by herself. She even tried to let go once but realized that she had to AT LEAST hold on to my finger in order to stay above water. I tried to lay her on her back and move her through the water, but she wasn't having any of that. She is something else 

At our 3rd class, we did more of the same stuff as the first & second classes.  Eva was a little bit clingy this time. She's been teething a lot this week and I think that had something to do with it. We did exercises where we were all in a circle and sang Ring around the Roses and Popcorn (I'm a piece of popcorn in a pot, heat me up and watch me pop!). At the end of the song we would dunk our child underwater. Eva loved getting dunked in the 2nd class and seemed okay with it this class but was not as enthusiastic this time around. Also in each class so far, we did an exercise where Eva stood up on the side of the pool and I encouraged her to jump to me. She really enjoyed that. She got to the point where she was just walking off the edge of the pool into my arms....no hesitation. She is definitely a natural in the water. She even allowed me to lay her on her back this time and move her through the water. It took her a while to relax but once she realized that she was okay, she couldn't get enough. We are so glad that she loves it because John & I are both fish in the water when it comes to the pool or the beach. We could be there ALL DAY! Looks like we got another fish in the family 

The 4th class was our last class, I'm sorry to say. Yup...just 4 weeks! But the good news is that in just a few weeks we are going to put all the we learned to good use...on our cruise, at the pool, at the beach!! This last class was not a lot of instruction. We did all of the exercises as in the previous classes. Eva was all about swimming on her back this week. Throughout the week she had been practicing in the tub! I'm so excited to be going on vacation with my family. John has been at work every Saturday that we've had class, so he hasn't been able to see how well she's done and how much she loves the water. I can't wait for her to WOW him on our trip 

Precious Moments

We've been pretty busy this month. After looking through some photos, I found some adorable shots that didn't especially needed to be blogged about....until now. Enjoy 

Eva & our oldest granddaughter Kaylen. We were at our other 2 granddaughters'

birthday party at the park.

Painting Dad's father day pictures.

At the playroom inside Columbus Metro. Library.

I just couldn't resist this shot. Falling alseep while reading. I love it. I look forward

to more of these days to come.

On our way to the zoo.