Penpals (Do they still make these)?

It has been several weeks now, but Mia got to meet up with Stella in Austin! I was like a little kid meeting her pen pal, and so thrilled to meet Nat in person. Nat and Michael have their 2 year old daughter Stella and were headed down south for a family reunion/celebration. Juan and I decided to take off and meet up with them.

The girls are so different and it was so delightful to see them maneuver around together and get to know each other. We literally wiped them out and both were passed out just minutes after leaving one another! I am thrilled that they can hopefully meet up with one another throughout their lives and have a good friend to lean on in need.

Nat and I met online (I know, so cliche), like so many of us adoptive parents. We have had several phone calls and many e-mails and many good and sad moments off and on in the past couple of years. The exciting part was through it all, we got to meet up, with our families and celebrate what was most definately worth the years of waiting. I know in my heart, that our paths were meant to cross, and the girls will be so lucky to have one another.

We have so many people we have met, but so many true friends that truly go out of their way to stay in touch and make each other feel so loved: Nat for your daughter's friendship to Mia, Dotty for so many questions and answers all at the same time, to Kim for the beautiful birthday dress to Mia on her homecoming and all of our future road trips that are lingering out there - cannot wait!

As Buzz Lightyear would say "To Disneywold and Beyond..."

So, it turns out that we had planned this vacation to go watch my sister run her first (and she says her last) marathon (which, by the way, she did complete)! At the time, it sounded like a great idea. Just spend a few days in sunny florida during January - unfortunately, mother nature decided to bathe florida in 20 degree weather. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time and got to see my sister and my parents.

Our first battle to overcome was her fear of mascots. She did not quiet understand how they were really there. so, we first started with the statues and moved onto the live ones.

So, we bundled up and prepared for the adventure. I literally had tears in my eyes when i stepped down main street the first time. I had vaguely remembered it as a child, and it had been so many years since I had been. But seeing Mariela beam with excitement, was worth a million.

We decided to start things off slow and headed straight for Its a Small World...in retrospect, I would not have done this. The line was short (besides it was 30 some degrees outside), we breezed right in, thought we would go for a nice boat ride...that is where the dream ended. She was terrified of the characters and the song made her sob the entire ride. Nevermind. But Dumbo was right up her alley. I even thought I would stay low in the ride, but she pulled the trigger and pulled us right up into the skies. Heaven. We even got a few rounds in.

Even the puking teacups were a huge hit! (thankfully no one did get sick). My mom even had to remind me of the story that when we came she signed us up for the special character breakfast and fed me mickey mouse pancakes. I got to nervous/excited/bad pancake batter that I ended up puking my pancakes in the flowers outside. I made sure not to touch the pancakes this time around.

This was the aftermath of the first day...

And here you can see that we managed to actually enjoy getting our picture taken with the characters. Even after we freaked her out at breakfast by not realizing we had signed up for the character breakfast at the hotel. Pluto caught her offguard and she could not eat a thing, since she was on the look out for any of them that came around the corner.

Most of all, Juan could not forgive me if I did not post Mia's favorite picture - her with the dancer at the Epcot Morraccan restaurant. She even got out there and danced with her. Juan says he knows why - the sparkly outfit.

On that note, I leave you and show you Cindy's castle. Yes, Cindy lives here and if you do not go "coco-potty" like a big girl, Cindy will not turn her lights on her castle.

Joy to the world!

Mariela was so excited to celebrate baby Jesus's birthday! We even ate pretend birthday cake and sang a few round of happy birthday. We couldn't have been more happy.

Christmas Day, Mariela decided to get dressed early all by herself. You can see how proud she is of her accomplishment. We just had to redress her without the pajamas.

The whole first picture with Santa idea did not go so well. She kicked, screamed and cried the entire time in line - I mean, after 2 other families. Then she ran past Santa screaming. So, we retreated to the Disney store and stocked up on some "secret Santa" gifts. After a deceptive pass to Santa, he called Mia and told her he had toys. She took the toys and ran. Out of the three photos - Santa reaching away and getting out of the way, Mia screaming on his chair alone, and this one - me helping soothe the pain that her mother really wanted her to know who Santa was.

Santa brought a really nice kitchen that we got to put in her room. She has already fed all of her babies, abbey and us many times over. Culinary school might be on the horizon. Never really can tell. She also might want to be enrolled at the local beauty college since she cannot seem to have enough of lip gloss. She has to have it in every purse, in every room, and I hear her creeping up at night to grab it off her night stand.

To all our friends and family - thank you for all of the cards and e-mails! It is always a joy to share and get a peek into your lives. We are all 3 home together and working in the office this week, as Mia has no school. I am sure this week will be an adventure before we ring in the new year.

Way too long...way too short...year is nearly over

This Christmas is a blessing. I have to reflect on that, since a few of our dear friends are still waiting on their adoptive children to come home, others are working on completing adoptions, and others are just waiting for their children to be born! We hardly did anything joyful last year and even skipped out on New Year's celebrations, just from being so worn down from the year's events and without Mariela one more year.

I will have to dig out the Santa photo that we finally got last weekend at the Mall...after Santa had to vacate the chair and let her sit, after a crying fit, and after I had to become part of the plan. It also took exiting the line, buying nemo and mickey at the adjacent Disney store, and having Santa "give" the presents to her. In which, she cried, ran and grabbed the gifts, and ran away.

We are staying here over the holidays, so it should be nice and quiet. The shopping is done and we are ready to close out the year together. Now, she believes that Santa brings gifts, so hopefully she understands the gifts that "magically" appear. Mia now prays and says "Amen" and most of all I have to thank her "baby Jesus" she is home with us this year.

Finally, we purchased our plane tickets to go see my sister run her marathon at Disney World in January. That is another whole adventure, but thank goodness children under 3 are "free"...how free do you really think that is going to be? I had never ventured into our Disney store, yet I have been there twice in the past week.

I am sure I will speak/e-mail/see many of my friends, but if not, Merry Christmas wherever you travel or whatever you do. May you feel as blessed and happy as we are.

My little love bug, ladybug

Halloween came and went so fast, my Christmas tree magically appeared in my living room! Hey, who did that? I'll post on that later, but here are a few pictures of our first Halloween together. Thank goodness our little ladybug filled up on cheese puffs, cookies and candy to keep her going all night (and about 13 rounds of Tinkerbell video).

A month in the making

Life has consumed every spare breath this past month, and with no regrets, I am thankful to have the holidays around the corner. I am still saddened that many more of Mia's friends from the orphanage are still not home and court date not set until December. We almost certainly know what that means for so many families still waiting. We continue to pray.

We took a break from our regular scheduled life and got out of town. We were in Austin for the day spending it at Zilker park. You can see that the train, the playground and the botanical gardens were too much fun. The gardens turned out to be the "Tour of the Sillas (Chairs)". Everytime Mia saw a bench, she had to make a run for it, test it out, make note. As for the train, we were suckered in like all first time parents in purchasing "The Hobo Travel Kit" for our little train conductor. It included the whistle (which worked for us, but really was just another excuse for Mia to laugh and spit), the bandana (she wanted no part of except for the 3 seconds to take the picture) and the hat. Ok, the hat was the best part and well worth the expense.

We headed back to San Antonio and stayed the night. Really, we were in a trial run for our drive to Kansas City over the holidays. This tested about one quarter of our journey, but we believe that we will actually be able to survive the 15 hour drive up north. Especially, since we now have a collection of kid's tunes in the CD player/Ipod that should keep us all entertained. Not only that, but Mia is a seasoned begger for making the semi-trucks honk their horns. We even had to make one honk in the grocery store parking lot (she doesn't quite understand that really, it is only for the road). But the truckers fall for it, and everyone is happy.

We squeezed in a trip on the San Antonio miniature train and trip to the zoo as well. Juan couldn't understand why we needed to get there at 9 am, until he realized at 1 pm the hoards of people funnelling their way into the zoo. See - early bird gets the worm. Mia fell in love with the Grizzely bear - only because he was quite the comedian and was scratching every body part known to bear-kind. She also fell in love with the butterfly garden. My mother had wanted to take her in Kansas City last time we were home, so I made sure that we got a chance in this one. She picks up grasshoppers at the soccer games, so it wasn't really a surprise that she would hold these beautiful creatures.

We also had a birthday party for her dear friendCamila this weekend. The girls were so precious in their princess outfits until the boys corralled them in the play castle, shut the doors and were kicking the door. Poor princesses....never an easy life. Mia just wanted cake and to watch silently.

Looking forward to the Christmas tree going up very, very soon....BEWARE. We are going to have to crank the air conditioner, light the pine scent candle and put on Christmas music just to get in the mood.

Bad Blogger, Coco-Potty and Desert Weather

First, yes, I am the world's second worst blogger to someone out there! I feel as if I am in confession and asking for forgiveness on not updating my random fans and friends out there on our lives! haha

Second, not only is our life consumed by our little neat freak who loves to go what she calls "coco-potty". She is pretty much potty trained. But much to our demise, we allowed her to pick and bring home the notorious, "Coco-potty Doll." She has no name, but she is the Baby Alive Doll Brand that opens her eyes, laughs, drinks and eats and then exclaims that she needs to go potty.

Mariela is an obedient, faithful mother to her. She is concerned when baby wants to sleep, so she pushes her bracelet and keeps her awake. She runs back and forth to the bathroom to get water for baby and feeds her. And when the baby exclaims she has to go, Mariela throws her hands up and runs around like a chiken without her head looking for the pretend potty chair that came with the doll. Meanwhile, baby is screaming "hurry, hurry" ....until she has an accident. Two in potty training is not a good idea - especially when the two year old is training the baby.

And I am right there with Buffy...I have no clue why kids love Elmo. I can't even understand Elmo! And why when the program starts, we need to do a little song and dance to exclaim that Elmo is gracing us with his presence? I don't know, but the Elmo pajamas sure make her happy, and I am happy to oblige!

Lastly, it is still hotter than a desert down here. It is finally cool enough early in the day and late at night (actually drops below 90) that we can play outside on the swingset. After a two month ordeal and pouring footings (yes, architects hard at work - actually architect - i wish to exclude myself in that fiasco), we have a swingset that can withstand a small hurricane (besides the tarp roof).