Who Me?

Mmm! These look yummy!

Mine all mine!

He diligently put each and every one on his little chair.

This takes focus!

Hmm, maybe if I hide the bag, mom won't notice the candy is missing.

Uh oh, I'm leaving a trail of evidence.

She caught me!

That was hard work! Time to relax and taste the mashed potatoes!

To the men in my life

Happy Valentine's Day to the men in my life!

Happy Valentine's Day to my dad, the first man in my life. My dad is the one that taught me how I should be treated. My dad always treats my mom and I like princesses. Here we are at the beach, probably in the late 80s. We are looking forward to another beach trip this summer!

Happy Valentine's Day Raleigh! I love you more today than the day I married you! Thank you for being my biggest fan! You are a wonderful husband and a fantastic dad to Beau!

Happy Valentine's Day to Beau, my treasure! Beau has filled my heart with more love than I ever thought possible. He is such a little rascal and I love his quirkiness. Raleigh and I pray everyday that the Lord would capture his heart at a very early age. I'm so thankful that he will grow up seeing how well Raleigh treats me, so that he will know how to treat his wife one day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pinterest Meals

Have you made any yummy dishes from Pinterest? Here are a few things I have tried!

Baked Tortellini

Zucchini Boats with Tomatoes and Basil

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Taco Cupcakes

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti

One year ago today

One year ago today, we saw Beau's face for the first time!

The picture above was attached to an email from our social worker on February 4, 2011. There were also 3 other babies mentioned on the email. The email was sent to all of the families in the South Korea program.

From the moment I saw his chubby cheeks, I knew something was special about him. I immediately called Raleigh and asked if we could request his file. Raleigh agreed and we had the file by that evening.

More to come...

Happy Birthday to Jason!

Today is a very special day for a very special little boy. A little boy, “Jason”, is turning 5 today! Happy Birthday Jason!!

Jason lives in South Korea and is waiting on his forever family to find him. I first saw Jason’s sweet face over a year ago on a waiting child photolisting. From the moment I saw him, he captured my heart. I have no doubt that one day he is going to be a precious son to a forever family.

I pray for this sweet little treasure every day and every day I pray that the Lord would reveal to his parents that he is their son! While he is waiting on his family to find him, I have no doubt that the Lord is covering him in love. God cares for the fatherless.

Sometimes, one of the biggest challenges for adoptive families is the cost of adoption. The awesome news is that God’s math is higher. God’s math doesn’t always “work out” on paper. But in the words of the sweet 147 Moms, God funds what he favors! And what’s the cool part? Sometimes God uses ME and YOU to help families finance adoption. If God hasn’t called you to adoption at this time, maybe he is calling you to help families raise funds to bring home their treasure.

In honor of Jason’s birthday, let’s help build up the funds for his adoption!

Jason has a page on Reece’s Rainbow that can be found HERE.

In honor of Jason’s 5th birthday, please consider donating to his adoption fund.

As of the time of this post, Jason has $3635.00 in his fund. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could get it up to $5,000 in honor of his birthday?? That means we would need to raise $1365.00.

Could you donate $10? Or maybe $25 or $50 or even more?

Ok…let’s do this! Go here and donate! (You might have to create a login to Reece’s Rainbow to donate, but PLEASE don’t let that deter you from donating. It only takes a minute to create a login!)

Fun at the Playground

If the dirt and sand on his clothes were any indication, I'd say Beau had a good time!!

Funny story: While we were at the playground, 2 boys that seemed to be about 7 years old were having a disagreement about the rules of hide and go seek. Finally, one of the boys said, "I'm calling my lawyer." Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I guess he had heard that before at home! Too funny!

Beau at 18 months

Today Beau is 19 months old! I really can't even wrap my mind around that!! I guess that means he is really a toddler!

Before anything slips my memory, I want to take time to remember all about Beau at 18 months! We had his 18 month check-up today.

(Yes, I should have gone earlier since he is already 19 months old today, but I guess it was a new mom mistake. I honestly didn't really think about taking him to the doctor because he hasn't been sick. Then I remembered that babies have well check-ups at certain ages. Good thing I called last week to make an appointment!)

At the doctor's visit, Beau did great in the waiting room and was a trooper during the check-up. He did cry, but I can't really blame him. He had to get two shots. I always forget to write down which vaccinations he is getting and then I forget by the time I get home. Oh well!

Here are his 18 month stats:

Weight: 21.3 pounds, 3rd percentile

Height: 31.8 inches, 24th percentile

I was really happy about this!!! The doctor was pleased that he is still on the growth chart! Woop! Woop!

Our pediatrician said that Beau's language is around the 12-15 month level. I think that is great considering he heard Korean for the first 13 months of his life. :) We are going to see where he is at when he is 2 years old and at that point we will look at our options if he is not making adequate gains with his speech.

Right now, Beau says dada (dad/daddy), baba (bottle), and wawa (water). He also says buh for up and awah for shoe.

He knows that his name is Beau and will point to himself if you say, "Where is Beau?"

If you tell him it's time for a diaper change, he will lay down on the floor on top of the changing pad!

He consistently knows where his nose is and where his feet are. He will sometimes get other body parts correct, but not consistently.

Beau is doing a great job at using a fork! I think he really loves the independence. Some foods, such as rice, still make quite a mess but he is getting better at accurately using the fork, so most meals are not too messy. (Of course messy is relative, he is only 18 months old, so it's not like he never drops food!)

Over the last month, Beau has really gotten into his toy cars. He received several new cars at Christmas and he enjoys pushing them around. He also enjoys to roll a car back and forth with me or Raleigh.

Beau is also enjoying his riding toys. When he first got the riding toys at Christmas, he liked sitting on them, but he couldn't quite figure out how to make them move. Now he loves pedaling his little feet on the floor to move the toys. And of course he loves ramming them into the furniture!

Beau has also enjoyed his mega blocks this month. He is really good at putting them together and taking them apart. I see legos in our future! In fact, a Legoland is opening in Atlanta in March, so that might be something he enjoys this spring and summer!

Beau's favorite activity is playing outside! He LOVES to be outside! I think he got that from me!! :) I think we will join our neighborhood pool this summer!

Beau is still sleeping through the night which is a huge PRAISE!!! I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but his "lovie" is a burlap pillow! Funny, huh?! When he first came home, he really felt comfortable being on our couch in the den. The couch had two burlap pillows as decoration. Over time, Beau attached to these pillows and now they are his pillows. They stay in his room and he rubs/chews the corners as he falls asleep.

The biggest new milestone for Beau this month is that he is learning to walk!!! It is so awesome! I thought my heart would burst with pride when he stood up and started walking. In that moment, I felt like if he never accomplished anything else the rest of his life it wouldn't matter. Raleigh and I are such proud parents! Each day he is walking more and more. He still likes to crawl, too, but he is making progress. It is so cute to watch him toddle around the house!! In the end, nothing I could have done would have made Beau walk any earlier, because he had to do it when he was ready. He had to decide in his own little mind that he was ready to take the risk and start walking!

Speaking of milestones, the Lord has been speaking to me a lot about this recently. When Beau first came home, I wanted him to "catch-up" quickly and start walking and talking and doing other things that children his age were doing. Very soon, the Lord started asking me, "Why?" Beau is perfectly designed by God, just the way he is. Nothing Beau does or doesn't do at a certain age will make him any better or worse. He is already a gift from God, just the way he is! Beau is my dream come true! He is precious and beautiful! I love his little button nose and the way he "fake coughs" just to get attention. I love the way he splashes in the bath and the way he smiles when Raleigh gets home from work. I love the way he cries when wearing his hanbok and the way he folds his hands when we pray before meals.

I love you Beau! Just the way you are!! I will always be your cheerleader and will give you all the resources you need to succeed, but no matter what, you are my priceless treasure, just the way you are!! I wouldn't trade a single thing about you!

Happy Lunar New Year

We had a wonderful day celebrating Lunar New Year!

Unfortunately, Beau still wasn't into taking pictures in his hanbok.

But as soon as I took it off of him, he was happy as a lark!

Beau helped stir the marinade for the bi bim bop!

Bi bim bop is a little labor intensive, but it is so yummy!

Beau loved his!! He is also really proud of himself because he is getting better and better at using a fork! He giggles when he gets food on his fork! :)

If you are interested to learn a little more about how Lunar New Year, Seollal, is celebrated in Korea, take a few minutes to watch the video below.

I think we will try again tomorrow

No, I was not torturing Beau. Just trying to get a picture of him in his hanbok for Lunar New Year. I think we will try again tomorrow!!

As soon as I changed him back into his regular clothes, he was happy again.

Silly boy! He may be little, but his emotions are BIG! :)

We Love It, We Love It Not

I thought it might be fun to review a few of the products that we love using with Beau, and a few things that fell short of our expectations. None of these companies know who I am. These are just my opinions.

Summer Infant Video Monitor

We LOVE this!! Obviously it is not a necessity as people have raised children for hundreds of years without video monitors, but we really love having this. It is great to be able to see what Beau is doing as he is falling asleep. Since Beau sleeps on a mattress on the floor in his nursery, he occasionally crawls out of view of the camera. In those instances, we can still hear him on the monitor. The only negative feedback I have about this product is that it doesn't keep a charge very long.

AVEENO Eczema Therapy Moisturizing Cream

Beau has eczema on his face and neck that comes and goes. When he first came home, his face and neck had bad scratches for almost 2 months because he would scratch himself so hard during the night. He quickly figured out how to take socks off of his hands, so that technique only worked for a short while. We know that part of the scratching was grieving behavior, but some of it was due to his eczema. We have tried a variety of products, and this is by far the best lotion we have found! I actually use it as his body lotion. I'm thankful we found this!

Playtex Sippy Cup

We've found this to be a great sippy cup that doesn't spill! Beau came home at 13 months and was not using a sippy cup at all, but he had no trouble learning how to use this sippy cup. He also has some Playtex cups that have straws that are also great.

Playtex VentAire Bottles

I do NOT recommend these bottles. Raleigh and I found that they leaked all the time!! There are several removable parts making these bottles difficult to use. In addition to leaking, the bottles were hard to keep clean because of the multiple parts. Since Beau only has a bottle at nap time and bed time, we found that the 3 bottles from Korea were plenty. We just wash them frequently. Raleigh and I have decided that January is the last month Beau will get his nap and bed time bottles so pretty soon his bottles will just be a memory.

Huggies Little Movers Slip-On Diapers

I must say that we usually buy whatever diapers are on sale, but we've found that Little Movers are the best for leak protection. I know a lot of people love Target diapers, but we have not had good luck with them. I find that during the day, any diaper will do because you can change it as often as needed, but at night you need a really good diaper. Beau always wakes up dry in the morning if he is wearing Little Movers.

Phil and Teds Classic Buggy

This was a really special gift. Raleigh gave me this stroller for Christmas last year (2010) while we were still waiting on our referral!

I loved pushing it around the house and dreaming of the day we would have a baby to stroll around. It was worth every penny for the amount of joy it brought me. However, once Beau came home and we started using the stroller, it really was not practical. The stroller is very hard to fold and unfold, even after lots of practice. It was also not very steady. The stroller required two hands to push around sharp turns or it would feel like it might tip over. Yikes! So, we sold the stroller. All we have now is our umbrella stroller, which we love. It works great, it is super light weight, and we haven't found a need for a bigger stroller.

So, what are your favorite baby products?

Sweet Video and An Opportunity to Help a Boy Come Home

I'm sure many of you have already seen this, but I could not resist sharing this sweet video about a dad's love for his daughter! Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley adopted Naleigh Moon from Korea in September 2009. Naleigh Moon was adopted from the same agency that Beau was adopted from in Korea...Holt Children's Services.

Isn't adoption a beautiful picture of God's love for his children!!

You have an opportunity to help a little boy come home from Korea to his forever family!! Please consider donating to this fundraiser tonight! Why tonight you ask? Because a donor has stepped up to match every donation up to $5,000!! So, if $5,000 is raised by tonight at midnight, the family will have a total of $10,000 dollars raised!! This is a really big deal! Let me just tell you, adoption is expensive. But we serve a BIG GOD that desires to set the lonely in families!! Any amount helps because it all adds up!!

Simon turned five the day after Christmas!! Could you spare $5 or $10 or even more to help bring Simon home to his forever family? Just look at this cute smile!!



Please consider going here to make a donation to help bring Simon home to his family!

Beau is learning to walk!

We knew the day would come, but we just didn't know when. Beau has been cruising for months and could even let go of the furniture and take a few steps. However, a crucial piece of the puzzle has been missing...standing up. Well, not anymore! Thursday, January 12 is the day that Beau starting standing up on his own! It takes a lot of concentration...but he can do it!!

We couldn't be more proud of sweet Beau!! He still chooses crawling as his primary mode of getting around, but we know it won't be long before he is walking around all the time!

One thing we have learned, Beau has his own personality and his own likes and dislikes and he will choose to do things on his timeline. :) While I think he has had the balance, coordination, and muscle tone to walk for a while now, he just hadn't made his mind up that he was ready.

So at 18 1/2 months old...Beau is learning to walk!! We will always be his biggest cheerleaders in life and celebrate each milestone when he is ready!!

Cutest Smile Ever

For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:27-28

Please Vote for My Friend Becca

I met Becca while attending Samford University and she is one of the most kind souls you will ever meet.

She has been nominated for Sally-Hansen/Glamour "Best of You" contest. Will please go here and vote for Rebecca Stanley? Pretty please?!

The Lord has given Becca and her husband, Adam, a passion for serving the children in inner-city Atlanta. You can read more about their mission at Blueprint 58. They recently moved to Adair Park in Atlanta to intentionally serve that community. Only days after closing on their home, their son was born with a severe heart defect. He had open heart surgery at 5 days old and is now doing remarkably well.

Becca and Adam recently delivered awesome goody baskets to families at our local children's hospital. You can read about that here.

Becca really deserves to win this awesome award!! If she wins, she will not only receive a trip to New York for a makeover, but she will also receive money for their ministry. Please take time to hop over here and vote for my friend, Rebecca Stanley!

7 Things

Thanks Dana for passing this along to me!

Ok, here it goes:

1. My favorite Bible verse is Zephaniah 3:17.

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

2. I love aprons!! I think they are sweet and sassy and feminine! Each year at Christmas Raleigh always gives me a new apron to add to my collection.

3. I love Beyonce!! I love to put in her concert DVDs when I'm cleaning! I pretend like I'm a back-up dancer as I sweep and dust!

4. Parenthood (even though it has only been 5 months) has reminded me to never say never. Here are 2 of many examples.

Before Beau, I said I would never take a child somewhere without socks and shoes. Well, Beau takes his shoes off e.v.e.r.y. time he gets in the car seat, so occasionally I might have taken him into Publix without his socks or shoes! gasp! : ) Oh, and I said I would NEVER allow my kids to play in those play areas in the mall. I can only imagine the number of germs!! I haven't let Beau go yet, but I have considered it! I mean, he loves to climb! He would love it! Germs make you tough, right??

5. I took my first trip to the beach when I was 6 weeks old. Many years worth of memories have been made at the beach. I love the beach and it is a place where I can totally relax and take in the beauty of God's creation. The beach is extra special now, because I received Beau's travel call while I was walking on the beach.

6. I consider myself pretty organized, but keeping digital picture files organized makes me feel totally overwhelmed. I try to keep them organized by month, but I never go back and delete blurry pictures, duplicates, etc. Maybe 2012 is my year to get a handle on picture organization!

7. I don't like driving. I know it's weird, but I don't. If Raleigh and I are together, you will never see me driving!! My parents had to make me get me learner's permit and driver's license. Living in Atlanta has definitely stretched me in this regard. I do drive places everyday of course, I just prefer to have someone else drive when possible. :)

Hip Hip Horray...Beau's Green Card/Permanent Resident Card

We have been patiently waiting on Beau's green card (permanent resident card) to arrive. The normal time frame for receiving this is 1 - 2 months after the child has come home. I recently posted about our wait for the green card here.

Basically, when you call the USCIS 1800 number on the bottom of your child's "welcome notice," it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to speak to an actual person. After calling every couple of weeks since September, I was finally told at the beginning of December that a special request had been put in and we should have the card by December 29th.

Well, December 29th came and we still had nothing. So I called the USCIS headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was great! After a few rings, a real person answered the phone and was so helpful! She offered to look into our case and call me back or she offered that I could stay on hold. I of course told her I was happy to hold while she looked into it.

After a few minutes, she came back on the line and apologized. She said that basically our case had been overlooked at the processing center and the "button" was never "pushed" to have Beau's card mailed to us. She said she was really sorry. I spoke to her on December 29th and we had the card on January 5th! It really pays off to talk to the right person!

I have to say that throughout the adoption process, all of our paperwork that had to go through USCIS always took longer than the average time frame. So, I'm not surprised that this was no different.

In the end, I am just happy to have it! I was surprised to see it... I was expecting more of a "booklet" similar to a passport....but it looks more like a driver's license. It has a cute picture of Beau on it...the one taken in Korea at his visa interview.

Now we are just waiting on Beau's birth certificate.

How Can It Be?

How can it be that Beau is already 18 months old? My sweet baby Beau is turning into a toddler! Just in the last couple of weeks he has really started looking more like a toddler instead of a baby.

As of December 14th Beau weighed 20 pounds. We don't have a recent measure of his height, so I will try to get that soon.

Beau loves lids. :) He can sit for 30 minutes and match lids to containers.... tubberware lids, lids to empty water bottles, pens with lids, empty shampoo bottles, etc. He is really persistent and will continue trying until he successfully gets the lid off and on.

He also still loves playing outside. We had lots of mild December days, so we've been able to get outside a lot. He loves playing with rocks and using a push toy. He also still enjoys stroller rides around the neighborhood. We think a swing set might be in our future! :) Maybe this summer!

Over the last month, Beau has learned his name!! He can't exactly say it, but he does know that his name is Beau and will point to himself. He says /b/ for Beau.

He also knows shoes. He will point to his shoes if you ask him where they are. He consistently says "uwuh" for shoes.

He also knows the word up. He says "buh" for up.

He also says "wawa" for water. He doesn't really use the word to ask for water, but if you tell him you are getting him some water, he will say "wawa."

Beau also knows the word diaper. Not only will he lay down on the diaper mat when we get it out, he will also lay down when we say we are going to get the diaper.

We've also noticed that he is trying to copy the number of syllables in words he repeats. Although he may not produce the correct sounds, he often does produce the correct number of syllables, so his expressive language is developing even though it may be a bit behind other 18 month olds. I often wonder how many words he would be saying if he still lived in Korea and had not been forced to change languages at 13 months old. This is something that we will never know, so we will continue to be intentional about using lots of language in our home everyday.

Beau is still sleeping through the night and this is a HUGE PRAISE!!! I remember during his first 2 1/2 months home when he never slept more than 2 hours at a time, I thought I would never sleep again. Ha! Ha! We are so thankful that he now feels comfortable in his own room and enjoys being in there alone for nap and bedtime. He continues to sleep on a mattress on the floor of his nursery.

Beau is still drinking a little bit of milk in a bottle at nap time and bed time. We were originally planning to get rid of the bottle at the beginning of January. However, we've decided to wait until the end of January. I am attending the Created for Care retreat the last weekend of January. This will be the first time I have been away from Beau for more than a couple of hours. Beau loves Raleigh so much and is totally comfortable around him, but we thought keeping him on the bottle would make bed time a little easier.

Beau's balance has really improved over the last month. If he pulls up on something and then lets go, he has great balance to continue standing there. He can walk from one side of the room to the other. The piece of the puzzle that he is still trying to figure out, is standing up on his own without pulling up on something. Raleigh and I have seen him go from a sitting position to a standing position twice, so he is making progress. I have no doubt that he will master standing up very soon! :)

We have learned that Beau's hair grows really fast. We have not taken him anywhere for an "official" haircut, but I have given him several trims at home! :) Getting him to sit still while I do the trimming is quite difficult, but we finally found the solution....M&Ms. Ha! Ha! Raleigh sits beside Beau and feeds him M&Ms while I do the cutting.

Happy 18 months Beau!! You are learning so much each month and we love you so much!!