Well, our house is officially on the market. You know how when you decide to cut all your hair off, the days before your salon appointment your long hair looks amazing? Well, we’ve been having a little bit of that happening. I absolutely feel moving is the right thing to do, but every so often I waver. I know where everything is here, this is Ella’s home and she’s starting to recognize it, it’s gotten to be comfortable. But…the neighbors are not the friendliest, there are no kids around that we’ve... more

Music plays an extremely large and important role in my family’s daily life. We love to watch “Jack’s Big Music Show” and “Little Einsteins” on television. Both shows are centered around music and Ella just can’t get enough of it. Classical, contemporary, jazz, she loves it all – especially if it has a strong beat to it. She will stop whatever it is that she’s doing if she hears a song she likes, head to the source of the music and clap, wiggle and bounce to the tune. It is also part of her sleeping ritual to have a classical... more

When a woman gives birth to a baby, she often will remark that she was able to forget the pain of pregnancy and labor as soon as she saw her baby’s face. Many say that this is how women go on to birth more than one child. For us, it’s different, but similar at the same time.

Our first days in Viet Nam with Ella, and even more so, the first weeks at home, seem surreal. I’m not quite sure how we got through it, but I think a large part was not being completely aware of how hard it was at the time. The adjustment to... more

This morning Ella and I went grocery shopping. We go out regularly and I have noticed that she has been getting more and more comfortable in public, but today really topped the cake. We had at least half a dozen people stop us to talk about how cute Ella is, ask how old she is, etc. All of these encounters happened when I was pushing the cart, so Ella was facing me and could see my reaction to the people.

At one point while I was scooping granola out of a bulk bin, I was at the end of the cart so Ella was facing... more

Six months. We have been a family for longer, but home only six months. It seems unreal because it feels like Miss Ella has always been here. I remember the time without her, but she has changed our lives so drastically that I feel like she’s been home forever.

Our hotel room in Viet Nam was mostly comprised of our huge bed, so Ella spent most of her time on there. She would army crawl around, but we didn’t know if she could actually crawl or not, due to lack of floor time. Well, as soon as we got back home and entered... more

Ella and I took part in “Take Your Child to Work Day” yesterday. Actually, for my mom it was “Take Your Child and Grandchild to Work Day.” My mom is a school nurse at a lovely, small elementary school where literally everyone knows all about Ella and has been a huge support to my mom and us throughout our family building process. They had all seen tons of pictures, but yesterday was the first time that Ella got to meet everyone at the school. It was an awesome experience to be welcomed so warmly... more

We recently received a request to send pictures to Viet Nam. We didn’t know that we should have sent them in along with our post placement report, so our agency director asked us to send them in to accompany the report. I have about a trillion pictures of Ella and of us as a family to choose from, but I wanted to choose pictures that best illustrated her life here with us.

I chose pictures that spanned the past few months, but most were from recent holidays and events. They will see her enjoying Christmas, Easter... more

Well, it happened. My little Ella is now officially a one year old! She celebrated her first birthday this week and it was a wonderful occasion. It was so much fun for me to plan and get ready and then be able to carry out her birthday plans (and yes, I know that she doesn’t really know what was going on :).)

Her birthday was extra special because since my husband has spring break all week, we got to spend the whole day together as a family. The big event for the day was going to have her pictures taken at Picture... more

This picture was taken yesterday, but today Miss Ella is 4 days shy of her first birthday. I’m having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that although she’s only been with us since October, she will soon be turning a whopping twelve months old! This week I watched the video we took on the day we first met, so that gave me pause and let me really see how she has grown and blossomed.

As she approaches this milestone of babyhood, Ella has been displaying many signs of “big girl-ness.” For instance, she loves nothing more... more

Ok…seriously…what kind of baby crack is in these DVDs? I am amazed and fascinated and just a little bit disturbed by how much Ella is captivated by the Baby Einstein DVDs. The person/people who created the series must have done some serious research to find out exactly what babies respond to and how to hold their attention. Judging from the extreme popularity of the Baby Einstein name, all different kinds of babies and parents love them.

We have the Baby Van Gogh, Baby Galileo and Baby Mozart (and I really want the Baby Shakespeare,... more