New Numbers

A little adoption update....


98 on the girl’s list (last month 102)
75 on the boy’s list (last month 79)
35 on the sibling’s list (last month 36)


We slid in under 100 on the girls list!

Dedicated

Bear was dedicated at church last week. For the past year, we have been attending a new church not far from our house. It's a sister of the church we attended and were members of the past 15 years. We stood before the new church family and symbolically presented Bear to God. The pastor and congregation prayed for Bear and for us as his parents. What an awesome responsibility we have to raise him to know God and teach him of the love of Jesus. It scares me when I think about it!

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Bear, in Pastor Mike's arms, was pretty brave in front of all those people.

I'm calling the first photo the Praise The Lord shot. I didn't ask him to pose. He did it all on his own. I made a new blog header with the serious photo of him in his ceremonial Ethiopian whites. I can't believe my eyes when I look at that photo. He takes my breath away.

Here come the sillies...

We chose this verse to be his dedication verse. Of course, was there another choice?

"For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord."

-1 Samuel 1:27-28

Happy Birthday Two You!

Birthday parties are sometimes casualties of living 2,000 miles away from your family. This is something Dodd and I think about a lot now we have Bear. When we were invited to Dodd's birth sister's wedding in LA (more on that to come) the week before Bear's second birthday, we decided to make a big West Coast trip of it. He shares his birthday weekend with two family members, Uncle Kevin and Cousin Alexis. So my mom, being the family-bringer-together that she is, had a BBQ in honor of the celebrators.

Here are just a few of the MANY photos we have of a great day.

The picture below is of two birthday boys. This is Bear and Uncle Kevin. I am not an astrology believer, but these two Leos do share some common Leo temperaments. As my sister has pointed out, you can see they also share the same hairline. Although we didn't really talk about it too much at the party, all of us were thankful to be able celebrate Kevin's birthday this year. He was in a serious on the job accident over 4th of July weekend that by all accounts, should have taken his life. Over 1,000 amps of electricity passed through his body! It is frankly a miracle that he is here, totally ok, and sassy as ever. :)

We met the little cutie below for the first time. Alexis is Bear's second cousin and we celebrated her first birthday! She is so incredibly squeezable and gentle. I am so not used to girls! Bear's 2nd cousin also has an interesting cultural heritage. She is a Mexican, Peruvian, Sicilian, Irish American. How cool is that?

This is Alexis's big brother, Azulito.

And my cousin Azul, having a great time with the kids.

Chillin with the cousins.

Grandma is showing Bear the very special birthday cake she picked out for him.

Grandma knows about Bear's love of....yep Elmo! We don't watch much television at home and he's still hooked on Elmo. What IS it about Elmo and toddlers?

Most people drove a long way, like Bear's Great Uncle Joe Joe below. Uncle Joe and Aunt Marie drove all the way from the Penninsula just to celebrate with us. My friend from highschool Bronwyn, drove from Silicon Valley. My cousin Jeff and his wife broke down a few hours away and couldn't find a rental car so rented a U-Haul to get them to the party instead!

Cake and ice cream haze.

My parents have friends who have followed and prayed for Bear's journey home. We were finally able to meet them at the party. They sure understand our family, as evidenced by the present they gave Bear. A sheriff's hat, badge, and handcuffs with a note that said "We understand there's a new sheriff in town." You are dead on Bonnie and Mike! Grandpa Frank had the honor of demonstrating the handcuffs for Bear. Grandpa is somewhat an expert, since he used to do that for a living.

Opening presents and OD'ing on jelly beans.

Bear had lots of fun with so many people to play with and stuff going on but I am not sure he gets the whole concept of birthday party just yet. Matters not, we enjoyed it for him!

We have much to be grateful for.

To The Zoo and Funny Words

We took Bear to the zoo for the first time over 4th of July weekend. I have been looking forward to our first zoo trip for a year, and couldn't wait to introduce him to a little orangatan named Mahal who was taken in by his "adoptive" orangatan mother MJ in Milwaukee. (It's a heartwarming story, and Mahal and MJ are inspiring to watch if you ever plan a visit to the Milwaukee Zoo.)

Bear was unusally quiet as we walked through the primate exhibit and didn't say or do much of anything when he met Mahal. He held tightly to us and stared with big eyes, trying to process all that he was seeing. Finally, at our 5th monkey exhibit, while I was taking a picture of him in Dodd's arms watching, he started shaking his arm and waving his finger. I looked at Dodd and realized Bear was shouting.

Here are the only words spoken during his first trip to the zoo:

"No mo monkeys jumpin on the bed!"

Now when we mention the zoo or the monkies, he slaps his forehead and the words "bonk", "head", "mama", and "doctor", all swirl around in funny sentences that make us laugh. His commentary is just about always closed with a final emphatic reminder, "No mo monkies jumpin on the bed!"

There are so many funny things coming out of his mouth these days. A few weeks ago while eating dinner, he looked at me and said, "Mama?"  "Yes, Bear?" I replied. What did he want to tell me? "Shake you booty, shake you booty, shake you booty" ....and then he went back to eating dinner.

Fun stuff!

New Numbers

We are home after a nice long trip to see family and friends on the West Coast. As we unpack and get back to Central time, I thought I would share new numbers.

Last month we were 109 on the girls list.

Now 102.

Last month 85 on the boys list.

Now 79.

Last month 42 on the siblings list.

Now 36.

There is one more new number in the house. This handsome devil was 1 before our trip and now he is 2! It's all pretty confusing for him. For the past few months if you asked him how old he was he would say 2. It was just a few weeks ago that he got the hang of saying 1. Now he can't figure out why 2 was the wrong answer last week but the right answer this week. I tried to get a picture of him in his suit showing his new number but he still holds up 1 finger. I will get some birthday photos posted soon. We are so proud of our 2 year old!

contento, felice, lieto, fortunato, dästänya

Where Else on the 4th of July?

I couldn't resist sharing some photos from our 4th of July parade yesterday. Where else but Wisconsin would you see this in a 4th of July parade? (Saving the best for last...)

Tractors...

More tractors...

Dairy Queen

The Famous Racing Sausages....yes sausages....here is The Italian, The Bratwurst, The Polish, and The Chorizo...

Bear to Dad, "Is a Polish Sausage really asking for Five??"

Here is one because I just have to show off a couple handsome guys...

And one for the Vets....

And last, but not least...where else but Wisconsin would it be socially acceptable for a farmer to drive 3 kegs on his tractor in front of thousands of children at a 4th of July parade? Ode to beer and cheese land...


Happy Independence Day!