Revisiting the Garden 8/20/2006
While remembering where we were a year ago, I was especially blessed to revisit this special post written the night before we met Adelina.
Date Night!!
Last night we had our first date night since bringing Adelina home. We had our 8th anniversary to celebrate not to mention the one year anniversary of getting Adelina’s referral and of meeting her.
It has taken us quite some time to get to the point where she wasn’t so dependent on us being there for her bedtime routine. Due to her recent progress in this area, we felt it was time to try the sitter thing. We had friends of ours come over - a married couple without kids - and they took Adelina out and then played and put her to bed while we went out for a lovely dinner and a movie. We came home really tired from being out later than we’re used to, but boy did it feel so good to have some quality time to ourselves!
Thanks, Jason and Sonya for the wonderful gift of a night out!
A parenting surprise 8/15/2006
This post is not so much about parenting, but it is about dealing with unexpected feelings and decisions as a new parent. To understand the “surprise” you have to know that I grew up longing to be a parent more than anything else. My goal was to get married, have kids, and be a stay at home mom and possibly even a homeschool mom. To that end, I got a degree in early childhood education, and the dream only grew from there. When Steve and I married exactly 8 years ago today I was thrilled to be taking the next step towards my goal of motherhood.
I’ll skip the 8 years in between then and now (since most of you know the saga anyhow) and just say that the last thing I expected to be doing barely 9 months after finally becoming a Mom was heading back to work, but that is what happened today. The part of this that surprised me is how much I wanted it! I enjoyed my first day back to work quite thoroughly, and am looking forward to it again tomorrow and the next day, and the next.
Who would’ve thought that I would be so glad to return to work and so grateful for a good educational system for Adelina to thrive in. God is forever full of pleasant surprises!
Oh, and Happy Anniversary to Steve - you are my perfect match!
Big Girl 8/9/2006
Not a single tear did our sweet daughter shed as she got on board the yellow school bus to go to her first day of kindergarten this morning. She was quite excited about this “big girl” business of going to school all day, and it contributed to a very bad night’s sleep last night. She woke up several times and had an awful time going back to sleep. The lightning storm didn’t help either (there was also thunder, but I’m not sure if it was loud enough for her to hear, though she may have occasionally felt it), and it seemed the lightning always struck right when she was on the verge of sleep again. Still, she woke up without too much fuss, though I could tell she was still very very sleepy, and managed to get ready for school. Steve and I were also sleep-deprived, but hopefully things will balance out soon as we all adjust to the new schedule.
Also, remember the new bike she was trying to earn by going to sleep by herself? Well, she loves it and we are so glad we got it for her. First of all because she earned it and was so proud of that fact. She really did learn to go to sleep on her own. She isn’t quite fully independent, in that we read books with her and then pray and tuck her in, then leave the room; however, we still come back every X minutes to check on her. We start out with 5, then 7, then 10, then 15 until - at some point - we find her asleep. It is still requiring our time and participation, but she stays in her bed and we aren’t having to stay in there with her. As far as we are concerned, this is a huge improvement, and it won’t be too long before the times away can get longer and longer until we don’t have to check on her at all… though we probably will anyway because that’s what parents do, right? 
So she now has this new big girl bike. Well, okay it has 16″ wheels (+ training wheels), but those are much bigger than her bike that had only 10″ wheels. She is already riding it like a pro. I think it is much more appropriately sized for her, especially given her natural talent for sports (or so it seems). Anyhow, she wants to ride it whenever she can, so I agreed to take her around the block last night. Steve informed me she has gone all the way around our neighborhood circle before - on her small bike - and could probably do so easily on her bigger bike. So I changed into my running clothes, and I had a wonderful run alongside my daughter who rode her bike like she’d been doing it for years (trust me, she hasn’t). The sun was setting with beautiful colors, and the full moon was just peaking up over the horizon seemingly bigger and brighter than usual. I had a great run, she loved riding her back all that way, and it was such a fabulous time together. It is exactly those kinds of moments that I always thought I would love to have with my children. How sweet it is to finally be experiencing those long-awaited joys of parenting!
Adelina just came home from her first day at kindergarten, and she had so much to say. It sounds like it was a great day and she was quite animated. She did tell me (in sign) “long long time at school” but it was with a smile, so I think we’re good to go for day two!
