Alina at Grandma's

 Looking cute is Alina's specialty.


Alina used her suh-weet skill of sitting up while she played with Grandma's doll house.

Not a lot of moving around yet for this little girl, but I was OK with that. It took Alina a few days to get used to the new space, followed by a few days of needing extra cuddle time while she was teething. 

 Eventually she grew accustomed to Grandma's house, and she was happy to play with all those little babies.

Here's a funny thing we figured out with cousins this age. When they play on opposite sides of the play house, they can't grab at each other's faces and hair. Besides, I think they enjoyed their little game of peek-a-boo through the doll house windows.

SLC Conference Center

We took a day and went up to SLC with Grandma. While she was in the family history library with Uncle Trevor, the kids and I toured the massive Conference Center at Temple Square.

 Here we are on the roof of the conference center. It was an impressive tour. The gardens on the roof are bedded with shale and peat moss because it is lighter than dirt for the structure to support. And the gardens represent the way the saints would have found the Salt Lake Valley when they arrived in 1847. They are not beautiful and manicured, but more of a wildflower look. Here we are in front of the fountain that is directly over the place of the pulpit in the building below. This is the source of the water for the water falls coming off the roof, and this represents the way the gospel goes to all the world, beginning with the prophet as the Lord's spokesman on Earth today.

On the other end of the roof, overlooking the Salt Lake Temple.

(David couldn't keep his eyes open in the bright sunshine. By the end of our trip, he didn't mind the sunshine one bit.)

This building seats 21,000 people without any obstructed views from support beams.We were told that President Hinckley went to the church architects and said, "I want a building that seats 30,000 people without any support posts in the center of it so each seat has an unobstructed view of the pulpit." The architects said, "That's impossible!" To which President Hinckley quickly replied, "No it's not. I've seen it." In the end, the prophet had to be talked down to 21,000 seats instead of the originally intended 30,000--which would have needed a bigger lot to extend the building another 30 percent deep. The entire building is an architectural feat of its own.

This little boy was beyond excited to see all the switches, wires, speakers, lights, etc inside the auditorium. I'm glad that he relates to this location, because he'll be seeing it on screen every 6 months for the rest of his life when General Conference is broadcast worldwide.

Free Time

 After the chores were done with Grandma, David had a hundred different ways to spend his time.

Like running through the sprinklers.

Or watching the laundry through Grandma's window lid. Seriously, this was 63 minutes of uninterrupted wonderment for this mechanically minded boy. Start to finish, he stayed put and watched the machine work.

 He came up for a picture only because he was in the process of explaining to me what he was seeing--then his face went right back down to the glass.

 The bug jar. I have never ever ever seen so many bugs in one bug jar.

 One time David came from the back of my parents' lot with a bug pinched between his fingers. "Grandma! Look! I found a colorful one." The source of his excitement? A box elder bug. Which is funn-nny because my parents had box elder bugs in their home for about 10 years until they convinced the neighbor to cut down the tree that housed them all. The bugs are harmless, but funny to see so many bugs crawling up the walls of a beautiful home. (Mom would vaccuum her walls to mediate the problem, even if guests were over, she'd pull out the vaccuum extension and take care of the little crawlers.) So David's excitement of his box elder bug was ironic. Clearly, Mom, you don't have the bug problem indoors anymore if David had to go to the back of your lot to find his pretty bug.

 A perfect climbing tree.

 With plenty of adventure in that boy to see how high he could go. 

Hours on end, David would be lost in these activities. We had about 10 days at my parents' home before any of David's cousins arrived. It made for some great time with Grandma, Aunt Dacia, and Aunt Capri.

In fact, my sisters work together at a Provo hotspot for employment. As one of the perks of their employment, they got tickets to eat at the corporate "cafe." We joined them for a meal, and had a great time. Yes, David tripped while taking his dish to the dish washer--but he stopped, scrambled to pick everything up, then kept going without hardly skipping a beat. He didn't know he was the only kid in the cafeteria that night. As far as he was concerned, he felt welcome.

Aunt Dacia is checking with David to see how he likes his cheese burger and waffle fries.

 Just when we thought we had reached the pinnacle of fun, David was introduced by his Aunt Capri to the dish washing room. Machines and rollers and sprayers, oh my! It was hard to pull him away from this sight.

The Little Worker

 David has a special love for his Grandma. The same can probably be said of the other 30 grandchildren in our family, each one thinks they are her favorite. And truthfully, they are all right. She inspires with her love, and always expresses confidence in the ability of her grandchildren to make good choices. She has the perfect way of drawing boundaries with David while still lathering on all the love to draw him in. David absolutely loves his Grandma.

Which is why it was easy for David to set aside all else when Grandma invited him each morning to work with her in the yard before the sun grew hot. David stuck with her in chore after chore after chore. And while David would sometimes get distracted by the trampoline, or bug net, or the sprinklers, he would eventually remember what he was in the yard for, and return for duty.

 David was thrilled to be introduced and entrusted with a few new tools--such as the "loppers." And when Grandma got stuck in trying to loosen sprinkler heads for their clean out and repair, David helped her figure out which way was "righty tighty and lefty loosy." David felt important in this role--he could figure it out when the situation turned in to a laughable experience for his Grandma and Aunts. From sprinkler heads to window washing equipment, David grew in confidence by being the one to figure it out.

 While they were working on this patch of weeds-turned-dirt ready to plant with grass, Grandma and David had this conversation:

G: You know, David, I pay kids to pick weeds in the sand pile.

D: Oh. Ohhhhh nooooo. You can't pay me to serve my Grandma!

 Which is a true David expression of just how he feels about his dear Grandma.

Traveling

 The kids and I recently took a trip to Grandma's house. We welcomed home my sister, Capri, from her mission. In a family of 10 siblings, we are spread across 8 states and one in the Philippines. Our gathering time is precious, and it doesn't happen without a lot of planning. I'm so glad that we were able to spend time with our extended family.

Oh, how I toiled over the decision to use these tickets. I didn't decide to go until about 15 hours before our flight left. The tickets were intended to get our whole family to a gathering of extended family so we could have Alina's sealing in the temple. When paperwork didn't pan out the way we hoped, I had a hard time deciding whether or not to make the effort. In the end, it was time David would have with cousins that made the decision for me. I want him to have lots of memories with his cousins, and having so many of them together made all the difference in getting us on the plane.

 So these sweet kids put up with flying through the night and well into the next day so we could go to Grandma's house. 

It turned out to be well worth our effort.

Tooth

I took the following pics in an attempt to capture the single tooth that came in first on the bottom of our little lady's gums. As far as teething goes, she's been a dream. Very little drooling, just a cold with each of her two teeth and a little more clingy than usual.

Studs

Fact: When I was 16, I used the word "studs" from the pulpit at church.

Fact: I got in trouble for lack of wisdom in  using said word in church. (I think my parents got flack for it, too, from other church-goers.)

Fact: We had an extra set of winter tires with studs that were too far worn down, but the tires were still good.

Fact: We needed new summer tires on our car.

Fact: Sam and David tackled the project by removing one stud at a time with their screwdrivers.

Fact: This was the most perfect work project for our screwdriver loving boy.

Fact: David got to stay up until 10 pm because he was being such a happy and focused

helper.

Fact: David got a nickel per stud that he removed from said tires.

Fact: We ended up with 388 studs in our bucket, plus a few more that fell through the cracks in our deck. (David nearly finished an entire tire by himself, while Daddy did the other three.)

Fact: We didn't put a hole in any of the four tires (Yay!)

Fact: "We" is a loosely used term here, as I was only the photographer.

Davidisms--May

• David perked up from the back seat a little while ago and said, "I know! If we want to get to the Westons house, we go West, and if we want to get to the Eastons' house we go East." Up to that point, I hadn't realized that we have friends named Westons and other friends named Eastons.
• Daddy was driving, and David called out, "Dad, don't crash the car so the ear wax doesn't come out and smack us in the face." Huh? I don't know where that came from, but it was perfect timing for comical relief in our day.
• David has started asking specifics about any machinery we come across. He knows where I draw the line in him taking things apart, so he asks, "Mom, is this _____ flammable to take apart?" 
• We were at the Dr's office, and David started inspecting the levers on the doc's table/bed. He let out a few "hmms" and "sighs" as he had his head poking in and out of the compartments then he declared, "Well, if we can find one of these at the broken store, that would be great--because it's definitely not flammable." Uh, son, I don't think we'll find a doctor office "table" at Value Village.

Sunshine

You are my Sunshine

 My only sunshine.

You make me happy, 

When skies are gray.

You'll never know, dear, 

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

My Happiness

Happy Mother's Day to Me.

My beautiful children bring me so much joy and purpose, and I count their presence in our family as a miracle. I don't take them for granted for a single day. If my waiting to become a mother did anything for me, it was to give me a perspective on how precious my time is with my children.

This year, Alina has taught me:

• Maternal instinct is real to girls. She first started lighting up at the sight of her dolly at age 6 months--and she loves on anything with a face. If a doll or stuffed animal needs a hug or a squeal of delight, Alina meets that need with all the nurturing of her sweet little heart.
• That love is multiplied with a new addition to our family. Love in a family multiplies exponentially. It's one of the awesome things about families and love.
• That she will want to become just like me. Her favorite things to hold or to touch are the piano, my wallet, my phone, and the laptop. I hope she also notices that I am on the floor playing with her every day, and that I turn my ringer off often (too often, maybe?) so I am not at the beckon call of my phone. I enjoy hearing from people over the phone, but I want technology to be available at my leisure, not at the expense of time with my children.
• That patience is a virtue that she comes with to bless our family. I have a lot to learn from my sweet daughter.

This year, David has taught me:

• That the most connecting moments we share are when he is learning something new, and I get to share in his enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity. 
• That connections and small moments of building up are so much more powerful than moments of impatience or frustration. Sometimes I think of David as my upper-level college course in parenting. He didn't come with the "101" label--we just went straight to the 500 and 600 level courses with this one. But it's refining to me, and I hope I am learning what I need to learn through our experiences together.
• Music is powerful, and it reaches to the very core of David's being. I love our moments together when we sing or play the piano. I cannot underestimate the gift of music he possesses, and the power for good in can be in his life.
• The best sound in the whole world is my children laughing together. 
• That scripture stories and scripture reading are something we can never get enough of in a day.

My Tiger

It just so happened that on the day we were going to court to attempt our finalization with Alina's adoption, David came home from preschool with his face painted like a tiger.

I was very amused, and put out a text to some family members to see if they thought we should wash it or leave it for our court appointment. 

I was very surprised for the overall call to "Leave the paint!" from those I asked. David was rubbing it off before I even asked him to, so it was a mute point in discussion between us--but for a few minutes, he really enjoyed being a tiger. Apparently even tigers love their mom enough to give her a dandelion bouquet.

 His tiger growl made it especially real.

My Helper

 Alina is the most content baby I've ever met--but she likes to be part of the action. If I am going downstairs to change out laundry, grab something from our food storage, or vacuum, she wants to go with me.

She enjoys being along for the ride, whatever that ride might be.

Pokey

 Alina has been showing off her cute, pointy tongue lately.

She's good at curling up that little end over her top lip (although she relaxed it a little each time I snapped a photo)

For a few days, she turned a little clingy, then finally Daddy found a pokey tooth on her bottom gums yesterday. That was easy teething! No sleepless nights, no cries of pain, just a curly tongue and a cuddly girl. As long as she was being held, she was perfectly content.

Enough.

Our Court date to finalize Alina's adoption came and went.

Only it didn't go as we had hoped.

We were short one paper--a court document that should have been prepared several months ago, but was somehow overlooked by our attorney. I understand that the law is the law, and we must comply. I get it that these laws are to protect children, and I don't argue with that. But I am terribly disappointed at the outcome of our hearing.

Alina's adoption isn't being contested. We have the interest and support of our dear Angel Birth Mother, LW. She is encouraging us along in the process, however long it takes. I feel so grateful that this is our relationship with her, as most adoptive couples that walk out of a court room without an adoption decree are not in the sure place that we are in, knowing the adoption will go through. No one was contesting us on the other side of the court room, and that by itself is a blessing to us.

The other table was empty--and on our side of the court room, we came prepared to testify. We hired an attorney to prepare the paperwork filed with the court, but we went to court pro se--representing ourselves. Even if the attorney had been in the court room with us, the outcome would have been the same.

We received permission from the agency five months ago to finalize this adoption. It took several weeks to find an attorney, another few weeks to get an appointment after we hired him, and then it was waiting for the postal service, waiting for paperwork, and waiting for a court date.

Finally, the day arrived, and we were at the court room for our 1:30 hearing.

I have heard about adoption hearings--how they are the cherry on top when it comes to family court; how the judge sometimes allows the child to sit in his/her chair, bang his/her gavel, offers to stand in for pictures, and overall helps everyone feel the celebration of creating the legal family ties that are already in place in every other way. We weren't in the court room when David's adoption was finalized as it happened in his birth state, and it was determined to be unnecessary for us to be in attendance. This was a new experience for us; I was expecting a celebration. 

The clerk of the court was so nice to us before and after the hearing. I didn't see the judge even look at us. Although I am told by the friend who came to snap photos (all photos were taken with permission of the court, don't worry) that he did look up from his papers once--while I was looking through our files to see if we had anything similar to the document that he was requesting.

The judge was purely justice. He was short and to the point--we needed one more document before we could finalize. I wish he had sworn us in, heard our testimony, and left the case "pending" to file this last court document--but he opened the court session and seven minutes later closed it without much ado. Now it's more waiting. Waiting for attorneys to make time for our case. Waiting for more paperwork. Waiting for the postal service to bring us what we need. Waiting for another court date.

As I held my sweet baby that night at bedtime, I connected all of the dots. We've been approved by the agency for five months. We've been delayed for five months. The legal proceedings are a formality for us, and nothing more. She is ours in every sense of the word. In a way, the legal proceedings don't really matter to me because they won't change anything in my heart from one moment to the next.

But I guess I have to admit that she is ours in almost every sense of the word. She is not yet ours eternally.

Legal proceedings are standing between us and taking Alina to be sealed to us in the temple. Now that's a different matter. It became clear that the delays are not in fighting anyone or anything in court--but it was the adversary that is trying to delay the blessings of the temple for our family. Alina is 8 months old next week. We are a temple worthy family. It is time. We need to take her to the temple, without any further delay. Once I understood the influence of the adversary over our delays for legal proceedings, my heart took courage. I can put up with legal proceedings being delayed. But I have no patience with Satan having a victory in delaying the blessing of the temple for our daughter. I don't know how to fight in a court room, but the power of my faith can overcome the power of Satan. Light always extinguishes the darkness, and it is time for the light of our faith to extinguish the uncertainty of when this process will be finalized.

We want to close on this adoption sooner rather than later. We want to keep our appointment to have her sealed to us at the end of May. If you are so inclined, will you join your faith and your prayers with ours that the finalization will happen immediately? It will be miraculous to find a solution and get back to court soon enough to see it through. We're not looking for a miracle here. We're looking for six or seven. It will take a lot of faith. We are grateful to have faithful friends and family whom we can call upon to help us see these miracles through.

It's something we want with our whole hearts. More importantly, we know that having Alina sealed to our family is a blessing that our Father in Heaven wants to grant to us.

Easter Princess

Every year, my mom made Easter dresses for my sisters and me. I need to get my hands on some of those pictures--I remember going to the store with her, finding pretty dresses on the rack, and Mom would take home a sketch of what we liked. Then we went to the fabric store, found a pattern and fabric, and on Easter morning we had shiny new dresses ready for us.

So this year I wanted to make a dress for my sweet baby girl.

I was excited the night before to have it ready to go.

 Add a pair of pretty shoes, a little barrette, and that gorgeous face--and I was really excited about it!

After church, Alina was patient while I took a few photos.

By the time I brought David into the pictures, she was done with the camera. She wanted to move on to her after-church bottle and nap.

This dress is a pre-cursor to the sealing dress I'll be making over the next few weeks. I definitely learned a few things--like silk fabric is too delicate for all the moving around of a small baby. 

When I was making an outfit for David's sealing, I kept putting pressure on myself to have it perfect. After all, it was for the temple. I wanted every stitch to be just right, all the raw edges to be covered, seams perfectly aligned. I kept getting frustrated with myself over my lack of perfection, when the Spirit taught my heart an important lesson. Going to the temple is not about being perfect. It is about striving. As long as I was offering my best, that is good enough for the Lord. So I'll approach Alina's temple dress with the same purpose of heart.