Wednesday, July 13, 2011

a very special day

I can't believe it's taken me almost three weeks to get this post up! I'm a very bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. I'm trying to do better but the universe is working against me lately, I tell you. Internet problems, blogger problems (you have no idea!), blackberry problems, flat tire, head cold (maddyx, and then me), need I go on? But we're all back on track now and everything is great!

So on to the good stuff. We were so excited to find out that Maddyx's foster mother, the director from ESWS and a couple of other women were going to be in Los Angeles for a short visit. We made arrangements to drive up to see them the evening before they got on their flight back to Korea.

I had so many thoughts run through my head when I knew we were going to see the women who raised Maddyx for the first year of his life. Will he remember her? Will he think she's Mama? Will he be sad to leave her? Will he be confused? I just didn't know what to expect from him during this visit. What I did know is that I was beyond thrilled to give the amazing women who raised our son for the first year of his life the opportunity to see what an amazing little boy he's become, and also see just how happy we are to be a family. The last time we saw her we were scared, sad, insecure and totally unsure of what the future held for us. We were in a foreign country and about to take a 13 month old baby away from the only life he ever knew. What a difference 10 months makes!

To prepare for our visit we spent some time looking at Maddyx's memory album with his foster family. It almost brings me to tears looking at him taking in the pictures. I just wonder what goes through their little mind?

To prepare for our visit we spent some time looking at maddyx's memory album with his foster family.
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Are you ready to go, Maddyx?  Yep, I'm ready Mama - let's go!
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Hanging with Dad while we wait at the hotel for Foster Mom
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Maddyx is clearly done with picture time
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And we got a balloon at dinner.  Gotta love Red Robin!
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Whose bright idea was it to tie this balloon to the camera case?!?!
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Maddyx, look who's here!!
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And he's off...............
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Whatchya got there??  oooh bubble wrap....
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Alright - me and my balloon are outta here.
The visit was absolutely wonderful. These women are amazing. What they do for these children is beyond what I can express in words. They love and care for these children with every ounce of their souls, only to have their hearts broken time and time again as they place them in the hands of their families. They are Angels.

My heart went out to his foster mother. I know what a strong bond they had the last time she held him in her arms, and I'm sure as happy as she was to see him settled into his family, it had to be hard to have lost that bond that she had with him. She cried a lot. Mostly tears of joy, and some were tears of sadness. I promised her that we would never let him forget her and we would always stay in touch. And we will. As she helped us load him into the car to prepare for our drive home I could see the pain in her eyes as the tears streamed down her face. She did not want to let him go. She loved him so deeply, and still does. As sad as I was for her to see him go, I was also secretly happy that he knew I was his Mama. He didn't cry for her as we left because he knew he was home. And this time as we drove off looking back at foster mom, there was no fear, no insecurity, and we knew what the future held. Again, what a difference 10 months makes!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Maddyx's Foster Mother is in Los Angeles!

Maddyx's Foster Mother, along with a group of women from ESWS, have made a trip to the States and we are going to see her tonight!  I will have a post with pictures and an update of our visit this week. We are meeting his foster mom and the Director from ESWS this evening at their hotel.  What a once in a lifetime opportunity!

How crazy is this?!?!

Stay tuned.............................

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

22 Months!

I can hardly believe that Maddyx is 22 months.  He has come so far in the last few months.  He's gone from my little baby to my little boy.  Sigh.  I do have to apologize because I've kind of dropped the ball on the the monthly updates.  I'm going to get back on track.  For at least the next two months.  And then there's no promises!

So let's talk about 22 months.  We've got a whole lot of words trying to make their way out.  Let's just say we've had a language explosion over here.  We definitely have to put our special Maddyx language interpretation cap on to try and understand the words, but Mama's usually got it figured out.  A few things he's saying all of the time; tweet, tweet (bird), ba ba (bottle), wha? (like we ask Maddyx what do you want? and he replies, wha?), up, mama, dadadaaa, more, waaa (water), night night, sna (snack), baa baa baa (bath),  bu buu (belly button).  And these are just a few.  There are so many more.  He turned into a little sponge overnight and he's really just taking everything in.

Maddyx loves the park and is absolutely obsessed with the slide.  Don't get me wrong, he likes the swing just fine, and enjoys the socializing aspect of the park, but there's just nothing like going head first down the tube slide.  We do it over and over and over and OVER again.  Until we tell him we have to go.  And then he cries.  Every time.  Thank goodness he forgets about it about 30 seconds after we walk away.
Maddyx is a true dream when it comes to sleeping.  He goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up between 6:45 and 7:15 am every day.  Naps are anywhere from 1-2 hours a day.  No, we don't get the nice long 3 hour nap around here.  I tried.  I mean, I tried really hard to force the long naps, but one thing you can't do is force a toddler to sleep.  Mission aborted.
Maddyx's biggest obsession right now is the Baby Signing Time videos.  Seriously obsessed.  My friend let us borrow them several months back, and when I first introduced them to Maddyx he could quite honestly care less.  And then one day the light switched on and the obsession began.  He begs for these videos morning, noon and night.  He actually does the sign for "baby" when asking for them.  It's so darn cute.  I'll have to to take a video of the pure joy (squeals) he exudes when I grab the DVD remote to turn the video on.  It makes me smile every time.
Maddyx is going through a little bit of a shall we say, jealous phase?  Lets just say when Daddy kisses or hugs Mama (or gives me any sort of attention), Maddyx must stop whatever he's doing, rush right over and give Mama the same exact kiss or hug.  Sound effects and all.  We love to do it just to get his reaction.
Another really neat thing?  Well we've discovered picking our nose.  Yes we have, and SO not cute.  Okay, kind of funny but I'm a Mom now and I can't encourage this kind of behavior.  So I ignore it and laugh on the inside.  We've also discovered toots are funny.  Maddyx toots, Maddyx laughs.  Let's just say Maddyx toots a lot.  Of course, Mom and Dad NEVER toot.  Never.  Ahem. 

I have to say that overall 22 months is pretty darn great.  Maddyx continues to be a very easy-going and happy little guy.  We've yet to see any real signs of *the* "terrible twos"...knock on wood....and (don't hate me fellow mama's) we don't really have any tantrums either.  So I guess we've got it REALLY good around here.

Now if I could just find enough energy to keep up with everything!  That's a story for another day.  

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I wanna be a Cowboy......

and you can be my cowgirl!
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Could there be love in the air?

Maddyx,

I might have already prearranged your marriage.  I might have.  Not because I believe in arranged marriages but because I do believe in fate and in destiny.  How can you argue with fate?

Let me back up.  Some of you may remember me mentioning this, others may not....one of my closest and dearest friends in the world, one I like to call my "BFF"  got pregnant around the same time we were talking about pursuing adoption.  We officially started the process in April of 2009 and she was about six months pregnant at the time.  On July 25, 2009 she gave birth to her beautiful daughter, Kaiah.  Here's where the fate part comes in.  We received our referral for Maddyx on January 14th, 2010, and when we looked at his paperwork we saw that his birth date was July 25, 2009!  Is that crazy or what?!?!

So obviously we have decided that they very well may be MEANT for each other!  We love to joke around about it and we hope at the very least they'll be the best of friends for life!  Or heck, they may be so much alike that they drive each other bananas!  I guess we shall see.

So we had our friends down a couple of months ago for a weekend visit.  While here the kids had a chance to hang together and see if they felt any sparks.  I can tell you that there was love at first sight.  Not so much between Maddyx and Kaiah but Kaiah and Maddyx's police car.  Oh yes, she was IN LOVE. 

Below is a little snapshot of the two of them figuring out who was the boss of this car.  A nice lesson in sharing for these *almost* two year olds!  You'll see at the bottom who clearly won this battle. 

Oh and Maddyx for the record, you may want to withhold elbow jabs on any future first dates.  I don't *think* that's going to work too well with the ladies.  Could be wrong.

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Monday, May 9, 2011

A Very Mammoth Easter (a little late, I know!)

So I realize that I am way behind here in the blog world!  For no good reason except that I am absolutely EXHAUSTED when I get home from work every day.  By the time we get home, make dinner, eat dinner, do bath, clean up, do bedtime routine and FINALLY sit down, I'm completely brain dead.  My brain is mush.  That said, I really want to *at least* stay on top of posting photos, so if you notice I'm not writing too much these days, well, you know why.  Just remember, mush for brain. 

We had a very untraditional first Easter together as a family.  Instead of celebrating here in sunny San Diego (as we always have) we packed up the car with my sister-in-law and our nephew and took a road trip to Mammoth.  Much to our surprise, the forecast of partly cloudy and 45-50 degree spring-like weather ended up being non-stop snow for three days straight!  We celebrated our very first white Easter! 

Maddyx is about as easy as kids come.  Especially one that's quickly approaching the age of two.  However, my very easy-going son Maddyx decided to check out on the the 7 hour car ride to and from Mammoth, and instead his very, very bad twin joined us.  Lets just say Maddyx was unhappy to *get* in his car seat upon leaving the house, and he remained unhappy to *be* in his car seat for the entire seven hour drive!  Can you imagine how fun this road trip was?!?  If not, just imagine a very high pitched *annoying* yelling in your ear for SEVEN. HOURS. STRAIGHT.  Actually I take that back...we did get a 30 minute break when he actually decided to sleep!  Mama and Daddy have decided road trips will be put on hold.  For the next 10 years!

Aside from the car rides our trip was great!  We didn't get Maddyx on the slopes this time.  Maybe next year.  We figured it might be a good idea if he perfected walking first. 


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