3 Years Old

Our little girl turns 3 years old today. It's so hard to believe. Where did the time go?

While we are celebrating Lili's birthday today, I can't help thinking of her birth mother. How is she feeling today? Where is she? I wish I could tell her that her baby is a beautiful little girl, with loads of personality. She's smart, funny and enjoys life. She has passion and is dramatic at times. My hope is that one day we will meet the wonderful woman that gave us this beautiful treasure and allow her to see for herself that Lili is all of these things and so much more.

Here are some photos I took of the birthday girl this morning.

Lili being silly. Just being cute.
Showing off her teeth. :-)
Happy Birthday Princess Lili!!!!!

Permission Granted

Please meet the newest member of our family. Tsegaw!!!!


Isn't he adorable?!!! He is 5 1/2 months old and the son of our niece Lauren and her husband David. I can hardly wait until they travel to go pick him up. I just wish we didn't live so far away from each other (we're in Illinois, they're in Texas), but we'll visit as often as possible.

I'm An Aunt Again

I just got off the phone with our niece who was happy to inform us that yesterday, she and her husband became the legal parents of little Tsegaw. Lili and Noami now have a cousin from Ethiopia!!!! I can't even begin to express just how happy and excited I am. This is their first child and they waited 20 months for their referral. They are walking on cloud 9 and deserve to be.

I forgot to ask permission to post Tsegaw's pictures so I won't be posting any until and unless that permission is granted.

Congratulations Dave, Lauren and Tsegaw!!!!!

One Month Ago Today

We walked through our front door with this precious little girl.

She was barely sitting up on her own, would only roll over when placed on the floor, and had a smile that was always on the verge of laughter.

Just look at her now.

Moving around in her walker. Sitting up on her own.
And although she's not crawling yet, she can roll and scoot her way across the floor with ease.

She is still smiling and that smile can make even the darkest of clouds disappear.

We love you Naomi and are so happy you joined our family!!!!!

Favorite Foto Friday

I haven't done a FFF for ages and figured there's no time like the present to get back into the routine.

My Babies

Okay, it isn't a photo of all my babies, but it is a photo of my youngest 3 babies. How I managed to get them all looking this way and smiling, I'll never know. Of course Lili couldn't manage to get the straw out of her mouth, but I'll take it.

Then yesterday Lili wanted to sit by Naomi and have me take their picture. Here's what I managed to get. Love photo ops!

1 Month and 10 Months

One month ago today, we held Naomi in our arms for the very first time.

She turned 9 months old that day and today she turns 10 months old. We love our little Naomi and who could possibly resist this cute little face? :-)

Sorry for the Absence

Yes, things are definitely busier with an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old in the house, but we've also been spending more time outside, at the park and doing things around the house. As such, blogging took a back seat for a few days.


So, what's been happening here?


Last year we got rid of our swimming pool and have been tearing down the deck. The deck surrounded the pool and our plan is to build a non-pool deck in its place. Before that can be done, the old deck has to come down. Fortunately, we've had some really nice deck demolition weather recently and have been taking full advantage.

Because we try to recycle when we can, we're not just throwing out the old deck material. Dave used some of the boards and built a sand box for Lili (eventually Naomi will use it as well). He's going to use some of the other boards to build some more raised beds for our garden.


Speaking of our garden, Lili and I got the beds ready and planted peas, spinach, lettuce and onions. We'll also be planting green beans, tomatoes, squash and zucchini. In the meantime, we've been enjoying some asparagus from the garden. This is one of the best parts about spring and summer. Fresh produce.

Today we had a visit from our social worker to complete our state requirements and our first post-placement report. Our social worker is required to submit post-placement reports at 3 months, 6 months and 12 month. That is 3, 6 and 12 months from the date of our adoption certificate. In this case, from the date we passed court in Ethiopia. We passed court January 8th, which means that technically our first report is already late. What are you going to do when it takes so long post-court to go pick up your child.


This has turned into a very busy week for us. In addition to our social worker visit, I had a dentist appointment. Tomorrow Dave and I both have appointments and a lunch date on Thursday with some of his old co-workers who are anxious to meet Naomi. This is also Dave's last week of infant care leave. Honestly, he's very ready to go back to work. He will have taken off a total of five weeks and that has been quite the adjustment from his normal schedule. In other words, next week we start to get a true picture of what real life will be in the Weeks' house.


The other big event this week is our Meet Naomi Open House. We are expecting 40-60 people to come by over a 2 hour period to finally meet Naomi. It will be awesome to finally introduce her to all the people that have supported us in our journey.

Because pictures are the best part of blogging, this post won't disappoint.

Floor time.
Intense sheep riding.
Someone loves the swings.

Photos from Le Toukoul

Naomi's home for about 4 months. We weren't able to tour the entire building because they were cleaning the day we were there. I was able to visit the nurse and her office/exam room was in the back of the building. There are several other rooms that house the babies, although I'm not sure how many. The window on the left hand side is the room Naomi was in. And here is the crib she slept in.
What a beautiful sight to see that crib empty :-) Obviously it didn't stay empty for long. I'm quite certain there is another baby occupying it now and hopefully that baby has been referred to a waiting family by now.


Just a small portion of laundry we saw hanging out to dry.
The orphanage cat. Lili was in heaven petting the cat.
This building houses the older kids.
The Toukoul gift shop. It's very small, but had a nice selection of items and we brought home several of those items.
Because we couldn't have a tour of the orphanage we got a limited number of photos. Also, they were doing some landscaping work while we were there. I did take a couple photos of the grounds and wished I could have gotten more.
Some of the kids at the orphanage.

Random Photos

I've been taking a fair amount of pictures and thought it would be fun to do a photo post.

Lili's first experience coloring Easter eggs. She was so proud.
Naomi's first Easter basket. Lili was 'helping' her enjoy her Easter gift.
Lili showing off one of her finds during the egg hunt. We did the hunt inside since it was a bit wet outside.
This is what I get just about every time I point a camera at Naomi.Seriously, she smiles like there is no tomorrow when the camera is on.

And here is what she looks like after breakfast.

Messy, but still smiling when the camera is on.

Lili made a bridge with her spoon. She was so proud of herself.

Stay tuned for more random photo posts in the future.

We did our best to prepare Lili for the arrival of her baby sister but truly had no idea how easy or difficult it was going to be once Naomi became reality in our lives. While there have been some challenges, primarily jealousy in the form of wanting Naomi to move from mommy's lap to daddy's lap or taking toys away from her, it hasn't been as bad as I had envisioned. Lili absolutely loves her little sister. When I'm rocking Naomi to sleep, Lili will come over and ever so gently give her kisses. She regularly tells us "Mayo-me is so cute." She wants to help feed her and now wants to take baths with her. In the mornings or after nap time she'll run up to Naomi and say, "Hi little girl." She gives her tickles and smothers her with attention.


Naomi is all about Lili. When she hears Lili's voice she immediately turns her head to find her. Lili makes her laugh and smile like no one else. Naomi wasn't overly fond of her bath, but now finds bath time a lot of fun with Lili there.

The bond between them is growing stronger each day and I'm so very happy that both girls are adjusting well to the changes in their lives.

Mommy's little helper. Bath time fun.
Yes, they are both sitting in the baby bath tub together. LOL!!!

Embassy and Home

As many of you know, we were not sure if we would even have our Embassy appointment on March 22nd because our fingerprint renewal had not yet been sent. A mere 4 days prior to our appointment, our congressman's office was able to get everything resolved for us and the Embassy had all they needed for our appointment. We were prepared for a stress free appointment until we arrived at the Embassy. We walked into the security area and the guard asked to see our passports. Ahhhh!!! Ms. Organized had neglected to move the passports from her little bag into the diaper bag and there we stood not being able to get into the Embassy. Fortunately, Dave had his driver's license with him which was an acceptable form of i.d., but I had nothing. It was at this moment that I was once again grateful that we chose to stay at the Ethiopia Guest Home. The guest home provides all their guests with a pre-programmed cell phone so we were able to call our translator and explain what had happened. He and the driver rushed back to the guest home, found our passports and rushed them back to us. By this time, Dave and Naomi were in the Embassy to explain the situation to our attorney. Lili and I got in as quickly as we could, waited about 20 more minutes and our name was called. It was at this point Lili decided to have a complete melt down because mommy didn't carry her up the stairs, but after signing the necessary paperwork, Dave was given permission to take her back downstairs while I finished everything up. Kudos to the woman at window #4. She was awesome. She was patient and completely understanding. Wish I could say the same for our attorney, but I'm not going to go there on my blog. The main thing is, everything worked out and the Embassy granted Naomi's visa.


Here is Naomi on Embassy Day.

Big sister Lili and baby sister Naomi.
Daddy and his girls.
Mommy and her girls.
After enjoying a few more days in Ethiopia, we headed home. Leaving Ethiopia was so very bitter sweet. We were thrilled to be taking Naomi home, but also very sad to be taking her away from her country of birth and her amazing culture.

Naomi did very well on the flight, other than the landing in D.C. and Lili had some major melt downs due primarily to being overly tired. However, we all survived and were very happy to touch down on U.S. soil.

Now that we've been home for almost a week, we're starting to settle in and figure things out. Naomi isn't yet sleeping through the night, but only waking a couple times for a bottle and then going back to sleep. She is a tad behind developmentally, which isn't abnormal for a baby who lived 7 months of her life in an orphanage. However, after having her for two weeks, we've already seen improvements in her development.

Today she had her first appointment with the pediatrician. She now weighs 17 lbs and is 27.5 inches long. That puts her in the 15th% for weight and 40th% in length. He addressed her development and said there is absolutely no problems with her tone and it is strictly due to lack of opportunity. He has no doubt that she'll catch up in no time. The only other problem, which isn't necessarily a problem at all is that she has a mild case of eczema and he suggested that we use Eucerin cream all over her body. Other than two very minor things, she appears to be very healthy, happy and social. We concur!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, more photos.

Naomi enjoying some exersaucer time.



She is really a happy baby.
Can you see how long her eyelashes are? I'm so jealous.