Monday, February 11, 2013

Update

The last time I posted was in the same month that Stella was born! So I'm a bad blogger now. I'm okay with that.
We had Thanksgiving where Stella poopied on Great Gramma's couch. Oops.
We had Christmas where Stella was spoiled rotten and caught her first cold.
We had Stella's Great Meme and Great Auntie come all the way from Oklahoma just to see her. Okay, they kind of wanted to see us too...I'm sure...
We had New Years Eve where Stella was the belle of the ball with her, "this is my little black dress" onesie, black glitter pants, and sparkle glitter shoes.
We had Mama going back to work. I cried for a few days prior to leaving her and on the day of I felt really peaceful which is what I had been praying about.
Stella is growing so quickly and hitting all her milestones and much more. She started rolling over officially a couple of weeks ago. Last Wednesday we saw her "scoot" on her belly. She wanted a toy that was a little too far away and she heaved herself towards it and got it! She does that consistently now and it is SO cool to see! Who knew that I would be so thrilled by a scoot! Full on crawling is not too far away, I just know it! We have been tickling Stella and getting some response for a while now but last night I tickled her and she full on giggled! Like the giggles you see of babies on YouTube. Big stimulus, big response. It was spectacular! HAHA, you would have thought she shot a bow and arrow. Nicholas slightly burned the steaks because we were so fascinated!
We met with Stella's birthmother. We are both SO glad that we have a relationship with her. It is so important to have that connection to where Stella came from.
We also had our child dedication class and our date for having Stella dedicated is MOTHERS DAY! I was already prepared for being an emotional mess that day but THIS IS NEXT LEVEL. Ah, waiting for almost four years to become a mother and my very first Mother's Day I'm going to have my very own baby dedicated?! I'm sure to be a blubbering disaster.
We met with our social worker today and she had nothing but awesome things to say. There is a little "test" that she did where she held Stella while Nicholas and I were in the room. If Stella is properly bonding and attaching to us she will look at the social worker, break eye contact, and then search for us. She is looking for us to see if this person is okay. She trusts us and wants to see how we are reacting to the situation. She would look at our social worker, giggle and be adorable, and then immediately break contact and look for me or Nicholas. She also did it while she was in her exersaucer. It was so heartwarming to know that we're all just attaching and bonding and bonding and attaching!
As far as the adoption process goes we are just waiting for Pinal County to send our fingerprints to Maricopa County. After that happens our date for finalization will be set. I hardly ever think about it. We don't need the courts to tell us she's ours!


3 comments:

  1. So happy to hear everything is going so well for you and your family.

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  2. Oh how wonderful! I'm so glad to hear that you passed the "attachment" test, not that I would've thought otherwise! I love seeing you two with her, you guys are such naturals and she is just so precious! I had such a great time hanging out with her on Superbowl Sunday. I felt on top of the world whenever she would smile at me or giggle. Ahh, love her!

    I'm also happy to know that you have a relationship with the birthmother, that is wonderful. Stella really is blessed. Can I ask, what's a child dedication class?

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  3. Jessica - we learn about what it means to be a Christ like example to our children and how important that is for our kids. It's a requirement for having children dedicated at our church. When we have her dedicated that will be our public proclamation that we will raise her with God as the center of our home. Our family and friends will be there and they will stand and make the proclamation that they will be beside us, helping us raise Stella. Since Christians don't believe in baby baptisms, because baptism is by choice, we stand in front of God and the church and our families and have this real accountability to them all that we will do everything to raise her this way. Eventually to a point where she can make the decision to be baptized . It's pretty powerful.

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