3 months and 1 month

10/20/2011

It’s been a month since Precious*  was placed with us and she’s now 3 months old. (*not her real name, thank God.) It’s amazing to see how much she has changed in 1 month! Here are some things she’s doing now that she wasn’t doing a month ago:

• squealing

• conversing with “goos” (she’ll go back and forth with us for a while)

• holding her head up steadily

• rotating 90 degrees in her crib overnight

• sucking her thumb, usually her right thumb

• smiling at us from several feet away

• tracking us as we walk around the room

• saying “gee!” when she’s hungry

• sleeping all the way through the night (she hasn’t woken up for an early morning—5 or 6am—feeding in over a week)

• rolling over on to her side

• staying awake for a couple hours at a time

Precious is a wonderful baby. We couldn’t be more thrilled with her. Jason and I even think her sneezes (she sounds like she’s saying “achoogie”) and her rare cries (we call her “goat baby” because she as a vibrato) are the cutest things in the world. She is so easy-going. We give her a last bottle around 10pm (occasionally waking her up to do so) and she sleeps until 8:30 or 9am. When she wakes up she sucks on her hands and whines and complains a little bit but doesn’t cry. Once we finally get in to get her up, she’s all smiles…in no rush to eat. It seems like she just wakes up and she gets bored. Everywhere we take Precious people comment on how beautiful, happy or easy-going she is. She’s often sleeping through errands in her car seat or in a Moby wrap. She’s been to my office to hang out with me three times and all three times she’s had her big daily blow-out and stunk up the place. But she’s so adorable, no one can hold it against her. She’s being treated for thrush (which she had when she came to us) so we’re currently not using any pacifiers, sterilizing bottles everyday, and she’s on 2 medications. It’s a bit of an inconvenience but it’s clearing up well. Precious is such a joy to us. It’s truly a gift to get to be her mommy.

6 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Weekend in the Smokies

10/19/2011

Sorry for disappearing for a few days. Plates are spinning around here. Still. (And Merry-Go-Rounds.) Instead of formulating a thoughtful blog post, here is a recap of our weekend. Thursday afternoon Jason and Precious picked me up from work, we dropped off Lucy at his parent’s house, and we headed over to Pigeon Forge, TN where we stayed until Sunday night. Jason was playing a marathon weekend with Guy Penrod at Dollywood—3 concerts a day for 3 days in a row—and all the wives and children came along. There were 6 families in our party; 12 adults and 18 kids…most of which are Guy’s. They are such a fun and sweet bunch of people. Precious was definitely the center of attention through most of the weekend with everyone oohing and ahhing about how beautiful and easy-going she is. Seriously, she was a travel champ! One of Guy’s sons said, “I hope I have a baby just like her when I’m older” and insisted that she was THE most beautiful baby in the world. Another one of his boys said, “I can’t wait until I have my own baby someday,” while he was feeding her a bottle for me. She got so much love this weekend.

We also ate lot of good food. Uncle Guy got to snuggle Precious to sleep before the food came out at Cracker Barrel one night.

The shows at Dollywood were fun. Precious and I watched about half of them. Sometimes she watched, sometimes she slept on my lap, and sometimes she napped down in the dressing room.

We watched one of the shows from backstage while she was sleeping in a Moby wrap.

Speaking of Moby wrap, Jason was talked into trying it on while we were walking around going on rides. We got a pretty cute family picture of the three of us… I wish I could show you the whole picture. Maybe someday.

Speaking of someday… please continue praying about Precious’ situation. We are still uncertain about whether or not we will be given the first choice of adoption for her. There is someone else in the picture who is not legally kin but has a relationship with two of Precious’ half siblings. We’re basically competing with her—which is awkward—and we won’t know more until we have another team meeting and then ultimately a judge makes a decision…in a couple months? Then the earliest the adoption would be finalized would be in March or April. Either way she will be going to a good place but we’re crazy about her and would hate to let her go. Not without a fight, you can be sure.

4 Comments | Art, Art: music, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

A Precious Update

10/12/2011

I haven’t said much about the case of Precious, what we’re expecting to happen for her or how everything has been going. It’s been 3 weeks—is that all?!—and we’ve fallen completely, hopelessly in love with this little 13.5 pound bundle of slobbery smiles. I mentioned that a lot of sadness was stirred up initially as we realized how much we were still missing Ladybug. That has improved. We still think about her everyday and I’m sure we’ll always have a hole in our hearts from the chunk our first child took with us when she left. But we’re doing better.

There is some exciting news about Precious. She needs to be adopted! However, we’re not the for-sure top choice for her. All of the options have to be presented and ultimately a judge will make the decision about what he thinks is best for her. The decision is very “legal”… by that I mean, it’s not like the judge is going to look at who we are and compare that to someone else and decide who would be the best fit or be able to offer her the most ideal life. It’s more like “does this person have any stronger biological ties than this person” and “is there a necessary cause to move her out of the home she’s already in” and “does she already have a relationship with these people.” That’s my take on it anyway.

So… that’s exciting. And nerve-wracking. And it’s one of the precipices I was referring to on Monday. Sounds like there is a pretty good chance—75% maybe?—that we will have the opportunity to adopt her. Someone asked me the other day, “Are you ready for that?” which puzzles me a little bit. Are we ready for that? I don’t think adopting her is going to be any harder than fostering her… I mean, I have been fondly referring to foster parenting as “the torture program” lately. Fost-adopt parents please enlighten me… is parenting an adopted child harder than foster parenting? Is anything? Just kidding.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Weekend Getaway

10/05/2011

I hate that my best friend doesn’t live in Nashville anymore but at least it’s only a 4.5 hour drive to Cincinnati. Jason and I got permission to take Precious out of state with us for a short trip up to visit our dear friends last weekend. We got to hang out with these amazing kiddos:

… and their parents, too. 🙂

On Saturday morning we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. It was cold!

Precious slept against me (and kept me warm) in a Moby Wrap through most of the zoo, though she was awake long enough to check out the penguins.

We also saw giraffes, gorillas, monkeys, lions (awake!), a rhino, manatees, and this strange looking tortoise…

Traveling with a 2-month old went pretty smoothly. She’s so easy-going and pleasant.

4 Comments | Art, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

09/30/2011

Surprise from a co-worker on Monday.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Precious Week 1, By The Numbers

09/29/2011

7: Number of days we’ve had our Precious 2-month old

1: Number of blow-outs that have required a bath and full wardrobe change. For both of us.

6: Number of days Jason was on the road during our first week. God has a funny way with timing the arrivals of our babies…

1: Bottle she came with

7: Total number of bottles we now have

1: Pacifier she came with

3: Pacifiers we now have

6: Bibs that Precious came with

26: Total number of bibs we now have thanks to family and friends

50: Approximate number of diapers we’ve gone through

30: Dollars worth of formula used in a week. At least.

7: Average number of hours slept straight through the night. Hallelujah!

15: Approximately how many giant, slobbery smiles we get a day

18: Average number of hours per day that a 2 month old sleeps

24: Ounces of formula a 12-pounder requires a day

4: Loads of laundry done this week (not too bad!)

8: Times I’ve cried this week between the Empowered to Connect conference, worshipping, missing Ladybug and grieving for Precious’s situation (9 if you count the onion I was cutting up for potato soup.)

4: Cups of coffee I’ve had (I’m NOT a coffee drinker)

6 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bottles… Baby Burping… Bear with me.

09/26/2011

Our first 4 days went really well with Precious,* our new little baby girl. (*Not her real name.) I’m learning lots about babies, bottles, burping, etc. She’s amazing. Very pleasant and easy going most of the time. Sleeps like a champ. Gives me the best gigantic, slobbery baby smiles. I have to say, at least in my limited experience, a 2-month old is SO MUCH easier than an almost 1.5 year old. I don’t mind a middle of the night diaper change and feeding when the ability to cook dinner, do dishes, clean up the house, etc. comes along with the package. I mean, I can set her down somewhere, sleeping or awake, and she doesn’t move. Ladybug required constant attention unless she was asleep.

Don’t get me wrong, Ladybug was an awesome child. I’m just saying, toddlers are way more challenging than newborns in my book. Speaking of Ladybug, we’ve been missing her like crazy the past few days. It was about 3 weeks between the day she left and the day Precious arrived. We had been doing pretty well, feeling pretty good, and when we got the call Jason pointed out that we really didn’t have a good reason to say no to this one. He said the only reasons he could think of where born out of selfishness. My only reservation was Is it too soon? I wasn’t expecting sadness to be stirred back up quite like it did by bringing in baby #2. Precious is great and our love for her is growing rapidly, but she’s not Ladybug and she isn’t going to fill the Ladybug shaped holes in our hearts. God, we miss that sweet little girl so much.

Now I’m crying. I’m tired and very emotional lately. Sheesh. I have no idea where this blog post is heading…

Let me at least end on a high note. I have the most amazing friends and family. Ahhhhmazing. We didn’t ask them whether or not they wanted to be strung along on this crazy journey with us but they’re right there with us anyway. Have I mentioned that Jason had to leave town the night Precious arrived? Of course I didn’t mention it because I don’t ever tell ya when he’s gone. So yeah. That’s a crazy coincidence. He was in Europe for a week when Ladybug arrived and the night we got Precious he had to take off for a long trip around the mid-west. He’s a wonderful daddy and he can’t wait to get back in the game here at home. While he’s been gone, though, my mom and his mom have been a HUGE help to me! My sister-in-law has been great with answering my questions since my niece is just 5 months older than Precious. Plus, she lent us a bouncy seat and a bunch of blankets and bibs. (This blog post is brought to you by the Letter B.) Also, a bunch of friends have been super kind and helpful, too. Precious is getting tons of love. Despite the sadness we’re still dealing with, overall things have been much smoother with this second placement. God is good.

8 Comments | Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Jason, Family: Ladybug, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Our Second Daughter

09/22/2011

The post from earlier today was actually written several days ago and scheduled for this morning. Right now, I’m eating the last of the bananas as I write this and I don’t feel any urgency to run out and buy more because… 2 month olds don’t eat bananas.

Right as we were sitting down to eat dinner last night we got a call for a baby girl. We felt like we were ready (enough) and didn’t have a good reason to say no, so we said sure! She got to our house around 7:45pm last night.

It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet but we’ve been doing great so far. She seems really pleasant and easy-going. She slept from 10-5 last night and then after a diaper change and a bottle, slept until I had to wake her up at 8:40 so we could get going with our day. She’s cute and fat and she likes to smile and make faces. Very different from a nearly 1.5 year old but I think this is going to be lots of fun, too.

I’m still working on coming up with a bloggy nickname for her. I have no idea at this point about the timeline or what to expect. Hopefully we’ll get a little more clarity about the situation in the next few days. As always, prayers are appreciated!

3 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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