One clingy Mama

Yep...I am clingy! I admit it. I hate, despise, loate, dread being away from my kids. I am working 3 days a week right now and that is my limit. By the time the 5 o'clock whistle blows, I am beyond ready to get back to my lil' fellas. They are fine without me, heck, I don't know that they really even miss me all that bad as they are either with their daddy or my mama.

I am just not ready to be away from them any more than I absolutely have to be. I feel like I have waited so long to get them, and I have missed so much of their lives already. I don't want to miss one more second.

Last night, I caved and let my parents take them to dinner so that the boys could meet some of their friends. Let me tell ya, that was the longest hour and 43 mins of my life (not that I was counting). It was the first dinner that we have eaten in 3 months without hearing our little ones say the blessing. Do let me tell you, I have no intentions of another for quite some time;)

I know that it will get better in time. There will soon come a day that I will be begging to have just 5 minutes of peace and quiet. The way I figure it, we waited for about 7 years to hear little ones in the house. Now I want to hear them all day every day. Am I abnormal or a little
obsessive? Perhaps! But it works for me:)

On a sidenote: Daniel has been having a lot of "moments" lately. He has these periods where he cries and cries. They have been happening mostly at night but some during the day. He keeps repeating "Daniel home forever and ever and ever. No Russia. Daniel, Mama, Daddy, Noah together at home". We have to sit with him hug him and love on him and keep telling him over and over that he is home and he never ever has to go back to Russia. Every time we have on of these talks I sing him the lyrics to Sugarland's "Stuck like Glue". It always makes him smile and I tell him it is our song. To my knowledge he has not actually heard Sugarland sing it..only my horrific and screechy rendition. Well, tonight we were playing outside and Benji had cut the radio on. The song came on and it didn't even occur to me what was playing. Daniel stopped and said "Mama! Music!" and I said "Yeah, the music is on". Daniel said, "No mommy, our song". I was shocked that he recognized it. Guess I sound more like Jennifer Nettles then I thought... NOT:):):) None the less. I am stuck like glue to my youngins!

Daniel's Birthday

Daniel had a wonderful birthday! We kept it pretty low key because we are doing a joint party for both boys next month. Both sets of grandparents came up to eat dinner and we had cake, icecream and presents after dinner. He loved to sing Happy Birthday to himself and did it often throughout the day. I didn't quite realize just how much that he enjoyed his birthday until I went to get him to sleep. Ususally he waits until we get N to sleep then hops in our lap and we rock him to sleep. (He very much wants his snuggle time before bed now...far cry from the little boy just 3 short months ago who would cry and cry if we tried to rock him to sleep:) As I was putting N in his bed, D was at the chair waiting on me to rock him as usual. When he hopped in my lap he began talking about everything that happend that day with a lot of excitement. He re-counted the entire evening and was so excited that he couldn't quit talking about his birthday. It made my day that it meant so much to him.


Daniel and his first birthday present. We let him open this one early in the day. The pics of him opening his other presents were so blurry:(
His birthday dinner per his request...spaghetti! He asked for spaghetti for his birthday dinner weeks ago then at the last minute he decided he wanted chicken and feench fies (french fries)...which he got for lunch.

His cake. It is small but I wanted to make him a Daniel in the Lion's Den cake. We read the story about Daniel the night before his birthday so that he would understand the cake a little better. I had 5 cakes to do this week so his little cake did get a little neglected, but he loved it and that is all that mattered to me.

Noah enjoying some cake and icecream. He did so good with Daniel's birthday.

Happy Birthday our sweet Daniel

My Precious, precious Daniel!
This is the first birthday that we have been able to spend with you. I truly hurt for the past few birthdays that you had to celebrate without being with your family, but I can assure you that you will never ever have to spend another birthday without your family by your side.
Your daddy and I thank God for you each and every day. On this day four years ago you were not born with us but rather for us. The Lord hand picked you to be our little boy. For that we will thank the Lord each and every day. You are so very special, you are our heart and we love you more than words can ever describe. We loved you before we ever knew you, before we ever saw your beautiful little face. You (and your brother) have made our lives complete and I don't know how we ever survived without you.

Our prayer for you is this:
The Bible tells us of a man named Daniel. Daniel was ever faithful to the Lord. He was a prayerful man who loved the Lord deeply. Daniel was cast into the lion's den because he stood up for what he believed in. While in the lion's den, the Lord sent and angel to protect him from the fierce lions. It is our prayer that you always stand up for what you believe in. We pray that you always put the Lord first in your life and that you remain faithful to him. We also pray that the Lord sends his angels to always protect you. When life gets fierce (like the lions) we pray that you always look to the Lord for your protection. The name Daniel means "God is my judge". Always know that God is your only judge. No matter what life throws you and no matter what anyone else on this earth says, God is your judge...not the world. God created you just the way that you are and he has great plans for your life.

You are and will always be our precious son and we love you with every fiber of our being!

Happy Birthday to our precious Danny Boy!

We love you so, so much!
Daddy and Mama

Happy Mother's Day

Normally, I somewhat dread Mother's Day. I don't mean to sound like a Debbie Downer, but when you are in the process of waiting on a child for so long Mother's Day can be a tough day. I am so blessed with a wonderful mother who is my best friend and for that reason alone...Mother's Day was tolerable. I remeber year after year on Mother's Day I would get the constant "Well maybe next year you will finally be a mother" comment from people. That comment made me cringe.
Well...this year Mother's Day had a whole new meaning for me. I am so incredibly blessed to be able to call these two boys my sons. They have changed my life in so many ways. The Lord has blessed me as a Mother far beyond anything that I ever deserve. He has given me two of the most precious sons that a mother could ever ask for. I am so thankful for the journey that the Lord sent us on to bring our sons home.
To anyone out there that is in the "wait" to be a mother, please know that it will happen, and when it does it is well worth the wait. The Lord is always faithful!

Me and my precious little boys on my first Mother's Day (yes....I am much happier than I look in this pic. I was in the middle of saying something when my dear hubby snapped the pic and it was the only pic that we took:)

Fishing and Gardening

Benji took D fishing for the first time this morning and I have never seen D more excited about anything. He was so excited to go. We packed his backpack and set out his fishing pole the night before so he went to bed super excited about his fishing trip with his daddy. A dear family friend took them to his pond where they racked up over 50 fish....and my little fella caught his first fish. D and his daddy went straight to the taxidermist to mount his first fish. I am not sure who was more excited D or Benji. D has told everyone that he has seen today about his fish. There is nothing better than seeing him so happy. He got to go fishing and have some one on one time with his daddy.

Here is D and his catch:

Life with two boys can be a challenge to keep things perfectly even. Benji is taking N for some special time in the morning so I don't have a pic of his daddy time just yet. However this one captures his personality to a tee. This was after his spaghetti lunch the other day. He was thrilled to be so messy. He thought it was hysterical to have spaghetti from head to toe. How can you get mad at this face?My daddy plants a garden behind our house every year (we live next door to each other). This year he has a helper. D had the best time being his Pop's right hand man. He was such a good little helper and was on his Pop's heels the whole time.

Everything Pop's did....D had to do:

And this is how N spend his time while D and Pops were hard at work....observing with Belle. N loves his Belle....and she quite fancies him as well.