Hurry Up And Wait

"My times are in Your hand..." Psalm 31:15

Well, come tomorrow, we will have been an "active" foster home in the system for 2 weeks. And it's still the three of us Allens. Which is really ok. That being said, there are mixed emotions/thoughts that have been swirling around in my head. Such as:

Why can't we get our arms around that baby already?!

Wow, I'm kinda glad it hasn't happened yet because things have been crazy busy and I still don't think I'm ready for this!

Moriah is gonna be such an awesome big sister. She can't wait and it's so sweet how she keeps asking about "the baby."

Will this be the last night that she's our only one? The last time I rock her and put her to bed without another child needing Mama too? (insert tears from Mama: WAAAAAH, BOOHOO, WAAAAH!)

What is happening in Baby's life right now that is going to bring him to us? Lord please protect and surround him. Bring him to us gently. Bring him quick! Please!

Oh no! What are we going to do about childcare?! We are on 3 waiting lists right now!

After all the running around and scrambling over the last months to get our biographies written, house & marriage & personal lives thoroughly inspected, multiple trainings complete, mounds of paperwork turned in, TB tests taken, FBI background checks run, more paperwork, baby room ready, a teaspoon of blood from a witch's pinky toe collected in a crystal vial (well maybe not that), we were finally certified and ready! Ready to foster-to-adopt! Bring on the baby!

Except not.

Now we wait.

And sometimes get the phone-calls-that-make-your-adrenaline-shoot-up-sky-high-only-to-deflate.

We've gotten two of those calls so far in these last two weeks. Without going into too much detail, one was a heartbreaking call about 2 boys we did not feel prepared/at peace to be able to parent in the current context of our family situation. The next phone call a week later, we said "yes" to 2 brothers, a toddler and baby, but found out a couple hours later that the caseworker found a home closer to the biological family and so we did not get the placement.

Either way, it's awakened my consciousness, once again, to the reality that every night across this state and this country (not to mention the world!), caseworkers are frantically calling, trying to secure a home for a baby/toddler/siblings/child/teenager who is sitting in their office....sometimes dirty, hungry, confused, missing their mama, scared, or maybe even relieved... who will travel that very evening to a family and a home they have never known.

And so we continue to wait, trusting that the time will come when it's meant to be. (It's kinda like being 9 months pregnant and not knowing "when will be the night" that you'll go into labor and bring a baby home). Except I haven't been pregnant for 9 months with a baby inside, continually reminding me with her kicks and moves and hiccups (and early contractions!) that she is there. Which is a little surreal sometimes!

So I try to keep that balance of "reminding myself" that at any time we could become the parents of another child, while also trying not to be overanxious or think too much about it. My mom recently shared a devotion with me about waiting that was so relevant to this waiting season and many other waiting seasons as well:

As you walk with God you'll find that you spend more time waiting than you do receiving. And when you receive what you're waiting for, then you'll begin waiting for something else! So if you don't learn to wait with joy, you'll live in frustration. Paul writes, "Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Gal. 6:9). "Due season" is when God knows the time is right, not when you think it is. God has a set time for accomplishing things in your life, so you might as well settle down and wait because that's when it will happen, and not before. God knows what you need, when you need it, and how to get it to you. You ask, "What am I supposed to do while I'm waiting?" Trust Him. One Bible teacher writes: "God has taught me to keep living the life I now have while I'm waiting for the things that are in my heart to come to pass. We become so intent on trying to give birth to the next thing, that we neither enjoy nor take care of the things at hand. I had a vision from God ten years before I began to see it fulfilled. During those years I believe I missed a lot of joy by trying to give birth outside of God's timing. Learn to enjoy where you are, while you are waiting to get to where you want to be."

If that's not a timely word, I don't know what is! Here's to being a Good Waiter.

 

(And I have to admit, the waiting's not near as bad when you've got someone this precious to wait with. Here's proof):

 

 

 

 

Twas The Night Before Our Foster Status Went Active...

Well, we're doing it again. Foster parenting. No surprise there...Billy and I have always thought we would foster again and/or adopt eventually. In "our plans" (insert laughter), however, we thought we would adopt "after we had our biological children."

Sort of a "Phase 1- Bio children, Phase 2- Adopt" Plan. Makes sense, right?

Plans are funny that way.

As many know, I had a heckuva time getting pregnant with Moriah. Thanks to the Good Lord and modern medicine it happened. Then the pregnancy had its complications, including 3 trips to the hospital prior to having her, with 2 of those trips involving hospital stays. And lots of bedrest. LOTS of bedrest. Makes me shudder just thinking about it. But oh what a precious, "perfect," beautiful, wonderful gift came out of all that...our sweet Moriah Grace.

Fast forward another year and some months later when we went back to the doctor and started the process of trying again. Without going into all the details, it involved the next year of medicine, counting days, bloodwork, ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, more medicine, more counting, more bloodwork, more ultrasounds, more pregnancy tests, etc. I know so many people go through much, much more than I did, and for so much longer. But 12 months was enough for us. After soul-searching, prayer, tears, and talks, we believed we were being led to move "Phase 2" (adoption) up a little quicker in our plans than we had originally thought. Not a Plan B, just a "bumping up" of Phase 2. Grin.

Fast forward to today. The last 6 months have brought us through a journey of exploring various adoption options and feeling led to pursue the foster-to-adopt path this go-round. With a child 12 months or younger. It will be fun and interesting to see what happens!

Now for a little question and answer session. The purpose of this is hopefully to shed some light and answer some questions that many people feel uncomfortable asking (notice I said many people...some folks have no problem asking anything. lol. And that's ok too). We are advocates of fostering and adoption and love to build more awareness, as well as learn from others. So I'm just gonna go ahead and tackle the elephants in the room, at the risk of being rather vulnerable and open:

Do you get paid to foster parent? Yes, I'm "going there" on the money question because many people want to know. : ) Yes, we do get paid a stipend. (It is public information on the DFPS website). When one chooses to foster parent, they are providing a "service" for the state of Texas as they are basically providing around-the-clock care for children. You are opening your home and your family to scrutiny, inspections, and risks. You are choosing to forego your privacy and give your time, energy, heart, and soul to another human being. You are taking on the responsibility of a human life. You will be asked to validate and sometimes "prove" you are a good parent. You will need to keep up with and show the correct documentation for a myriad of things. I say all this with an informative mindset, not a "defensive" or "offended" mindset. : )

Do you do it for the money? hahaha. With all that is involved I don't know how some people would think that "this was the thing to get into" for the money. If it was such a great way to "make money" then I question why there is such a shortage of foster parents. (One could make more at McDonald's with much less risk/effort involved than foster parenting a child). That being said, it is a question that still lingers and unfortunately there are some foster parents out there that are not the best representatives of the rest of us in the "foster world" in this regard.

 Do I counsel "for the money?" Did I teach "for the money?" Is Billy going to be a deaf interpreter "for the money?" Do you do your job "for the money?" Well no and yes. Is it a bad thing to earn some money while performing a service/ministry you feel called to do? Should people not be paid for their jobs because to be paid would equate to "doing it for the money?" I think not. I count it a privilege to be able to do something I love to do while also being able to help provide for my family in the meantime. I also count it a privilege and blessing that we are able to make it fine financially without a foster parenting stipend. (In fact, in our agency, you have to prove that you are making it just fine financially without foster money prior to being approved). Once you adopt, however, you do not receive the foster stipend.

Have we heard the "horror stories" of people who fostered a baby from the time they left the hospital only to have to "give them back" months later? Yes. I just spoke to a family friend this weekend who took in twin baby boys from the hospital as newborns, and had to "give them back" to an elderly relative of the boys when they were 18 months old. This, of course, was devastating. This is one of a number of stories we've heard.

Have we heard the awesome stories of people who were able to foster-to-adopt successfully? Yes. Awesome. We have some of those in our family as well.

Do we know what will happen in our case? No. It's very hard to predict.

Will this (fostering, fostering-to-adopt) affect our biological daughter? Yes. It will affect us all in many ways regardless of what the "end outcome" is. Our prayer, although I know many times we fall short, is that she will grow up in a family where she sees firsthand the love of Christ and compassion for others. Where she learns to give and make room for others, and to one day rely on her faith in God to be the one steady thing in a world of uncertainty. Where she learns that obedience trumps "risk management," and faith overcomes fear. God help us show that to her.

Do the risks change the fact that this is what we believe we are supposed to do? Nope.

Are you scared? Helicopter yeah! Yes I'm scared and some of the possibilities make me cry. I would be lying if I said I had 100% faith and no fear about this. Hello I'm human! Hello I would like to adopt a baby! I would prefer not to "lose" one (in my selfish mind). Just being honest. Have I thought about the "worst possible" scenarios? Yes, but what's the point of dwelling on that when I have no control over it either way? Just as I don't have any control over how long my biological child is with me! Why do we have the illusion that we have more control over some things than others when we really have no control at all? This has been a realization for me through this process. All of the people and blessings in our lives are gifts. Gifts that we've been entrusted with for a time, a time we have no control over.

Aren't you going to be so mad if the bio parents "get the baby back?" I can't say for sure because I'm not in the situation now, but I will say this. I have had the privilege, yes the PRIVILEGE, to meet several of the bio parents of our former foster children. Did some of their choices make me upset? Yes! Was I mad at them or did I hate them? No. I found them to be kind, loving people who loved their kids but got caught up in some things that caused them to make decisions they regretted terribly. Many of them loved their kids with all they could, but it was a broken, unhealthy love at times. They needed help. And yes, their children needed to be protected from that "broken" love for a time.

When you think about it, adoption is oftentimes born out of a tragedy. I do not believe it was God's original design for a family to break apart and for parents to not be able to raise their children, whether due to circumstances they've chosen or ones out of their control. Either way, it's heartbreaking. To think that I would "wish" for a parent to have negative things happen in their life so that I can "have" their child is a little twisted. If they are able to raise their child from a healthy place then that truly is what's best (gulp). That being said, I think God can bring forth a beautiful thing out of any tragedy or crisis and that He does this with adoption. And I think it's a wonderful thing. And I would love to be apart of it if that's the plan.

What if you try this and "lose" the first 3 babies that are placed with you? Wow. I don't know. I don't know what the future holds or what the outcome will be or how long we will be called to do this. Maybe our purpose will be to provide a loving safe home for a child for a season. (And I type that trembling, by the way, not just some rote answer). I do know that in many steps up until this point, it's like God was shining a flashlight right in front of our next step. So we took that next step and then the light extended a little bit more. And then we took the next step. So now, as of tomorrow, we will be considered "active" in the state computer system, and I hope and pray the "flashlight" will extend out to our "next step" if/when we get that next phone call. From there we will continue to take one step at a time. Where exactly it will lead, we don't know.

When will you get the baby? We don't know. It could literally be days, weeks, or months. And we can't wait!!! Moriah is so excited. She keeps saying "hold baby's hand, be gentle, kiss baby, hug baby, my hold baby, my big sister," etc. I know she is going to be such a wonderful big sister and helper for Mama and Daddy!



So, as I bring this to a close, I ask that if you don't mind, you send a little prayer our way. Pray for that precious baby, that God would bring them gently to us in His timing and that we would love them with all we've got for whatever time we have them. And while we're at it, that we'll remember to love each other that way too. With everything we've got, for whatever time we have.

1 Day Down!

I knew today was gonna go ok when we got in the car, headed down the road about 50 yards, and I turned the radio on. "All I know is I'm not home yet..." was playing and Moriah started clicking her tongue and flapping her legs up and down in her car seat. I, on the other hand, breathed a "thank you Jesus" with a grin.

Mom told me just a couple days ago how she discovered that Moriah liked a song that was playing on her radio in the kitchen. When it came on, she started fussing and motioning towards the radio in a little bit of a panic. (Moriah language for "This is my jam!") Once Mom cranked it up, Moriah threw her hands up in the air and started twirling all around doing a little praise dance. The song was "All I know is I'm not home yet..."

So you can imagine my little moment when I turned on the radio on this First Day of Daycare and that was the song playing : )

The drop off wasn't too bad. Moriah cried but it was just a Regular Cry and not the Blood-Curdling Scream like the other night. I can deal with Regular Cry. I stood to the side of the door after I handed her to the teacher and listened for her, and she stopped crying after a few minutes.

And at that point, I wiped the tears from my own eyes and headed towards work like a big girl!

I left work at promptly 4:00pm and headed for GABC. Billy met me there because he just couldn't resist ; ) We quietly walked up towards her classroom door so we could peak in and observe without her seeing us. Sure enough she was just walking around with no sign of any problem. I then said her name and made eye contact with her, at which point she started crying and walking towards the door. It was sort of that look like "Oh there you are, Mom! I've had a great time although I'm actually pretty worn out and I'm just really glad you came back!"Not a terrified, disturbing cry, just a "happy to see you and by the way I'm exhausted" cry.

I spoke to the teacher for a few minutes and after that conversation I just want to say for the record that I do believe in modern day miracles. My little High-Maintenance- In- The- Sleep- Department-Moriah, who has never once slept in anything but a crib or pack-n-play (and always with a little floor fan to block out noise. In a dark room. With the door closed.)....actually laid on a NAP MAT today with NO BARRIERS around it, with a ROOM FULL OF CHILDREN AND TWO ADULTS AND NO NOISE FAN.

SHE STAYED ON THE MAT WITHOUT GETTING UP, and....

wait for it,

wait for it,

FELL ASLEEP ON THE MAT!!!!!!

Without crying!

The teacher said she just laid there and stared at everyone until she drifted off to sleep!

I'm still amazed with that one. Must be the "Mob Mentality"--they just do what everyone else is doing. Either way, I'm pretty impressed with her teachers. Well, let's be honest, I'm VERY impressed!!! I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. Just amazing.

When I looked over her little written report for the day,  it said she was in a "playful" mood, she ate "good" for lunch (no surprise there), and had a wet diaper in the morning and afternoon. (She saved a jewel of a poopie diaper for Mama about an hour after we got home). That's ok if she wants to save her poops for the evening--any edge to help her teachers like her better. HA! I kid! (ok maybe a little) ; )

All in all, it was a very good first day and I'm very thankful!

19 Months & A New Adventure

Dear Moriah,

Tonight when I got ready to put you to bed, I rocked you just a little bit longer and held onto you just a little bit tighter (and surprisingly, you let me). You are usually so busy and independent that after just a few minutes of rocking, you try and squirm out of my arms and want to slither down out of the recliner and make a run for it. I think you'd keep running and playing until you collapsed, if I'd let you! But not tonight. I think you knew Mama was sentimental and you were just the sweetest, most still little babydoll in my arms. You looked up into my eyes as I sang and sometimes you'd just give me a knowing glance that you were so comfy and cozy and happy, and a couple times you looked straight into my eyes and smiled the sweetest smile. Either way you pierced my heart and I couldn't help but quietly cry as I held your almost 19 month old self.

Tomorrow morning, you will wake up a 19 month old. We will wake up bright and early, get ready, eat breakfast, and head to your 1st day of "school"- the Green Acres Baptist Church Early Education Center. We went there Thursday evening and met your teachers, saw your classroom, and met some of your new friends. Mama and Daddy love the school, their values, your sweet teachers, and all the opportunities you'll have to learn and grow there. You are getting to the age where you could really benefit from more social interaction, stimulation, and structure as well. We've heard such wonderful things about Green Acres and think you are going to love it.

Eventually! : /

Thursday night turned out to be a hard night for the both of us. You went into the room so brave and confident, and Mama and Daddy were so relieved! You started playing and exploring and having a great time. When it was time for us to go, you kept right on playing and exploring and were just fine. It wasn't until someone opened the door to drop off their child that you walked out the door and saw us, and then things went downhill. You seemed shocked that me and Daddy would be in the hallway and then when you had to go back into your new room, you started screaming one of the loudest screams Mama has ever heard come from your mouth. It went against every maternal instinct I had to leave you in there. When we came back to pick you up after our parent meeting, the teacher said you had cried on-and-off during most of the time we were at our meeting. When we walked into the room to get you, you had started crying again. Once I picked you up, you clung very tight to me and didn't wanna let me go much over the next couple days, which is very unlike the Little Miss Independent I know.

Your wonderful Daddy took my hand at church today and led me down to the altar and he prayed for his two girls. He knows that, although we believe we are doing the right thing for you, it will be a time of adjustment for you and me. Mama cried again during this time and a little bit more today. I am just a Crybaby and that is something you will probably not like about me, especially in the future! But you know what?! When I went to pick you up in the nursery, they said you hadn't cried at all, and you also didn't cry when I picked you up (which you usually do). So that was a special sign to me that God was hearing our prayers and helping you (and Mama) to remember He is with you wherever you go. I am also extremely thankful that you going to "daycare" is the "biggest thing" up to this point that I've had to struggle with as a Mama. There are so many other Mamas out there with very sick babies and I don't forget for one minute how very blessed we are.

So when I put you in your bed tonight, my prayer was that God will put extra angels around you tomorrow and fill you with His peace and joy and security. I prayed that you will know, in your own little way as a 19 month old, that He is with you. And that you will begin, even now, to trust in Him and to find Him faithful. Because He is, Moriah! Mama and Daddy love you so much and we will be there for you and do all that is humanly possible for you. But there will be times we can't be there and even times we will fail you, even though we don't mean to. That is when it will be so important for you to know that Jesus is The One who will never leave you, never fail you, and the only one who can make you totally complete! He loves you even more than we can, and we will continue to learn that we can trust Him as He holds you in His hands.

See you in the morning, big girl! I'm so proud of you and I love you so much more than I ever thought possible. You are the sweetest, cutest, busiest, funniest, best 19 month old I know! I love being your Mama! You rock my soul!

(And for future reference):
Stats from your 18 month appointment:
Weight: 21 lbs 2 oz (9th percentile)- Dr. wasn't concerned though, because you are still my little Roly Poly, just petite! ; ) you've got the Pate legs and booty, child!

Length: 30.7 inches (23rd percentile)

Words: door,  juice, shoes, church, "go-go" for goldfish, "dye-dye" (for bye-bye), Dah (ball), teetee (you like to wave bye-bye to the teetee when anyone flushes the potty), mama, dada, Tootsie, chalk, sock, car, quack, ruf, "woooo" for swing, Spot (your little dog), etc. Of course many of these words have the "Moriah spin" on the pronunciation.

Hobbies: you love to push your little shopping cart around and "shop" in the pantry- you get canned goods out of the pantry and put them in your cart-ha! you will get your little purse, put it on your arm, and tell everyone in the room "dye-dye" like you are going somewhere. you love to "brush" your teeth, brush your hair, and use Mama's make-up brushes. You are really into climbing up and down little steps and practicing the "sit and scoot" technique that Tootsie taught you. you LOVE water! you are still busy, busy and love to "talk" and prance around. you like to dance, and when a good song comes on, you click your tongue, throw your arms up and "dance" around. you recently got into "coloring" and using sidewalk chalk. your favorite book right now is your little Bible that Tootsie & Pop got you, and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." i can't wait to see all the things you pick up when you start going to "school."

Here are some pics that Emily of Snaps Photography took of you this summer:

Summertime, 17 months!

Well, it felt like this last week, the summer really began for me. The last day of school for us was May 25th...however, it's been full steam ahead since this last week. We had a wonderful Family Reunion, I worked the following week, gave my 1st ever staff training the week after that (with my DAD as an attendee!), and interviewed for a new opportunity. I'm so thankful and excited about this new adventure, which will start officially July 25th of this year...I will be the new school counselor at Kissam Intermediate (grades 3-5) for Chapel Hill ISD. It's definitely bittersweet as I will really miss the boys and my fellow co-workers at Azleway. But I have to admit I'm super excited about being an elementary school counselor at Kissam!

We've had some visitors this week which has been really fun. My cousins Lauren & Bre came on Tuesday and all of us girls went to the zoo Wednesday. It was a great time had by all, and Moriah loved seeing and "talking" to all the animals and riding in the wagon. If only I'd let her climb the fence to get into the duck area she would have been happier. ha! She was reaching for them and "quacking" to them and wanted so bad to get in there with 'em!

Little Miss Moriah turned 17 months on Wednesday and I can't believe it! She is walking all over the place and has quite her own agenda with plenty of things to tend to! She still doesn't care to be cuddled, held, and kept still too much. She much prefers to walk all over the house shutting doors, trying to get into cabinets, pulling toilet paper down from the roll, throwing things in the trash, attempting to dig in the trash, etc. She LOVES being outside and absolutely loves water. Her favorites are playing outside in her Dora sprinkler or little swimming pool. We met Emily, Halle, & Whitney at the splash park Monday and I wondered if she would try to avoid all the water spraying things, but she actually gravitated to all of them and the wetter she got, the better!

The only problem is that between all the moisture from her water ventures and also teething this week, she came down with quite the wicked diaper rash. Poor baby got blisters on her bottom and it just looked horrible. We've been doing all sorts of home remedies and creams recommended by the facebook moms and it's looking better. The 2 teeth on either side of her top 2 big ones are cutting through the surface, so maybe we'll be up to 6 teeth soon!

We took pics with Emily yesterday in Jville and I can't wait to see them! I can't believe the last time I had her pictures made was before she was even walking. Wow, talk about a bad mom ; ) Moriah was so busy yesterday walking all over the place I could hardly keep her "on the set" for her pictures. I'm sure we were quite the scene between me chasing her all over the studio, encouraging, prodding, and pleading with her to look at the camera, and even sometimes reverting to doing that annoying "trying- to-get-the-toddler's-attention- in-Crazy-Enthusiastic-Voice." Yes i know. Sometimes we do things we never thought we'd do to try to get a good picture. Poor Emily. Nevertheless, with Emily's talent I know we will have some good ones!

Esteban has been with us for 3 weeks now and is doing great. He has been working hard at his job, helping around the house, and he really is a joy. He adores Moriah (or "Sissy" as he calls her) and loves to play with her and talk to her. We are about to initiate an "Esteban Cooking Night" where he will cook a meal for the fam so I'll have to report later how that goes!

Raina is visiting us for the weekend and it's been great to have her. She is such a sweetie and we are proud of the young lady she is becoming. Well, I hear Mozella stirring and I think Raina is waking as well. We are about to do some shopping for Tootsie's birthday if we can all get dressed and out of the house!

The summer is off to a great start!

15 Months

Moriah is 15 months old today. Wow i can't believe i just typed those words. Here's what's been going on lately...

* About 2 weeks ago, I noticed she had several "ant bites" on her hands that couldn't be explained. The next day she had a rash on her leg, several of those ant bites on her feet, and a blister on her tongue. Turns out it was the Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus. Thankfully Tootsie came to the rescue and kept her that week since i couldn't send her to the babysitter with The Sickness.

* Last weekend, on Sunday the 15th, we noticed that her left top tooth had come through the surface. That brings us to a total of 4 teeth so far. (The bottom center two teeth, and top right tooth are in full force-and the top left tooth is on its way).

* Tootsie kept Moriah again this week so the poor child had no attention at all (ha). On Tuesday, I went over there after work to visit and Little Missy took her first steps! She has been cruising around for weeks now but has not been able to muster up the courage to step out on her own. We were in the kitchen and Mom stood Moriah up and tried to get her to walk towards her. Sure enough, she took a couple steps and fell right into Mom's arms! She has done it a number of times since then, but so far just takes 2-3 steps before she falls into our arms. This Firstborn has not been racing to get to the milestones by any means, she is so laid back and chill about everything! But that's ok with us! I'm in no hurry to have a walker/runner on my hands.

* In the last week, we've gotten a little Chatty Kathy on our hands (not Mom, Moriah). While she's had her basic list of vocabulary words over the last couple months (door, cracker, dada, mama, dydy for diaper, dydy for byebye, daw for ball, ryry for Moriah, etc), this last week she's started "talking" in complete sentences of babble. She adds in all the expressions, voice inflections, and confidence as if she's actually talking. However, it's her own language. She really ramps it up when she lays down for a nap. It's so cool (and precious!) to hear her just talking away on the monitor.

Moriah Grace- I'm so very thankful for the wonderful, happy, healthy, fun 15 months we've had together. You add even more joy to our family than we could have imagined. There are so many times that Daddy and I will just look at each other and smile or laugh as we watch you play. You are so sweet, funny, smart, and just a beautiful little girl. I love you and I'm so thankful to be your Mama!

14 Months

Moriah turned 14 months on March 20th. She has had some sort of mental growth spurt these last few weeks, it seems. I don't know how else to describe it---i'm not really talking about intelligence in particular, just more alertness, using humor, and starting to communicate more. More than ever, it has become clear that there's a little person inside of there and i'm so enjoying getting to know her better and having such a fun time with my cute, sweet, funny little buddy.

These are some of the things that have been happening lately:

* She cut her top right tooth a couple weeks ago. It was a doozy. (how could it not be, us Pates have big teeth).
* Daddy and Esteban hung up her little swing on a tree in our front yard. It's one of her favorite things right now. I got her to say "woooo!.....woooo!" while she was swinging. Then a few days later when we were going near the garage door/outside area, she looked at me and said, "woooo! woooo!" and she does that now anytime she wants you to take her to the swing. Almost every time we get out of the car she says it, and if you go inside the house rather than take her to swing she will start crying.
* Her other favorite toy right now is the little plastic lion that Emily gave her. It's one of those toys that the child pushes and hangs onto that helps them walk with support. She absolutely loves this thing and cries when it's time to put it up and go in. (One thing that we noticed when she started walking more--still walks with support only-- is that her feet go out and her right foot seems especially flat. No offense Mo. We will get Dr. Barret to take a look at it during her 15 month appointment).
* Talking: She doesn't have a lot more words in her vocab than the last time I posted. However she's gotten to where she'll communicate an "idea" rather than just labeling something she sees. For instance, the other day I woke her up and while still in her crib she started saying "Cra-cuh, cra-cuh" (cracker). Apparently she woke up hungry. And like I mentioned before, it doesn't matter where we are, she will say "woooh, woooh" if she wants to go swing. She still says "da-da," "dooh" (not sure how to spell it but it's "door" without the "r" sound), "ma-ma" occasionally, muh-muh (if she likes something she's eating), "di-di" for diaper, and also "dye dye" instead of bye bye. she sometimes says a rendition of juice that sounds kinda like "js." And of course lots of jibber jabber.
* OPINION: All of a sudden, Little Missy has developed an opinion! And it's unfortunate she doesn't have alot of words to express that opinion so sometimes I feel as though we have traveled into a little place called Whiny World. It's still hard for me to figure out if she's just trying to tell me something and doesn't have words, or if she's just being whiny. We are trying to teach her some signs but so far no dice as far as her actually using them. Gone are the days of the always happy Moriah. But it's ok because I'm liking this older, with-it girl who knows what she wants!
* Sense of Humor: One of the things i'm loving about this stage is the sense of humor she's developed. She likes to fake laugh and sometimes she'll squint her eyes, crinkle her nose, and make a big exaggerated smile. Sassy little lady she is. She'll blow raspberries, initiate little games like taking off real fast and wanting to be chased, and basically just having a "knowing" in her expressions when she's trying to be funny where i can tell she really knows what she's doing. She definitely keeps us laughing!
* She's still taking 2 bottles a day (one in the morning & one at bedtime) but I"m thinking she'll drop the morning bottle soon. She drinks out of a sippy cup the rest of the day. She's eating finger foods and her favorites foods are: beans/rice (mexican), grapes (cut in 1/4s), mandarin oranges, goldfish crackers, macaroni/shells & cheese, lima beans, green beans, etc.
* She goes to bed about 7pm and wakes up at 6:30am. She takes two 1 hour naps during the day (one about 9:30am and one about 1:30pm). I'm thinking she will go down to 1 nap in the next couple months.
* She alternates between crawling army style (if she really needs to get somewhere fast) and regular. She walks all around as long as she's holding onto something! She still hasn't tried to take steps on her own. But that's ok!
* She's still quite the dancer. The other day we were at one of Ryan's baseball games and each of the baseball players had some sort of rap or r&b song as their walk up song. Every time a song came on she would start "dancing," and as soon as the music stopped she would stop. She would start again when the music started, and stop right on cue as well. Quite funny to watch. This girl feels the music.

We are having so much fun and enjoying this sweet, precious, beautiful little girl! I know I will look back one day and remember this time with all it's sweet moments and memories...we are so blessed to have Moriah Grace!