Ellie's First Deere

I am going out of town this weekend without Ellie -- a first since we became a family! Since Dad has a busy schedule this weekend too, Grandma Van and Aunt Hannah made arrangements to come and help with childcare. Thanks to some much-needed rain visiting Central Illinois (which keeps the farm work at bay), Grandpa Van was able to pack a bag quick to join in on the visit!

As you can tell from the photos above, Ellie loved her first riding toy (delivered today by her grandparents), especially the sound effects of the starting engine and honking horn.

In a minefield

Nathan set up a "minefield" in our backyard as an exercise for our summer mission team to complete during this evening's weekly training session (link to our team's blog to see the exerise in action). The colorful balls drew Ellie like a magnet. Recognizing a photo opportunity, I grabbed the camera and got these shots.

While we were discussing the object of some of the exercises with the team, Ellie was making friends with the neighbors. Here, Theresa is pulling a book out of her bag to show Ellie. It's fun to watch Ellie interact with other "little people" now that her confidence has grown and she no longer fears most new people.

Family Time

This morning we took advantage of some gorgeous weather to get away from campus as a family for a few hours by taking a 3-hour kayak trip on nearby Lake Herrington. We had a little apprehension about Ellie's reaction to sitting in a boat for an extended time -- wearing a life vest, no less -- but she did quite well and I think she will enjoy it even more next time. We didn't take a lake map with us so we didn't know exactly if we found our intended destination (the lake is 31 miles long) but it's given us reason to go back again soon.

Aunt Marcia, we're grateful for the hat you gave Ellie! It was put to good use on today's sunny day! Some of you may not know that Ellie's head circumference is in the 97th percentile for her age -- so it makes finding a hat that fits a difficult proposition.

There's not a lot of room for turning around in a kayak, so I got this shot shooting blindly, holding the camera over my shoulder.

Yes, we're still eating our meals out of 'the cup'. It makes it challenging to pack a picnic lunch for Els! Thankfully with her newly acquired skill of eating small finger foods, we could keep the kayak cupholder filled with dry cereal, though much of it ended up feeding the fishies. Later we learned this (above) was the "beach" someone at the marina told us about. (It's quite rocky, as you can see).

It didn't take her long to decide the water was worth touching...
She fit perfectly on the child jump seat in front of Nathan.

The little black blob straight above my yellow paddle is one of 3 wild goats we discovered roaming the edges of Dunn Island. From a distance they resembled nimble dogs, but on closer expection they were definitely billy goats. I wonder how long they've been there? It's not exactly an inhabited island from our observation.

a closer photo of 2 of the goats

Where's Ellie?

Ellie's Pediatrician in the News

Ellie's pediatrician, Dr. Taylor, was recently featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader! Click here to read the article.

Speaking of Dr. Taylor, if you live near Lancaster, Ohio (shout-outs to our central-Ohio friends), she is speaking at an adoption summit there this weekend being hosted by Fairfield Christian Church. If you or someone you know is considering international adoption, this might be a good way to get some more information and hear from some experts in the field.

Finally, on an Ellie update, her acceptance of Trix has carried over to taking the apple-cinnamon Gerber Graduates we've had in the cupboard for nearly 3-months (it's a wonder they're not stale). We just now need her to learn that she can put them in her mouth herself. She whines for US to put them in. My, my. But we'll forgive her for being particular. She has another ear infection which Dr. Taylor discovered at today's appointment for some regular vaccinations. She was kind enough not to pile misery on misery by giving those shots so we're going back in 2 weeks to follow up on the ear and then get the 2 vaccines Ellie needs. Thanks for caring.

Threshold crossed

Six months ago I had never heard the term "oral-aversion". I just knew (from her referral photos) that we had a daughter with a mouth full of teeth and some of the items we would be taking for her to Albania would include a toothbrush and children's toothpaste! Little did I know they would remain in their original packaging months after her return home!

If you've read this blog for any length of time, then you're probably familiar with our struggles to convince Ellie that a wonder of foods await her palate if only she will let things other than her cup of liquid diet or sucking thumb enter her mouth. The up side of the matter has been that since she doesn't even put toys in her mouth we haven't had to worry about her eating Reagan's dog food (which recently had to be placed at a higher elevation still accessible to Reagan yet out of Ellie's reach) or choking on small objects like beads or buttons. However, whenever we've tried to put something like Cheerios to her mouth (or even in it), she has promptly spit it out, or worse, choke so much she's thrown up.

About three weeks ago Ellie started exhibiting symptoms of teething (runny nose, diarrhea, and intense pressure on her cheeks by her hand and on her gums by her thumb -- which has rarely left her mouth). It's been pretty miserable for us as her moods can fluctuate literally minute-to-minute. I'll spare you all the details, but I think that her elevated sensitivity in the oral area has served to intensify the pain and discomfort of erupting molars.

Today was a better day. We played some fun games together, including her first self-initiated game of peek-a-boo (covering her eyes with her hands and removing them). Then later, while I was working on making a big batch of "chicken, peas, carrots, rice and tofu" soup and "berry, juice & yogurt" smoothies I put her in the kitchen sink to bang some wooden spoons together and watch me work. Nathan thought it would be a good time to introduce her to the Trix we bought today at her speech therapist's suggestion.

He got the first one in her mouth via a rather stealthy, come-from-behind move. I think he got it in a bit further than previous attempts because rather than instinctively spitting it out, she let it roll around her mouth. It must have been good because she started drooling while it began dissolving. He inserted the second one in between her front teeth. At first it was a little nibble, then the crunching began. It was the most beautiful sound I have heard in a while. She didn't know what to do with them after that. Eventually we worked in getting them in deeper, to encourage her to use her back teeth. We knew we were successful when she began pulling on our hands to get her more. The pictures tell the rest of the story.

Does Ellie have a crush?

Ellie appears to have a crush. His name is Jonathan. Unfortunately for her, he's 24 years her senior and already married. We suspect his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap is what caught her eye. Like any girl distracted by attraction, she was unaware of anyone else in the room and only had eyes (and many coy smiles) for Jonathan. We've posted a few of them here.

Jonathan and his wife, Faith, stayed with us the last couple of evenings during a swing trip they were making through Ohio and Kentucky on Faith's spring break. Faith works in the public school system and Jonathan is a youth pastor in Sanford, North Carolina. The story of how we know them goes back to our very first service at the student center in the fall of 1999 when Jonathan assisted us by co-leading worship. In 2001 Faith and Jonathan served on a team we took to minister on the Texas/Mexico border and not too long after we watched their love blossom. In 2005 Nathan had the honor of standing up with Jonathan at their wedding. We treasure their friendship and any opportunity we have to reconnect like the time we had with them this week. This visit was extra special as they finally got to meet Ellie.

Quick Update

We have finally applied for a SSN for Ellie (we couldn't do so until her citizenship papers arrived in February)! Had I known how easy it would be, we would have done it a long time ago -- but really, with our hectic schedule, I don't know WHEN we could have done so. Anyway, we should have it within 2 weeks. In the mean time, we will have to file for an extension on our income taxes. Yeah, those haven't gotten done yet either, but we're not going to NOT take advantage of the adoption tax credit (which I don't think we can claim 'til Ellie has an SSN)!
After that, U.S. passport (for Ellie) here we come!

some more family photos...

Nathan took the two photos above of Tua

love this photo of Tua grasping her daddy's finger

even in her sleep she knows where to find her security

next time we see her she will have changed so much!

Sunday morning before church.
Grandpa and Grandma found this great book for Ellie called "I Can Talk to God"
Again, I come home from a time with family and realize we have so few photos of Ellie with certain people. That's why you just need to have the camera ready to capture those special moments. This is a great one.

this was taken by my Grandpa Van (can I say he just had cataract surgery?)

we're laughing at how "natural" he looked holding a digital camera

by the time this was taken we had no idea if any of our heads were even in the shot, or if our family photo would include Seth and Bug

This particular photo was salvaged with some cropping. The smiles are genuine.

Happy Easter! Happy Birthday, Micah!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Micah...

We had an early morning today (literally, Ellie woke up at 4AM so after it was evident she wasn't going back to sleep, we loaded up the car and got back to Kentucky in time for naptime this afternoon). Students started rolling back into town later this evening.

It felt like a whirlwind trip to Illinois, but we were able to spend time with lots of family, including be with Nathan's nephew Micah on his birthday! This year his birthday happened to fall on Easter so his party had lots of fun stuff for the young ones. Nonna and PaPa Waggoner had sent Easter baskets for the Waggoner grandkids. Ellie still doesn't get the "present" thing yet, but had fun crinkling the celophane wrapping and watching her cousins' reactions.

Part of the reason Ellie awoke so early this morning is that she has another cold (the runny nose which we thought was from teething has settled into a bona fide cold). She wasn't her usual pleasant self most of the weekend feeling miserable and adjusting to a different schedule and time zone, but she seems to be feeling better now that we're home again.

For another perspective on some of our weekend's activities, read my brother-in-law's 2 most recent posts ("$4 corn" & "field report") on www.houseofshaw.blogspot.com.

more Easter weekend photos...

...with Uncle Seth

Tesa Hannah

Cydil & Jenny with childhood playmate, Kelly (center)

We just watched some old home videos this afternoon of us together at ages 7, 6, & 5 (respectively) and can't believe how we're all grown up now!

Beetle & Cricket

Back in Illinois!

Ellie finally got to meet her cousin, Tua! We arrived at the farm LATE last night and Ellie is presently making up for her short night's sleep with a nice nap.

Though we just drove up to Illinois it feels like we're in Canada. It actually snowed this afternoon!

Here's a quick peek at the bottom of Tua's little tights. (They were bought for her by her Aunt Nadine in Germany, in honor of her mommy's affectionate name, Bug).

Here's Bug and Tua