another adoption miracle

Our good friends Stephanie and James were blessed with a baby girl in January. We are so happy for them! Little Maggie is full hispanic, just like Mina, and we believe they are kindred spirits. We are so grateful to Stephanie and James for their words of encouragement and advice through our adoption process, having adopted once before themselves. By the way, I can't believe how big Mina looks next to Maggie!

This is a pic of my sister and her little girl Naomi who was born just a month prior to Mina. Aren't they cute?

Post Christmas

We had planned to have a second Christmas with my parents and Elisa's kids the week after Christmas, but since we went up to my grandfather's funeral we never did get together. So I took these pictures last week before I took the tree down, just to get pics of Mina's first Christmas. The bib in the pic above is from our neighbor. Thanks Alla!

This Christmas outfit was actually for Ethan from aunt Patty and uncle Larry, but he outgrew it before Christmas so Elisa was kind enough to pass it on to Mina. It looked so cute on her!

This is a typical look for Mina, too, hands together, in mouth. She will bring her hands together, look at them, then stick them in her mouth, take them out and start the process over again.

Cute girl with the tree. I broke down and bought a fake tree this year :( After paying $80 for a real tree a few years ago I decided it was better to buy a fake tree to save the money. It wasn't as bad as I though it would be. The tree turned out nice and we'll be able to use it for years to come. Plus, it was pre-lit, no stringing of lights!

Christmas

My whole family with the exception of 2 brothers in law and 3 cousins.

Gram and Gramps with the grandkids.

Cousin Conor making Mina laugh. So cute! (Thanks for the pics from your blog, Krista! I took my camera on the trip without realizing the memory card was full. Woops!)

These pics are from Geoff's sister Kathy. THese are the yummy wings we ate while there. MMMM!

The wings gang.

We had a quiet Christmas this year. For Christmas eve it was just Geoff, Mina and I with Geoff's parents for dinner. His sister and her family came later. For Christmas we went back to Geoff's parents and had yummy Christmas breakfast! The cousins exchange gifts and Mina's gift from cousin Jill was a cute outfit and little book. We then went to see Blind Side while Geoff's sister and his mom watched Mina (thanks again!) It was a great movie. I got teary, especially since we ourselves just adopted. It hit close to home! We went back to Geoff's parents for dinner and that was about it.

The next day we went to see Sherlock Holmes, an excellent film. When we got home I got a call from my brother saying that my grandfather (my mother's father) had just passed away. He started coughing up blood, the neighbors came to help my grandma get him to the hospital and he actually died of cardiac arrest on the way. It was sudden, and that's the sad part, because we didn't get to say goodbye, but my grandpa was 84 and had progressively worsening dementia. He didn't remember who I was the last time we saw him. My grandmother said she was having more and more difficulty caring for him at home now, too. With all the lingering and suffering I see working at the hospital I was glad for my grandpa's sake that he went quickly and didn't have to suffer much.

Geoff and I were able to join the rest of my family in Utah for the funeral and it was a nice reunion, despite the circumstances. All of my siblings were together for the first time in several years. We were actually only missing one brother in law and 3 cousins. It was great spending time with them. We also spent time with Geoff's sister and their family who treated us to good food and great company. Thanks again everybody!

cute Mina

Mina has really been smiling and laughing a lot this past 2 weeks. Here are just a few of the cute pics I took. I sure do love this little girl! It's hard to believe she's only been in our lives 3 months.