Dear Birthparents

Dear friends,

Thank you for taking the time to look learn more about us. We know your minds and hearts must be full as you consider all of the decisions and possibilities you are facing. We wish you peace and comfort at this time. Maybe we’ll have the opportunity to get to know you better in the future, but for now here is a little about us.

We’ve been best friends for nearly 19 years, married for almost 12, and have a relationship based on love, respect, friendship, and an overdeveloped sense of humor. We enjoy having fun together: playing board games, reading, watching movies, mini-golfing, writing silly songs, and just basically making our own entertainment wherever we go.

Jeff

First of all, I own my own technology consulting firm, and to be perfectly honest, I love my job‚ not only because I enjoy what I do, but also because I can work almost exclusively from home. Kids going to a friend’s or the park, to play? l help load them into the car or stroller. Mommy has an appointment? I keep an eye on the kids. Someone’s sad and wants Daddy? I pop downstairs for a hug. It’s a wonderful way to live, and I hope I never have to give it up.

The family I grew up in doesn’t live nearby, but I keep in touch with them via phone and e-mail, so I rarely go more than a few days without talking to Mom, Dad, or my sister. The kids love to videochat with Grandma and Pop, and being the crazy grandparents that they are, they usually make the 1,600-mile round trip, about 5-6 times per year‚ perhaps more, now that they’re both retired.

When I’m not at work or church, most of my spare time is spent with my family‚ Anna, the kids, my in-laws, etc.‚ but when I get that rare chance to have some time to myself, I usually do a little web surfing, watch some TV, or lie down and enjoy a good book. (My favorite fictional author is Douglas Adams, but I’ll read just about anything that’s lying around.)

Anna

While it is the most challenging job I’ve ever had, I feel very blessed to be able to stay at home with our children. I treasure being there for all of their imaginative play (and it’s fun to join in with them, too!). I enjoy seeing them learn and grow. I am rich in hugs, kisses, and snuggles.

When I get a quiet moment, I like to spend a little time developing my hobbies and interests. I enjoy reading, so I usually have at least one book on my nightstand at a time, and I participate regularly in a book group. I also enjoy trying new recipes and spend a fair amount of my free time browsing recipe databases and websites. I am a member of a couple of "mommy" websites and enjoy posting and blogging there. One of my favorite activities is working out. I like to walk, run, bike, and hike. I recently completed my first 5K. Though I don’t consider myself a crafty person, I do try crafts from time to time. I have found a few I enjoy and am actually pretty good at including jewelry making and making felt hair clips for our daughter.

We spend a lot of time with my parents and siblings. Many of them live nearby, and we get together at least every other Sunday for dinner. My sister is really my best friend. We talk or instant message on an almost-daily basis. Our children play together a lot, especially when we trade baby-sitting for date nights and other appointments. Our families have been there for us through all of our triumphs and struggles, and we feel blessed and proud to belong to such wonderful people.

Leah

Leah has always been an interesting mix of independence and love. She likes to do her own thing‚ especially if she can get her brother to do it, with her‚ but she’s so sensitive to others’ feelings: “Why are you sad?” “Why are you happy?” “May I hug you?” etc.. She really is an incredibly sweet little girl, and we’re just as incredibly blessed to be her parents.
Leah loves to run, dance, sing, and watch Dora the Explorer; and she especially loves being a big sister to her favorite little guy in the world. Leah is currently interested in anything and everything to do with princesses. She regularly holds pretend princess parties and something she invented called “dance outs.”

Through adopting Leah, we developed a deep love and respect for her birthparents. We love to see how proud they are of her. We love sharing stories about how her talents are developing. We love how happy they are with how she is doing. We love that they love her. We love that they love us! We truly feel we gained more than a daughter when we adopted Leah; we gained an entirely new branch of our family, and our lives have been enriched by this blessing.

David

David is an incredibly sensitive little boy, always hugging and kissing and thanking everyone around. He seems to have inherited Leah’s love of singing, though we’re a pretty musical family to begin with. He also enjoys running, jumping, and climbing. While at play, he is quite active and is all boy. When it’s time to settle down for a quiet moment, though, David shows more of his sensitive side and is quite happy to snuggle with the closest family member.

David’s current passion is a Lego set that his aunt got him, for his birthday. Whenever he’s not running around and/or getting into things, we know to take a peek in the toy room, where he’ll be stacking them up, building a house or‚ more likely‚ a tower (or "towee," as he says it).

As Mommy and Daddy, our children are the center of our lives and we can’t imagine anything more wonderful than having them with us forever. We love watching them learn and grow: reading to them, playing with them, making their favorite meals, tucking them in at night; all this and more make for a life so beautiful that we sometimes can’t imagine what we’ve done to be so blessed. Yet at the same time, there’s a special place in our hearts just waiting to be filled by a another special little boy or girl.

We hope this letter has been helpful in getting to know us a little better. Again, we wish you peace and comfort as you plan for your future and the future of your child.

Sincerely,

Jeff and Anna

Bedtime Routine

David has fallen into a fairly predictable bedtime routine, as of late. After Mommy and Leah have departed for Leah’s room, he gets into bed, generally asks Daddy to read him a story, and then requests that Daddy sing Soon It’s Gonna Rain/Rain, Rain Go Away; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; and Rock-a-Bye David (the last being Daddy’s take on the old classic)—not necessarily in that order, nor necessarily once each.

Tonight, after all seemed to be quiet, David started calling for Mommy. Knowing full well that Mommy is a pushover and would probably wind up placing David in Mommy & Daddy’s bed (his favorite place to sleep), Daddy responded first and eventually allowed Mommy to join him. Together, we were able to convince him that he needed to stay in his own bed, then sang him the first verse of I Am a Child of God and prepared to leave. Daddy, knowing what was coming, brought up the rear.

As expected, David requested that Daddy sing another song—specifically, Rain, Rain Go Away—before I left, which led to the following conversation:

Daddy: “I will do that, but when I’m done, I’ve got to leave and you’ll have to go to sleep. Okay?”

David: [silence]

Daddy: “David, is that okay?”

David: [silence]

Daddy: “Well, okay then; I guess I’ll just have to leave, right now.”

David: “It’s okay, Daddy!”

So I sang, just as he requested. (I actually think I’m teaching myself some good techniques, getting my diaphragm going, etc., but I digress.) And just as I got to the final syllable—…way—David talked over it. His observation?

David: “Get out, Daddy.”

What a little dork. ;-)

Big Talkers

Man, it’s been ages since I posted anything to the blog! I was really backed up at work for a while—several clients (and even project managers!) vying for my time, thus giving me a lot of much-needed overtime—and then of course we had the holidays. It’s been crazy, but I’m trying to get back on the horse, so to speak.

The title of this entry actually applies to both of my beautiful children, who have each been improving their conversation skills in leaps and bounds! Leah, for example, has begun speaking in complete sentences—e.g. “Is Mommy coming?” instead of “Mommy come?”—and has mastered the concept of maybe, e.g. Daddy responds to her request for an apple with, “We don’t have any apples, Sweetie,” and Leah responds, “Maybe an orange?” She’s also begun saying stuff like “Great idea, Daddy!” She’s such a sweetie!

David, for his part, is mostly working with single words, but he’s quite the little repeater, too. He knows Mama, Dada, Amen, baba (bottle), wawa (water, which he first said immediately after taking the Sacrament, yesterday), mo! (more), and this morning I swear he said “Dowstay!” as we were about to go downstairs. (Granted, we’d been talking about going downstairs, so it could have just been repetition, but still…!)

Anyway, the kids are just getting cuter and cuter, these days, so I’ll hopefully be making the time to blog, more often. I really want to have a record of this for us, if nothing else. (Not that you, dear reader, are chopped liver.) ☺

Happy Hallowe’en!

Last night, of course, was David’s first Hallowe’en. Mawmaw found him this cute little Spider-Man costume at Goodwill and fell in love with it, while Leah’s Little Red Riding Hood is a hand-me down from her cousin Norah. Both of them looked great, though.

We started off by taking them up and down the block, visiting maybe six or seven houses in one direction and two or three in the other. Of course, since many of the other parents were doing the same thing, quite a few houses were empty. (One kid even told us to come back later, that his parents weren’t giving out candy yet!) The reason for this brevity was simple, though: our Church had a tri-ward “trunk-or-treat” for the kids and scheduled it right on Hallowe’en night (unlike most ward we’ve been in, which schedule it on, say, the Friday before Hallowe’en so that kids can still trick-or-treat on Hallowe’en itself—a practice we greatly prefer, since it gives us a chance to meet more of our neighbors).

Shape Recognition

This entry is a really big deal, to Daddy. You may remember, a year or so ago, that Leah’s favorite computer game was a little piece of freeware called “Baby Banger”: the child hits any key and it pops up a shape and, optionally, announces the shape’s name and color. Well, now that we’re pretty much settled into the new house (that big box in front of her notwithstanding), Dory’s been hooked back up and Leah’s having a blast with her favorite game, again… only this time, it’s different.

First of all, Leah’s gotten really good at pressing only one key at a time, an action which keeps the computer from saying, as I previously blogged, “ ‘blu-gree-or-or-pur-yellow squa–-cy-re-magen-brown rectangle,’ as each shape interrupts the previous.”

Secondly, when Dory announces the color and shape, Leah almost always repeats it in that beautiful little voice of hers.

Finally, though—and this is most important part—she remembers! I can’t tell you how many times Daddy’s been working at the computer when Leah turns around in her seat, pointing frantically at the screen, saying, “Daddy! Daddy! Tringle, Daddy! Tringle!” (So she doesn’t quite pronounce it right. She knows what it is!)

It’s amazing how incredibly proud of her I am. ☺

(more pics)

First Tooth!

Well, it looks like David managed to one-up Leah on something: at only six months, four weeks, his first tooth has poked through! (Leah, for the record, took one day shy of eight months to accomplish the same feat.) I’m guessing it’ll be a little while before his little chomper will be visible in photos, but rest assured, the fitful nights have finally produced some fruit. Congratulations, Double-D!

Old Friends and New

Yes, the picture’s blurry. Sorry ’bout that; Daddy somehow misplaced the good camera before we left and had to make do with the cheap one. Wanna see more blurry pictures? Here ya go.

Anyway, a little background: when Daddy was in high school, he had a friend Maureen that lived down the street. While many years have passed, it turns out Maureen still lives down the street, only now she lives there with her husband, Mitch (another of Daddy’s high school friends); and daughter, Noelle. While we were out there, we decided to spend some time with their family and invited them over to Leah & David’s grandparents’ so they (and Noelle, of course) could go in the pool and the hot tub.

Bottom line: Noelle, though almost six years Leah’s senior, seems to enjoy our little Leah, and Leah certainly reciprocated her enthusiasm. We wound up getting together two or three times throughout the weekend and will hopefully be back in touch through e-mail. Ah, technology!