A Day at the BEACH

This is how the day used to start pre Maya. I would lay my new book down on my beach chair jump in the water, condition my hair, get all ready to dive into a new book and read...

This is how it is now POST Maya...u can imagine how long this lasted a total of 5 minutes...(LIZ didn't u write something about this in one of your books)

We ended up having a wonderful day...Josh let me read my book while Maya had her nap. It was very nice. Here is Maya in the ocean...

Then a bath with Aunt Sammi and her friend Emily...

We are in CHARLESTON SC

So, Here we are in Charleston South Carolina at the Beach. Ahhhhh love the beach and SO does Maya! She went in the pool today and Josh would literally dunk her under the water and she loved it. Here are some pics from the first day...more to come. Hope everyone is doing well! :)

8 MONTHS OLD!

Today Maya is eight months old! She is certainly a different baby then the itty bitty little girl we brought home three months ago to the day. We left on March eighth to bring Maya home! Tomorrow it will be three months since we left to go to Ethiopia...

Tonite Josh and I were walking ollie and pushing Maya in the stroller and she reached out for my hand and then laughed when she looked at me. What a amazing girl. She is such a funny girl with TONS of personality...We are loving this girl so.........eight things about My Maya.

1. She smiles with her eyes

2. Her eyes glisten

3. She crinkles her nose and sticks her tongue out when she laughs
4. She is almost crawling...pulling herself forward
5. She LOVES apple with vanilla grain DHA baby food

6. She LOVES the water! (thanks Tracie for the pool days)
7. She LOVES her daddy, grandma and grandpa
8. When she wakes up from a nap or in the morning her whole body does a dance in excitement to see me! LOVE it!

Maya today having her bottle

I realized that I never posted ANY of Maya's referral pics.

So now that we are allowed to b/c we are home, here are the first pics we ever saw of our daughter. What a amazing moment! Can u BELIEVE that was Maya when she was 1 1/2 months!

Can you believe...

that this little crazy girl that I am so beyond in love with actually lived in AFRICA/ETHIOPIA! Its just too much to comprehend. Almost like I don't "feel" like I went to Africa. Like it was all a dream and Maya came from my belly. Then I stop and look at her in the eyes and see her birth mother in her face and expression and just get this feeling thru my body. Oh i am LONGING to be back in AFRICA. Speaking of going to Ethiopia.........LIZ GOT HER REFERRAL! YEAH LIZ! Can you pack little me in your suitcase please. It would make your trip much less anxious to have such a calming force as myself with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) TRACIE I know u are hysterical at the thought of what it would actually be like for ME to be a calming force...anyway Yea LIZ...I am overjoyed for you!!

Sleeping on Daddy! See Daddy made it to the blog!

OLIVER & Maya

My mom, Ollie and Maya (Noonie too) were in the backyard one day playing with

a bowl of water. Maya LOVED it! Here are some pics...My poor Ollie. He was my number one baby in my life...now he is number two (well three because of Josh, and noonie is four...) anyway, he is very depressed. He is getting better but Maya is making him whiter from stress. He is very sad that he is not my main baby anymore. Yesterday Maya was taking a nap. I heard her cry and Ollie scratched open the door and sat in her room. Thats much better then the day before when he made a big poopie in her room! :) He is still my love and always will be.

My Quest is OVER!

So, when we were at HH Ethiopia Almaz played this cd for the babies (while they were sunning mind u) and I was obsessesd with finding the cd. Emailed Julie, asked the families that were going to open the cd player at HH and write the name down for me etc...anyway let's just say that I never found out the name of the cd. Today Maya and I were driving to the airport to pick Josh up and one of the songs came on the radio! I was back at HH, It was amazing. With a little more research (obsessive research) today is the day I conquered! The cd is shout praises kids and the song is called let the praises ring. Download that on itunes and tell me that doesn't bring some of u who adopted babies back to Hannah's Hope. Whew what a relief. I think Maya knew the song too! I mean she did listen to the cd for 3 months! Okay I can rest now.