A Walk in the Park

No More Shopping!

Ater reading/seeing this post on the other Makena's Mommy's Blog, I decided we now know who to recruite to help us organize.

This is just Makenna's closet, and there is more! She has 4 drawers worth of stuff in her dresser too! No kid needs this much right?!?! Kya's side is not far behind her either.

In my defense I have not purchased all of it. My sweet sister has two girls ahead of mine, and is awesome enough to give us tons of hand-me-downs. We both need retail therapy help I think! :)

Un-bloggy & Stuff

Well, I have been decidedly un-bloggy again this last week. I think that I haven't wanted to take the time to delve into all of the emotional stuff over the past week or so.

We celebrated our 1 year home with Kya and I really can't beleive it has been that long. In some ways it seems like it has been SO much longer (the first 6 months were rough okay!?!?) and then the rest has seemed to fly by. She has changed so much and grown so much in the last year. She has come a LONG way, and we still have a ways to go to be 100%. But, we are SO much better than where we were.

And, this week Makenna started an intensive 2 week Sensory Integration Program as well. I have hesitated to post about it too much, because we still know entirely what the plan of attack is, but it starts here. She hears everything at the same intensity, and really doesn't know how to block out background noise. So, she gets pretty overwhelmed and frusterated by everything coming at her at once. She also seeks and craves movement more than her body can handle. She will literally spin and get so dizzy that she has physically gotten sick before she realized that she should stop. Her brain is telling her "this is enough" the way it should be. So, we are working on those things, and hope that we are taking a step in the right direction.

So, we have therapy everyday for 2 weeks, twice a day, with at least 3 hours between each appointment. And, the therapy center is about an hour from our house. So, everyday we are up and to therapy early, do Makenna's thing, find a place to play for a few hours, do her 2nd appointment and then head home. The girls fall asleep in the car on the way home, so on my workdays I meet Ron somewhere, switch cars and then head to work-working from 2 or 3p.m. until around 9 p.m. It's been crazy and I am tired, but hopeful!

I am sure there will be lots of pics to follow from our fun little adventures this week. Stay tuned! :)

1 year ago

The slide show is really long, but it really more for us than anything, so I don't expect anyone to sit through all of it. It has been a year in coming, but I finally sat down and did it since I am somewhere with good Internet connections.

I can't believe it's been a year since we were in Ethiopia. I miss it so much everyday. I can still remember when we stepped off that plane, one year ago, and smelled Ethiopia. The smell of woodsmoke, burning trash, diesel fumes and berebere spice--an indescribable, but familiar smell. I have rarely felt more like I was at home anywhere, especially considering it was thousands of miles from my home. This incredible place that brought my girls to me. The home of my heart.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Love

What's not to love huh???

Cool Kya

Miss Kya is changing so fast that I can't believe it. She is just turning into such toddler now, and is really leaving the baby stage in the dust. She is almost 16 mos old and is into EVERYTHING! She is so curious and learns so quickly that I am amazed. Her language is really starting to pick up and she is learning more words all of the time. And, she has really taken to music too. Not sure if that is because Makenna and I are constantly singing something, or if she finally just decided to give it a chance. She is babbling to the tune of a few different songs and has finally really found her dancing groove and like to shake her booty just like her big sister.

We are coming up on a year home and I can't believe how far we have come. She is a completely different girl. I will post more on that soon, but I just had to share a few thought on our sweet baby girl. I am so glad that I finally truly can't imagine our life without her. It was a long time coming, but we are there!

Cousins

These are the sweet faces of 3 of the girls' cousins. These three little blonde haired and blue and hazel eyed cuties are the world to the girls. They spend a lot of time together and they really are so sweet to each other, ahem... at least some of the time. They are so much a part of our life I just had to share their pics. We love them to pieces!