Adebiyi Adventures

Home Sweet Home

2012-02-12T15:29:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I had such an amazing time at the hospital I was actually a little sad and nervous to go home. Sam and I both didn't want to leave. Leaving meant there is not magic red call button that you can push and a nice nurse will be right there to help. Leaving also meant that we go home and back to real life (which is exciting) but that this experience of pregnancy and delivering this baby is over. I get very attached to things, and something about leaving, just made me a little sad.

It was scary putting her in the van, and driving in traffic where we could get in an accident while our precious baby is in the car. I just felt nervous like I wanted to protect her and stay inside the safe hospital where she will never get hurt and there is always someone who would know how to take care of her.

We made it home in one piece though :). She didn't like her car seat at first, but we gave her a pacifier for the first time and she instantly stopped crying and fell asleep.

We brought her in the house and had no idea what to do. I was having a hard time breastfeeding at the hosptial. I worked with a lactation consultant for two long sessions the day we left. She really helped a lot and gave me a lot of tips. I still wasn't fully getting it, and Eden wasn't that interested in eating. Right before we left the hospital, she finally did it all on her own for the first time. This gave me a little confidence that I could actually feed this baby all by myself when we got home.

That first night was rough. I just felt like I didn't know what I was doing with feeding her. I didn't think she was getting enough, and she woke up many times acting hungry. That first night we basically took turns holding her after her feedings bc she wouldn't sleep in her bed in our room. We were tired, but totally fine. I was just worried about her.

The next day I got some advice from friends about breastfeeding. It really helped and we had such a successful day of feeding. She ate 9 times and had LOTS of diaper changes. I had so much more confidence that we would get this, and that she was getting enough to eat.

Since that first full day at home, things just keep getting better. This is only Eden's 6th full day of being on Earth, but she is becoming a pro at it. She is learning to sleep during the night, and eat full meals. She wants to fall asleep sometimes when she is eating, but I just have to try my best to wake her up so she has a full belly.

I emptied the diaper genie yesterday....2 full days home with Eden, and there were probably 30 diapers in the bag. She likes to poop as soon as I finish putting on the fresh clean diaper. It's great fun.

Bebe hasn't had to change diapers yet. We will get to that down the road when Eden is bigger. Every time Bebe holds Eden, she seems to want to fill her diaper. It's pretty funny. Then Bebe freaks out and says, "EWWWWW GROSS!!!"

We are having a blast. Sam and I are just in amazement of this precious gift. There is nothing in the world like this. I love my many hours that I get with Eden while I nurse her. I just pray for her and thank God for this amazing blessing. I will sit and cry many times just thinking that 7 days ago she was moving around in my stomach. She was the one kicking me. She was the one I would get so excited about with every little movement in my belly. She was the one in there when that pregnancy test said "PREGNANT"and we were freaking out. She is the one that we saw on that ultrasound monitor at 8 weeks, 21 weeks, and 34 weeks.... It's just so hard to believe. I just love her so much. I know every mom says that, but you really don't know what it feels like until that baby is in your arms. I just want to be with her all the time. I want to cherish every single moment that I have with her, because I know time will fly and she will grow up so fast. That's why I love nursing her. It's so time consuming, but that's time I get to get away and just be with my little baby.

I love being a mom. I get to be a mom to a 14 year old, and a newborn baby. They are much different experiences, but both so great.

Last Sunday at this time, my contractions were starting. How has it been a week already....seriously. Time is going way too fast.
Here are a few pictures from our first week:

Trying out the swing for the first time:

I put her in his cute headband and an outfit that said I Love Mommy....I don't think she liked it too much. We will have to work on her style and posing for pics...

She looked much happier when daddy was taking the pics...

This is the bag of dirty diapers from the diaper genie....2 days worth! Glad we had a diaper party and are stocked up for a while...

Finally some pink....thanks to mom and aunt shelley for buying her the first "girly" outfits we owned....

Her first bath at home was a success. We made it through without one cry. She actually loved getting her hair washed....You can't tell from the picture that she is happy, but she really did enjoy it!

She sleeps all bundled up in her pack n play in our room. She loves the swaddle and having things on both sides of her.

Cute little girl...we need more pink! All I have is neutral sleepers...I can't wait to go shopping once I feel better!

My labor story...

2012-02-10T16:23:00.001-05:00

Just as pregnancy was nothing like I expected, labor was not either. If you don't care about the details of my labor...you may want to skip reading this post :)

Here is my labor story....
The baby's due date was February 6, 2012. I was hoping that it would happen earlier since my body had started getting ready for this baby a few weeks before that. When I went to my last appointment, the doctor said that if I hadn't gone on my due date, I would come in on Wednesday, she would check me and then induce me that evening.
I was hoping I didn't have to go that route, but I really didn't want to wait and for the baby to get much bigger. So that is what we decided.

Well Sunday afternoon, I was doing my usual routine....resting in our room and watching Gilmore Girls...and I felt my first contraction of the pregnancy. During that afternoon, the contractions were irregular and random. Since I hadn't had any prior....I just had a feeling that it was coming soon...and this was the real thing.
That evening...the contractions were happening about 20 min apart. By the middle of the night...they were 5 minutes apart. I went to bed and by about 3am...I couldn't sleep through them. The doctor had said that once they were 5 minutes apart to call her cell phone. Sam made me wait it out a little bit....so we ended up calling at 6:30am. At that point...I was ready to get to the hospital.
The doctor said to go in...so we left at 7am for St. Lukes.

We went up to the birthing center...and I think at first they didn't believe me. I was there on my actual due date, and I think that made them suspicious that I was just making it up.

The checked me and at that point I was 2cm and 80% effaced, but my contractions were happening every 5 min. They monitored me for about an hour.

Since I still had a long way to go, my doctor recommended that I take a drug that would make me sleep since I hadn't slept that night. She said that I needed my energy. So they took us to our amazing room that we were in the rest of the time. Sam slept on his couch, and I slept in the bed for about 5 hours. When I woke up, they were hoping I would be in active labor at that point.
I was progressing, but still not too fast. My contractions were getting more intense. I actually threw up during this time. I felt really sick, and had not eaten. They waited a couple more hours and then the doctor came in.

She said that we could either keep waiting, or since I was planning to get the epidural, she could give me pitocin to speed up the contractions, and then I would get the epidural and the baby would probably be ready for pushing a few hours later. I was ready and getting so tired...so that was the plan.

She broke my water, which was the strangest feeling ever!!! Then, they gave me an IV with pitocin. I had really strong contractions for about 45 min while waiting for the epidural. That was not fun.
Getting the epidural was so much harder than I thought it would be. My contractions were so strong, and to have to sit still while getting a giant needle injected into my spine...was not the best feeling. I didn't hear the doctor say he was going to give me a numbing shot. I actually jumped and sat straight up when he gave me the first shot. They yelled at me and said I could not do that. It was so bad...but, once it was in...it was the BEST decision I could have made.

My last 2 hours of "labor" I spent sleeping, while Sam was watching "the voice" on tv. About 2 hours later, the doctor came into the room to check me...she said I was 100% effaced and 9 1/2 cm dilated, and we were going to be pushing soon. I could not believe it was already time. I did not feel 1 thing or 1 sec. of pain the last 2 hours of my labor.

My midwife came in with the nurse...those were the only 2 people in the room. They laid back my bed...and my midwife briefly explained how to push. I still could not feel a thing...I couldn't feel my legs either...so I had no idea what I was doing.
Sam and I both pictured this part much different. We both thought there would be a room full of nurses and the doctor, he would be standing up towards the front of the bed coaching me and encouraging me, holding my hand.
Yea...not so much. The midwife called Sam over and said...I need you to hold Ashley's left leg...meaning...he got a front row view the entire time. I am glad he is not the squeamish type. He did great. He got to watch the whole thing while still encouraging me. It was an amazing experience.

I pushed for 35 minutes, and Eden was born at 10:43pm on her due date.
They gave her to me while she was nice and fresh out of the oven. I was holding her while Sam had to finish his job of holding my leg while "other things" were happening from his view. He did so great! I would have probably passed out if I would have actually seen what he was seeing.

My parents and Bebe came in as soon as I was all stitched up. It was such a surreal time. It hadn't really sunk it what had happened at that point. They visited for a while.

After they left the nurse wanted me to get up out of my bed and move around. I hadn't been up since before the epidural. As soon as I got out of bed, my body started shaking uncontrolably. I became freezing cold with goosebumps, and just everything on me was shaking...I could hardly walk. It was the weirdest thing. I guess it happens to some people due to the large amount of blood that is lost during labor and that, mixed with the effects of the epidural.

I got back to normal about 30 min later. Sam was more freaked out at that point than during the actual birth. He had no idea what was wrong with me.

We used the nursery that night for Eden so we could try to get some sleep. The nurses brought her into me during the night a couple times because she wanted to eat. At that point, I had no idea how to breastfeed, so that was an interesting time.

The next day I was so sore. I was in so much pain and so tired. I was not anticipating the pain the next day. I mostly just thought about labor and that was where I stopped. I didn't think about what it would be like the next day. It was nice though to have the huge private birthing room at St. Lukes, and all of the nice nurses that continuously were taking care of me and Eden.

St. Lukes prepares a special dinner for the mom and her husband the night after you give birth. They came in and set the table and we had ordered what we wanted. It was so nice to just have a nice date with Sam right there in our hospital room. It was amazing.

So labor was much better than I thought it would be. I didn't feel the worst part of it, or the pushing at all. The worst thing really for me was the hours of contractions, and then the pain the next day.
It was such a great experience. I didn't want to leave the hospital. It was just so great. I do not have one complaint or negative thing to say about my experience. It actually made me so much more confident to do it all again...some day :)

I am so thankful I had such a great pregnancy, and this labor was a wonderful ending to such an emotional , life changing 9 months of my life.

I am so thankful for Eden. We thought we were having a boy for all these months....now that she is here, I can't even fathom having anyone but her....especially a boy! :) She is the most beautiful blessing. I know I am emotional from everything, but I just cry every time I think about how much I love her. Moms...you know what I am talking about. This just changes your life. It's unbelievable.

Bebe is doing great, and enjoying being a big sister. The baby is pretty much just eating and sleeping now, so there is not too much she can do, but she loves holding her and kissing her.

I just love my family! God is so good. The gift of life and how miraculous it is just continues to blow me away!

Almost there!

2012-02-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

I feel like this pregnancy has gone pretty fast, but I cannot tell you how long these last two weeks have been. It's like time just stopped, or slowed WAY down. We had so many important things going on last week, so I just wanted to get through all that without going into labor. Well we are through all that...and now a week later...still no baby.
This last week has been so incredibly long and uncomfortable. Sam has been great though. I have literally laid around the last 3 days just resting because I haven't felt great. He has been taking care of everything. It's very nice to have his help.

I feel like this baby is never going to come...I am just so anxious and ready for it to happen...so each minute, hour, day that it doesn't happen- feels like FOREVER.

I am starting to feel more contractions...but I also don't really know what I am supposed to be feeling, so they might not actually be contractions. Who knows. I am just ready to get the labor part over with and hold my little baby in my arms.

Labor is starting to make me nervous...probably bc it's not happening, and I am sitting here for hours thinking about it. I was ready to do it, and had this strong attitude about it a couple weeks ago. I feel like the longer I wait...I am getting more and more scared. I have had a great pregnancy so even if it's one day of horrible pain...I will be ok.

I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday morning. If it hasn't happened by Wednesday evening, I will be heading to the hospital to be induced.

As I was having a melt down last night with Sam, he reminded me that next Saturday night...we will have a baby in our room with us. It's just crazy to think that.

I don't know what this baby looks like. If it's a boy or a girl. What it's name will be....but in 3.5 days at the most, we will know all that. It's just so exciting!!!

The gift of life is just so amazing. It's just so crazy to think that God knows the beginning through the end of this baby's life. He know who it will be, who it will marry, what life it will live. The good and bad moments of it's life. God knows all that. It's just so overwhelming how big God is.

It's hard for me to imagine anything about this baby. All I have for it now are dreams...my dreams for it's life, but God knows everything about it.
How amazing!!!

Psalm 139
¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.

Nursery!

2012-01-29T19:59:00.001-05:00

The nursery is finally finished! It's been a long process.

This bedroom first started out as Sam's bedroom before we got married when our house used to be a "guys" house. Then it became the office. Then it became a guest bedroom. Then when we were trying to sell the house we had an old crib someone gave us, so we staged it like a nursery. Now it's an actual nursery.
The walls were yellow...Sam painted everything. They are now a sagish green, and the cove part of the room is a creme color. We have a new crib, dresser, changing table, rocking chair, light, and blinds.

Here is the whole nursery....

Here is the adorable bedding that came with the set...which I believe all of it will have to be taken out once the baby is here....

This is my favorite part of the room...

You will have to click on this picture to see it up close, but I had this idea, and every time I look at this picture and read this verse, it makes me cry.

So we are ready. We have the pack n play setup in our room where the baby will be sleeping for the first 4 weeks or so. The car seat is in place in the baby mobile (aka our new van...well new to us). I have done all of the baby laundry, and I think we have most of the things we need.

Now we just need the baby to come. I have one more week until my due date. My maternity leave starts February 7....if the baby comes before that...I will not complain. I am so anxious and ready. We got through this crazy weekend, and now I am ready. Hopefully the baby is ready soon!

We cannot wait to meet this baby. I will definitely miss being pregnant. I have loved being pregnant, and have had a wonderful experience with it. My body needs a break though. It will be nice to be able to do things around the house, workout...and not have to be so careful with every thing I do.

Ok little baby Adebiyi....you can come anytime now!

37.5 weeks

2012-01-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

It is so hard to believe that the baby is almost here! I am 37.5 weeks, and feel about ready to pop.
Everything is still going very well though. I have been very blessed during this pregnancy. I am ready to see the baby, but I am still not at the point where I feel like I just want to be done being pregnant. I really love being pregnant. I love feeling the baby move and I love the thought that it is safe and protected in there. I love talking about pregnancy with people, and the special treatment is nice too!
I will enjoy getting back into my regular clothes though...pants that actually zip....ahhh that sounds so nice!

We are busy at the Adebiyi house getting ready for this baby. It's amazing how many lists I have come up with since the beginning of this pregnancy. I have always been a list person...but I don't think Sam ever thought it could be this bad...
It's also amazing how many things- from my perspective need done in order to have a baby in the house.
Let's see...we basically updated our kitchen...and yes that was because of the baby. We bought a minivan that we have been saving for, and once again that is because of the baby. We need to buy a new camera...because of the baby. We needed a new tv in our room, because of the baby. Dogs needed their shots, because of the baby. We updated the 3rd bedroom and got new furniture, for the baby. I am getting the carpets cleaned...for the baby. Then you have stollers, carseats, pack n plays, diaper bags, diapers, sheets, towels, washcloths, burp cloths, toys, books, mobiles, and the list goes on and on and on.
So these last few months, I have been in crazy mode trying to get everything done and organized.

On top of that, I have been packing for the hospital...I needed new slippers, pj's, robe, music, camera, clothes, car seat, baby stuff, then Sam's stuff...that was a project in itself!

Having a 14 year old is sooo much different than preparing for a baby. I just had to decorate her room cool and give her some music and she was good to go.

All I know is, I can't wait to meet this baby. Even though I'm already a mom...this is going to be a whole new experience for us. I can't wait to experience the joys of having a new born baby around. We get to start from the very beginning with this one. I missed out on so many years of Bebe's life, and that makes me sad.

Here is a sneak peak of the nursery...all we are missing is the rocking chair...and a few other things that are coming soon. More pics to come once it's totally done.

Last night I was going through my maternity album...it was so funny to see how I started out at 8 weeks. I feel like I have forgotten how small I actually was. I can't wait to get back to normal. It will be nice to be able to get out of bed without having to do a fancy roll thing, clip my own toe nails, put on my own boots, and have a wardrobe bigger than 5 outfits.

Here is me at 8 weeks:

Here I am now:

Can't wait for this baby to get here!!!!

Christmas for a party of Three

2011-12-30T09:08:00.001-05:00

Well another Christmas has gone by.
I am a person who loves traditions. Growing up, we always had quite a few fun family Christmas traditions. We have kept some of those even now.
This year was different though....
My parents moved out of the house I grew up in for 15 years of my life, a few months ago. My parents had the house built, and we loved living there. I knew this would be a weird year since it would be our first family Christmas in a different house. My brother was also sick with the flu, so we couldn't do our normal tradition of spending the night at my parents house on Christmas Eve and waking up to cinnamon rolls and stockings on Christmas morning. This was the first year that I didn't wake up at my parents house on Christmas.
Then there was no snow!
I know it sounds like I am complaining, but it actually turned out better than I expected. It was still a great time. We laughed a lot as a family and enjoyed our time together. I tried to soak up every minute as this was our last Christmas with only Bebe. Next year things will be much different, as our family continues to change and grow.

We tried a new tradition this year with Bebe. Instead of overloading her with gifts like we did last year, we gave her 4 presents from us...something she needs, something she wants, something to wear, and something to give. It worked out great, and I think it is something we are going to implement every year for each of our kids.

Here are a few highlights from Christmas...

Bebe helped me bake all of the new recipes I tried this year.

Our Beautiful Christmas Tree

At my parents house....after we ate lots of cinnamon rolls

The baby got a few presents too...

Christmas with my mom's side of the family

The kids always have to do a little program.

Getting all of their gifts from their Grandma/Great Grandma

All the kiddos. Next year there will be one more added to this picture!

Brittany...my cousin and great friend. She has lived in Korea for the last couple years. I miss her!

Annual Family pics....Bebe posing with Nini and Didi

They don't look old enough to be grandparents!

The family....plus Kyle's girlfriend Kelsey

Then on the 26th we finally got to celebrate with just the three of us. We ate breakfast, sang songs, read the bible then opened some gifts.

Bebe opening her "Something to wear gift"

Sam tricked me with these fake Toms. He put them in a Toms box and packaging. I did not even realize that they weren't Toms. He found them for $3. It was funny!

It was a great Christmas. We had a lot of fun together. So excited for there to be an almost 1 year old in this family picture next year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Tobymacccccc

2011-11-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

The Tobymac tour was in Cinnicnati last night at the Underground. So Bebe and I, and my parents headed down to see our rockstar husband/dad...SammyA!

It was a very tiring day for me, but also a blast. We got to spend time on Sam's bus, which he is sharing with one other person. It was a lot of fun.

Our great friends Royce and Liz came to hang out for the day.

We got to meet everyone before and after the show. Bebe loved Jamie Grace and Nirva- who is in Toby's band. She got to hang with them for a while in their dressing room.

My favorite part was seeing my husband speak to this crowd:

It's just still such an honor and crazy thought that God has taken us on this journey. He has put these opportunities in our laps and just used this message that he gave Sam 4 years ago to reach the world. It's very crazy still to think how far God has taken this. I am so proud of my husband for being a man who seeks God in the great times, but also spent years and years of seeking and trusting God in harder times than I can ever imagine.

I have an amazing husband and am so proud of him every night he is doing this. So far on this tour over 400 kids have been sponsored all over the world through Sam's message, and many hearts in American have been changed. We love this....it's such a huge passion of ours! As long as God keeps opening these doors, we can't wait to go through them!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-10-16T16:04:00.000-04:00

This weekend, my mom turned 50!
She begged me, even bribed me to not plan a party for her. She really really did not want a surprise party, so we had to think of something else that she would enjoy.
Sam suggested taking her to Ann Arbor. Since she was turing 50, we thought we better do something more "age appropriate" so we went to Frankenmuth for the weekend. :)

We had a blast!

We told her that we were going to be going out to dinner on Friday night. So we took her to Ann Arbor. We had a few decoys along the way to confuse her. This was the first stop:

After a few more stops, we finally ended up at the Macaroni Grill:

Sam cannot find much at an Italian Restaurant. He thought the chicken pizza would be safe...well this is what it looked like. The worst meal of his life:

She thought we were going back home after dinner. When we got back on the highway, she got very confused when we started heading North.
She was a little worried since she didn't have anything packed. Little did she know that dad got off early from work that day and packed her clothes and things for her.
Unfortunately, he did forget a few essential things, but it all worked out.

On Saturday, we had a little game for mom. At each stop, she would have to wear one of the following things:

I wasn't sure if she would participate or not, but she actually did, and she seemed to have fun with it. She got lots of "Happy Birthday's" from random people.

Bronners Christmas Store:

Mom and Dad's idea of a Christmas tree:

The family:

The Cheese Haus that didn't even have any actual samples of cheese:

Sam and I's future family photo?

We had a big family celebration, and a lot of fun.
Here are a few more pics from the weekend:

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

I hope I look like you when I am 50 :)

Half Way There

2011-09-27T19:16:00.001-04:00

Pregnancy is really nothing like I thought. I honestly feel extremely fortunate for the experience I have had so far.
Yes, I did go through sickness during the first few weeks, but that was it.
I don't have cravings
Smells don't make me sick
I have not eaten for 2- just 1
I have energy to work full-time, be a mom, take care of my husband, the house and my 2 huge dogs, and still have energy to occasionally workout.
I have not called off sick to work- not even one time
My clothes still fit me
These are just a few examples of things I never thought would happen. I literally pictured pregnancy as this disease where I would not be able to function for 9 months. That I would be laying on the couch, with 100lbs of extra weight, throwing up every second. That my husband would have to cater to my every need because I would not be able to stand up. I know some women have a very hard time, and I guess I just assumed it would be like that for me too.
Sam has had it pretty easy...well at least from my perspective. He might think differently about that statement. I have the occasional mood swing, but it's nothing out of the ordinary.
Yesterday was our 21 week ultrasound. I knew it would be awesome, but it was much more awesome than I could have imagined. Bebe had the day off school, so she got to go to the appointment. I was glad she could be a part of it and see how amazing pregnancy is.
The baby was actually sleeping at first. It's heart rate was 128. The nurse woke the baby up eventually with all the commotion that was going on. I could see the babies tiny heart beating. The baby also had the hiccups. It was moving around quite a bit. The baby is 14 oz. and 10 in. long so far.
Everything looked totally normal and healthy from what they can tell.
It was so hard having the technician know the sex, but not us. She knows what we are having!! So someone in the world does...even if we don't.
Bebe was convinced that she could tell by the ultrasound monitor that it is a girl. Not sure where she is getting that information, but she thinks we are having a girl now.
It was just such a fun experience. I wish I could see the baby like that everyday. It made it so much more real. I know it's real...my stomach is growing...reminding me everyday of how real it is, but it just makes it even more real and so special.
I literally cannot wait to have this little baby. I just love it so much already. I think about it all the time. I seriously cannot explain how amazing the miracle of life is. I just get overwhelmed thinking that this baby is forming inside of me...it's so weird, crazy, awesome, unbelievable, miraculous, and just still every time points me to how amazing and complex and huge God is. I really have a hard time understanding how people can go through pregnancy and not believe in God. It's too weird and crazy to just think it's "science" or that this kind of thing just happens and that it's normal.
ahhhhh....it's so overwhelming and I just love it.

Here are some updated pics:

19 Weeks

20 Weeks:

21 Weeks:

I love my baby!

School Bells already!?

2011-08-26T20:28:00.003-04:00

Bebe started school August 17!
(I am a little behind in blogging)

She is now in 7th grade at TCS. She successfully finished 6th grade with A's and B's and a few C's. We were very proud of her.
She was so ready to go back to school. She could barely stand it. This girl loves school more than anyone I know! I know this year will be much better for her too since she knows what she is doing, she knows all of the kids in her class, her teachers, and she can actually speak English and understand mostly everything.

We went school shopping which was a lot of fun. I gave her a budget and we made a list of what she needed/wanted. She knew she had a certain amount to spend so I reminded her that if she gets a book bag for $30, she can only get one pair of shoes...different things like that. I like to do that so she knows there is not an endless amount of money and it is also teaching her the value of things.

I know most kids think money grows on trees, but she seems to really believe this. So it was a fun day, with a fun budgeting lesson...which is my specialty.

Here she is after 6 hours of shopping getting ready to show dad what we bought:

This time last year I was so nervous for her. I had tears when we left the school on her first day. I felt like we were sending this little innocent girl out into the wild. I was so emotional. This year, she was ready and excited..and so were we!
We got everything ready and organized. Sam got her up bright and early the next morning at 6:30am for school.

She looks so grown up! This was her last year on her first day of school...

Her first day, she met a new girl from Korea who was just adopted and barely speaks English. It's a great story, but basically that was Bebe last year. Bebe instantly became friends with this little girl and has been helping her since school started. We were so proud when she came home and told us that story.
God is already using her to make a difference in peoples lives. She did that on her own! That was nothing we told her to do, or even knew she was doing. It's really a great story...I'm sure Sam will blog about it. :)

Here is her locker after I organized it. Hopefully it will stay this way for a while, but my expectations are not too high...

Belly Time

2011-08-24T19:20:00.000-04:00

I guess it's about time for a pregnancy update.......
So I will start from the beginning.I'm sure this is normal for most people, but I was not even convinced I was pregnant until my 8 week appointment. I took 4 pregnancy tests the first day, and 1 each week afterwards. I knew that I was, but it was so hard to believe at first. Until I saw that ultrasound and heard the heartbeat, I just wasn't convinced.

I felt great for the first couple weeks. Then it changed... I

went through about 5 weeks of morning sickness. I could not eat ANYTHING. Nothing sounded good. I did not have weird cravings...I had no cravings for any type of food. I had to force myself to eat. I am really not complaining though, because I know 5 weeks is really not that bad compared to what some women go through.

It was very disappointing to me that right from the start nothing sounded good and I basically couldn't eat. I had this whole healthy diet planned out of all of these fruits/veggies and whole grains. I couldn't eat any of it at first.
I found that the things that I ate a lot before like...Sam's Nigerian sauce he makes every week, Haitian rice, bean soup...stuff like that...I couldn't eat, and still cannot even think about eating.
I did get sick many mornings, but after I threw up...I was fine and headed off to work. No one knew I was pregnant during this time, so that was hard. I was trying to just be as normal as possible, but I obviously didn't feel great.
Around 11 weeks, I started to feel back to my normal self. It was definitely a relief. I could eat again, and stopped throwing up. I haven't gotten sick since then or had any issues. It's been great!
I definitely have my energy back, and have started trying to walk a few times a week, while eating decently healthy.
I am now almost 17 weeks, and really starting to pop out. I can somehow still fit into all of my regular clothes which is fun. It's just weird bc most people couldn't still tell I'm pregnant...it just looks like I am getting chubby. I can't wait till my belly is obviously a pregnant belly!
I have bought a few maternity clothes, and for some reason am anxious to wear them...even though I can't imagine myself being THAT big! It's so hard to picture what I will look like at that stage.
Things are going well though. I feel great, and am super excited to meet this baby.
It seems like sooooo far away! 5 more months! But our lives generally move very quickly, so I know that the time will fly by.
I find myself day dreaming all the time about the baby and what he or she will look like. I just picture myself holding and kissing it. Taking the baby with me on walks and everywhere I go.
I just can't wait. It's so cool how you just start to love this baby so much before you even know anything about it! I'm so glad God chose us women to carry the baby and have this experience. I asked Sam once if he wishes that he could experience what I get to experience....he definitely said no. :) I don't think he really gets how amazing this part is.
I just feel so privileged and honored to be this child's mother...even right now while he or she is growing inside of me.
It's just such an amazing miracle...one that I cannot ever get over.
Now for some belly pics...

8 weeks...after my 1st doctors appointment....

This is where I had to say goodbye belly button ring and semi flat stomach....

I will miss you both!

6 weeks later.........

14 Weeks...and growing

This angle makes it really pop out!

And this is me today....16 weeks

My next doctors appointment is my 21 week appointment where we can find out the sex of the baby. Sam and I have decided...we are going to be surprised!!!!!

So I can't wait to see the baby's ultrasound picture, but we will have to wait about 20 more weeks to know is this is a baby boy or little girl!

I don't want to say Goodbye!

2011-08-13T16:36:00.004-04:00

Last night, we had a little work party. Actually, 4 of my great friends from Admissions all left their positions within the same month as me. We all have exciting new opportunities ahead.
We got together at Calvinos to celebrate. These girls have become my great friends over the last few years. It always helps make the day go by faster knowing you have friends that you can talk to throughout the day at the workplace. We had a lot of fun times together at UT.

I will definitely miss working with these girls!

Here are a few pictures from our fun night:

Here is the whole crew with the exception of a few....

Here is me and my great friend Heather. We started at UT on the same day 3 years ago. We don't work together anymore, but have remained good friends!

All of us girls that left our office within the same month. Good friends stick together!

My Admission friends and my new friend Crystal from the College of Pharmacy!

Glad we could spend some time together!

Thank you all for the gifts and the party!

I will miss you girls...a lot!!!

Goodbye Admissions

2011-08-09T11:12:00.001-04:00

Well more changes for the Adebiyi's...

With this new baby on the way, I was really concerned about traveling this fall for my job. For those of you who don't know, I work at The University of Toledo as an Admissions Coordinator. The positions biggest duty is recruiting students in the fall and spring. I am back and forth meeting with students in the office, doing high school visits, college fairs, presentations, planning events, and all of that fun stuff.

I have gotten to drive some awesome rental cars, eaten lots of great food (which is why I gained like 15lbs after we got married) and also stayed in hotels about 100 times by myself, which is something I never thought I would do!

It has been a fun job, but it got very challenging last fall when I was away from home for so long. I had to do 70 school visits in 2.5 months. That meant I was gone for weeks at a time in hotels away from my family.

It was really hard for our us since Bebe had not been in our family for that long. Last fall, Sam was on tour with Hawk Nelson and I was traveling for UT. Bebe spent a lot of nights with her grandparents and some of our college students. It definitely was far from ideal since Bebe had only been with us for about 6 months. I hated leaving her and my family, but it was what we had to do at the time.

Sam and I have been trying to figure out what we are going to do through my pregnancy and after the baby is born. I really cannot have a job that requires that much travel with a newborn baby.

I had been looking at other jobs at UT in hopes that I would find something with better hours and no travel. I was really hoping to find a part-time position, but that is extremely rare to find at UT. One day my friend said, "Hey there is a position in the College of Pharmacy for an academic adviser, and it's part-time." She said, "The posting closes in 3 hours so if you are interested you better hurry."

I was so excited! I quickly submitted my resume and applied for the position. About a week later, I got a call for an interview which was so unbelievable. I could not believe that I had an interview that quickly!

The interview went well...it actually went extremely well because I got a call back with a job offer less than 24 hours later!

So as of August 16th, I will be a part-time academic adviser in the College of Pharmacy! I will only work 3 days a week!!

This is just such a God thing. He totally provided this job for me at the perfect time. If I would have stayed in Admissions, I would be traveling next month, and I would be gone for the next 3 months basically which would have been really hard being pregnant. This is such a huge blessing!

This week is the last week in my Admissions position. I am busy cleaning out my office remembering what it was like when I started this job. I have met so many great people in my years here.

I am very excited for this new opportunity. A little nervous about starting a new job though. I have worked at this job for almost 4 years, and I would pretty much say I am an expert! :)

Here are some pics of my office that I am currently cleaning out and packing up!

I hate to erase my board. A note from a personal visit from Rocky, my good friend Carlos, and the best is from my lovely sweet daughter.

Goodbye Admissions, Hello Pharmacy!

Baby Baby Baby....

2011-08-03T10:49:00.004-04:00

Well, our news has spread like crazy, so if you haven't heard yet...I'm not sure where you have been!

The Adebiyi's are having a baby! Yay!!!!

My husband spent months on a video that made our exciting announcement. I am posting the video at the bottom of this blog, just in case you haven't seen it yet.

The video is a great summary of "our" story, but of course Sam left out a lot of the details that I'm sure you are all dying to know. :)

So here is our story, solely from my perspective...

Before we got married, Sam and I always said that we wanted to wait 3-4 years before having kids. Well guess what...that didn't happen. The main reason that it didn't happen was because Sam started to have a strong dose of baby fever 6 months into our marriage. This was totally opposite of what I had seen. Usually, it's the woman that is itching to be a mommy, but in our case...it was Sam that started all of this...so early! I was like...Sam...this is not our plan. I need more time with you!!!

So you all know the story of our adoption, but if you don't, feel free to go back to my earlier blogs as I told the story as it was happening. We brought home Bebe...our first daughter from Haiti on April 1, 2010.

I'm sure a lot of people at the time thought we were adopting because we couldn't have biological kids. This is very far from the truth. Well actually at the time, we didn't know if we could have kids or not...because we had never tried. Adoption is something that has been on Sam and I's hearts since before we met. We both knew that we wanted to try to have biological children, and also adopt from all over the world. My plan was always to have biological kids first and then later adopt. God obviously changed our plans in a huge way with the addition of Bebe to our home.

I was actually really excited about adopting first...before we had even tried to get pregnant. God knew our hearts and knew that either way, whether we could easily get pregnant or not, that this was something we were going to do. Adoption was a first choice to us...regardless of what happened in the pregnancy area.

Once Bebe came into our home, she was ready to have a brother or sister. She came from an orphanage where she was around 60 kids everyday. To go from that to being an only child was difficult for her. Now, of course she LOVES all the attention she gets from us, but she does miss the daily/hourly interaction with kids. She would always ask me, "Mom, when are you going to have a baby." At the time, we decided to wait a while. We needed her to be adjusted in our home before we added anyone else.

Well last fall Sam and I were starting to get that baby fever again. Bebe I think, was even getting it. She writes prayers on her dry erase board in her room. For months her prayer was " God, give me a baby brother ASAP!" It just made me laugh each time I saw it.

This past October Sam and I decided to go off birth control. I had super unrealistic expectations and was planning to be pregnant by December and have a baby in August. Well, that didn't happen. We went through about 8 months of trying, and it just wasn't happening. I was so confused. I prayed to God and thought...we have already adopted...aren't you supposed to give people children once they adopt. This is embarrassing to even say I thought that, but it was almost like I thought God "owed" me a child since we adopted already.

Well through that process, the idea of adoption was still on our hearts. We kept thinking, well maybe we aren't getting pregnant because there is another child out there that God has chosen for us. So we researched adoptions, while still trying to get pregnant. We were open to it, but nothing significant was happening, and honestly, I really wanted to keep trying for a baby.

Each month that passed seemed like forever. For those of you who have tried to get pregnant, you totally know what I am talking about. The months seemed like years. After that pregnancy test said NO...you had to wait 2 weeks before you could even try again...then 2 more weeks before you could know if you were pregnant. Time just drug on and on and on.

I started researching ovulation predictor kits. I wasn't really doing much to track my ovulation...so I thought, I might as well give this a try. I bought one of the kits and used it in May...well guess what...that is the month that I got pregnant! It was so crazy. I could not believe it. I totally 100% believe in God's timing for pregnancy and children. I believe God has a purpose and a plan for each child that is conceived... but I also think doing what you can to understand the process of pregnancy and ovulation is a great thing. This kit was amazing, and totally worked for us. I highly recommend people to use if pregnancy doesn't happen in the first couple months.

So as of now...I am happily pregnant. I have finished 13 weeks, and am moving through the last week of my first trimester.

I will talk more about the pregnancy part later, but I just have to say that it is the weirdest, craziest, most amazing, incredible miracle that there is life growing and forming inside of me. That at this moment, my baby is almost fully formed with tiny finger nails and legs and arms and a heartbeat and a brain even though he or she is only 3 inches long. It's just insane and just forces me to look at how big and huge and crazy and amazing God is. I don't know how people can go through pregnancy and not just be in awe of God. It's too weird and crazy to be explained any other way, than just to look at the awesomeness of God. I have so many thoughts on this daily, but there will be more to come later.

I am going to try to blog a lot more through this journey. I am juggling a full-time job, a full-time 14 year old, being a mom, and being pregnant. Wooooo...just when I think life can't get any crazier!

Well here is the very creative video my hubby made...Enjoy!

Summertime...

2011-06-30T11:07:00.001-04:00

Summer isn't what it used to be. I actually haven't had a normal summer of swimming, tanning, drinking iced tea, sleeping until 11, and doing nothing all day since I was about 14. It's very sad. I have always had a job. All through high school and college, I worked every summer...very hard. Now, working at UT, I work year round.

Summer is still fun though. Some of my favorite things about summer are the sunshine and warmth, vacation, the 4th of July, and how it stays light out until 9:00pm every night.
Bebe is pretty bored this summer. I have a schedule for her each day. She has plenty of time to play with friends and have lots of free time, but she first has to do some schoolwork each day, and work around the house. It took her a little while to get used to this, but I think she is getting it down. Our motto is, "Work hard. Play hard." Summer is not just all free time. She has things that she needs to do to learn responsibility. She has been doing pretty well.

We have had some fun things happen this summer so far with our family.

We went on our first family vacation (with Bebe) to Myrtle Beach. I used to go with my family every year before Sam and I were married. It was so fun having them both with us this year. . It was Bebe's first vacation. We had a blast! We swam in the ocean and pool everyday, ate great food, did lots of shopping, and had some great family time. I always get severely depressed when vacation is over though. Not that "real life" is that bad, but the thought of going back to responsibility and work and cleaning the house and all of that just makes me so sad every time. I literally start counting down the days saying, oh...only 6 days left. I tried to enjoy each day, but it just was not long enough!
It was so fun. I can't wait until our next trip.

Sam also did his first wedding. Two of our college students, Eddie and Mindy, who we have known through their whole relationship got married June 11th. We were so honored to be a part of this day with them. I was also in the wedding and Bebe was the flower girl. It has been so fun to walk with them on this journey. The wedding went to well. Sam did a great job. It was the 2nd best wedding I have ever been to (ours obviously being the best :). This is one super rewarding part of our job as college ministry leaders. We love seeing amazing people jump into the story of God. Eddie and Mindy are going to do great things, and we are so honored to be a part of that.

Sam and I also celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 3 years, but then at the same time, I can't rememer my life without Sam in it. So much has happened in these 3 years, sometimes it's hard to believe it's ONLY been 3 years. Can't wait to see what is ahead for our family!

That has been our summer so far. We are excited for the 4th of July, Bebe's 14th birthday, and hopefully a few little get-a-ways for Sam and I.

Even though Summer is not what it used to be, I still LOVE it!

Let's see if anyone still reads my blog.
What is your favorite summer activity?

Compassion

2011-05-25T14:37:00.002-04:00

Sam and I have always had a huge heart for the world. Even before we knew each other we each had sponsored children from other countries through Compassion International. When we got married we kept both of those kids and decided to add a 3rd.
We believe that it is so important to make a difference in this world by making a difference in the lives of others. It's not anything special that we are doing...it's what God calls us to do.We are in the very front of the line as Sam likes to say. We are among the most privileged people in the world. God has given us the responsibility to help others that are in the back of the line.

It's been cool explaining these things to Bebe, and having her be a part of it in her own way.

One cool thing Compassion does is it allows you to write letters to your sponsored child. We have 2 kids from Africa and 1 from Haiti. The girl from Haiti is exactly Bebe's age. I have sponsored her since she was a little girl. When Bebe came to live with us, I explained that this little girl was also from Haiti and we discovered she was her age. She was born the same year Bebe was. It's so cool!

I had bebe write her first letter to Rosemanie.
I tried to talk her into writing the letter in Creole, but for some reason she would rather write in English now.
Here is what she said:
(Click the image to view it larger)

I hope that Bebe and all of our future kids grow up to care about the things Jesus cares about. I hope they make a difference with their lives.

If you would like to sponser a child...you can visit Compassion International by clicking here: http://www.compassion.com/

It's really an awesome ministry!

Friends are Friends Forever

2011-05-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

This weekend was GREAT! We had a long overdue friends reunion. Many of my closest friends that I have today, are people I met through Sam when we were dating. He had a great group of friends in college and they still remain best friends. I was a few years behind them so I didn't really meet most of them until I was a senior in college, but I have become very close to some of them over the years. It's just been great having this circle of friends that are just amazing people, living their lives for Jesus.

3 of us couples live in the same neighborhood, everyone else lives in other cities. There are 8 kids and 3 pregnant women! Wow...the changes that can happen in just a few years!

It's definitely a big ordeal when we all get together. And now... we all have to find babysitters just so we can eat together!

We literally spent the entire weekend together just hanging out and catching up. This included lots of fun girl time as well! It was so fun! I miss them already!

The lovely group

The manly men

The Ladies!

Bebe loves the kids...she had fun having other kids to play with all weekend

At the park with her friend Christilove

The girls at wildwood after a nice walk before the rain

Cute girls at Panera...we are teaching them well!

MJ's first encounter with a baby. She loved it!

Final girls time with great friends!

Can't wait until the next one!!

Adoption Day

2011-04-10T16:26:00.002-04:00

It's so hard to believe that a year has past already with Bebe being in our family. We came home last year on April 1, 2010! We celebrated her first year in the US by making Haitian/Nigerian food, a special cake, and I took her shopping to pick out any outfit she wanted for her adoption day.

It has just been a whirlwind. It seems so long ago that we were on that crazy hard journey of bringing her home. We fought for our daughter and God provided. It was hard, but so worth it. I am still blown away at how God provided financially. We had to come up with a large amount of money in a very short time. God provided it all. I don't even know how. We aren't rich. We couldn't afford to adopt, but God wanted Bebe in our family, and he made it happen. We saw so much generosity amongst family, friends and even people we didn't know very well. Everyone who prayed and supported us financially had a part in Bebe's story.

We are just so grateful for what God has brought us through.

This past Thursday was a very significant day. Even though Bebe has been home and in our custody for all this time, we still had to go through the process of adopting her on the US side. We had to have our caseworker come and do follow up post-placement visits, and we had to meet with our attorney to file the paperwork locally for her adoption. This process took a while, but it was all finalized on Thursday, April 7, 2011 at the courthouse downtown.

Even though Bebe has been in our family for a year now and nothing really changed at the court house, it just feels good knowing that it is officially complete. Her name is now legally Bebe Andrerese Adebiyi. She will be getting her birth certificate showing us as her parents, her social security number and we will be applying for her citizenship very soon.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Here she is, all dressed up and ready to go...

Our family meeting with the judge...

Signing the papers...

The family....

The awesome judge that suggested we end the time with prayer. We stood in a circle and prayed. So cool!

The whole clan...

Afterwards we went to Pizza Papalis to celebrate...

It's just so awesome to see where God has brought us, and what we had to go through to get our first child. God is just so good and faithful.

Weekend to Remember

2011-03-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to go to a marriage conference for a long time. What woman wouldn't want to go for a romantic weekend with her husband and talk about our favorite things ...love and marriage. I had heard of a few couples that had gone to the conference, and it sounded like something that would be fun, but would also help us grow together.

So I had mentioned it to Sam maybe once or twice randomly a while ago. Well he remembered, and put together his yearly tradition Christmas gift and gave me a "hot date". The main part of it was to go to the marriage conference.

We really just had a blast. It was such a great weekend. There was a conference in Toledo the weekend before, but we went to the conference in Cleveland, just so we could get away.

The speaker would speak, and then there is a workbook that the couples would go back and do before the next session. The workbook times were great. We would answer the questions, and then discuss the answers together.

Let's just say, Sam and I spent hours and hours talking this weekend! (It was a blast!!!)

There were a few sessions on Friday night.

Then there were many sessions on Saturday that ended at 4:30pm. They added into the schedule a date night. So you were supposed to go out on a date with your husband that night. Sam and I went out to eat, then came back to our hotel. I opened the interesting gift he gave me...haha. Even though it was interesting on the outside, it was all about our greatest memories together.

Once we were done talking about our memories, we watched our wedding video for the first time ever. It was so great! I cried as I relived that amazing day.

Then we got up Sunday morning for split sessions; one for women and then one for men.

It was just so great. There were people from all walks of life. Engaged couples, newly weds, people married for 5, 10, 20, 40 years. It was so cool!

I am so glad Sam took me. It was kinda sad though to look around the room and think of how many woman drug their husbands to the conference, and how many couples had this weekend as their last chance before divorce.

But many couple were there like Sam and I. We both genuinely wanted to be there, and want our relationship to constantly be growing. I am just so thankful to a husband that pursues me and cares about our relationship. He cares about honoring me and loving me. He does everything he can to make me happy.

I have always been in love with my husband. Sam is a great man, and we have always had a really good marriage. I left this weekend though, feeling even more in love with my husband. So much more than ever before, which is hard to believe because I have always loved him so much.

I would definitely recommend everyone going to this conference. It's worth the investment of time and money you will make! Sam and I hope to go every couple years just to renew and refresh our relationship.

For more info, you can go to: http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.3204559/k.F5BB/Attend_a_conference.htm

If you have any questions, just ask!

Crazy life....

2011-03-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

I always think my life can't get any busier, and then somehow it does.

Things are going great with Bebe. We are coming up on our 1 year anniversary of Bringing Home Bebe Day. It's so hard to believe it's almost been 1 full year! Wow...time flies!

Basketball season is coming to a close. We have two more tournament games, and then she is finished. It will be nice to not have practices and all of that, but I will miss seeing her play and bonding with her friends.

She is still doing amazing in school. It just surprises me so much how smart she is. At the end of this quarter, she will have all A's and B's. It's just unreal. She is in a private school with no extra help, and she is doing as good if not better than most of the kids in her class. What a little genius we have!

This week, Sam is in Mexico leading a mission trip of 30 students from our college group. It was very hard this time for me when he left. My heart is for missions and our students in our college group. It's such an amazing experience to lead a group of students to a different country, and not only be awakened to how most of the world lives, but to also see college students become passionate about the things in life that really matter. It is one of my greatest joys in life, to see college students jump into the story of God, and seeing their hearts transformed by going on a mission trip. So much is at stake on these trips. After a trip like this, some of these students will be called to missions, some will be called to adopt, some will be called to make a lot of money and give it to those in need.

I wanted to go to Mexico so bad. It's so hard that I am not there with my husband. It was kind of a crazy reality that hit me before he left. I LOVE being a mom, and that is a huge desire in my heart, but it kinda hit me that I will now miss out on some of this stuff now. It's not a bad thing, it's just an adjustment I have to make. I can't have every single desire in my heart all at once. Hopefully one day we can take our kids on these trips with us. I would love to instill those things in them at an early age. I am sure Sam and I will be doing this stuff even when we are old, so I know there will be plenty of times to go, it's just hard that I am not there with him now.

Bebe and I are having a great time bonding this week though while Sam is gone.

We have had lots of girl time, and girl talk. It's been great for us. It's very hard juggling being a full time single mom with a full time job that requires me to travel, but I am getting through it though by God's grace.

I have a fun slumber party planned this weekend with just the two of us, well and the dogs.
We will order pizza and stay up late and watch movies until we fall asleep in the living room. She is super excited about that.

I am so thankful for all my babies! God is so good, and we are so blessed to be in His story!
Ahhh I'm just so loving life!

Athletic? I don't think so...

2011-02-08T22:26:00.007-05:00

I was never an athletic girl. I tried to play basketball in 6th grade...I think I dropped out. I tried to run track in 8th grade...I definitely dropped out. I attempted to play broomball in high school...I'm not sure what happened with that. I was on the church softball team, and had to be begged by the coach to actually try to swing the bat and play left field.

My highest score ever in bowling is a 60, I wear a helmet when I ride a bike, I trip over the ball when I attempt to play kickball, I am out of breath if I try to run 1/2 mile, I duck when the ball comes at me in volleyball/basketball/softball, and I run away from the frisbee in ultimate frisbee.

I did take Tae Kwon Do and made it to blue belt (which is 2 belts away from black belt!)...other than that, I am an aerobics, turbokick, walk on the treadmill, rollarblade kind of girl.

I really could never relate to super athletic girls, because I just had no interest in sports, or no athletic ability. I am a girly girl. I like to shop, get massages, talk for hours with my friends, watch chick flicks all day and cry, try on my clothes, wear pink, paint my nails, wear makeup, stay clean and not be sweaty, say "like" a lot, and anything else that is super girly.

Well now...my first daughter is super athletic. I never thought I would have an athletic girl (because I would influence her to be like me)...but I didn't have the younger years to influence Bebe, so now I have an athletic daughter.

The interesting thing about Bebe though is that she is a perfect mix of both. She is super athletic...very into sports and very good at every sport she tries, but on the other hand she is also SUPER girly. She literally thinks she is a princess. On her basketball bag she wrote her name huge; "Princess Bebe Adebiyi." Her favorite color is pink. She likes to get her hair done, do her nails, shop, pick out clothes, and she cried in the finale of Hanhah Montanna. Sam can relate to her on her sports side, and I can relate to her on the girliness.

Bebe started playing basketball this year for TCS. Some of her friends talked her into it, so we said sure...why not. I don't think she had even shot or dribbled a basketball before her first practice. She started out not so good, but she has improved drastically. She is aggressive out there and is actually making some shots.

After she learned not to play defense when her team is on offense, things started looking up.

Here are a few pictures of her playing basketball...

Here she is on the bench..waiting to get in the game. See what I mean by girlie...who crosses their legs while sitting on the bench waiting to get into the game?

Playing basketball has really helped her get plugged in with some of the girls at school too. Here she is with some of her best friends on the team...

So the athletic Bebe isn't bad, as long as we can go shopping and paint our nails after her games!

Snow Day!!

2011-02-02T21:35:00.002-05:00

Normally Bebe does not want snow days. She actually prayed tonight that she would not be delayed or have a snow day tomorrow. She said that she wants a normal day of school. It's so funny.
I have seriously never seen a kid love school as much as she does.

Even though she doesn't really love the idea of snow days, we did have a blast today since we were all home.

We slept in till 10:00, made pancakes, played in the snow for hours, came home and had hot cocoa and then ended the night with American Idol.

We walked with our neighbors and 2 Saint Bernards down to the park to go sledding. This is Bebe's 3rd time sledding in the past week, so she is apparently a pro now:

Here are my super cute doggies loving the snow....

Normally the walk to the park is not that bad, but we didn't really consider that there were 12 inches of snow on the ground that we would have to walk through. It was the longest walk of my life! Bebe's poor little neighbor friends will probably never want to go anywhere with us again. They were sooo tired!

Here are the girls after the long walk...they just crashed outside and could not get up...

Even Mj was worn out...

Since our dogs love the snow and are considered "working dogs", we figured we would put them to good use.

It was a great day! We are enjoying the snow in the Adebiyi house as we are reminded of how Amazing God is!!!!

The Ups and Downs of Behavior

2011-01-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

How do you discipline and teach a 13 year old who has never really had any structure or discipline?

Well, this is a daily learning process for Sam and I. We have found one of the best methods to be our fun little behavior chart that I created.

Now I'm sure this won't work for most 13 year olds, but it works for us. I have had to change the categories as Bebe grows and starts to get better in certain areas, which is a good thing!

How it works is Bebe will get points each day for the categories that she does well in. There is a prize for a certain amount of points that she is working towards. Since school is really one of our hardest areas, most of the categories have to do with school stuff. It really helps though as long as we are consistent with it.

Last weekend, Bebe got to use her prize that she has been working toward. The prize was a fun night at Chuck E. Cheese with a friend and then a sleepover afterward worth 75 points. (Again, this probably won't appeal to most 13 year olds, but it definitely works for us.) She took Christilove ( Her best friend who is also from Haiti and now she is being adopted by our friend Vonda). The girls had a blast!

It was so cute, I snuck up on the girls, and this is just how they were standing, waiting in line for the game. I love that they are best friends. They are just so cute!

Here is Dad and Mom in the craziness of Chuck E. Cheese

The prize she is working for this time is for our family and one friend to spend the night, and then go to Splash Bay Indoor Waterpark. This is a big prize worth 200 points since it will be slightly expensive. :)

The points really help though. If she is having a bad attitude, she won't get her points, and usually she gets disappointed and that makes her think.

She also will get 5 points for every A or B that she gets on a test. Today she had 3 tests in school, and somehow she got A's on all 3 tests. She was so excited to get 15 points for today just for the tests.

It's just a very neat system that encourages her to do well and rewards her when she does.

If you need any other ideas for Behavior charts...here is the link: http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/behaviorcharts3-10.htm

Please let me know if there are other suggestions for rewarding good behavior!

It's a new year!!!

2011-01-07T22:58:00.009-05:00

I know I am a little late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This has been an amazing year for me and my family as you all know. This year was the craziest year of my life. I am hoping that next year will be even crazier! We are excited to see what God will do in our family this coming year.

It's so strange because when I am in the crazy times of life...example- living in Haiti without my husband for 5 weeks straight while adopting a 12 year old... all I wanted was to be back to a normal easy life.It was SOO hard. Looking back now, that time doesn't seem nearly as bad. It's so crazy to say this, but if I had to do it all over again, I totally would. That time in my life grew me and stretched me so much. I was so far outside of my comfort zone. I would have never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would EVER do something like that, but during that time I grew so much closer to God which is all that really matters in the end.

This year has just been awesome.

It's still hard to believe sometimes that I am a mom, but at the same time I can't remember what life was like without Bebe.

Last year on New Years Eve, we were in Haiti with Bebe and all of the other kids at the orphanage not even having anything in place for the adoption.

This year we were with Bebe as her parents in the United States...so crazy!

It still blows me away how much of a miracle she is.

We are excited for what this next year will bring!

Here is a video of us dancing the night away at 12:30am. The kids were not tired at all! Just excited for the new year! Bebe said..."I fell like a new girl, like a different person." Not sure what that meant, but it was cute!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

What a year...What a Christmas...

2010-12-29T11:13:00.000-05:00

This Christmas was soooo fun! We have so many different Christmases just within my family. So this year we had to do things a little different. We decided to make Christmas Eve morning/afternoon the time where Sam, Bebe and I would celebrate Christmas together as a family.
So Sam and I went to wake Bebe up that morning. He was pretending he was Santa Claus, which apparently wasn't too funny to a 13 year old who would rather be sleeping:

I made eggs and bacon for Bebe for breakfast:

Then we spent some time singing and reading the Christmas Story:

Then time for gifts:

It was seriously so much fun. We just had a blast. Bebe's big gift from us was a Nintendo DS. She has been saving her money for months to try to buy a DS. When she opened it, she actually had tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe we had bought it for her. She kept saying, this is so expensive, I can't believe I got this. She was just so thankful. It was awesome.

Sam got me some great things too. He is always so worried that I won't like what he gets me, but he always does a great job. The biggest thing was our "Hot Date Gift". This year it is for a date to the marriage conference, "A Weekend to Remember." It will be so fun! I can't wait.

So after our family Christmas we went to the Christmas Eve Service at church. Bebe got all dressed up in her Christmas outfit:

This is where the story gets very interesting. The kids first did a Christmas play. Bebe was an angel and sang the first verse of Silent Night as a solo. She did so good and looked so beautiful.

They ended the service with some Christmas songs and a candle lighting time. Everyone in the church got a candle to light. So I was standing by Bebe. My candle was lit, and she lit hers. All of the sudden within a matter of seconds, I look up and her hair is on FIRE!!!!! We had both turned to the back row at the same time, and in the midst of that somehow, her little poof on the back of her head went up in flames. It was a flame about 5 inches tall. I screamed and then froze. Sam saw it and started putting the fire out with his hand, and with the help of my dad who was on the other side. The music kept going, only the people behind us saw it. We walked out of the church and everyone was staring at us. At first we didn't know what to say, then when we realized she was fine, and her hair was fine, we all started laughing. We could not believe that happened. It was like an episode of Americas Funniest Home Videos. Then the funniest part about it was when we were standing in the lobby laughing, Bebe says, " This is the second time this has happened to me!!" She said her hair caught on fire last year when the kids at the orphanage were playing with sparklers!

So this was definitely a memory. The entire church smelled like burnt hair!
This will be a hard Christmas to top! Needless to say, our family will not be participating in the candlelight service next year!

After the service, we went to my Aunt Shirley's house for Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Her little cousins love her. They were so excited to see her:

We spent the night at my parents house, and then got up Christmas morning to the usual cinnamon rolls, Christmas Play and gifts.

My mom got this shirt for Bebe. It's so cute!

Then we ended the day at my Aunt Shelley's house for Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

We always go somewhere to sing to people every year before we open gifts. This year we went to the hospital where my Grandpa was at early this year before he passed away. We sang to the people who were there on Christmas in the hospital:

We had a blast! I just love Christmas time. It is the best season of the year. This Christmas was our first Christmas being parents. It really made it so much more fun! It's again so amazing to see the difference in Bebe's life from this year to last year. She could have still been in Haiti this year, and how different would her life and Christmas have looked.

2 Days till Christmas!!!!

2010-12-22T17:23:00.000-05:00

Well this christmas season has just gone by way too fast!

It's so crazy to think that last year we left for Haiti the day after Christmas to lead our second missions trip with the college students. I was going crazy at this time last year trying to get everything packed and organized for 40 college students, plus Sam and I.We got to Haiti on December 27, 2009. As soon as we got off the plane we had to ride in the truck for 2 long hours to get to the orphanage. I was so anxious to see Bebe. I remember sitting in the truck just feeling so antsy. I could not wait to hug her.

When we finally got there, and as soon as we pulled in she gave me a huge hug. She brought her friend over who spoke English to tell me that she wanted to come visit Sam and I in our country. Little did she know she would be LIVING in our country just 4 months later!

This picture is from that night. When we got out of the truck just 1 year ago to see her again in Haiti.

We hung out with her last Christmas for 2 weeks straight not having any idea in the world that she would be home with us just 1 year later for Christmas.

It's so so crazy that she is here. It just blows me away to remember those things and to think that was only last year. Wow- God is just so amazing!!!!

So this is an extremely special christmas for us this year! I am so excited every time I think about it, just because she is here.

Well in the little time that we have had to celebrate this Christmas, we have done a few fun things.
Her and I have done lots of shopping and wrapping. She loves helping me with that.

The first fun event was her Christmas choir concert at TCS.

One of the classes she took this semester was choir. The whole semester they work on the songs for this concert. She was so excited and nervous.

Bebe's fan club after the concert...

Then was Bebe's first snow. She was amazed by it!

Last weekend we went to Childrens Wonderland. I wasn't sure if it would be too babyish for her, but she seemed to like it.

Yes, we stood in the long line to meet Santa. Even though Bebe had no idea who or what Santa even was. Obviously she doesn't beleive in him, but I thought if there is any year that I can get a picture of my daughter with Santa, it will be this year. She probably won't go for that when she is older! So here is Bebe meeting her first Santa. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said, "Are you really gonna give it to me?"

I told Santa she was from Haiti, and this is her first Christmas and that he was her first Santa. He said he was "honored." Then started talking to me about Haiti.

Then got a little too cozy...

We had a lot of fun!

The next big event was baking Christmas cookies.
I feel so high-tech using Sam's ipad for the cookie recipe:

We started the long process of baking christmas cookies.
First the mixing:

Then we refrigerated the dough for about 2 hours. Then rolled it out:

Then cut out the cookies:

Then frosted the cookies:

Then of course ATE the cookies:

We have had a great month of fun activities. Tomorrow morning we are celebrating our first Christmas as a family. Then we have lots of other family Christmases to go to.
It will be so much fun!

We have so much to be thankful for! God has done so much in our lives, and He is so good!
I hope everyone has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My hubby's 30th Birthday

2010-12-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

I know that I am WAY behind on blogging. So much has happened in the past 2 months. So I have to start with Sam's birthday. I am going to try to do a few blogs this week to get caught up on all of the fun Christmas stuff that is happening in our house, but first I have to talk about Sam's birthday.

This was a BIG year. Sam turned 30. I felt this high expectation to do something really big. Not from him really, just an expectation of myself. I am married to a very creative man, so I need to be somewhat creative in the things I do for him, or I end up feeling very lame!!!

It seems that the obvious 30th Birthday idea would be to have a surprise party. Believe it or not, Sam DID NOT want that AT ALL. Even though he is very outgoing and loves to be around people, there are certain things where he tends to be more introverted. This was one of them. It's a weird thing. Anyways, so I had no idea what to get him. I had decided on Vikings tickets for him and I. We would go away for a weekend, and go to Minnesota for the game.

Then something hit me, and I had the idea to send him home for his birthday. How perfect...when he would think of his 30th birthday, he would think of the year that he finally got to go home and see his mom. Sam came to the US 11 years ago, and he had not been home since. His mom is amazing, and definitely his favorite person in the world (after me of course).

So to make a long story short, I took him out to dinner exactly 50 days before his birthday. I had written him a long letter explaining the gift and how it was such an honor for me to be a part of this experience. We ordered the plane ticket and he left a few months later. Needless to say, he was quite excited, and emotional!!!

I was an emotional mess too thinking about him seeing his mom for the first time in 11 years. We have been away from each other a lot in our marriage because of my job and the tours that Sam does, but this was definitely the hardest time of being away from each other, but it was also the coolest!

Here is Sam, his mom, and his younger brother- reunited after 11 years.

They had such a great time. He got to hang out with his family and friends. Eat lots of Nigerian food. Sleep in the house he grew up in, go to an orphanage, go to the beach shop and so much more.

After he got back from Nigeria, he definitely missed the food. Apparently my cooking is not even in the same ball park as his moms (which is totally understandable). He came home with all of these recipes for Nigerian food. He has been making the food himself. It's pretty cute. He made this soup/sauce thing with goat meat, rice and fried plantains.

I try the food, but usually end up making something else for Bebe and I. It's too spicy for Bebe and I will not touch goat meat, and I am getting very tired of eating white rice all the time.

We also had some fun for Sam's birthday at our college group: Zakuska.
I made him dress in his fun Nigerian clothes and of course some over the hill stuff as everyone sang happy birthday to him.

Then just when he thought he was done, they brought out an IPad!!!!! He was so surprised that they would do that for him. We have such great college students! We love them!

So to make a long crazy story short...Sam had an AWESOME, PERFECT 30th birthday!

Happy First Thanksgiving!

2010-11-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was a blast.
A few weeks before Thanksgiving I realized that Bebe didn't know what Thanksgiving even was. We went to the library and got out a bunch of kids books about Thanksgiving. For a week straight, every night before bed we would read a Thanksgiving book.

She was very excited for her first thanksgiving!

A few years ago when I actually was somewhat into working out, some of my family members would run in a 5k race called the Turkey Trot in Sylvania on Thanksgiving morning. The last year that I did the race, my cousin and I actually cheated because we were so tired. We cut through a side street and ended up ahead of my dad and cousin. It was a pretty funny story.
I obviously was not going to be running in the race this year. I haven't worked out steadily since I got married (that is so bad!) There is no way I could run 3 miles!

My dad somehow talked Bebe into running the Turkey Trot with him this year.
She kept saying, "I'm so nervous and embarrassed." She really didn't want to do it, but she did. She had not even been practicing. She got up on Thanksgiving morning in the rain and ran 3.2 miles without stopping! What a girl! Much more motivated than me!

Here are the runners before the race:

Here is dad trying to pump Bebe up:

Off they go:
Here they are...almost at the finish line!

They finished like 800 something out of 1,800 people...not bad!

We then went over to my Aunt Shelley's house with the family.
Bebe had her first turkey leg, and of course she ate everything but the bones...

During dinner, Sam and my mom got into a pretty heated debate. It all started with a simple question to my mom...I asked...why are you so against the new scanners/security at the airport. This turned into a LONG political discussion with my dad being the moderator. Luckily we still had a good time the rest of the day. haha

On Friday, we got out the Christmas decorations. I have not accumulated much yet, and I don't like to go crazy with decorating. I definitely like simple. There were only a handful of things to put out, but it was still fun.

We put up the whole tree and decorated it ourselves while dad took pictures:

The finished product:

We ended the night by watching Elf and drinking hot chocolate.

It's so fun to be able to celebrate Bebe's first thanksgiving and Christmas in the US even though she is 13. It's going to be so fun to start new traditions this year with her.

If you made it to the end of this long blog, I am looking for some fun new traditions to start with her and our family.
Any ideas?

On the road....

2010-11-20T16:43:00.001-05:00

Sam had an awesome opportunity to go on tour with Hawk Nelson, John Reuben, Brit Nicole and Revive this past month.

He represented the Mocha Club again, which is an awesome organization that help people in Africa. They have different projects that they do. People sign up and the money goes to the project in Africa.

I am so proud of my husband. I always say that he is the best speaker I know...I love what he does and I believe in it so much.

Bebe and I took a little road trip and headed to Port Huron Michigan last weekend to see our favorite husband/dad. We had a great time...

Here we are dancing to John Rueben:

Bebe actually went on stage at the end of Sam's talk. She prayed in front of everyone that God would help people with no food, and she thanked God for bringing her to this country. It was really cool.

After the show we got to meet Sammy and get his autograph:

Bebe totally hit it off with John Rueben, they became friends right away...

She said just yesterday that she misses him.

Me and my man...so proud of him!

We met this family while we were there. Their dad was actually the promoter of the show. They had 6 kids...3 were adopted...2 from Africa and 1 from Korea. An amazing family. They have 6 kids all around the same age. Bebe of course hit it off with all of them. They just played and played. This is hopefully an example of what our family will look like years down the road!

Here is a picture of Bebe with a few of them...

It was a great night!

Its hard when Sam is gone, but we are getting through it. Bebe and I are bonding a lot and having lots of girl time while dad is gone.

Halloween.....

2010-10-31T22:56:00.000-04:00

Bebe did not even know what Halloween was. We had to explain it to her. She got really excited at the idea of a day for getting lots of candy. So we went last weekend and let her pick out a costume. Normally I would never spend $35 on a princess outfit...I never got brand new costumes from a Halloween store when I was a kid (we just had to make stuff up out of what we had), but everything this first year is just a special occasion. Everything is new and exciting, and it makes us want to give her the best first experiences that she can have with everything we do.

She has been super excited all week. Last night she said she was so excited that she could hardly eat.

So today finally came. We first had the Vineyard Church Harvest Party from 3-5. She invited a couple of her friends from the neighborhood and went with her best friend Christilove. So she started getting ready with some help from her friends...

We even put on fake nails last night to complete her outfit...total princess:

At the harvest party the girls played games:

Got faces painted:

Road on the go-cart:

Went crazy in the moon-bounce:

Rode on the hayride:

I followed them around for 2 hours snapping pics:

We got back home, dressed up Milo and went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood...

They had fun trick-or-treating, but they actually had much more fun at the harvest party.

Bebe was done by 7:00, and wanted to pass out candy. So we ended the night passing out candy with our neighbors:

Fun first halloween!!!!

Can you take a guess how many miles Bebe rode in the bike-a-thon?

2010-09-17T21:56:00.003-04:00

I really don't know how to explain BeBe's competitive side. She is more competitive than anyone I have seen, but with that, she is also super talented at EVERYTHING she does. It seems like everything sports wise, music wise, art wise- she is just good at everything. It's just weird.

This is a small example...her first week in gym class at school, they were running/walking for the entire period. Bebe was the only student who ran 4 miles straight without stopping. The only reason she stopped after 4 miles was because class was over. Her teacher was extremely impressed to say the least.
She just has crazy unexplainable talent.
Now this story will probably absolutely shock you. You probably won't even believe it. I laughed hysterically and didn't believe it when I first heard.
Today was the bike-a-thon for TCS. Bebe LOVES riding her bike, but I really didn't know someone could love riding a bike this much. It was from 8am-2pm, but the kids obviously didn't have to ride that entire time.Most of the kids got people to sponsor them per mile. All the money goes to the school as a fundraiser. Bebe was super excited to do this. She could not wait...
So I get home from work, and I was asking Bebe how it was and how many miles she did.She tells me to guess....So I start guessing...5...no, 10...no, 15...no, 20....no, 25!!!! NO!!!At this point I gave up.
I didn't believe it until I saw her certificate...Bebe rode her bike in the bike-a-thon today 45.7 Miles. That is how super crazy and competitive my daughter is. She was not the least bit tired...she just went to bed at 10:00 tonight and she was wide awake.
It is still making me laugh so hard just thinking about that. I mean 45 miles is like she rode her bike from Toledo to the Detroit airport...I mean this girl is just crazy.
Here are the pictures to prove this unbelievable story....

Here is Bebe with her certificate and all of the marks on her arms...each mark was worth 3 miles...

old Sam,

I told Sam it's a good thing people gave her a flat rate vs. sponsoring her per mile.

Weekend of Rest

2010-09-07T18:41:00.001-04:00

This weekend was wonderful!

Sam and I have been planning that for Labor Day this year we would go somewhere and just do literally nothing.

So we booked a hotel outside of Ann Arbor for the weekend. We had a blast!! We really just needed to rest, and that is exactly what we did. We watched a ton of tv, and ate a lot of food. We had nowhere to go, and nothing to do, and it was WONDERFUL!

We had sooo much fun!

We had some awesome conversations about our future, and just spent time dreaming together. It was very refreshing.

We took some time to swim too. Actually the pool/hot tub was where we had some of the best conversations.

Bebe went to Nini and Didi's. She had a blast too! It's so great to have awesome parents who live so close to us. She loves going to stay with them, and they love having her. I think she gets spoiled a little...but I guess it's okay.

She went to the fair, and went up to a campground with my family.

Here she is at the fair doing some weird game...

She also got to spend some time with her cousins. Apparently they love her now...She will be a great big sister someday (hopefully sooner than later :)

She occasionally write us these letters. I am not sure where she comes up with this stuff, but they are just so cute. The day before we left she says...Mom, I wrote you a letter and I want to give it to you now because I will forget tomorrow. So she gave us this letter the day before we left. This is the highlight of this blog post:

Have fun in stay save means...Have fun and stay safe

She also came up with this line, and she has said it before..."After Jesus, my life is for you."

What a great line! haha. I love it.

I also love how she said stay safe for me and for God. It was hard to read that line and keep a straight face. What a cute girl!

Now back to the craziness of life. We are frantically trying to study for Bebe's first Math, Science, and Bible test that are all on the same day this week! God help her!

First Day of Middle School!

2010-08-18T09:10:00.001-04:00

This school process has been INSANE! Here is a breakdown of the ups and downs...

Our original plan was that before we had kids we would sell our house and get into a good school system (obviously our plans have not been working out as we had "planned"). Since this adoption happened so fast, we did not have time to do that. I LOVE our neighborhood, but the schools are horrible. We sent Bebe to Toledo Public for the last 5 weeks of the school year when she first came, but she was in the English program so it wasn't that bad.

We had 3 months of summer basically to decide what to do. We started getting our house ready to sell. We decided that was our first option, and we were going to trust God to sell the house in 2 months which seemed impossible. Well 3 months later...nothing has happened with the house and it is still for sale.

During the time we put our house up for sale, I started checking into open enrollment at Harvard Elementary which is one of Toledo Public's best schools. I filled out the form to open enroll her, but they couldn't give me any guarantees because so many students want to get into that school. The principal said that I wouldn't know if she got in until a week before classes begin. I remember leaving Harvard that day feeling so lost with this whole thing. God brought her here at this season...He has to have a plan. But nothing seemed to be working out.

At this point, it was rough. We had no idea where we were going to send her, or what was going to happen. It really seemed like we had no options. God would have to come through. There was nothing we could do.
We had kind of ruled out private schools, because of an initial conversation with one school that said they couldn't work with us.

Well about 1 1/2 months ago my mom suggested we just try contacting Toledo Christian to see if it was a possibility. I never thought we would put our kids in Christian schools, mainly because of the high cost of tuition, but at that point...we didn't really have any other options so we set up an appointment.

The first step was testing Bebe to see if they could work with her. I was really nervous when she went in for the test. I honestly didn't think she would do well. First, she has only been learning English for 4 months, and she is behind academically. Well somehow she passed. So that was crazy. THEN the second step was a reading/comprehension test. I was REALLY nervous for that one, but once again somehow she passed at a moderate level. That itself seemed like a miracle.

So we decided to apply to TCS, and just trust God. Well as of Monday of this week, we were accepted to the school, and classes started today. In the process of the TCS enrollment, I got an email from Harvard Elementary saying she was accepted. So at the beginning of summer, it seemed like we had no options, and last week we were suddenly juggling two really good options. It's crazy how God works things out.

We also had someone in the process of this offer to help us pay for tuition for this year! God provided a school, and the financial part of it.

We went to an orientation at the school on Monday night. I just felt 100% like we made the right decision. She has so much going on...so many new adjustments. She is so innocent, and just such a little girl still. She needs to be in this environment where she will be loved, accepted and taken care of.

We dropped her off today, and it was just so emotional. For one, you are dealing with regular emotions that all parents have of sending your child to be on their own in school all day. That was already hard. THEN on top of that we have all the emotions of seeing what her life is like now. Seeing her in this environment having a chance to do ANYTHING she wants with her life.
Last year when she was starting school she was in Haiti...
Her school had a dirt floor, there was no light, no cool visuals, no computers, no choir, no art class, no gym class, no lunch, no text books. Only an old chalk board with a teacher that would talk the whole time while they sat on wooden benches and they would get spanked if the did anything wrong.
Here is a picture of the class room at Bebe's school in Haiti:

Here is Bebe coming back to the orphange from school one day in her uniform. Normally there would be no one to ask her how her day was or to take care of her and give her a hug.

This year, she is in America. What a life change! What an opportunity. God has given her an amazing opportunity.

Here she is getting ready to leave this morning:

Here she is at her new locker where she already put up pictures:

Here is me saying goodbye....Trying not to cry...

Here she is in her first class of the day...World History (poor girl)...

I'm so glad we didn't sell our house this summer. Maybe God did that so that we would consider TCS and he could open that door.
God provides and has continued to be faithful during the process, and after the process!

I am anxiously awaiting to hear how her first day went!

Struggles

2010-08-10T12:20:00.001-04:00

It's been a little over 4 months now since Bebe has been in our home. In some ways I can't believe it has been that long, but then other days I can't even remember what life was like without her.
I always write about happy stuff on this blog, but I feel like I need to go a little deeper today and write about some of the challenges through this process.

Before I start, I do just want to say that this has been an amazing process. Most of the people who read this blog followed our journey from the beginning. You know what a miracle this was, and that God literally made this happen. It was nothing we could have done. Bebe is an amazing girl, and it is just awesome to see her grow more each day, to see her feel safe, and loved. For her to know she is taken care of. That she will not go hungry, that she has everything she needs. She realizes that and is grateful for that.

At the same time, just because this is an amazing thing that God is breathing in...does not mean it's not going to be hard. We have had many ups and downs in these 4 months. We went from having no kids and being able to do anything we want whether it be fun stuff, ministry stuff, work stuff, marriage stuff...to now having a kid involved in everything we do. Not a baby, but a 12 year old. Honestly...it's really hard. It's a hard adjustment. I think it has been a lot harder for me than Sam too. There have been a few days where I have cried to Sam because it's hard.

For one I am working 40 hours a week. My desire is to be a stay at home mom, but I can't do that right now. I told God and Sam that I WOULD NOT have kids until I didn't have to work full-time. For some reason that plan didn't happen at this moment. It's really hard because my desire and dream for my life is to one: be a mom and two: to work hand in hand with Sam in his ministry. I can't fully do either of those things now. It's like I entered this "Mom World" but I can't fully experience that because my life is spent at my job. It's really really hard. I try not to bring that home with me, but I can't help it many times because it's my life (for now). I feel like I can't fully be a mom to her as much as I want or need, because I am not with her for 9 hours out of everyday. I know this is all a part of God's plan, and He is trying to teach me something in this process. I continue to trust that He is going to give me the desires of my heart... someday.

Then the other struggle is just the transition of going from not having a kid to having a kid. Sam and I used to do so much together, we still try, but now we have another person in our lives that takes that attention. She can be very needy because she was used to having 60 kids around her all day. If she is not playing outside with the neighbor kids or sleeping because it is bedtime...she is right there in the middle of what we are doing. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes I just need time with Sam after a long day of work. Our conversations at dinner have changed, what we watch on tv has changed, what we do on the weekend has changed, the way we spend our money has changed, even my involvement in Zakuska has changed.
It's like one day I was married and it was all about Sam and I and our ministry...we are suddenly apart for 2 months living in Haiti at separate times working on the adoption, and then we get back to "normal" life and it is anything but normal.
I don't know if the change is quite like this when people have a baby. You probably have more time to ease into the change because it's a baby. I'm sure there are many challenges with that as well, but this is just so different. I don't know of any other 26 year old that have been married for 2 years who now have a 12 year old as there first child. It just sounds crazy. It is crazy. It is hard. I don't want to pretend that everything is so easy...because it's not.

Sam and I have gone through a few rough weeks during this process. When you look at the big picture...it's an amazing thing. She is an amazing kid. She now has an amazing life; an amazing story. We get to be parents and take care of this child who had no one. It is an adjustment though. It is hard. Having a kid forces you to remove your selfishness. That is a fact whether the kids is a baby, or 12 years old. Life is no longer just about Sam and I. That initial transition is hard.

I sometimes get down on myself for thinking it's hard. I feel guilty sometimes. Like I feel like I am not supposed to feel that way...that's the perfectionist side of me coming out.

I'm not sure how to sum this blog up. I guess I just want it to be known that just like many other things that God calls us to...the road may not be easy, but the joys and blessings of following the plan God has for you are worth the risk and the hardships.

Thank you God for choosing us to be Bebe's parents...through the good times, and the hard times.

** I would love to hear advice/tips on how other parents handles this transition.

**Also, if there are other full-time working moms who have to balance taking care of the family and home, while keeping a great relationship with your husband...I would love to hear advice on that too!

Cedar Point

2010-07-27T18:20:00.002-04:00

I am so behind in blogging. It seems like I have a million things to write about. I try to go in order of how things are happening, but yesterday was just so much fun, I have to skip ahead.

Yesterday was a big day for the Adebiyi's and Hogles. We all went to CEDAR POINT. Our friend JJ who is from Haiti and in our college group came with us too. It was probably the best Cedar Point experience I have ever had.

We had 4 Haitians who had never experienced anything even slightly close to Cedar Point. It's hard to even explain or describe what it is going to be like. Bebe is usually so brave, and is willing to ready to try anything. I wasn't sure how she would be though since this is so different than anything we have done.

You really don't realize how scary and crazy Cedar Point is until you see 4 Haitian kids on their first rollar coaster. They were not even nervous in line because even though they saw the ride that we were getting on, they had nothing to compare it to. They had no idea how most people feel before, during or after a ride.

We rode the Blue Streak first since it is a smaller ride. We had to get "warmed up."

Here we are in line...

I rode with Bebe, Sam rode with Dieubon, and JJ rode with Christilove. This was one of those experiences that I am just not going to be able to explain. It was one of the funniest, most memorable moments ever. Just to see the looks on their faces of pure fear, shock, surprise, and probably thinking WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING...was just a priceless moment. The kids got off the ride smiling, but it took them a while to get to those smiles. I don't think they even imagined there was something like a rollar coaster, or that it would make you feel how it makes you feel. I think they were fully just in complete shock that this kind of thing exists.

Next we went on the iron dragon.

Here is Bebe getting ready for the ride. I got yelled at in front of everyone for taking this picture...

The kids smiled and laughed when the ride was over. I think they liked this one the best because it wasn't too crazy.

We thought we better step it up a little and see if these smiles were for real. We headed to the Magnum. Just a side note, I am always so surprised by how great the Magnum is. There is usually only a 15-20 min wait, and every time I get on it...I forget how great it is...It's such an underrated ride.

The Magnum is great too bc while you are in line, you can't see the ride. So the kids had no idea what we were about to put them through.

Bebe rode with Sam on this one and at one point he grabbed her hand to try to raise it...she screamed DAD>>>NOOOO! and gave him the evil eye. I rode with Dieubon and he was bent over with his head down the whole ride, which seems so much worse than just keeping it up. Christilove was climbing into JJ's lap the whole ride freaking out. We all got off smiling and laughing. I think they were in more shock because they thought it couldn't get much worse than the Blue Streak...

We rode the Gemini next and some fun kid rides...

Then we were getting requests for the Raptur. So we headed to the front of the park and got on. Chrisilove opted out of this one because she wasn't feeling good. So JJ, Sam and I took Dieubon and Bebe. They were fine in line, but once we got on the ride Bebe got really scared. She almost started crying. There was no turning back though, so we screamed the whole time, and when we were finished she said "I want to go again." So again it was a success!

Well that ended up being her last scary ride of the night. I'm not sure what happened, but she was just done with the scary rides. We took a dinner break and had some good old fries, pizza, and turkey legs..

After that, she really didn't have much desire to go on any other rides. We wanted her to go on the Millenium, and Sam even had high hopes of her going on the Dragster, but she wasn't as crazy as we thought she would be.

The kids ended up going on Thunder Canyon about 6 times, and were soaked the rest of the night. They had a blast with the water part. We even let them go on that by themselves!

As we go each year, they will probably get braver and braver, but I'm sure it was an extremely overwhelming experience.

It was just such a fun day. They really had so much fun. It's a whole different experience going with kids, especially kids who have never seen or could have even imagined a rollar coaster.

Sam, JJ and I somehow still got to go on the Millennium and Dragster while the kids watched the Laser show with Vonda. Ahh I just love Cedar Point!!!

We ended the night with some cool Cedar Point shirts, fudge, and cotton candy...

It was just such a fun day. I always say that everything we do is fun because it's all new. It is all a new experience. This just blows everything we have done out of the water. This was just such an amazing day. I am just so happy that we can make these kids happy and see them smile, and allow them to experience the things that are just so normal to us.

Today my friend Vonda put this as her status:

"The kids had so much fun, it was a blast! I asked how they would describe it to the kids in Haiti, and they just shook their heads and said "They could never understand."

BeBe's first birthday party!!!

2010-07-14T11:13:00.004-04:00

It is so hard to imagine a life where you are 13 years old, and have never had a birthday party or received presents on your birthday. Growing up, my birthday each year was a big deal. I would have family parties, parties at Major Magics, rollar skating. All of my friends would come, I would have a cake and get lots of presents. I had many people around me each year that would celebrate my life.

For Bebe, that is not her story. She lived in an orphanage for 9 years of her life. Many of the kids that lived there don't even know when their birthdays are, let alone get a party and have a celebration every year. When we were in Haiti in December, we would have conversations with Bebe through a guy named Nidson. He would translate for us. We asked her one day, "When in your life were you the most happy." Her answer was when she was 3, her mom made her a cake and bought her a gift for her birthday. That was the happiest moment of her life.

The interesting thing is, somehow she knew that she was missing out. Somehow she knew there was more, and not everyone has a birthday like they do at the orphanage in Haiti. She started asking me about what her first birthday in the US would be like, when we were down in Haiti finishing the paperwork to adopt her. She told me she wanted a big party for her birthday. She said this multiple times.

Well her dream came true this past weekend. I gave her the option for her first birthday to go to Chuck E. Cheese with a few people, go to a water park with a few people, or invite a lot of people and have a cookout at the park. She chose the park. We invited her close cousins and friends, and had a big party. We played games, had food and cake, and gifts. She had a blast.

Here she is waiting for everyone to come:

Here are some of her closest girl friends:

We started the party with a water balloon toss:

Then we had a noodle race:

We finished up the games with a round of "hot potato":
We ate some of her favorite foods:
Time for her Hannah Montana cake!
Then finally gift time:
She had an amazing time. She said...THIS IS MY FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!! YAY!! She was so happy and excited the whole day. Finally a day all about her, to celebrate her amazing life...

And here is our happy family after the party was over:

Yesterday was her actual birthday, so we saved her big gift for yesterday.

Her big gift was a new bike. I think she was kind of hoping for a bike, so we had to trick her a little bit. We bought her a pink helmet and wrapped it up for her. We told her we only got her a small thing because of her party. We told her the helmet was for when she rides her scooter.

I think she was a little confused, but she didn't say anything. Then we took her outside and told her I needed help with something in the garage. We opened the door and there was her new bike!

That smell made me cry

2010-07-09T22:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I changed all of the plug-in air-fresheners in the house. The house smells awesome...it's so strong. Bebe kept commenting today on how good the house smelled... Then we had this conversation:

BeBe: Mom, I have to tell you something

Mom: What BeBe

BeBe: Today this smell in the house made me think of the first day I came to home to the US, and I was crying

Mom: What do you mean you were crying?

BeBe: This smell in the house is what the house smelled like when I first came to the US, I was crying because it made me think of the first day I came home. I am so happy I came to the US. Here I have everything I need. In Haiti, I didn't have everything I needed. This smell made me think of coming home, and I am so happy- I cried.

Then we had a big family hug.

I sometimes struggle with the fact that I missed out on so much of her life since she came into our family at age 12. This conversation makes it a little easier for me. I love the fact that she is older because she knows where she came from. She understands the idea of adoption and how much it matters more than most people will ever realize.

What an amazing girl we have!

4th of July!!

2010-07-06T18:10:00.002-04:00

This weekend was great! We were not sure how the fireworks would go over. Last week Bebe was upstairs brushing her teeth. Someone in our neighborhood was shooting off fireworks. She comes running down the stairs in the middle of brushing her teeth and said, "Is someone shooting." She was genuinely scared!

She ended up having a blast though. The weekend started with a cookout at my parents for the college students and some close friends. Vonda and her kids came too. The girls all had matching shirts that one of the college students' Mom bought for them. The shirts say " USA"...

Then the kids later discovered sparklers...

Then the fireworks started. The kids were amazed. They loved it! It was so so fun being there with them enjoying this first time experience. These kids ages 10, 12 and 13 saw fireworks for the first time! During the song..."Coming to America" I leaned over to Bebe and said...This is your song...It says coming to America...and she screamed...Thank you radio...Thank you song! I COME TO AMERICA AHHHHH!!!!!!! THIS IS MY SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Milo even enjoyed the fireworks...

They had a blast!

Then the next day, we went downtown in our friends boat. We watched the fireworks on a boat, in the river. It was pretty cool!

When we were on the boat, people were shooting off loud fireworks. This was Bebe's reaction to the noise. This is the drama queen side of Bebe...this expression is 100% genuine. I somehow caught it in a picture...

The happy family...

The next day the kids went swimming...The girls look so cute in their swim caps.

What a fun weekend of great memories!

Dieubon and Christilove!!!!!

2010-06-21T19:02:00.000-04:00

Well this weekend was one we will never forget. Our friend Vonda (who was in haiti with me for those long 5 weeks) finally got to bring her 2 kids home!! We drove up to the airport on Friday night with a few college students so that we could welcome them. We drove the van with Bebe and Vonda's little girl Stormy.

The girls were so so excited. I can't even tell you how crazy they were. I have not seen Bebe that excited for anything.

Here they are in the car:

Their flight ended up getting delayed because there was a horrible storm. We had to wait a few extra hours at the airport than we originally had planned.

This didn't minimize Bebe's excitement. She never stopped. She was bouncing off the walls the entire time! Sam had to make her sit down and rest for a couple 10 minute sessions because she was going insane.

Their plane finally arrived at 12:30am. It was such an amazing moment to see them in the airport. Finally, we are all home! God is just so good.

It's amazing to see how much Bebe has learned in these 3 months that she has been here. She is the one translating for Dieubon and Christilove. The whole experience made me relive the day we got off that plane with Bebe. The whole experience is just amazing. So life changing...so awesome!

I am so happy and just thankful that these kids are here. God has amazing plans for their lives, and I know they will all be great friends forever.

The next day we took all the kids to the McDonalds playland.

They had their first American cheeseburgers...

...and played in the play area. They LOVED it!

It just makes me smile every time I see them together.

Thank you Jesus!

Photo Shoot!!!!

2010-06-18T14:26:00.002-04:00

I just posted pictures of Bebe on my facebook page. The whole thing was just really funny. We were talking one day and she says...mom, do you know what a studio is? I said yes. She said I want to go and get my picture taken and send them to Haiti. Well we didn't have time to actually go to a studio before Sam went to Haiti this last time, so I told her that we will make our own studio and I will be the photographer. She could choose 5 outfits, and we would take a lot of pictures and send them to her friends
So one Sunday afternoon we had photo shoot day. She LOVED it. She picked her favorite outfits and just kept posing. She didn't want to be done. She looked at the pictures about 100 times after we were all finished.
When Sam was getting ready to leave for Haiti this last time, she wrote each of her friends a note and sent them a picture. She had 25 of her pictures in front of her, and chose each one very carefully. She was very picky about what friends would get what pictures.
It was pretty funny.
I was proud of myself though, because I got some great pictures of her.

These are my favorites:

Bebe "rollarblading"

2010-06-16T14:17:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Bebe was out playing with her friends. Sam would occasionally look out the window to check on her. He looked out and and saw Bebe putting on her friends rollarblades.
She has never tried rollarblading before.
This is what happened:

This girl is not afraid to try anything...

Schools out for summer...

2010-06-09T10:44:00.001-04:00

School for Bebe ended last week. We made her new schedule for the summer, and she is not too happy about it. This past Saturday was the first day in a while that we were just home all day. She told me about 10 times how bored she was and how she already misses school. She kept asking me questions about how long summer lasted and when she could go back to school. She likes to be busy all of the time. It's just so funny.
It's just crazy how she loves school and just wants to learn. She wasn't even in a good school at all, but somehow she loved it...I can't imagine what it will be like if she ends up going to a private school.

I have been scrambling around trying to find summer camps to enroll her in. I have actually found quite a few. Next week she will do an "Enrichment Camp" at St. Ursela where she will get to try a lot of different things from sports, to cooking even drama. She is going to do a soccer camp at Cornerstone Church and Calvary, a reading/writing camp at Lourdes college, and VBS at Strayer and Vineyard. Hopefully these programs will keep her busy.

When she is not participating in a camp she has a schedule of school work, lots of play time, tv and some chores each day.
She is not wild about the chores. When she first came, she was totally into helping me clean. Now that she is adjusting more and has discovered Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and The Suite Life, she is more interested in those things, than helping me. So we are on a new mission to teach her work ethic...something she has never been taught.

We are still not sure what school is going to look like next year. Our house has been on the market for 2 weeks now. Obviously nothing has happened in that short of time. We just are not sure what we are going to do. We are looking into other options in case the house doesn't sell in the next 3 months.

Our friend Vonda who I was in Haiti with for those long 4 weeks...is still in the process of adopting 2 kids from Haiti. She just received exciting news yesterday that she has been approved ! She will hopefully be bringing her kids home next week. Bebe just flipped out with excitement when Vonda called us. The 2 kids Vonda is adopting were some of Bebe's closest friends in the orphanage. She is now going to get to see them a lot. She is so excited. It will be so great for them to have each other through this process.
Last night we went through Bebe's clothes to find things for ChristyLove to wear (which is the name of the girl Vonda is adopting). It's hard to believe Bebe already has so many clothes that we are able to go through her things and give a lot of stuff away. Immediately after we got the call from Vonda, Bebe grabbed our hands and wanted to pray to thank Jesus.
It's so amazing!

We are in for a lot of exciting adventures this summer. We are planning a zoo trip, chuck E. cheese, tubing, and of course Cedar Point. Bebe's 13th birthday is also coming up in July!!

Can't wait!

NYC!!

2010-05-31T14:34:00.001-04:00

Well we are back from a great weekend in New York City. Sam surprised me on Wednesday of this past week saying that he booked us flights and a hotel for New York and we would be leaving Friday night. Today actually is our two year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years already, but at the same time, I can't picture my life without being married to Sam. It's been an amazing 2 years!

We got to New York on Friday night. We took a taxi to our hotel on 55th Street. It was called Shoreham. Very very modern hotel in a great area. It was very nice. We checked out our room, and then headed toward Times Square. It's amazing how many people are just always out. It was so fun to see everything. We grabbed some food, and just walked around.

Saturday, we decided that we wanted to see a broadway show. Sam saw the theater for Mary Poppins the night before and freaked out. We decided to just spend the money and go see it. When we went to buy tickets, there were only seats left in the balcony, or on the floor. The floor seats were $160 a piece and the balcony were $50 a piece, so we settled on the balcony seats. We were pretty high up there. In the second to last row actually, but it was still amazing. I looked at Sam so many times during the show and said "THIS IS SOOO GOOD!!"It was so fun, and totally worth the money.

After the show we shopped most of the evening. We were on a search for a cool shirt that Sam can wear in a picture for his web site. Out of all of the stores in New York City, we somehow could not find one...not sure what the problem was, but unfortunately...Sam came home with only 1 soccer jersey...and no "cool" shirts.

At that point, I hadn't bought anything either. I was on the look out for the shady knock-off purse people, but I hadn't seen any that I liked.

The next day, we could barely get out of bed. We were so so tired from all of the walking. We literally walked almost the entire day. We got up and took the subway to Staten Island. We rode the ferry past the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. We had a good time, even though I spilled the cheese dip that came with my pretzel all over myself, the kid next to me, and the gigantic purse I was carrying. This incident happened right as we were passing the Statue of Liberty. I was trying to take pictures, and my food just fell everywhere. It was pretty embarrassing, and I missed a lot of good photo opportunities. We still had fun though.

After the ferry, we rode the subway to China Town. This part was so much fun. I finally found my first "Coach" purse. We stumbled upon Little Italy, and ate at an Italian restaurant outside that was right on the street. I found a couple cool stores that I liked there also. On the way back to the subway, one of the purse guys who was selling the purses was in hand cuffs. I felt really bad for him. An undercover cop caught him.I felt bad, because I felt a special bond with these guys...They give people like me the chance to have a Coach, Louie Vuitton, Chanel- purse even though it's not totally authentic. I would never spend that kind of money on a purse...but now I have a knock-off version of those purses, and I am happy...The poor guy is just trying to make money and give girls like me a chance to have something cool haha...but I guess it is illegal.

After all the shopping, we went to Central Park and walked around. We could barely walk at this point. We are either really really out of shape, or New Yorkers just have an insane endurance level. We literally were about to pass out. Our feet and legs were killing us after 2 full days in New York. We wanted to see more of Central Park, but we physically could not walk anymore.What we did see of Central Park was amazing though. So many people everywhere...just hanging out. We even saw an old guy just chillin on a blanket in his speedo at like 7pm at night listening to music.There were some really weird people, but not as many as I always pictured NY having.

We got ice cream and gyros on our way back, and spent more time in Time Square.

Then we went back to our hotel and collapsed.

It was a great trip. We had a lot of fun together. It was great to just get away from everything for a little while to celebrate our life together. I love my husband so much. I can't believe it was 2 years ago today that the greatest wedding ever took place. I am so blessed and grateful to have married Samuel Adebiyi. I love him with all of my heart!

(To see more pics from our trip...go to my facebook)

So much!

2010-05-26T12:35:00.002-04:00

Well a lot has happened in the last couple days.

As I wrote in my previous post, our great friend and contact from Haiti...Pastor Joel passed away on Sunday night from a heart attack. We sat Bebe down on Monday night to tell her. It was a very hard conversation. Sam said...Bebe- Pastor Joel went to be with Jesus last night. She hesitated...and didn't believe him for a minute then her eyes got big and she said...Pastor Joel- dead? We said yes and she just started whaling. I have never heard her cry like that. She cried for a really long time. I kept hearing her through the tears and screaming say...Why...and No!
It was hard. She was better later that evening. She even told us that at school earlier that day, she was thinking about Haiti and she was crying at lunch because she missed it. She wrote 2 letters to Haiti that day. She has only had 1 other time where she cried over Haiti because she missed it. We told her it's ok to cry. We all cried together for Pastor Joel...He will always be in our hearts, as a man who changed our lives.
There is a memorial service being held tomorrow at 11:00am at Calvary Bible Chapel. For those of you who know JJ or knew Pastor Joel, please come out.

There are so many other things happening in our lives right now.

Sam surprised me this morning by telling me that he is taking me to New York City this weekend to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. I am so excited. I can't wait to just have some time with my husband. Our lives have been total chaos for the past few months. We haven't had much time together at all. This will be a very very nice break. I have never been to NYC, which is hard to believe. I have always wanted to go...so I cannot wait. Bebe will be spending the weekend with Nini and Didi. I am sure she will not want to come home after they spoil her for 3 days straight...that's how it is with MJ and Milo.

There were a lot of factors with this whole adoption process (besides the actual adoption) that we were trusting God for and continue to trust God for. Our plan was that before we had kids, we would sell our house to get into a better school system, and that I would not have to work full time. Obviously neither of those things happened because this adoption process happened so quickly.
Well we have been talking for the past month about what to do for Bebe's school next year.

Currently she is in 5th grade at TPS...McKinley Elementary where she is in ESL 4 days a week and McKinley for 1 day. It is going well. She really likes it...she loves it actually. Next year she will be in 6th grade, which in TPS is the junior high. She would be going to Deveaux Junior High...I just can't do that. Junior High is already just a bad time...and then to go to a school that I am not crazy about is just not going to work.

So...we have been working hard to get our house up for sale. And as of today on my lunch break, there is a sign in our yard from our amazing realtor Hans Neugebauer. He has another house that is for sale on our street and they are having an open house tomorrow at 11. He said it would be great if we could get our house ready so that we could be in on this open house.
We have been working so hard to get everything done.

I am very excited for this next phase, but it's kind of sad in many ways too. I am very attached to our house. It was an amazing blessing that God gave us 3 years ago. We have had our first 2 years of marriage in this house. We did so much work on this house. My parents helped us a ton with this house. Zakuska- our college group started with 9 people 3 years ago in our basement at this house. There are so many other connections I have with this house...and we also have amazing neighbors that have become great friends. I will do a whole blog soon on our house and show before and after pics.

Please pray for us through this process. This is something that we are trusting God for. It's an impossible market, and seems like an impossible situation. We know that God has a plan. He started this whole thing, and we know He will take care of us. He brought Bebe here sooner than we ever expected. He knew she would be in 6th grade this year, and we would not be ready.

I am praying for a miracle, and that we sell this house in 2 months. I know it sounds hilarious, but who knows what can happen.

Here is a photo of our house with the sign in the yard...Ahhh I'm so nervous!

I want to give major props to my husband and some of the college students that have helped us so much the past couples weeks. Sam is exhausted from doing so much work. I love you Sam...you are doing soooo great!

Pastor Joel

2010-05-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

Well today has been an emotional day.
We received a call this morning that Pastor Joel Beaucejour- our connection to Haiti passed away last night from a heart attack.
This is honestly just so shocking. There was never a hint or a thought of anything like this happening.
Pastor Joel is JJ's father. JJ is the student in our college group- Zakuska, who is from Haiti. We had the connection through JJ and took our first trip to Haiti May 13, 2009. We met Pastor Joel and knew right away he was an amazing man. His goal was to take care of the orphans and the poor, and preach the gospel to Haiti and many other countries. We met Bebe almost exactly 1 year ago because of him.

He helped us through the adoption process. The adoption would not have happened without him. He coordinated our second trip that we took in December. He sat Sam and I down when we were there in December and told us he wanted to work with us on a more permanent basis. We had plans of starting an orphanage this summer with Pastor Joel.

Times like this I can't help but ask God WHY? Why would you do something like this. Why would you take this amazing man who is doing so much good...so much good for You and Your kingdom. It doesn't make sense. I don't understand.

Sometimes I feel like people are so close to God's heart, He just can't be away from them any longer. Or maybe that is just my way of trying to have an answer to that question.
Pastor Joel met Jesus last night. He is in Heaven. We rejoice in that. He truly loved God with his whole heart and his life modeled that on a daily basis. He would rather be in Heaven than here, but we will miss him so much. So many things will change with out him here.

Tonight we have to tell Bebe that the man that was her father figure for 9 years is gone. She has been through so much hardship in her little life, I just can't imagine how this is going to go.

Please pray...

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T16:30:00.001-04:00

It's really hard to believe that I can actually take part in this day now. It is still very surreal. I didn't think I would be a mother this soon, especially a mother to a 12 year old. What a crazy adventure.I feel so blessed to think that God chose me to be Bebe's mother at this stage of her life. It's really hard sometimes to think that we missed out on so much of her life though. We went to see our friends Royce and Liz this weekend. They just had a baby a few months ago. It's amazing to see this little life, and just the amazing things they get to experience with her. They are just there to take care of her and meet her every need.

I wish I could have held Bebe and taken care of her when she was little, and protected her from the bad things that she has already seen in her young life, and made sure she always had food/water, and clean clothes, and wish that I could have read to her and played with her when she was little, that when she would cry...I could have been there to take care of her.

I don't even know what she looked like when she was a baby, how much she weighed when she was born, or what her life was like. I don't know what time she was born, or if someone was there to hold her when she cried. It's just so weird to think that other people raised her.

It's so hard to think of those things. I know we will have great experiences in the future, and that I will be able to be the mother to her that she needs for all the fun stuff that comes with growing up, but there will always be that part of me that wonders about the unknowns of her life.

I know she will wonder many of those things in the future as well. It will be so hard to tell her that I don't know much about her life. I don't have baby photos, or other things she will want to see.

This was a great mothers day though. She wrote me a full page letter and had it translated. It was so sweet!

She wrote how she was praying for me for different things and then she wrote, " But you also want to thank God because there's a lot of people who don't have kids, but you do. The last line said: " I love you very much mother and this is from your daughter Bebe who loves you a lot like that."

They brought me in a cookie cake that said Happy Mothers day, while she sang "Happy Mother's Day to the tune of Happy Birthday.What a sweet daughter I have, and a great husband to teach her.

We are blessed. I thank God for bringing this child into our lives and that I can call myself a mother from now on.

This is Bebe and I on my birthday:

This is Bebe and I doing "Fit for Kids" aerobics:

This is Bebe posing like a model...I have no idea where she learned this already. She came down in this outfit and struck a pose:

This is the cake that Bebe picked out for me for Mothers Day:

This is me and my other big baby...Milo:

I am so glad I am a mom!

She Loves School!

2010-04-29T16:13:00.001-04:00

Well Bebe has almost completed 1 full week of school. She loves it...

We take her every morning to the school. 4 days a week she is at a different school in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program. On Friday's she will be at her regular school in the 5th grade class.

She brings home papers everyday of things that she did, and she actually wants to show me and tell us about it. I'm sure that won't last forever. Usually when parents ask their kids what they did at school the kids say "Nothing." We haven't gotten to that point yet...which I am glad.

Here is a photo of her on her first day:

Here we are in the car heading to school:

This is us in her class...I think she was slightly nervous:

She has been having a lot of fun. She has a pretty eventful life. It has been great that I have been able to be home with her during these last few weeks. I go back to work on May 17th. It's going to be a very hard adjustment, especially when my desire is to be a stay at home mom, but God has a plan, and I have to trust in His timing, and that He knows what He is doing.

My work is so great though. I work with such amazing people. They had a shower/party for Bebe and I. She got so many gifts. We had cake and punch. It was so sweet of them. It is just crazy how supportive people have been to our family in this process.

Here is a picture of her at the shower:

And here is a picture of her once we got home. She laid all of the gifts out and showed everyone who came to our house.

Life is good! Life is crazy...and always an adventure....but so good!

Picture Recap of Haiti (Includes the saddest goat picture you've ever seen)

2010-04-25T19:22:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to say thank you all for following the blog during the adoption process. So many of you were so supportive. It' really hard to believe that it is all over and she is here. Real life is definitely starting to set in.

Even though she is home now, the story really has just begun. There is now a little girl from Haiti that is living in our home, and in our family. It will be amazing to watch her grow, and continue to experience all of the amazing things that she can experience in the US. It will be amazing to see how God uses her life, and the person she is able to become years from now. I hope you all continue to join us in our story.

I have been so busy lately adjusting to everything I have not had time to blog, but I am going to continue to blog about what life is like now that she is home. This blog is still going to be dedicated to our family (especially Bebe) and the many adventures that seem to fall into our laps. There will be many fun times ahead, but also many challenges. I am hoping to get parenting advice from many of you as we start facing challenges down the road. :)

I just realized the other day that I never posted any pictures of us actually in Haiti this time. I was going back through the pictures, and picked a few good ones out....

Here is BeBe with her friends in Haiti:

This was when I initially came to Haiti back in February thinking we would be staying overnight at the Embassy and leaving in 5 days. We said our goodbyes before we left, but then we were back that evening. (Sam looks like such a dad in that giant fanny pack).

Since we didn't end up staying at the embassy, we had to come back that night on a city bus. This was my first experience on Haitian public transportation. Regular standard-sized school bus...the bus doesn't leave until there are 3 people in every seat.

Animal Rights? Not in Haiti. These goats were alive.

Here is the 3 of us in our tent where we ended up living for a total of 2 months:

This is a broader shot of the orphanage. Everyone is in tents:

One of the many days we rode into town to get on the internet.

For some reason we decided to match this day:

This is just a small example of what we saw everyday. This building was right by the internet cafe that we went:

This is the table we ate at for every meal:

This was the last day that I was in Haiti. I was still happy here. We thought we were going home. We had our bags packed in the truck, and our flights booked. We were waiting on the lawyer who was in some building trying to get the documents.

This is Bebe in the Haitian airport getting ready to board that huge amazing plane...Oh and by the way, her first flight ever was in first class on a huge American Airlines plane with a free meal, reclining huge seat, fluffy blanket, and movies. Welcome to America Bebe!

I met them in the Miami airport that evening...It was so overwhelming to see her.

Looking back through these pictures, it already doesn't sound nearly as bad as it was when we were going through it. She was worth the wait! Now she is a part of our family. It's still so unbelievable to me.

Our little girl is starting school tomorrow! She said she won't be able to sleep

tonight because she is so excited.

I am excited because this begins so much in her life. She is going to learn English, have an American education, she is going to meet friends, she is going to be out there in the world....but that is what scares me also. I don't want her pureness and innocence to go away and be corrupted by what other kids think is cool. I want her to still love the Barbie lunch box, and Hannah Montanna backpack that she picked out at the end of tomorrow. She never got a chance to like those things and be a little girl.

It's weird that she has only been our daughter for 4 weeks,

but I already have so much love for her.