BOOGIE GIRL

My lovely wife reminded me that this blog was set up for our little boogie girl and not for my other thoughts. (I am so excited to know she is reading this blog and actually noticed I got off course.. yippeee. I have 1 dedicated reader) So for now, I will try to keep the topic strictly on Boogie.



Boogie- a name I put on her since the day she came into our lives. Honestly, if she could talk she would say, "Daddy, quit calling me that!" but until then she has to suffer with being labeled my little boogie.

I also call her boogie because she does this little squirm thing that makes her look like she's dancing. So it's been pretty easy to make the name stick.

Bella is doing sooooooo good. It's amazing each day how much she's developing. She had her third Parents as Teachers session yesterday. It's a program through our school district that has a representative come out to your house and evaluate your child or children to see how they are developing and to offer any help in areas needed. The lady has been really impressed with Bella's progress. Before I left for work yesterday I told her to not be nervous, eat a good breakfast, and relax. She looked up from watching Sesame Street, gave me Raspberries, and went back to watching Big Bird. Alrighty then, I can see how this is going to go!



One of our favorite times together is first thing in the morning. Karen will change her diaper and then throw her in bed with me. We play for about 15 minutes until I have to get up and shower for work. She thinks that is the coolest thing being in a big bed. So we lay there and her little puppy tongue tries to lick my face, my Tshirt, or the sheets. If it goes in her hand it goes in her mouth. I know this sounds weird but I am in love with her little puppy tongue. It is the most adorable thing. She loves to touch everything with it and she looks like a puppy doing it. So I usually whisper secrets in her ear which she loves. She lays there very attentive listening to me. I wouldn't trade these few minutes for anything!

Over the weekend, we traded out all of Bella's Plastic Bottles which contain BPA. Recent reports suggest that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in the plastics used to make many types of baby bottles could cause behavioral changes in babies or contribute to early onset of puberty in girls. Further study is needed on the exact effects of BPA in humans, but many parents are switching to BPA-free bottles just to be on the safe side. Baby's R Us is offering to exchange the bottles for you. However, keep in mind if you switch out for glass or BPA Free bottles of a different brand that are more expensive you will have to pay the difference. We found out the hard way. We use Dr. Brown's Bottles and they were out of the glass version. So the girl helping us recommend Born Free Bottles. Honestly, they are huge, look like you would feed a calf with them, and sort of hard to hold. So we took 13 bottles up to the checkout and the girl checking us out says, "That will be $80+ " Karen and I were like, "Say What?". Well, Born Free are $12 a bottle so we had to pay the difference from Dr. Brown. I was about to say forget it but this is where her good salesperson skills came in. She started talking about the features and benefits of the Born Free bottles. She got me so we ended up taking them. Well, Boogie wasn't sold. She hated them so we took them back the next day and got the Even Flo glass bottles which Bella loves and we love too!They were like a fraction of the cost too.

Each day I look at this little girl in amazement how blessed we are to have her in our lives. I think am I doing enough for her, am I doing too much not allowing her to learn independence, are we teaching her things that matter. I know God created her perfectly and I want to train her up to be effective in her calling on earth. That is why I'm going to stop just reading about being a good parent, to stop talking about affecting culture, and do something about it. My wife doesn't even know this but I've been thinking long and hard and I feel that if I want change I need to be a change maker. I'm going to start looking into running for public office. I'll start small and move bigger. I'm tired of the stuff I see and hear and nothing being done. I can't sit back and hope someone else will do it. So, I'm going to see what I can do to serve my community. I'll keep you updated!

Have a Great Tuesday!

Back in Black

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Black

Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them — your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness — trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

Golden Rule Plus

Well, Happy Friday Everyone! I hope it's been a good week for everyone. Even though I did a power slam of blogging yesterday to bring you up to date on our story on Bella I want to stay in the habit of daily blogging. One thing that's been on my mind and somewhat of a burden is the principle of the GOLDEN RULE - Treat others as you would like to be treated. Not that I'm in any place to change God's command but I think we can actually take that rule to the next level by treating others as they should be treated. You see, we live in a world of hurting people. There's a common saying that goes, hurting people hurt people. That is very true. We all have encountered that nasty cashier at the store, the rude teller at the bank, or that difficult coworker. It's been my experience that telling someone who internally is hurting to love and respect his fellow man is darn near impossible when they basically hate themselves. They would never tell you that in so many words, in fact they probably would come across arrogant acting like they are confident and self respecting. Not true! Their hurt inside has manifested itself into this shell of hatred outwardly. So, how do we change this? discipline. When Johnny Hothead gives you a special sign in the grocery store parking lot just love him anyway. When the store clerk is rude just forgive and love them anyway. Why? because we have no clue what's going on in their life. If we want the hatred to stop, the killings to stop, etc. we have to be the cure for healing and not adding to the problem. Here is a story from one of my favorite books by Steven Covey: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's a great example of empathy and a lesson not to judge and react:

Steven Covey, the author, tells a story about a trip he took on the subway Brooklyn! (I'm paraphrasing it below.)

He finds the quietest spot on the train and sits down to read his paper. A few stops later the doors open and in comes a man with a few children. The man sits down next to him. The children start playing in the train, running around the poles, and making so much noise. Steven starts to think to himself, what a terrible father. What is wrong with a man who allows his children to run around like that... especially in the subway. At some point, Steven starts to say something to the man. The man snaps out of a daze and goes, Oh yes! I'm sorry. What the man tells him is that he just came from Maimonides Medical Center where his wife just died. The man apologizes and tells Steven they don't know how to handle their mother's death.

How many times have all of us got angry at someone for (insert situation here) when maybe they are having a life changing event going on in their
life or maybe they are under a lot of stress, having marriage problems, whatever. If we all just keep this attitude of empathy and discipline ourselves before we react to say, "You know, my life really is not going to change by this event. I really don't know what's going on in this person's life. Let me forgive them and say something nice instead of the 4 letter, on the verge of illegal, thought that's about to hit my tongue in 3 seconds". Is it easy? Heck No! sometimes it feels near impossible but are we serious about wanting to change culture? or do we just expect everyone else to change on their own? to do it miraculously in a society of hatred, hurt, etc. No one is stepping up to the plate. why not it be you? Be the Cure, Not the Cause.


Tools for change:
1) Read the bible. Proverbs is a good guide. There are 30 so you can read one a day. I really don't care if you believe in God or not. I recommend you do but that's another post. That one book alone is good instruction.

2) Associate with like minded people. Get around positive people. Break ties with toxic people. Find people who move you forward and not hold you back.

3) Read good books. Put down the romance novels and Fishing Weekly. Start reading books by people who will teach you principles of love,to have a servant heart, and leadership. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

4) Audio Learning. This is so under-rated. Find an audio series that will lift you up when you are battling against the hurting world. You will need your tank refueled daily. In some cases, Hourly!

5) Implement what you are learning! Knowledge without application is really not knowledge at all.

So let's all strive to deposit good into someones life today! People are thirsty for a little Love and kind words.

Have a great Weekend!

Dedicated to the LORD

Children are our inheritance and we are entrusted to be good stewards of God's children. That is why Karen and I strive to do God's will for our lives and Bellas. This day was a special day for us and we are so thankful to our church, St. Louis Family Church, for making it a beautiful and special day. It was a joy having Karen's Mom, her brother Charlie, and Charlie's wife Cindy in town to celebrate this day with us. My Mom, Dad, sister Jane, neice Claire, Brother Jack, sis-in-law Lisa, and Nephew Andrew celebrated this day as well. It was also a blessing and a joy to have one of my favorite aunts in town, Aunt Jane, from Colorado. She has blessed our family in so many ways. One special blessing was that Aunt Jane's friend Pat made the dress that Bella wore that day. It was made from Antique material, had a special prayer embroidered in the slip along with the Letter B for our last name sewn into it as well. It was so beautiful. She looked like a tiny Angel in the dress.
Our pastor, Pastor Jeff, is an incredible man. He has a true anointing on him. He did an awesome job praying over Bella and the other 20 babies being dedicated that day.
The day was wrapped up by a beautiful catered dinner by the church. All of my family loved it!

Our Day in Court

You would think a day you've been waiting for to come would produce firework type emotions. To be honest? Karen and I felt strangely calm and somewhat ordinary. It was a rainy day. The family court building has 20 parking spaces to accomodate 300 people on a daily basis. So we were told to arrive before 9am. We got there about 8:45am, I dropped Karen and Bella off at the front door and drove up the road to a parking lot so I could make the 500 yard walk back to the court building. After getting through security we were escorted to a large holding room outside the court room. We met our case worker, Lou Carmichael, and our attorney, Tim Brassil, and my mom and dad in the room. We sat and waited, waited some more, nerves kicking in, waited some more, hear the Ballif call a family into the court room, wait some more, and then about 10:05 we heard our name called. So we all moved next door to the court room where Judge Drumm was preciding over our case. Our attorney asked Karen a series of questions, then asked me the same questions, attorney for Bella (yes, buggaboo had representation in the court room) cross examined us, then he cross examined our case worker, and by 10:15am we were legally Isabella's parents. We left the court with the final papers in hand. We celebrated with a quiet lunch at Hullahans with mom and dad. Then we went home! Strange, you build up for that day for 6 months and I left feeling like I just renewed my drivers license. Don't get me wrong and I am overjoyed the process is over. So Bella celebrated the next day by coming down with a virus that landed us in the ER because she was on the verge of dehydration and our doctor was affraid of that so she sent us to the ER at around Midnight May 24th. It's taken 2 weeks for her to be back to her playful, joyful, and fun self. We are so happy to have Bella Boo back!

6 Months of Home Visits

Well, starting in January we had our first home visit. To me? Waste of time but the law requires 6 months time to lapse before an adoption will be final. So by law we had to complete 3 home visits. The first one was good. Ammie Travers, Bethany Christian Services, the case worker conducted the visit. We know Ammie very well because when we were pursuing the embryo adoption we had to complete a home study. Home studies will make you go crazy. I think the FBI does less investigating into life than a home study. We had to provide financials, references from pastors, friends, family, work, etc. We had to write an essay on why we wanted to adopt and what we wanted to tell the donor family about adopting their embryos, we had to be fingerprinted, we had to have a complete physical with blood work. Needless to say it was crazy. So Ammie was familar with our background (hence why I feel these are a complete waste of time). For $300 a visit I get to give the case worker refreshments and B.S. with them for 20 to 30 minutes. A few questions are asked about the baby and us but 95% of the visit is El B.S.o. So you can imagine after feeling the first visit was a waste how I felt for the 2nd and 3rd. So we completed the 3rd one on May 5th. We were in court May 22nd to finalize the adoption.

Journal of the Journey

In the spirit of so many of my friends blogging and me getting so much joy out of reading it I thought I would start blogging myself. I thought a good place to start is at the beginning with when Isabella came into our life. Some of you have already read this but it makes for a good starting point:

12/11/07
Well, the last several months have been very emotional, stressful,
tearful, joyful, exciting, scarey, ... well, a lot has been going on.
Many of you knew that Karen and I got pregnant back in August. Most of you actually got to see our first ultrasound pics.We were over the top excited since we've been trying to get pregnant for over 4 years trying different methods from the ordinary to the bizarre. So when we got pregnant, via an embryo transfer, finally we felt our prayers had been answered. Shortly after I had emailed all of you to tell you the wonderful news Karen started to bleed heavily over labor day weekend. You can imagine the stress of this happening when every doctors office is closed and our only option
was to go to the ER which our doctor told us not to bother.
Well, the next day we got into the doctors office expecting the worst.
To our disbelief there was still a viable pregnancy. We were shocked and decided to
move on with caution. Well, a week later we went into the office for
another Ultrasound and no sign of a baby. We were crushed.
We both felt helpless and thinking it wasn't in the cards for us to have children. I had always been the one to stay positive and hopeful over the last 4 years and I finally had reached the end. I couldn't take anymore. Well, because I couldn't do it anymore didn't mean God couldn't show
his power and show how mighty he really is..... So we move on to story
number 2.
************************************
October 30, Karen gets a call from a lady from our church saying, "You
don't know me but your name was given to me as being interested in
adopting a baby". What happened was there was this 17 yr. old girl in
our church who had hid her pregnancy from her family, friends, and the
church. Well, the church found out and advised her to tell her
parents.
To avoid telling them she came back to the church and told them she
had a miscarriage and she wasn't pregnant anymore. So on October 28th
her water broke. She went about her business, went to church, went
out to lunch with family, went shopping, etc. At 5pm she was in the
bathroom in a lot of pain and her mom realized something was wrong.
Her mom went into the bathroom and realized.. suprise... her daughter
is in labor and about to deliver a baby (Can you imagine that's how
you find out your daughter is pregnant?). The baby was breach. So the
birthmothers Mom,Debbie, had to deliver this baby on their bathroom
floor. Two days go by and birthmom's mother is pressing the church to
contact us. So back to the phone call. The lady tells Karen that a
child advocate has been contacted and if we want this baby we better
get up to the hospital and see her and bring her home. Karen calls me
not able to speak from shock, excitement, and overcome with emotion.
Me, Mr. practical and logical, goes B.S. There is no way we are going
to be allowed to take a baby home from the hospital when there's no
power of attorney or anything. Besides, it was my understanding that
in the state of Missouri every child given up for adoption has to go
into foster care. Karen and I aren't ceritified to be foster parents.
So all this is going through my head from excitement thinking what if
it is true to fear that I'm going to be locked up for kidnapping. So,
I checked into it and the laws have changed. While no lawyer will
ever tell you to handle it this way we can be claimed guardians for
the welfare of this baby. So, we rush up to the hospital. Karen's
boss drives her. I meet a friend of ours at our house because we have
no way of taking a baby home in my truck. Karen's car at that time was
in the shop. So I meet Karen at the hospital. It was truly amazing.
We got to the meet the birthmom, birthdad, and their moms. Soooo, we
took Isabella Josephine home October 30th. We went to court a couple
of weeks ago to take legal guardianship of her. So in about 6 months
we will be legally her parents. It has been an amazing few months!