Hair! Not sure I'm ready for this!

So, during the months before we left for Ethiopia to get Desi, I spent a lot of time thinking about her hair. ...did a little research, but mostly just felt like I was going to be totally inadequate with her hair! Now, you may not know this, but I am not a fussy mommy. I will ALWAYS choose comfort and ease over frilly and fussy. Emily hates for me to even touch her hair, so even if I wanted to put bows and pretties in it, she wouldn't let me! I suppose I'm the reason she got that way....I digress.

So, back to Desi and wondering what I would do with her hair...well, when we got to Ethiopia the point became moot [or at least delayed] because here's how she looked.....

One one hand..."whoa! they shaved her head! Was that really necessary? How will anyone tell that she's a girl?"

[the answer is, yes, it was necessary...she had ringworm on her scalp. ew.]

On the other hand..."well, at least I don't have to cross that bridge right now!"

So we started from scratch.

6 months later we have a HAIR DO! It's not much, but it's the first time I've gone beyond a hair band!

I know this is just the beginning....pray for me!

[by the way...it's really hard to photograph little afros! these are the best of about 15 shots I took! ]

First Steps...

....when we went to Ethiopia we didn't know if Desi could walk. It was kind of crazy. Luckily, I got to see her "first steps" in Ethiopia. What a relief![not technically her actual first steps, but the first steps she would take in front of me to prove that she could walk. Sadly, Ryan missed it because she was being a major booger at the time, which was understandable....]

But this post isn't about that kind of first steps. It's about Indiana First Steps. Our state's early childhood intervention program to get little one with developmental delays help. Our pediatrician recommended we have little D evaluated right away, which would have been a huge mistake, but within my adoption community I was encouraged to wait and give her a little time to adjust and get more comfy with her new environment. Since I am a fantastical procrastinator, I chose the latter advice and put off the eval until after the holidays.

On Monday morning a couple of really nice and helpful ladies stopped by the house to do the evaluation. They played and interacted with Des to see how she was doing developmentally. I was kind of worried about how D would do...she tends to go stone cold around strangers. But to my surprise she seemed very at ease with these ladies and did really well! Yay Des!

Really, my only concern about her development has been her language delay. I know I'm not suppose to be comparing her to other kids, but I was starting to get pretty worried that she wasn't picking up more English...I'm still not sure that she's where she could or should be. But my real motivation to have her evaluated was to see if we could get her some low cost speech therapy. After the evaluation I had this gut feeling that they weren't going to qualify her....they seemed a little befuddled by her.

The outcome of the evaluation was that she is really doing very well! They had no major concerns at all! Even though I really wasn't worried, it was very nice to hear them say it! Puts my mind at ease.

Oh! and by Wednesday I got the call that she qualified!!! [hands clapping!] So we are going to get to take advantage fo some sessions with a professional! I think it will be excellent to have a 3rd and impartial party work with her. Takes a lot of pressure off of Ryan and I, I think.

...to completely bring you up-to-date, [since I'm struggling to get 2 blog posts out in 1 month...sorry!] I also filed the paperwork to finalize our adoption here in the states and legally change Desi's name. I'm waiting for the official documents to come back so I can get her a SSN and be DONE DONE DONE with paperwork!


Also, since I'm on a roll with the up-to-date stuff...check this out....
I actually sold her a few weeks ago. It felt good to see her go to a good home! I'm on to a couple of new projects....one is a sweet little Craigs List treasure that I'm very excited about! Maybe I'll show you sometime soon.

Okay! That's it. You are pretty much caught up! Maybe I will try harder to not wait until I have a pile of random thoughts to post...maybe. Let me treat you to a few pics from January 2011. I can't believe that it's almost February! What??? And we are almost to the 6 month anniversary of being home with Desi! This blows my mind. Crazy! Where is the time going?

Here are a couple of shots of Desi reunited with her little ET friend, Amaya. Desi was kind of a dud at the playdate. I think that she is somehow confused by Amaya. I'm sure she'll become more comfortable with time. The second picture really captures her demeanor....

Little flowers....

Bath time fun...bubble beards...this pic of Em cracks me up.

Had to edit this one just a bit to make it more G rated...but seriously the best part of the pic is under the heart.... I feel I must apologize for the lack of Jake pics in this post...I'll try to get more shots of his cuteness to share. He really is so handsome.

2010 Wrap Up!

Well I'm exhausted!

In fact, I've been working on this blog post for a while and kept getting sidetracked! Latest obstacle...the nasty flu! Blast You, flu germs!!

We certainly ended 2010 with a bang! What a year! It's hard to believe that the excitement started all the way back in April when we received our referral for a sweet little 14 month old girl. We decided to make her ours and by the end of the year we were celebrating her First Christmas and her 2nd birthday!

Des has really grown and changed so much since we stepped off the plane in early August. She's put on a ton of weight [maybe setting some sort of record.] and grown a head full of hair! [One of my new years resolutions should have something to do with learning how to style her fro! ] Plus she's really letting her personality blossom as well! The only thing we wish we were gaining more ground on is speech. But we're getting her evaluated for Indiana First Steps and hoping she'll qualify for some speech therapy.

I hadn't written about it before, but in October we ended up hiring a friend of ours, Emily, to nanny for us for 2 half days per week when I went back to work. We thought it would be best for Desi to be at home when I'm at work and we kept Emily home with her. It's been so good and the girls adore Miss Emily! She is a huge blessing!

Des got home just in time for a whirlwind of holidays including Emily's 3rd Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and her own birthday! She's probably thinking that all we do is celebrate and party around here!

December ended up being quite the month! I did a lot of baking, which is one of my favorite parts of Christmas! As usual, the Christmas shopping got me really stressed out. I swear that every year the shopping is "this close" to ruining my Christmas! There must be a better way! I also loved having Jake home on Christmas break. I've missed having him around during the day this year. Big 1st grader. One positive of him being at school is that it's given me, Em, and Des some girl time! I think that only having each other to play with has been good for both Emily and Desi.

Here are some pics of our Christmas Celebrations and Desi's birthday! If you're my facebook friend you can check out more pics over there on my page!

The kids all dressed up before the Christmas Eve worship gathering....

Emily in her new leotard and tutus... Jake's favorite...wii games.

Desi did great with all the presents!

On the 26th we loaded up the van and drove to Missouri to spend time with my family. The kids had a great time with their MO cousins!

[and by great I mean LOUD.]

Em and Desi with Papaw Whitten

Hanging out in the TV room. Des and Hay were like peas and carrots all week!

Opening presents...

Em and Papaw Vinny.

That's a pretty crazy look that Des is shootin' at Cody!

Desi getting snuggles from Papaw Vinny.
We also got to go visit some good friends who also adopted from Ethiopia this year! The world really can be rather smallish. This is Ade. If long distance relationships work, this might be the beginning of something beautiful!

And this is the face that I refer to as the "stinky face". It makes frequent appearances..especially when cameras are involved. While you can't see it in photos....the right eye actually twitches during "stinky face"....nice.
Desi's birthday is December 31st. We spent it in the van...oops. We did have a pre-birthday celebration in MO with my family and a post-birthday celebration back home with our Indiana people.

I made the cake...kind of ghetto, no? It's not that I didn't try...

Desi with Papaw Sonny.

Another highlight of the year was when our good friends, The Fousts, brought their little girl home from Ethiopia. [I told you the world gets small-ish sometimes.] I'm sure in previous posts I mentioned that their daughter, Amaya, was Desi's bedmate at the orphanage in Ethiopia? Yes, super cool, I know! I can't wait for our first playdate! [which would have been TODAY had it not been for the blasted flu!!]

So that's the wrap up on 2010! On to 2011!

Trash to Treasure!!! She's Done!

Something came over me....

...something crafty.

Like the spirit of Martha Stewart possessed me.

I found this on Craig's List....

And I thought, "what if?"

What if I can take this trash and turn it into a treasure?

[okay, maybe it's not "trash" but I did find that it had been allocated to a large dog to lounge on. Luckily, said dog had a blanket and my soon-to-be treasure wasn't all doggy smelling.]

So I got to work...this first part was hard! And after a while...it became this... I found a really fun fabric for a great price and got to work figuring things out. Thank goodness, Grandma Joyce got me on the right track. She is a retired professional in this line of work. So before I knew it I had accomplished this....Yada Yada Yada...and then finally....

[Drum Roll.....]

Ta Da! I think she's purdy!

Not too shabby, eh? And I had fun. And I learned how to do something totally new. It's WIN-WIN-WIN.! And it will be really nice when I turn this baby back around and sell it on Craig's.

Should I send these pics to the poor schmoe's who let this little treasure go for a mere $25?

Wow! It has been quite a while since we had a new blog post! Why? I'm not sure. I guess it's because life just started feeling a lot more normal. Which is good. I was ready for some not-so-blog-worthy days, you know!

But, for anyone who wants to know...November was a good month for the Poe Family. The weather around here was pretty much perfect all month long, which I LOVED because I HATE cold weather. We've had a little snow in the last week, but it's okay because it was the pretty/fun kind and not the yucky-afraid-to-drive-to-the-grocery-store kind.

So what were we up to?

Most of November was pretty ho-hum. I dove into a new hobby...reupholstering. I happen to have a bonafide professional in my corner here. Nannie Joyce had her own very successful upholstery business back in the day. So she's been showing me the ropes. I may have picked a pretty (and by pretty I don't mean beautiful) challenging first project...a love seat that I found on Craig's for $25.00. I'll show you the before....

Here's a sneak peak of the finished product....

The "after" is soon to come because I'm almost done! I've got some ideas in the wings about future projects that will seem like a breeze compared to this! My plan? Not to fill my house with my "trash-to-treasures" but to turn back around and sell them on Craig's.

We had a great Thanksgiving too. I had started training about 3 weeks early to run a local 4.5 race called the Drumstick Dash which benefits Wheeler Mission. I was so excited, until the forecast said that there was basically 100% chance of rain on Thanksgiving! So bummed. I woke up that morning and realized that while it was raining, it was also unseasonable warm. So I decided to go for it and ended up running the race in a drizzle of rain. I was SO glad that I did it! It felt really good to set a goal, train for it, and accomplish it! And for a nice bonus...I felt totally justified in pigging out for the rest of the day!

Desi loved her first family holiday! (I don't really consider Halloween a holiday even though we do celebrate with the costumes and the candy...) She ate like a champ and we had a great afternoon with the family! I love Thanksgiving! It may be my favorite holiday.

I spent the next couple of days Decking-The-Halls, and most every other surface in our house. I love to decorate for Christmas!!! I find it hard to stop!

This past weekend we had our baby/child dedication service at Trinity. We dedicated our sweet Des to Jesus. The whole family attended the sweet little ceremony and then we partied hard at MCL afterwards! Thanks to Sonny and Joyce to treating us to a nice lunch and to Jenni for making an adorable and DELICIOUS cake to mark the occasion!

Jake happened to be the reader of the Advent prayer that morning at the worship gathering too. He did such a great job! Everyone was telling him he did great! I was proud!

We had our first real snow of the season. The kids were chomping at the bit to get out in it and play! We got them bundled up and were excited to see Desi's reaction....one word...anticlimactic. I think we were hoping for something in the "giddy/wonder" category. She was like, "why did you bring me out here?" After standing like a statue with a dead pan look on her face we just brought her in. Oh well.

Now we are looking forward to Christmas! I actually have presents under my tree, which is so crazy because I am a procrastinator! The kids are excited! This year we are observing Advent in our home. So each Sunday night we light a new candle and teach the kids about what it means and then the rest of the week at dinner we relight the candles and talk more. It's never to early to talk about what Christmas is really all about!

So that's pretty much it! You are officially caught up on the Poe's! We hope you have a wonderful December and a Merry Christmas! We'll button up 2010 with a much-anticipated-by-me trip home to Missouri and celebrating Desi's birthday on the 31st! I'm sure there will be lots to blog about in January!

Love,

Shannon and the gang!

Who is this kid?

So we got J's 1st grade pictures back and my reaction was, "Wow! Great picture buddy! Good smile!" I mean, I did pay about $16 for a 3x5 and 2 wallets, so I was relieved that they came out good! [don't get me started on the rip off that is "school pictures"!] But it wasn't until Ryan brought home his kindergarten school picture that it hit us! He's growing up! Just look for yourself....

[The big pic is just 1 year ago. My baby boy...off to school!]

This year he's sporting a much more "mature" spiked hair style now, but the shape of his face has totally changed too! From day to day I just couldn't see the changes. But when a side-by-side comparison like this smacks you square in the face....it's kind of sad, no? I guess this one of the harder parts of parenthood....sigh.

* * * * * * *

On a brighter note....Ryan and I got to go out on a DATE last night! A real, bona fide date! We hadn't been out on a date since before we went to Ethiopia to get Des about 3 months ago! It was great...except for the first snow of the season! [Not a flurry...full fledged SNOW! Pretty? yes. Welcomed? NO!]

We had a gift card to Canal Bistro in Broad Ripple so we had a deliciously free dinner [with coffee and dessert...baklava..Mmmmm!] Then we attended a house concert for an awesome/folksy/indie/sounds-so-good artist/friend, Bob Stamper...you can check him out yourself [here]. We also ran into our good friends, Amos and Crystal, which was a bonus because the only thing better than a date with your husband would be a double date with these two!

A special thanks to Gam and Papaw for coming to our place to watch the kids so we could remember what it is like to eat a grown up dinner!

[The only picture from my magical evening is this one of Crystal and I, but I'm posting it because A. she's pretty and totally blog-worthy. AND B. can you see that beautiful baby boy in her arms??? He is 1 of 2 and so precious!! ]

I think that we may host a house concert for Bob...it would be SO fun and I think it would boost our cool factor, don't you? Will you come?

..Just Treats!

Yesterday was Desi's first real experience with an American "holiday". When we celebrate Halloween around here it's just fun costumes, pumpkins and family....not all that scary stuff. [No skeletons, corpses or haunted houses.]

We took the kids over to Aunt Jenni and Uncle Andy's neighborhood to trick-or-treat with their cutie cousins and then went over to Gam and Papaw's for a family dinner. I really enjoyed it this year! I loved having the family together! Especially since the kids had some much fun with their cousins!

Our little African Lioness got to do a little trick-or-treating and was very good at saying "thank you" when she got a piece of candy.

Super Mario and the Princess were old pros!

This isn't necessarily my favorite holiday to celebrate [I'm pretty sure it's in the top 2 for the kids!], but it was a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure Desi never experienced anything quite like it in Ethiopia!