
Welcome to my little sister, darling Mia Faith, 7/27/06 4:54pm, 8 lbs 10 oz, 19". She has dark blond hair and is so very adorable. Our family has become extended family to my sister's birth family - they are the nicest people and we are so honored. Now we have so much extended family, how wonderful! We will love Mia for always and with everything we have. (Mia will have her own blog shortly!)

My mommy's heroine... birth mommy Valerie. This was early labor. Valerie's labor was long and hard at times, but oh so beautiful :)

Mommy got to be a labor coach for birth mommy Valerie and daddy helped with ice chips, cool washcloths on forehead, holding Valerie's back, and cutting the umbilical cord. It is such an awesome and wonderful thing to be allowed to participate so much in Valerie's labor and delivery... she is a very special young woman, indeed. (more details tomorrow, my mommy hasn't slept too much in the past 2 days).

Oh my mommy and daddy and I have such WONDERFUL news! I am having a new baby brother or sister before this weekend is through!
Birth mommy Valerie wants us to parent her child; my parents and she have the same parenting values, and mommy and Val look like sisters :) Plus, she wants an open adoption, and we do too. It is a match made in heaven (literally, we thank the Lord for this)!
Mommy went to Val's obstetrician appointment with she and her mom yesterday - she is now 11 days *past* her due date - eek! She will be gently induced starting Wednesday with Cytotek (spelling?) - a prostaglandin enhancer. We will be in the hospital for a few hours on Wed, Thurs, and Friday. If she hasn't gone into natural labor by then, she will be induced with Pitocin on the weekend. Mommy will be there by her side watching our baby being born, isn't that neat that she wants that? She is a great young woman, mommy already loves her dearly and we are so glad she and her family will be in our lives.
The sex of our child will be a surprise! In each of the three ultrasounds, the baby crossed his/her legs - what a sense of humor torturing his/her parents like that, ha ha. :)
I will update you all in a few days, please keep praying for my baby brother/sister, that his/her life is full of love and happiness.

This week we travelled to North Carolina again (but not the beach this time, rather the mountains) with grandma Connie. We stopped lots of places, but our main goal was to visit RosaLee and
Doc Watson, grandma's friends. We were very inspired by the visit, they are such *good* people, we are humbled by people with so much faith and love...

We visited my auntie Sassi (Susanne) and she helped me with the sliding boards. I love my auntie dearly and I loooove staying at her house. Of course I get very spoiled by her :)

I love swimming. I have no fear - I will wait for my mommy to say "one, two, three... go!" and then I will jump into the pool by myself (mommy catches me so I do not go under). And I ask her to throw me up *high* in the air so that I make a big splash when I come back down, I love it!

:)

When my daddy takes me for my visit with grandma, he sneaks me Peppermint Patties, and this is what I come home looking like :)

Here are some pictures of me at Tiny Tumblers... the huge balls are my favorite. I am just a HUGE fan of balls in general, and these are the biggest I have ever seen!

I am so agile on my feet, my mommy is starting to look for baby gym classes for me... I *love* doing somersaults (with my daddy's help) and keep signing for "more". Oh my goodness, my mommy is exhausted trying to keep up with me!

I am the smallest in the Mom's Club, so all the other mamas are always trying to protect me. I love playing with kids bigger than me, though, they are so much fun, and I really do not mind being tossed around a little, it is so *worth* it!

This is how the playgroup usually ends, I am happy and exhausted :)

This was me one day this week.

This was me the following day. (By the way, it is *I* who arranges my lovey's in this fashion - no one else touches them!)