"Decorating" Forest's Nursery

We have had a series of what I'll call incidents in our house lately. Most of these incidents are the doing of Rebekah with Maija joining in "because I decided it's fun" as she put it. We've had the Green Permanent Marker incident 2 weeks ago when magically Rebekah found a green permanent marker 2 hours before our dinner guests arrived and decided to draw all over the white playroom walls, the TV, the hutch, the toy box, the stenciling on her bedroom wall, and of course herself. Clearly Maija was involved too since I found drawings of people all over the walls also. Let's just say I was not a nice mommy when I found it.

The next day (the VERY next day) I walked into the room to find the girls jumping around naked in a pool of soapy water on the carpet! My alter ego "Mean Mommy" came out again that day. And then 2 days later Rebekah used her magical powers to somehow get my makeup out from inside my purse which was up on the kitchen counter...all without my noticing... and then she and Maija drew all over themselves with my eyeliner and lipstick. My girls spent most of the afternoon in their room that day.

We had a few days with no major disasters until the girls decided today to "decorate" Forest's nursery. I spent most of the evening yesterday getting his nursery ready so we could move Forest in there in a few weeks. Maija and Rebekah were very anxious to help me, but they were frustrated that I wouldn't let them do more. They sure got me back today. Kent found it (that's good because I'm not sure I could've handled finding yet another disaster) and had the presence of mind to take pictures before trying to clean it up. In the end, I had to repaint the wall and went ahead and repainted the playroom wall which was still greenish from the Green Permanent Marker incident.

I'm glad Kent took pictures because I'm sure someday I'll look back at all of this and laugh, but today is not that day.


Click on picture to see slideshow
(Also has pictures of my neice's baby blessing)

Mother's Day Tea

On Friday I got to go to a Mother's Day Tea at Maija's preschool. As part of the Tea, her teacher had asked each child several questions about their mothers. Here are her answers:

"What is your mommy's name?" - Kim
"How old is your mommy?" - 11 or 12
"What color is your mommy's hair?" - White
"Where is your mommy's favorite place to eat?" - Restaurants and home
"What is your mommy's favorite thing to play?" - Hide-n-seek
"I love my mommy as much as..." - Playing hide-n-seek
"What is your mommy's job?" - Work all the time, go to store and take care of me
"What is something your mommy always tells you?" - I love you
"My mommy doesn't like it when I..." - Do something bad to my sister or baby brother
"My mom laughs when I..." - Make silly faces and watch cartoons but not Spongebob. He's not funny.
"When does your mommy look the prettiest?" - When she dresses in princess clothes
"My mommy cooks the best..." - Chocolate chip pancakes
"My mommy's favorite place to go is..." - When I have birthdays at Chuck-E-Cheese's
"My mommy says,

• 'Always... - love
  
• 'Never.... - do something wrong
  
• 'Be careful when.... - Mommy falls because she falls all the time
  
• 'Money is... - for buying ice cream.'"
  

Too funny! And for the record, I DON'T fall all the time, but I DO always tell Maija I love her.

Also, my sister-in-law took the cutest pictures of Forest with her daughter (his cousin), Dolly, who was born the same week as he was. I'm posting just a few of them.

Missions and Missing Grandparents

In the next few weeks all of our children's grandparents but one will be leaving to serve as missionaries overseas. Kent's mother and stepfather are headed to South Africa for 2 years, and my parents are going to Norway for 18 months. I'm not sure how we will survive without them, and it makes me sad to think that our children won't have contact with them for that long. Well, I guess they'll have contact, but not in person. We are proud of their commitment to serve but we will miss them terribly.

With all of the recent events Maija has been asking a lot of questions about Africa, "What does 'African' mean? Why is Forest from Africa? Why is Grandma going to Africa? I want to go to Africa...." and the best one, "Mommy, will you take me to Africa?" :-) I told her "yes" and that's a promise. One day I want our whole family to go to Africa together not only because our son is African American, but also because I want my children to see the world and to have firsthand experience with other cultures.

I guess in that way I want them to have what I did growing up. I always knew about other cultures, languages, places through personal experience living all over the world, and also through my mother who was born and raised in Finland. I can still remember hearing her speak in Finnish on the phone to friends and family. Now my kids hear me speak Spanish and French, and they hear their father speak Chinese. I hope they will understand what a beautiful place the world is and how amazing people come from every corner of the globe.

The update on Forest is that he is almost TWO MONTHS old already! I can hardly believe it! He is seriously (and I'm not just saying this) the CUTEST baby on the planet. He is all smiles these days and does the cutest little tongue twists while he flashes his big smiles. He's cooing and trying to vocalize, and he laughed today at a funny face I made. He is extremely strong - I thought Maija was a strong baby, but Forest takes the cake. He will be crawling before 6 months I guarantee it. He is all muscle. We are so lucky to have him in our family, and I am helplessly in love with him. Here are some pics:

The Joy That Is Forest

Forest with Grandma - 3/26/09



What a big boy Forest is getting to be. He is 5 weeks old already which is hard to believe, and he is growing so quickly. He's already gained over 3 pounds and 4 inches, and he is so strong holding his head up without any problem and putting all his weight on his legs. He's also starting to try to roll over. I'm telling you this baby is seriously strong. Of course, Kent says, "Good! He's going to be an athlete!" :-) We know that his birth uncle is an engineer, so he may also end up following in Kent's footsteps and be an engineer. Really I don't care what he grows up to be as long as he is a good person.

Maija and Rebekah are SO cute with him. Maija tells him all day long, "Oh baby, I love you!" and Rebekah is right there at his side as soon as he starts crying; she gets upset with me if I don't make his milk fast enough, "Mama! Baby cry!!!" It's also been fun to see Forest start to respond to the girls. He loves to watch them while they run around the room or jump up and down on the bed. He is a very observant baby and will just stare at your face and examine the world around him. In case you haven't noticed I am so in love with this baby and so grateful for him.

I often think about the courage it took for his birth mother to choose to bring him to the world and then to make the ultimate sacrifice and place him for adoption. She could've made very different choices, but because of her wanting what is best for him, we are blessed to have Forest in our family and he has the opportunity to live his life and become whoever he chooses to become. I watched this video tonight and thought of the miracles that brought Forest into our lives -

Pictures & Videos of Baby Forest

I finally uploaded pictures and videos from the last 2 weeks and put them together in a Phanfare slideshow.

Enjoy!


Click on pic to start slideshow

We're Home - Finally!

After a long 11 days in Utah waiting for all the paperwork to go between the 2 states, we are finally home with our sweet new baby boy, Forest. The paperwork actually took 8 days; the other 3 days were spent with Forest in the hospital right after he was born. It was so hard to take him home but not to our home.

I do have to say, however, that my father's cousin and his wife, who we stayed with, were so amazing to us. They took care of us and helped out, and basically treated us like their own children and grandchildren. We owe them! Not that we can ever really repay them, but it made the whole experience so much better. I can't imagine how hard it would've been if we had been in a hotel the whole time.

Kent brought our 2 girls up with him after being home with them for 2 days. So we all got to spend the week together, and the girls got to spend time with their new baby brother. I'll post pictures of their first time seeing him. It was so cute! For now, we are exhausted and ready to get some rest.

Our New Baby Boy!!!!

So here we are all dejected thinking that we weren't picked to adopt the baby boy who was due this week, and then yesterday (Monday) at 11am I get a call saying that the baby has been born and the birthmother has chosen us to adopt him!!!! Oh, and can we be in Utah by that night? So I spend 3 hours on the phone arranging airline tickets, rental car, child care for our girls for 3 days, money transfers, organizing Relief Society, and then figuring out what the heck I need to pack and bring.

Kent and I jumped on a plane after a friend in the ward graciously took our girls at the last minute (thank you, Amber!) We were so excited when we landed in Salt Lake that we forgot the infant carseat at the airport. We got to the hospital at 8:40pm and were able to hold our little baby boy (or soon-to-be ours.) We've named him Forest Farnsworth; we're still working on the middle name.

Forest was born at 9:41am on Monday, March 2nd. He was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 18 inches long. He is the sweetest little thing and is doing really well. We've been able to spend all day with him today and the papers legally placing him with us will be signed tomorrow. Then Kent and I will get to meet his birthmother on Thursday, and Kent will fly home. I'll be here in Utah for at least a few more days while all of the paperwork is approved here and in Arizona.

Here are pictures of little Forest:

Still Waiting - Can't Sleep

We are still waiting to hear about the baby. I'm trying to be calm, but patience has never been my strong suit. Kent on the other hand has patience down. He has been so calm, and I asked him, "How do you do it? Do you just put it out of your mind or what?" He said, "Yeah. I just try not to think about it." He makes it sound so easy. No matter how busy I try to make myself, I can't stop thinking about it. That's why I'm blogging at 2am! I'm all wound up thinking about it!!!

Despite feeling anxious, I have to maintain some normalcy with the girls. They are excited about possibly having a baby in the family, but I try not to talk about it too much since nothing is for sure yet.

The girls did finally get their birthday present from Mummi and Grandpa. Here are some pics:

The Adoption Rollercoaster

In the short time we've been in the adoption process we've learned what an emotional rollercoaster it is for everyone involved. One day you think things are one way and then the next they seem to completely change. Last week we had some serious ups and downs starting the week thinking that we'd be certified to adopt in 2 weeks, then on Wednesday being told "Oh no, it'll take more like 2 months!" and then 2 days later finding out that a miracle had happened, and we were certified in 3 days! Then we heard from the agency that there may be a baby available next week!!!

So... we're on pins and needles waiting to hear whether we will be placed with a baby this week or not. We should hear in a couple of days, but it is gut wrenching not knowing. Do you prepare things or not? Do you hope for it or not? It reminds me so much of my single days hoping to find "the one" (which I don't really believe there is one right person, but that's another story) and thinking that I had found him, but then it wouldn't work out. I tried to live by a mantra during those lonely years, "Nothing is happening until it's happening." In other words, no matter how much I thought I'd marry a guy, it wasn't real until we were actually getting married. Of course, it did finally happen one time, one marvelous happy time. I love my husband and am so glad I waited for him.

Now I'm reminding myself again that "nothing is happening until it's happening" and it won't be the right baby for us until it we are actually placed with a baby. Now if I could only tell my heart that that's how it works...

We're Ready to Adopt!

For the last few months we have been working on several projects. The first was to get Kent to graduation in December. He finally finished his thesis, his classes and was in the middle of managing his company's transition, when he got his masters degree. The second project was working on our paperwork and home study to be able to adopt. Most of January and into February I was spending most of my time taking care of our girls, taking care of Relief Society, and trying to get our adoption home study finished.

We are now finished with our home study and are now starting the matching process. Once it's all said and done I'll get into more of the details here in our blog of how it went. For now I'll just say that we are very excited to adopt a baby, and even though the whole process is a little overwhelming, I know it'll all be worth it. As soon as that baby is home with us, I'll be blogging all about it.

As far as the everyday stuff goes, the girls are growing up so quickly. Maija and Rebekah both had birthdays and it's amazing to see them developing their own sister relationship. Kent is doing great at his new job, and we are loving the new house. Here are some before and after pics of the house:

HOUSE BEFORE



HOUSE AFTER

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FAMILY RM BEFORE



FAMILY RM AFTER

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MASTER BED RM BEFORE



MASTER BED RM AFTER