Noah's 3

Well here we are 2 1/2 weeks late with this post, by hey if I am anything I am consistent right!  Being on time has become nonexistent for me in the past 3 years.  It is hard for me to still say yes I have a 3 year old.  The time has gone way to fast for my liking and he is growing way to quick.  It feels like yesterday that I was holding him in my arms for the first time and looking into his amazing brown eyes.  

3 days old 

3 years old

I am amazed by the little man he has become.  He is full of personality and joy!  He drives me crazy and makes me want to pull my hair out all at the same time.  He is smart and inquisitive.   He is 100% all boy with his trucks and blocks and noises and just everything boy. But even at being all be he is quick with a hug and a kiss and to tell you he loves you.  At Noah's last visit he was 34" tall and still only 31 lbs.  We only eat peanut butter and "jello" as he calls it and now has added scrambled eggs to that list.  He will pick an apple, orange or banana over a cookie or piece of cake every time.  He is a lover of dinosaurs. monster trucks and Curious George.  He is also a lover of animals and even now at only 3 I would bet money he will enter a field to do with animals.

Below are a few pictures from Noah 3rd Birthday Party.  Each year I say I am not going all out and going crazy because then it's more pressure for the next year but hey he is my baby and deserves it!

 Welcome to Noah's Party

Snacks for everyone

Noah's amazing cake

Pin the banana on George

Favors for the kiddos

I hope that this year is a great amazing year for Noah and can't wait to see what it brings.  We love you so much buddy!

2015

Yikes I can not believe it has been almost 2 months since I last posted.  I always swear I'm not going to let this much time past and each time it does.  This entire year has just passed in the blink of an eye.  Our holiday season was busy just like everyone else's but we did have time for some fun.  We took Noah to see a local light display, he went on a train ride with Santa with my parents, niece and nephew.  I got to spend a few days away on a girls trip with my mom right before Thanksgiving to do some shopping at the outlets.  It was nice to be able to do that especially since at this time last year we didn't know how bad her cancer was and what was going to happen.  Joe and I got to go to a Penguins Hockey game and I got to see a friend I haven't seen since my wedding almost 7 years ago.  Which I vow to never let that much time pass again!

I have tried to become more active in the adoption community and trying to help give support to other waiting families and even families who had been placed with.  I am hoping 2015 sees great things with this.  I have also had a great opportunity presented to me that I am so excited to be working on and can't wait to see where it leads and what other opportunities that will come along.

We have Noah's 3rd..yes 3rd birthday coming up at the end of the month.  It just boggles my mind that our baby is going to be 3.  He grew so much over the past few months and has turned into such a little boy.  He talks up a storm and is all boy.  Loves his trucks, blocks, dinosaurs, and trains.  He is also all boy in the aspect he loves to rough house and now has taken to hockey a little bit with using sticks to hit the balls and stuff around the house.  Santa brought him a power wheels quad for Christmas and I am pretty such will be a crazy child on it by summer.

I hope 2014 was a great year for you and 2015 see even better things.  I look forward to staying more active on the blog.  I will leave you with a new picture of our little man!

Love
Melinda

She's Amazing

I want to start by thanking everyone who has been praying for my mother and family over the past month or so.  Also thank you for understanding that I didn't want to go into details at the request of my mom.  This past Monday she finally got a bit of good news and she was finally ready to talk about things and tell people what was going on.  Below is the post she put on her facebook page:


In November, I was having a great deal of pain and started some tests. EGD showed nothing. We moved on to the stress test. I failed it and had a stent inserted on December 11 or 12. When they did the chest xray for the stent, the doctor found a tumor in my right lung. Hence, the prayers. After consulting with a doctor in Pittsburgh, he did surgery on January 23. The tumor was cancer. After all the tests came back, all cancer cells were totally contained to the tumor. All surrounding tissue was negative. Today, I had an appointment with the Oncologist and got the actual first good news in a long couple of months. No Chemo or Radiation needed.

Again, thank you all for the prayers and God does answer.

This is the compressed version of what took place, she failed to mention that she had to have part of her lung removed with the tumor.  That is not important the fact that she is ok is what is important.  As you can imagine this rocked my world (as well as the rest of my families) to the core.  What started out as a simple EGD for heart burn turned to a heart cath and stent being put in to lung cancer, all in the matter of 3 weeks. And I might add all of this between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It was a long few weeks, but during it all my mothers strength and faith was beyond anything I can find words for.  Never 1 time during all of this did I see my mother cry, get angry or be upset.  She was the one who was strong for all of us.  I can't say how she was behind closed door or at night when no one could see her, or how she feels about it all now.

I will say what I learned about my mother over the past few months is something I will keep with me forever.  I have learned more about her faith in God in the past few months than ever before.  Not that we were not faithful people before but during a time when most people question and run away, she ran right to her faith and let it wrap her with love and protection.  She is one of the strongest people I know and can only hope to be that strong myself and to tech my son to be that way as well.  I also saw the way my parents relationship strengthened, not that they don't already have an amazing relationship but it was different.  My mother has always been the care taker for everyone, always putting everyone before herself, so this way hard.  Yes she has had things done in the past, two knee replacements and a hip replacement but this was different, this was unknown, this was scary.  This could have been life or death!  She still have the recovery ahead of her but she gets stronger everyday.  She has 1 more surgery in a couple of weeks so please pray for her for that as well.

My mother and I have not always had the best relationship, I was a very high maintenance, stubborn teen and made it hard on her but over the past 10 years she has become my best friend and in the past 2 months she has become one of my hero's!


Much Love

Melinda

Prayer

Bad times make the good times better!

Please pray for my mother and family today.  Strength for her and my dad right now.

Life

I can't believe that it is Mid January already!  It always seems that with the holidays I lose track of time and this year seems to be worse than most.  I have to admit I haven't been handling life very well right now.  I feel like things are spiraling out of control.  I know that things are not about me right now but feeling so helpless in it doesn't help.
Our holidays were nice and quiet for the most part.  Just time with the family and relaxing.  Saying Santa treated Noah well would be an understatement.  He received much more than most children do and I know I am not helping to do that but I buy what I budget for and that is what he gets.  It is just all the extras he gets from Aunts and Uncles and grandparents!  But I take that as a sign that he is loved by so many people, and that is a blessing in its self!
Our New Years Eve was very quiet and a far cry from what they used to be and that is ok.  That means God has blessed us with a family to stay home with and not be at parties and bars all night like we used to.  We had a fun filled night of hot dogs and the movie Monsters University; and I wouldn't change it for the world.
Thing went down hill that weekend with me getting sick with a terrible chest cold and a temperature of over 104 for several days. I was sure it was the flu and went to our local urgent care to be checked and thank God it wasn't; just a bad cold.  By Monday evening Noah and Joe both had a touch of it, but not as bad.  Here we are almost a week later and I starting to feel a little better just really run down.
Noah has some changes coming up for him he has his big 2nd birthday in about two weeks, where has the time gone!  The beginning of February he will be starting at a new daycare.  We needed to move some things around for the days we needed daycare and I am sad to say business owners just don't care sometimes.  After waiting for 3 days for a call back from his current provider we finally made the decision to just find another place that cared.  I am upset about the lack of caring; not having to move him.  It is just with everything else going on right now this should have been the last thing I needed to worry about.  Joe's feelings are the fact that we are having to deal with this on top of things is reason enough to leave.  You don't not call back one of your children's parents to see what the problem is when they call you and leave two messages and then show up to talk to you and you can't be bothered to call back at all.  I am angry about that but it is what it is and maybe it is a blessing that I can't see yet.  The new place is a small center that is in the ladies home.  She is licensed by the state so I know that she is inspected and things and I also know that she will have alot less kids.  The student to teacher ratio is going to be much better and there are more kids Noah's age there.  I also think she is going to be more approachable about things and more flexible.  So I am praying for a smooth transition for Noah over the next couple weeks.
I don't want to and can't go into detail but I am also asking you pray for my family over the next several weeks for other things.  If you pray for my family God will know what you are asking for and it would really mean alot to us.
Thank you for understanding me not wanting to talk about it and being a support.  So if I don't post alot over the next few weeks please know it is because I have alot going on and will post when I get time.

Melinda

Fall update

It has been a very busy fall for us here; and the holiday season doesn't look like it will be any different.  I wanted to share a few pictures from our fall adventures, we went to the zoo, a pumpkin patch & some trick or treating.  Only in Western PA do you need rain boots for that!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family

The other day I was sorting through our mail that came it was the usual bills, sales flyer's and junk mail.  Then mixed in with it all was an orange envelope, I knew the writing before I even looked at the return address.  It was from Noah's grandparents in Las Vegas.  I know alot of people wonder and ask why do you call them his grandparents, well because they are.  I believe in my heart that my parents are secure enough in the relationship they have with Noah to share him.  I will be honest we hadn't seen Noah's birth family since he was born almost 2 years ago.  But we all knew going into it with the distance that is the way it was going to be.  We also all talked about the roles we would play in Noah's life before hand and what we were all comfortable being known as.  Them not wanting to step on anyone's toes with titles and us not wanting to down play the role they had in Noah's life.  She was very cautious and gracious when she asked, "what would you like us to call our self's?"
I think the thing that helped with all of us setting bounds and talking about things so early was they are adoptive parents as well.  I don't know if I have talked about this in the past or not but Noah's birth mother was adopted as well.  So her parents know the emotions and feeling of an adoptive parent trying to move in adoption.  The sad part for them was her adoption was a fully closed adoption so they never really had to address these issues but knew how they felt.  D was coming from a place of being a mother and also an adoptee and knew what questions and feeling she has, and wanted to be there for Noah when he had them.  Open adoption was a complete foreign thing to all of us!  But D, Joe and I all knew it was something we wanted, so we would figure it out.  The work was worth it to all of us; not to say there hasn't been bumps along the way; and that there won't be down the road.  I hope that as the years pass we can continue with the relationship we have with them.  I know I could very well have changed my phone number the second I boarded a plane leaving Las Vegas and never looked back.  I have nothing that legally makes me send anyone pictures.  I do have something far more important than a piece of paper that makes me do it, I have my word that I gave to a frightened mother and her family in a hospital almost 2 years ago.  I couldn't live with myself if I went back on my word, because some day I will have to answer to Noah and to God. And the judgement of those two mean more to me than cutting his family out of my life; even IF I wanted to.
I write this on the eve of the day that marks 2 years since D "walked" into our life's and changed them forever!  Two years ago I went to bed on the night of my favorite Holiday depressed and crying.  I had sat in my house in complete darkness trying to shut the world around me out.  I was at the lowest point I had ever been in my life!  The following day I got an email that changed everything!  On this Halloween night two years later I am celebrating my favorite Holiday with my son who happens to be turning 21 months old today!  He has been such a blessing and joy to our entire family, in PA and Las Vegas!


Love
Melinda

Out and about

He wasn't to sure what he should do with this

The slide was a hit

Acting silly and giving me a face only a mother would love.

Santa knows just what to bring Noah!

What do I think I want?

Hi mommy, watcha ya doing

Mommy I promise I know what I'm doing.

Just wanted to share a few shots from the past couple weeks.

Where to go from here

I have spent a lot of time thinking over the past few weeks as to if it is maybe time to just bow out from the blog.  When I started this it was to keep family and friends informed about how our adoption was going.  It then turned into more of a, this is what the adoption process is like.  Even the first year was look how much Noah has grown and this is where things are at with the finalization of the adoption. 

Here we are just a few days away from Noah’s adoption being finalized for 1 year!  He is 19 and ½ months old and what is there really to talk about. 

Yes Noah is growing into an amazing little boy.  He is climbing onto everything, and most things he should be.  He has learned if he sticks his toes in the links on the baby gate on the steps he can get himself up high enough to get over it.  The dog’s cage has become his personal step ladder to get things we try to keep up from him.  The middle of the dinning room table has become his own personal winners block and he stands on it all the time.  I am pretty sure some day I am going to find him pulling on the blades of the fan above the table.  As much as these things drive me crazy I know it is part of him growing and they are exciting to me at least.  But do other people want to hear about it? 

We do have contact with Noah’s birth family but to be honest it is pretty minimal, so it isn't like I have that to talk about.  I don’t think it is any 1 person’s fault that contact has slowed down, but it has happened.  Our life is busy with 2 working parents and a 19 month old.  They are just as busy and have just as many things going on.  I wish we were in contact more but life happens I guess.  We don’t avoid each other and when 1 or the other reaches out the other always answers back.  I am sure distance has a lot to do with it and it makes it hard for visits and things.  I hope in the future we do get to visit with them. 

So this is where I am at, where is there to go from here?  I have met so many amazing people and know it is because of my blog.  But what is left to say?  What do people really want to hear.

Melinda 

Toes in the water

Well it's back to reality.  It seems like you wait forever and ever for vacation to get here and it goes by in the blink of an eye.  It was so great to get away and relax and not really worry about much for a few days, I needed it way more than I thought I did.  I was at the end of my rope in every way possible.  I was having a hard time making it through the day some days.
I couldn't tell you the last time we had a vacation.  I know alot of people were like well you were just in Vegas for 2 weeks last January, trust me that was no vacation, and anyone who has traveled for an adoption knows what I mean.  Yes we saw some great things and made some great memories but it was far from relaxing.  Maybe some day down the road we will go back to Vegas and have a good vacation.
This year we went on a family vacation to the beach and it was amazing.  After we drove most of the night to get there and got some sleep we were up bright and early with Noah.  I have to add that Noah was a champ in the 7 hour car ride there and back, I was pretty impressed with him.  The very fist thing I wanted to do was take him to the water to see the ocean for the first time.  I am a life long beach lover and would be a total beach bum if I could support myself doing it.  We got up and got ready to go to see the ocean, Noah, Joe, Pappy and I bright and early at 7:30 am.  I would love to say Noah loved the water as much as his mommy does but that was not the case.  He didn't even like the sand at first, it was to soft and uneven for him to walk on, but by the end of the week he had become a pro at it and loved it. 
Several time during the week we got to see the wild horses around the campground, and one day they even came right out to the beach and walked around.  That was a pretty cool thing to see.  They just wondered around freely, in fact the night we got there we had to wait for several to move to be able to park the camper!

We did go to the boardwalk for about 2 hours one afternoon and had lunch and walked around a little bit.  There was a gumball machine in front of the restaurant where we ate that Noah was obsessed with.  We couldn't get him away from it.  He loved checking out all the kites flying in front of the one store on the beach and stood and watched them for a long time.  Some of them were pretty cool, I wish I would have taken a picture of them.  One was a fish that I know had to have been 7 or 8 feet long.  We did get to fly our own kites on the beach our last day there but they were not as elaborate as those ones were, but still just as fun.
We made so many amazing memories on our trip, our first family vacation.  Being able to see things in a new way with a child be beyond amazing.  For me it is like seeing old things in a new way and it is something I am so blessed to do.  I can't wait to see what new and amazing things we will do and see down the road.
I am going to put my guard down and post some pictures of Noah, they are just to cute to keep to myself and not share.

Love
Melinda