Mother's Day, Tangled, friends IRL

Oh my goodness, is life ever busy. Between work, daycare, preschool, errands, laundry, lawn care, holidays and other daily joys and hassles, sometimes I don't know if we're coming or going. It seems were all either going full-force or are dead asleep; it doesn't seem like there's anything in between. Sometimes I tell myself it will calm down as the girls get older but something tells me it just gets different as the girls get older. Oh, well. I can relax when I'm dead, I suppose!

I won't go ultimate-emotional and write about my first Mother's Day, but suffice it to say it was a. long. time. coming. The day was really wonderful. Brian came down first and sent the girls up with cards (I'll spare you the picture of me in bed with them, but we wanted to capture the moment). When I came down to coffee brewing already I found a lovely bouquet of flowers on the table. Leah had made me a sweet tile painting at preschool (it's a flower, she proudly told me) and I opened that. After church my parents came over and we grilled hot dogs and watched the girls play in the ladybug "fountain" - otherwise known as a sprinkler. It was about 95 degrees that day. Today, one week later, it's in the 50s.

After so many years of wondering if this would, finally be the last year of not being a mother, I'm happy to say that we've left that phase of our life behind. I'd much rather take the challenges of life with two girls 11 months apart than the challenges of trying to get pregnant and the challenges of the adoption journey.

The girls' latest obsession is Tangled, the modern Rapunzel movie. They still clamor for Toy Story movies, but I'm really happy to add in Tangled into the rotation! Right now they're playing doctor (the baby needs a shot, then a band-aid, then some more medicine); it's such a hoot to listen to them pretend-and-play and see what they come up with.

Our other recent bright spot was meeting some great friends IRL - in real life! I have found a sisterhood of fellow adoptive mothers or those in the process of adoption, and we're all spread across the country, connected by the computer. First it was an online forum and now it's via a private group on Facebook. The women I'm proud to call sisters are simply amazing and I wouldn't have made it through our journey without them - we consider each other aunts for every new child who comes into families biologically or through adoption - domestic, foster-to-adopt, international, etc. And yesterday I got to hug one of my friends in person! It was great to meet Tiff and her husband and daughter and to play with them all. We're blessed to have friends like this in our lives.

Getting ready to open Leah's present, made at preschool.

 Look at my sweet girl.

My first Mother's Day flowers.

Giving Killian bites of pancakes.

Giving Killian some bites of pancakes.