The Miracle of Adoption

To all of our friends & family who have been checking our blog regularly for updates we so apologize for the delay…We have been busy running back and forth to baseball games and track meets. The good news is baseball season is almost over! Hooray I get a life again! We are pressing into the qualifying meets now for The Junior Olympics and Chase appears to be a strong contender with his 4.47 mile.

Chaeli is thriving in her new family and home, and loves her brothers beyond anything I can write about here. She lights up every time they walk in the room or pick her up and twirl her around. She is one lucky girl to have 3 brothers as her covering. They admire her and love her and they live to see her smile. Her cousin Davis is pretty enthralled with her too!

Chaeli starts every morning off with her playful bath and it is customary for us to see her all nestled up in a towel just like this. Dan calls her his cuddle duck every time she comes out of the water all wrapped up. I love my mornings with Chaeli (when all the boys have left for school and it is just her and I). We have so much fun together and surely the best part of our day is in the morning when I get to bathe her, massage her with sweet smelling lotions, kiss her little brown bear body from head to toe, and dress her up in all of her adorable clothes! She is my little beauty and I never tire of looking into her face.

Mother’s Day was very special for us this year because we had Chaeli blessed at our church. It was so neat to have all of her brothers, and her Mommy and Daddy come up in front of the church family and talk about Chaeli and our love for her. Dan said a prayer for her in front of the congregation that was so heartfelt.

Here are some pictures of Chaeli with her Daddy who simply adores her!

Here are a few pictures of Chaeli and me taken early in the morning in our back yard. I cannot tell you how long I have waited and longed for a little girl of my own to take a picture just like this one. She has made the wait so worth it for me. Who else could there have ever been for me except little Chaeli?

I think these are some of my favorite pictures of Chaeli because it shows her laughing and it really shows off her funny, goofy little pigtails (we call them “pigs”). Chaeli’s personality is really coming through. She smiles all the time, belly laughs and gives kisses whenever we pucker up to her. She melts our hearts into liquid.

We thank all of you for the love that you have shown to our little Chaeli Bug! She is one happy little girl and she has a family that was hand picked for her by God, to love her all the days of her life. That is what we are passionately doing one day at a time.

Thank you to everyone who gave Chaeli such beautiful dresses for her Birthday! We had so much fun trying them all on her and seeing how pretty she looked!

Grandma Maureen knitted her a sweet little white sweater that she will be able to wear next year about this time and Jan bought her a couple dresses for next year as well. We tried to dress her up in everything that did fit her right now so you could enjoy the fashion show!

Chaeli’s birthday party brought with it a gorgeous surprise snow storm. There’s nothing like big, white flakes falling all over to give you a nestled in, cozy feeling. We enjoyed a small, intimate party with just the right number of people and plenty of pizza and ice-cream cake. It was so much fun! I wish all of you could have been here to celebrate with us.

It seems every day with Chaeli we see more and more of her personality and who she really is. Have we mentioned that she melts our hearts??? On another separate note, Chaeli now has an insatiable appetite for food! Yep, she pretty much wants to eat food all day long, and oh yeah…watch out for your fingers! They may get in the way of her now 7 teeth!

Chaeli had her first trip to Nordstroms with Daddy and Mommy, and she was a big hit in her Red Valentine’s dress!

Everyone kept coming over to see her, talk to her and ask us about our beautiful baby.

It seems no one can believe she is already turning 1 – she is still so little. We let Chaeli down a bit in the store and she walked around the clothes rack, showing off her very tiny (but pretty) black shoes. It seems funny to see one so small walking around upright. Chaeli is getting very mobile now and is so much fun to watch and play with. She was the perfect baby to tote around today, even though she was not feeling very well. We all needed a break from the house and the sick bug blues, so we had a couple hours at the mall and enjoyed lunch together with Daddy at our favorite restaurant. It was a perfect Valentine’s Day!