Thought I Better Share

I just had a boatload of photos from Christmas break printed and realized I forgot to share something very important. During the week Julie and her family visited, my parents were able to sit down and chat with Julie & Jerry. It was one of those moments where I just sat back and absorbed. I think everyone was unsure of what they were feeling, how to act, and what would happen. Overall I think it went really well.

The common ground during their conversation was Iowa. My parents lived in Cedar Rapids for quite a while, including the first 5 years of my life, before moving to Dallas. Later, after Colorado, they moved back for the last 10 years of my dad's career. This happens to be 30 minutes from where Julie has been living. Wonder if our paths ever crossed? 

Of course the other common ground was moi! It was very sweet when my dad told Julie how thankful he was for giving them another daughter. He reached across the table and shook her hand with a thoughtful thank you. It was a very unexpected and touching moment.

Here are photos from that morning. I'm not sure I ever thought I would have these pictures in my album. Chalk it up for an new experience before I turn 40.

My mom, me and Julie.

My dad & mom, me and Julie.

I am so thankful God knows the desire of our hearts. He allowed me to meet Julie and fill in some of the puzzle pieces of my life. And an opportunity for everyone to meet.



Views From The Road

Today was the day of Moka's first haircut. She cried the entire way there and couldn't wait to get in the car on the way home. Normally she doesn't want to be in the car, so this was her way of saying, Let's run for our lives.

Our groomer works out of her house about 15 minutes east of here. The drive is so great, you feel like you are out in the country so quickly. On the way there I thought, man I wish I had my camera. Up in a tree I saw a huge eagle looking over the field, probably looking for lunch. So on the way back I brought it and got some shots I thought I'd share with you.

This tree was just so pretty. The white trunk was beautiful.

This dirt road leads to some place magical I bet.

Around each corner I kept finding John Deere tractors...

that is true country living for you. They live next to the dirt road above.

Aren't they lucky?

This view was all I saw on my way home!

I never take these mountains for granted.

Just as I turned I saw the Poudre River -

partially frozen with some ducks enjoying a swim.

Now these guys were hilarious. On the way out there was one dude standing to the left of the irrigation ditch. He looked like some kind of bovine chief... all the others were on the right walking toward him. It was some kind of power! Although not everyone was convinced to cross I see.

Just past the elementary school I found these pills. They are such

a nuisance. Who can stand the goose? With all that poop

and that attitude of, "Um crossing the street,

just hang on 10 minutes while I cross."

This last picture is about 3 blocks from our house. I have pulled over at this spot countless times to take pictures, mostly of sunsets... just ask my very patient family. God has painted many beautiful pictures for us including these mountains. What a creation!

Houston We Have A Problem

I wish life's problems were this "simple" for us adults: When we got home today Whitney told me her zipper had broken... apparently it happened after she put her coat on to leave for the day. She asked me to unzip it for her and I couldn't. She then handed me the pull as if I was a welder and could reattach it right then and there. Sorry, I know I'm a closet genius but that sucker plum snapped off, no fixin' that. She asked me to try to unzip it anyway. I go to grab the coat, I bunch it together to loosen up the situation so I could unzip it. That was when she flipped. This is the child we think we forever scarred with Scott swaddling her too tight in the early days. Because at this point she can't stand turtle necks & tight spaces, and the fact I tightened her coat ever so slightly made her wig out. Unfortunately, in the process the zipper went higher, which equals tighter. I told her the best way out was taking it off over her head like a shirt. This is what happened next...

Under that grin is a "Why didn't you major in welding?" comment.

I'm really surprised she is even smiling. Maybe the camera helped her keep her cool.

Whew, that was a close call. All that flipping around the floor probably helped.

Victory, Sweet Victory!

The culprit... those darn pulls, they don't make 'em like they used to.

Ok, it is a hand-me-down, so it was probably time for it to blow.

That was our drama of the day. Be thankful I didn't send you pictures of the wet stains on my shirt from the baby's diaper leaking through. The kids thought is was hilarious. I'd much rather share Whitney's drama then mine... with permission of course!!

I'm Your Aunt Krissy

I don't know how many of you were fans of the show Friends, but Scott and I loved it. There was a line I love when Monica holds Ross's son Ben for the first time, "I'm your Aunt Monica... and I will always have gum!" I've used that line so many times. I couldn't wait until my friend Kendra's son could chew gum. I kept asking him to ask his mom if it was time. Finally the day came and Aunt Krissy showed up with gum. We have been calling ourselves Aunt Krissy and Uncle Scott to the baby. I've had a cold since she has been here (mostly gone now), and after a coughing fit Scott told her, "This is your Aunt Krissy, she will always have a cough." I died, too funny.

We have ownership in this baby. I didn't realize that would happen. I know, you all did. I kept saying it will be fine when she goes, and it will. But I also didn't realize just how hard it will be. I think about her first night away and... I can't. I want to cry. But I keep in my mind that the family who will receive this precious package cannot wait to have her. They will take care of her, give her a good Christian home, and love her with everything they have. Just as it should be.

I learned that the legal notice was published for the birth father - his opportunity to step up, otherwise his rights are relinquished. Can I tell you how hard that is for me? That the man who has blood ties, but no emotional ties, could come for her? I have been keeping a journal for Baby's mommy and I put in there that my heart physically hurts when I think of that. That I'm praying like crazy for him to never come up. That if he does I'll be fleeing to Mexico with Baby and I'll hand her over there. God help us.

The Boys

My life has been pretty wrapped up with this tiny bundle in our house. Isn't it amazing how something as small as 6 lbs. can consume every part of you? Side note, the little 6 pounder is in the 3rd percentile, that is a hoot to the Faux Mom who had kids in the upper 90's. I was a little concerned and they said she's fine.


Again, all consuming... Back to the other part of my life I have written about lately. When I met Julie she referred to her sons as the boys. I pictured a 10 and 12 year old, not a 30 and 32 year old, even though I knew better. So when they arrived after Christmas I had fun looking at them for resemblances in character and physical features. When we met, Scott (32) got up and gave me a hug, Sean (30) sat there smiling... that is just how I picture him, smiling. Scott and I are more similar in personality and looks. Star of the show and a similar mouth... not my crooked smile though, still searching for who is responsible for that.


Scott and I had fun chatting on New Year's Eve - while we watched endless hours of Disney shows waiting for midnight. He even bet me a small amount of money that the main kid in Goonies was Ryan Seacrest. He obviously didn't know who he was messing with. Can you say 17 years of Oscar Party and counting? So by then end of the night he had his life savings on the line... game on. On New Year's Day I was a rich girl because Sean Astin was the main character, not Ryan Seacrest. He never did pay up. Scott spent a lot of time in the pool playing with his daughter Sylvie and our kids, playing games and having fun.


Sean, the quiet one, was smiling all week. He didn't say much, but he seemed to be having a good time. The night we said good bye at their hotel I said, "Brace yourself, I'm going to give you a hug." He just smiled and put up with it. Prior to that we took a group picture. Julie kept telling Sean to scoot closer, he wouldn't.

Scott made goofy faces to lighten the mood...

So I turned to Scott and said, "Let's move toward him since he isn't moving." So we scooched and he survived. Here is the result of the torture!

Did I mention we went to Park Meadows specifically to visit the American Girl Store for Sylvie and the girls? We had a full day and a lot of giggles!

During our second visit of the day the girls stopped to read some AG books.

And giggle!

I told the kids, "When you were asked what you got for Christmas you could have said 2 cousins." We had a lot of fun and the memories will last a lifetime. Reagan said, "That was the best week!" Right after she said this would go down as the craziest Christmas EVER.

Full House, Full Car

It was Monday morning and we were movin'! Moka had her appointment to be spayed... because we had to, not because we didn't have anything else to do. Scott was off to her 7:15 appointment while we were all home cruising around getting ready. Reagan had an 8 a.m. ortho appointment so I had to get four kids going... that was different. We all had to go the dentist because from there we'd drop Reagan at school late, and drop Whitney and Tennison off early - beating the dreaded arctic freeze kiss-n-go lane from you know where. Scott comes flying into the driveway just in time to take out the dog crate, readjust the seats and load in. Tennison says, "Wow! Full house, full car!" I said, "You're not kiddin' ", and gave him nucks. Scott and I then went out to breakfast. It was a good sense of normal for us.

Another good sense of normal was when I made dinner. It had been so long since I've really cooked. Between Christmas vacation and the baby, hardly made a thing. Homemade pizza it was.

Sausage, feta and sun dried tomatoes.

Canadian bacon with feta and sun dried tomatoes or not.

That is a lot of pictures, sorry. It is dinner time, so I must be hungry!! Boy was it tasty!!

One last thing. I am not supposed to show pictures of the baby or give details. But I wanted to show you proof that I am truly her Faux Mom...



For some reason I can't get this camera's uploaded pics to turn the right way, sorry. But I guess it is representative of how I feel, a bit twisted and out of sorts. I'm still hanging on to my cold and we're still a bit sleep deprived. But we have a full car, a full house and we're all full of JOY!

Real Housewives of FC

I'm assuming most of you haven't been up at 2 a.m. perusing the latest television shows. So I thought I'd fill you in on the quality TV I saw last night... or rather, this morning. The show is called The Real Housewives of OC. I was intrigued by life in Orange County, let's just say it aint Fort Collins - or FC. The 4 women they followed were very CA. One was married and celebrated father's day by giving her husband a "very affordable bracelet less than $2,000", two were divorced - one dealing with a son who just got out of juvey and the other has a daughter who wants nothing to do with her father. Then there is the trophy-wife-to-be. For father's day this 24 year old had to call friends in the grocery store to ask how to shop and later informed her fiance that she would have had the picnic set-up on the beach but then would have had to carry it all herself... probably in a Louis Vuitton picnic basket.

I started to think about the show and thought, what is the Real Housewife of FC like? She stays up late helping her kids with school projects, gets called the meanest mom ever, helps her son blow his nose even though he doesn't want to. She grocery shops when she can squeeze it in, makes lunches & the healthiest dinner she can and doesn't beat herself up if it isn't organic. She doesn't update her wardrobe nearly as often as her kids and makes time for the gym at the crack of dawn, or not. She volunteers endless hours at church and school (or to new babies). She makes time to hang out with friends, dates her husband when she can and even tries to smooch him when he gets home.

Here is to living in a really great place. Where we can lean on each other as Real Housewives of FC. I am blessed with such great girl friends... real women who I have not once heard say she couldn't carry it herself... and thankfully none of us have had to get kids out of juvey. If that day should come, I've got your back.

Thanks for the sisterhood.

Saint Kristina

As I drove up to Starbucks this morning I started laughing. All I could think was, God you are so funny! Giving us this bundle with less than 24 hours notice, within 30 minutes of being certified, and for such a long stretch. And then I thought, thank you for inventing Starbucks for my every couple of weeks guilty pleasure known as: an extra hot, no foam, skinny, Cinnamon Dolce latte. How froo-froo does that sound? It was what I needed this morning for sure, now that I'm back in the throes of new baby zombieness.


Baby, knock on wood, has had to be woken up for her middle of the night feeding. I know! She stayed the same weight at her check up yesterday so we're amping up ounces as best we can and will go back tomorrow. She's a sleeper... I remember those days with Reagan, strippin' her down, tickling her feet, anything to keep her awake to feed her.


At the appointment I got the comments my friend Kristin warned me about. I'm standing there to check out and this lady comes up to the counter. She asks how old my baby is? Umm... I looked a bit like a loser for not knowing, I'll get on that for future questions. She's 5 days old. She peeks around the counter at me and says, "Wow and you're already in your jeans." OH! "I didn't have her, we're doing cradle care." Then of course Chatty Cathy (sorry mom) had a lot of info to share about how she wants to do that one day, when her youngest is potty trained. In my head I said, Or much, much longer than that! I sneak away and upon my return she looks at me with a sweet smile and says, "You're a saint." Oh, no, no I'm not. But I did walk with a bounce in my step thinking I might request you all to call me Saint Kristina from now on, ha.


I want to share one quick thing with you. The kids have known of this possibility since we've been going through the process. At the home study the kids were asked how they felt about a baby in the house. On the day we were going to bring her home, Tennison wrote this:

Yet he already knew she...



Since then he has asked if we can adopt her. I said, No buddy, her new family needs her. "Well, it's good that she's getting so much lovin' here then." Yes, so good!

Sleep Baby, Sleep

Last night was far better for all of us! Thanks to whoever prayed for sleep. We took Baby to the pediatrician and she is doing well. She lost quite a bit of her birth weight so we go in tomorrow for a weight check. We needed to amp up her ounces at each feeding too, I think this added to a better nights sleep. We fed her at 10:00, 1:00 and 4:30. I call that a success over going to bed after 1:00 a.m. the first night and up throughout the night "on her 20 minute clock" as Scott called it.

We were able to take her to our pediatrician, the one and only Doctor Booth. Many of our friends go to him as well and feel mutual admiration. We have gone to him since Reagan was a newborn and have grown a lot with him. This is the man who measured Reagan's melon and said, "She has the head of a Harvard Girl". That has stuck with us for sure! And he is the man Tennison called Doctor Poops because he couldn't get out the name Booth. I was mortified, he laughed - thankfully. We prayed with him after his wife passed away and have loved on him in the grieving. Just before he left the room, Doctor Booth looked me in the eye and said, "Good job." It meant the world to me, just like when your dad says he is proud of you. I almost lost it right there, must be the new mommy hormones! Ha.

Scott and I aren't in this for the accolades, we are in it for this baby girl. We love adoption and all in entails. To have this chance to give her all the lovin' she can get by 5 people and a dog, and to pray over her, that is the blessing.

Here is a math problem for you: If Kris takes approximately 47 pictures a day for approximately 45 days, how many pictures is that? Answer: 2,115. Will that overwhelm her new mommy? Doubt it!!

Oh Baby!

In September Scott and I started the process to be the Cradle Care Family for Adoption Dreams Come True. Do you remember our First Aid & CPR class, me being "stabbed by a candy cane"? Well, if we weren't whooped enough from an eventful Christmas we got a call from the agency on New Year's Day. We had been trying to nap and poor Cindy, the agency's owner, tried us multiple times on multiple phones and finally got me. In her 17 years she has not needed a family for Cradle Care, however, every agency needs one. She said, "Kris, it's Cindy, we have a baby." I about flipped!

Our one condition was that we were finishing our last hour of infant CPR the next afternoon. So there we go to the instructors house for our class, get signed off and official, and head to the hospital. We met the baby, got to know her a little and then were released at 7:00. If you've had a baby you'll know what I'm saying when your house looks like you have a new baby... it looks like a bomb dropped. Cindy dropped off the car seat, bags of clothes, diapers, and formula. That with our Christmas tree and stockings in the background - not sure when that will be coming down. Reagan told me this will go down as the craziest Christmas ever!!

With the circumstances surrounding this baby, we may have her for quite a while. It could be as long as 45 days. "Won't you have a hard time letting her go?" If she was here a week, probably not. But 2 months is a long time for all of us to bond, so I'm sure it won't be easy. But knowing the circumstances of the potential adoptive parents, I can't wait to be the one to hand her over. Cindy said I would be able to do that, it gives me chills to have that honor.

For now Scott and I are whooped. She whined and fussed most of the night. We both have colds, she left the hospital with a sniffle & woke up with a zillion sneezes, Tennison has it  now and... did I mentioned being whooped?

I better scoot, we're off to our pediatricians for her first doctor visit. Who thought we'd be doing that again? If you think of us, pray for sleep cause boy... are we whooped!

New Year, New Word

Happy New Year!!
The radio station I listen to challenged us to choose a word for the year to focus on. Rather than a resolution or a goal, a word. They mentioned the words listen or joy. I think I have mine, but I'm not telling. It isn't like a wish when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake - don't tell or it won't happen. It is that I want to see if by 2012 anyone can see this word in me. So I'll throw the challenge out to you, choose a word to focus on and see if you grow in that area by this day in 2012.

Here is to a great year to come!