Transportation

Our lil lady is a bit obsessed with transportation. She can spot any machine from a mile away and call it by it's proper name 9 times out of 10. So it just made since to have our July theme focus be transportation. Now our July was VERY busy so we didn't get as much fun in as I was hoping, but here are a few things we DID do.

Played with our construction sensory bin. Thanks Bebe and Papaw for the awesome little vehicles!!!

Painted with cars.

Made a traffic light out of paper pieces. We also played red light, green light which she loved!

Made and drove a cardboard box car. As soon as Nathan got home this day, Lylah said "show daddy green car". She was very impressed with this activity!

We even talked about vehicles at Bebe and Papaw's pool!!!

And the grocery store. She most defiantly cried when we had to leave!!

We also continued to watch for vehicles at our new library site.

Some other things we did was played with road playdough and hot wheels (how did I not get a picture of this??!), made ramps, raced hot wheels across the dining room floor, and read pretty much EVERY transportation book front the library! Oh, we watched Bob the Builder "On Site" DVDs too. Great time really learning about one of our little lady's favorite things! Next month we will focus on what else....Beach/Ocean.

Vacation ocean style

Well we are on the road heading home from what has been a wonderful vacation. One thing about vacationing with a toddler is that it forces you to relax a little which was way nice. The trip didn't fly by and we had plenty of fun. We basically did the same thing everyday: woke up loaded the car and ate breakfast on the beach followed by a few hours of play time. We were back at the resort for lunch and naps, plus a little reading for mommy and daddy. After nap we wolf play inside, Nathan and Lylah would watch the holders from our balcony while I made dinner, and then after dinner if it wasn't raining we would go to the pool at the resort and if it was raining we would let our lil' lady bounce her brains out at an amazing bouncy house city. The only exceptions to our little routine were the day we went to a wonderful little children's museum and the day it rained ALL day in which we shopped salvage stores :)

To say that Lylah loved the beach would be an extreme understatement!!! It was a love at first site relationship for sure! In fact the first night we arrived we went in street clothes just to show her the ocean and before our little visit was over Lylah was naked because she had soaked through her clothes and diaper from all the splashing!!!! She loved playing in the sand, splashing on the shore, chasing seagulls, and burying her feet in the sand. We also visited a pier and saw lots of ocean wildlife! In all we saw a horseshoe crab, sting rays, crabs, hermit crabs, fish (one very big and a different one that Nathan tried to catch with his hands!), sea gulls, pelicans, and we even thought we saw dolphins way out one morning! Every night I would put her to bed she would say "more ocean tomorrow mommy?". So sweet!!!!

She also learned some golf rules while watching golf from our balcony (our resort was on a golf course). She loved telling the golfers "good job" as they walked to their balls, but she understood to be very quiet once they got there and were ready to hit. Look out Tiger, maybe we have a future golfer on our hands!!

We did enjoy our pool at our resort as well! They had a baby pool that was just shallow enough for Lylah to walk around in. She would move her arms and say she was swimming. She also liked to jump off the edge of the big pool and count for mommy and daddy as we did the same.

The little museum we went to was called the Lynn Meadows Discovery Museum. It was a very small museum and although it made for some crowded exhibits, it was wonderful! The exhibits were right up Lylah's ally with the downstairs being train and harbor (boat and crane) exhibits. Anyway, I'm a major fan of children's museums and this one did not disappoint especially with the $18 for all of us price!!! AWESOME!!!

Here are a few pictures from our fun. Of course a BIG thank you goes out to my mother in law who let us have her time share. The cost she donated to our adoption!! We love you Nana!!!

Our summer so far...in pictures

I warned you that I probably wouldn't be able to blog much because I was sure we would be having so much fun. Well, that was an understatement!!! So since I've fallen way behind on the things I wanted to blog about I'm just going to put it in pictures for you!

We made a new friend :)

We went to the zoo with our buddies.

We looked at butterflies.

We played at Bebe and Papaw's pool for 4th of July weekend, which included our first smores!!

We ate free chicken, yummy!

We ate ice cream cones. Hopefully you did too because it's been HOT!!

We played on our swing set...a lot!

Went to Hobby Lobby several times, but sometimes we even met our Bella Boo and Meme there too!

We rode on a boat.

We watched LOTS of machines, but especially loved watching the machines working on our new library!

We took a long weekend with the family in the mountains.

As you can see we have been having so much fun!! I can't explain how excited I am that this is my new job!!

Prayers for this child

I have been a Sara Groves fan for a very long time. In fact I feel like every happy, sad, and in between moment of my life has a Sara Groves song that goes with it. We had "He's Always Been Faithful" played at our wedding. And I can't even begin to recount all the times her other songs have ministered to my heart. Well, this weekend Lylah and I took a little road trip and since my lil' lady fell asleep that meant that I got to listen to mommy music- my choice of course- Sara Groves.

Anyway, I was driving along singing and thinking about how tough the adoption process is. The waiting (which there is lots of) gives me time to worry, "what if Lydia doesn't love us", "what if I can't fix her hair?", "what if family and friends don't accept her" it also gives me time to doubt, "this is too big-we'll never see her face to face", "the funds will never come in", "no one will come to our picnic". You get the idea. Anyway, then I hear this song (which I have already cried all the way through several times as I was pregnant with Lylah):

PRAYERS FOR THIS CHILD
I do not know how I am to pray for this child
as a mother I don't want my baby denied
but in the waiting in the waiting
I learned

every instinct in me wants to shield him from pain
take the arrows of misery heartache and blame
but in the sorrow in the sorrow
I learned to hold on

I only have two eyes - be all seeing
I only have two hands - be everywhere
I do not know enough - to be all knowing
I give this baby up into your care

I do not know how, how to pray for this child
I want to guard her from everything wicked and wild
but in the trial in the trial
I learned to hold on
And in the trial, in the trial
I learned to hold on to the heart of God

God reminded me through those lyrics. That wherever Lydia is, and whatever she is going through, it is part of her story. God knows. All the other trials, waitings, and sorrows that she (and Lylah for that matter) experiences even after she is with us will in His grace be used to show her His heart. So. I DON'T NEED TO BE ANXIOUS. That is obviously easier said than done as I'm sure it always will be (can anyone say teenage years?), but I can think back on my own life as a testimony of the truth behind the lyrics and even now as we wait I will now pray that I will hold to the heart of God. I can rest in this waiting, knowing that God will use every moment of Lydia's life, even those moments before she gets to us, for His glory. It is all part of His Soverign plan for her. I'm so thankful for that truth and I'm also thankful for song writers who can communicate those truths so well. I'm also thankful that He brought us to this adoption journey, and one day to Lydia.

Happy 4th of July!!