Isaac: 18 Months

  

At his 18 month appointment, Isaac was 24 lbs., 12 oz (34th percentile) and 32 1/2 inches (57th percentile).

Says night-night, amen, all done, uh-oh, Dada, dat (that), juice, please, no-no, bye-bye, hello,and TA-DA (my favorite--though sometimes it's "da-ta")

Signs please, more, thank you, eat, juice, book, train, plane, truck, motorcycle, fish

Animal sounds horse, cow, pig, dog, cat, bird/chicken, snake, monkey, lion, elephant

Identifies on himself head/hair, teeth, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, feet, shoes, belly button

The biggest change for Isaac over the past few months is sleeping in his new bed! 

Isaac's favorite things right now

• Bath time!  Once he hears the word "bath," he is UP the stairs!

• First trip to his future college, Taylor University...which also means first trip to Ivanhoe's!  See him reaching for the spoon!  (And, check out his little Taylor University letter jacket from Grandma Missy!)

• Playing with friends! Isaac LOVES other kids and gets so excited whenever he sees another child, whether or not it's someone he knows!

Isaac and his cousin, Griffin!

• Helping Daddy with projects around the house and outside
• Dipping food in ketchup/applesauce/syrup....a few weekends ago when I was gone on a Saturday morning, Dave showed Isaac how to dip his pancakes in syrup. Since then, he always wants something to dip his food into! So far, my favorite combination that he's put together was dipping every one of his orange slices into ketchup--YUM!  :)
• Walking up and down the stairs--this makes me nervous, but he does pretty well holding on to the spindles 
• His toy vacuum cleaner...when it's "on," it sings the following words to the tune of "Home on the Range."  "Home, home on the floor...I can vacuum from here to the door."  Can you guess what's stuck in my head every day?!?!      :)               

I can't believe we're halfway to TWO!  Happy half-birthday, Isaac!

You've brought us more smiles & laughter than we ever imagined!

Daddy's Helper

Several tiles in our entry popped up last week.  A friend of ours who owns a foundation repair company came over on Monday to see if it was due to a foundation issue or not, and thankfully it doesn't appear to be!  When there's a project, Isaac is all there!  He had a lot of fun "helping" Dave pull up all the tiles! 

By the time Dave was nearly done, Isaac was so hot & sweaty that he plopped down next to Dave.  He got a cookie for all his hard work...look at his little smirk!  ;) 

Pink AND Blue.....

 PINK AND BLUE....

We never thought that there'd be TWO!!

WHAT?!?!?  Your first thought might be that our birthmother in North Carolina found out she's having twins!  No, that's not it...but there are TWO babies coming this summer! 

Since Isaac's adoption, we've been blessed to stay in touch with Isaac's birthparents.  We've met them several times over the past year and a half & still send pictures on a regular basis. Last November, Isaac's birthmother called to say that she was expecting.  We had been praying about starting the adoption process again.  But, since it was so early in her pregnancy and we didn't know what she was planning to do, we signed with Adoption Network.  But, God has allowed our relationship with Isaac's birthmother to grow, & she's kept in touch with us throughout this whole pregnancy.  We have prayed our hearts out for the little life she is carrying. 

Though there was a small idea in the back of our mind that we *might* end up with 2 babies, we figured that the chances of that were very slim since it hinged on both Isaac's birthmother deciding to place AND getting a match from Adoption Network very quickly.  Well, you already know that we were thrilled to have a match for a baby boy earlier this month....and now we're so excited to share that Isaac's birthmother has chosen to place her BABY GIRL with us too! 

We've been bursting to announce this, but decided to wait until the paperwork was processed by the adoption agency.  We are working with the same adoption agency in San Antonio that finalized Isaac's adoption to complete this adoption.  Since we've known about this possible adoption for a few months, we didn't accept the match of the baby boy until we'd talked with both birthmothers and made sure they were both comfortable with there being two babies so close in age in our family.  (They both said "yes," but thought it was crazy!)  We've also made many calls to social workers & lawyers in both Texas & North Carolina ensuring that there are no legal issues with doing two adoptions at the same time.  (It took them quite awhile to get back with us because they all said they've rarely heard of this....but thankfully neither state rules against this situation.)

You can only IMAGINE how excited we've been!  As if that wasn't quite enough news, these babies are due just three weeks apart...June 16 and July 8! 

Two babies due

three weeks apart

in two states that are separated by a 20 hour drive...WOW!

We're already rallying both grandmas for lots of help as we juggle traveling to North Carolina for the baby boy's birth and then coming back to Texas in time for the baby girl's birth.  Our minds have been in overload as we've tried to figure out how to manage all these details.  Just the other day, our social worker laughed, "If you two can handle the stress of two adoptions at the same time, two newborns will be a piece of cake!"

 
Several people have commented on how special it will be for Isaac to have his "own" sibling in our family.  The truth is that both of these babies will be his "own" siblings.   We are so excited that God is weaving our family together and that Isaac will have two new siblings--not necessarily through blood, but through the gift of adoption.

Now that the paperwork is processed & the news is out there, Dave has given me permission to go "pink crazy!"  Here are some of the fun clothes I found at JBF and my mom found at Macy's over the past few weeks.  I've had so much fun looking at nursery ideas for this baby girl's room!  Be ready....this girl is going to have the "pinkest" of everything!  We can't WAIT!

So, here we go!  We're doing our best to get ready for three under two!  It's going to be a BLAST...and maybe a little crazy!  ;)

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."
Ephesians 3:20
(The Message)