Fun with the Girls

We like to make animal sounds together, Ainsley always loves it.

Animal Sounds at 9 months from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Ainsley Crawling!

So last Thursday, Ainsley still wasn't crawling. However, much to my surprise, on Friday, Ainsley figured it out! She started finally going forward and getting place to place. This weekend she really got it down and is getting faster and faster.

Ainsley Crawling from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

She absolutely loves crawling, it's keeping her very occupied and entertained. She also gets really tired, but doesn't want to sleep not that she has this new skill. She's sleeping soundly right now, hopefully she'll stay that way for a little while longer. :)

Annie Rides Ellie

The other day, Ellie asked if Ainsley could ride on her shoulders.

Annie Riding Ellie from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Ellie's Pretend Play

Ellie likes to play mommy recently. She is always either feeding her baby or rocking her baby to sleep. It is so cute to watch her pretend and copy what I do when I take care of Ainsley. We especially find it hilarious when Ellie feeds her baby. Sometimes she uses a bottle, but most of the time she pretends to nurse the baby. This just does not seem right, but that's all she knows. The other day I captured her pretending, I decided to play along. (Although she is wearing a nursing cover, she does not nurse the baby in the video. Just an fyi before you watch.)

Ellie Plays with Baby from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Clapping!

I told you Ainsley loved to clap. Here she is just doing that:

Ainsley clapping from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Ellie and Addison

I got to watch Ellie's best bud, Addison, for a few days the other week. I was going over what they learned at church and tried to get a video to show just how smart these two are. They really soak it in, even at the age of 2!

Ellie and Addison from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Ainsley- 9 months!

Can you believe this little one is 9 months old??? I felt like I just wrote her 8 month post last week. Time sure flies, and this little one is growing up so fast! I think I write this every month, but oh well.

Ainsley isn't doing a whole lot more this past month. She definitely has started to get around, in her own way. She's not crawling, but somehow is managing to get to the big wagon of blocks and dumping them out and to the bookshelf to pull off all the books. I don't know how she does it, she does some sort of backwards/sideways/tummy to sitting up move. Strange.

The more Ainsley gets older, the more of her personality I see. She is very expressive and intense, but also very laid back. She is a go with the flow baby, but if she gets angry, upset, and even happy... you know it. She still is a cuddler and a mommy's girl. We are experiencing a little separation anxiety at the church nursery, but this is to be expected as this is very normal for little ones (although Ellie did not go through this). She also is very sensitive. Zach and I have started disciplining her a little for some safety things and for pulling my hair. We give her a very gentle hit with our fingers. She gets so sad when we do this and cries. It makes me sad, but it's for her own good (and my hair). I remember with Ellie she just giggled or stared at us, so I think we might see a little difference in how they will be disciplined. Time will tell.

She recently has learned to clap and is so excited to see herself do it. She also is really starting to mimic sounds, faces, and actions we are making/doing. She loves to:
-play the squealing game with Ellie in the car (they squeal back and forth)
-smack her lips (like a kiss sound)
-eat goldfish, strawberries, peaches, and grapes
-play with the little people barn and dumping out objects in containers
-cuddle, bounce, pull your hair, grab your face (or anything else she can get her hands on)
-hold your hand
-turn pages in books

She still has no teeth. She wakes up around 7am, goes to bed around 7:30p. Still sleeps through the night and nurses 4-5 times a day. I haven't ever shared this before, but this is something interesting for me to remember for later: She has only about 4 wet diapers a day because she goes all at once. She holds it in and will be dry for hours, but then a few minutes after you check her diaper and it was dry, it will be completely full. Maybe this will make it easier to potty train? She's 85% in weight at 19lbs 15oz, 25% in length, and 93% in head circumference. The doctor said "healthy" babies like her typically don't walk until after a year. This made me giggle. She definitely is a healthy one and I don't mind her walking after her first birthday! I just LOVE her chunkiness, I wouldn't ask for her any other way! I really can just eat her up, she's so cute... especially with these eyes:
She is so precious and my love for these two little girls of mine grows and grows each day. I absolutely adore seeing them interact and play with each other. Ellie has become quite the older sister, sometimes even the mommy (which I try to clarify who's the mommy when this happens, although I feel like that should just be understood. I mean come on Ellie, there should be no question right?). I leave you with more of her eatable, squeezable rolls. What a joy you are my sweet Ainsley.

Ellie's Video

Here is a video Ellie took one morning. It's pretty cute :)

Ainsley's Strange Toe

This morning soon after Ainsley woke up, around 7am, I noticed something strange with one of her toes. It was bright red, unlike the rest of her toes which were a perfectly normal color. I called the doctor around 9:30a when it still hadn't changed. They said to watch it and call back if it's not back to normal by 3p. Her poor little toe was not back to normal, so we took her in to see the doctor. They are stumped. It doesn't look like an infection, there hasn't been anything wrapped around it, it doesn't hurt her. We have no idea what's wrong, but it definitely isn't normal!

Baby With Me

Natalie shared this on her blog, I thought it was hilarious. I must share with my readers! Enjoy!

Burn the Quran?

I am sure some of you have heard of the little church in Florida, the Dove World Outreach church in Gainesville, that has announced that they will be burning many copies of the Quran on September 11. There has been a lot of media concerning this event, most stating that this church should NOT follow through with their plans. It seems despite of these statements, the church is still planning to burn the Quran. As of tonight, he had canceled the burning but now is only suspending the burning.

Hearing the news, I immediately thought this just doesn't sound right. Why would a church burn a book, even if it is against what they believe? Why would they do such a thing on September 11th, can we really blame this religion for the actions that occurred? Have they not forgiven those who have hurt us? We all know that many people do terrible things in the name of their religion, but that doesn't mean that it was right or that is was even true to the religion. Even so, shouldn't our first response be to show love and forgiveness? I kept thinking more about it and then read Sharon Miller's blog that contained a great article by the dean of Duke Divinity, Richard Hays. Go check out the article, it's very short.

We should not support this for a number of reasons, but for us Christians, mostly because of exactly what Richard Hays says,

"The apostle Paul, struggling against opponents of his gospel in the city of Corinth, insisted that 'the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.' Rather than resorting to violence, he sought to 'demolish arguments' and 'captivate every thought' through open statement of the truth.

For him, to use coercive or deceptive means would be to succumb to the forces he was opposing. His message could be defended only by clear, peaceful proclamation of the word. As Angel Nuñez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference observed, 'The greatest weapon a Christian has is godly love.'"

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/13/626362/wwjd-not-burn-the-quran.html#ixzz0z3X21dQt

Burning the Qurans = NOT what Jesus would do. He would show love and forgiveness, grace and mercy. What is our response? Have we forgiven those that have brought terror to our country? What about even the people that have brought terror into your own life? Have you shown them love and forgiveness? We might can immediately look and judge this little church in Florida, but let's not forget to judge ourselves first.

“I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Summer Thunderstorms

I love thunderstorms. There was a really awesome thunderstorm one night, so I decided to get a video of the lightening because it was CRAZY!



...but sometimes when I am alone and they are pretty bad, I still get scared. Go ahead, you can laugh at me.

Crafty Onesie

I decided to make a plain onesie a tad bit cuter. I made some fabric flowers and sewed them on. They turned out quite well. I would have to say I have the perfect model, she's adorable!

Ellie and Her Rain Coat

Ellie loves this raincoat. I would have to say so myself...


As this last picture might display, she has also become Miss Sassy as well.

Blocks

Ellie loves building towers. I love how serious she gets.

Crafty Shower Gift

A friend of mine gave Ainsley a taggie lovey that she handmade after Ainsley was born. I LOVED it! So I decided to start making little taggie loveys for my friends having babies. It's super easy and I think turns out amazing! Love them.

(On top of the lovey is handmade cloth rings. Not my favorite, but still cute.)

Why International?

We have gotten a few responses asking why we have chosen to adopt internationally rather than adopt a child from the United States. We wanted to take a moment to shed some light on our decision to adopt from Ethiopia.

Our international adoption isn't because we don't want to help the orphans in America, we definitely want to help the sick, the poor, and the fatherless here in the USA. We definitely know and understand that there is a need for adoption in America, but we also know and understand there is a greater need for adoption internationally. How?

1. Ethiopia has 4-6 million orphans while only geographically a little bit bigger than the size of Texas. In comparison, there are only about 3 million orphans in the US.
2. Many orphans die in many international countries simply from lack of medical care. For instance, we heard of a story where an infant died of an ear infection simply because he couldn't receive medical proper medical care. There are many stories where a child dies but if they had lived in the United States, they would have lived because of the general availability of simple procedures like the one this boy needed. This motivates us to adopt internationally because we could potentially be saving a child's life! In Ethiopia, the doctor to child ratio is 24,000:1. That says enough.
3. In Ethiopia, half of the children will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school. We know our cultures are very different but education is empowerment. With education comes opportunity. If we can provide an education for one child that he would not have otherwise had, we can help enable him to do more good for both the US, Ethiopia and the world.
   
4. 44% of the population in Ethiopia is under the age of 17.8 years. Almost half the population is under the age 18 because the the mortality rate is so high and the average life span is so low. This again just reiterates the fact that there is a huge need for adoption and these children need some tender loving care. If only we could do a lot more...

Now there are also other reasons that we choose to adopt internationally and from Ethiopia:

• Waiting time. We would like to adopt an infant because there are less risks of emotional problems related to the institutional life style of orphanages. It's not that we necessarily want the easiest for our family (we might even consider adopting an older child later in life), however, we want whats best for our family and have decided this is what's best right now. Infant adoption in the United States it can take a very long time (2-3 years). Of course there are circumstances where this is not true but in Ethiopia the wait time is generally only 8-10 months which is a good thing for us right now.

• Less risks involved with the birth family. Adopting a child internationally means that you will never seldom have problems with the biological parents and the adoption is completely closed. With adoption in the States, by law, the mother has 7 days to change her mind. This means you could be in the birthing room holding your baby and the birth mother could change her mind which forces you to start the process over again while simultaneously breaking your heart. Almost all domestic adoptions are open (or semi-open) adoptions where the birth parents are involved, this could be risky (yet also pretty awesome). We don't disagree with the involvement of biological parents, but with that could come a lot of emotional stress. With international, this won't happen.

• Ethiopia is the cheapest international adoption from the information we've received from multiple adoption agencies. There also isn't very much difference in the cost of international vs. domestic (USA) adoptions contrary to what people may believe.

• Our biggest reason for choosing an Ethiopian adoption is that we like the idea of the child not looking like us. It's an awesome testimony for others and our children that it doesn't matter what you look like or where you come from, we will love you unconditionally. This will be what heaven looks like. There will be people from every tribe, tongue and nation. We think that it will be awesome to represent this in our family. The Gospel has the power to break all barriers (Galatians 3:25-29).