Another Birthday Week

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Would you believe that this little lady went and turned THREE on us on Monday?!  (I must be becoming an old woman for two posts in a row to revolve around little people somehow being much older than they ought to be, but more on me being an old woman later…).

 Coraline Audrey surprised us in the middle of our adoption process for Niko; she’s a precious blessing that we might have missed out on if it had been left up to us.  We are so thankful that God’s plans were bigger and better than ours.

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This little lovie makes us all laugh all day long.  She loves Delia with a ferocity that has worn her big sister down more than any of the other kids have managed to.  She is an irresistible force, and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

The next morning I woke up to this scene in honor of my birthday:

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I didn’t cook a single meal all day thanks to my capable little sous chefs!

It was a pretty ordinary day.  We had a lot of school to work through since we’d been at a birthday party the day before for some friends.  I had a pretty bad cold (still do!)  But at the end of the day my heart echoed the sentiments of Mary Ingalls on a birthday episode of Little House on the Prairie we happened to watch this week.  Recently left blind by scarlet fever, she sat surrounded by family and friends, poised to blow out her birthday candles.  “Make a wish!” they all chorused.

“I don’t know what to wish for,” she beamed. “I already have everything I could ever want right here!”

And so it is with me.  My days are often hard, filled with unpleasant smells and difficult behavior.  I don’t get a lot of quiet moments (which is why I’m blogging so rarely and way past my bedtime tonight!), but when I have them, I have a deep abiding contentment with my life.  I can’t think of a single thing I’d change or a single thing I’d wish for.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.    – Psalm 16:6

 

Baby Steps

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Hello, everyone.  It’s me.  Coraline.  Just waving my crayons.  Mommy took this picture of me because I just turned 15 months old.  That doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but apparently it means I should be looking for a new way of getting around.  I’ve really only just gotten super speedy at crawling, so I don’t intend to give it up just yet, but last week I decided to indulge everyone.

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I have to say, walking is pretty cool and all, but the jury’s still out here.  I mean, I can get anywhere I want to go crawling.  Like, fast.  When I walk, I’m going to end up one or two steps max from where I started, and I may or may not stick the landing when I get there.  I’m not totally sure I see the appeal.  It does seem to be what all the cool kids are doing, so I guess I’ll try to keep an open mind.

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Hey, wait a minute… I thought this was my blog post?

Wordless Wednesday: Brown-Eyed Girls

Beatrix has an affection for Coraline that far surpasses that of any of any of her sisters.  They all love her, of course, but Bea scarcely leaves her side while she’s awake (and indeed, would love to stay by her while she sleeps as well!)  It could be that she just loves babies (she does!), or that Coraline is her “little buddy” (she is), but personally I think it’s the brown eyes.

Okay, they’re not brown yet, but Coraline’s eyes are decidedly dark at three months, and definitely not blue.  Bea’s own eyes didn’t fully settle on their color until well into her second year, so we’re pretty sure Miss Cora’s will take the same scenic route to brown.  That makes two for my team, just saying.