The Laird Lowdown: Kaylee's Growing Up

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Kaylee's Growing Up - Happy Birthday Baby!

Well, Kaylee turns 2 today! I can't believe it's been 2 years already since she was born. Everyday I thank God for the miracle of her and of the blessings that God has showered us with because of her. I think not only has she grown, but Tim and I have grown as well, but that would be another topic for discussion. (Not that we've grown up, we've just grown!)

Well you can definitely tell that Kaylee has grown up! I looked at her 1 year-old picture this morning and compared to what she looks like today (or at least yesterday, since it was before she woke up) she has lost the baby chub and has gotten much taller! It's like she's started growing into a bean pole! I'm sort of glad she doesn't have my genes, because if she did, she'd be short and round and not growing, and... well I could go on, but then I'd have to list all of my faults and it is way too early in the day to do that!

The other way I know she's growing up is she has developed a fear of the dark. Yes the Boogie-Man has hit our house! The last few days she has been saying "dark". Me being oblivious as usual, I figured, "Ok, so she's figured the difference between light and dark and the light being on in a room and the light being off. She's starting to verbalize this along with everything else in the world." (We can't get the child to stop talking anymore... sound like anyone familiar:)) Anyway, so I'm Ms. Oblivious here and figure she's just talking more and verbalizing, when what she's starting to do is realize the dark is scary to a two year-old!

Needless to say, last night we had a crying fit for almost an hour because she was afraid of the dark. We hopefully somewhat solved the problem by putting on a small night light, that is located in her baby monitor, and giving her a little flashlight, like the one she has at Nana's house. She still cried, but at least it helped her cry less and she at least was able to tell me she understood that she had options when I left the room. I felt terrible, as any parent I think does at those times, but what else do I do, stay in the room all night? That wouldn't help anything. I figured that a night light, Mr. Stripes, a flash light that she can turn on and off, and baby doll could comfort and keep her occupied until she tuckered herself out enough to fall asleep, which happened in about 5-7 minutes after I left the room.

I have to admit, feeling helpless while your child is really scared, really sucks! Finding solutions to problems that make you feel better is easy. Finding solutions to the problems that make your child feel better is really hard, especially when, to them, the world is ending RIGHT NOW! I hate feeling helpless! I guess that's why they say parenting is hard. Wow, did it take me two years to figure that much out? I guess I am growing up... Nah, just a passing thought!

Anyway, Happy Birthday Baby! May you grow big and strong and may God continue to bless and keep you. May the wind be always at your back, the sun shine on your face, and may God keep you in the palm of his strong, faithful hands. Love you, Nutter!

Mama

No comments:

Post a Comment

Our Adoption Story

Everyone always wants to know our adoption story. It is a long and complicated affair, but the short of it goes like this:

Tim and I decided after long discussion to build a family through adoption. Any children we adopted would be ours but just not have his eyes, or my hair… Anyway, we started our adoption journey on September 11, 2003 in an international program to Thailand.

In late February of 2005 we received word that the Thai government had turned down our request. We were devastated. We began looking into other options. We turned to domestic adoption.

A girl at Aquinas, where I work, had a friend who was looking to find an adoptive home for her baby. We decided to go ahead and find out more about her. We then got news that she was pregnant with twin boys. Oh my… what to do? So after talking and praying we decided if that was what God meant for us, then that was great.

So we talked with her and it was progressing toward us having twins. Unfortunately, the mother went into premature labor and one of the boys was still born and the other boy was very sick. The mother wanted to keep him, which was fine with us, since to voluntarily give up a child is one thing, but to have one taken from you is another.

After much sorrow, we again started over. We had our portfolio looked at by a bunch of birth parents, but nothing came of it, so we waited… and waited… and waited. Until one day I was getting out of a meeting and my telephone rang at work. It was the social worker calling about a birth family. Finally we had been chosen. That was Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

The only downside was the baby would be here any minute, literally. The birth mother had come in on her due date to make an adoption plan… oh my, again! We said that yes of course we’d take the baby, so in a mad dash, we finished paperwork, bought out Babies R Us, and made many phone calls to parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and the list went on.

It was Tuesday when we got the call and by Sunday, September 24th, we were a wreck, so we went to church. After church we had to do a little more shopping to get ready and so we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell. A familiar face jumped out of the crowd at Tim, it was the pregnancy counselor, Emily. He saw that she was talking on her phone and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she was talking about our baby?” I think I answered that it would be “scary, not funny.” So he went over to say hi. Well, it turns out he was right. She was talking to the birth mother; she had just gone into labor.

At around 7pm that evening we got to meet our little miracle, our Kaylee. Two days later we got to take her home to a house that was full of people waiting to hold her and even more people waiting to come over to the house to hold her. On, June 13, 2007, Kaylee Raquel Elaina Laird became officially ours and we are so happy to finally have an “official” complete family.