The Laird Lowdown: 2014

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Squirrel Caught... and released!

So this is Burrel the Squirrel. We caught him about a week and a half ago now. He was none too happy with me when I evicted him from the house. I doubt he's happy now, because we have more snow than we did when he got evicted and he doesn't have the "warm" confines of the chimney anymore to keep him cozy. He also lost his steady supply of nuts. Ah well. Thanks for the memories Burrel!

Monday, January 20, 2014

There's squirrels in my... chimney!

So we've had a visitor from the trees in our chimney for over a week now. We've been feeding the little darling, who we've named Burrel, watering him, and keeping the cat and dog away from the fireplace. We've tried a homemade trap and we've now set a live bait trap. I'm hoping the little darling finds his way into the trap soon, because I'm running out of pecans and cashews to feed him. Frankly I think we've made it too cozy. Ah well. Perhaps if I blasted the "squirrels in my pants" song, he'd get sick of it and come out. Perhaps that will be our next try.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Did I forget something??

Oh, cheese and crackers! I forgot in all the chaos of the last 4 years that we had a blog! My bad.

There is too much to catch you up on, because 4 years of experience cannot be documented in a blog post, but I can tell you we've had quite the experiences. From Jenny getting a new job to Jenny going into "early retirement"; Kaylee starting Young 5's to Kaylee getting into 1st grade and playing soccer; and Tim leaving one job, going to another, and then going back to old job; we've had quite the time.

In there we've had a few notable moments : Birthdays, deaths, triumphs, not so triumphant moments, vacations, pets, and a ton of other things that have shaped us and given us immense joy and immense sorrow. A few I can easily name:

Getting a new dog - Muggs
Starting school: Jenny, Kaylee, and Tim (at different times of course)
Starting and leaving jobs
Kitchen remodel
Kaylee playing soccer
Jenny's mom's cancer diagnosis (2010 and again in 2013)
Our beloved cat Tinkerbelle's death
Loved ones passing
More loved ones entering the world
Family vacations to Cedar Point

And that's just a few. I won't bore you with details of our antics, but know we've been busy. Now that I (Jenny) am home full time, I can start remembering that I have a blog again and you'll hear from us more often.

Wilber the Party Pig

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.