Luke is 10

**This is my second attempt at this post. I had it nearly completed when a sweet little girl decided to help me type and DELETED the ENTIRE THING!!!!!***

This post is for Luke who turned 10 years old THIS summer and I never blogged about it! This shows you how far behind I really am on my blog! Boy do I feel like a bad mom :-(

So here is my sweet baby boy!

School picture September 2010 - Boy does time fly!

On June 16th at 8:37 a.m. our second son, Luke, was born. He was 2 weeks early and weighed in at 8lb 3oz. He looked so small compared to his brother. Luke had the sweetest little smile and the most adorable giggle. He was such a happy and content baby. He only cried when he was hungry, tired, or needed to be changed. One thing about Luke is that he spit up ALL THE TIME! He would go through multiple outfits a day and soak 10 receiving blankets DAILY. I gave up using burp clothes early on as they were WAY too small to deal with the amount of liquid this little guy would spit up in a day. I did a load of Luke laundry everyday. When we were in the car, I would hear Martin say "OOOHHHHH LUKE!!!!!!" and that meant that Luke had puked ALL over the place. I would stop and he would be all smiles covered in puke. Fun times......I sure don't miss those days. We lovingly nicknamed the boy Pukey Lukey.

It was fun to watch Luke with his brother. Boy did they get into trouble together and still do. They are 19 months apart and keep me very busy. I remember one day when Luke looked at his brother and told him "You are NOT MY BOSS!". Martin, acted as though he was and Luke wanted to set him straight. Martin, did all the talking for Luke, so when Luke finally started talking he was talking in complete sentences and knew exactly what he wanted to say.

Luke has such a tender and compassionate heart. Hurting people, starving people, orphans, etc all have a special place in his heart. He is also a great helper. Luke, will always jump right in when there is a project to be done. You don't even have to ask him to help. He loves to give his time and money whenever he can. I love seeing these qualities develop in him.

To watch Luke with his sister, Alesha is priceless. He adores her. The wait for her to finally come home was very painful for him. To see the joy that she brings to his face is so fun to see. He can make Alesha laugh harder than anybody in the house. They have a special bond and I love to see that grow day by day.

Luke we love you so much and are proud to be your parents. We look forward to what God has planned for you as you continue to grow in Him. Happy Birthday!

Every year we go to Luke's favorite place, Red Robin, for his birthday dinner. Here he is all smiles with his birthday sundae.

Me with the birthday boy!

The crazy brothers!

I love a good bargain

I have enjoyed over the last year getting some really good deals by clipping coupons, pairing them with store sales and store rewards. Here are a couple of purchases I made recently. It takes some time and planning, but it is so nice to save a ton of money and at times have the store actually pay you money to shop with them :-)

The total price for the above items $16.27

Total for the above items $0.92!!!

Martin turns 12

Time sure goes by FAST!

Around 3 months

September 2010

I cannot believe that I am a mom to a 12 year old!!!! On November 6, 1998 at 3:19 p.m. I set my eyes upon our first born son. He was WAY bigger than I had expected. 9lb 3oz!!!! Keep in mind I am only 5 feet tall. He had the most adorable features, most notable were his BIG brown eyes and EXTREMELY long eye lashes. I knew he would be full of energy as he was NEVER still in the womb. Martin was my non-napper! He slept through the night, but would not take a nap. This made for REALLY long days as he was quite the busy boy! He was running at 9 months old, climbing on everything, frustrated that he couldn't talk yet, and had the most adorable laugh

and smile. I remember at about 2 years old he set out on the counter bread, peanut butter, jelly, a butter knife, and said "Mommy, I am hungry!"

As the years have gone by he has made me laugh more times than I can remember. We have butted heads more times than I would like to remember, too :-) I have watched Martin grow into a wonderful young man. He still has his wonderful laugh, great smile, and those amazing eyes that to this day get comments like "Do you know that women would DIE for those lashes!", "Those are the most amazing eyes I have ever seen", etc. etc. To these comments when Martin was younger he would just roll those BIG brown eyes, but over time he now responds with a thank you :-)

I have loved to see how children just seem to be drawn to Martin. Little ones follow him around and want to be as close to him as they can when he is around. He is amazing with Alesha. She adores him and he makes sure she is safe and loves to play with her. It warms my heart when he asks her for a hug goodbye in the morning before he leaves for school and she lays her head on his chest and to see the smile it brings to his face is absolutely precious.

It has been fun to watch him excel at playing the guitar. He plays the electric and acoustic guitar, electric bass, and he started this year in school playing the stand up string bass. He has such a love for music. His love for drawing is also being displayed in his projects for school this year. I am impressed by what I see. It will be fun to see how the Lord uses these gifts he has given Martin in the years to come.

Martin, your dad and I feel honored to be your parents. We are thankful for the relationship you have with Jesus. We pray that you will continue to seek Him in the years to come. Happy Birthday, son. We love you!

FINALIZATION COMPLETE!!!

I could not be happier to have this step complete! We finalized our adoption of Alesha on October 21st. There are few things I want to write down so I can remember how this all played out. I got a call from our lawyer on Tuesday, Oct. 19th stating that she had all the paperwork needed to move forward with a court date. Little side bar - This is our first experience with a lawyer...in Oregon we are not able to use the handy dandy do-it-yourself kits to complete the adoption, because we are only Alesha's legal guardians...this is how India works. By the way, I wish I would have spent some time while I was waiting for Alesha to come home investigating all the ins and outs (options, costs, etc) of finalization prior to having her come home.

Back to the story, she said that the only dates that were available were Dec. 2nd, Dec. 16th, and Dec. 30th. At this point I was thinking great we will take the Dec. 2nd and get it taken care of as soon as possible. Then she says the bad news it that I will be out the entire month of December and am only available for the Dec. 30th court date. YIKES!! Can you say cutting this WAY TOO CLOSE to have it completed by the end of the year. She said you can go to the hearing by yourself....I don't need to be there. This did not make me feel comfortable at all. Then she said I can call and see if they can fit us in sooner or if there is a cancellation we can take. I said that would be great, because I really want you there and I would love to have this taken care of ASAP. We will just pull the kids out of school and my husband will have to take the day off....we WILL make this happen. She totally understood. She said I will call you back and then said if I could get the day after tomorrow would that work. I said that would actually be FANTASTIC, because both boys don't have school that day. She said I will see what I can do.

Wednesday, Oct. 20th, marking 5 months since the first time I held Alesha in my arms, the phone rings and it is our lawyer. She says, guess what? Can you be at the court house by 8:00 a.m. TOMORROW? There was a cancellation and I booked us for this court date. I said YES!!!! and called my hubby to take tomorrow off. WOW! Isn't it like God to make this happen so quickly with the least amount of inconvenience. What a blessing!

I was smiling from ear to ear. To think that tomorrow we will finally be not just Alesha's legal guardians, but be legally known as her mommy and daddy!!! What a great feeling. All of my plans to have our parents there and have the perfect outfits for everybody quickly went to the wayside as there was simply no time and both sets of parents were sick. It all turned out fine. It was WAY quicker than I had anticipated. Basically we went to the judges chambers and she put her lovely signature on a Certificate of Adoption Finalization paper we took a few quick photos and that was that. The drive downtown took 4 times as long as the actual proceeding.

We went out to breakfast to celebrate and then to the pumpkin patch. I will post those pics soon. I am WAY behind on the blog, but this important step needed to be blogged about.

We are thrilled and feel SO blessed to have Alesha Mugdha Pfeiffer a part of our family. We feel honored to be called her parents. We love you so much baby girl and you bring SO much joy to our family.

The Pfeiffer family with the judge.

Our family with the judge and lawyer.

Musical glasses - Playing music with drinking glasses in the streets of Vienna - on B...

This was amazing to watch. What a beautiful talent to have!
Musical glasses - Playing music with drinking glasses in the streets of Vienna - on B...

Could it be true.....

that today I have already been home for 4 months?


YEP, it's TRUE, and my family feels so blessed to have me home!

Memories

Today marks 17 years since my dad passed away from cancer. I can't believe it has been that long. I think about him all the time. There will be a song on the radio, somebody says something that brings back a memory, I see my brother (who looks so much like my dad), hear a guitar (my dad spent hours playing his guitar), or hear a joke he used to tell. There are so many moments, events, celebrations, etc. that he has not been a part of over the years. This makes me sad. I remember his laugh, smile, how little kids just brightened his world. How I wish he were still here to experience all his grandchildren.

I am thankful that my dad accepted Christ as his Savior 5 days before he died. After years of prayer my dad finally surrendered and is now in heaven with his Savior. I am blessed to know that I will see my dad again one day. Until then I will hold him close to my heart. I love you dad and miss you very much!

Look Who's 18 Months Old!

I love this precious little smile!

I love these BIG black eyes!

I love this sweet little face!

I love this little girl who is getting SO big!

I can't believe Alesha is 18 months old! She has sure changed a lot in the past 3 months. She has hit some milestones the last few days. The walking has begun. She can take a good 15 solid steps now. Crawling is still the preferred mode of transportation, because it is MUCH quicker at the moment :-) We have been learning some new words like "apple" "hot" "up" and "thank you".

To celebrate such a special day I cooked Indian food for dinner and Grandma and Grandpa Pfeiffer where in town for the day so they had dinner with us as well. We feel so blessed to have Alesha a part of our family. She truly is the perfect fit and it feels like she has always been here. Can't wait to see what the next 6 months will hold. The BIG 2nd birthday will be here before you know it. We will be having the biggest bash for her since we missed her 1st birthday. We love you Alesha Mugdha Pfeiffer!

PRAISE GOD!

We are praising God today after a call from the dermatologist's office. The results are in from the labs they did last Wednesday and Alesha tested NEGATIVE for strep, staph, hep, and fungus!!! I cannot tell you how relieved I am to hear this news!!!!! They said I can STOP the oral antibiotics (which is music to my ears and I know Alesha is thrilled about) and I just need to continue the scalp oil for another week to get moisture back on her scalp. For the first time in many months her scalp looks NORMAL, dry, but NORMAL!!!

Thank you all for your encouraging words and prayers during the past few months. God does answer prayer. Praise Him today for his healing touch and hearing the prayers of many.

Alesha's scalp update

Yesterday, marked 3 months that Alesha slept in our home for the first time. I can't believe that 3 months has already passed. It still amazes me that she is our daughter and that she is home! The other day a lady asked me how many children do I have and I said 2 out of habit and Martin laughed and looked at me as I quickly corrected myself and said 3 :-)

I want to thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during our trial with Alesha's health issues. When you pray for something is nice to know if things have changed, where to give praise for answered prayer, and how to continue to pray. At least it helps me. So with that in mind I wanted to give you an update, praises, and requests. You can scroll down to the bottom of this post for the summary, but I wanted to document this for later reflection.

I need to back up a bit. Last Friday, August 20th I called the dermatologist office, because I was not seeing the results from the antibiotic and new shampoo after a week that I should have and was very concerned. After much discussion they decided to prescribe a topical antibiotic in addition to the oral one. There was also an addition of a new cleansing scrub shampoo, because Alesha had a bad reaction to the previous one.

At this point I have to share with you our daily routine. We wash hair in the morning, blow dry, and apply topical antibiotic to scalp. We then coat her body with a prescription cream and Cetaphil from head to toe to address the eczema issues on her skin. Then we proceed to the oral antibiotic and anti-itch medication. At night we do a full bath with the special shampoo, blow dry hair, apply topical antibiotic to scalp, coat body with both creams, give oral antibiotic, anti-itch meds, and then have our bottle, song, prayer and go to sleep. It is funny how well this baby girl knows the routine. She stands at the tub when she hears the water. After I get her out of the bath she lays nice and still so I can rub all the cream on her body. I think she enjoys her twice daily massages (I feel for her future husband....she is spoiled) then we get dressed and sit up to play with toys while I dry her hair. When I turn off the hair dryer she says ALL DONE! Luke walked in the bathroom the other night and said looks like she is at station 2 right now...I had to laugh! We pretty much have a 3 station routine...bath, massage, hair :-) Keep in mind I have been doing this for 2 weeks and not seeing much results in the scalp department, but her skin is back to looking nice and smooth. This makes me SO happy!

Okay, back to my phone call to the dermatologist. The nurse said she was going to call me Wednesday to see if things had improved. She called and I didn't have any good news to tell her. She said she would talk to the doctor and get back to me. The verdict is that we need to go back in for additional cultures, because the staph might be resistant to the current antibiotic now and there could be more going on since it is not cleared up. Oh joy, another trip to the doctor. I pack everybody up and head to the dermatologist office once again.

I had to laugh when we arrived for our appt as the receptionist called Alesha by name when we walked in the door and when the nurse called our name she said "I am SO sorry to have to see you today." The office staff and doctor are so sweet and have such compassion for our situation. When the doctor walked in we gave each other a hug (now that doesn't happen everyday) and we began discussing our current situation. Upon observation of our still not healed scalp she said she wanted her colleague to come in and take a look and see what her thoughts were. A fresh set of eyes might give additional insight. I have NO problem with that I just want the insanity to END!

Upon her observation she determines that in addition to the scalp infection we also have eczema issues on the scalp, too, which my doctor agreed. They both decide to take cultures to test for fungus, viral, and bacterial issues. These results will tell them exactly where we stand at this point. Her partner tells me that unfortunately the scalp and the bottom of the feet or the HARDEST to treat and take the longest to heal, BUT it WILL get better! My doctor proceeds to take some scrapings from Alesha's scalp and pull out several hairs. Alesha barely even cried, she is such a strong girl. However, she did scream when the doctors just wanted to look at her head...it must be the white coats!

So we left the office with yet a new plan of attack. Continue the oral antibiotics for now until the cultures come back (hopefully Monday), discontinue the shampoo and topical antibiotic as it is causing the scalp to dry out too much and not really helping, and start back with the scalp oil to get moisture back to the scalp and help with all the scabs, etc. Good news NO trip to the pharmacy this time. It appears that I have all the meds needed in my own little pharmacy at home :-)

SUMMARY -

Praises -
1. Alesha's skin is looking great and we have discontinued the prescription cream and just coat with Cetaphil twice a day.
2. We have insurance.
3. We have great doctors with such compassion for our situation.
4. That I listened to my gut and called the dermatologist on Friday to get additional meds and that we were able to get in on Wednesday to get a new plan so Alesha's scalp didn't get more dry than it already was. It was great timing to get in on that Wednesday, because our doctor doesn't work on Thursdays and all the clinic doctors were going to a conference on Friday and I wouldn't have gotten the cultures taken and there would have been more of a delay.
5. The availability of medication and doctors here in the U.S.
6. A strong little girl who is a fighter.
7. A pharmacist who goes out of her way to help me and knows Alesha by name. She was going on her lunch break and stopped to talk to us, help me find what I needed, and then called another pharmacy to see if they carried the shampoo I was in need of because she didn't have it.
8. For 2 sweet boys who are learning to be very flexible with plans having to change due to doctor appt and pharmacy trips.
9. The antibiotic is pretty gentle on Alesha's stomach so we are not dealing with diarrhea.

Requests -
1. That the results will come back soon, that the staph and strep rating have gone down, and we will know exactly what we are dealing with.
2. We will be able to resolve this problem once and for all.
3. Strength for me to continue doing all that the doctors require.
4. Help Alesha as she continues to take all the medication daily. She is getting weary and pushes it away as soon as she sees it coming....poor baby, I don't blame her one bit :-(

Thanks so much for your prayers and I will post the results as soon as I hear anything. I will also try and post some more fun and upbeat stuff on my blog :-)

Scabies, Staph, and Strep, OH MY!

Just a little update on Alesha's health issues. I took her in Friday for her follow-up appt. with the dermatologist. She took some more scrapings from Alesha's skin to test for scabies. Praise the Lord, the results were negative!!! What a relief. I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear this news. As far as her skin is concerned we are now dealing with eczema issues. We have a regimen of prescription creams and other creams to get a handle on it.

As far as the strep and staph infections are concerned we are not our of the woods yet. After the last 10 day round of antibiotics I thought we had finally fixed the problem. I had gotten all of the scabs off of her scalp and the bumps seemed to be virtually gone. Give it a couple days and the weeping began again. I couldn't believe my eyes. Within the 2 days before her appt. I knew we were in trouble. Sure enough the staph and strep are BACK! The doctor told me that they rate strep and staph on a 1 to 4 scale on how severe the infections are. She then said that Alesha's results came back with a 4+ rating for both strep and staph!!!!! I was SHOCKED to say the least!!! Apparently I wasn't the only one. The doctor and pharmacists were VERY surprised to see that number so high in both issues. I had to laugh when the pharmacist said "well it looks like your little girl is an over achiever" I guess that is one way to look at it :-) The dermatologist said that the antibiotic was working, but because it was so severe we didn't get to the bottom of the infection. We are now on round 3 of antibiotics for 21 days. If it is not completely gone by then we need to extend it another week. We also have a shampoo to help with the healing process.

I am thankful that we were able to start the antibiotics before the infection was way out of control. I can't believe how quickly (within a 24 hour period) we can go for her scalp looking fairly good, to oozing yellow. It is amazing! The doctor said that her glands in her neck were not as swollen as before, which is a good sign.

So I have made my weekly trip to the pharmacy to add to my arsenal of meds and we continue with the new plan to get our baby girl well. I am feeling more optimistic at this point and am SO thankful for doctors, insurance, and a sweet little girl who a strong fighter. She continues to laugh and smile even though all of this is happening in her little body. Praying for complete healing to come our way soon.

Being Real

I have tried to keep this blog as open, honest, and as real as possible. While my last post showed all the wonderful things happening in Alesha's life and all the joy she brings us, I would not be honest if I didn't share one of the main struggles we have had.

When we picked Alesha up in India on May 20th she had a few spots on her head that she was scratching constantly. We thought it was just dry scalp and it would go away. Upon returning home she was still itching and her once beautifully smooth skin developed a rash. We took her to the doctor and she said that the rash was from the 6 immunization shots she was given in India and it should fade. There was no concern regarding the spots on her head either. Good enough. We waited and sure enough the first rash faded, but a new one developed. This rash was not easily identified. Alesha, saw 3 different pediatricians. It was thought that she could have scabies, but it wasn't presenting itself like usual. We were given the scabies treatment June 25th and moved forward. Alesha, continues to get WORSE! I am at my wits end and take her to a dermatologist who takes one look at her and says that is SCABIES!! I said we already treated her and she said she would confirm it for me. The doctor took some scrapings, left the room, and came back with an affirmative case of SEVERE scabies on June 30th! Alesha was covered from the top of her head to the soles of her feet with scabies! In severe cases of scabies it affects the scalp (which explains the spots on her head) and you can have nodules (large raised dots), burrows, where the scabies burrow there way into the skin, and SEVERE itching. In Alesha's case she also had small little blisters all over her body. This was explained to be her bodies reaction to the scabies :-( The new plan was to retreat Alesha for scabies as there were still eggs and poop under her skin and treat our entire family. Let the fun times roll. I cannot tell you the amount of laundry that goes along with scabies. EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING (towels, toys, stuffed animals, clothes, bath mats, crib bedding, sheets, blankets, car seat covers, stroller covers, basically anything that has come in contact with the skin) needs to be washed, cleaned, or dry cleaned! One word - EXHAUSTING!!!!

This is what happens when the bumper pads and all the crib bedding is being cleaned!

The itching continues and we have a not so happy girl...I don't blame her AT ALL! Who wants to itch all the time. She even itches in her sleep. I will catch her during nap time fast asleep, yet scratching the little bit of skin that I have not covered up with clothing. At this point, what used to be her favorite time of the day, bath time, has turned into the worst. Alesha, cries the entire bath and can't wait to get out :-( The sores on her head begin to get worse and she has a ton more of them. By July 18th these sores are beginning to weep. You guessed it back to the doctor. They said it must be another reaction her body is having to the scabies. I am beside myself. They give her stronger anti-itch meds and a cream for her scalp. The NEXT day, Alesha wakes up with yellow oozing sores on her head and her eye is all swollen. She scratched her head during the night and rubbed her eyes and we now have an eye infection on top of a full blown bacterial infection on her head. I am in tears sitting in the doctors office, once again. My poor little girl has gone through so much and now this. This is now happening on top of the rash that is still there and she is teething like no body's business!

Here is what her head looked like - hard to capture the gross factor completely!

Waking up with an eye infection

Now the other eye, too.

To me this picture captures so much. She is scratching her head, the look on her face, the best shot of what the scabie rash and nodules looked like, and her precious little face all in one picture. I think the capture should read "Please, mommy, make it stop!!"

After a few days on the antibiotic the sores begin to dry up. I am beginning to feel hopeful. We prepare to go on our first camping trip as a family of 5 and stay in a yurt (see previous post). When we arrive at the campground I notice that Alesha's head is starting to weep clear again and a few new bumps are appearing on her skin!!!!! This cannot be happening. I guess denial sets in. We have a fun day and go to sleep. By the next morning the clear weeping on her head has turned to yellow with the same horrible infection and the bumps on her body are getting more plentiful. It is obvious that we will not be staying another night as planned and make various phone calls to get in to see the dermatologist ASAP! They fit us in Friday the 30th.

As we enter the office the nurse is asking me all kinds of questions and I try to answer them through a steady stream of tears. I am so tired and so sad to see my daughter STILL going through this awful ordeal. It is truly heart breaking to see the people you love suffer, especially when they are SO tiny! She hands me a tissue and says she is so sorry and it must be so difficult. She says how absolutely adorable Alesha is and how lucky she is to be home...this makes me smile and cry harder. I will say that I am SO thankful that Alesha is home and I can hold her in my arms and comfort her during these really tough days.

The dermatologist comes in and says we are definitely dealing with a bacterial infection on her scalp. Her lymphnoids are all swollen and we need to get her on an antibiotic immediately. She gave me an oil steroid to apply to her scalp, topical anti-itch meds, in addition to the oral anti-itch and then she said IT....I almost hit the floor!!!!. Alesha, has scabies AGAIN!!!!!!! This cannot be happening. It was like the worst nightmare EVER! How is this possible???? I did EVERYTHING they told me to do, how could she possibly have them AGAIN!!!???!!! The doctor explains that in severe cases of scabies it is not uncommon for them to reoccur. She also takes a scraping of Alesha's scalp to make sure exactly what bacteria we are dealing with and will change the antibiotic if needed.

With the oil steroids they gave me a shower cap to use. I looked at the doctor and said you really want me to use this and she said no it would be okay to just rub in at night and let her sleep on it. I had to put the cap on just to see what would happen. Two things...one she looked absolutely adorable and two, she kept it on for like 10 minutes. I was shocked!

I leave another doctors office totally deflated and go the pharmacy once again, where they know be by name, for more meds to add to my arsenal! I will confess that I have officially hit my breaking point. I am sobbing by mid-day and cannot speak without bursting into tears. To top it all off I am sick, too. I try to stay focused on the good things like thanking God we have good doctors and medical care, that we have good insurance to help with all these increasing medical expenses, that Alesha still gives me that precious little smile even though I have been forcing eye drops, anti-itch meds, antibiotics, creams, etc at her for the last month or so. These things I am SO thankful for, but it doesn't fix the misery that my baby is in and there is only so much I can do to make it better. All this on top of the very thought of repeating the laundry, vacuuming, washing insanity ONCE AGAIN with this second round of scabies is more than I can bear.

We now find ourselves in August. I feel as if our summer is not what I had hoped it would be. There were so many ideas and plans for the summer, but when you have a baby with a mysterious rash and open weeping sores, you don't want to go our in public much or expose people to the unknown. I will say that our boys have been amazing through all of this. They have had to miss out on several things, but they are more concerned about their sister than themselves. I love my boys!! The antibiotics appear to be helping as the sores begin to dry up.

Here are the sores mostly dried up. I spend about 25 minutes after every bath in the morning drying her hair and picking out dried scabs. It has become quite the routine. When she gets older she will have no problem sitting still at the beauty parlor :-)

On August 3rd, I got the call from the dermatologist to confirm what bacteria we are dealing with and the results are STREP and STAPH!!!!!! This would explain why we have had SO many issues. At least we know what we are dealing with and I really hope that we are at the end of this skin/scalp insanity! The itching continues and on August 6th I did Alesha's 5th and hopefully LAST treatment for scabies.

It is funny how these health issues we have been dealing with are TOTALLY different than the health issues we thought we might be dealing with upon bringing Alesha home. Funny how that works. I am amazed at how resilient children can be and how Alesha will still giggle, smile, and make us laugh daily even though her little body is going through so much. We love her so much and it has been so difficult for us to watch her deal with all this. We thank God for his provision during this trial and hope that September will begin a new chapter of good health for the Pfeiffer family.

15 YEARS

Back in the day.

A lot changes in 15 years~

Today marks 15 years since I said "I Do" to Mr. Darin Pfeiffer. I am so glad I did. We have been through some ups and downs over 15 years, but with God's grace we have made it through. I am looking forward to many more years together. I love you, babe! Happy Anniversary :-)

17 months old

Today, Alesha, turned 17 months old. With every passing day we feel so blessed that she is a part of our family. She makes us laugh daily and is such a bundle of energy. Here is a rare moment of her kicking back and relaxing around the camp fire. We went on our first camping trip as a family of 5 and stayed in a yurt. We had a great time, but had to cut the trip short as she wasn't feeling well......more on that in another post.

Here is one of the waterfalls we hiked in to. It was such a beautiful day.

Some things we have learned about Alesha in the last month -
1. She doesn't like berries or really anything sweet.
2. When you tell her NO she will say uuuuuu-oooooooooo!
3. She loves to blow kisses.
4. She is quite the climber. She motored up our 13 steps to the upstairs (us CLOSE behind) The gate will be put up pronto!
5. She loves to walk around holding onto our hands. She pushes her little baby carriage around and walks pretty good while holding on to it.
6. She can stand in one place for a good 30 seconds.
7. She says "HI" to everybody and it is simply adorable.
8. She waves bye-bye and if really excited waves with both hands!
9. She still loves WATER.
10. She is eating much more and eats much faster...this is a huge blessing.
11. She weighs in at a whopping 16 pounds and wears a size 6-9 month clothes.
12. Still not a fan of cold things. When given ice cream the faces she makes are hilarious, but you would have thought we gave her dirt or something really gross.
13. When finished eating, bath time, or diaper changes she will say AAAALLLLLLLL Done.
14. She adores her brothers and watches their every move.
15. Her favorite things to say is AAAHHHHH-DAH. Sure wish I new what that meant, she says it constantly.
16. She has 4 teeth on top and 3 teeth on bottom. One of the three is a HUGE molar....OUCH! She is working on the other molar and couple more teeth, too.
17. Her favorite foods are bananas, squash, crackers, Indian food, and trying bites of new foods all the time.
18. She has finally figured out how to bite stuff. She will take a bite of a cracker now.
19. She has several little games she plays with her daddy. It is so sweet to see them together. She definitely has daddy wrapped around her finger :-)
20. When I change her diaper I always count to three and then rip off her pants, shorts, skirts, really quick and toss them up and she cracks up EVERY time. Then she takes them and plays peek-a-boo with me. When I'm done changing her diaper I will say give me your legs and she will lift them up so I can put her pants back on. Super fun and cute.
21. Playing peek-a-boo will provide hours of entertainment.
22. She loves to clap her hands and say YAY!
23. This girl LOVES music!!!! All kinds of music. She loves to watch her brother, Martin play the guitar and every time she hears music she starts rocking back and forth and if she is standing up she swings her hips from side to side. We may have a dancer on the horizon :-)
24. She can crawl wicked fast when she sees something she wants.
25. Her favorite pass time is emptying out the diaper bag or anything that is filled with something.

Alesha is so much fun and we look in awe at her daily. We are so thankful she is home and we can watch her grow-up right before our eyes. I am so thankful for her birth mother who chose life her baby girl. The decision to put her up for adoption must have been SO difficult. I think of her today as the first of every month she must wonder where her baby girl is and how she is doing. To her I say thank you for your gift of Alesha and know that she is loved beyond measure and is a very happy little girl. I love you Alesha!

Hair Accessories

LOOK! My brother's decided that they would do my hair and use ALL the clips from the package. Don't I look lovely?

My brothers. They are very proud of their work!

Here is a close-up look of all the clips.

AMAZING

On Saturday, June 5th, we had an open house for our family and friends to come and meet Alesha. It seemed like a fun thing to do and beat having several people come multiple times a day, day after day. Alesha has a blast at her party! She was the center of attention, crawling around, babbling, playing, and so excited to see all the people. She is such a social little girl. As long as mommy is close by she is happy as can be. It was such a blessing to introduce our daughter to all of the people who had prayed for her and our family during our long journey. I think it was as fun for them as it was for us to finally see the gift of Alesha right before their eyes.

We have been home for 2 weeks now and are adjusting amazingly well. Alesha had her first doctor's appt on June 1st her 15 month birthday. She weighed in at 14lb 7oz and is 28 1/2 inches long. The doctor didn't have any concerns other than getting her to gain some weight. She will go in again on June 15th for a weight check.

It has been so wonderful watching Alesha's personality come to light right before our eyes. She is such a happy little girl. We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful transition. The first week of sleep was really hard. We spent 4-5 hours each night playing and then crying and fussing for the first 3 nights we were home. We then had an awful night of night terrors. After that she has been sleeping 11 to 12 hours straight through at night in her own crib. We tried the co-sleeping, but she didn't sleep well, moves constantly, and would wake up all night long. I think she likes her big crib and all the room to roll around :-)

Some things we have learned about Alesha so far:

1. This girl has some CRAZY hair.

2. Her food must be hot! Especially bottles, but also bananas and cereal. She will turn her head and push away if the temperature is not to her liking.
3. She is an active little girl. Crawling around and pulling herself up on the furniture is great fun for her.

4. She is very inquisitive and focused. When given a toy or any item she will feel around the entire thing, look intently at it, see what it can do, and hold it for a long time.

5. Bath time is the highlight of her day. She splashes around, laughs, enjoys the water being poured on her (including her head!). She cries every time it is time to get out. Funny thing is when I gave her a bath a couple weeks ago she would just sit in one place and play. I would have her stand up and give her a final rinse before getting out. Fast forward 2 weeks and now she is crawling all over the tub and refuses to stand up for the final rinse, because she has figured out that the final rinse means it is time to get out of the tub, and she doesn't want ANY part it! Silly girl :-)

Doesn't she look SO TINY in our tub?
6. She loves her brothers. She smiles and plays with them and enjoys having them carry her around the house. It fills my heart with joy so see my boys with their sister. They waited SO long for her to finally be home. Luke told me the other day that he couldn't believe she is really home and that she is so much more than he ever thought she would be. Doesn't that just warm a mama's heart?

7. Alesha is not very fond of men. I think her only contact with men was with doctors. She has finally warmed up to Darin. It is so fun to watch them together. They have a morning routine of going on a walk together. There relationship is growing stronger every day.

8. She is the slowest eater! It can take her 40 minutes to drink an 8oz bottle. She does not chew any food right now. She has really stepped up her cereal intake and we have added bananas, yogurt, mashed potatoes, and squash to her diet and they seem to be working well. My boys were the fastest eaters I had ever seen so this little girl is God's way of slowing me down a bit.

There have been a number of times that I look at Alesha and am overwhelmed by emotion. The tears just fill my eyes as I look at this miracle God has blessed us with. So many people say Alesha is so blessed to be part of our family and we say that WE feel blessed having her in our family. She is truly a joy. Her smile and beautiful big dark brown eyes warm every body's heart that she comes in contact with.

We could not be more thankful to God for allowing us to be Alesha's mommy, daddy, and brothers. She is such a blessing and we feel like she has always been a part of our family.

I haven't forgotten about blogging about our trip, but there is A LOT to blog about and I haven't had much time to devote to it. It will come hopefully soon.

GREAT NEWS!!!!

We just received word tonight that Alesha's passport has been APPROVED!!!!!! I am SO excited I can barely type! We are thrilled beyond words and have been doing the happy dance around the Pfeiffer home! Alesha's passport should arrive at the orphanage on Monday so we can begin booking our flights.

Thank you all for your prayers!!! God is SO GOOD!!!!

Stay tuned for the actual travel dates.

Alesha, your mommy, daddy, and brothers are SO EXCITED to finally be booking flights to India to bring you home. We love you so much and it won't be long and you will be in our arms forever!

Our Precious, Alesha!

What a joyous surprise it was to sit down at my computer this morning and see this precious face looking back at me. My husband checked email early this morning before he left for work and set the first picture below as our computer's desktop background. I wanted to kiss the screen!!! She is just gorgeous. If you look close at the first picture you can see she had 2 teeth peeking through. I will be bringing teething rings and pain meds for the trip :-) We still are waiting for the passport. Hopefully some good news will come in the next few days. Until I can see my baby in real life these beautiful photos will have to do. I love you, Alesha and we are coming just as soon as we can!!!


Do you see my two little teeth on bottom?


Looks like she wants to eat this paper!

Our sweet little girl!

The Car Seat Blessing

I have mentioned in earlier posts that God has really been blessing me with fantastic deals on items for Alesha. The car seat was no different. I began my car seat search by asking for advice. It has been years since I have had a little one in our home and wanted to find out what car seats were preferred and safe. The overwhelming response was Britax. So I searched online and found that Britax is a small fortune :-) Money is tight with travel on the horizon so I looked into other options. I had finally decided on the car seat I would purchase.....so I thought.

The first blessing came when my mom told me that she was going to purchase the car seat as her gift to Alesha. How wonderful is that?! I had found a lovely car seat that we were set to purchase that evening when I was prompted to check Craig's list just to see what they had. Remember this is where I found the amazing bedding for Alesha's bedroom. So I check and sure enough there is a Britax car seat! Now I had checked a few days before for car seats and all I found were very old and very BOY looking car seats. I really had my heart set on a pretty car seat that when you looked at it you knew it was for a little girl :-) So the Britax seat pops up and the date of the post was two days prior...how did I miss this the first time? I click on the item and a picture of this adorable brown with pink flower car seat appears. I didn't want to get too excited until I got more information. I email the seller and told her we were adopting a little girl from India and I was really interested in her car seat. I then asked if they still have the car seat and has it been in any accidents, etc.? She emails back and says congratulations on your adoption, that she still has the car seat, and it hasn't been in an accident. She said that the car seat is less than a year old (gave manufacturer date) and that she ran a daycare and it was the extra seat she purchased for the business. She said that they were going through a financial hardship and needed to sell items. I set up a time to look at the seat and called my mom to bring her along since she was buying it. Who wouldn't want to see first hand what you were about to purchase, right?

So we show up at the seller's house and notice they have a for sale sign with SOLD written across it. We were greeted by a very sweet lady who directed us to the car seat. This car seat, I kid you not, looked like she just took it out of the box! It was super clean, manual still attached, etc. I was in love. She asked about the adoption so I showed her a photo of Alesha so she could see who would be riding in this seat. She was thrilled for us. As we chatted she began to cry. Long story short, her husband had recently had triple bypass surgery and her youngest son has special needs. She has had to sell their home, one of their vehicles, and many other items. They will have no home by the end of June and do not know where they will be living at that point. Me and my mom began to cry with this lady as she opened up to us and shared her painful story. My mom was able to pray with her before we left and we have had some email contact since. She said she was thankful for our listening ears and was happy that she felt like she could share her story and not feel judged. She was thankful that we had reminded her that God was in control of the situation.

It is amazing to me how God can use a simple search for a car seat to result in being used by Him to encourage and pray for someone in need. We received a huge blessing of purchasing a top of the line car seat for half-price and instead of paying a big retail store we were able in a small way help this sweet lady in need. When I look at Alesha's car seat, it will constantly remind me to pray for this sweet lady and her family. I feel this car seat search was ordained by God and I am thankful for the experience.

The Amazing Race - Update

Today our precious, Alesha, turns 14 months old! I can't believe our baby girl is already so big. It seems like time speeds up as far as her age is concerned and I miss more of her life every day and time SLOWS way down when we are waiting for things to happen in this adoption process. Currently, we are still awaiting the beloved passport for, Alesha. We are still within the original given time frame we were told after we received guardianship so I am hopeful that it will come next week. All I know is that I have an amazing amount of peace that God has given me during this wait. For me I know that all my frustration and worry that might creep in will NOT make the passport come any faster and I know that God knows EXACTLY when our plane will leave for India to bring our daughter home. This fact is truly amazing to me and one that I can take rest in.

I was emailing an adoption friend last night as she asked how our adoption process has been and how I was doing. My response was the following:

This adoption process is an amazing ride!. There are many ups and downs and unexpected turns, but SO worth it. I think waiting for the referral and waiting for the passport are the hardest parts (at least for me) in this adoption journey. Waiting for that referral is so difficult! There are so many emotions, thoughts, and unknowns it can drive you a bit bananas at times! You wonder, Where is she?, Is she conceived yet?, Is she born yet?, What are her birth parents like?, What will she look like?, etc. I think about Alesha’s birth mother and wonder how painful the decision must have been to relinquish rights to her newborn baby girl. For her ultimate sacrifice, I have a daughter. This process is truly amazing. Once I had our referral and I knew who Alesha was the process got easier for me. I knew there were a lot of steps still to go, but at least I knew who she was. I knew what her needs were and how I could specifically pray for her. Now that we are at the final stages of the process my emotions have gone back to the many emotions, thoughts and unknowns. Is she going to like me?, Will she feel safe, Are we going to bond well?, Is she going to travel okay?, etc. This process comes full circle. I will be thrilled to finally have her in my arms so I can hug her, kiss her, tell her how much I love her, and how I have longed for her for so many years. What a glorious day it will be. I am not kidding myself, I know there will be issues all along the way, but I pray she will feel safe and know that she is loved beyond words.

My husband and I have discussed how this adoption process reminds us of the TV show The Amazing Race. For those of you who have not seen the show there are several teams who travel the world in a race for 1 million dollars. I enjoy the show, because you get to see different parts of the world. During the race the teams encounter different challenges, road blocks, etc as they try to arrive in 1st place at the finish line of that leg of the race.

Throughout this process we have felt like we were running the Amazing Race. We try to get paperwork completed as quickly as possible and usually more often than not run across a road block! You think if I can just get this to this government agency by this date than _____ will happen. This is not always the case. In the beginning the leg was getting our place on the waiting list. There were LOTS of challenges and road blocks that we encountered along the way, but in August 2008 we finally made it on the list at #13! We are exhausted, but thrilled to have completed that leg of the RACE! During the shows race there are mandatory rest periods that the teams have to take. With our adoption we had a mandatory 16 month rest period waiting for our daughter's referral. I wouldn't say it was restful (read above text), but mandatory non the less. Then we saw Alesha's beautiful face and the paper race began again. We had more road blocks of having to REDO paperwork that had expired and running hard and fast to complete paperwork before courts and agencies would close for the holidays so that we could move to the next step without delay. We again had a mandatory rest period around Christmas when our paperwork got where it needed to go 1 day AFTER everything closed for the holiday. During this process you can do all you can do, but you really have limited control. In the TV amazing race you can have a great lead on another team, but then get a bad taxi driver or go to the wrong place and it can put you in last place in a matter of hours. In the adoption amazing race you can get passed by other families or you can go ahead of other families for various reasons. As we approach the final stretch of our adoption journey to the final leg of the race we feel that our entire race has been led by God. He has really been our strength when we had none and our comforter when we were so disappointed or frustrated. In the TV show you will find that the teams started out one way and often are changed so much by the end of the race. I feel like my husband and I have had our relationship strengthened throughout this process. Our family has gone through a lot of changes over the last 2 years. God has taught us many lessons of patience, peace, perseverance, trust and so much more. Our adoption process is about the important things in life, people, not money. When we finish our race we will be blessed beyond measure with an adorable little girl by the name of Alesha Mugdha Pfeiffer that we will bring into our family and cherish for many years to come.

Stay tuned for our next leg of OUR Amazing Race to India!