Kenzie is an aunt~again!

As of March 19, 2009 Kenzie now has a nephew younger than her:)
Jeremyiah James Crow made his entrance into the world at 8:26 am. He weighed 7 pounds 1 1/4 ounces and was 20.7 inches long. He has dark hair and dark eyes. When we ask Kenzie what she thinks of him, she replies, "He's cute!" She loves to just stare at him and of course, tries to touch him all the time. She keeps saying she wants a baby of "our own". While Brian and I would like to adopt again, it just doesn't seem to be feasible at this time....but who knows. If it is in God's will for us, Kenzie will be a big sister some day. However, for now we are just enjoying her and her 2 neices and 2 nephews. We are praising God for his abundant blessings!

Can't believe it's been over 2 years since we first met!

I have once again allowed two months to fly by without posting. I really don't have anything significant to "report". Life has been going on as usual...busy, but fun! I realized on Feb. 28th that it had been 2 years since we first met our beautiful little angel. Time has flown by so fast and she is growing and changing DAILY. She weighs 31 pounds and is almost 36 inches tall and is wearing 3t and 4t clothes....my how far she has come from that 16 pound little girl wearing 3-6 month clothes when we met her! She is such a sweetheart and has enriched all the lives she has touched. She is very independent and strong-willed, which makes for some interesting and difficult times...but at least we know we don't ever have to worry about anyone pushing her around. I definitely think she will be a leader and I know that God has great plans for her (Jeremiah 29:11). I know I am biased, but Kenzie is definitely very bright...she knows almost all her alphabet and sounds and is starting to recognize several words. However I realize that what is truly important is not her intellect, but the "brightness" that comes from inside her. Forgive me for bragging, but she is truly amazing and I still sometimes find myself in complete awe that God chose us to be her parents! Wow...what an incredible blessing and HUGE responsibility. I pray that God will give us the wisdom and energy we need to help her to grow and develop into the young lady He created her to be!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!
We had wonderful holidays and hope each of you did also. Kenzie really got into the preparations for Christmas this year. She loved hanging ornaments on the tree (and taking them off and re-positioning them several times). We went to our nephew and his wife's house on Christmas Eve. Kenzie got to play with several of her second cousins and Haleigh-Jo and Aiden. We had a group of 14 adults and 9 kids (all but one under the age of 7) . We had drawn names for the adults and bought presents for the kids. It was so much to watch their faces light up as they opened their gifts. We had finger foods and a wonderful time just being together. It's been a LONG time since we've had such a big get-together for Christmas in our family.
Kenzie was so excited Christmas morning when she walked in and saw her new bike and helmet (from Santa) and her scooter (from Emily and Jordon). She had a blast opening her presents and going through her stocking. It was warm enough for the kids to go outside and ride the new bicycle, scooter, and the other trikes we had. We had an absolutely amazing day and shared it with Grandma and Grandpa, Nonnie, Aunt Sandra and Josh, Jeremy, April, Haleigh-Jo, Aiden, and Jordon and Emily. God has blessed us tremendously and we are so thankful for all of HIS blessings!
The weekend after Christmas, we took Nonnie home and met Keith, Sherry, and Jenna there. It was so wonderful to get to spend time with them. Kenzie got to meet her cousin Jenna for the first time and they hit it off. She also loved her Care Bears DVD from Keith and Sherry. Once again, this weekend helped us realize why we celebrate Christmas and without Christ, our lives would be nothing.
Just last night, (due to wanting to wait for Kailey to come and unforeseen sicknesses), we had Christmas with Jeremy, April, Aiden, Haleigh-Jo, and Kailey. We just love it when all the kids can be together.We didn't have a lot of time, but it was wonderful to watch the kids as they opened gifts together. I wonder if they will all want to have this many Christmases again next year...lol...
My favorite thing about this time of year is of course remembering the birth of Christ and the sacrifice he was willing to make for us. The next best thing is having time with family and friends and sharing our love and remembering the Christmases past and looking forward to the ones to come (which is WAY more important than any gift we could ever give or receive). To me, the new year represents a new start and more blessings to come!
Happy 2009 (and forgive me for being so long-winded)!

Kenzie has been with us for 1 & 1/2 years TODAY

As I looked at the date this morning, I realized that a year and a half has passed since we went to court and heard that Kenzie was our child forever! We were able to go pick her up later that same day! God has blessed us so very much in the past 18 months!!! It's amazing to think that Kenzie has been with us almost as long as she was in the orphanage. I know I've said it before, but she is absolutely amazing!!!! Every time we look at her, we are reminded of God's goodness and how He truly does grant us "the desires of our hearts". She may not have grown under my heart...but she sure grew in it and she definitely has her daddy wrapped around her finger. She's quite the little charmer. We honestly just can't imagine life without her!

Mommys thoughts to Kenzie:

Our sweet precious little girl,
how you've totally changed our whole world.
We had forgotten how great it could be
to see the world like a child sees:
to laugh, run, sing, and play,
and to enjoy special moments every day.
God planned for you to be our child before we even had a clue,
He worked out every detail and sent us to you.
People tell us how blessed you are to be in our family
but the truth is we are the ones God has blessed immensely.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Well as usual, I'm behind. Halloween this year was a blast! On Thurs. night the businesses in town were giving out candy. We met up with Jeremy, April, Kevin & Tammy and the kids and trick-or-treated at several businesses. After that, we went to the church for trunk-or-treat. It was so much fun. Many people participated and Kenzie got more than her fair share of candy. In fact, she's still enjoying the lute she got that night. She was just the most adorable little lady bug you've ever seen...I'll post pictures to prove it! On Halloween night, we went to the football game. Unfortunately, our team didn't fair too well....guess there were too many ghosts and goblins on the opposing team~lol. As usual, Kenzie really got into the game. She asks to go see football all the time. She's not too happy that the season is over for our high school team.

My How Time Flies - Kenzie's 3!!!

I can't believe it's been 18 days since I last posted. There have been so many things going on in our lives lately that the days have just flown by!!!

First and foremost, our little angel turned 3 on Oct. 12. We opted to have a small family party this year and we had a blast! We kept it simple by having sandwiches for dinner and a cupcake cake (Dora, of course) and ice cream for dessert. Kenzie really got into opening her presents and was so cute as she walked around and showed each gift to Aiden and Hailey. We couldn't decide if she was just sharing her excitement or inwardly saying, "Look at MY new toy!" I chose to believe she was just excited:) I just can't believe how fast Kenzie has grown and how much she has learned. She is absolutely amazing!!! She has such a wonderful temperament and is happy most of the time...but watch out for the times she's not...lol! She was dismissed from speech right before she turned 3. Her therapist said she had made wonderful progress and was on target of what was expected of her. We are teaching her about her background and when we ask her where she was born or where she is from she excitedly replies, "Russia". When we ask her who chose her (trying to get her to say God) she smiles and says, "Daddy and Mommy". When we ask who brought Daddy and Mommy to her to bring her home forever, she will grin and say "God did!" and look at us as if to say....don't you know that? She is coming up with new expressions and phrases everyday. Her newest is "Nobody's here...just us." We don't have a clue where she got that one! She's such a joy and we are so EXTREMELY grateful to God for blessing our life with her!

Kenzie had surgery to put in another set of tubes and remove her adenoids on Oct. 17. She did pretty well, but this surgery was definitely harder on her (and us) than the first one. She was VERY combative after surgery and it took us over an hour to get her to calm down. We were told this was from the medication and the anesthesia. She didn't feel well for about a week, and didn't eat much, but is now back to herself. She's busy all the time and has only one speed....very fast!

We found out last week that Jeremy and April are having a boy...we are all excited. Kenzie will be an aunt for the 4th time...Jeremyiah will be her first nephew that is younger than her! She's excited about having a baby in the family, but I can't help but wonder how she'll feel about it when Mommy and Daddy hold little Jeremyiah. She doesn't like sharing our attention very often, but she is getting better about that.

We kept Aiden, Haley, and Kailey last Friday night and they all had a blast. It is so much fun to see them all together. It does get a little crazy sometimes having two 4 year olds and two 3 year olds at the house (mostly at bedtime), but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!!!!

Jordon and Emily came down Saturday night and spent Sunday with us. We enjoyed them so much. We are all excited about the way Kenzie has taken to Emily. Emily is only the 3rd person Kenzie has bonded with so quickly (Cathy and Robert were the other 2). She runs up and gives Emily hugs and lets Emily her hold her more than she has anyone else she's known for a short time. Jordon says he's been replaced:)

As I said before, and you can tell by the length of this post...it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Visiting "Bubba" Jordon, Meeting Emily and going to Nonnie's house.

Last Friday, we took off work early and headed up north to spend the weekend with Brian's mom. We haven't seen her since June and it was past time for a visit. On the way there, we made a stop and took Jordon and his girlfriend, Emily, to dinner. It was our first time to meet Emily. She is a sweetheart and we had a great time! Kenzie gave her approval of Emily right away...which very rarely happens! I think Emily was a little taken aback when the waitress thought Kenzie was their daughter and asked her how old Kenzie was. They both immediately looked at Brian and I and I explained that she was our child... Poor waitress was very embarrassed ...Brian and I thought it was quite comical, actually! After dinner, we went to Walmart to get a new blanket for Kenzie, since we forgot it and she HAS to have her blankie!!!
Then it was time to get back on the road. Kenzie was sooooo good during the trip. Having the DVD player and her movies makes taking a trip so much easier. We had a relaxing weekend and loved having time to spend with Nonnie. We attended the 100th year anniversary celebration of her church and got to visit with people we hadn't seen in years. Kenzie was such a good little helper when it came time to clean off the tables. However, she got to going too fast (which happens alot with Kenzie) and fell and bonked her head on one of the chairs...poor baby! The rest of our week was pretty much the same as always (except Brian and I were both sick...yuck!) We still managed to take Kenzie to the park twice this week. It is such a joy to watch her running, jumping, climbing, hanging from the "monkey bars", swinging, and sliding. She LOVES the park!!! It's hard to believe she will be 3 years old on Sunday....she sure has come a LONG way from that little girl we brought home a year and a half ago:)