One Month

Today we have known our baby girl for one month! In so many ways we feel like we have known her for so much longer... and other times we are still in shock that we have her home. She is constantly melting our hearts and cracking us up everyday! I want to follow her everywhere with a camera... we are completely in love with this amazing child that somehow has become ours.



Our lives are a little different now a days and we still don't quite have our footing... I am comforted in knowing that we have only been home for 2 1/2 weeks. I don't have multitasking down (: I do miss being able to send an email or make a call when I am thinking of it or finishing what I started without being distracted and forgetting all about it, but on the other hand I wouldn't want to be doing anything else in the world but being right where I am...with the girl of our dreams.

So much to Celebrate!

This day is definitely a day for rejoicing. Cody and I have a new understanding this year of God's sacrifice to offer His child to come be with us, knowing what His people would do to Him... and His Son being willing to come. It is unfathomable what Jesus did for us.
Mae woke up to an Easter basket and we rushed to get ready for church and an afternoon at the grandparents. Getting ready this morning was sooo much different with a little one. There are so many things to pack to be gone all day... goodness. It's a wonder we got to church! I thought many many times of all my friends that show up with their children, all put together and well behaved. Bless you! I am getting the hang of this...
Mae's ADORABLE dress is from her Nanny... it was so precious on her and I was giddy getting her ready in the morning. She even had crinoline and the cutest bloomers (: This momma was in heaven.
Mae is so blessed to have so many people in her life that LOVE her.
Her Grandma opened the eggs so Mae could get to the treats inside.
And our family was more than happy to share in Mae's joy of all her eggs.



Love that we had our girl right where she belongs this Easter. We can not wait for all the years to come with her!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our very first Easter egg hunt!! We were so happy when we got our travel dates and found out we would have Mae home for Easter and here it is! She has been home for 2 weeks today and we have really seen her turn a corner. Today she was much more comfortable out with all the neighborhood kids and parents.
At first, she didn't know what to do and I was trying to tell her to go get the egg. She did but didn't quite get what the big deal was...
What is this thing just lying in the yard anyway?
It didn't take long; she got the hang of it as we cheered her on!

Maebelle did pretty good and was sure cute as she could be!

All the neighborhood kids lined up for a photo. Can you see Mae... do you see what she sees?
Little bugger is taking an egg out of her friend Luke's hand! She's definitely more comfortable and evidently did like hunting eggs (:

New Pictures

I'm not sure why I feel the need to introduce myself each time I post, but I do it anyway. My writing style is much different that Kristen's so I imagine whoever reads this would be able to determine the author fairly quickly. Either way...this is Cody again.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning to some of our infamous sever Southern thunderstorms. It's now 5:15 I'm not tired at all so I thought I would blog for a minute.

We have been home for 12 days now and it's very strange how things don't seem much different than from when we left for China. Other than the fact that we are pretty tired and we have a bunch of new Chinese stuff around the house I don't feel much different than when we left. Please don't get me wrong, we are thrilled beyond words to have our little Maebelle home with us, but she blended into our family so seamlessly I can't really remember life without her.

It feels like we've had a piece of our family missing this whole time but we didn't know it until she showed up. Now that she's here, what in the world would we do without her? She is so sweet and funny and a bit of a rascal too. I mean she fits RIGHT into family. It's wild!

OK, so about the new pictures:

Our dear friends, Chris and Katie, own a photography studio called 6 of Four and are amazing photographers. They were at the airport to document our arrival from China and also took some great family photos last week. Now, it's very important that I clarify how awesome Chris and Katie are. Not only are they amazing photographers, but they are great friends, savvy business owners and just overall wonderful people.

When Kristen and I had our letterpress shop, Chris and Katie were the ones who really helped get our name into the Atlanta wedding industry. We knew they were good photographers but didn't truly understand their level of talent and respect in the industry until we started meeting other professionals who also knew them. One thing we learned about the wedding industry is that anyone with a Digital SLR (fancy camera) is a "photographer." Just like anyone with a Mac and a copy of Photoshop is a "graphic designer" (real graphic designers will get that joke inside of a joke). Chris and Katie are truly gifted photographers with the unique ability to capture feeling and emotion like few others. It's really hard to put into words, so make sure to check out their work...after you've looked at all of Mae's pictures, of course:

Mae's Homecoming
Family Portraits

6 of Four's Blog
6 of Four's Weddings
6 of Four's Portraints

3 weeks

It was three weeks today that we were handed the gift of Mae. Our baby girl astonishes us with her incredible sweet spirit, wit and beauty. There are so many times a day I have to stop myself from breaking down and crying. The miracle of this child, from another place in this world, coming to be ours is just too much! God created this breathetaking little girl to be ours... and there are countless ways that her personality is like us, and just fits with us seamlessly. And we're just starting to learn what she is all about.
She had a little visit from her Aunt Meridith and Uncle Jon. She has warmed right up to them and found that she likes her Aunt's sparkly style.
She was beside herself when her aunt let her wear the pretty necklace. It is adorable how she is so fond of all things girlie... and that is just perfect with me too.
This is so sweet. Griffin loves his girl.
And every moment that I dreamed about with her seems surreal now. I cherish every minute of being this little 20 month old's mom. Even the stinky ones.

Settling In

There were several toys that we had to show Mae how to use... but there are just a few things she knew just what to do with.
And her shoes - this girl LOVES shoes.


We think she is the cutest, sweetest, little girl in the whole world. And she is...

That being said, she would NOT nap the other day and she was SO very tired. She cried, well screamed, when I put her down, when I walked with her, rocked her, read, and played... it was a very hard hour. I finally put her back in her crib, turned the volume off on the monitor for a couple minutes and went down stairs and enjoyed myself a Cadbury egg. After that we were all good. (:

We are learning so many things about her, about each other and what our lives look like as three. She has just started sleeping through the night but she is not on her schedule yet. I know we will settle in soon.

Initiated

We've been having a lot of fun at 4am these past few days.

Our cheerio princess watching "Shaun the Sheep" in the middle of the night with her sleepy parents and pup.
She sips her tea and blows on it... how did she pick these things up?

Here's a clip just to show you a head spinning performance by our funny girl...

We can not get enough of her!

Today we were initiated - as parents, we woke up earlier to get to an appointment and were headed down the highway while our daughter cried in the backseat. We thought it might be that her mirror had slid down so she couldn't see us, so Cody pulled over to fix it and started back on our way but she kept crying... but we could watch her now, just in time too because she then vomited everywhere. (I can not handle vomit but I somehow did) We pulled over again and cleaned her up the best we could. Poor darling was sick and now wet and so we turned around and headed home. I started her a bath and stripped off those soaked clothes and diaper and wouldn't you know it, she peed... all over the bathroom floor. HA! I know all our friends with children have similar stories, it's just never happened to us (: until today.

Adjusting

First of all, we are so very happy to be home... it has been so great to have our little family together in our house. Our schedules are so backwards and jet lag is really hitting Cody and me and poor sweet Mae is all mixed up. She has had 20 months on the other side of the planet and so she is waking up all through the night and playing. It has been about 2 hours of sleep, 2 hours of play and Cody and I have been alternating getting up with her. I am so thankful to have such a great partner and daddy. We are still fighting colds and not sleeping is probably why.

Griffin is so crazy about her... and the peanut butter fingers.

We went to the pediatrician today to get Mae all checked out and she was so great while we were there. Our doctor was impressed with how healthy she is and said everything looked great except her hemaglobin (iron) is pretty low. She wrote us a prescription so we can get it back up to where it should be in the next few months. They had to prick Mae's pretty little toe today but she did not even cry... I don't think she even knew what was going on because they gave her a sucker and she was totally distracted.

Mae was 20 months old on Sunday and today they measured her at 20.8 pounds and 29 inches tall. (: She is less than 5th percentile in both, small but healthy!
I am so bummed that this is all blurry - Can you see she is thrilled with her baby dolls?? She was carrying them around with her this morning. It has been so fun learning our daughter! She is full of joy. Oh and today is our 2 week anniversary with her...
And this is her asleep in her highchair tonight; she took two bites and couldn't stay up any longer. We kept her busy today and I hope that means she sleeps longer tonight. She is so adorable and we could not be luckier parents.

One last note:: We LOVE the comments, emails, calls and texts and have been encouraged by all of you so much... sorry we if we don't respond right now while we settle in. We will be back on track and back with you all soon. (:

Home at last!!

We landed at the Atlanta airport after a very exhausting trip - our original flights with Delta had us flying into Japan, so they switched us to a later flight to LA. When we got to the airport in Guangzhou, China they had NO record of our flight. We had a really stressful time trying to get the travel figured out so we could just go home. We finally got on standby at the last minute and ran all the way to our plane... but we were going home! None of our seats were together but we had a very nice person give up her seat so at least Cody and I could be together on our 12 hours home with Mae. Thankfully, this new flight was right at Mae's bedtime. She slept all but an hour of the flight and was absolutely amazing.

Our next flight from LA to Atlanta had Cody and my seats next to each other but Mae's seat was 6 rows in front of us... well that wasn't going to work. They did put us together in the end but it made for the most stressful 24 hours of the whole trip.
We had quite the welcoming party at the airport and it was soooo early we did not expect to see all these amazing people to welcome our baby girl. Loved her beautiful banner!!
Mae was a little overwhelmed by all the people looking at her and she kept shrugging her shoulders. (:
She has her daddy and her uncle Jon here.
Awe and home at last! We had posters, balloons, meals and a clean house all waiting for us.
She had so much to see! I've had all her things here waiting for her and it was so unreal to see her finally in our home!!
Stylish darlin thanks to a present filled of awesome girlie things from a dear friend.
Okay, now it's finally time to get to show Mae HER room!! She was adorable and had the perfect response because she pointed at everything with so much excitement.

And she found her baby.
The stairs were her favorite of all though... She is figuring out how to go up and down with her aunt Meridith.
First introduction to the dogs. She has done so well with them... Griffin has given her big kisses and she just laughed and pointed. We have only let Blaze lick her toes, he has growled at her a few times and we know it will take some time for that grumpus to love our girl.
Nap in her own bed! We could tell she really liked her bed too. So thankful! We were amazed she went to it so easily. You know she did not ever like her beds at the hotels and would cry and cry. We'll have to see if it is just because she was so exhausted from our trip.
Finding her things (:

She loved the teapot very much.
And soooo good to have comfort food... chicken pot pie my sister made us! It was so yummy and Mae thought so too. She kept signing for more!