Mother's Day

To the babies who first made me a mommy!  I couldn't celebrate Mother's Day without you!  Each of you has entered my life with different circumstances and different stories, but I still remember the very first time I held you in my arms!

Malachi, my first born!  The one who finally gave me that much anticipated title of "mommy"!  I will never forget driving into the gates of Hannah's Hope.  We were now just minutes from meeting you and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.  We stood outside and snapped pictures of the first family in our group meeting their older daughters.  Then all of a sudden I heard them say "Segni's parents, go meet him."  That was us!  We marched up the stairs and I hadn't seen a recent picture of you in over a month but I could totally tell it was you because of your chub and the little poof of hair on the top of your head!  You were facing away from me.  But I came over as fast I could and held your hand and wrapped you in my arms for the very first time.  I was worried you might cry, but you didn't.  You just studied me as I studied every feature of you!  It was surreal to have you finally in my arms!  

Then there was Elias.  I remember driving to the hospital in labor with you, far earlier than we anticipated.  I was a bit panicked and not ready for what was about to happen. I had no idea the emotional roller coaster the next 24 hours would become.  I labored through the night and things finally got intense in the morning. After about 14 hours, it was time to welcome you into the world.  But things weren't how they were supposed to be.  You were a very sick little 5 pound baby boy.  They took you right away from me and I wouldn't see you again for almost 24 hours.  It might have been the most difficult 24 hours of my life.  I was in a lot of pain and completely exhausted, but none of that mattered because all that mattered was getting to you as soon as I could.  Daddy was able to go be with you and having his reassurance that you were doing better at the bigger hospital helped a lot.  My doctor was kind enough to give me a dose of something that helped me relax and sleep through the night so I was at least a little bit rested to meet you.  The first time I saw you, is still a bit of a blur. I think I had so much medication on board and was still in a bit of an emotional fog.  I checked out of the hospital as early as I could the next morning, went home and got cleaned up and then was off for the hour drive to the hospital to meet you.  The NICU is a bit of a scary place and when I first saw you with all of those tubes and wires it was really scary.  But them letting me kangaroo care for the very first time was the best!  It was much over due for both of us!  It was a hard first day for you and your stats were all over the place. You were setting off alarms and scaring me half to death but we made it through and I will never forget that day!

And then there is Sabrina!  Whew girl, you had given me a run for my money.  7 weeks of bed rest, followed by 2 weeks of "early labor", but we finally made it to the finish line.  Thankfully after a hard pregnancy, you entered this world smoothly and easily! Only 5 hours of easy laboring (thank you modern medicine!) and 2 minutes of pushing! Things moved so quickly!  You were my only child who I got to hold in my arms right away and the nurses were so understanding and let us have some incredible time!  You didn't leave my chest for over an hour after your delivery.  It wasn't quite as dramatic as your brothers first introductions but it was so special!  I had a baby girl!

And for the little one I am still yet to hold in my arms!  I'm still very much your mommy and my heart is about ready to burst with love for you.  The anticipation is building and I hope more and more that the day is nearing where you will be in my arms. I know your story will be just as wonderful and the moment just as sweet as it has been the first 3 times!  

So How's the Adoption Going?

I figure it is well past time for this blog to get an update on the adoption as I am sure since I have been asked often how things are going, that there might be some curious readers.

We've been home study approved for a little bit over a month.  Most of the paperwork is behind us, which is the part of the process I dread the most!  We've networked with about 8 different agencies at this point and are just waiting to be matched with our birth mother at this point.  These last couple weeks have been very quiet with new cases, so I am hoping things will liven up a bit more here soon.  It's a weird mix of emotions to read through the bio's of these birth mom's and get a glimpse into the hard things they've gone though.  It's also a huge responsibility to try and decide which cases are a good fit for us and are one's we would like to be presented on.  Our timeline is very open right now.  We could match very soon and have a baby in our arms, or we could be waiting several more months.  I oddly haven't been to stressed yet as I know and trust that God will line up the pieces to come together just when they need to.  I have a completely different state of mind and faith than I had with our first adoption :)  Guess I've grown up a bit!

We also continue to fundraise.  We've done a lot of different things so far and are gearing up for a garage sale and auction here soon.  We were also awarded a significant matching grant this past week and are so thankful and know it will help us immensely.

To stay up to date on the most recent adoption news and learn more about our matching grant, you are welcome to check out our adoption blog www.bringinghomebabykeyser.blogspot.com

Easter

Along with Birthday fun this past week, we also had a holiday to celebrate!  There isn't a whole lot to say, so I will just let the pictures do the talking for me :) 

A Bubble Guppy Party

For Sabrina's 2nd Birthday, we celebrated with one of her favorite things - Bubble Guppies!

Look at my little cutie pie!  

In sticking with the fishy theme....

My mom always does an amazing job with the cakes!  

So fun to have girly things for a change! 

A practice baby in anticipation of things to come!

We decided to skip the candles after her reaction of them on her actual birthday! 

And one very shy but sweet little birthday girl! 

A 2nd Birthday!

As impossible as it is for me to believe, our precious lil princess is now 2 years old!  

We started our morning off with some strawberry waffles and birthday candles.  The candles may have been a poor choice.

 But soon we were off to enjoy an early morning at the zoo!  The princess was ready to ride!

The giraffes and the silly, deep voiced birds in the exhibit were Sabrina's very favorite at the zoo today!

I think she had a really great time and it was fun to see her enjoy her time with us!

Then it was off to the toy store for her to pick a special birthday toy.  Instead of buying the kids any birthday presents we thought it would be more fun to let them pick something out for themselves.  The crazy thing is that she had a whole toy store in front of her and as soon as she saw the shoes over in the corner, she bolted for them!  This girl loves her shoes, but unfortunately we couldn't find anything in her size.  But she was almost as excited about getting a ball and a book (and we picked out a little Disney castle for her).

                                                            And some yummy lunch!

                                      And a free  scoop of Birthday Cake Ice Cream!

                                            Yep, I would say this girl has had a good day!

Princess Sabrina,  You are the most beautiful and precious baby girl in the world!  I always thought I wanted a baby girl but I had no idea just how special the relationship between mother and daughter really is!  I hope we can always maintain a special and close bond!  Your smile can light up a room and I love that you got your daddy's dimples.  You've always looked more like your daddy but everyone is saying now that you look more and more like me.  I think it is that curly hair!  You are my little sunshine and I love you so much!

Malachi turns 4!

In the blink of an eye, our sweet little Malachi has grown into a funny, sweet, kind 4 year old little boy!  I feel like these last couple months he has really transformed into a young boy instead of a toddler.  I already feel like the age of 4 is going to be wonderful and fun!  

Per our family tradition, Peter was able to take the day off work so we could lavish a little bit of extra love and attention on the birthday boy!  The morning started off with some Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls, complete with 4 candles which was the funnest part for this kid!

Then it was off to the toy store so he could pick out a special gift for his birthday. This year he picked out an Iron Man toy, a rescue bots leap pad game, and Iron Man 2 (seeing a theme here?).  Then we were off to a yummy lunch of Malachi's favorite food - cheeseburgers and french fries!

After a good lunch, we were off to the movie theater to watch The Lego Movie and eat lots of popcorn!

And then a yummy stop for a free ice cream scoop, of which he chose rainbow sherbet.  He is such a cutie and it was so great to get to spend a special day just with him!

But in the end, no day is complete if these boys aren't together.  They had a lot of fun checking out Mal's new game when he came home. I love the bond these two guys share!  God wrote a wonderful story when He gave us these two!

We also had Malachi's Birthday Party over the weekend. Any guess of the theme?

Malachi was totally mesmerized by his Iron Man cake!  4 is such a fun age for Birthday's!

                                                         Sabrina enjoyed the party too!

         Poor Eli was enjoying himself, until he got in a fight with a chair and got a nice black eye. Then he looked like one tough Captain America!

It has been a wonderful week of celebrating Malachi and all the joy he has brought to our life!

Malachi,  We love you so very much.  I remember the agony we felt 4 years ago as we were waiting for much longer to see your face than we anticipated. Little did we know, you were just entering the world and the day would come so soon where just your existence brought us wonderful joy!  Today is a mix of emotions as I think about your birth mom and how much I wish she could she the beautiful little boy you have grown into.  I wish I could tell her about how smart you are, or how funny your sense of humor is.  How kind you are to your little brother and sister.  Or how much you love Jesus.  We are so proud and happy to be your parents!  You have blessed us so very much in these first 4 years of your life and I know you will continue to be a blessing to us all the days of our life.  Happy Birthday sweet boy!  Here's to a fabulous year four!