Lilah is Going to be a Big Sister!!

That's right, you read the headline correctly, Lilah is going to be a Big Sister. We're pregnant, currently 16 weeks, the new addition to the family is due February 24th, 2008! Lilah and her new sibling will be 13 months apart. At first I thought, "Oh, I can do this, Lilah will be walking a little, it'll work out." Then I went to two different 1 year old birthday parties and realized 1 is a little younger than I thought. I think I was imagining more around 18 months..... then the panic started to sink in. But, we're excited! I've just decided the next few years will be rather hectic, but eventually it'll be great because the kids will be so close in age.
We announced our big new to Oma & Opa in Seattle this past weekend. We were holding out to tell them in person together, so now that they know we can tell everybody! I had Lilah a t-shirt made that read "I"M THE BIG SISTER" on the front with a monkey. On the back it says, "February 2008" with 2 monkeys. Lilah put on the t-shirt late in the afternoon and wore it around ALL evening, waiting on Oma and Opa to notice. But they never did.
Finally we had to get Norah, Lilah's oldest cousin who is 4, to say "Oma & Opa please read Lilah's t-shirt." They were almost speechless and very surprised, but Oma said she guessed it when we arrived at the airport by the way I looked the night before. Opa kept saying "5 under 5," that's the number of grand kids all under 5. Sounds like a band doesn't it? Here's a picture of Opa playing with Lilah and still not reading the t-shirt. He said if it had been morning instead of night it wouldn't have slipped by him.
We're not going to find out the sex of the baby, at least that's what I'm saying right now. I always said for my first baby i'd be surprised. So Lilah being my first, not only did I know, I chose, so I think I can show some restraint, but we'll see, i may be unable to resist.
Lilah had a great weekend in Seattle with her cousins. She is really crazy about Norah the oldest who makes her laugh a lot. And it was fun to see her and Lauren playing together, so cute because they are the same size doing lots of the same things. And no matter how you try, you can never get all the kids to look at the camera at once.

Wanted to give folks a few pointers now that we're pregnant. Please try to resist the temptation to say, "See I told you that you would get pregnant as soon as you adopted." Please remember we've been trying to have a family over 2.5 years and this was a result of my surgery for endometriosis, not a result of less stress now that we have Lilah. Now if you want to say this was part of God's plan, i'll go along with that. Bill & I always said we wanted to adopt, except we had planned to adopt the 3rd baby. With us being in our 30's we needed to get started on the bio kids first. But when #1 was slow in coming, Bill said let's move the adopted baby from #3 to #1, and we did. I believe with all my heart that Lilah was meant to be our daughter. So the good Lord may have delayed things, moved back things, etc, just so we'd be in the right place at the right time for Lilah or she would have ended up with a different family and she was truly meant to be ours. Bill says Lilah has brought us good luck.

Also, please don't say things like, "Now you'll have a baby of your own." Lilah is our own baby, I take care of her and love her everyday, she is mine forever. Please also don't say things like this is a baby of your blood, ...... Lilah was not born from me, but she is a result of a lot of hard work, dedication, and love on mine and Bill's part for all the things that had to happen for this little angel to be in our life. It is a miracle to me how it all happened, all the things that had to be in place so she'd be ours, it truly shows that there are some things in life that are truly meant to be, and Lilah was meant to be our baby.

So if anyone ever asks, I"ll tell them they are both my children, one is hand picked and the other home grown. I just feel so blessed to have the experience of being a mother through adoption and biological. I just wish everyone in the world could know how good if feels to adopt a baby, to know your family was so destined to be that even a big ocean couldn't keep you from each other.