Randomness ...

Saturday randomness ...

 

Practicing my non-braiding skills (my SIL is a pro at fancy braids ... I'm learning) ... Nice look for Lyds - baby in the carrier and her beloved Superman shirt ... 

Supporting my sweet Texas friend with this fun tee as they make their way to China (hopefully soon) to bring home their daughter ...

A recent round of selfies ...

{Non}Sleeping Beauty

There are two questions that we often get asked regarding Nora's adjustment and development:

1.  Is she sleeping any better?
2.  How is her speech coming along?

In all honesty, I cringe at both of these questions as I can feel myself getting defensive, protecting my daughter and her insecurities and challenges.  Let's start with speech, this is an easy one - click over to Ashley's blog and see her post from yesterday ... I can relate to every single word, Ashley's words beautifully and honestly describe where we are also at with Nora and her speech. 

Now, let's talk sleep or lack thereof.  This is where I feel more protective as a common response we get from others, typically those a bit more removed from our family, is "she's still not sleeping through the night?"  And, then there's the dreaded, "but you haven't sleep trained her?"  It only it were that simple, I have to remind myself not to question our parenting of Nora.  We will never have intimate details of her first 15 months of life and how this plays into her nighttime fears and insecurities.  So for now, we will prayerfully, intentionally and unconditionally love this girl, and we will choose to rejoice over Nora's beautiful adjustment into our family, celebrating the adoption "hurdles" that we have overcome.

Photo taken early one morning this week after Nora was up for a two hour middle of the night stint ... rosy cheeks and all smiles ... thankful ...

Lunchtime with Lydia

Her new trick ...

Never a dull moment, no, not ever!