Shhhhhh baby is sleeping! :)

My baby is finally sleeping! Whooo hooo! And I am now functioning on normal amounts of sleep and am a much happier human to be around. :) This post may be a little controversial, but I feel like I need to put it out there for those bringing babies home or still having trouble with them sleeping.

** I am not an expert and all babies are different so I am not saying this is the only way you should go about getting your baby to sleep, only that it worked for us. **

I posted a few weeks ago about our sleep issues and I got TONS of advice, mostly from people going through it too, but only 2 people could actually say they were having sleep success and the both were using the babywise method on their adopted children. ( GULP ) I also find it funny/sad they inboxed me privately to keep from getting tomato's thrown at them. :)

A brief description of babywise: It is where you do not use a bottle or rocking to get your baby to sleep. You lay them down awake and let them fall asleep on their own. Then you feed and rock them WHEN they get up ( hopefully a few hours later and happy).

I had used babywise on my other three with success, but it is so taboo in adoption circles I didn't think I should try it.

Can I just say it works.

and she is sleeping

and I am sleeping

and she is not terrified to wake up in a creepy crib that she somehow keeps ending up in after being blissfully rocked to sleep by mom.

She loves her crib now. She will sing herself to sleep and wake up chattering and she is on a wonderful schedule of 2 long naps a day and 11 hours at night.

And despite what you may have heard about it, we are still bonding. I still feed her and rock her and bathe her...just not to get her to sleep. And yes it was HARD for about a week because she cried in her crib alot. I would go in every 10 - 15 min and pat her and sing to her, but it only took about a week until she realized this was the way it was and sleep is a pretty good thing.

Now, I will say that she still has a 45 min nap here and there or a restless night, but it is nothing like the high pitched terrified squeals we were hearing the first two weeks home.

Like I said, this may not work for you or you may not agree, but I am sure there are some moms out there that are at the end of their sleep deprived rope and needed some advice from someone brave enough to share it.

No tomato throwing please! :)

Triad Ethiopian picnic

We are blessed to live in an area that has quite a few Ethiopian children. We were able to attend the Piedmont triad Ethiopian picnic this past Saturday. There are 3 other America World families that are a part of this group! Yay!! Our kids were already friends with the Raymer kids before Micah and Sarah came home, so it was fun to see them again. Their dad is a pastor about 30 min from us. The kids all get along so well.
Esther Hope made a new friend, Delila. I LOVE her hair!Feroma Raymer with Micah and Esther
While we were there I got a call from Karen Cassidy whose two children, Hosanna and Leeza, have only been home a few weeks. They are friends of Micah's and he has been wanting to talk to them. While he was talking to Hosanna, Abel Raymer asked if that was Hosanna from AW, because they were friends too when Able lived in Ethiopia. So he was able to talk to Hosanna as well!

Sarah Faith and Chenaniah Cook are going to get married some day. Holly and I have already arranged the marriage! He was hugging her here, not trying to choke her! :)

It was such a blessing to see so many adoptive families together. I cant wait to do more fun activities with these families.

A Summer Recipe

I thought I would post my very very favorite thing to make in the summer time.

Tomato Gravy.

I know it sounds gross, but it is SOOOO GOOD. I love it on rice for dinner or on grits for breakfast. It really is yummy, but only tastes right with fresh ripe tomatoes so I only make it in the summer months. The first time I had it we were visiting Florida in the summer that I was pregnant with Abby. I had three helping and then later, when everyone was outside, I went to the bathroom and decided to stay in the house a little longer and I had a 4th.

It is that good.

Really , there is no recipe to it. I just learned how to make it from my mother in law. Those are actually the best kind of dishes...those without recipes! :)

I will try to just step by step talk you through it.

Dice an onion and a pound of bacon into bitesize pieces and fry in large pan.

Soak 6-8 tomatoes in hot water for about 5 min and then peel skin off. Chop tomatoes and place in a bowl. Salt and pepper and then smash them up. I use my hands..Paula Deen style.

Once your bacon is cooked, add about 1/4 a cup of flour to it and stir. Then add the tomatoes/juice. Stir until thickened. If it is too thick, just add a little water.

Serve over grits or rice. ENJOY!!!

One month home!

I really cannot believe we will have been home one month tomorrow! Crazy how this month has flown by. I will have to say that those first couple of weeks were brutal, but things have gotten SO much better! It is amazing how sleep can help any situation! :)

Micah is doing so good. So very good. He is learning more English every day. We have begun to work on manners, like instead of, "Juice!" He is learning to say, " Mom, may I have some juice please." I like that a lot better than being shouted out! He is eating really well, although he does not like hot dogs ( dogs? really??) or pizza ( this one make me sad because I could eat pizza every day!)

He likes Avatar (the tv show), mario cart and mario brothers, spiderman, legos and Chris Tomlin music. He loves to sing!

He was able to skype with his sister, Olivia, on Saturday and that made him happy to see her, but she doesn't remember Amharic and so Micah had to switch to English to try to talk to her and that made it hard for him. He was also able to speak on the phone to a friend of his from the transition home that now lives in California. That made him smile big!

Sarah Faith is really beginning to come into her own little person. She is finally to the point where I can set her down, leave the room and she doesn't become hysterical. She is also sleeping better at night and during her naps ( praise Jesus!) She loves to eat and her favorite thing to watch is sesame street. She likes to look at books too. I love watching her little personality come out more every day.

For our 1 month home celebration, we went to Charlotte and had Ethiopian food. It was SOO good! We clean off the entire tray of food the sweet lady brought our way. Micah stuffed a whole roll of injera in his mouth before the food even came. I was able to buy and freeze some injera so maybe that will help when he needs an injera fix.
Sweet brother loveDoro Wat and Tibs! YUM!
All the girls
Sarah Faith waiting for her yummy lunch too!

We Love VBS

Our church has been having VBS this week. We love it! Especially Micah. He calls it "play church".

Weekend at the cabin

We went to Grandma and Pawpaw's Cabin in Western NC this weekend. Micah and Sarah were able to meet Mammy, Greg's grandmother for the first time. It was a fun weekend of playing outside and just being with family.
Sweet Sarah taking a hammock nap
Aunt Kimmy..in from NYC
My love...
Micah trying his hand at shooting with the BB gun
Playing on one of the hikes
At the river
Love these guys
Our family of 7
With Mammy

My Newest Swimmer

Micah had told us that he had been swimming in Ethiopia, but one of our guides said it was in a river so we were not sure how much swimming skills Micah had. When we got to Virginia and he got in the pool we were thankful he was not at all scared of the water. He would go under and splash, but couldn't swim. So Greg began showing him moves and how to kick and he practiced over and over in the shallow end. After doing this all morning, he got braver and began letting go in the deep end.. staying close to the edge.

Then yesterday afternoon, he came outside with his swim suit on, took off running and DOVE into the deep end and swam across! We all stood up with our mouths open in shock! After getting lots of praise he then got up on the diving board and dove off again!

We were amazed at how quickly he learned how to swim! He loves it too. The only problem was he has so little fat on his body, he would get cold and shiver from head to toe after a little while in the water.

Happy 4th of July!

We went to Virginia for the 4th of July to Nana & Gramps house. It was the first time for Micah and Sarah to be there. Also the first swimming, 4 wheeler ride, S'mores and all other kind of fun firsts!

First 4 wheeler ride
My sweet Esther Hope
Daddy and his girls
Happy Birthday America

My water babies :)

Sarah Faith's first time in the pool!

The princess and her ride

Sarah Faith is adjusting so much better this week. She is sleeping better and seems to be generally less cranky! (YAY!!!)

One of her very favorite spots is in the wagon in her bumbo. We take wagon walks almost every morning around the church property including the cemetery. Esther joined us the other morning and said," Mom, I just love the graveyard!" I think Sarah Faith does too!