Family Day

Then:

and now:

Two years ago Ivy was placed in our arms and today we celebrated our 2nd anniversary of becoming a family. We had a quiet, close day at home and Ivy was always within an arm's reach of one of us. We spent time reflecting on the past two years and envisioning our future. We also spent a lot of time playing, dancing, picking up toys, soothing our little girl's cough and going through the routines of our fairly predictable days. These routines are now second nature to us, but at one time they seemed complicated and mysterious. I often forget to recognize the magnitude of our basic daily rituals and I cherish this day, our Family Day, for reminding me that great love and miracles exist within each and every day.

Eight months old

Lyla turns 8 months old today. She's always in our minds & hearts and today we sent extra-loving thoughts across the continent and ocean that, for this short time, separate us. We're preparing special spaces in our home that we hope will provide restful and nourishing places for her in the early days that she's home, spaces that she will grow into as our family grows and evolves through our many years together.

It's been a while... and some news

I took a long break from blogging this summer. Kevin, Ivy and I enjoyed the season and we have wonderful memories of time spent with family and friends. We also spent time thinking about our family and realized that if we're having so much fun with one little girl that, well, we'd double our joy by adding another child to our family! We're thrilled to announce that we're adopting again and we're officially waiting for our second daughter, Lyla Willow, to join us in Madison. Like Ivy, Lyla was born in South Korea and she is now nearly 8 months old. We don't know when her passport and visas will be secured, but we hope to have her in our arms very soon. We'll keep everyone appropriately informed of the exciting turns of events in our family's life and we appreciate everyone sending positive, loving thoughts out into the universe, thoughts of Lyla with her forever family in her forever, loving, home.

I'm going to keep blogging here for a while, but I'm also planning another project that combines my family's stories with my professional passions. Stay tuned for many, many, more exciting adventures, fellow travelers!

A hair-raising experience. . .

. . . nothing serious, folks! Just static electricity on the slide at the park!



Click on this image to get a better view of the hair standing on end!

Raising a strong girl . . .

Ivy can raise herself off the ground! Someday, I know, my daughter will fly . . .

Mother and Daughter

Just a few images of my lovely girls. Here's wishing everyone time to be close with those who are important to you!

Like sands through the hourglass. . .

Why is this little girl so happy? She just helped build a sandbox!

She's quite handy with tools. . .


Raise high the roofbeams, carpenters!

She wanted to decorate the box to make it her own. . .

Intent on her designs. . .

Juice break!

The building team posing with their handiwork.

Before adding the sand, we commemorated the day -- Mother's Day (we hope you all had a wonderful one!). Note Ivy's own marks: "I V"


The sand is in place -- let the fun begin!


Wow, wow, wow, wow!


Decorating a sand cake.

Hm. . . does it taste as good as it looks?

Spring in the park

Spring is here and we've returned to the park across the street from our house. Check out the sunshine in Ivy's hair. Here's wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Two years old!

Happy birthday, Dear Ivy! We're all recovering from colds, so we had a mellow celebration for Ivy's 2nd birthday. We went to Monty's Blue Plate Diner where Ivy ordered pancakes, HAM and milk for her birthday meal. She was especially thrilled when her milk arrived in a cup with a straw. Straws, pancakes and apple pie. Is there any better way to celebrate one's 2nd birthday?

Happy Korean New Year!

Ivy rang in the Year of the Tiger with happy twirls and dances. We've been celebrating the Lunar New Year all week long and look forward to celebrating this special holiday for many years to come.

행복한 새해 보내세요!
Hang- bok-han sae-hae bo-nae-se-sae-yo!

More resolutions

Resolution #3:

Spend more time with good friends.

We've recently met up with our friends, Natalie and her big brother, Andrew, and baby brother Daniel, and our friend, Holden, at the Kids in the Rotunda programs at the Overture Center on State Street in Madison. I managed to catch a photo of the girls playing together but the boys were too fast to be photographed and, let's face it, I feel a little silly fumbling with my point & shoot camera whenever Holden's dad is around because he's a super-duper professional photographer whose camera is worth more than our Honda.

We like the idea of all of these great kids growing up with one another. Ivy and Natalie are very close in age and are becoming good friends. I think that they'll begin borrowing fancy hair ribbons from each other very, very soon.

Resolutions, cont.

Resolution #2:

Catch up on some reading.

New Year Resolutions

Resolution #1:
do more yoga.

Happy New Year, Friends!

xoxo & Namaste,

Agile Ivy