Looking back...

I don't know who these people are, but I like that finger....
Are you going to take me home with you??
I kinda like being in this fella's arms...
Still in Daddy's arms a year later!!
Mommy always show me how to do things!!!
Thank you God for bringing my Mommy and Daddy over to bring me home!


Looking Back

I have been thinking about this blog for a month now. This very one and as I start, tears begin to puddle in my eyes… in some ways I am a little fire cracker and in some ways I am a big ole baby. Matter of fact, I have written this blog fifty different ways in my head throughout the month. On Friday, Judson and I had an anniversary - we became a mommy and daddy for a grand total of a year. No Ricky’s birthday is not in March but the first time we laid eyes on our wonderful little boy was one year ago yesterday. I have had so many emotions this month. Our journey to Ricky was so long and rocky. It lasted seven years! Ricky is not our first child - yes he is the first child I have ever held in my arms or heard call me mommy but we lost two children before Ricky. Our first child’s birthday would have been in March and we found out we were pregnant through IVF with our second child in March. I do not think it is by mistake that we met our son in March. I remember the day so very clearly - I remember the drive to the baby house, the walk up the stairs and down the hallway and oh, the smell. Judson and I were told to wait in this room - it seemed like an eternity. My heart raced, my feet tapped and all my senses seemed to be on overdrive, amazingly enough being sleep deprived from our travels. Then there he was - the child that Judson and I had prayed for, longed for, cried for, fought for, loved beyond understanding and almost died for was right there for us to touch. I was almost scared to touch him for fear that it was all a dream. Was he really there - our son? Our chosen child, the child made in our hearts and dreams. The child that God himself searched this entire earth over and selected for us. The child God kept safe tucked in His arms of love until we arrived home with him. Was I really holding my baby boy? Then I looked and Judson and I saw all the emotions that I felt on his face. He was a daddy at that very moment - not an uncle anymore but a daddy. I sometimes wonder if the look Judson has for Ricky is the same look God has for us. If so His children are so very loved. I knew right then that Judson Bell would meet death before he would let any harm come to our little one.

Our journey was long and hard. God had far more confidence in my ability than I ever would have, but then again, I am not a one women show! I cried, I screamed, I even raged against the winds that seemed to crash down around me on a daily basis but God never gave up on me because he had a far greater plan for our family. He wanted college sweethearts to grown in love for each other and Him. Judson and I could not have walked that road without the love and support of our family, friends and our church Pinedale Christian Church. All I had to give God during our journey was my faith the size of a mustard seed and I let him do the rest. There were many times when my mustard seed faith was put to the test but God always seemed to do what He does best and that is BE GOD!

Ricky is amazing! The bonding was not instant for him like it was for us but today there is no happier, healthier little boy. When I walk in the room he says mama and my heart melts. When I am rocking him to sleep he will grab my cheek and give me a kiss and I know that I would kill for this precious treasure God has given me. He looks at his daddy and takes a running leap for him without any fear in the world because he feels safe and secure in the arms of his daddy. I think God had a reason for Judson to be the first man for Ricky to meet and that is because Ricky will always have just one Daddy! Judson, thank you for being the husband and daddy you are to your family!

One final thought- For any of you that are going though challenges in life right now (which includes me), be like the farmer that asked God for rain and then prepared his fields because he knew God would send the rain.

Hope you had a great weekend!

More park and Easter pics

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Check me out...I'm one cool dude!
Easter Bunny was good to me!
Look at all of my goodies Mommy!

Slam dunk the egg!! Didi says my heart was just a racin'!!
I want my egg out of that cup but Mommy and Daddy are making me wait.
Here I come ! ! ! ! ! Catch me Daddy ! ! !
I like sliding by myself, but dad makes a good cushion.
I conquered the HILL!!! Mommy was there to help me!!

Happy Easter to All-

I can not believe what a difference a year makes. Last year Judson and I spent Easter in Almaty, Kazakhstan waiting to bring our precious, wonderful, amazing, baby boy home. Even though we were in a country where God is not seen on every street corner we still celebrated the fact that God is our Risen Lord and Savior. While in Kazakhstan we met some very special people that live in Almaty. They opened their homes and hearts to us while we were away from our families and Judson and I will forever be grateful. We think of them often and hope all is well with all aspects of their lives.

This past week has been a blur- it has been very busy! Plus I was on the verge of ranting a few times so I stayed away from the computer.

I will get on my soap box about one thing and then I will STOP- WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE PRICE OF GROCERIES- I MEAN REALLY!!!!! $1.88 per pound for squash and zucchini- you have got to be kidding me! I try to feed my family as healthy as I can but if this keeps up I may have to take up farming. For those of you that know me, I am not a farming kinda girl. Don’t get me started on the price of eggs, milk, cheese, other veggies or anything fresh. Okay let’s move onto a happier place.

Friday, we had my mom, dad, brother and Carson (my 9 year old niece) over for an Italian feast and homemade coconut cake. After dinner we dyed eggs and had a blast. Ricky was amazed when he put a white egg in a cup and it came out colored. He got so excited! I mean his little heart just pounded with excitement! He could hardly wait for the egg to hit the dye before he wanted it back out of the cup. He would get so excited he would just slam the egg in the cup and “slosh” went the die and he would just clap his little hands and sometimes just squeal with excitement. He was such a joy to watch. He was a perfect little angel all day- he was such a great little helper and when mommy needed him to play on his own he would go play in the living room. I will never forget our First Good Friday. When it came time for bed and it was his daddy’s time to rock him, he wanted me! Judson said, “I can tell when you and mommy have a good mommy son day.” My heart grew about 10 times because Ricky is a big daddy’s boy!

Saturday, was our first park day as a family. Ricky and I have been to the park many times but it was the first time Judson got to experience the adventure. There are no words to describe how awesome this time was for me. I loved watching daddy and son play together. Ricky was such a dare devil and Judson had a permanent smile on his face the entire time. The bond and love my two boys share is undescribable. There is not one ounce of blood that is the same in Ricky and Judson but no daddy loves their little boy as much as Judson loves Ricky. I am blessed beyond words to have the opportunity to share in this amazing journey with Judson. I love you honey!Easter Sunday, was COLD with a high of 37. It was warmer in Kaz last year on Easter. After church Ricky found the basket the Easter bunny left for him. Ricky loved his basket and wanted to open all the eggs to see what was inside of each one. I am very excited about all the Crayola TaDoodles Ricky received from the bunny. We will definitely spend some time this week drawing a picture for daddy! The day winded down with just the three of us playing and enjoying our new family.

God has blessed us so very much this past year. Some of the greatest blessings come in the most unexpected package. Judson and I never knew God’s plan to grow our family would come through adoption. It is only because of adoption that we have our son - the son that God had chosen just for us. Some people may question if miracles still exist and my answer is yes. I look at my son every day and I see God’s miracles for my life.

Easter 2008

Happy Family on Easter!

Stay away from my egg....

seriously...stay....away!!

Daddy's Easter sweater made by his Great Aunt, worn again after 32 years!

Rednecks invade!!!

Main camp ground right next to the track
More campers and you can see some in the distance on the hills
Campers on the distant hills and the MOB coming in to the Cup Race
Great seats...this is what 160k people looks like!
View of the Start/Finish line and cars coming out of Turn 4..we could see the entire track!!

For all of you race fans (and I are one!!!), you know that Bristol tickets are the most coveted and most sought after tickets on the Sprint Cup circuit...and now we live in the middle of it ALL ! ! ! We can see the track from our back porch and the road out of our back yard is one of the major roadways into and out of the track. We had been watching RVs and campers filter into town all week and now, our lush, rolling green hills were covered with campers. Early Friday, reports were indicating there were 25k - 30k campers in the area.

Let me back up to mid-week, I found out that my parents and oldest sister were heading to Germany and considered traveling up to Richmond to see them before their two week journey. Looking at my schedule, I was going to be in Asheville for a meeting and would not get home until 6:00, load up and hit the road by 7:00 if we were lucky and then get to Richmond around midnight. Spend Saturday with my family and then early Sunday, hit the road so we could get back to town before the race was over. I decided against it. The next day, one of my sales people emailed me saying she had two tickets for the Nationwide Race and Sprint Cup Race and asked if I wanted them....hum....YES!!! Her husband drove down off the mountain to deliver them to me at my office on Friday - I was soooo excited!!

Saturday rolls around and we got up, fed Ricky and went to Kristi's parents and dropped him off for the day. We got back to the house and it started raining! I pulled up the weather on the computer, pulled out my scanner and picked up some of the track banter from the house and was trying to keep up with all of the news...even had a friend traveling back from Myrtle Beach listening to NASCAR radio keeping me updated. A 2:30 start time was delayed, radio said they would update at 3:00....3:00 came and next update would be at 4:00. It got closer to 4:00 and of course I had checked the radar the whole hour and knew the rain was stopping and got our gear together. During that hour, we lost our local coverage of the race, so I checked back on the scanner at 4:00 for the update and they said that drivers were being called to their cars!!! I quickly got Kristi and we headed out of the door...hopped over the fence seperating our back yard and a field, then squeezed through a fence that led to the main road. We had been walking about 5 mins and the planes flew by indicating the start of the race - oh well, so we were going to miss a little bit. You can't imagine all of the campers filled in ever open spot, every nook and cranny...everywhere! People were already drunk, stumbling up hills, walking crooked...don't know if they ever made it to the track, and if they did, I wonder how much they remember from it. We made it to the track and they were already working the 2nd caution...got to the ticket line and Kristi had brought an umbrella and in the trash it went - not allowed to have umbrellas in tracks. We got seated and about 30 laps had gone by. I have a scanner and headset that muffles the noise and Kristi let me listen to some of the race as they were restarting and then I gave them to her to help her ear drum out (ruptured a few weeks ago from severe ear infection). We realized that we needed a splitter and another headset. The heavens opened up again and this system was setting in for awhile. We put on our ponchos that we bought for Disney a couple years ago and walked home. We did stop by a booth and found a splitter and another headset for tomorrow. It took us about 25-30 mins to walk...not bad considering people sit in traffic for hours before they even move 100 yards. We cleaned up and then got Little Man from Mimi and Didi's.

Sunday came and we had to get going a little earlier and today Uncle Mike, Aunt Sherry and Niece Carson were watching Ricky. I had two friends from Carson-Newman drive in from the Knoxville area who had Suite tickets and parked at our house and walked over. They needed to "check in"so they went over to the track pretty early. Later on, we got ready, Mike/Sherry/Carson arrived and we headed on our trek to the track. We looked around at some of the haulers carrying the souvenirs and we are either too tight, not fanatical, or just not interested, but we didn't buy anything. We then went to our seats and settled in with track burgers and a hot dog. Weather was OK, at least it didn't rain and it was a great race...except that Denny Hamlin had his fuel pump give out on him for the second straight year. It was cool lilstening to crew chief talk to driver, driver talk to pit crew, and spotters talking to drivers on the scanner...plus the much needed radio commentary to keep you informed of where everyone is running. Leaving the track on Sunday was much worse than yesterday. The biggest mob of people heading the same direction we were. It was like herding cattle. All weekend, Kristi and I couldn't imagine the transformation our area experienced over the past week. We got back home and saw my friends off and then we took turns showering to get the track smell off of us. It wasn't until we had Ricky in bed and it was 10:00 when the traffic on the main road was finally dying down....incredible. We have a few pics to share, but in August, I will have to do a better job capturing the true scene. Lots of funny people watching, lots of sad drunks, but most importantly - an AWESOME RACE!!! Can't wait until August now!!!

Wild and crazy ride....

Good morning, mommy! Ready to get the day started!
This is what it looks like when I put a whole banana in my mouth !
The culprit to mommy's stress!!
Hangin' with Dad at lunch - what a treat for all three of us!
I wish someone wasn't holding on to me - I want to slide by myself!

Let me tell you something- Daylight Savings Time was not created by a mommy of a toddler! Ricky has not adjusted to DST- He is all out of whack:o) Instead of sleeping in like other children have been know to do he is waking up an hour earlier and having trouble going to sleep. Plus the ENT has put me on some medication to help with my hearing lose and I am NOT sleeping- do my fellow bloggers hear me- NOT SLEEPING with a TODDLER. The good news is I take the last pill tonight and my hearing is getting a little better.

Yesterday morning I was getting ready to take our 8 year old cocker spaniel Nefi to her new vet and I was a little leery about taking Ricky with us. Nefi gets very nervous riding in the car and does better with people than other dogs. My dad calls at 8:15am and says he and mom will be down to watch Ricky while I take Nefi to the vet- SNAPS & CLAPS ALL AROUND! Our move has been very difficult in some aspects but living near my parents has been really great. Watching Ricky with his “DiDi” and “MiMi” is an amazing blessing from GOD.
The vet visit was pretty uneventful and Nefi is scheduled for a teeth cleaning next week. I can not take the smell anymore and “Greenies” just aren’t cutting it anymore.

Judson got home again at a great time so we went for our second family walk. Ricky is lovin’ this weather! His new thing is to wave at all the neighbors and say hi/bye.
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Today was 71 and sunny. So naturally it was a park day but before the park we went to lunch with DADDY! We had a great time. It was so nice to see Judson in the middle of the day. I am going to convince him one pretty day to play hooky. Before we met Judson for lunch, Ricky and I decided to have one little adventure before we left the house. I was getting Ricky a juice cup ready and Nefi starts going nuts. I mean truly nuts. I walk over to where she is and there is a bird on our screened in porch. So Nefi is going crazy- barking/jumping around, Ricky is going crazy- saying Hi bird(or something like Bird) and beating on the door and I am going crazy trying to figure out how to get the bird off the porch. So I go outside and try to move the bird toward the door opening. Yea right! That was about as successful as a blind squirrel trying to find nuts for the winter. If someone could have recorded the event they would make some money.

The park was great as always. There were so many kids there but Ricky did not care, he just wanted to play! At one point we just went to an open field and started kicking around a ball and chasing each other. While I was chasing him around and throwing him in the air I had an overwhelming since of love come over me. It happens to me at the oddest times. I think it is God’s way of reminding me that he has a plan for our family. All we have to do is trust, which is sometimes the hardest thing in the world to do.

Trying something NEW today

I like this feeding myself stuff - it is FUN
Getting a head start on Mommy - come on slow poke!!
Me and Mommy! My hoody keeping my ears warm.
This yogurt feels as good as it tastes!!
Play Dough!!!! Homemade with mommy's guidance!

Today has been crazy, wonderful, a little stressful but full of a few firsts. Let me start off by saying that this is my first time ‘blogging’. Judson always always updates everyone but I have a creative itch right now which I am going to try and scratch with our blog site. Once I have the basic skill mastered I will work on making our site ROCK (this is my positive thinking kicking into gear). So Kim P, get ready, I want our site to be just as awesome as yours! Our (Ricky and me) morning started out with breakfast which consisted of egg whites with cheese, ½ banana, toast and juice. We are working with Ricky on self feeding which has been an adventure on several levels. Mainly because I am OCD when it comes to keeping him clean and Ricky loves to get messy when he eats- It drives me crazy!!! After breakfast we went to our first toddler reading day at the library. There were about six kids there and Ricky seemed to have a good time. It was nice to have Ricky interact with other children his age and I enjoyed talking to other moms. The Bristol Public Library has a fabulous children’s library so I checked out some books that we do not already own. Now the trick is to get Ricky to sit still long enough for us to read to him. Our Little Man is on the move 24/7, it seems. If he is not sleeping then he is going non-stop. After the library we stopped by a mission store to donate some items. My cousin, Anna, works at the store so we spent some time chatting with her. She of course wanted to give Ricky a sucker- which was fine. I get tickled because I am now reaping what I have sowed for so many years. I am always giving my nieces and nephews things I’m sure their parents would like to keep to a minimum. Needless to say Anna was Ricky’s new best friend after the sucker and letting him playing with all the jewelry. Anna and I are very close to age and I am looking forward to reconnecting with her. I remember as a little girl Anna and I were almost joined at the hip. She is one of the sweetest, purest people I have ever had the opportunity to know. We also made a stop at the post office to mail a package to Stacy for Two Hearts for Hope. Ricky did awesome as I got the packages ready. He even drew Haven (Brad & Stacy) little girl a picture! Speaking of Two Hearts for Hope please take a few minutes to check out a new journey two of our Kaz Families and friends are doing. The blog’s address is http://www.twoheartsforhope.blogspot.com. The last “First Thing” we did today was to take a walk around our neighborhood as a family. It was great to spend time outside and explore our neighborhood a little. We are “fired up” about spring- Ricky loves outside and we are going to take advantage of the pretty weather as much as possible.

So all in all the Bell family’s Tuesday has been pretty TERRIFIC!!!! Join us again real soon for more tales and adventures of Ricky “Little Man” Bell and his sidekicks mommy and daddy!