1. September 15-16, 2018

This month is birthday month for Selah June and her two best friends from school. This weekend we had Evelyn’s birthday. In two weeks we take Selah June to Disney and Animal Kingdom.

SJ loves buying a sequin unicorn for Evelyn for her birthday, but she insisted on getting one for herself. She also loved the peeee-ssah and cupcakes at the party. It was crazy to see all the kids from school at the bounce house. We don’t even know half of their names yet.

Friday was our first letter of the alphabet show and tell. The letter was “F.” We took our stuffed frog. Apparently the hot item this year was the firetruck.

After the party and a good nap, Grammy and Grandpa came over to watch football. The girls snuck out to go shopping at an antique mall in Pace. SJ found her baby sister in one of the stalls. For $4 we picked up a new family member. Her name (that has evolved over the last 24 hours) is Hersha Allia America Leah Skya.

When we are looking for her, Selah June says we are looking for the baby with the eyes that go like this (as she squints at us). Hersha is a little more wrinkly than Emma. I guess some might say more realistic.

We also discovered Rotten Ralph. It’s a book series about a cat that gets into all kinds of trouble. SJ loves it. I think she sees Ralph as a jokester and mischievous and identifies with him immensely. She has asked to read her cat books over and over again and laughs out loud at his antics.

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August 27 – August 31

This was our first week (officially) in Miss Christy’s Preschool 1 class. Selah June loves her new class and all of the kids returning from summer break. Justin Blalock came back, and he’s still her boyfriend. But by Wednesday she was married to Gage and pregnant with a baby. Then I realized who Zander is… Zander Vandevere… who we call Zander Banderbear because we can’t really pronounce “v”s.

In our new class, we get to put our sheriff’s badge that says our name on it on the chore we want to help Miss Christy do for the day. This week, Selah June helped with snack, helped with the mats for nap time, helped recognize acts of kindness, and was a safety officer. As a safety officer, she watched for kids playing on the playground and told them to slow down if they were running too fast.

This morning was a precious reminder of the complete blessing she is in my life. I gave her a big hug before leaving her at school. She said without prompting, “I love you, Mom.” And she walked me to the door. She likes to open it and see me out. As I was leaving she said, “Have a good day at work today, Mom.” I turned around and smiled and said, “You too! at school!” To which she replied, “I love you, Mom.” And I nearly cried.

You say things enough times, and some of it actually sticks.

 Thursday, August 16-Sunday, August 18, 2018

This week marked our third trip to see all the half-sibs from across the country. The kids were old enough this year to remember each and to really begin to form close friendships across families. It’s truly amazing to watch. I am so grateful for all of these women. It takes an unbelievable amount of courage to embark on the journey of getting pregnant using a donor. And then it takes some real guts to travel across the country to meet perfect strangers who happen also to be directly related to your child. The birthday party for the kids each year really overwhelms me. I feel in waves complete joy and humility. It is wondrous to see so much life, and it is humbling to see created 10 times over something I could never create or even imagine.

Everybody loved taking walks in the evening along the beach. The sunsets were beautiful. The crabs would scurry with each step. And these big blobs of jelly would shimmer in the twilight. One of the best things about this year’s visit was the amount of time we all spent together in a naturally beautiful beach haven.

Everybody also loved the bed swing.

In the gift exchange, we gave JP an inflatable crocodile, but Owen got some time to play with it too!

The craft for the year was painting canvases. They had a blast. Lily ended up covered from head to toe.

Here’s a picture of the cute houses scattered along the beachfront.

Crab for dinner?

We clean up pretty good, don’t we?

Can’t wait for next year.