Happy Adoption Day Tai!

Ok so I am vowing to start blogging more!

Happy Adoption Day to our beautiful son. Two years ago we stood in front of a judge and claimed our sweet boy as a Snider. What a special day! He is an amazing addition to our family and thus completes our family of four.  Tai: You are so many things....let me list just a few...
You are hilarious
You have a huge amount of energy and are almost always happy (even when you are getting in trouble)
You are so loving and always willing to give me a kiss.
You are my personal snuggle bunny!
I love your laugh
I love your little dimples
I love how you say "morning mommy"

I can't believe it has been two and a half years since you came into our life. What a wonderful surprise!
It is so neat to see how you and Abigail play together. You love her so much and it is so obvious. I love how you love your Daddy. It makes me smile when you both are working or playing together.

Happy Adoption Day my son. Thank you for making every day of my life complete.

Happy Adoption Day Abigail

My Sweet little girl.....Happy adoption day my love. 3 years ago you became an official part of our family. Although you were in my heart from the moment I held you when you were 1 week old and then once a week when I got to visit you and especially on November 20th when you came home with us and became our daughter. April 23, 2010 you officially, legally became a Snider. What a great day that was for us! You fell asleep right before we went in to see the judge and you snuggled me the whole time the judge asked us questions.
Now, three and a half years later, you are starting to understand what all this means. I pray for you daily that you will understand all the details and all the people that love you so much.  So many people care about you and are so blessed because you are here with us and our family. I love being your Mommy. I can't imagine a day without you. You make me so happy.

Happy Day Abigail!
i love you sooooooo much,
Mommy

The Question phase....

Abigail is 3 now which means we are in the middle of the questioning phase.  "Why Mommy? Why?"  All day long!  She is so stinkin smart though.  She doesn't just want the usual "because Mommy said so" answer.  She truly wants to know why?  We were at a stoplight and she said "Mommy, why did you stop?"  I explained that red means stop and that is the rule. Green means go was the next conversation so now I have a backseat driver.  ;) "Mommy, its red...Stop!"  hahaha... she keeps me on my toes for sure!  She also listens to everything we say. She may not obey it but she definitely hears it. 
Today, for example, she starting talking about colors. She was very nonchalant about colors and then she said "Mommy, my birthmoms black."  I really was taken back by this.  She repeated it and then I kinda freaked out about it internally.  I took a deep breath and then said..."yes, baby she is black but I am your mommy and always will be." God loves all of us and doesn't care what color we are....etc... She really didnt know exactly what all that meant because then she said I was pink and Tai was blue. (the clothes we were wearing.) She really just heard what we were saying to some other friends recently.  When we talk about our adoption story we tell others about their backgrounds (if they ask about ethnicities).  She simply was just repeating what we said. BUT I know this topic will be addressed again soon.  I need to read up on how to explain it age appropriately.  She is too young to hear some stuff right now. Man, she is growing up too fast!!

Tai is so funny. He is at a really cute phase.  Man o man he is one active boy who has a mission every day to "seek and destroy".  Non-stop action with giggles and so many more words.. (ba)nana, outside, up/down, mama, dada, dog, good-girl, kiss, shoes, juice, milk, oh, ......  AND he can count to 10 (kinda). 

Love them both soooo much! time is flying by so fast.

***that is all for now.

Time for a change...

in jobs that is.  It has been an amazing journey that will culminate next Monday as I become an official staff member at Generations Adoptions.  I'm so excited for this next step in our lives.  The opportunity to help create families thru adoption is the ultimate avenue for me to give back the joy that I have received thru the adoption of our children.

For a long time I've wondered what I would do with my life.  Of course, in college I had a dream of becoming a professional track athlete.  But I also knew if that were to happen it wouldn't last forever.  I never had that dream to have a career in a certain profession, i.e. medicine, law, etc., that I would enjoy doing for 30+ years until my retirement.  I've worked for some different companies in different industries but mainly in the same line of work - business development and operations management.  And at almost every stop along my career path, I've had above average success.  There have been thoughts of opening my own business, but the only thing that would truly be a dream occupation as an owner would be to own a water ski school (we don't have the capital to build a private lake or this would have happened already).

Then, in May 2012, I moved from a non-profit to a for profit company and was able to donate my time to helping a Generations Adoptions.  The passion I have for adoption is relatively new in my life.  As recent as 6 years ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of adoption being a part of my life.  But now, there are few things in my life that I'm more passionate about than adoption and especially Generations Adoptions.  There's God, my family and then adoption & water skiing.

So all those days that I pondered "will I ever find that job that will not be a job" have come to a close.  And strangely enough, instead of having a feeling of pride in finding that career position, I find that I'm humbled and nervous.  I know in my heart that I will do well in this new role as every position I've had in the past has trained me for it.  But I'm nervous because the search is over, that chapter of my life is over, what will this change bring?

I'm so humbled by God providing me this opportunity.  It is amazing to think about how our lives have changed over the past 6 years.  When we decided to stop just leaning on God when we had rough times and truly devote our lives to him, things changed.  We started with our finances - handling them the way God instructs in the Bible.  Then came our relationships and the building of our family.  We put aside our wants and desires, our selfish ways, and focused on what God was telling us to do.  We stopped worrying about what other people thought of our actions and starting dedicating our actions to Christ.  And oh - how things have changed.

What a blessing we have in our children and what a blessing I will strive to be for Generations Adoptions.

Jerry

2013 - what will this year hold?

Here is the first post of hopefully many more this year.  I have to apologize, to our little ones especially, for not doing a better job of recording their changes.  But with two toddlers there is not a lot of down time to type my thoughts.

Biggest accomplishment so far in 2013 - Abigail has successfully gone two complete days without wearing a diaper.  Yes that means 2 nights making it thru the night in panties and being dry both nights.  So proud of the little girl, especially since all night for her means 8pm-9am.  That's a long time.  We joked when she was born that being so petite she would not make it to size 5 diapers before she was potty-trained.  Well we were right, she was barely in size 4's before the full transition to no diapers.

In Tai's world - he is getting so big.  He loves to run around the house.  In fact he stands up against the wall or tv and counts to 3 then takes off running across the room.  He also loves to jump on the dogs, yes jump on them.  Luckily they are usually totally ok with it.  We are also getting a glimpse of the younger brother becoming the "bigger" brother.  Tai's shoe size is passing Abigail's.  She still has him in height and barely in weight.  Wonder if he will totally catch her this year.

More to come in 2013...

Jerry