sharing, unpacking, etc.

I forgot to tell you that Silas is up to 18 pounds as of last week. While in AL, my cousin weighed with and without him on the scale. Eighteen pounds of pure sweetness and squeels and giggles.

Did I tell you that he's up on all fours and will crawl at any minute? I want the boxes unpacked before that happens! There's no room for him to go anywhere at the moment.

A few days ago I was rocking the boy to sleep in his room. His big new bedroom with yellow walls and a pack and play. :) Now it's full and he can stretch out in that big crib. But I digress. I was rocking him while standing up and he was laying across me. Does that make sense? He loves to pull his paci out of his mouth and put it back in. He took his paci out and stretched his arm toward my face and then put it back in. Then he did it again, this time trying to place his paci in MY mouth. I laughed and then he laughed and then we just laughed together. Now that's his new thing when getting ready for a nap. He figured out that I have a mouth too and why wouldn't I want a paci? Doesn't everybody?!

What else was I going to tell you? About 6 times a day I say, "I need to blog about this." And then I forget. Both of our household goods shipments came yesterday. All went well and we are so happy to have all of our stuff. I purged before the pack up and now I'm purging more. Why do we have so much stuff? It's making me twitch. We got all of the beds up first and then Silas' room. I decided to tackle the kitchen first and it's starting to feel homey....minus the mountains of boxes.

I love our neighborhood. It's one of those open door policy streets where everyone is in and out of houses and standing in yards talking. There are also 5 chaplain families in about 8 houses....I think they're keeping us together to keep an eye on us.

My friend Kathleen posted about miraculous signs that God gives us. Read about one of those here. It got me thinking and I went back and looked up what day Silas arrived at the orphanage. I wondered what we were doing and thinking that day. I had a blog entry for December 13...I was honest about feeling frustrated about the process with no end in sight and had a good old fashioned public pity party. How the Lord must have been smiling at me. Little did I know, half a world away, our baby arrived at the orphanage that very day. He was about to be an orphan no more. Thanks Kathleen for reminding me to see those miracles!

Our new social worker is coming on the 11th for our 3 month post placement visit. Can you believe it? Three months? So much has happened in those 3 months.

Silas is napping so I need to use this time to empty boxes. But I wanted to say hi and we're still here.

Love to ya'll!

still in transition

Just wanted you to know that we've been painting for two days straight and we're checking out of the hotel this morning. We'll head to the house and get ready for the truck of household goods and a smaller shipment on Wednesday.

Sad to report that my internet connection at the house is nada, zilch, zero....maybe the same reason as at my parents' house? Maybe because of Vista? So, I'll be a little more absent than usual. "How much more absent could you be, Jill", you ask?

We're happy to be here and can't wait to explore. This place is HUGE. Silas is doing great....he amazes us every day.

Don't give up on us...we'll be back to reguarly scheduled blogging soon!

Love from the nomads!

8 months old

My little tater tot is 8 months old today! How did that happen? It's time to start planning his birthday party. Here are some fun Silas facts:

1. He is very vocal when the pacifier is out....definitely finding his voice.


2. He sticks his tongue out to the side...it helps him think.


3. He is scooting around on the floor, turns all the way around, rocks on his belly and rocks on his hands and knees. Uh oh! I think he's given up on rolling from tummy to back because he's found another way to be mobile.


4. Still drooling like crazy. Where are those teeth?


5. Silas is a champion traveler. Personally, I wouldn't have gotten back into the carseat on Day 2, but he did....over and over and over again.


6. He loves music to include his tone deaf momma.


7. Sleeps through the night, even through all of this transition minus a few nights.


8. Is drinking close to 8 oz at a time now and loves to eat his baby food more than drink a bottle.

Oh Silas, we love you like crazy!

we're home!

We made it to our new home in NC yesterday. We had a fabulous time in Alabama seeing my aunts and cousins and then our family reunion on Marshall's side in Georgia. Beautiful country and beautiful people.


Marshall signed for our new home yesterday and I got to see it today. We've been juggling naps and a dog and all that goes with that, so I got to see the house today...love it! It will feel like home in no time. Neighbors have already come to say hi and my friend Amy dropped off a pack and play for Silas to use at the house while we paint and get ready for our goods.


I cleaned today while Marshall did Army stuff, though it's the cleanest place I've ever moved in to.


Our plan is to get cell phones this afternoon and go back to the house and tape it off for paint. I'm giddy with excitement about paint, though it's a little stressful. Every time poor Marshall asks about colors I tell him I can't think about that yet. So many choices. (We did get cell phones...I started this post earlier.) Great to be "connected" again.


Over 3300 miles in 24 days. It was a sweet time with our family and friends. I think my cord to upload pictures is in my big suitcase and as soon as that gets opened, I'll post some pictures.

Time for bed now, but wanted the 3 people still checking this thing to know how we are doing. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal posting soon....don't give up on me!

Love from North Cackalaka!

fun in the sun

We are having a ball here!  It's so good to spend good, quality time with our family and friends. Silas is soaking it up...he loves to look at all of these new and exciting people.  

Sophie is enjoying Brother Billy.  They constantly play and then stand together and kiss?  Kind of weird, but since they are not really related...it's ok.

We have a house!!!  Our new friend, Amy, who we've never met in person is our Ft Bragg angel. She went over to the house they offered us over the phone and got INSIDE and took pictures for us.  She even met the neighbors for us and pre-screened the area. ;)  Sounds like it's a

 perfect fit for us.  Marshall already called and set up appointments for phone and internet, so I can keep this thing updated.  Do you know how weird it is to have no phone number, no cell phone number and no address?  Weird, I tell you.  Sometimes nice, but definitely different. 

I PROMISE to be better about keeping this up once we're settled and my computer has internet access.  For now, here are some pictures of the most precious tater tot...my heart swells more every day with love.  I thought it was already full...

Love from Texas for not much longer!

Guess who's sitting up!

All by himself.  No Mommy's hands!  My baby boy is growing and getting stronger every day.  I decided to see if he could stay sitting up alone today and he did it.  He also got up on his hands and feet today, in a plank position.  What's next?  A jog around the block?

Still having technical difficulties, but will try to update.  

technical difficulties

Well, we're still here, but I can't get my laptop hooked up to high speed internet so I can't share any pictures with you.  My parents have a Mac with a wireless router....how come I can't get online?  We have a Dell with wireless capabilities.  Seems like I should just be able to connect.  

Any suggestions welcomed.  Any computer literates still reading this blog?!

Love,

Offline in TX

the coens have landed

hello, faithful friends!

We have landed and are loving our family time! It's sooooo good to hug our peeps. If we haven't seen you, we're looking forward to it.

Silas is doing great...charming as ever. I think he may be beginning to expect hooplah every time we go somewhere. ;) He's a popular boy.

Sophie is loving the extra attention and loves her Uncle Billy...my parents' dog...my younger brother. I always wanted a baby brother. It's so good to see her run free in the yard with no tangled leashes...she's having a ball.

Marshall, Silas and I went to pick up Aunt Katy from the airport yesterday. We surprised her with a sign and everything. I do believe I may have teared up a bit. She had a great trip and I can't wait for details, details, details.

We'll keep ya'll posted on our adventures. I need to charge up the lap top and load some pictures too. Bad blogger.

Love ya'll from Texas!!

where in the world are those crazy coens?!

First let me say that I have missed you!! It's very difficult for me to be disconnected from the internet. And it has been very difficult. So glad to be back for one sweet night. Sorry there's been no time or opportunity to answer emails, but I will later...promise.

Well we survived! So far, so good. We are currently in Shreveport, Louisiana. Our goal was at least Monroe, LA, but Silas and Sophie were doing well at that point and it was only 2 in the afternoon. As we pulled into Shreveport (10 hours of driving/riding later) Silas let us know it was far enough.

And no we're not gambling. :)

Our trip from Germany to Dulles was good. Silas was great and Sophie was a trooper. We were so worried about how she would do. Dulles was not so good. Made me want to swim (not fly) back to Europe. Long story short, when we got on the plane in Frankfurt, the lady at the gate took our boarding passes, including Sophie's receipt showing we paid for her to fly all the way to Charleston. Lufthansa partners with United (whom after flying with them a few years ago, I remember saying NEVER again. Now I remember why...) Anyway, we had to pay for Sophie to fly 1 1/2 hours from Dulles to Charleston. Again. Whatever...she's worth it. But answer me this: if we didn't pay for her to fly, how did she get from Frankfurt to Dulles? yeah. Then there was some running through the airport to catch our flight and the security making me take off my flip flops and Silas' Robeez (thin leather shoes...what could be hiding in those?) some mishaps with the stroller, some throwing up, a paci falling on the ground and the security guy telling me I may want to wash that off before I give it back to my baby (this was all at security)....but, we made it.

Here's the cool part...when we got to Charleston, we went outside for a taxi to our motel. I took Sophie to potty and a guy helped Marshall with ALL of our huge bags. I asked the guy where he was from, because, you know, I'm obsessed. That's right...he's was from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Isn't it a small world? This was after I pointed out all of the people in Dulles to Marshall that I thought were of ET decent...he just nods politely. It's like I think I'm an expert or something.

Then the other cool part was our driver who was retired Army and Marshall arranged for him to come back early the next morning to take him to pick up our car. After all of the craziness of travel day, it was as if God was reminding us that He was in control and was taking care of every detail...down to a sweet Ethiopian guy as our first contact at the airport.

We drove to Georgia yesterday and got to see our family there...it was wonderful! We're going back through there for a reunion on the way to our new home, so goodbye was ok. Sophie wanted to stay with Aunt Gloria because she fed her green beans and let her play in her big yard. Sophie was her shadow last night. We told her we'd be back.

Silas had a rough night....definitely some jet lag going on. That made us get an early start this morning and that's how we ended up 3 states to the west in Shreveport.

I do have to say that being back in the U S of A is a little overwhelming. I can understand EVERYTHING EVERYONE is saying...information overload. Our first stop yesterday was Wally World in Charleston. We needed a few essentials. Marshall waited in the car with the AC running with Silas and Sophie. I had to keep my head down and just glanced from my list to the aisle signs....I could not take it ALL in...there was so much STUFF. Thank goodness our car is stuffed to the gills already, or I may have gone into purchase overload.

At that same Wally World, I got to the checkout and started unloading my things onto the belt. The bag of diapers was open...grrrr. Two young ladies came up to get in line behind me at the same time I noticed. I told them I had to run and get more diapers and they could get in front of me. When I came back, the cashier gave me my total....had she unloaded my cart and scanned everything? No...the lady behind me did that. Isn't that sweet? Most people would have just gone ahead of me. I probably would have just gone ahead or waited for me to get back. Another sweet reminder that God had gone before us and is making our way....

I must get into bed now....everyone else is. We absolutely cannot wait to get to our family tomorrow. I'm just giddy.

Mannheim family, we miss you already. Thanks for making our exit so smooth and our time there so sweet.

Love from Louisiana!