Sunday, March 16, 2008

Baby Lucy!

WOW! It's been awhile. I THINK all respiratory and stomach invaders are now gone. I'll share photo updates from the last two weeks.



My BIGGEST news that I was waiting to share until my sister had done so is that I have a precious new niece! Lucy Kiera Stevenson was 6 lbs. 12 oz. at birth and already up to 8 lbs. at her two week appointment. She is a healthy, beautiful blessing adopted into our family by Erika and Darin. Here's Lucy having her very first phone conversation with Aunt Kelly in the hospital (okay, it was a little one-sided).



Now I can share a picture of the quilt Abby, Emma, and I made for Lucy...



We had a wonderful time with my parents on their way back home to Texas after visiting their new granddaughter in Iowa. We packed a lot into our short time and started a variety of stomach illnesses on the day they left. Really sorry about that, Mom and Daddy. I hope you still haven't gotten it.





As soon as we thought we were ALL BETTER, we packed up the car, and the girls and I headed to Iowa to meet Lucy. We spent a night with Erika, Darin, and Lucy before going on to Cedar Rapids (two hours away) where Abby and Emma spent a few nights with dear friends of ours. The idea was to keep the chaos level down a little while I was "helping" Erika with Lucy. Well, the worst possible variety of stomach illness that had left twice already from the same child (for periods of 48 hours or so) came back to visit while at our dear friends' house. I donned rubber gloves and went to work on the bathroom fighting tears the whole way.

I write about this, because this is one remarkable friend. She has three girls also, is putting her house up for sale on April 1st, AND wouldn't hear of me going all the way back home without time with Lucy. She is a nurturer extraordinaire' and sent me off once we felt confident my affected child was doing better, with promises of rest and a BRAT diet.

Abby and Emma had a ball with their friends, and I held that sweet baby as much as I could. Grace kept things interesting and made sure there was an ample amount of chaos going on even without her sisters there. Erika and I had a wonderful time being Mommies together for the first time. We took baby Lucy and Grace on an outing to the mall. A few quotes from my small town child...

"Mommy, what means 'a mall'?"

"OOOOOOOOhhhh, I want to ride that!!" (pointing to an escalator)

"Now I want to ride that!!!" (pointing to a glass elevator)

She did get to ride on both AND the little Easter bunny choo choo train for $1. She got to sit in the bell ringing seat. We had fabulous cupcakes from a local cupcake bakery there and watched a little video in Gymboree; it was a BIG TIME! And she's certainly easier to impress than her two older sisters for the same amount of money.

It turned out to be a wonderful trip. On to the pictures...




And here's Lucy Kiera enjoying her quilt...



Hope you're enjoying a little less chaos, Erika and Darin. Congratulations, we love you so much!

5 comments:

mattandshannon said...

That quilt picture is adorable! It was nice to finally meet you!

Katie said...

I think the quilt is beautiful and it will be a treasured keepsake of Lucy's. As I read this I thought to myself how blessed Lucy is to have been adopted into such a loving family! I am glad your family is feeling better. :)

Erika said...

I'm so glad you were here and will treasures the memories made with you in Lucy's second week home! She loves the quilt! She and I took a nap with it this afternoon and I must say we were pretty cute! Love you.

Sabrina said...

Some years back Katie and Grace went to an LCMS National Youth Gathering in Atlanta. I remember them telling a story about a lady in the mall who after finding out their group was from Nebraska pointed out the escalator as something exciting that they probably hadn't seen in Nebraska.

I love the quilt. I'm working on one for Audrey that is similar in design; though I'm pretty old fashioned in my approach and cut each piece individually with scissors. I'm guessing you did it the modern way with a rotary cutter and possibly even sewed strips of fabric together and then cut?

Mama Gail said...

I'm so glad you got to go! Hooray for Andrea! What precious daughters and granddaughters God has blessed me with! You are all beautiful inside & out! I love the pictures! It's great to see you all enjoying each other!