Catch up…

In case you needed something to do today….
I’m working on posting old posts (from our adoption blog) onto this blog.

Coming home!

real life doll

Lola’s check up

1 month old

50 days ago…

Baptism

2 months old

growing cheeks.

Meet Lola.

At 11:30 am we walked into the courthouse (that Larkin thought was a Castle for Lola’s coronation.. too much Frozen, anyone?)
… and 20 minutes later, our little sweets was our daughter.

Lola Renne, we can’t even begin to tell you how much we love you, and thank God for putting you in our family.


and just like that, months and months of waiting are over.
oh, happy day!


Start at the beginning!
Check out:
Lola’s birth + hospital stay

the wait…

is over.

The verses we chose for this baby before we ever met her. 
Romans 8: 19-21
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice,
but by the will of the one who subjected it,
in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage
to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God

  Today was the final day of Lola's adoption...
tomorrow she officially becomes our DAUGHTER.

warming trend.

I really can’t tell you how long of a winter we’ve had. It has been cold (I mean COLD) since December. While I do love a winter day, and snow… I’ve pretty well had it.  Carrying a car seat + 15lb baby, a 2 1/2 year old, a gianormous diaper bag, while pushing a full cart out of Walmart through the snow to your car (and then load all said items into the vehicle) was not so much my idea of fun when -30 degree wind is whipping you I the face. 

…and that would pretty much sum up the winter in Iowa this year. 

Today… even if the grass is brown, and the wind is chilly, I am so very thankful for 58 degrees + sunshine.

 

Monday is our final court date, and Miss Lola will officially be ours. All ours. not that she hasn’t been since the minute we met.
I promise about a hundred posts getting caught up on her life, and her adorable curly mullet.

I can’t wait for you to meet her!

a ponytail. like me.

Larkin has been obsessed with “ponytails” lately. She always wants to brush my hair, and then wants me to put my hair in a low ponytail. She will run her hand over it, and over it… and tell me, “I want a ponytail like you mom”.  I try to tell her that she does wear her hair in a ponytail sometimes, but she always says, “I want it to hang on my back.”  

(It’s almost comical because I was OBSESSED with having long hair “hang down my back” when I was a little girl. I would hang Christmas tinsel on the back of my shirt, and pretend that was my long hair.)

She has always been very very observant, but it’s getting more clear by the day that she notices the differences in our hair & skin.  I want more than anything for our girls to embrace our differences, and see the beauty in the way they were created. (because hello, I think we can all see how beautiful they are) I sometimes feel so inadequate being the mama of girls. There is nothing I can do to give Larkin a ponytail that hangs on her back, but try to explain to her that her hair is different than mine. Not worse, not better… it’s just different. Because we’re all made differently.

Tonight the girls were in the bath, and (as usual) Larkin was smothering Lola when she looks up at me with a grin on her face, “mommy! Lola is brown like me! I’m brown like her! We’re just the same.”

lego girl

We’re still here! So I realize it’s been months since anything has been posted, sorry about that.
All is well  at the Kroeze house! Here is a quick update:
Lola is 7 months old already, has beautiful long, soft hair, and is in the beginning stages of crawling. She is the noisiest baby I’ve ever met.
Larkin is growing into a tall little girl, who adores pinching her sister’s cheeks, and dramatically acts out scenes from Frozen all the live long day.
Wade and I got back last night from 5 days in sunny Mexico with friends… and it’s a high of –2 degrees here, and snowing. lovely.
We are moving to a new house in a month, and trying (and praying) to sell our house before then!

Once Lola’s adoption is finalized (hopefully in the next few weeks) I will continue blogging on this blog!
(Posts from our private blog will be moved to this one!)

When Larkin isn’t singing Let it Go while “throwing snow” into the air, she may be found playing with the Lego set she got for Christmas.