Adoption Chronicles: Officially a Gafford!

Today was Adoption Day for Addison! She is officially and legally a Gafford, though in our hearts she has been for quite some time. To be honest, all week I've been afraid that I would forget to go to court today because I had kind of forgotten that there was still one more thing yet to be done until it was "official". The whole thing was very quick and painless; we were in and out in less than 10 minutes I think (including pictures!).


The Washington County Courthouse is in Stillwater, so we decided to make a bit of an afternoon of the occasion and went out for a late lunch to Nacho Mamas afterward to celebrate.

David must have decided to test Addison's Gafford-ness by swapping her bottle with hotsauce. I don't think she minded :-)

We have so much enjoyed having Addison be a part of our family and I was just thinking this morning I don't think I could love her any different had I delivered her myself. I think the only difference would be that I would have different memories leading up to her birth. She has brought such tremendous joy to our lives and we are so thankful for her every day.

Trash bags are hilarious!

Addison was starting to get a little fussy when I was cleaning earlier this afternoon so I decided to have her ride along and help Mommy with some chores. Much to my surprise, when I snapped open a fresh trash bag she nearly lost it with laughter. I tried it again and again, and she laughed harder each time. Addison enjoys being silly and laughing with Mommy and Daddy but up until now, we've had a hard time finding that one thing that consistently makes her laugh. I think we've finally discovered her funny bone.

Visitors!

Addison got to meet her Uncle Nate, Aunt Julie, and cousins Emily, Lauren, and Olivia today. Our visitors from Indiana arrived this afternoon. We spent a couple of hours in the back yard so the girls could warm up to the idea of being around Allie. Then we went inside and worked on dinner. Emily and Lauren helped Uncle David make guacamole while Allie watched hopefully.

Shortly after dinner a serious storm blew through dropping buckets of water and hail.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but there's a bit of a river running through our yard coming from the water pouring out of the downspout.

One of the thousands of pieces of hail that fell. Maybe we'll be getting a new roof this year?

Nate and Julie's poor van "Rocket" had to stay out in the hail.

Our property backs up to an open ravine that is normally completely dry. That is not the case right now. It's completely full of water for a while, I'm afraid.

Father's Day Follies

Yesterday we celebrated David's first Father's Day. After feeding Addison her bedtime bottle, David commenced with the routine burping session that always follows. This time Addison did something she's never done before.

I wonder where she learned it from....

Exersaucer fun

Addison has been gaining strength in her legs and seems to like being in the standing position a lot these days, so we figured it was time to break out the Exersaucer from Aunt Julie.

All worn out from that hard playtime!

Some May pictures

Here are a few random pictures from last month that I'm just now getting to!

Addison telling Grandpa Gafford a bedtime story

Yummy fingers

Allie and Addison sniffing each other

Happy girl!

Daddy's lil' helper

Daddy and Addison teamed up to build Mommy a new computer recently. Normally Daddy does just fine all by himself, but this time he needed to call for some tech support. Luckily his little Geek Squad agent was quick to assist and show him how things are done.

First you have to open it like this...

Daddy, this doesn't look right at all...

What's this supposed to be for?

I prefer to chew on my mouse...

I think I work better if I have my tongue sticking out.

Don't forget to put this in!

It's Mommy's new computer... and I helped!

Storytime with Addison

Baby cereal.... mmmmmm

Addison celebrated Mommy being home for the summer with her first meal of baby cereal last Friday night. The directions say to mix it really thin the first couple of feedings and as you'll see that made for a very messy meal. After Daddy put down the video camera, Addison was able to share the rest of her first meal with Grandma and Grandpa Liddick via Skype. All in all, so far she likes her cereal and gets better and better at each feeding.

The end of another school year

Well, today marks the end of another school year. This year has certainly been different than any other since I had a 12 week break in the middle when we adopted Addison. I can honestly say that it's been a very good year. I was blessed with an incredible group of second graders that I truly enjoyed spending my days with. For 7 and 8 year olds, their spiritual maturity blew me away some days and I was humbled and challenged myself in my own walk.

We only had a half day today, dismissing at 11:00 and we spent a fair share of our morning together talking about our spiritual walks and praying together. We prayed for the two classmates that won't be returning in the fall but will be transferring to public schools instead. I gave the kids an opportunity to "popcorn pray" for their two classmates and told them I would close in the end. They didn't give me an opportunity to close for at least 8 or 9 minutes. They're 8 years old and they prayed non-stop for that long! They were praying for things like for those students to be able to "stand against the crowd" when others are making bad choices. They prayed for the students to have boldness to share their faith with their classmates. It was absolutely incredible. I had tears in my eyes by the end and as soon as I said "amen" one of my boys shouted out "That was so much fun!" God has done incredible things with my students this year and it's my prayer that this fire they seem to have right now will continue and their zeal for God's word will remain strong.

Speaking of zeal for God's Word... Our principal sent home a summer reading log and reading goals for the kids and this morning one of my boys asked if reading a book of the Bible would count as a chapter book. Yes, young man, you may read a book of the Bible and record it as a chapter book. Thank you for asking. :-)

Can you say thpfft?

This is a sound we are hearing a lot of these days :-)

Addison's New BFF

Addison has really been interested in Allie lately and will watch her every move. If Allie comes close enough, Addison reaches out to touch her, usually with the back of her hand. A few times she's grabbed hold of a flap of Allie's skin, but fortunately Allie has so much extra she's never even noticed.

Those of you that know Allie are well aware of her OCD tendencies to lick obsessively. To most of us that habit is royally annoying, but to Addison it brought sheer delight. Here's a cute video of her squeals and giggles at Allie's licks.