Happy Second Birthday, Russell!

Today, March 27, 2015, marks the second birthday of Russell Alan, the child we lost to a failed adoption.  This is a day of remembrance, grief, and celebration.  Russell was born at home on March 27, 2013, and ambulanced to the hospital.  We had checked into our time share condo for a couple days away for Mike's spring break when we got the call that we had been chosen to be parents.  After almost three weeks, the birth father had been contacted, and chose to parent the baby.  We suffered the loss similar to the death of a child.

The following are newborn photos of us with Russell.  Photos by Olivia Navarro Photography.

As mentioned before, I will probably always be processing the fact that if we hadn't experienced the loss of Russell, we would not have our beautiful and amazing daughter, Rose!  Rose turned one year old on March 6th, and is the light of our life!  I can't imagine life without her.  She is our beautiful, smart, sweet, happy, strong, and determined little girl!  Words can not express the gratitude, love, and appreciation for her birth mother for giving us the greatest gift in the world, that of parenthood.

Rose on March 26, 2015 on the swing in our back yard

After an overwhelming day yesterday of grocery shopping, food prep, cleaning up the kitchen, and teaching a piano lesson, Mike suggested I get a morning off today.  Mike's on spring break.  I've given him some opportunities to sleep in, and he offered me a rare opportunity for me to do the same.  This morning I slept in until 7:30 a.m.!  Yay!  I then went on a run by myself.  It felt AMAZING, both physically and emotionally.  The tears of grief streamed down my face along the home stretch of my run.

 Here is a photo taken during a walking bread on this morning's run.

I had been meaning to take a trip to a used clothing store to get some clothes for Rose.  It was the plan that the three of us would go together today, but Mike suggested I could do the shopping trip solo.  The store is just far enough away that it's not at all easy for me to make trips there.  In this year since Rose was born, this would be only my second trip to the store. 

I got a GREAT deal!  I got some clothes for $1, and some things were buy 2 get 1 free.  I bought some 18 month clothes, 24 month clothes, and 2T clothes, all for a total of $153!  Tomorrow Mike has offered to help me do some clothes and closet organization.

18 month clothes

24 month clothes

2T clothes

I then came home after Mike had fed Rose lunch.  I put her down for a nap, ate lunch myself, and started a load of laundry.  As I stayed home with napping Rose, Mike went off to our taxes appointment and then off to a night of Magic the Gathering.

I started dinner of spaghetti squash and homemade marinara sauce in the crock pot.  I got the idea from a post on the blog of another adoptive mama.  The link to her blog and the recipe can be found here:  http://www.catchingupwithkate.com/spaghetti-squash-slow-cooker/    I am NOT a fan of jarred pasta sauces.  Most of them have too much sugar.  Instead, I used just chopped Roma tomatoes, a little olive oil, garlic, fresh basil, fresh oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

As I write, Rose is still asleep with a LONG afternoon nap.  Tonight as Mike is at Magic I plan to work on my furniture repurposing project.  Stay tuned for a blog post about the project with before and after photos.