The backwards post....

So, I decided it was time to post pictures again...however, I wasn't thinking and I started posting in the wrong order....I thought it was more important that I catch up so I just kept going....

We have been busy....our kids have yet to slow us down. I love it! This summer we have enjoyed camping together. I'm not sure if many of you know, but we purchased a travel trailer one week after Mackenzie was born and we haven't stopped booking our weekends yet! We have found that it is great family time and we truly enjoy it.

We have also been doing a lot of other fun things....so instead of lots of words, here are the pics!

The Colts season has begun! Chris took Tegegn to the first home preseason game. He LOVED it. He also loved finding the horsey - Blue!

This boy LOVES his mama!

We went to the Monon Swim PArk with some friends and before we arrived we had some awesome pizza in Carmel. Tegegn had a lot of fun with the statues.

We went camping at Prophetstown State Park and took the kids to Columbian Park. How fun! Tegegn was worn out by the end of the afternoon. (He is bringing back the 80's sunglasses!)

Tegegn loving his baby sister, Mackenzie, on his bed in the camper.

Riding the train at the park. Tegegn was in heaven!

It seems to rain whenever we go camping, but that doesn't stop us from having fun. The joys of being a kid!
Our little girl is growing everyday. We count our blessings....

Our son LOVES his boots....and Woody!

Chris and I had a date night and went to the Jack Johnson Concert at Verizon. We had a great time and it was fun to be together!

In July, we went to Michigan with my side of the family for vacation. We had a great time! We even had the opportunity to go to Mackinac Island. Pretty neat place to visit....

My crazy brother and I on a midnight run to Wal-Mart in our PJs. Memories.

Earlier this summer we met up with some of our friends who we met through the Indy Ethiopian group. Hudson and Tegegn had a great time together. They are so funny together!

We went to Chicago as a family to visit the family we stayed with in Ethiopia. While we were there we bought Kenzie a Cubs shirt...of course, Tegegn wanted to model it....with a strange choice of shoes...

Our family continues to have lots of fun and create lasting memories. Until next time...

I took a break....

It has been some time since I posted anything on this blog. I decided that while I was on maternity leave, I would focus on my kids and not have the distraction of the computer. I can actually count on my hands how many times I logged on and it amazed me that I really didn't miss it that much. We have had so much fun as a family of four. We love camping and hanging out together. Mackenzie really hasn't stopped us from doing anything. We are still as busy as before and loving every minute. She has been a joy and fits right in our family. We look forward to watching her grow...(it amazes us how much she has grown already.) Tegegn is a great big brother and loves his baby sister. He helps us out with her and is still crazy fun and makes us laugh all of the time.

A Post of Pictures...

My family brings me so much joy. I am cherishing every moment I get to spend with them.

Hospital Again?

On Friday morning, we brought Mackenzie back to the hospital to participate in St. Joseph's Healthy Beginnings program. This is a program where they double check to make sure that the baby and mother are off to a good start. Well, Mackenzie and I never left. We are still here in the hospital for two reasons...she lost 1 lb 1 oz and had high levels of bilirubin. We are doing much better today and hope to leave the hospital soon. We praise God that she is eating and getting the help she needs!

Welcome Baby Girl Ponsler!

Introducing our newest family member....

Mackenzie Taylor

April 19, 2010

7lbs 3oz

20 inches

Born at 5:33 pm

Our first picture with our miracle times two! God definitely blessed us by allowing us to experience this pregnancy.

Our doctor told us that this was the second miracle...in all his years of practice he has never seen this...her umbilical cord was tied in a pretzel and we are so lucky she made it into this world. Praise God!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for the prayers, texts, phone calls and love you have shown us during this time. We are so blessed....in more ways than one.

It is that time already...

I can't believe that my time of being pregnant is soon going to be coming to an end. I continue to be amazed at God's grace and mercy. We will be going to the hospital on Sunday, April 18th and the plan is to have baby girl Ponsler on April 19th. We are excited to meet this little miracle and have her apart of our family.

A visit to the hospital....

For those of you who have been around me throughout my pregnancy, have at some point probably noticed my annoying cough. According to the doctors, there really isn't much they can do for me so I have learned to deal with it. This past weekend we were able to go to Michigan to visit my brother and his family and I noticed that when I coughed I had to hold my left side because it hurt to cough. I didn't think much of it at the time...just another annoying thing to deal with, but it was manageable. Well, on Wednesday night I woke up at 3 in the morning coughing so I came downstairs because I was trying to be considerate of Chris who was trying to sleep. I laid down on the couch and did my normal cough and I felt something pop. I was in extreme pain. Chris came down because I was moaning in pain and we went back upstairs. I laid down and any movement felt like a sharp knife going into my side for a few seconds and then it would be over. I tried to sleep, but that didn't work out so well. At 6:30, Chris called my doctor and he told us to go to the emergency room. We arrived at the ER and they took us up to the baby floor. As soon as I described what I was feeling, my nurse knew exactly what had happened because she had experienced the same thing. My muscle tore away from my ribs and that is what I heard pop. While at the hospital they monitored the baby and she was fine, it was only me that was in pain and for that, I am thankful. Although I do have to say I would not wish this upon my worst enemy. It hurts. I was unable to go to work Thursday or Friday. I was actually unable to do anything. On our way home, I told Chris that I wanted a recliner so as I sat in the van he went in and bought a recliner. It has been heaven sent. (It was probably the quickest purchase at Robert Miller & Son that they have ever had...it seriously took him 5 minutes to buy it.) It has been a long time since I have stayed in a chair and watched TV for days straight. Tegegn doesn't really understand why mom-mom doesn't move. He still wants me to "hold it" which means hold him, but I am still not able to and it makes him really mad. I am feeling much better today than yesterday so I can only hope that it will continue to get better. I guess it takes about 8 weeks to feel back to normal, so I have a ways to go but I am making progress. So, what are some positives that came out of this experience??? We know what to expect when I actually go into labor (the rooms are nice, the food is good) at the hospital, we have a new piece of furniture, family and friends never let us down and maybe the labor pain doesn't seem so scary based on the pain that I have been experiencing the past couple of days.

Having fun and enjoying our time with Tegegn!

Like always, we tend to schedule our weekdays and weekends because there is so much to do and see these days. We have really enjoyed hanging out with Tegegn because he is learning new things each and every day. He is back into Thomas the train and loves us to play with him. He continues to develop new words and phrases each day. We often hear "blue truck" "mommom" "stink-a-bug" "toy story" "Thomas-watch Thomas" and "hi-n-see (hide-n-seek)."

As you know, we love to check on him when he is sleeping. This boy can sleep in some cRaZy positions. We thought this was the cute position this week. Good thing he doesn't wake up when I turn the lights on to capture the moment.

This past week when Chris and I were getting Tegegn ready in the morning, he was in rare form. he woke up and started bouncing on his bed. He then wanted to play "hi-n-see" and hid behind Chris. As soon as I found him, he wanted me to tickle him. Afterwards, we still had his pants to put on so we did and he tooted. He noticed what happened and he looked at me and said "Excuse You!" He burst out laughing because he thought it was so funny. The moment was priceless.

I also heard him say this week as I was heading to work one morning, "Mommom, don't go, play choochoo." I hope he always calls me mommom and it was so sweet that in his world playing choochoo was all he wanted to do with me.

Today Chris and I attended a prenatal class to help us prepare for our little miracle baby. I am still amazed that we are actually expecting a baby in nine weeks. I have been so blessed and really have nothing to complain about regarding being pregnant. I am so grateful for this opportunity and praise God that the baby is right on track. As we continue to plan, we continue to see God's mercy and blessings upon our family.

We have a busy couple of weeks planned and then we will begin to lay low for a bit. We still have a lot of work to do in the baby's room, but I know it will come together soon!

Adoption Tax Credit? What in the world?

As some of you may or may not know, the United States has been extremely helpful in supporting families with adoptive children, with an adoption tax credit. Unfortunately this credit is set to expire in December.

Unfortunately finances can be a major roadblock in preventing a lot of families from pursuing adoption because of the high costs and without this tax credit it will become even more difficult for many families.

I urge you to take a few minutes and learn what the credit is and if you feel like it is important to keep, please take a minute and email your state senators asking them to renew the credit.

Adoption tax credit information:

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html

Contact information for Indiana's senator's:

Evan Bayh

http://bayh.senate.gov/contact/email/

Richard Lugar

http://lugar.senate.gov/contact/contactform.cfm

Ironing Boards and Fire Trucks

When: Wednesday

Where: At Grandma Coon's House

Who: Tegegn and Grandma

Setting: Tegegn was playing and my mother decides to get out her ironing board to iron a piece of clothing.

Around 10:00 in the morning I called my mom to see how Tegegn was doing and what they were planning to do for the day. My mother proceeds to tell me that Tegegn told on me today. I questioned her on what she meant and she repeated the same thing. In my head I was thinking, Tegegn is just starting to talk...what in the world is she talking about. She told me that Tegegn came over to her while she was ironing and kept saying and pointing, "what's that? what's that?" It was apparent to her that Tegegn hadn't seen an ironing board before...it is true, my dryer does our ironing the majority of the time. I guess kids tell it how it is. I just didn't think we would be at that point already.

Tegegn is really into fire trucks right now. I found this towel that was given to him that had a fire truck on it. He wouldn't let go of it. I decided to cover him up with it tonight and he was as stiff as a board when he told me he loved me because he didn't want to mess up the "blanket" with the fire truck. He fell right asleep. If only we knew that all it would take was covering him up with a fire truck towel, we would have done that weeks ago.

Monthly Update - Seriously, I can't believe it has been that long!

Where in the world does the time go? I can't believe it has been a month and a half since I last posted. Well, I have a lot of catching up to do. We have been busy. We celebrated Tegegn's second birthday with family in December. It is actually kind of nice that his birthday is close to Christmas because we get to see everyone to celebrate his special day! He really enjoys opening gifts this year. My favorite is when he helps us open a gift and says he says "WOW!" He has really started trying to talk and is doing so well. He still signs when he says love you, more and please. He repeats almost everything. One of my favorite things that he does right now is when we tell him to say "thank you" he says "welcome." It is priceless.

At the last minute, we decided to take a road trip the week after Christmas to Florida to visit my Grandpa. We had a really nice time even though it was a bit chilly. We had some great family time and Tegegn did really well traveling. On our way down to Sarasota, we stopped overnight in Atlanta. We went to Snow Mountain because we thought Tegegn would enjoy the train ride and activities. We had a good time and all of us went to bed at 7:00 that night. We were exhausted. While in Florida we made it to the beach several times.

Our family of three....soon to be four! We are so blessed.

My boys. I love them dearly. They make me a better person and have shaped me into who I am today.
Tegegn was so serious when it came to playing in the sand. He really enjoyed himself even though his hands were covered in sand. (He hates his hands to be dirty.)

We really love our family time on the weekends. It was really nice to be at home the first couple of weekends in January. My cousin, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Cale, came to our house for one of those weekends. We hung out here and had a great time getting to know them better. Tegegn loves Cale so he had a ball.

Tegegn loves shoes. He loves to bring them to us and put them on. He would sleep in his shoes if we would let him. Silly boy!

Our Grandma purchased this snow suit for Tegegn last year, but it was a bit big. This year we decided to try it and if fit, but it was a little snug. No worries, Tegegn didn't care that he looked like the kid off of the Christmas Story. All he cared about was going outside!

On of Tegegn's favorite things is to play with his cars, trucks, trains and tractors at his table. Although this table takes up a lot of space in our living room, it is our saving grace. He loves it! It was a hand me down and we are so thankful for it....

As far as the pregnancy goes, I have been so blessed. I have nothing to complain about and feel really good. Most of the clothes that I wear these days come from the maternity section; however, I still can fit in some of my normal clothes so that is helpful. I can feel her kick throughout the day which is pretty comforting. I can still see my feet, but I can tell that I am pregnant when I try to get up off of the floor. This Wednesday will mark 29 weeks. It has gone by so fast and April will be here before we know it.