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.

Exactly One Year Ago...

we picked up Tegegn! What a wonderful day it was and one that we will never forget. Tegegn has come so far from the day we met him. We were able to see all of his milestones and we are so fortunate to be his parents! We truly miss Ethiopia and we look forward to the day when we can go back to Tegegn's birth country and visit our host family. Tegegn is beginning to talk and we really have fun seeing his personality shine through. He is a daddy's boy, but he loves his mama. He doesn't really like going to bed because he would rather be playing...if only he knew that sleep was a necessity. He loves trains, cars, trucks and planes. He is a busy boy. We have so much fun with him and we are so lucky to celebrate his GOTYA day today with his favorites...ice cream, tater tots, fish, cheesecake and juice. We love you Tegester!

Loving the Season...bring back good memories!

I can't believe tomorrow will be December. One year ago (on November 25) we passed court and Tegegn legally became our son. I can still remember the joy I felt on that day and the sleepless night wondering the status of our case. Wow....I can't imagine our life without him. He brings so much joy to us and we are blessed that God chose us to be his parents.

In late October, we met up with our friends David and Abbe and their twins, Elaina and Grant, and we to a local farm that had fun things for kids to do in the fall. We had a wonderful time and are fortunate that we are able to hang out with them! The kids had a lot of fun and Tegegn did not want to leave. It was kind of emotional for him.

Since some of my family goes to Florida for the winter, we always celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. This year, Christmas was at my parent's house and everyone was able to make it. We had a great time together and we always eat to much and laugh a lot. I think Tegegn will have a lot of fun this year for his birthday and Christmas. I know that Chris and I have enjoyed thinking of gifts for him.

This year we decided to decorate for Christmas on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because we started a new tradition with the Nicholson/Ponsler clan. This was our first annual Thanksmas. It was so much fun! Elli and Tegegn played around each other and wore themselves out and then the six of us had two gift exchanges. We had so much fun, I actually think that I am looking forward to next year's Thanksmas already.

One of our favorite things to do at night is go in and check on Tegegn right before we go to bed. He is usually on top of the blankets and pillows snoring away. We decided to capture the moment because it is one of our favorite things - a quiet moment with our son.

As Christmas approachs, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. This picture was taken the morning Tegegn woke up and saw our Christmas tree for the first time. There was a wooden train right below it and you would have thought the kid struck gold. His arms were flapping and he was talking with so much excitement.

Humbled.

As I sit down to write this post, I am humbled by God's grace. It is actually hard for me to find the right words to express my thoughts because I am overwhelmed with feelings. I feel amazed, extremely happy, confused, sad, thrilled, shocked and grateful all at the same time. Depending on the moment, these emotions have been our life for the past six weeks. With lots of prayer, Chris an I actually decided to pursue our second adoption; however, out of respect for several of our friends and Tegegn, we decided that we would start the process quietly. We wanted the focus to be on our son and not on our adoption this time around. Our plan this time was to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. As we progressed with the paper chase and only had a couple of items left to complete (home study and fingerprints) before turning in our dossier, God decided to reveal His plan to us. Towards the end of September we placed our adoption on hold because we found out that we are expecting. Not only were we shocked to find out that I was pregnant, we were even more shocked that I was ten weeks along when we first found out! (I have to tell you - I tried to think back about everything that I did and the worst thing I could come up with was waterskiing...whew!) To say the least, we have had a lot of emotions recently. To be honest, I had to really switch gears because I was already praying for my little girl in Ethiopia. I was really confused why God is allowing us to experience this when we were more than satisfied to adopt His beautiful Ethiopian children into our home. Please do not think that I am not excited about this pregnancy. I am thrilled and grateful. I think I have a mix of emotions because I understand infertility. I understand the pain and hurt that it can cause and I reached the point where I accepted it and I am simply humbled that God decided to give us this opportunity. I am extremely happy and pray daily for a healthy baby. When we found out that we were expecting, I actually went to my fertility doctor because they knew my history. When I showed up in his office, he was shocked to see me. I was one of the patients that he never thought he would see again. I think he kinda had me on that list of people he thought wouldn't get pregnant. After three visits, I was cleared to return to a local doctor. I am on quite a bit of medication and once a week Chris has to give me a shot, but overall this should be a normal pregnancy. Chris was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time on Friday at our local doctor's office. How amazing! We couldn't get enough of the sound. On Wednesday, we will be seventeen weeks along. We have been talking to Tegegn about the baby. Tonight, he decided the baby was thirsty and shared his water with the baby by putting his sippy cup upside down on my belly. He then proceeded to call it bubba for baby and gave it a kiss and high five. The moment was priceless. Tegegn will be a wonderful big brother to this baby and eventually another Ethiopian sibling.

Friends & Football

As I mentioned before, at the beginning of September, Chris turned 30. Well, our good friend Greg, also turned 30 in September so we had a small get together at the Nicholson's. We always have fun hanging out and catching up with the gang. As our lives become more and more crazy these days, we find it harder and harder to get together. Hopefully, that will change this winter!

A couple of weekends ago we were blessed to have one of our good college friends, Dina, come down and spend the night. Although we don't live super far away, she wanted to come and visit before Tegegn turned 18 years old. We had a great time catching up with her and reminiscing about our college days at Manchester. Tegegn loved her and was such a show off on Friday night. He was in rare form; however, when he woke up Saturday morning, she was able to see the opposite extreme. Nothing we would do would please the little kid. Oh the joys of being a parent and trying to figure out children and what would make them happy. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures. Bummer. Oh well, I guess that means that we can't wait so long to see her the next time!

We were able to get last minute tickets to see the Notre Dame/Washington game. We had great seats and Tegegn LOVED it. I think he liked being outside, watching the band and being in the pouring down rain. He was a trooper and we loved doing this as a family. Chris's mom was able to join us and she is an avid sports fan. You would have thought we bought her 10 diamonds. She said she hasn't had that much fun in years. Oh the little things that brighten someones day.

Chris and his mom sitting 15 rows off the field! Our other tickets were in the section above this one. They were also great seats!

Family picture with "Touchdown Jesus" in the background.

As most of you know, Chris and I love to go to the COLTS game to support our team. As the season is here, we always look forward to tailgating with Syd and Katie and Katie's family! They are die hard COLTS fans so it is fun to hang out with them before the games. Unfortunately, there aren't any home games until November.

Manning, Saturday, Manning and Wayne posing for a picture before the game.

Great picture, huh?

When we got home, we picked up Tegegn from my parent's house and had to run to Meijer to get a couple of things. He wanted to ride the 1 cent horse. I never have my camera, but since we came from the game I thought it was appropriate to capture the moment!

Chris had to work late one night and so I decided to go shopping with my mom. We went to Kohl's and I told her that I wanted to look at the kid's shoes. As we were going up the aisle, I spotted these awesome snow boots. Word to all parents - DO NOT TRY ON BOOTS IN THE STORE. Tegegn fell in love with them and seriously through a tantrum when I tried to take them off. So, we kept them on him and bought them. I have to say, it was a great purchase though...he hasn't taken them off for a week and a half. Sweet!

A diaper and boots - classic!

Super proud that he has his boots on!

Kids have a way of helping you forget the world around you. I love that! I love the priceless moments that we get to share with him. All of the love that he shares with us is amazing. The hugs. The kisses. The "no's." The uncontrollable laughter. The winks. The waves. The talking. The signing. The high fives. The crying. I love it all.

Precious.

Tegegn is really into glasses recently. His favorite thing to do is to wear my glasses if we let him. He looks so sophisticated. We tried to give him the safety glasses that I was wearing, but he didn't fall for them. He wanted mine.

This past Thursday, we were able to spend some time with Uncle Deres. It was wonderful to be with him and talk about his trip to Ethiopia. We stayed with his parents while we were there so it was nice to catch up with him. He is the busiest person we know. It took us two months to find a time that would work, but it was so worth it. We are so glad that Tegegn

Tegegn's newest thing to do is to hide. He recently found that he can "somewhat" hide in the fridge. He also loves to hide in the pantry. One evening, I was cooking and all of the sudden I couldn't find him. Everything goes through your head....is he in the bathroom, was a door left open, did he go upstairs? Well, our kid thought it would be fun to freak his mama out and hide in the pantry. Oh silly boy. You about gave me a heart attack!

He is such a good hider. You can barely see him! Have a great week!