Rinn Reflections: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Apple Art--or Not!

Earlier this week, I tried to make Apple Wreaths with Isaac just like I saw on my friend Meghan's blog.

After all, fall is my favorite season, and I am determined to do/create/make every project and recipe that has anything to do with apples and/or pumpkins over the next few months. :)

Meghan's daughter is just a few months older than Isaac, and since she did such a great job at this project, I was sure Isaac would too. Apparently, I forgot that right now Isaac loves putting anything craft-related--crayons, markers, PlayDoh, or paint--straight into his mouth. He also LOVES eating apples...so, he was pretty confused when I kept trying to show him that these apples were for painting--not for eating!

A few minutes into the project, I realized that it wasn't going to turn out quite as I expected. And that's okay--as it says in "The Toddler's Busy Book" (one of my current favorite resources), "The process--not the project--is the most important part in any art or craft activity."

Isaac kept saying "Isaac eat, Isaac eat apple." And, his red lips prove that he did definitely try to eat it! (Don't worry, the paint was non-toxic.) ;)

But, we still had a fun afternoon together, and once we were cleaned up from all the red paint, we ate some paint-free apples. :)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Ready...Set....

Fly!

Isaac kept saying "mo please, mo please!" :)

I love these two!

Friday, September 16, 2011

What Happened?

In the past few weeks, we've had 3 out-of-state friends contact us to say, "What happened to the baby girl? You've never posted about her on your blog."

I guess by the time everything with her adoption fell apart, I was just too emotionally exhausted to write anything about it. In addition, we've tried to keep the details under wraps since the whole situation involves Isaac's birthmother. The agency called us on June 30 to tell us that the baby had been born and that her birthparents kept her. They didn't know what her actual birthdate or name was.

A few days after finding out that the baby girl was born, we texted Isaac's birthmother to let her know that we still care about her. We told her that as sad as we are about losing the baby girl, we'll always be grateful that she gave Isaac to us.

So, how are we? Some days are still very hard. When we were on vacation another family came out to the pool. They had a son around Isaac's age and a baby girl. Their baby girl was wearing the same swimsuit that I had bought for "our" baby girl. It was all I could do not to break down in front of them.

One evening last month, I was out with some friends. I came home to find that Dave had packed up all the baby girl's clothes and put them in the attic. I think we left her room ready for so long because we really thought Isaac's birthmother would change her mind and decide to place. The strange thing about losing an adoption is that the baby is still "out there"--it's very hard not to constantly wonder how she's doing or what she looks like.

Other days, I feel that we've moved to our "new normal." Staying super-busy this summer and having our vacation to look forward to really helped me. Plus, Dave worked in town almost all summer! That was a wonderful blessing. And, honestly, it's hard to sit around and cry too much when I'm chasing this precious angel around. I don't want my sadness over losing both of these babies to take away the joy that I find every day in being Isaac's mom.

So, what's next? We are still working with Adoption Network to adopt a domestic infant. Adoption Network works with families all around the country, and there are around 15 other Texas families waiting right now, too. Last month, they mailed hard copies of our profile to 9 potential birthmothers. That's encouraging to us, because it means that each of those 9 birthmothers are looking for the same things in an potential adoption that we are.

There are many days when I cry out to God, begging Him to help me understand why we've endured two broken adoptions in the past few months. Obviously, I have no answers. I know it's not my job to understand. We are still believing that God has a great plan for our family--"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." And, we are still praying that there's another precious baby in our arms soon.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Rinns at Great Wolf Lodge

The morning after we got home from the beach, we flew to Chicago to meet the entire Rinn clan for a great Labor Day weekend together! Papa, Nana, and Uncle Mike also flew to Chicago, where we met up with Jon, Kristy, & Griffin. We caravanned north a few hours to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells!

We all stayed together in a large condo at Great Wolf Lodge. Most of the pictures from our weekend together are of these two cousins--they LOVED being together.

Apparently they thought the bathttub was just as much fun as all the rides and slides in the waterpark. :)

This is one very happy Nana with these two boys in her arms! :)

The bunkbeds in one of the bedrooms were a big hit with these two! They went up & down the ladder countless times. Isaac also tried jumping off the top rung of the ladder....

I think the funniest thing these two did together was try to get Michael to wake up every morning. I really don't know how Mike slept as late as he did with these two boys running around. Griffin & Isaac would keep pointing at him and saying things like , "Mike ni-ni," "he sleeping," "wake up!" and "shhh." (Trust me, their "shhhh" wasn't quiet at all.) They'd get a little braver and walk by the bed, then climb on the end of the bed, and finally attack him. One morning they were both brushing his hair with Nana's hairbrushes!

The boys loved the jet skis in the kid's area!

all the Rinn boys together

Here's all the guys (minus the two little ones, of course) coming off Great Wolf's newest ride, the Howlin' Tornado. I went one time and that was enough for me!! :) The ride starts off with a 6 story drop and then you fly up & down the sides of a large funnel. Dave, Jon, Michael, & Kristy all went a few times together...and realized the reason that the tube started to double over on itself in the funnel was because they might have been ~~slightly~~ well over the weight limit--ha! It definitely made for some fun memories. :)

It really was such a fun weekend together! We'll have to make this a tradition!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Our Trip to South Texas!

Earlier this summer, once we realized that we really weren't getting either of the babies we'd hoped to adopt, we decided to plan a fun vacation to the beach with Isaac. We wanted to do something special with him and celebrate this precious little boy God has given us.

We went back and forth about where to go, but finally decided to stay in Texas. We'd never been to the Corpus Christi/Padre Island area.

Early Saturday morning, we started the drive toward the coast. Before the trip, we bought a portable DVD player for the car...Isaac LOVED it! (Why didn't we buy one sooner?) We arrived at our condo on Mustang Island just in time to make supper. A family whose children I taught at Friendship Elementary stayed at this same condo earlier this summer, so it was nice to hear about it from someone who'd actually been there recently.

Even though we spent most of our time at the beach, the pools were fantastic! One was a kiddie pool that was only 2 1/2 feet deep...perfect for Isaac's head to be above water. :)

Did I say how much Isaac loved going to the beach? I wish this picture had turned out better, but when we woke up the first morning, Isaac found his swim diaper, swim trunks, swimming shoes, and shovel and brought them to us (no small feat when living out of suitcases)...we hadn't even eaten breakfast and he was ready to hit the beach!

A big change from the last time he was at the beach!

Isaac loved to "dig dig dig" at the beach. (He always says "dig" three times in a row.)
And, if he was digging, he wanted Dave & I to be digging--or at least holding a "hovel."
One afternoon, I started taking a walk down the beach while Isaac and Dave were digging in the sand. After a few minutes, I turned around to find Isaac racing after me with a shovel and yelling "Mama hovel, Mama hovel." :)

We planned our trip after schools in Texas had started, which ended up being a great idea! The resort was nearly all ours after the first night, and besides a few fishermen, we had the beach to ourselves, too.

When we weren't digging, we were in the water! It was so warm and shallow quite far out. After the first day, Isaac was brave enough to walk out on his own. Dave could get him to laugh so hard when he bounced him up and over the waves! He started saying "sand," "gull," and "beach" while we were there.

Our friend Corrie borrowed the book Heaven Is for Real to us for this trip. Dave read it in one day! He couldn't put it down or stop telling me about it. Isaac was apparently interested, too. ;)

On Tuesday, we packed everything up at the condo and took the ferry across the bay into Corpus Christi. We spent the rest of our trip staying at the Omni. I may have made a slight complaint about our room, and the manager offered us this room (for the same price!)...the views over the bay were gorgeous!

While we were in Corpus Christi, we spent half a day at the Texas State Aquarium! We all loved it!

Touching the stingrays

Watching the stingrays being fed

Watching the dolphin show

Outside the aquarium--USS Lexington is in the background.
Dave visited the Lexington while Isaac and I spent the afternoon at the hotel!

Another fun place we visited was Snoopy's, a great restaurant right on the water.

For our last day of vacation, we drove down to Padre Island to the National Seashore. It was gorgeous!

We went to Landry's Seafood on our last night in Corpus. Isaac loved the banana foster dessert! (Okay, so did we--we ordered two!)

Wow! I think this goes down as my longest post ever! But, I wanted to write down all our memories while they're still fresh in my mind. My heart is so full after such a wonderful week with my family.

Pages