Ghana vent for a moment...

I am so sick of seeing blogs from people who are adopting from Ghana thinking they are "saving the world." I want to set one thing clear.-

We DID NOT "SAVE" Zoey. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to adopt her and have her in our lives, and for that we are grateful. We do not feel we have done her/the world "a favor" by adopting her. When people we encounter say, "Oh, she is one lucky girl..." we are very quick to respond, "NO, WE are the lucky ones...to be graced with such an amazing little girl in our lives."

That's all for now...I will have beautiful pics from our First Annual Family Adoption Day party to post soon..it was AWESOME!!!

Zoey Turns 1!!!!

Wow, I can't believe our little baby turned 1 year old yesterday!!! We had a fun filled week. Wednesday was Zoey/Mommy day and we prepped all day for Thanksgiving. Thursday was full of family fun as we hosted in our home.

If you just can't get enough of pics...

I have started a website dedicated solely to pictures of Zoey..

http://www.zoeyelizabethmahan.shutterfly.com/

Although...new pics may not be up for a while because my camera was stolen from my car..in my very own driveway!!! It was in Zoey's diaper bag and some criminal had their dirty fingers all through Zoey's bag...diapers were thrown all over my car...I wish I had left a stinky one in there for them to sink their fingers into...oh well, sigh...

A Message From Zoey's Grandmother....

Zoey's grandmother...Grandma Sheila (my most awesome mom)...wanted me to be sure and tell everyone how thankful she is to have Zoey as her granddaughter!

I have to agree...we are all so thankful to have Zoey come into our lives and brighten our days. Every day that I see her beautiful smile is counted as an amazing day in my book....

Love!!!

How Time Flies!!

Zoey's visit to Hopscotch...


Mommy and Zoey

Zoey enjoying psssghettit!!!

Zoey gives Gracie a kiss while they play.

Zoey and Gracie playing...

Zoey doing her favorite move...

I can't believe we've been home for two months with precious Zoey! It has been a while since I've updated because, well, I just don't have a lot of free time to be writing blogs!! :)

She is amazing, amazing, amazing and has grown in leaps and bounds since we brought her home. We truly are a family and I now wonder what we ever did before her with all our free time????

Zoey is 8mths old now, and crawling like a madwoman. Today I was sweeping and she just followed me around the whole house as I swept trying to catch the piles of dog hair.... She has 8!! teeth and is eating pretty much anything she can get her hands on (including the dog hair...haha...)! She is saying "Dada..." but we are unsure of if that is Daddy or doggie (much like our friend Lydia!)...pretty much everything is dada...

She is also saying "Kika" which we think is "Kitty Cat"...she adores our cat Zelda and gets so excited when Zelda is in the room! I'm still holding out for Mama...but I know that will come....

Right now her favorite thing to do us pull up on the couch and scream at us. It cracks Scott and I up. She pulls up, looks at us, gets a huge smile, then opens that beautiful little cupid mouth and lets out a great, "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!", then she breaks down in giggles. I love it and I love her.

This past week we've worked on getting Zoey to get herself to sleep in her crib. She had been falling asleep in our arms, then going to the crib, then to our bed at about 2am. It has been a great week and she is quickly growing accustomed to her crib.

We first tried Elizabeth Pantley's "No Cry Sleep Solution"...we tried that for about 5 weeks with no luck. Finally, at the recommendation of the pediatrician and against my own feelings we got Richard Ferber's newest edition of "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems".

I was really worried about the Ferber method, with all the attachment issues of adoption. However, his book made alot of really good points and I was reassured because it wasn't the "cry it out" method Dr. Spock recommended and therefore the generations of parents before me all recommended. Actually, it was very easy and Zoey did beautifully. There is NO WAY I was going to let her lay in the crib and cry....she did fuss the first few nights, but only for about 5 minutes.

Now we have a great bedtime routine, and she is usually laying her head in my lap as Daddy reads, ready to go to sleep...she then goes right to sleep in her crib with a smile on her face. If she wakes up during the night she now gets herself back to sleep without me having to go in there and doesn't even cry!!! I do miss our special nighttime cuddling, but I think both she and I are getting better nights of sleep now....and we now cuddle in the mornings for a little while instead!

Home Sweet Home!!!!!

Aaaahhh...how sweet it is. We finally made it home and are attempting to settle into our routine.

The trip home was eventful. We left Ghana Saturday morning and after about five hours into our flight the captain announces there is a problem with the plane and we are turning around. Yay! I was so scared!!!! We flew back in the opposite direction for about an hour and a half to the closest landing spot- Sal Island in Cape Verde. It was actually a beautiful place and Delta put us up in a lovely beach resort....so except for the hour and a half of sheer terror, it was not bad overall.

We left Cape Verde the next afternoon on a different plane, arriving in New York Sunday evening around 7. We spent the night in New York and FINALLY made it home Monday afternoon. It was a looooooong trip to say the least. Zoey did great on the plane. She is definitely a world traveler, flexible and amiable.

Immigration in New York was not fun either! Because Zoey was entering on an immigration visa we had to go to a separate office and wait after clearing through the usual customs agent. The agent put our paperwork under a very big pile of papers. I noticed no one was working on this pile so I went to the counter and asked the gentleman (ok, not really a gentleman....more like a rude man) about this. He told me it was the "lowest priority" pile and "the supervisor would assign someone to work on it when he could". I replied telling him that I was standing there with a six month old infant waiting to be processed and it was unacceptable that we were "lowest priority". I then asked for the supervisor and I told him the same thing! Needless to say, we were out of there about five minutes later!! Squeaky wheels do get greased!!!

Zoey is adjusting to home beautifully. We are working together to figure out her routine. Right now she goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps pretty well until about 6am....just one little wake up around 2am but I just rub her back and she goes back to sleep. I know, I know...bad habits to have your baby sleep with you (that is what my grandmother just told me)...but with adoption it is very good for attachment.

We took a trip to the grocery store yesterday (I explained to her that Harris Teeter was going to be a place we visited often)...she was VERY POPULAR!!! I carried her in my Maya Tie and she loved it! I highly recommend the Maya Tie....Zoey sleeps better in it than anywhere and it is comfortable for me as well. When not sleeping she is content to be carried around and observe the world from her little perch on my chest.

Tupelo was the first dog to come home. We picked him up last night. Zoey and he are already best friends! He even helped clean her face and hands this morning after breakfast (evidently Tupelo is also a big fan of organic brown rice cereal and organic sweet potatoes!!) Emmy Lou will be next, followed this weekend by Gracie and Zelda. I'm looking forward to having our whole family together....

I promise to put pictures up soon......

With Love,

Kasie, Scott and Zoey Elizabeth Mahan

Nursery!!

Well, we are leaving tomorrow at 7am and I AM READY! I've never been completely finished and ready to leave for a trip this far ahead of time before...man, the mothering instinct must be kicking in already..haha.

I thought I'd post some pics of the nursery to tide everyone over until we have new pics of Zoey!

Trying out my new Mai Tai carrier (that is a 30lb Labradooble)

Scott putting together the changing table..

The completed nursery!!!