Ellie Teeny Tiny!

Ya know. All that baby talk over there on Mindy's blog made me wax a bit nostalgic for my own tiny baby days! I had to take a little virtual trip down memory lane.
These pictures were taken merely hours (really probably within the first hour) of Ellie's birth.
We were absolutely beside ourselves, giddy, over this bundle of joy!
It had been 9 months since Jake's death, and to say we were on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, (looking back on it), would be an understatement. Many of you may not realize this, but all that emotional confusion is why there is now a "MoJoy" blog.
I had been a primary author of Jake's Caringbridge site for two years... DAILY! And was trying to keep his little memory alive on his site, but found that we were having some very unexpected BLESSINGS coming our way on a regular basis, as a family!

It didn't seem that his site was the place to talk about "happiness", although that was exactly what I was starting to see/ feel all around me. I missed Jake immensely!, but more (mo') Joy was taking the place of sorrow. And I knew that is how he'd want it!

And so, I started a new blog...
This little bundle was MY gift and man, was she ever a gift!!

I don't think that way back then I ever mentioned that Ellie's name was going to be Gabbi Louanne. Did I? Surprised?! Staci showed up at the hospital with this Cosmo to tell me that it was a "Sign" that Gabrielle's picture was on the cover. Of course, she HAD to be named Gabbi!
Flash forward a year and we got our Gabbi! (Todd's favorite name for a girl... Gabbi Groves!)

We took this sweet pea home and have had nothing but pleasure out of her since! (Except when a Sharpie marker, coral fingernail polish or red Kool-aid is involved.)
We were all just TAKEN with her. She was PERFECT! In every way! And this is how adoption happens... PLOONK. She is handed to you and you are now a mama. WOW! Looking back, I do not know how I even kept my composure. That is quite a moment!

Pops had never had a baby grandgirly!
See.... fresh! She still has the Vaseline eye smeary stuff on her eyes from being freshly cleaned. And do you think JinJin looks happy to be a grandmother again?!
I remember Todd and I taking her home and saying, "now what do we do?" We laid her in her crib (probably the only time her little behind ever touched that thing) and stared at her. This was certainly new territory for us! She was Perfect. Oh, wait. Did I say that already?
You hear other parents gush and go on about their babies, and you are like, "ok, ok, I get it. You are in love with your baby." But, this was different. She WAS perfect. Smart (I could tell already), beautiful, sweet (I mean back then!), and so totally needed to complete us and to help our hearts heal.
Ok, Mindy. There you go. I had to do it. I had to go back and check these out. I am in the process of taking pics off my hardrive and sending them to an external harddrive because I am totally out of space. I will NEVER figure out how to access them once they are no longer on here, so.... Today, we reminisced. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
My sweet Ellie Susanne.

Mo