Finally, The Finalization Hearing

Dear Gabriella,

Shortly after you were born, we went to see a judge about finalizing the adoption.  At that time, he said that we should be able to finalize on November 19, 2010.  We were thrilled that we could have it all finished in just a few months!  Usually, it takes about six months for all of the paperwork to go through. 

We were later informed that we would not be able to finalize in November, but they thought everything would be finished by March or April of 2011.  Once again, there were delays, so they said we could probably finalize in June.  When it was pushed back again to August, I wasn't holding my breath.  I decided we would just wait and see if it would all come together in August.  Sure enough, the finalization hearing was delayed until . . . well, they would call us and let us know.  When they called us and scheduled the finalization hearing for Monday, October 3rd, 2011, I admit that I was skeptical.  I thought, "Could this be true?  Are we actually going to have Ella bound to us legally and lawfully?"  The idea of it was so exciting!

On that beautiful Monday morning at 9:00 am, we all arrived at the Yuma County Juvenile Courthouse for your hearing.  Your Grammy was still in town for Charlie's birth, so she got to come with us to the hearing too.

(left to right) our attorney Bill Kerekes and his assistant Dee Smith
They were both very friendly and kind throughout the whole process.

Judge Katheryn Stocking-Tate

Your dad got to take the stand and answer all of our attorney's questions.  Then I took the stand and said that I agreed with everything he said.  When the judge stated that you would hereafter be known by the name of Gabriella Rachelle Griffiths, and you should be treated in all respect as the child of Brandon Keith Griffiths and Shelley Elizabeth Griffiths, I started to cry tears of joy.  Your Grammy was crying too, and we were all overcome with happiness.  You were finally a Griffiths!

Afterward, we all had a celebratory breakfast at Denny's.  I ordered you an applejuice because you LOVE juice, but I rarely give it to you.  It's not that I don't want you to have it, it's that you love it so much that you gulp it all down quickly, and then you don't have room for any food.  I figured it was your big day too, so I let you gulp down the applejuice.  You drank it so fast that your lips started to turn blue and your whole body shook because it made you so cold, but you didn't care.  You still clutched that juice and would not let it go until you were finished with it.

This picture says it all!

When we got home, Grammy took our family picture right outside of our house.  It took many tries, but we finally got one where we were all looking at the camera with our eyes open.

Your dad was so happy that he was twirling you around the house, and you loved having all of his attention.

It was such a happy day that even little Charlie was smiling!

Throughout the day, your dad kept saying, "No man can take you from us now."  It was such a sigh of relief to have all of the legal parts of the adoption over with.  Ella, I am so happy to be your mom.  It is such a tremendous blessing to have you and your sweet spirit with me every day.  As soon as people meet you, they immediately fall in love with you because you are so full of love and joy.  I am honored that Heavenly Father, Rachelle, and the law allowed me to be your mom.

Love always,

Your legal and lawful mom 



Brotherly Love

Dear Gabriella,

A few posts ago, I stated that I knew you would be a good big sister.  However, I had no idea that you would be the best big sister a little brother could hope for. 

Your little brother Charlie was born on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 3:53 am.  We had already arranged for you to go and stay with Mark and Trish Ellsworth while I was in the hospital, so at around 11pm on Thursday night, they came and picked you up while we headed to the hospital.  From what they tell me, you had a great time hanging out with them and Jessica Kinsey as well.  By Friday night your dad and I really missed you, so we asked Trish to bring you to the hospital to meet your new brother.

Your first meeting with Charlie.  Look at the smile on your face!

I know you gave him a kiss then, but we must not have caught it on camera.

When you arrived at the hospital, I expected you to be curious about the new baby.  I thought you would be excited to see dad and spend most of your time with your arms around him.  What I saw was completely unexpected.  As soon as you saw your little brother, you leaned over and gave him a big hug and a kiss.  You haven't stopped hugging and kissing him since.  Let me just say that you don't just go around giving anyone kisses.  Your dad asks you for kisses all the time, but you usually deny his requests.  Whenever he, or anyone, receives a kiss from you, it is because you chose to give a kiss away.  Charlie, on the other hand, gets kisses and hugs whenever he is near you.  You are so loving toward him that your first meeting reminded me more of a reunion.  It seemed as though you had been waiting for him to come to earth, and when he did, you were so happy to greet him.

The Ellsworths kept you for another day to allow me to get some rest.  On Saturday, they took you with them to the youth temple trip in Mesa.  You, apparently, had so much fun hanging out with all of the young women, and I am sure they had fun doting over you!  Trish and Mark brought you back home on Saturday night where you continued to pour out hugs and kisses to Charlie.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of you and him together . . . so far.

Everday I catch you climbing into Charlie's bouncy chair to give him kisses.  What's even cuter is that he usually smiles when you come and smother him with love.  Ahhh, it warms my heart every time.

Even though you may get jealous over Charlie's bottles, and sometimes you don't understand why I can't play on the floor with you when I'm nursing, you never cease to amaze me with your overwhelming display of love and affection for your brother.  I'm so blessed that you are my first because I know you will be such a good example to Charlie of love and kindness.  You truly are a great big sister.

Love,
Mom

Your First Birthday!

Dear Gabriella,

I cannot tell you how excited I was for your first birthday!  Not only did that mean that you could get off of formula and start drinking whole milk, but it also meant that we were going to get a whole day to celebrate you!  As I looked back on the last 12 months of your life, I realized that it was the happiest year of my life.  You bring so much joy to your father and I that I cannot express it in words.  We love you so much.

For your party, we decided to do and umbr-Ella theme.  There is a song out right now by Rhianna that goes, "Under my umbrella-ella-ella" and everyone sings it to you.  (Side note: your dad hates that song.)  Since that is your "theme song" we went ahead and made it the theme of your party too.

We reserved a ramada at Gateway Park by the river since it is exceptionally hot in Yuma in August, and you love the river.  We postponed your party until Labor Day weekend since your Nana and Papa always come to Yuma for dove hunting season, which begins on the first day of September. 

Your Grammy gave you a pink umbrella from Disneyland that has your name written on it.  We brought it to the party and had guests take pictures with you under your umbrella.

I made coconut lime cupcakes with little umbrellas in them.



And everyone wanted to hold you!

You and Mark

Having fun with the balloons and Jessica

You and Caloni

You and Trish

While we were waiting for the briquettes to heat up, we all went swimming in the river.

You had so much fun playing with your dad in the water.

After we were done swimming, your dad cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for the guests.

You enjoyed the edible arrangement that your Grammy and Pa brought.

After dinner, it was time for your birthday cake.  It was just a plain white cake with vanilla frosting.  In order to entice you to eat it, I put your favorite snack (yogurt melts) on top of the cake.  It totally worked, and I no longer have to entice you into eating cake.

Next it was time for presents!

You got all kinds of new toys and clothes from family and friends.  It was such a wonderful party, and I appreciate everyone who came to celebrate with you.  You are surrounded by so many people who love you.

I got this idea from your Aunt Jennifer.  Here are some of your milestones from your first year:

10-11-10 Smile in response to stimulation

11-30-10 First giggles (with dad.  I was so angry that I missed it!)

12-11-10 You started snuggling your stuffed animals.

12-25-10 First taste of rice cereal

3-10-11 Rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy with ease

3-20-11 Sitting up on your own

5-25-11 First word association: "Dadda" (of course)

5-27-11 First tooth breaks in

6-11-11 Scooting across the floor

7-22-11 Clapping

7-26-11 Crawling on all fours and pulling yourself up onto things

Happy first birthday Ella.  I love you!

Love,

Mom



Our Trip to Portland Continued . . .

Ok, I am not sure what is happening, but my other post will not save any changes I make to it, so I am going to have to add more information on this post.  I hope this works.

Thursday was the Groom's Dinner.  We ate at a barbeque restaurant and stuffed our faces on fried chicken and bbq ribs.  It was delicious!  Your dad and Uncle Chad played ring-around-the-rosies with you and some of the kids, and you giggled the whole time.  Ashley's niece Alexa fell in love with you and wanted to carry you around the restaurant the whole night.  You just love being around people, so you had a great time at dinner.

Friday was the day of your Uncle Chad and Aunt Ashley's wedding.  You were the star of the show (next to Ashley of course).  Everyone wanted to take you out onto the dance floor, and you loved all of the attention. 

I stole this pic off of Ashley's Facebook.  I just love the way you two love eachother.

There's you and Alexa.  She even held you when she was giving her toast.  You two really hit it off.

After the wedding, Ashley's family invited us to go swimming at their hotel.  You had a great time swimming with dad in the pool and warming up in the spa with me.  Your Nana even bought you these cute pink water shoes that you wore the whole time you were swimming.

On Saturday, your Papa decided to take us all out on a bike ride.  I was expecting a leisurely stroll down the boardwalk, but I forgot that the Griffiths rarely do anything in a leisurely fashion.  There ended up being two bikes.  Your dad, Uncle Kurt, Papa, Everett, Reese, you, and I were all on one bike.  Aunt Jennifer, Aunt Kari, Aunt Alex, Aunt Ashley, Uncle Chad, Nana, Pa, JR, and Adelyn were all on the other bike.  Since there were two bikes, they decided that we had to race down the street.  You had fun sitting on your dad's lap bouncing up and down as he pedaled as fast as he could.  I eventually gave up and let the boys take over the pedals.  It was exhausting, but a great deal of fun too.

Sunday was your dad's birthday, and we all decided to go take a stroll down the Promenade.  You would've thought it was your birthday because you got to do so many fun things.

You had your first taste of ice cream!  It only took one lick for you to know that you did not want to share the ice cream with dad.  You wanted it all for yourself.

This is your dad's favorite picture of you from the trip.  Your Aunt Alex took it.

You rode on the carousel with JR and Nana.

You went on the train with Reese, Everett, and Papa.

There were also some old fashioned soda shops there that had many different root beer bottles.  We doubled your dad's root beer bottle collection on this trip.  Since we bought so many root beer bottles, the owner of the store gave your dad the box of "Dad's old fashioned root beer" that you can see in my hand.

On Monday, your dad and Uncle Chad went crab fishing while the rest of us went to the aquarium.  You pointed at all of the fish, and you even got to touch a live star fish.

After the aquarium, we all went on a paddleboat ride.  Again, I thought paddleboats sounded so relaxing and nice.  They were so difficult!  Your life vest was very bulky and uncomfortable, so you screamed the entire time we were on the boats.  We had planned on riding for an hour.  After 15 minutes, we were all exhausted and we returned the boats.

Alex and Ashley are only smiling for the camera.  They were pooped too.

On Tuesday the 12th of July, we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cape Meares. 

Moo!

We saw lots of cheese being made!

And we ate more Tillamook ice cream.  I wish we had this ice cream in Yuma.

We also gorged ourself on a variety of cheeses from garlic jalapeno cheddar to squeeky cheddar cheese (deep fried cheese).  Then we went to see the lighthouse at Cape Meares.

Someone was walking their dogs down the path to the lighthouse, and we had to stop and let you pet them.  You just LOVE dogs!

The view from the lighthouse was spectacular.  It was so lush and green everywhere.  I could have stayed there all day . . . until it started raining.

Thurdsay was our last day in Seaside.  Before we left, we stopped at a Mexican food restaurant to have lunch.  You snacked on some tortilla chips, and made a huge mess before we headed off to Portland again.

On Thursday night we arrived in Portland.  Jennifer and I both had friends that we wanted to visit in Washington, so we borrowed Ashley's car and drove about 45 minutes to Washington.  The friend that I was visiting was expecting a baby girl, and her due date was two days away.  She warned me ahead of time that she had been having some mild contractions that day, but she wanted me to come and visit anyway.  While you and I were there, her contractions started getting stronger and closer together.  We ended up driving with her and her husband to the hospital where Jennifer picked us up.  It was such a crazy night, that I didn't get any pictures of you with my friend Marisol.  She ended up having the baby, Kylie James, the next day.

On Friday, we went to the Children's Museum in Portland.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because you and the other kids had so much fun there.

You and your Aunt Ashley at the entrance to the museum.

This was a water bed that you were not quite sure about.

There was a little fountain that trickled out water.  You had fun splashing your hands in the water.

Your Aunt Jennifer came and played with you.

Padded stairs for you to climb up.  This was fun because when we were at the beach house, you really wanted to climb up the wooden stairs, but I wouldn't let you because I was afraid you would fall.  These ones were much safer.

I have a miniature size of this same cow in my cow parade collection on display in our house.

After the Children's Museum, we went to an amusement park called The Oaks.  You were too little to ride on any of the rides, so you just hung out most of the day in the stroller.  Your Aunt Kari, Aunt Ashley, and Aunt Jennifer wanted to go on one of the big rides.  However, the ride seated two people together, so there was one odd man out.  There was a group of 17-year old boys in line behind them, and Kari had to ride with one of the boys.  He was pretty happy to ride with her because your Aunt Kari is very beautiful.  When the ride was over, Jennifer tried to get Kari to run up to the boy and kiss him and then run away, but Kari decided not to kiss a 17-year old.  Even without the kiss, I'm pretty sure she made that boy's day.

Your Nana used to skate at this same roller rink (at The Oaks) when she was a youth.  This brought back memories for her.

After our visit to The Oaks, we went and got dinner at Soup Plantation (or whatever they call it in Oregon), and then we went and visited the Portland Temple. 

Portland Temple (Adelyn was holding the red balloon that they gave her at the restaurant.)

We drove back to San Diego on Saturday and Sunday, and you did really well in the car.  I thought it was fitting that we ended our family trip with a visit to the temple, the place where families are sealed together forever. 

Although there were a couple of spats here and there, and we were all ready to go home by the end of the two weeks, we really do love spending time together as a family.  We are so grateful that your Nana and Papa made this trip possible for everyone so that we could all spend time with each other.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Love,

Mom