Good Bye Nina

Today was a terribly sad day for us. We unexpectedly lost our most precious girl Nina this morning around 9am. She died while Kim and I where holding her in our arms. The last words she heard from us were "we love you Nina".

She has been hanging on for over a year and a half with not one, but two serious heart problems. When we found out in January of 2008 that her heart was working at 25% of its capacity, I jumped on the next plane out of Dallas to get home and be with her. I stopped at the local pet store to get her a new ball. When I walked in the door, it was if nothing was wrong and she was ready to play...and happy to see me. We have given her a tremendous amount of love and care, but nothing close to what she gave us...she was always there, emotionally and physically. She loved to lay in the sun on a nice day. She wouldn't come down for breakfast in the morning unless someone stracthed her arm pits for 10 minutes. She loved to play with rocks and balls. There are rocks all over the yard the size of golf balls...I will leave them where they lay. We would find them all over the house and wonder how she would get them by us. Her favorite game was to stand at the top of the steps and toss a ball down. She could do it for hours, day after day, and never get bored. She loved any holiday or any reason to open a present..We called her "The Can-Opener" because of her present opening ability. We loved how she like to play with plastic bowls and they would cover her face..we called her "SpaceMan"..(see attached photo).She loved Anna and Anna loved her. Anna has been asking for Ni-Ni, but she doesn't understand that she's gone.

As I write this, its about 11pm. We are nothing less than devasted by what happened today. Kim and I were holding her as she took her last breathe, it was quick and she didn't suffer. She fought very hard for a long time to stay with us...and I think she did it just for us. She stuck around just long enough for Anna to get to know her. We needed her. We could never be lucky enough to have another family member as great as her. We will miss her more than she could ever know, our lives were changed forever. We will never forget you Nina, until we meet up again....

Baptism

Anna was Baptized last week. It actually went a little smoother than expected. Getting water dumped on your head at 2 yrs old is generally not considered a good time, but she put the death clench in Kim and made it through unharmed. Anna has started saying prayers every night before she goes to bed, and never seems to forget to pray for Belle(Dick & Marilyn's doggie) although she was scared of her when we were staying with them. Thank you to Dawn and Anthony(AJ) for accepting the responsibility of GodParents to Anna.

Rainy Day

Not the best pictures, but still very cute. Anna got to go to work with me yesterday for a 1/2 day....all of the girls in the office really enjoyed having her. Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the day we received Anna's refferral from the adoption agency. Wow...never forget the feeling of getting that email at work, with her picture...and being so excited to open it...but having to wait to get home so that Kim & I could open it together...Good Times!!!

Easter

Anna's 2nd B-Day

Day at the Zoo

Almost Two

Well, Anna will be two on April 10th. So we are busy preparing for Easter and her birthday and her upcoming Baptism. Her talking is becoming somewhat more fluent. She seems to use a lot of double abbreviated words...for instance...Nina is Ne-Ne, and she loves the Winnie the Pooh movie, her favorite character is Tig-Tig. As everyone says "they grow up so fast"...I guess she is, I noticed the other day that her feet were resting on the footrest of her high chair. She is also starting to poop in the toilet..YEAH! Before I know it, she will be driving and dating....UGH!! She just walked in as I'm typing and said chair-chair....insisting that I pull the chair to the computer so she can see what I'm doing. So that means typing is over