It is hard to believe that Isabella is 6 months old!  6 months ago this beautiful angel blessed our lives in so many ways.   

Yesterday was her 6 month check up.  She is 16lb and 26 3/4 inches long.  Her doctor was AMAZED with her physical development.  She could not believe that she was crawling and pulling herself to stand up.  Of course Isabella had to demonstrate her abilities. 

We can already tell that Isabella is going to have a big personality.  Everyday we are discovering new things about her, as we figure out her likes and dislikes.

LIKES: music toys, peaches, walks outside, playing fetch with Lily, bath time, bubbles, Gymboree, the song Three Little Birds, tickles, raspberries on her tummy, peekaboo, swimming, the iPad, looking out the sliding glass door, car rides, and shopping. 

DISLIKES: carrots, staying still while we change her, being buckled in her highchair. 

She definitely keeps us on our toes, but we love every minute of it!  

Isabella

The Brescia family has been very busy the last couple of months....I can't believe it is already mid June!  Isabella is changing and amazing us everyday.  She is truly one of God's greatest blessings. 
    

Grand Haven with Giovanni's Family

Isabella's Baptism

South Haven-Memorial Day

Isabella is meeting a lot of her milestones.  She is rolling over, laughing out loud, and ‘talking’ a lot.  She is on the verge of crawling too.  Right now she is scooting and ‘army crawling’, but she gets frustrated with the fact that she cannot move fast enough to where she wants to go.  She is very determined to crawl!  We have started to experiment with solid foods.  She has tried oatmeal baby cereal and carrots (baby food).  I still am not sure what she thinks about it.  Some days she seems interested and other days she’s not.  She still is sleeping well during the night, loves her bath time, and enjoys being outside.  She is tickelish on her tummy and under her chin.  Everyone that meets her is amazed with how engaged and alert she is.  She is very curious about everything around her.  She is an active and happy baby!  She brings joy everywhere she goes!



Family Time

We got to spend some great quality family time with family this week! Kris, Danna, and Katie took the train from St. Louis to Kalamazoo on Monday. We had a couple 'girl days' before Tom and Tim joined us on Thursday.

Isabella loved spending time with her aunts, uncle, and cousins.

Isabella with the Easter Bunny (I'm not sure what she thought of him)

Going to Easter Mass

She looked so pretty!

Easter Morning

Two Months Old

Isabella is two months old today! She is such a sweet and beautiful baby. Every morning when I go to get her out of her crib I am greeted with big smile. And every morning I thank God for such a precious gift.

Yesterday was a momentous day in our journey. Isabella's birth parents had court. During this court session both birth parents relinquished their parental rights. This is the time that adoptive parents can finally breath! We are no longer in the 'legal risk' period. Which means the birth parents can not change their minds about their adoption plan. We are so very close to finalizing the adoption! Right now we are considered Isabella's legal guardians. We will be supervised over the next several months by our social worker, who will need to report back to the courts. Then sometime in October we will go to court with the intention to finalize the adoption. And oh what a happy day that will be!

God Bless America

Today Giovanni took his oath and was sworn in as an American citizen! We traveled to Grand Rapids to participate in the ceremony held at the Gerald Ford Museum. Today there were 81 people from 37 different countries being sworn in. It was a great experience to get to witness one of these ceremonies. It helped remind me what a wonderfully unique country we live in.

7 Weeks Old

Isabella is 7 weeks old today! She is growing and changing everyday. And everyday I am reminded of what a true blessing she is. We have been enjoying every minute of our time together, especially with all this beautiful weather we have had this week. Isabella (and Lily) enjoy our daily walks around the neighborhood. It is usually nap time once we make it back to the house.

She is smiling more and more each day. Which melts my heart every time. She likes to blow bubbles and will coo and squeal, especially when she is playing in her gym. She love listening to music and she even likes listening to her mama try to sing. Her favorite song is 'You Are My Sunshine'. I sing this to her when she is upset and it seems to help calm her. She likes to hold on to a finger when she is feeding; she has a great grip. She enjoys her warm baths. She is doing great sleep at night. Now that we moved her to her room, she has even slept through the night a couple times!

As I look into her beautiful face, I am overwhelmed with thoughts of all her possibilities. I want the world for her and all the wonderful experiences it has to offer.

Our Princess is a Month Old

Isabella turned a month old on Tuesday! We can hardly believe that our little princess is already a month old. She is growing and changing everyday. In honor of our sweet baby, I put together a slide show of some of our favorite pictures. Enjoy!

This photo slideshow personalized with Smilebox

2 Weeks Old

Isabella turned 2 weeks old yesterday!

Introducing Isabella Marie

It is hard to believe that after more than three years our baby is finally home. Many of you already know that we have been blessed with our baby girl, Isabella Marie. Isabella was born on Saturday, January 28th. She weighed 7.4 and was 20 inches long. We were able to spend some time with her and her birthmother at the hospital before taking her home on Sunday, January 29th. Isabella has been home with us for a week. It is amazing to think of how this little tiny cutie pie has already brought so much joy to Giovanni and I.

Abundant Blessings in 2012

The year 2011 has been filled with many life changing events for my family. Some have been joyful and others have been filled with sorrow. As 2011 was coming to an end, we were blessed to receive some great news. We have been matched with a birthmother! We were told this news on December 19th and we were filled with emotions that are hard to describe. Then on December 23rd we came to a bump in the road. We were told that there was a chance that the birthmother might want to reconsider another family she was initially interested in. This is something that normally would not happen in adoption procedures but there were extenuating circumstances surrounding the decision to allow for the reconsideration. Needless to say we were completely heartbroken! The most difficult part was that there was nothing we could do for the next four days. The only thing we could do was to pray. Our prayers and the prayers of those close to us must have been heard, because on December 27th we got word that the birthmother was adamant on her decision to chose us.
Giovanni and I have been frantically trying to get everything into place. The baby is due February 2nd! You would think that after all these years of waiting we would be ready. Tomorrow we meet with our social worker and then Thursday we meet with the birthmother. We are excited but nervous to meet with her. It is so surreal for all this to be finally happening. We so thankful for all the positive thoughts, prayers, and support throughout our journey. We know that 2012 will have abundant blessings for our family. One of those being the birth of our baby girl!