1. Sticker books: Elsie talked so much about these books that I had to get one for Lola a few months back and they are really fun! They also have animal versions which are really cute and we love these reusable sticker ones as well that I usually bring out for car trips (they have some large scale versions too).

2. Do kids yoga together: We usually take Lola to a free yoga class at the library on Mondays, but now that that’s out I found this fun series of kids yoga videos and she loves them! So far, the farm and jungle ones geared towards smaller kids are her favorite and we can either do them with her or they’ve also been helpful when I’ve had to make dinner to help keep her engaged for a bit.

3. Scavenger hunt walk: Get outside in some nature if you can! While playgrounds are out for now, being outside in general isn’t off limits. Whether you are in your yard or going for a walk around the block (with appropriate distancing if you pass someone), take a printable list with you and check off all the items you can find! Rainy day? Don’t worry, there are indoor versions too!

4. Make pet rocks: On your walk, keep an eye out for some good rocks and bring them back to paint, add some google eyes, or glue some yarn hair onto and keep as a pet (maybe come up with a food they like to eat and have them feed it every day and eat the snack when they aren’t looking). If you can’t get out for that walk or are short on supplies, you can also get a kit for this idea too!

5. On-demand coloring pages: Lola loves to color, so I find free coloring pages online and print them for her to color. If it’s one I know she’ll want to do multiple times, I print off two of them and give one to her to color and keep the other one as my “original” so I can quickly copy it on our printer (it has a “copy” function) without having to go and find it again online. There are a million free coloring pages sites, but this one is a good place to start with and you can do a general search online for specific characters as well.

6. Craft kit for their particular interest: There are so many craft kits online for specific things, so it can be fun to order a few to stash away for when you’ve run out of ideas and really need something new. I got Lola this robot kit and she’s going to love it! The nice thing about kits is that they come in all age ranges, so you can get things for older and younger kids to fit their development level. Jewelry kit? Dinosaur kit? So many to choose from!

7. Make cards for friends/people they miss: Lola asks several times a day about her friends from daycare that she misses, so we made them a card to send them and I think it was helpful for her to do something to let her know she was thinking of them (if you’re concerned about potentially mailing germs you can always text them a photo of your kiddo with the card).

8. Get dirty and have a popsicle bath! If you can get outside and dig in the dirt or run in the rain and get a little messy (and get those wiggles out), come back in for a popsicle bath! We definitely have a lot less complaints about bath time and hair washing when a popsicle is involved … or a lollipop … or whatever!

9. Start a music jar: Elsie started a music jar last year and it’s kind of been a “thing” that’s spread out to a lot of other families (ours included!). Todd is in charge of our jar and he’s usually the one that decides when to add in a new artist (the Queen week was my favorite so far), but you could do this daily with kids and maybe have older kids look up the artist and find out a fun fact about them as well.

10. Puzzles: Lola has gotten really into puzzles so I ordered a few inexpensive puzzle packs so I could bring a new one out every so often and she gets so excited to try a new one. Puzzles are also great because it’s another thing you can get in different skill levels and keep harder ones for younger kids to do as they get older. And for extra fun, two words—floor puzzle!

11. Sensory bins: I’ve shared it all in this post, but that table set up in the photo above is so fun and a great indoor activity that you can customize in different ways. If you don’t want to go the full table route, you can just buy some dried rice and beans (or make some rainbow rice!) and put them into bins or large bowls, throw in a few spoons, sand shovels, scoops, little cars or animal figures and have fun! You can modify this fitted bedsheet hack to contain the mess as well.

12. Make nature/food stamps: Find rocks, flowers, sticks, etc., and dip them into paint to see what shape they make when you use them as a stamp! Same goes for things like celery, potatoes, and other hard veggies (am I the only one who made potato stamps as a kid?).

13. Have a dance party: This is a HUGE one for toddlers especially who need to get those wiggles out at some point or, well, things just don’t go well. When I can tell she’s getting a little crazy with energy, we have a dance party to her favorite upbeat songs and it’s a great way to expend some energy if you can’t get outside! Right now, Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” is her jam.

14. Have a new “friend” come to visit: This is actually my favorite thing we’ve done so far. If your kid is still in the stuffed animal phase, try ordering a new stuffed animal (or get one down from the attic that you had as a kid and you’ve been saving to give to them) and have it come to visit/live with you guys! You can totally hype up this event for days or weeks and receive calls and letters from the new friend coming to visit until they show up at your door (extra points if they bring a little suitcase with them with their belongings). You can even host a little party when they arrive with decorations and snacks! We did this for Lola and it made her SO happy!

15. Make a racecourse: Grab some cardboard boxes or large sheets of paper and draw roads to make your own racecourse for cars or anything with wheels! You can make bridges and ramps with the cardboard and things like paper mailing tubes from your recycling pile make the perfect tunnel as well.

16. Bake a treat: I think we are probably all eating our feelings a little bit right now, so let’s make it an activity with the little ones to bake some cookies, make some gummy bears, or some sticky buns. Cooking is a great activity for kids to learn as it teaches them patience and how to be a helper—we use these kid’s knives with Lola and she gets so excited to help with cooking.

17. Have a family movie night: Popcorn, snacks, and their favorite film … grab a cozy blanket and just relaaaaax for an hour or two. Snuggle those little bodies and take a few breaths. You earned it.

18. Paint! I know it can be a bit messy, but let’s face it—kids of all ages love to paint! I just got this easel for Lola that’s similar to what they use at her daycare (and it’s something I’ve wanted to have for her at some point at home) and I like that she can paint/draw with the paper roll attachment as well as have a chalkboard and whiteboard side. You can use paint dot markers or paint daubers, acrylic paints, or watercolors (these are Elsie’s favorites for her kids) and a waterproof smock like we have helps cleanup be a lot simpler as well. Throw in a mat for the floor as well if you have flooring you’re concerned about.

19. Make an animal craft: Pretending to be animals is a great imaginative play option and you can make it more fun (and fill up more time) by making a mask or costume to actually be the animal. There are lots of free animal masks online you can just print and cut or you can download patterns to sew masks as well (Lola and I have been working on this fox mask and I can’t wait to see her wear it!).

20. Outdoor chalk and bubbles: If outside is an option and the weather is nice enough, a driveway/sidewalk with some sidewalk chalk and bubbles is basically a pop-up party to a toddler! Here’s a DIY bubble recipe with wand ideas …

21. Play “library” and read books: Especially when kids reach the play acting age, it can be really fun to pretend you are a library with all their books (especially if they are sad their library is closed like we are). You can set up your library station in front of their bookcase and have their stuffed animals or other family members come through and pick out books to check out. Give them a stamp (and some ink if you want) and let them stamp the inside cover of a book when it’s checked out and make some library cards with the name of each borrower. When all their checking-out duties are done, sit down and read for a bit!

22. Video chat with loved ones and friends: Probably one of the best things about this happening in 2020 is that we have the video chat capabilities, so use it to your advantage! Do some Skype playdates to say hello to their friends, call their grandparents or cousins—let them feel connected to people they miss. It may help you feel not so alone and stir crazy to talk to other people too.

23. Learn a new skill: Is there a new skill milestone that you’ve been planning to do with your kid soon? Maybe now’s the time! Being inside a lot may make it a good time to potty train if they are ready, learn to ride a bike in your driveway, start some online music lessons … anything that will fill up some time and check a new skill off the list is a double win! We’ve been night potty training Lola and transitioning her to a big kid bed the past two weeks, so that’s been a nice distraction and something she’s been excited to learn. Now, just a note here that it should be something you are excited to do (even if it takes some effort and planning) and not something that will totally stress you out more!

24. Make your own playdough: While you can just buy it already made, why not make it an event and make your own? It’s really fun to make it yourself, kids love to help, and you can choose whatever colors you want to make as well.

25. Dress up party: Whether you already have some items in your dress up box or you just let them wear some of your clothes, choose a theme and have a dress up party! It could be a fancy tea party, you could get out swimsuits and pretend you are at the beach, or just have a silly category and try to look as mismatched as you can! My mom always had a big trunk full of thrift store prom dresses and whatnot that we loved to play with, so I have some pretty good memories from dress up play. Things like this mask kit can also be fun for dressing up and it’s a craft too, so it’s a double win. Or try making a Easy Superhero Cape for Kids!

If you haven’t used a visual chart with kiddos before, that can be a really helpful way to organize your days! Hope some of these ideas will not only help fill your time but also help make some happy memories along the way! xo. Laura

You can also check out 10 Fun Things to Do As a Family on the Weekend!

So we decided to try this to break out of our rut and devote each week to a totally different type of music.

Nova immediately LOVED the music jar. Each week she’s embraced the new music, even when we didn’t expect her to.

Related: For more kids activities and printables, check out Childhood Magic!

For our jar, we put all our favorites in (except the ones she was already listening to constantly) and then I took ideas on IG to fill out the rest, and we ended up with a huge variety. It’s mainly older music from the 20th century, but there are some newer artists in there as well.

Every week is so exciting. We let her draw the new name every Saturday morning and listen to it all week long. Her favorite so far has been Billy Joel, which is so cute. She loves “The Longest Time.” Augh!

If you need some extra music in your life, I highly recommend making your own music jar! Dozens of people have told me they’re doing it on IG and it fills my heart so much!! Pure magic! xx – Elsie

Last weekend, we went to look at a house. It was unexpected and premature. We’re not at all ready to move (especially with an adoption in progress), but the house seemed so incredible that we felt we had to look “just in case.” It had all the things we thought we really wanted in a
“forever home.” So for, like, 24 hours my brain opened up to the possibility of moving way sooner than we had planned.

It turned out to be nothing. I’m one of those people who can tell within seconds of walking into a home whether it’s a yes or a no. I was honestly relieved because of the timing, but it definitely opened up a part of my brain and got me dreaming about the future. I wanted to share my thoughts on it and discuss with you today!

I hear people toss around the term “forever home” quite a bit. If you’ve ever watched HGTV you know what I mean. I’ve wondered if it’s realistic for me to find a home we’d live in “forever” and my husband, Jeremy, thinks it’s an absurd idea for someone like me to stay planted forever.

Still, the idea of planning for our own “dream home” appeals to me. Sure, no home is ever perfect … but I feel like good planning can get you a lot closer than poor planning. And I realized that if I don’t take the time to figure out what “dream home” or “forever home” means to ME then I won’t know what I’m searching for.

Our current home is perfect in so many ways. I always say if we could pick it up and move it to a different school zone I would. We are extremely attached to this home and the memories we’ve made here. It feels good to know we’re in no rush to move and that we can take as long as we want to shop and be really picky for our next home. Especially since we chose our current home after one day of shopping BEFORE we even lived in Nashville … that felt really risky! Four years later, we know the neighborhood options so much better and have a lot more perspective on where we may want to live.

Our current plan is to adopt our baby, enjoy our home and STAY OFF ZILLOW for the rest of 2019. Haha! But in the meantime, I want to use this time to really dream and plan what we would want in a future home—hopefully one we can stay in while our children are in school and plant some roots, even if it’s not literally “forever.”

I have a running list of random features that I would love in a home. Some are things we love in our current home and some are things we wish we could add (like SIDEWALKS in our neighborhood), but can’t.

I have a list of things we’d like to be near including schools, shopping, food, and a gym with an indoor pool for our little swimmer. Life with a toddler is quite a bit different from our life before and the things we’d like to live close to have changed.

This one is really specific to me, but I’ve identified that having renovation projects on the horizon is really inspiring to me (as opposed to doing them all before we move in), so I don’t think I’d want to build a home or buy a new build—but never say never! That looks fun too.

Choosing one style feels semi impossible to me! I love so many different types of homes and can visualize us in all of them. A part of me thinks I should narrow that down and a part of me thinks it’s better to stay open to possibilities. What do you think?

Do you believe in the idea of a forever home? And if you do, how do you decide what that means for your family? I’d love to hear your perspectives! xx.

We had just begun to settle in for a long wait as our agency had sent an email warning us that the waiting period was extending for many families. We had just had a conversation the week before where we decided we would be fine even if the wait took one to two years. Not only was the speedy match a shock, but I was also blown away by Marigold’s age—she just turned 1. We were fully expecting a child much closer to Nova’s current age (she turns 4 this summer).

This adoption process has been SO dramatically different from our first experience. But I will say the one thing that remains the same is the feeling that everything is working out exactly as it is supposed to. We definitely believe in an element of fate when a child is matched with our family and just as it did with Nova, we feel so strongly that Marigold was destined to be with us. We call her our miracle baby!

And now we wait.

For the next season, it’s just paperwork, more paperwork and bills. Haha! We’ve been told by our agency that summer is likely when we’ll travel to China, but we won’t know officially for several more months.

In the meantime, we’re soaking in every single day with Nova and preparing our home and our hearts for a 1-year-old baby. Wowwww!

Nova is so excited to have a sister. At her age, I wouldn’t say she fully understands what is about to happen, but she says the most loving and adorable things. We just received videos last week and we watch them together with Nova every day.

She has been carrying around her photo and is so proud to show everyone she meets!

To answer a few of the questions most people have asked …

Yes, Marigold has albinism just like Nova. And yes, we requested that intentionally. We believe it will benefit both our daughters to have someone who looks like them and who relates with the unique challenges of albinism in their family. I went into more detail here.

Marigold is 1 year old.

Yes, Nova is traveling to China with us for the adoption trip. At her age, we can not imagine leaving her for such a long trip or such an important bonding time for our family. We’re excited to do a bit of sightseeing and travel with Nova on the front end of the trip.

Many people ask if Nova and Marigold are biological siblings, since they look so much alike. I can see why that seems likely, but since they are different provinces it is highly unlikely. Although only DNA testing could tell us that for sure.

Augh! More than anything, I am just so, so excited to hold our little gal. I probably waste too much of each day envisioning how wonderful it will be to hold her in my arms, but can you blame me? I can’t wait!

We’re so incredibly grateful for a chance to give Nova a sister and become parents to a new, special little girl. Our hearts are already bursting with love!

I wrote a long version of the story of our match here. If you’re curious to learn more about our story or adoption in general, I have an archive of around 20 posts here.

Thanks so much for following along! I’ve felt so much love and support from our blog readers surrounding our adoptions, and it’s honestly the most love I’ve ever felt from the internet. I am so thankful for you! xx – Elsie

P.S. On the advice of our agency, we will not be sharing our little gal’s Chinese name, the province where she is currently living or any other personal details. Thank you for understanding.

So I thought I would share because, seriously, this type of party is really fun to throw and it gets you to clean out your closet too, so it’s like a party and a bonus.

I thought I’d would share how I usually structure the actual swap part of the party, and also some other random tips. I honestly am not the biggest rule-maker or follower, so my swaps are very laid-back, but I do usually follow a kind of structure just to make sure it’s fair and goes smoothly.

But if anyone else out there has hosted a clothing swap and you do it differently feel free to share your tips with us in the comments, too! I am sure there are many successful ways to do it, this is just what I usually do.

1. Inform your friends.

Along with texting (or emailing) everyone with the date, time, and my address, I also let them know what we are swapping. Most of my friends have been before, but every year I usually invite a few new people too. I let them know that it’s best to bring at least 3-5 items: gently worn clothing, shoes, and accessories (jewelry, purses, scarves, etc.) are welcomed.

This year, I actually tried throwing books in too, mainly because I love reading and was trying to get more books for myself. Ha. But it didn’t really go over that well, though I may try again next year.

The majority of the items are going to be clothing and shoes, but I like to include other things that are not sized (like jewelry, purses, books, etc.) because not everyone is going to be the same size, so this makes it more fun for everyone.

2. Set things up.

I like to think of a clothing swap as an indoor garage sale that I put together in 15 minutes. This year, a friend of mine brought a freestanding clothing rack and that helped a lot, but for the most part I just clear off my dining room table and move a few coffee tables into my dining room, and try to group things as best we can while people arrive.

Don’t stress too much about this part, it’s going to get messed up anyway as people “shop,” so just try to keep it organized enough that people can easily go through items without feeling like they are digging through a giant pile.

The dining room works best in my current home, but at my last house I used our living room for the swap because it was the only space large enough.

Don’t be afraid to move a little furniture around if needed, but I also wouldn’t spend days setting things up. Can you tell my life’s motto is ‘Care, but don’t worry, it’ll all work out.’? I think I get it from my mom.

3. The swap.

Once you are ready to go, I take note of how many people have actually shown up and brought things. If you don’t bring anything, you can’t participate in the first part of the swap. That’s my rule, but I’ve never actually had someone show up empty-handed before.

My space can easily fit 5-6 people “shopping” at once, so I decide how many groups we will have based on that. So if I had 15 guests, I’d divide them into three groups. I just write numbers on little slips of paper, fold them once, and put them in a bowl or hat. Everyone draws a number and that’s what group they are in.

Then one group gets to “shop” for 8-10 minutes (I actually think 8 minutes is perfect, but depending how much stuff there is you may want 10 … up to you) and choose one item. I literally set a timer on my phone and once the timer goes off the groups switch until all the groups have gone—again everyone only getting one item.

Then in round two you can either re-draw the numbers OR randomly pick a different group to go first. The goal is simply to spread out the shopping time among everyone so that not one person ends up with all the good stuff and someone else only gets to pick through what is left over.

I usually do only three rounds of this and then the last round is a free-for-all, meaning everyone can shop for however long they want. You can do more rounds if you like, but at my swaps usually people are beginning to lose interest and just socialize more after a few rounds, so I just open it up.

4. Cleaning up.

You will probably end up with a lot of extra stuff, or at least I always do. Most of my friends bring about 8-10+ items and leave with only 3-4 on average, so I have a bunch of leftover items at the end. I simply pack everything up in my trunk and donate to Goodwill or another charitable thrift store nearby later that week or weekend.

One year, a friend at the party mentioned she could take some of the items because she worked as a counselor at a local middle school and she knew quite a few kids who could use the items, so she took some that year.

My point: Don’t let the extra stuff stress you out because it’s totally easy to make sure it goes to a good place and will get used by someone else.

I could probably do a whole post on tips for snacks and drinks, so I’ll spare you for now. Ha! But that’s basically my main tips for hosting your own clothing swap. And I hope you do because they are SO fun and perfect for this time of year as everyone is in the mood to do some spring cleaning. xo. Emma

Years ago, when Jeremy and I were newlyweds and we had just bought our first home together, we followed the adoption story of one of my blog friends, Ashley. It was life changing to us, because as we followed along and I was sharing updates with Jeremy every day he turned to me one day and said that he would be open to a special needs adoption. That was the first time we had really had a serious conversation about it (our previous conversations felt way in the future), so we started to look into it. At the time we weren’t both 30 yet (a requirement for China adoptions), but we bookmarked it for the future.

Fast forward five years. We are living in Nashville, finishing up a renovation of a family-sized home and wanting to start a family so badly. We tried to conceive for a while (you can read more about that here), but we set a time limit that if we didn’t conceive by our fifth wedding anniversary we would start an adoption. I began to realize that I was totally fine with not getting pregnant and looking forward to starting the adoption just as much (honestly, even more so!) after I realized that I had never cried in all the months I’d taken negative pregnancy tests. As someone who cries easily (Super Bowl commercials, a slightly harshly worded text message or anytime Forever and For Always comes on—haha), this realization was pretty shocking to me. From that moment on, I embraced adoption as our future plan and at the risk of sounding terribly cheesy, I knew it was our destiny.

After our anniversary, we started to seriously look into options for adoption. After a month of phone calls and emails and reading different stories, we chose to adopt from China. You can read more about the reasons here. After that, we spent the rest of our year doing what felt like a mountain of paperwork. I’m not the most organized person, so this was no small task to me. In the end, I was grateful for how all the paperwork forced me to get more organized and I had never felt “so adult” in all my life. It was pretty empowering!

After that, we waited … from the early winter of 2017 until late summer we were pretty much just waiting. It was the longest and most difficult season of my life. I was so anxious, excited and motivated to become a mom … so not knowing when it was going to happen was pretty frustrating. I surrounded myself with support, we traveled and I dove into completing my home renovation as well as our project house to keep myself busy. It was a very productive year for me professionally, but very brutal personally.

I wrote a few updates during the waiting period: Our Month 10 update, Month 12 and things that helped us cope with the wait to be matched.

But then, one day it happened! We found our daughter! I shared the whole story of our match here. After that, we knew it was just a matter of a few months before we would travel to meet her and become a family of three. It was the greatest feeling on earth!

During the three and a half months we waited to travel, we worked on getting more educated about albinism, finishing up a lot of projects in our careers and preparing our home for a 2-year-old. We were SO HAPPY.

Then, on November 30, we left for China. It was so weird to say goodbye to our friends, our home and our dogs knowing that we’d be back pretty soon with little Nova. We spent two nights in Beijing at the beginning of our trip. We had the best last few date nights (the Peking duck dinner was SO good!) and some time to walk around and experience China without a toddler. But our brains were super focused on what was about to happen … also we had jet lag.

Next, we flew to Changsha, China, which was the capital of the province where Nova’s orphanage was. Jeremy made a video starting the morning we met Nova. We sent it to our families on Christmas Eve (we were unable to be with them this Christmas due to just getting home with Nova).

We’ve now been with Nova for two months and I finally completed the story of her adoption day (we call it our “family day”), and the two weeks we spent together in China. Adoptions are never easy, whether for the families or the adoptees. That said, I can honestly say it’s the best choice we’ve ever made in our lives and we feel like the luckiest family in the world.

Since we’ve been home, our bond has grown so strong! We are so proud of Nova and I don’t think it’s bad to say we are really proud of ourselves as well. In hindsight, our transition seemed relatively quick and easy, but day by day it’s been super challenging. I think any new parent can relate to these feelings.

We still feel like we’re getting to know Nova (she’s full of surprises!) and we love her more every day. She’s funny and smart and confident and so brave.

On a personal note, I have never been happier! I still wake up every day and cannot believe this is my life now … it’s the most incredible gift. I’m working hard to be present every day and enjoy this season while I’m in it. I’m definitely guilty of over-documenting, but I’m working on that (she’s just too damn cute!).

Throughout our adoption I got a lot of questions, so I compiled them into two massive Q+A posts. You can read part one (about getting started and those early decisions) and part two (about special needs adoptions, China adoptions and questions about money).

Thank you so much for your kindness and love. Our family felt so supported throughout this journey. xx! Elsie

Check out My Advice to Families Considering Adoption and How We Chose Our Children’s Names!

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We became a family two weeks ago on December 4 at 10 a.m. in a government office in Changsha, China. We spent the first 11 days of our new life with Nova in China finalizing paperwork and waiting for her Visa before we traveled home last Friday and she became a U.S. citizen (woooo!!!!!). I feel like if we can survive that 14-hour flight together, we can survive anything … haha!

We had an amazing time in China. We fell in love with the country, the food and, of course, the wonderful people who took such good care of our little girl for the past two and a half years.

This photo was taken the first night we were “home” (in our hotel room). China adoptions happen all in one day, so when you meet your child, you are back to your hotel within hours and they are in your full-time care from that time forward. As you can imagine, this comes with so many advantages and definitely disadvantages as well. It was the most emotional time in our lives. The highs were so high and the lows were very low. At some point when we feel fully transitioned and settled here at home I’ll be able to put all that into words. But for now I’ll just tell you that adopting Nova was by FAR the best choice we’ve ever made in our lives, and we couldn’t feel luckier or more in love with her.

Today (when I am writing this) is our 15th day together and I swear to you that almost every day I say, “I think this was the best day of my life” … and it’s true every time. It just keeps getting better and better.

We are still getting to know Nova, seeing new sides of her personality every single day. She’s so hilarious. She loves music. When we first met her, the orphanage representatives who brought her to us told us that she is like a little adult, and that is so true. She copies everything we do, which is both adorable and terrifying. Haha!

Here’s a photo of Nova getting to know her gǒu gǒus (doggies). We’re so relieved she doesn’t fear them (that was one of our biggest fears) and they are warming up to each other slowly.

Now, to address a few questions I keep getting …

Yes, her hair was buzzed in the orphanage. Some orphanages do this to make it easier to care for the kids and I’m assuming to prevent lice. You can see her hair more clearly in this photo. It has already grown quite a bit in just two weeks. Nova’s hair and eyelashes are white, and yes that is the natural color she was born with. She was born with albinism, which effects the pigment in her skin, hair and eyes. Her eyes are extremely sensitive to bright lights (both natural and artificial) and that’s why we are teaching her to love her sunglasses (which she is doing GREAT at!) You can read a little more about albinism here.

I have also been getting a lot of questions about food. We know what she ate in her orphanage and we are still eating those foods everyday (she’s LOVES noodles), but not exclusively. While we were in China, we ate at a lot of hotel buffets and they’d always have a mix of Chinese and western foods, so we were able to try a lot of things in small doses, and so far we’ve only found a couple foods Nova DOESN’T like. She’s not picky.

Nova started to speak English words after four days of being with us. She currently speaks a ton of Mandarin. We felt lucky to have Mandarin speaking people all around us for 11 days to translate for us (and we still have people we can send videos to to translate, which is so wonderful to have!). We want Nova to continue to learn Mandarin. She loves her Chinese kids songs that we listen to every day. It’s so cute!

As far as English, her first word was “Dada,” which was crazy because we were saying bàba (Chinese) and papa, but then she just started saying dada on her own. One of her other first words was “Nova”! Today, she said her first three-word phrase (“Here you go!”).

Right now, she’s walking around our house all day saying, “Hello dolly. Hello dolly. Hello dolly.” Haha!

Watching her pick up language is honestly the most mind blowing thing I have ever watched. We’re keeping a journal of new things she learns each day and her milestones in bonding, and it’s been encouraging to zoom out and see how fast it’s all happening.

(From our first morning at home. I’ve never loved a grainy photo more!)

The most meaningful part of sharing our adoption story is hearing that other families and individuals are becoming aware, curious or interested in adoption. During our process, I became aware of so many little faces who are still spending this holiday season in their institution. It’s heartbreaking and it inspires me to do anything I can to spread awareness and support the children who are waiting. Some wait for longer than others. In our adoption group, there was a family adopting an 11-year-old boy and it was so incredible to see their family united!

Holt International (the adoption agency that connected us with Nova) has an incredible opportunity to give to these children during the holidays. You can choose all different things to give them, from education to food to blankets and coats. It would mean so much to me if you’d consider supporting children like Nova with a donation.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the kindness and love and support you’ve shown to our family!!! Love you all – Elsie

P.S. You can read all my previous adoption story posts on my family blog. I am still on my maternity leave, but I’ll be back to regular posting here on ABM in January!

Credits//Author and Photography: Elsie Larson.

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In this post, we’re working with Care/of. They create personalized daily vitamin packs that I am a big fan of, and so excited to tell you more about them (and what I think) in my first tip below. So let’s get to it!

Tip One: Fuel Your Body

We’ve all heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” and although I’m not 100% sure if research really does show this, I still think the morning is a great place to put some healthy habits in place. One thing to think about is hydration. Are there any coffee drinkers out there? (You can’t see it but I’m raising my hand emphatically, ha!) I love to make a good cup of coffee for me and my husband every morning. I currently brew with a Chemex. And although I love coffee and have it as part of my morning routine, I try not to make that my only morning beverage, as it can be more dehydrating than hydrating. Adding a little lemon to a glass of water feels really refreshing to me in the morning, so I typically do that. And in the winter months, I’ll often warm my water first.

Other great options if you’re not a coffee drinker (or just want to change it up) are tea or chia seed water. It’s totally up to you and your preferences, but find ways to hydrate yourself! If you want to learn more about the role of water in our lives, check here.

And the second habit I’d really encourage you to make a part of your morning routine is taking your daily vitamins. Recently, we had two great articles about supplements from our Ask a Dietitian series (see here and here). Knowing what vitamins you should be taking can feel a little overwhelming, I know. And that’s the first reason why I really love Care/of. When I went to shop for my vitamins, I LOVED that they had an online quiz where you can explore what you may need—like if you’re a vegetarian (or mostly, like me), if you have trouble sleeping, how active you are, etc. From the quiz, Care/of will recommend a vitamin pack for you and your needs, which you can then change or add to if you want. This was SUCH a better experience than when I’ve been standing in the vitamins/supplement aisle at stores reading labels endlessly and ultimately just guessing at what I needed.

I also love that the vitamins come in little packs you open each day (complete with your name and a little challenge or quote on each package—too cute). And Care/of ships your vitamins every month, which creates this built-in accountability system, so you’ll see if you haven’t been taking them because they will pile up. (You can pause shipments in your account too, but I like the built-in accountability the system creates, so I wanted to highlight that.) Initially, I was skeptical because honestly they have the most beautiful branding, so I felt unsure if they were legit. (Maybe that’s a weird reaction? I don’t know.) But I love their commitment to transparency, that they tell you exactly where they source from, how much information and “levels of evidence” they provide right on their site, and all their products are tested by third party accredited labs for both safety and purity. Love all of that!

All this being said, taking supplements is not my favorite activity of the day (does anyone love swallowing pills?). So I like to do this first thing in the morning, so it’s done for the day. Added bonus: It naturally forces me to drink a glass of water before my morning coffee. Double win!

Tip Two: Prepare Your Mind

I think it’s super important to find something to do in your morning routine that gets your mind ready for the day. There are a million options here, so I thought I’d just share a few of the things I’ve done or currently do to get into the right mindset to have a really great day.

Meditate/Pray/Journal – For me, this is about gratitude. Some weeks, it’s easy to be and feel thankful, and some weeks are harder. Life is full of ups and downs, but taking a little time each day to say thank you to the universe for what you have can have such a big impact on your overall mood and happiness. Some other things you can focus on in addition to gratitude, or as needed, are opening your heart towards forgiveness and love to yourself and the world. For example, if I have a bad day on Monday, like I felt unproductive and wasted too much time during work hours, or if I snapped at Trey when he came home from work, or something else that made me feel mad at myself. The next day, I will take a minute in the morning to forgive myself and remind myself that today is a new day and it’s an opportunity to grow and do better.

It could be you only have time to do this kind of thing during your commute to work or for just a couple minutes while your coffee brews. But if you can take a few more minutes, make it even more intentional by adding other mini routines you like. You could add some light stretching or yoga to this time, diffuse some scents you love, listen to some music that gets you going, or whatever else feels right during this time. One tool I really love is the 5 Minute Journal. As the name suggests, it’s super quick, but a great tool to get in the habit of gratitude.

Tip Three: Wake Up Your Body

Some people like to get their workout in during the morning. I’ve gone through seasons of this, but currently it’s just not my thing (unless I have to for scheduling reasons). But if you’re a workout in the morning person, go for it, friend! Even though I’m not, I still like to do something that helps me feel more awake. This can be simple like taking my dog on a quick walk. Other options could include taking the stairs instead of the elevator (at a parking garage or at your office building), or sometimes even just a shower can do the trick. Keep it simple, make it fun, but find ways to get a little active or wake up your body to start your day.

So those are my three tips, which clearly can be changed up in lots of ways to fit you and not just me. But I also really want to encourage you all as you think about your morning routine because I know a lot of people can feel like they don’t have any time in the morning to themselves. Maybe you have a super long commute to work, or you have young children who need basically all of your attention to get them ready for the day, leaving little room for you. Don’t be discouraged! I think the important part is to find a routine that can work for you in whatever season of life you are in. Some seasons you may have a very limited amount of time in the mornings, while other seasons you could do an entire crossword puzzle over a leisurely breakfast everyday. Don’t wish for a different season or compare your time to what others may have. Enjoy what you have by accepting its limitations as well as its gifts. One day you may long for those crazy, busy mornings getting the kids on the bus before school, so try to enjoy them as much as you can now. Anyway, would love to hear more about what you do (or wish you did) in your morning routines!

P.S. In case anyone is curious, here’s what’s in my daily vitamin pack: Multivitamin, Calcium Plus, Astaxanthin, and Rhodiola. And if you check out Care/of, be sure to use our code to get 50% off your first pack: BEAUTIFUL50

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman.

My family and close friends know how much I have wanted a child and how rocky the middle of our adoption wait felt for me. It was overwhelming to feel so loved by them at these showers. We’re so grateful that Nova is coming home not only to a family who loves her, but a whole community!

When I saw how hard Laura worked on this shower, I was stunned. I held it together pretty well through the shower, but when we got into the car to leave later on, I sobbed so much!!

Balloons are from our favorite east Nashville party shop, Harlan Ruby, and the cookies are from Leeuw Bakeshop.

I’m not ashamed to admit that being able to drink champagne with everyone else is one of the little perks of adoption baby showers. Haha!

In case you can’t tell, the theme was roller skating (I LOVE roller skating – I am always annoying everyone trying to get someone to go with me).

It was SO fun and SO CUTE. Not pictured, there was pizza from our favorite spot and an AMAZING 1990s playlist. It was a sweet, sweet fantasy.

I love all these people SO much. We’ve made so many amazing friends in Nashville (which I still claim is the world’s friendliest city) and I had some longtime friends there as well, including my friend Amy (we’ve been friends since 7th grade!).

One week later, we had a second baby shower in our hometown in Springfield, Missouri. It was hosted by my sister, Emma, and bffs, Rachel and Katie. It was GALACTIC themed … perfect for our Nova! Isn’t this cake incredible? (It was also delicious.)

My sister is so excited about Nova. (My star dress is from here.)

The galaxy sherbet was so pretty!

We felt so loved in our hometown! In the bottom photo of the kids, it’s some of Nova’s cousins and also Rachel’s daughter … and also all our friends and my sisters-in-law on the Larson side of the family.

They made the cutest photo booth!

This was probably my favorite photo. My grandmothers and my mom. I love them so much and I can’t wait for Nova to meet them.

Jeremy didn’t come to this shower because while it was happening his friends threw him a “wiffle ball shower,” haha (meaning that they just played wiffle ball). Wiffle is one of the biggest things J misses about our hometown; they used to play every week. So that was really fun for him!

I felt so loved and celebrated. Nova is already more than spoiled with so many toys and clothes from people who loved her … so much so that I’ve been texting family, begging them to only get her books for Christmas. Haha! We even hid a bunch of her toys in a closet so we can slowly introduce them over time. Little gal isn’t going to know what to do with herself.

We’ll be leaving next week to travel to China and bring Nova home. It’s going to be a Christmas we will never forget. THANK YOU. We’ve truly never felt more loved. xx. Elsie

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A lot of you have asked about her name! As you may remember, we were previously planning to call her Winter Bloom, but after “meeting” our girl we decided it wasn’t the perfect fit. So for 10 days, we went back and forth (pretty much 24/7) with name ideas. We had a lot of pretty names on our list, but we wanted to give her a name that was stronger—maybe with a little edge? (Haha! We can tell she’s a cool baby—this is obvious, right?)

So after “sleeping on” so many names and then deciding they weren’t right, I found “Nova” through googling lists of “celestial baby names.” It’s kind of a special connection for us because Jeremy made his decision to adopt her official just before the solar eclipse.

And, I don’t know, she just looks like a Nova to us. Sometimes you just know!

Jeremy and I are doing paperwork like crazy right now. There is a lot of immigration stuff, we have to get visas … there are a lot of little steps between getting matched and when we can schedule travel. Our agency is estimating we’ll go to China in December. Then, when we get home, Nova will already be a U.S. citizen!

I’m planning to decorate our house like a freaking WINTER WONDERLAND before we go. Talk about magic!!! Can you EVEN imagine coming home to the holidays??? I still can’t.

Well, thank you so much for sharing our joy! We feel so incredibly lucky.

Thank you for the love and endless support! Elsie

PS …

Now that we know our little gal’s age, I can finally do a little shopping. What are some of your favorite kiddo shops??? I always love a good deal, but I’m especially curious for small businesses I can support. This green dress is from my friend Amy’s shop, June & January. xx!

PS. I am more than happy to answer any questions you have about Nova or our adoption here!

Credits // Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Elsie and Jeremy Larson.