Hale Family Tales

Ellie made a craft for our next door neighbor, Ian, this morning.

The next thing I knew, I glanced out the window and she was at the mailbox trying to figure out how to reach the handle to put her craft inside.  (I know, I should have been paying more attention, but Hannah and I were [...]

I bet you know that Mother’s Day is tomorrow.

A lesser known fact, outside of the adoption community, is that the Saturday before Mother’s Day is set aside to honor birthmothers.  Circumstances that surround the decision to make an adoption plan are diverse and innumerable -youth, poverty, sickness, oppression.  It is a valiant decision – one [...]

Hannah taught Ellie to spell and write her name: “E-L-L-I-E”.

Daddy taught her how to spell her last name: “H-A-L-E”.

I thought, “let’s teach her ‘Dad’ and ‘Mama”.  She picked up pretty quickly on Dad: “D-A-D”.

Then we tried Mama: “N-O-N-O”.

Where did she get that?

Ryan laughed out loud.

Ellie had a pretty big adjustment the first few weeks we were here that she only saw her Daddy for a little while in the evening.  Before we moved here, Ryan had a home office and while he was working all day, he would pop in for lunch or a cold drink, and we could [...]

My mom has always wondered aloud why God didn’t make an on/off button on children.

I answered, “that’s easy.  We would wear out the off button!”

I don’t really need an on/off button….but I sure would like some volume control.

Ellie has been following me around all morning happily singing very non-sensical, stream-of-conscious-type-songs in forte.

But then again, that [...]

Ellie is deep into creative play making cookies and having a birthday party with playdoh or being a kitty and wanting to crawl on the floor at Costco on all fours.  She is forever in “pretend mode”.

Tonight she crawled up on my lap after she finished her dinner and I said, “hello, who are you?”  [...]

Grandma said, “What was your favorite thing you saw at the aquarium today, Ellie?”

Ellie immediately answered, “The dinosaur skeleton on the wall.”

This girl has a one track mind – well, two tracked – her two favorite subjects are dinosaurs and planning a trip to Disney World to see the princesses.

Ellie ran in the house full of excitement.  “Mommy, I found the hugest dandelion ever!”

It was a daffodil from the side yard we hadn’t noticed yet.

She ran back outside and came back quickly with a whole fistful.

We put them in water and placed them in the center of the dinnertable.

Afraid she would start plucking daffodils [...]

I love the springtime when dandelions make their appearance.  Not just because they bring Ellie such delight in picking them for our table centerpiece, but because of my mom.

My mom was very sick with pneumonia when she was due to have my sister (3_??? years ago).  My brother was 3 years old that summer.  One [...]