{Dear Ivy}

My sweet little girl,

You never cease to amaze me. I wake up every single morning with a smile on my face because you are the first thing I see when I open my eyes.  You are such a blessing to your Daddy and I. You have been in our lives for a little over 6 months now and those 6 months have been the best months of my entire life. Your existence has changed so many lives. You have stolen so many hearts. You have brightened the days of many people. Ivy, I pray that you continue to make a difference in this world. May you always be a light for Jesus in this dark place we call home. I hope you always feel the loved by your family and friends. My love for you in unending. I prayed long and hard for you. God blessed me beyond measure! At 6 months old you have started eating baby cereal and baby food! You absolutely LOVE carrots and apples mixed. You are almost able to sit up by yourself. You weigh just under 15 pounds and are a little over 25 inches long! You are going to be tall and skinny I bet! You wear 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes. You still love your swing and are really liking your new high chair. You have started laughing out loud a lot more lately. That's the cutest sound! I am holding you in my left arm/lap and typing with my right hand. You are fast asleep with a full belly of Mama's milk. You still love to nurse and I am so glad! The day you stop nursing will be a very sad day for me. The bond that breastfeeding you has given us is one that I will treasure forever and I pray that bond will continue to get stronger and stronger. Since we have moved into our new house we have finally started buying things for your room! I am so excited to see the finished product! Well baby girl, it's way past our bedtime. I love you with all of my heart Ivy.

Love always,

Mama

{Let's Play Catch Up Part 2}

Ok so another exciting thing that we have done since we got the States, was driving to Arizona to see my brother and his family! {Yes I said drove...} We met Joshua, Lauren, and Eva {MY NEW NEICE!!!!} at a hotel about an hour away from The Grand Canyon. We spent the night and the next day we drove to the Canyon. I have to say that Mama, Josh, and I have been to the Grand Canyon before and it was the most amazing place I have ever seen!! {And I lived in Europe for 3 years!} I have never felt so close to Heaven in my life! So needless to say I was ecstatic to be going back! I was also glad that my Granny & Papa were there to see it too, since they had never been before, which is surprising because they have been all over the United States. We finally found a parking spot and then walked to the edge of the world! {Not really but it feels like it!} It was beautiful! The view is breathtaking for sure!
We had a great week with Josh and his little family but it was time for us RuBright's to go back and start a new chapter of our lives! DRUMROLL.......We bought a house!!! I know we are grown ups now! HA! We found the perfect house for us in Fayetteville, North Carolina! It's a very cute 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home. It has a big fenced in yard and a nice screened-in porch. I love it! The home buying process took right at a month from start to finish which was great but we still ended up having to stay with some friends that moved from Italy as well. It was a HUGE blessing for them to let us stay with them for 3 weeks while we were waiting to close on our home. We love North Carolina so far! Richard likes his new unit a lot too. I haven't met many new people yet. I am still in the process of unpacking all of our boxes! So yeah a lot has happened since we moved from Italy {too much to write about unfortunately}. I need to post pictures but I can't get my computer to upload them....  :( BOOO!

Maybe next time!

Meagan