Daddy Daughter Tribute

So as many of you are aware, the three of us are currently spread out all over the world. Leigh is in Egypt with her parents (she didn't get to go Israel in June, so they decided to take her to Egypt). Rorey is in Dallas with Annie and Marianne. I (Andrew... yes, I'm commandeering the blog!), am still in North Carolina preparing for my trip to the UK on Thursday (the one that was rescheduled from our original trip in April that was postponed by a volcano in Iceland, which led to Rorey's adoption, and so on...). We will not all be together again until October 20, when I return from the UK. So in her absence, I've decided to post a small tribute.

Rorey: Who would have thought that something this small and innocent could change your life so quickly. Every day I find myself looking forward to coming home and seeing her. There is something about holding her that makes everything else stand still, that whatever frustrating or stressful things are happening dissolve, and you begin to realize what really matters in life. In the past four months I have gone from husband, to dad and husband. It's been a huge journey, but I would not have traded it for anything. These past few days it is clear how much I miss that kid, her laughs, giggles, smiles, cries, toots, and just about anything she does. Here are some of my favorite pictures of her and I:

My welcome home, have a diaper change pep talk. 

Probably one of my favorite pictures and will be for a long time. Leigh put Rorey in bed with me one morning, and this I guess is how we were both asleep. 

Rorey's attempt to eat my nose... I was curious if she was just fussy or hungry, so needed to give her something to chew on to see. 

Leigh thought this was a good idea, not sure if Rorey agreed. Regardless... we hang out a lot. 

For the record, Rorey is yawning... not crying in this picture. 

My department at ASU got all the staff headbands this year... I thought mine went best on Rorey... she quickly became the unofficial poster child of the department. 

We tend to have a lot of conversations like this. I do most the talking, surprise surprise. 

My mom, Rorey, and I just chilling on the futon. We might or might not have been watching TV at the time haha. If you didn't know, Rorey is fascinated by the sound and colors from the TV.

Rorey's "Old man, I'm asleep" face. I think this was the first time she ever fell asleep on me. 

Most recent picture of us. Right now, all I have to do is hold her and things just settle. The stress, exhaustion, or frustrations in my life, just disappear when I hold her. She's a pretty cool kid... and she's mine!