Adalyn Rose Vogt

September 1, 2015 was the happiest day of our lives.  Adalyn Rose, our rainbow baby, was born on this day at 4:01 pm weighing in at 6 pounds and 5 ounces and 20 inches.  She was a beautiful and happy baby.  She had us wrapped around her tiny little finger right at the very start.  She was the baby we wished for for almost 3 years.  

Adalyn was such an easy going baby/toddler right from day one.  She was mommy’s little assistant and went everywhere with me whether that was going to work or running errands (Target was one of her favorite places).  She even traveled well.  We were able to go to so many places with her and see so many things.  My sister made the comment that Adalyn went to more places than most adults.  She loved going and seeing new things and meeting new people.   

Adalyn loved the water.  We had a pool and she would love to go and dip her toes in the pool before and after dinner.  She absolutely loved beach life!  One of our last vacations was the Outer banks and she loved being able to wake up and go outside and walk to the beach or go to the pool.  Adalyn loved climbing up and down the stairs to the beach house and made everyone in the house go up and down at least 20 times a day.  She definitely mastered the stairs that vacation. 

Adalyn loved reading.  There would be times when the house was quiet and I would go look for her and find her in her rocking chair in her room just reading all of her books.  One of her favorite books was “What Makes a Rainbow” and she was just starting to recognize the color “yellow” and would turn to the last page and say “rainbow”.  I look at rainbows now and know that is my sweet Adalyn saying hello.   

She loved animals!  Adalyn would even try and pet those big bumblebees.  We watched a friend’s golden retriever for a weekend and Adalyn would woke up in the middle of the night reaching out her hand and saying “puppy” and hoping Corby would come to her.  She would run up to him and run away and just laugh and laugh and do it again and again.   

Adalyn was a big fan of her swing.  She would swing outside for hours upon hours.  She knew if mommy said “no” that she could go to daddy and drag his finger to the swing and he would put her in there and push her.  One night we took her to the ER due to having some difficulty breathing and she was diagnosed with croup.  The only place she wanted to go after waking up was the swing.  You would have not even know that she was just in the ER hours ago.   

She had a joy of food!  Some of her favorites were popcorn, ice cream, chocolate, blueberries, grapes, cheese cubes, and Easy Mac.  We have a popcorn maker and my husband would make popcorn and leave some in the maker and she would go and open it up and help herself.  If it was empty she would go and get the popcorn packet and throw it at her daddy for him to go and make some (which he did).  For Easy Mac, she would drag us to the cupboard where it was held and wait till we got it out and then drag us to the microwave and then clap when she heard the beeping when it was finished.  Ice Cream, she would go to my in-laws freezer and grab an ice cream bar and give it to her papaw and then sit with her arms behind her head and have him feed her.  

She loved other kids and other people.  We had two foster kids at the time and she was in love and totally enjoyed being a “sibling” to them.  She would wake up and immediately look for them.  If one of them was crying she would go up to them and try and make them feel better.  Adalyn tried her best to keep up with them and she worked her little legs so hard to keep up with them.  I am so glad that she got the time to experience being a sister even though he biological sister was on the way.    

Adalyn also loved going to the gym!  She thought she owned that gym especially the front desk and childcare (which she kind of did).  She would pick a “favorite” and somehow get them to do whatever she wanted.  She thought she was the big girl and knew exactly what to do and where to do it.  Since she was watched by her grandparents when we worked, the gym was the place where she got to socialize and be around other kids.   

Adalyn loved Minnie Mouse, who she called MinMin.  We would walk into a store and she would see a Minnie Mouse anything and she would say “MinMin” and throw her hands to her chest and run right up to it.  One of our last times shopping she saw a Minnie shirt and yelled “MinMin” and hugged the shirt to her chest and flew it right into the cart.  How could I say no to that much love and passion?!  Another Disney item Adalyn loved was the “Dream Big Princess” commercial.  She could be in the middle of a complete tantrum and then that commercial would come on and she would stop immediately and stare or start dancing.   

Adalyn received her angel wings sometime in between Thursday June 22nd night and Friday June 23rd morning.  She was not up at her usual time of 6:30 and I just thought she was tired from the previous day’s activities of playing and swim lessons.  I was busy getting our foster kids ready for a weekend trip with their aunt.  Even our foster kids mentioned it was weird Adalyn was not up yet.  After a while I knew it was way too late for her to be sleeping in and went to check on her.  I had an eerie feeling walking up to her crib which was in our room at the time.  What I found was every parent’s nightmare.  I won’t even go into the details but just know I have these haunting memories of her and am so sad that these are some of my last and final memories of our sweet Adalyn Rose.  The rest of that day (actually most of that month) are a blur.  I was functioning but not really living, in fact there still days where I am like this.  Losing Adalyn is the worst nightmare we have ever gone through.  I wish I could just wake up and everything was a nightmare and her little blonde head body would be running into my room waking me up but instead I keep waking up to the realization that she is not here anymore.  Our family is now learning how to live with keeping the memory of our Adalyn alive while teaching her sister and cousins all about her.  

“Dream Big Princess”