Wednesday, November 30, 2011

6 month doctor visit

Yesterday Will went to the doctor for his six month wellness check.  His new stats are:

Weight:  16.8 lbs
Height:  26.5 inches long
25 percentile in both categories

Will also had some immunizations which he did fine with.  He only whimpered for a second.  He also received his first flu shot.  

Side note:  My laptops screen went out two days ago and I now have a new Dell laptop!  I really didn't realize how much I depend on a laptop until I went two days without one!  
Thank goodness I am back in business!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

It's Christmas Time!

I have been really busy this weekend decorating for Christmas.  Thanks to my mom who came over yesterday to hang out with Will, I got the tree in the living room up and completely finished!


This morning, I finished Will's first Christmas tree that is in his room.  My mom bought him the soft nativity scene, so I decided to use it as part of his tree decorations.  Some of the animals are hanging on the tree and I filled in with other matching soft ornaments.  I really like how it turned out. 





The stockings are hung and they are brand new!  I ordered them from etsy.    




Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

What a great, relaxing first Thanksgiving we have had this year!  We ate a huge lunch at Bryan's mom's house and then we stopped to pick out a Christmas tree. 












Aunt Francis & Will!



We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Let the Christmas decorating begin!!!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanksgiving Eve

Today, I am so thankful to be home with my baby boy!  I love my job and I really love my job when I get to enjoy some extra days at home.  I am very lucky!



Since Will has began moving around the house, he has begun to grab at things.  We have a basket of chips on a bottom shelf in the kitchen and he grabbed a bag of pretzels from there.  He loved the sound the bag made when it was crumpled up.  Of course, he liked chewing on it too.  I was just hoping that it wasn't going to pop!  I guess it's about time to move everything up high so he can't reach it.  Who needs toys when you can just hand them a chip bag!!!




Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Our Adoption Day

Our adoption day was absolutely perfect!  We headed to the courthouse around 1:30 with all the grandparents following us.  We were greeted by this banner hanging from the parking deck.  


When we got to the courthouse, we battled our way through security which meant taking off shoes, jewelry, and even removing the baby from the stroller.  I know they were doing their job, but it was difficult!  We waited in the lobby for a few minutes for an agency representative.  We made our way up to the sixth floor where we were greeted by a ton of people.  There were a lot of families there and we had to wait to enter the court room.  


Around 3:00, the judge started to move all the families into the court room.  It was crowded but we all managed to fit in there.  


The court room.


This is the judge and she started the ceremony with a little introduction about herself and the significance of the day.  The judge is an adoptive parent herself and really cherishes the process of adoption.  I believe she said in 1994, she started this tradition of a special ceremony during the month of November in honor of National Adoption Month.  There were lots of introductions of different people who were attending the ceremony and I loved the fact that she said this was not going to be a quiet ceremony because there was a court room full of children!  She instructed that each family would be called to the front of the court room by their adoptive child's name.  We were presented with an adoption decree and each child would receive a teddy bear, pink for the girls and blue for the boys.  


Will waiting patiently but was getting hot.  The court room was very warm!  
We had to lose the sweater vest.  


I loved the bowtie!


This is a sweet family who adopted through our agency.  Cheryl has become a friend of mine through adoption and blogging.  This is her wonderful family, Ted, Cheryl, their girls and their adoptive daughter Lucy.  It was very special for us to be there on the same day!  


Will's name was called next.  We went down to the front, shook the judge's hand, and received our paperwork.  The judge commented on Will's bowtie!  She thought it was cute!




Proud daddy!!!


Our official family with the judge!  



The whole family.  We were so lucky to have all of them there with us on our special day!


Nana & Pawpaw


Bebe & Poppy


Just one more family pic!!


This is a group photo of the four families from our agency who finalized their adoptions.


Bryan and I were really surprised how quickly the judge moved through all the families.  We were afraid that we were going to be sitting there forever and Will would get fussy.  The whole ceremony lasted about 45 minutes and she probably recognized around 25 families.  

One lady touched everyone's heart.  She adopted five kids!  We don't know any details but they looked like they may have been siblings.  Everyone clapped and you could feel the emotion in the room.  I don't know her but I say she is an amazing person!  There are not many people in this world who would step up and take care of those children.  It was really a moving moment!  

In the car, headed home and officially ours!!!


On the way home, we stopped at the Outback for dinner.  Bebe & Poppy gave Will his first Bible with his name on the front in honor of this special day.  Look at how sleepy he is!  


Daddy entertaining Will at the dinner table.


Yesterday was a day that Bryan and I will never forget!  Looking back on our LONG journey to this point, we really feel like it couldn't end any better.  Will is our son forever and we were always meant to be a family.  God had a wonderful plan in store for us but we just had to be patient.  Sometimes it's hard to understand God's timing but on a day like today, it all makes perfect sense!  (The tears are now flowing!)  Our family was formed in a little bit of a different way than most people but I really can't imagine it happening any other way.  It makes us special!  My heart has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to adoption.  My outlook on what makes a family is completely different now.  Every child deserves a family to love them.  I am so grateful that our birth mother chose life for Will otherwise this precious baby boy would not be with us today.  This is our happy ending and I am so proud of our little family of three!!!!



Monday, November 21, 2011

Official Adoption Day!

Today was absolutely the best day ever!  Will became officially ours today and part of our family forever.  Bryan and I feel so blessed every single day.  Will was meant to be our son and now it's official!  Our court experience was amazing and I will go into more detail in my next post.  But here is one picture for today.  
Our family with the judge.


I'm exhausted and heading to bed early.  I am really excited about only working one day this week and then Thanksgiving break begins!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Will's New Hobby & One Lucky Girl!

Will's new favorite thing to do is pull off his socks!  He is constantly grabbing his feet and off comes the socks.  Of course they go straight to his mouth!





Also, I am one lucky girl because I married a man who likes to cook!  Tonight, he made the most amazing potato soup in the crock pot.  


We are getting really excited about tomorrow.  Everything becomes official!!!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

We got mail!

Bryan and I received a special card today from Will in the mail.  Nana helped him make it at her house and she put it in the mail for him.  So Sweet!!!



Sunday, November 13, 2011

6 months old

I really cannot believe that my baby boy is already half way to turning one!  Today he is six months old and is actually feeling a little bit croaky.  He sounds like he is full of congestion but he acts just fine and doesn't have a fever.  We are keeping him in the house today and hoping he doesn't start feeling as bad as he sounds.  Bryan and I did get some cute pictures this morning.





I got Will his first cake today to celebrate his 1/2 birthday!  He tasted a little bit of the icing but that was it.  He really just liked digging his hands in it! 




We took it away pretty quickly and ended up eating it ourselves!  

A little bit about Will at 6 months:
He weighs around 18 lbs
His clothes are 6 months and he wears a size 2 diaper
Socks & shoes are my worst enemy, they will not stay on his feet
Twice a day he eats baby food with some formula bottles in between
He doesn't take long naps during the day but sleeps from 7:30 pm to 6 am
He absolutely loves his walker and scoots around all over the house
He will drink from a sippy cup (thank you Nana)
He is not sitting up yet by himself
Riding in the car is his least favorite thing to do
He loves his daddy!!!
Roxy entertains him
He doesn't care for a pacifier
He is pretty independent and doesn't mind being put down
He doesn't meet a stranger
He is getting louder and louder
Drooling is constant and we go through many bibs a day
Everything goes straight to his mouth

God has blessed in so many ways and every day we are thankful for our precious baby boy!