1 Week Old

I still have lots to write about our adoption experience but of course my time is a little sparse right now. There have been so many emotions & experiences that have happened that I had no words for but I'm trying to find them! 1 major post I can't wait to write about is Charlie's birthmom. I won't be revealing any details about her yet but she is 1 of the most amazing women I will ever meet! But for now, I will leave you with a few pictures of Charlie yesterday when he was 1 week old!

We're Home!

We were shocked & amazed that we got the phone call yesterday that we could leave Utah!! We were told that even though we had clearance to leave there, we had to wait to enter Iowa until we had clearance from Iowa. We were planning on getting to Sioux Falls for the weekend & to wait it out there. To our amazement & God's grace, we got the miraculous phone call this morning that Iowa cleared us already! We decided to surprise our kids by showing up at home tonight & that was so awesome to see the look of shock on their faces! We have it on video too! Hope to post more pictures of our little man & all his siblings soon! God is so good!

Introducing....

Charlie J*ace

He's Ours!!

Papers are signed and he is officially ours! We have named him Charlie J*ace! He is 6 lbs 7oz & is 18.5 inches long! He is a little peanut! We hope to post pics soon!

Please keep Miss A in your prayers as she is having a difficult time right now. She knows this is the best decision for him but her heart is hurting. It breaks our hearts that she has to go through this kind of pain & we wish that we could take the hurt away. All we can do right now is be there for her as much as we can & pray that God grants her the peace she needs.

He's Here!

Baby boy was born this morning & he is doing great! We got to spend time loving on him & also had a chance to finally meet Miss A! Our dinner last night didn't happen because she was feeling so sick to her stomach but we finally got to see each other this afternoon. It went very well & talking with her was so easy going. The plan that she has made right now is to sign papers at 9:00am, which is 10:00 back home. After that happens, we will give more info on his name & stats. Oh, and of course pictures! Your prayers are so important to us & we ask for prayers for Miss A as she prepares to make this selfless decision. We will keep you posted!

How Do You Do?

Today is the day we get to meet Miss A!! I can say there are a pile of emotions sitting right in the pit of my stomach but I can say that excited is the one that is most prevalent. We are just thrilled to be able to have this chance to get to talk with her & get to know one another. We made it safely to Utah last night & we got a chance to go eat & check out some stores that are near us. For all my shopping buddies, you would have a hay day here! Any store you could imagine is right around the corner! We also have a fabulous view of the mountains from our hotel room. Driving in through the mountains yesterday just amazed me at what our God created. Only God can create something as beautiful as those mountains!

Tomorrow is also a big day! Early tomorrow morning, Miss A is scheduled to have her c-section & give birth to a baby boy!! I am almost to tears just typing that very sentence! Oh how we long to wrap our arms around this little boy & welcome him into our family.

We'll try to keep everyone updated as we can! Just don't know when we'll have access to computers to do so! Thank you for all your prayers! We just have no words for how much they are appreciated!

Not Forgotten

I know posting on the blog has gotten a little sparse for me but it's all for good reasons. I've been busy trying to get things in order as much as possible for us to leave tonight!! We will be traveling over a couple of days so that Brian can work & make sales calls on our way there. This will allow him to take less vacation time & we can also use mileage to help with the expenses of the trip.  We will have a conference call tonight with Miss A before we leave. We haven't talked with her since last week & we haven't heard any updates again. We just keep praying for her & hope that she is doing well. I am so excited to finally meet her! Brian & I both think she is really sweet & we can't wait to spend some time with her & get to know her. Both us & Miss A are hoping for a fairly open adoption & I can't tell you how thrilled we are for this. I know some situations aren't possible for this option but in this case, it seems like it will be headed in that direction. When we started on this journey, we had no idea what kind of openess we would do but we kept an open mind about it. I am so glad we did & we can't wait to see what this relationship with her becomes. Hope to keep you updated in the days to come!

What We've Been Up To

Yes, things have been busy around here but we also made it a priority to spend time with the kids this weekend. With us potentially being gone for while, we knew needed to get away with them! So, we decided to still head to Des Moines to the boys state basketball tournament. We left early Thursday morning & the kids did great on the over 4 hour drive. I guess a DVD player helps in that regard! ha! The boys won their game on Thursday so they made it into the championship Friday. I got socked with a nasty cold on Tuesday so I wasn't feeling the greatest but we tried to make the most of the trip. This is where I give praises to my husband for being such a good daddy! He took the kids for ice cream on Thursday night so I could rest. Friday morning, the kids slept in & then swam in the pool for quite a while. Did I mention how awesome they behaved?? We really were impressed. Brian then took Emma & Wyatt out in the afternoon so Jackson & I could nap because the game wasn't until 8 pm. We then took the kids to Chuck E Cheese to eat pizza & play games. We did this last year & they all begged to go again. It was well worth it & Jackson is begging to go back again soon! The game was really close & went into overtime. Unfortunately, in the end our team lost by 4 points but we are still very proud of a wonderful season. We decided to stay overnight yet that night & head home Saturday morning. Very glad we did! We loved be able to spend time with the kids & also glad that we had a weekend away!

We did get to do another conference call with our potential birth mom & the agency. I know this is ironic but I will be referring to her as Miss A again! No, they do not have the same name but their names just start with the same letter. We are loving getting the chance to get to know her a little more & we really can't wait to meet her. It's hard to believe that no later than 1 week from today, we will be meeting her & that 1 week from tomorrow, we will finally lay eyes on our future son!

We have so many wonderful people praying for us & we also want to ask for prayers for Miss A & the staff at the agency. Adoption is such a bittersweet blessing & so many emotions are involved. We just want God's will to be done & sometimes we know that sometimes it's not always the way we have it planned out for ourselves. We are blessed to have our faith & know that God is good in all things!

The Cat is Out of the Bag

We have some wonderful news! We were matched with a birthmom about 2 weeks ago & she is set to have her baby in 2 weeks! We originally thought she would deliver early this week but after seeing the doctor they moved the date back 2 weeks. We also found out today that it will be a boy! We are so excited! We have talked with her already & she seems wonderful! We will talk with her again on Wednesday night. We are anxious to get there & it sounds like we will have a chance to spend some time with her the day before she delivers. We ask for your continued prayers in this part of the journey. As we know, this has the potential to end in heart break but we will not put our focus on that. Right now we will focus on the joy that we have! Hope to update you more soon!

Tasty Tuesday

The flu still has not left our house but we hope to see an end soon! It's been a very long week & I'm hoping we don't see anymore illnesses anytime soon!

Here's a very quick & easy meal that is so easy to throw together in about 30 minutes. There is a funny story behind this meal in the fact that Emma refused to eat spinach in any meal saying she hated it(but had never tried it). So we told her for about a year that this was not spinach in this meal but celery leaf. She would take the spinach out to eat first & loved it! I would go as far as taking the spinach out of the package & putting it in a ziploc bag just to hide the fact that it was actually spinach. She now knows the truth & will eat it so I guess it was for her own good!

Mostaccioli with Spinach & Feta

8 ounces penne pasta


2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups chopped tomatoes

10 ounces fresh spinach, washed and chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

8 ounces feta cheese

salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1.Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, and set aside.

2.Heat oil in a large pot. Add tomatoes, spinach, and garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes, or until spinach is wilted and mixture is thoroughly heated. Add pasta and cheese; cook 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The only change I've made to this recipe is that I use a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes & have to blend them since the kids won't eat tomato chunks. Else everything else is the same! Enjoy!