I Heart Consignment Sales!!

My sweet friend, Chrissy, shared her "shop early" passes to the Divine Consign sale in Plano. I picked up a bumblebee costume for Graham (it looks big in the picture, but it says 0-3 months...) and a ladybug costume for Lillie. I asked Josh which bug he wanted to be and he said he would rather just be a gecko! So we might have a bumblebee, ladybug, and a gecko this year! I also got Josh and Lillie each a big brother and a big sister gift, I picked up a dollhouse to save and give Lillie at Christmas (shhh- don't tell!) and I decided to buy a sit and stand double stroller so that Lillie and Graham and I can get our exercise on at Stroller Strides while Josh is at preschool!!

Lillie and "Her Baby"

On the Wednesday we got the call that it might be just a matter of days before our new baby would come to join our home, I decided to give Josh and Lillie a heads up. I didn't want to go into any details and really wanted to try and protect their hearts in case the mom didn't sign. But at the same time I wanted them to be prepared for the idea of the baby being here soon. When I told Lillie the baby was coming soon she asked, "Mommy, is it going to be my baby?" I said, "Yes, sweetheart. It is going to be your baby." She asked, "Well, are you going to hold my baby?" So I tried to explain that we were all going to get a new baby- that she would be the big sister and I would be the mommy. Well, here we are a week after we brought Graham home and I'm pretty sure Lillie still thinks it's her baby! She loves holding him in her lap. She commentates on every little move he makes- "Oh, Mommy! He opened his eyes!" "Oh, look, he's stretching out his arms!" The girl is smitten. It's pretty sweet. The picture is from the outing we took to the new Cowboy stadium. I had bought the Groupon for the VIP tour back in June and gave it to Jason for father's day. We had a great time touring the new stadium together as a family. Josh and Jason ran around on the field together while Lillie and I went and checked out the cheerleaders' locker room!

Our healthy, happy crew!!

Thanks so much for your prayers! Lillie's fever was gone by this evening. We'll see if it stays gone- it is looking like just a little 24 hr bug. Graham was back up to his birth weight- 5 lbs 20z! Graham is enjoying the new chair that his friends Thessalie and Carrington sent him! Thanks, girls!

Graham's First Weigh-In Tomorrow and a Prayer Request

We'll take Graham to get weighed tomorrow at the pediatrician's office. I sure hope that he is at least back up to birth weight. He seems to be doing a good job with his bottles, but I don't really know what to expect in that area- I mainly just nursed Josh and Lillie. We didn't do too many bottles. So I don't know if right around 2oz every 3 hours is good?? Hopefully good enough for him to gain weight! He is definitely still on "womb time." I'm sure he got used to sleeping while birth mom was up and active and then awake when she layed down to rest at night. Right now as I'm typing he is wide awake on a blanket on th floor looking all around!

Our prayer request is about Lillie girl. She came down with a 102.7 fever tonight out of the blue- no other symptoms. We'd appreciate prayers for her to get better soon- and especially that this virus or whatever illness it is won't spread to Baby Graham!

Thanks again for your prayers!!

A Trip To The Dentist

After going pretty fast and furious all weekend, we all slowed down today and had a pajama day. I did change into some regular clothes around noon because I had to go to the dentist. On Saturday morning an hour before we left to go to the hospital to meet Graham I had a run-in with Lillie's head. I was bending down to pick her up from behind and she jumped up at full force and smacked me right in the chin. I bit down so crazy hard that I chipped several of my bottom teeth. One of my first thoughts was- "great. now I am going to be all snaggle-toothed to meet birth mom. that will be awkward and embarrassing." But as soon as I thought it I felt God nudge me in my spirit and say "don't you think she is going to be feeling awkward, too?" So I took two advil and it was fine. But I was so grateful to get them fixed today!
Today was awesome. Lillie was still attached to Graham's hip, Josh got to play lots of games and puzzles with Mommy and Daddy today. Graham is eating and sleeping and occasionally looking around and taking things in. Tonight he got to meet the girls I've been doing a Monday night Bible study with. Another sweet thing about today is that Graham had two special visitors- Katrina came over and met Lillie the day or two after we brought her home from the hospital, and today she got to hold and meet Graham. Robyn met both Josh and Lillie as newborns and got to meet and hold Graham today as well- so sweet!

A Day Filled With Firsts

Today was Graham's first time to go to church. He enjoyed hearing about how children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior as he sat/slept in the family room with his Mimi. (Jason and I were serving in Lillie's class!) Then my sweet friend Emmy came over and brought an SNS which I believe stands for Supplemental Nursing System. Emmy is a lactation consultant and generously offered her expertise today as I am still making an effort to induce lactation. So today was Graham's first day to nurse (even though he was just getting formula through a tube, he still latched on!) Then Mimi and Aunt Mindy helped give Graham his first bath. We washed his hair over the sink and just washed one little body part at a time on a towel on the counter making sure not to get his little umbilical cord wet. I think Graham enjoyed it! Then tonight was Graham's first Foundation Group meeting! Our sweet newly married group came over for our regular Sunday meeting tonight and they all got to meet and hold Graham. This afternoon Jason switched the crib over from toddler height to baby height. So we swaddled Graham in the miracle blanket (as pictured!) and tonight will be his first night in the crib. Except that he already peed through the miracle blanket so it will still be his first attempt in the crib- just not in the miracle blanket!

A Five Family!

It was an amazing day. We welcomed Graham Kelvin Vorel into the family. In Josh's words, "We're not a four family anymore- we're a five family now!" Graham's birth grandfather's name is Kelvin. We had the honor and privilege of meeting him today. He is a wonderful man. Birth mom was just as wonderful. We were able to spend about two and half hours with them at the hospital today before Graham was discharged and we took him home. It was precious time. I found little details about her pregnancy and delivery that I can pass on to Graham as he gets older. It was such a blessing from God that she opened up about some of that. I feel good about being able to paint a decent picture of her to Graham as he gets older.

It's getting late and I am both physically and emotionally exhausted- and getting up in a few hours to feed our teeny, little guy. (He was 5 lbs 2 oz at birth, fell a bit below 5 lbs, then was back up to 5 lbs flat today.) The teeny, tiny premie outfit was the perfect size for him. He is itty bitty, but long. He was 19 inches at birth and has long fingers and toes.

I know there are tons of details that I'm leaving out for the sake of getting a few more minutes of sleep- so I'll try and fill in more details tomorrow. But I have to say that of all of the smiling, beaming faces today, none compared to Lillie Elizabeth. She did not leave Graham's side. She held him, helped with his bottle, helped to burp him- anything she could do to be close to him. She is smitten with her little brother.

And I would be remiss if I did not thank all of you for your prayers for today. Thank you for your love and support as we've journeyed down this path of adoption.

And good night.

Getting ready to bring baby home

I bought new baby (name will be revealed tomorrow- it is a name I love and we are honoring birth mom and her father with the middle name) this premie outfit that says "little brother." It is TINY!!! I do not think Lillie's little baby doll could squeeze into it! But our little 5 lb nugget should fill it out nicely!! Lillie is going to wear the sparkly Best Big Sister shirt on loan to us from Bailey, and I picked up a cool I'm The Big Brother shirt for Josh!

We have been NESTING LIKE CRAZY!! I bought baby detergent, a blue crib sheet and changing pad cover, a rug for baby's room, and receiving blankets on a quick trip to Babies R Us. I washed the paci's and bottles from Wednesday's trip to Wal-Mart and packed the diaper bag with bottles, formula, burp cloths, pacis, diapers, wipes, and an extra change of clothes.

I picked up a gift for birth mom- a photo album where she can put the photos we send, a box of chocolate (she is after all an 18 yr. old young woman who just gave birth!), and we're bringing flowers as well. I had thought about maybe a necklace with the baby's birthstone but a good friend helped me think through it and we both thought it could be a possible first Mother's Day or first birthday gift if it seems right to do it then.

Can't wait to post pics tomorrow!

WE GET BABY TOMORROW!!!!

Maybe a baby on Sunday...

After what felt like a very LONG wait today, the counselor called with an update. She had taken our profile book to show the birth mom. Birth mom and her father- baby's grandpa- looked at it together. There was a Bible verse in one of the letters that the grandpa said that he had just prayed over the baby this morning. Jennifer said that it really touched him. I teared up when she told me that. She said both birth mom and birth grandpa loved the profile and are very happy for us to be baby's adoptive family. Birth mom had to have a C-section because of high blood pressure and she is still hooked up to monitors and baby is still hooked up to monitors as well. Because of this birth mom does not want any visitors until she is discharged. So she could get discharged on Sunday or it could even be Monday. When she is discharged we will meet at the hospital for the signing of the legal relinquishment papers. She wants to pass the baby off to us herself and meet us. She has changed from wanting a closed adoption to wanting letters and pictures. The Hope Cottage counselor peeked in the nursery at the baby and said that he is just adorable. She is going to call me with exact stats, but thinks he is long and skinny- in the 5lb range for his birth weight. I'm thinking I may need to run grab some premie clothes!!! Thanks so much for all of the prayers, comments, emails and phone calls and texts. They mean the world to us.

We Got A Call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had just practically wrestled Lillie down for a nap, Josh was watching PBS, I was printing off a coupon to get my oil changed...and the phone rang. It was the counselor at Hope Cottage saying that a baby was born this morning to an 18 yr. old African American mom who wants to choose adoption for her new baby boy. The birth mom had been to Hope Cottage in June and expressed her desire to make an adoption plan, but then skipped her next appointment with them. She then had her dad call Hope Cottage today to confirm that she still wants to follow through with adoption. The counselor will go talk with her tomorrow to confirm her decision. If she is set on adoption there is a good chance that we will get to go to the hospital tomorrow to meet the baby. The birth mom wants a closed adoption- which means that the child will have to wait until he is 18 yrs. old before he can have access to her legal name (and potentially try to contact her.) She told the counselor that she wanted a 2-parent, Christian home for her son. I took the kids to Wal-Mart tonight to get the oil changed. We did a little shopping while we were waiting. Josh and Lillie both picked out toys for the baby and a onesie. We grabbed newborn Swaddlers, wipes, paci's, bottles, and formula. Tonight I ran by a friend's house and grabbed her infant carseat that we are going to borrow. It is feeling very real and sinking in. Of course, we have to be a bit guarded until the papers are signed and it is a done deal. Thanks again for your prayers.

In case you're interested

Here's the link to the Hope Cottage Blog:

http://hopecottagepregnancyandadoptioncenter.blogspot.com/

2 placements at Hope Cottage in the last week!

I was on the Hope Cottage Blog tonight and saw that they made a placement last week and another on Monday. Then I went to the website and it shows which waiting families have been matched and placed. One of the families was in our orientation class and our training class. I am SO pumped for them. Then the other family is the friend of a good friend of mine and we had just last week connected on email! So exciting!!

We have not heard anything yet this week. I am still hopeful that we will get a call for a match meeting soon. I've been thinking a lot about possible baby names! That post is coming soon!

The Ball Is No Longer In Our Court

For the first time in months the ball is totally in their court. There are no profile books to create, no inspections to prepare for. We delivered the profile to them this morning. They confirmed that there is still a decent chance we could get matched with a birth mom who is due at the end of August. So now we just wait for them to call us and schedule a preliminary match meeting. They told us this morning that it is usually customary for the adoptive family to submit several profile books. Oops! Our caseworker is new to the agency and she didn't know to tell us that and neither of us remember that from training. We had already ordered a second book that we wanted to keep, but will go ahead and take up to the agency when it gets here next week. Then I ordered a third today that maybe we will get to keep??

It is a very odd feeling knowing that there is the possibility of a us having a newborn in the house in a couple of weeks, but not knowing a due date yet. And then with any adoption there is always the chance that it could fall through at the last minute. So sweet Jason is trying to let his clients and colleagues know that he may have to back out of some business trips later this month- whereas with Josh or Lillie we knew the due date 9 months in advance and he had his schedule cleared within 3 weeks of the due date. That part of paper pregnacy is just different. But I've been suprised by some of the parallels- I've still had fun playing the name game, we've been nesting like crazy, there is still a ton of anticipation and longing for the day to come.

More Waiting and Trusting

Of course God allowed this to be the week that our normal UPS delivery guy is on vacation! Our sweet neighbors two doors down from us get daily shipments of textbooks. His job as I understand it is to write, review, and edit different textbooks that are primarily marketed to families that home school their kids. The point is- the UPS truck is on our street daily- usually around 2pm. Today 2pm came and went, and then 3pm came and went. Around 3:30 the kids and I wandered down to our neighbor's house to ask if they knew anything. Sure enough they knew that the regular guy is on vacation and that his sub hasn't been delivering packages until closer to 6pm in the evening. Although I was bummed that I didn't get to take the book up to the agency this afternoon, it was so nice to not keep looking out the window every 5 minutes wondering when it would get here. ?And my kids loved the little outing to the neighbors' house because they have a dog, a cat, and 3 chickens! So the poor UPS substitute guy eventually dropped it off around 8pm this evening. Jason and I are very happy with how it turned out. We mounted our hand-written letters in the front and it is ready to be dropped off tomorrow morning!!

Can you feel the joy, don't it make you want to jump, jump, jump...

(My friends with kids who went to High Seas Adventure VBS will appreciate the title of this post!)

Woo-Hoo!!! The profile scrapbook is ordered and should arrive here on Thursday. Jason and I are hand-writing our "dear birth parent" letters to mount inside the book when it arrives. Then we'll high-tail it up to the agency and submit it!! I've got to say a HUGE thanks to my friend Caren for watching Josh for me during Lillie's nap today so that I could get it finished and ordered.

"don't it make you want to move, move, move, raise your hands to the roof, roof, roof!"

The Beautiful Body of Christ

Jason and I have been so touched by the sweet notes of encouragements, prayers, and the gracious offers made by friends and family to help us with funding. The love and care that the body of Christ has for one another is a beautiful thing. We are very encouraged and went ahead and authorized the finance department at the agency to bill us the initial amount.

Tonight we continued working on our profile scrapbook. We are just two "dear birthparent" letters, two photos, and some proof-reading away from ordering it.

I'm very much looking forward to getting to post that it is ordered and being overnighted to the agency! Maybe tomorrow!!

Some Minor Setbacks

God has used this past week to help us remember to trust in Him and His timing. We had loaded a ton of pictures onto a flash drive and were pumped to work on our digital scrapbook while in Branson with Jason's familly. Unfortunately the free WiFi at the condo was terrible and could not handle uploading the pictures, etc. So we will work on the book this week, which isn't a huge deal. It was disappointing, though. Then we got our official approval letter followed by our finance statement. We had expected the sizeable down payment that needs to be payed up front, but we had not realized that the amount in full would be due at time of placement. We had misunderstood what we had read about monthly payments spread out over 12 months- that is only for families awaiting placement. So we need to get to work securing a loan! Thanks again for your prayers and your support!