My Final Post

I have realized over the past several months that I just don't have it in me- I'm just not a blogger. I respect you folks that can keep up your blogs with good, interesting posts on a regular basis. So this is my final post. Today was a very big day for our family. We went to the courthouse for Graham's finalization of his adoption. It was really sweet. Our attorney met us there. He is an older gentleman and just precious. When it was our turn we went up to the judge's bench. We each stated our names- Jason first then me. Then I asked the judge if Josh and Lillie could state their names too. I lifted Lillie up to the mike and she said, "L-I-L-L-I-E". Then Jason lifted up Josh- yep he decided to follow in his sister's footsteps and he spelled out, "J-O-S-H." There were several giggles from different folks in the room, and the sweet judge was just smiling very sweetly and complimented them on how smart they are. She was great. Then the attorney asked Jason a series of questions such as can we confirm that the birth parents have terminated their rights and that Hope Cottage has approved us as adoptive parents. The the last question he asked is, "Do you love this child and are you willing to provide a good home for him?" I just teared up. Then it was my turn and he asked me do I concur with the way Jason answered the previous questions. Then he asked me if I love the child and am I willing to give him a good home. I was barely able to choke out a "yes, I do." Then the judge said, "Well, it's not final until I give the little guy a gift. " Then she handed us a little puppy dog beany baby. So sweet. Then we went out into the hall and took the picture that I posted above. And we also got out Flat Stanley for our cousin in South Dakota and took a picture of Flat Stanley at the courthouse :-) We had originally hoped to head to the Arboretum for a family picnic, but the weather was not too cooperative- pretty chilly and very windy. So we settled for some Chick-Fil-A, where we happened to run into our dear friend Tara and her kids and one of her sweet friends. It was really sweet because Tara and her husband have been in our community group and have walked this road with us since we first started praying about adoption.

I originally started this blog because I wanted to share our adoption story with others. So if you know people who are considering adoption please pass my contact info along to them. If you don't have my info then just private message me on Facebook and I'll get it to you.

God bless you all and keep you all. May His goodness and His glory be ever-present in your lives.

Much love,

Courtney and family

My Happy Little Guy

Graham is doing great! We went to a pediatric dermatologist at the end of December. She had us try soy formula and Alimentum- a hypoallergenic formula to see if any of Graham's skin issues were caused by a milk protein allergy. We're back on regular formula now because the others didn't help, but she helped us feel better about using mild steroid creams to treat his eczema. She said as long as we are using it only on the rough patches of skin and not the smooth, healthy skin that we are in the clear. So his skin is actually doing much better.

We had his last post adoption visit by our caseworker at the agency today. We will be eligible to finalize his adoption in the courts next month, but the actual court date will probably be sometime in March. It will feel really good for it to be 100% a done deal!

Graham is also doing great with making strides developmentally. He is starting to roll over form his tummy to his back, starting to eat baby cereal and a couple of baby foods, and he's finally started doing a lot better with reaching and grabbing! He is such a happy baby- and so friendly and social. He loves to smile and talk to everyone he meets. Josh and Lillie are still totally smitten with him. Lillie especially loves being his little second mommy. She did get in trouble this week because she tried sneaking him her chocolate milk when I wasn't looking. That day she got a stern warning. Then two days later she fed him some of her cereal, so she lost a lot of privileges that day- no dessert, no TV, no books or stories at bedtime. That girl is sneaky! We need to keep a close eye on her!

My Budding Competitor

This big kid is way into sports and competition right now. My parents kept the kids for us last month while we did a retreat with our new marrieds group that we lead. Josh got to watch two back to back NFL play off games with his Poppy and he has not come back down from the football high. He will get out his little nerf football and act out games in the house- recently the Cowboys, Frogs, and Seahawks played Oklahoma and the "Coats" (Colts) and "Peetriots" (Patriots). Of course Frogs/Cowboys/Seahawks won.

In this picture Josh is holding a lemon slice. Every so often I like to scrub my kitchen floors with lemons. This day after we cleaned we made fresh squeezed lemonade at Josh's request.

Tomorrow Josh gets to take snacks to his preschool class. It's a pretty big deal to bring snack because you get to be the line leader and you get to sit at a special snack table and choose a friend to sit at the special table with you. Josh is bringing veggie straws and marshmallows for his snack. He is beyond excited. While we were counting out marshmallows and putting them into ziplock baggies I started asking Josh how he felt about turning five and getting to go to kindergarten next year. He told me he is sad and scared because you have to go to kindergarten everyday and so he won't have as much time to spend with his family. Awwww. That just broke my heart a little bit. But I think he is really going to love school, so that makes me feel better.

Foot Stamps

Today while some friends were over to play, Lillie disappeared for a few minutes. When I went to find her I found my bathroom covered in baby powder! Lillie was making "foot stamps".