Three Little Birds

Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people.   1 Chronicles 16:8 I am a little behind in blogging, and this Thanksgiving blog post is a little late coming, but I have been extraordinarily busy loving on a little bald guy :)  Please forgive me... This year, we obviously have so much to be thankful for.  Not only the warm home, our jobs, my being able to realize my dream of becoming a Nurse Practitioner & being blessed to be able to pursue & succeed in becoming one... our amazing marriage full of laughter, affection, & true teenage-style love... a fantastic supportive family and group of friends, and a church family that accepts & loves us as well as challenges us to become humble followers of Christ and to tell our community of His love... the list could go on & on.  And this year, we give thanks for our little tiny blessing.  Zane is ours to love, to teach, to guide, and to be called parents of!...

Many of you have already seen these pics on Facebook, but I wanted to be able to post them here for my bloggy friends and be able to go into more detail about the various elements. Because I'm kind of a designer at heart, I guess I like to pay attention to detail and share my ideas on decorating with my friends for inspiration.  I'm really proud of how Zane's nursery turned out.  And I think he likes it too!!  Every time I put him in the crib (if I'm cleaning or working close to the nursery), he falls right to sleep & likes to watch his turtles spin on the mobile.  And he LOVES his changing pad - it's his favorite spot. I wanted it to be a reflection of us, him, his heritage, and have a touch of vintage and nostalgia.  We painted the walls aqua before we knew it was a boy - I just knew I wanted a light blue because it's so soothing.  Just not a fan of "baby blue" so had to find a color that I liked.  But we will get there in a minute... gettin...

In 3 1/2 hours, my son will be exactly 4 weeks old :(  One MONTH!  Four weeks ago, my life was forever changed.  Four weeks ago, at this very time, I was sitting in a waiting room almost sick to my stomach & scared for my life as the birthfather & his mother tried to manipulate and coerce T. to change her mind and give the baby to them.  I am so thankful she didn't give in.  This little guy is perfect in every way, and just as his name proclaims, God is so gracious to place this gift in our lives.  There were so many years that we didn't know if we would ever be parents.  Doctors would tell us "there's no hope", and my heart was not ready for adoption, mostly for the fear of a failed adoption (meaning, that the bmom would change her mind).  Failed adoptions are real.  In fact, our agency told us it's actually quite common - as many as 1 in 4 birthmoms change their minds.  The words "failed adoption" is a strange phrase to me - tr...

The Wayne Pregnancy Center is a non-profit group in our county that supports pregnant girls and women in their decision of giving life to their child through adoption and/or in deciding to keep the child, if possible.  They offer counseling and information.  I am thankful for this group of volunteers, because they help to keep abortion off the table as an option for these women - they obviously don't force this issue, but give them hope about adoption instead.  I cannot wait until life settles down just a bit, for me & Justin to get involved with this group. They posted a couple of videos on their Facebook page this month in regards to Nov. being Adoption Awareness Month.  I have to tell you... I have not been super emotional about this adoption until the moment I heard Mark Schultz' song, "Everything to Me".  I bawled my eyes out!! Here's the video of Mark (who is adopted!) explaining the meaning of this song, and how it came to be.  Wow. Here's...

Here's a video of us on the way to the hospital once we got word that T's water had broken!  We were so excited!  PS- Important! Don't forget to pause the music by scrolling down (the music player's on the bottom right of the page).

Sounds so official doesn't it?  Well to us it is!  And legally, it's one of the LAST steps to finalizing the adoption of Zane.  The state of OK requires that a social worker visit the adoptive family one time after temporary custody has been awarded to ensure the baby's safety and our adapting to parenthood.  Which is good, considering how much it was!!  Oh my word.  Anyway, the state of NC requires 4!  So we are glad in one way that we could finalize the adoption in OK instead (for that reason only though). We had our PPA this past Saturday (Nov. 13) - the same social worker that did our home study came to do our PPA.  She is so nice and was ecstatic for us.  It was much less nerve-wracking and I didn't do quite the crazy spring-cleaning that I did for the home study.  She just interviewed us about our experience in OKC, the adoption itself, our relationship with the birthfamily, how the baby was doing at home (how much he eats, how w...

We didn't waste any time after getting home in taking our little Zaney to church!  He attended his very first church service this past Sunday (Nov. 7th)!  We even got there early (shocker to many of you, I am sure)!!  We knew our little rock star would have many fans wanting to get a look at the most anticipated baby!  Here he is in his little outfit - thanks to Aunt Lauren & Uncle Brooks (& Ellisyn!)! I cannot tell you how awesome it was to finally be with our church family again.  I will never take it for granted again.  Each song rang truer than ever before.  Each word I sang aloud reverberated within my heart with the thanksgiving I wanted to give to my Savior.  As tears streamed down my face and hands raised high to "You Are Here", "The same power that conquered the grave lives in me!  Lives in me!  Your love that rescued the earth lives in me!  Lives in me!"... I began to realize that this same power was the one th...

So, if you are my friend on Facebook, or know me at all other than the blog, you know by now that WE ARE HOME!!  I'm so sorry to my bloggy friends that I've not updated until now.  We just have been SO busy trying to settle in, get used to being parents (crazy hours), and catch up on sleep when we can. To summarize -- we got clearance to leave OK on Thursday, Nov. 4th, at 8:51 a.m.  We had a flight booked by 9:30 a.m., packed a month's worth of clothes, baby clothes & items, and only God knows what else!  I still have no clue how we got it all home!!  We got up with the attorney at his office to get our official adoption paperwork at 11 a.m., turned in our rental car and entered the airport at around 12:15 p.m.  We somehow managed to check in (without going over our weight limit on bags - another miracle from God!!  haha), go through a craaaaazy long line at security with the baby, car seat, boppy pillow, huge diaper bag, large rolling carry-on, ...

I know that we are supposed to live in the present and that constantly looking forward to the future prevents us from enjoying the day in which we're living.  But with the anticipation of what tomorrow may bring, how can I NOT look forward to it??  I am enjoying the "present" though... my perfect little miracle in my perfect little family.  He is an angel... even at 4am when we have changed his diaper for the 10th time that night and he just ate an hour ago!  Haha!!  He tends to wake up every hour - for example, at 1 am for feeding, at 2 am for a diaper change, at 3 am for either another feeding or because his paci fell out, then at 4am for either a feeding or another diaper.... you get the picture and I'm sure most of you have been there, done that!  :)  But we did go to the doctor yesterday for his circumcision, which went great.  They weighed him and he has only gained an ounce since leaving the hospital - he's only 6 lb, 5 oz!  But my lit...

Well it's official.  He is ours!!  Our birthmom signed consent today and although we have to wait for the ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) paperwork to be completed, we are officially parents to this perfect little "rock star" (we are calling him our little rock star, because his arrival has been long-awaited and there are hundreds of people dying to meet him!).  We are hoping to have paperwork completed by Wed. or Thurs. & hopefully go home on Thurs. or Fri.  I would LOVE to be able to attend church on Sunday - I have missed it so much!! "I asked the LORD to give me this boy, and he has granted my request" 1 Samuel 1:27 (NLT) I would just like to say thank you.  To my mom who has been a rock of support (even if she probably cried more than I did today!! haha).  And to Justin's mom who was also able to be here until last week - she was our comedic relief and also a great support system.  To our families at home, holding d...