My Heart

I'm often asked if it's been great having a newborn and while my answer is yes, I have absolutely loved it, it's been a bit bittersweet. The past 8 months have also been very hard - hard as I more fully realize the neediness of infants. It pains my heart that I wasn't able to be there for my other two. I feel so sad that they didn't have someone nurturing and taking care of them. And while I know that their caregivers did the best that they could and they loved our children (that was clear), the reality is that they couldn't possibly attend to every need. So while these months have been so fun watching Ty grow and develop, they have also deeply touched my heart. It has effected my parenting style and parenting decisions. I definitely tend towards attachment parenting and I know it's because of our experience in the orphanages and our experience now as parents of a newborn.

So you see, my heart has been heavy in the midst of joy. It has been amazing and I wouldn't trade our experiences for the world but that won't stop the sad realization of the months we missed and of the children now who are waiting. But I'm so thankful for each of my children and thankful that God knew when each of them needed to come to us. I'm thankful for their growth and development and the many, many moments we do get to enjoy!

And I hug my kids a little closer, spoil them just a little, and pray.

A VERY, VERY BIG DAY!

We are so, so excited to announce that this morning around 10:30 a.m., Titus Paul became forever ours. We have copies of the official adoption decree and we couldn't be happier. I've been smiling ever since. We opted to keep the date quiet for the same reasons that we waited to post pictures of our precious son.

It was such a pleasant surprise that we were able to finalize so quickly. With the unknowns surrounding his birth, I've been so anxious for this day to come. While we trusted that it would and it had already happened in our hearts, I think we are breathing a sigh of relief. I feel exhausted beyond belief - I think emotional exhaustion. It has been a whirlwind few months and I'm so glad that Ty is officially, legally, and forever a part of our family.

What a beautiful day. We were a little emotional at the hearing - hard to believe, right? :) Having had the privilege of being in court now for all three of our children, there is nothing like hearing the wonderful words granting your children a permanent, legal place in your family. We feel so blessed. We could never in a million years have chosen a more perfect way for our family to be formed or more perfect children for us. God has been so gracious to our family.

So please rejoice with us today! We are SO happy!

He Has Stolen Our Hearts...

Random Tidbits & Thoughts

Titus weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs. 8 1/2 oz. today! Surprised us and the doctor. He got a great report! I made sure and asked if they had any formula coupons and they gave me not only coupons but four cans of formula. What a blessing! Ty is on Similac Sensitive and it seems to be working out - he's gaining weight and not feeling yucky. So we are sticking with it for now.

Andrew is on the board with Adoptions of Indiana and they have their annual golf outing today. So he is spending the day at the fundraiser - I think he was taking pictures of the golfers and had various other responsibilities. Tony Dungy is the speaker this evening at the dinner so he is definitely looking forward to that! :)

On a completely unrelated note, a couple of friends have mentioned a local farm delivery service for groceries and I'm pretty seriously considering giving it a try. The food is mostly organic and a lot of it is locally grown and produced. It's a year-round service and is delivered for free to your door every week or every other week ($35 minimum). They have a fruit and vegetable bin that's $35 and then you can add other things like eggs, bread, milk, pasta, meat etc. I'm not big on grocery shopping, I like to support local business, and I try to incorporate as much natural and organic food into our diet as I can. I'm thinking this might be a great solution to the rising food costs...if only to make me use what's delivered and to lessen my trips to the grocery store where I'm tempted to buy things we don't necessarily need. If we go this route, I'll probably try every other week and see how it goes. I can menu plan around what is delivered and add other items based on what the plan is. :) Anyway, I spent some time researching it this morning and was impressed - it's a little different than a CSA.

Do any of you use this type of service? I just can't imagine how wonderful it must be to have groceries delivered to your door. My goal would be to stick with mostly pantry staples at the grocery store and limit trips to 1-2 times/month. We'll see...

Of Note

Today was Titus' actual due date.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig :)

We arrived home around 1 this afternoon to a whirlwind of activity. Ty went to the doctor at 2 - he had a great check-up and his weight is up to 6 lbs. 13 oz.! Hooray for him! I went to the chiropractor around 5 and then we all headed to my parents for my youngest brother's birthday. We decided it would be a great chance for everyone to meet Titus and to enjoy a meal and family time.

Tomorrow we have set aside as a day just for the 5 of us. We are really looking forward to reconnecting as a family. The boys are thrilled that we are home and ecstatic about being big brothers. We are just enjoying all three of our boys - we feel so incredibly blessed! We continue to pray that all will work out and we will be able to finalize Ty's adoption in the coming months.

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, notes, comments, and for following along on our amazing journey. You have blessed us more than we can express. And while our journey is not over, the blog will begin to go back to it's more eclectic topics. :)

Yay!!!

We're Going Home!!!!

Still Here

We are still here. Today has been one of the toughest of the last week - it's a long story. We have some hope that we will be allowed to return home tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ty gets cuter by the day! It's hard to believe he will be two weeks tomorrow! He is such a sweetie and as we've said before, totally worth all the frustrations. We never dreamed that IN would be so difficult. The guy that needs to approve us will be gone until Wednesday after tomorrow so we hope and pray that he does not leave us hanging for another week.

We are weary. We have been blessed by the family here - they have not only encouraged us when we've been down but our hostess has gone to bat for us and worked hard to figure out what needs to happen. We are thankful for them and for this time with Titus.

Pictures & Good News!

Well, what normally takes "weeks" here will happen tomorrow! We are so thankful! It's been so exciting to see God's amazing work. We received the phone call this afternoon and we were told that this was definitely a God-thing and we couldn't agree more! We also were told that it was no problem for C to sign and she didn't mind - we were glad. We don't know exactly when we will be home but it looks like sooner rather than later. :) I don't think this would have felt long or even as stressful if it weren't for our wonderful sons at home. We miss them like crazy and thus our antsy-ness (yes, I'm making up words :))!!!

SO, here are some pictures (there will also be an album on facebook):

Prayer

Please PRAY TODAY! There is some more paperwork being signed and filed. We are hopeful this will enable us to return home sooner rather than later but here is still the "weeks" possibility. Pray that we will find favor in the sight of the court here and the processors in IN. These are not laws in the legal sense - they are policies. Also, please pray for C - she has to sign something else this morning and we feel awful that she has to do that. From our understanding, IN is the only state that requires this particular thing. You better believe we will be writing some letters when we get home... :)

We will be going out today - yay! We are planning to go to the mall, Starbucks (to upload pictures - okay, and for a mocha :)), and to lunch - just the 3 of us! Yeah, I'm excited. :) We haven't gotten out much. :)

Rides to Remember

I feel like venting about policies, competency and other such issues but alas I shall restrain myself... We are pretty much no closer to resolution (at least that we can tell). IN is being very difficult for unknown reasons.

So for now, I will tell you about two elevator experiences. In our short stay at the hospital I had two rather interesting rides. :)

The first occurred when we got on an elevator with several others before realizing there was a vomiting kid on board. He stood in the corner gagging and tossing his cookies into a cup - loudly. It took everything in me not to puke myself. Note to self: if child is sick, ask others to take a different elevator - do not hold the door for them and wait for them to enter. Poor kid.

The second happened a couple of days later. I was by myself and got onto an elevator with several hospital employees. They began discussing the fact that a couple of them had given blood moments before. One of the ladies was feeling woozy and then she slumped over. Thankfully there were several people on board. I held the old elevator doors open (they were bound and determined to squash me) and asked for a wheelchair (before I realized that she had passed out cold). A man came and helped carry her out of the elevator and laid her on the floor. He started calling for smelling salts (it felt like a movie by this point). I made sure she had the help she needed (four people or so) and quietly closed the elevator door to ascend to my floor - by myself. I will admit, I hesitated to ride the elevator with anyone after that - I looked at them thoroughly to ensure optimal health. :)

We are working on keeping positive here. I know in the realm of time, this will be such a short amount of time but right now it's just frustrating. Not knowing is perhaps the most frustrating. We will probably go to a Starbucks tonight or tomorrow to get wireless internet so we can post pictures!

Rest

We've enjoyed a restful day today. We attended church this morning with our gracious hosts and took naps this afternoon. We were able to have dinner with my sister and brother-in-law since they were camping not too far away this weekend. It's been a refreshing day which was much needed.

We are hopeful that things can be quickly sorted out tomorrow - though we expected to be here possibly two weeks, we had definitely been given hope that we would be home much sooner. Even on Friday, there were thoughts that we would be approved to return home that afternoon. So hearing that it may be another 10 or more days was a pretty tough blow yesterday. We will keep you updated and as always, we appreciate the prayers and thoughts.

Every time I look at this little boy, I am amazed. He is wonderful and I cherish these early days of getting to know him. We feel so incredibly blessed. Yesterday it was beautiful to see our older boys so instantly in love with this little guy. I planned to post a few pictures here from that but haven't had access to the camera and internet at the same time. So stay tuned for them - yes, we have decided to post some of those pictures. :) We are such a happy family - completely enamored with the newest member.

Update

We are hearing that we may be here for over another week. Please pray - I cannot even tell you how discouraging this is. On good news, our boys came for a visit with my mom and brother today! It has done our hearts good but also makes our hearts ache that we are apart. The boys loved meeting Ty!! So sweet.

Big Prayer Request

All the paperwork has been approved here but the office in our state is saying that they don't have everything they need. It's Friday. So the long and short of it is that we can't go home, we don't know what they need, and we don't know when we will be able to go home - could be a early next week or it could be much longer. We are so discouraged and down today. Please pray that everything will be quickly sorted out on Monday. It's been another bump in the road but Ty is completely worth it. We miss our other boys so much. So some tears are shed today - we don't have a lot of answers so please just pray.

Homesick

We are still here. :) Hanging in there. We are really missing our boys at home. Paperwork is definitely under way and we hope to get approval to return home soon. Ty is doing well. He is pretty constipated at the moment. So you can pray for that. Our hosts are so kind and we've had such a nice time here but we are ready for home! Sorry this is pretty uninteresting...just wanted to give a quick update.

Doctor's Report

We just got back from the doctor and things look good! He gained 2 oz. which is right on track. He cooperated beautifully but was a little dramatic - grunting everytime the doctor touched him. :)

I'm hoping to put up an album on facebook soon - we can't access anything here very well so it will probably be next week. If you aren't already my facebook friend - feel free to ask. :)

And if you still haven't received a picture and stats - please e-mail me again or leave a comment with an e-mail address or way to get in contact with you! I've been working on it...

Slept Well

Ty slept very well last night - I had to wake him up for his feedings. He woke up at 7:30a.m. and was ready for some interaction. :) He has been getting the hiccups a few times a day - poor guy. We go to the doctor today and hope he is gaining weight! He was down 8 oz. by the time we left the hospital which was within normal but we are hoping he is more now. He is still spitting just a little but nothing like before so we are thankful for that. He is a doll!

Report

Last night went well overall, I was tired this morning, though. :) He was a little restless (due to sleeping so much during the day) but wasn't cranky. I am a light sleeper when kiddos are nearby so I was awake a lot! At 5, he decided it was definitely time to wake up. I stayed up with him and fed him until about 6 (and enjoyed the time) and then passed him off to Andrew while I rested for awhile. He has been more wakeful today and I took a nap this afternoon while he napped and hung out with Andrew. Not having to think about meals or housekeeping has been wonderful - we are able to focus on Ty.

Please contine to pray for things to work out. And please pray that our paperwork will be processed quickly and well and enable us to return home soon! Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement - you have no idea how much you have blessed us in the midst of difficulty and tremendous joy.

Settled

I'm typing one-handed so please forgive any mistakes. :) We are doing well! We are settled into the home of a lovely family who will be taking care of us for most of the rest of our time here. Ty is wonderful and very sleepy. I'm afraid he may have his nights and days mixed up - he has slept most all of the day today. Oh well. He's beautiful and I just can't get enough of him. :) If you haven't received an e-mail, I'm so sorry. I've been trying to get them out to everyone but it may take me a couple of days. Our internet access may be a little less frequent but I will try to keep up! Thank you for the prayers - we are so touched and encouraged. Please don't stop! We still have some time that the birthmom could change her mind and we still have time for the adoption to be final. The past few days have been incredibly emotional and I think we are both exhausted. We are so thankful for the wonderful nurses at the hospital - saying goodbye today was tough (even though we were ready to go!). As we adjust to a newborn's schedule, we would really appreciate your prayers. We want to take the best care of him that we possibly can! He is a blessing. More tomorrow.

Released!

He is being released this afternoon! The delay has been that attorney being able to get here. He is doing GREAT today - eating is hugely improved, jaundice is normal, and he is less restless! I've gotten to hold him most of the morning. :) We are headed back up for our crash course in newborn care (thankfully, we did take a class before coming :)). Thank you all - we will let you know when we are settled tonight!