Pictures

Here are a few pictures for all of you who have been waiting so patiently! Also, our friend Paul McEntire put together a beautiful little quicktime movie that you can view if you visit Michael's Blog: www.eyeswideopenblog.com

Enjoy!

Home!

We are home - yay! It was a LONG drive - especially with a toddler. Sarah is feeling much better (no fever), so she came alive and decided she didn't like being confined in her car seat. Can't say I blame her. Andrew, on the other hand, just slept and slept. So nice! I just hope he will sleep and sleep tonight. He seems to come alive between midnight and 3am before returning to sleep. We'll have to work on that one!

I just have to share one parenting moment that we had our first night with Andrew. Shortly after putting Sarah in our bed at the hotel she threw up all over the sheets. It was a mixture of orange juice and olives (we ate at Olive Garden). We changed the sheets and her pjs and we went to bed. As soon as the lights went off, Andrew decided to wake up and he also decided he was hungry. He hadn't really been eating that much at the hospital and I guess he finally got his appetite. Michael and I took turns feeding and immediately changing poopy diapers. Well, the last diaper that was put on him managed to wiggle its way down to his ankles. So, when I picked him up first thing in the morning poop squirted all over me. Before we could pack up and leave I had to soak lots of things in the tub! Anyway, we thought we had a pretty good baptism that night.

I promise pictures tomorrow. We have some really cute ones of Sarah holding her baby brother.

On our way!

Just a quick update to let you know that we have Andrew and we went ahead and drove to Fargo this afternoon. The goodbyes and departure went better than we could have anticipated. Andrew and Sarah slept for the 2 hour car ride. Sarah continues to run a fever and has basically attached herself like a leech to me. But, she is very interested in her brother and can't stop saying "baby" -which sounds more like "bobby." So far Andrew has been kind to us and hasn't cried for extended periods of time. He likes to be swaddled tightly and that seems to satisfy him. Of course, the night is still young! :) We plan to see Michael's grandparents tomorrow before driving part of the way home. If I don't post photos tomorrow, I'll probably wait until we are home and unpacked. Sorry to make you wait!

A crazy two days....but it's all good....

Where do I begin? I guess I'll start where I last left off....frantically packing to leave town. Michael and I both ran into the office to get our desks in order and let people know we were going to be gone. While I was sitting at my desk I got a call from Sarah's preschool to come pick her up (1 1/2 hours after dropping her off) because she had a fever. So, I picked her up and rushed home to finish throwing things together, while being followed around by a sick child that wanted to be cuddled. Poor girl! We packed way more than we took to Vietnam, mainly because I couldn't think straight and if it looked like it might serve any purpose at all, it went in the suitcase. So, we will be gone for a total of 5 days and I have about a month's worth of stuff. Good thing for a minivan! :) My friend Natasha was such a champ, running to the store to buy formula and some winter-ish clothing for the baby. We finally hit the road around 3:45pm and arrived to the hotel at 6:00am this morning. Sarah did awesome in the van. She only fussed briefly around 3am. After a brief nap and shower we went to meet our son. It was a similar feeling to meeting Sarah for the first time, in that you KNOW this is your child, but it doesn't really FEEL like this is your child. I think it takes a few days... I remember at the orphanage holding Sarah for short periods before the nannies would come and take her for a while. And I was okay with that. I just needed to take it all in. It was like that today...only also trying to be sensitive to the birth mom, who also happens to be Michael's younger 1/2 sister. She was and is a champ through all of this. I think she feels relieved that we are here and Andrew is going to be well taken care of. One could not ask for this situation to go better. Truly an answer to prayer. Michael did most of the baby holding this morning because Sarah was shedding tears of seeing mama's lap shared with another baby. This evening I got some time to hold Andrew alone in the nursery. I went back in the room and Sarah seemed better with me holding him. She kept patting his tiny little head saying, "ma-ba" - whatever that means in her little language. I like to think she is saying, "my baby" - but, probably not.

Now, for the good stuff that you all want to hear about. He is a little under 7 pounds with delicate facial features, long fingers, and some thin brown hair. He really is a pretty baby (of course I am going to say that, so judge for yourself). The best part is his little, tiny, microscopic cry that sounds more like a mouse squeak. Seriously, if a cat heard him cry he would be in trouble.

Andrew spends one more night in the hospital before he is discharged tomorrow afternoon. That means we get one last night of peace. Sarah has us very spoiled with her 12 hour nights! Please keep Sarah in your prayers. Just before we laid her down we took her temp. It was 102.5.

I was going to add pictures to this blog tonight, but blogger isn't cooperating. Michael put some pics from today on his blog www.eyeswideopenblog.com.

He's here!!!!

Hey everybody! Much to our surprise our son was born this morning! We found out at 2am last night that the birthmother was in labor (almost 3 weeks sooner than we expected) and Andrew Michael was born this morning at 8:48am. He weighs 7 pounds and is healthy (have not seen any pictures yet). We are frantically getting ready to leave town later today and we have a 12-14 hour drive ahead of us to get to North Dakota. We will probably take our laptop with us, and if we do, we will do our best to post to our blog. What a day!!!! And I thought getting ready for Vietnam in 2 weeks time was challenging! :)

Can Tho Mommies - Congratulations on your upcoming travel. Can't wait to watch your blogs in Vietnam!

One year ago today....

we saw this lovely face for the first time....

On April 3, 2006 we got a call from our agency about a 9 month old baby girl. Her file was incomplete and they did not have a picture. We waited two L-O-N-G weeks for the in-country director to travel out to the province to get updates and pictures. It took so long because about the time we got the initial phone call about Sarah, the VN director seriously hurt her back and was not able to travel until it was better. It was a hard wait, but obviously it was well worth it. So, April 13th is the day we were finally able to see our baby's sweet face and officially sign the acceptance paperwork. Here is the other picture that we received that same day. I'm still not sure if they were taken on the same day, but Sarah appears to be about the same age in both pictures.

pictures from the weekend

April Showers

Happy belated Easter everyone! I pray yours was filled with the joy of the Lord! Sarah looked adorable in her lavender Easter dress even if it was below freezing outside! We’ll have to take her Easter pictures when it warms back up.

On Saturday a baby shower was given to help our family prepare for the arrival of our son (due in just under 3 short weeks). Natasha and Jaclyn did an amazing job of coordinating everything and Cindy, Jean Anne, and my mom helped out with delicious food. Given that it was a holiday weekend and our second child, I couldn’t believe how many people came. It was a wonderful mix of people that I love: old teacher friends, church friends, small group friends, friends thru our adoption agency, long-time friends, and relatives. There were so many packages to open! I could cry just thinking about it! And, I did nearly cry when I realized that Ly and her family sent a baby gift all the way from the west coast. Ly and John were in our VN travel group and their son is from Ninh Thuan. She had emailed Natasha wanting to know if there was going to be a shower so that she could send a gift. My college roommate (and dear friend) Sefani came to the shower bearing pictures of us from our first 2 years of college. What a hoot! Everyone had a good ‘ole time with those photos. Thanks Fani! Showers are such a huge blessing…. How would we do without them?

God also provided us with a beautiful minivan on Saturday. While my mom and I were at the shower, Michael and my dad drove to Arkansas to purchase a van that Michael found on-line. It’s a slightly used (and I do mean slightly) Toyota Sienna. It was owned by an elderly lady who probably only drove it to church and back. I love, love, love the smell of new leather in a vehicle! I guess I better breathe in the smell of newness while I can. It’ll be my van for at least the next 10 years. I know, I know, I’m such a mom to be so excited over a minivan!

Well, that’s about it for us! Still chipping away at the baby room. I’d say it’s over ½ way complete. I’ll post pictures when it’s finished.

I’ll also post some shower pictures tonight. I don’t have my memory card handy right now.

Tagged!

Ok - I've been tagged by Elisabeth (see Baby Brodt on the sidebar for her blog) and so I have to think of 10 unusual/odd things about me. I told her that it might be hard because I am such a normal gal (ha, ha). Here's my best effort (not in any particular order).

1. I don't like to read the newspaper because I hate the texture of newsprint, hate getting ink on my hands, and hate the general size of the paper.

2. I still twirl my hair just like I did when I was little. The more I try to stop, the more I think about it, the more I do it. Weird!

3. I have a strong dislike of seafood that boarders on a phobia.

4. When I get really hot my feet turn bright red. Basically, my feet control my overall body temp. If they're hot, I'm hot...cold, I'm cold. It's really embarrassing when people ask me if I've sunburned my feet!!!

5. I consider taking naps a favorite hobby and pastime. I could be a competitive napper! I would win!

6. When I was in high school I was on the competitive cheer/pom squad in the fall and winter and on the synchronized swim team in the spring. Seriously - it was a school sport!

7. My childhood dream was to adopt a daughter from Asia. I started talking about it when I was in elementary school. Dream fulfilled!

8. When I drink Diet Dr. Pepper it makes me crave chocolate and when I eat chocolate it makes me crave Diet Dr. Pepper. As a result I consume entirely too much of both. It's a vicious cycle.

9. I really, really want to pierce my nose. I have for a long time. It is completely out of character for me, but I think it looks beautiful. Unfortunately it would disappoint some very important people in my life if I did it (not my husband - he would like it), so it is probably not worth going through with it.

10. Nearly 9 years after graduating college I still have the reoccurring dream that I've had a class on my schedule that I didn't show up for, and consequently failed. In my dream I don't find out about it until I am ready to walk across the stage at graduation and I don't get my diploma.

Well, theses aren't as exciting as other people's, but I don't want to share my REALLY strange stuff with the whole wide world. This is my "safe" weird list. :)

My next post (when I have time) will be about our awesome new minivan and the amazing baby shower that my friends threw for me.

I'll tag Jamie next (The Sweet Family Adventures).....