Craft Project

Now, I do not consider myself a crafty person at all...in fact, I'm just not very creative usually. However, I have been wanting a couple of french style picture boards for the baby's room...so I made a couple! I did find some suggestions on the internet, so it's not all my own idea. These were made using painters canvas (on sale at Hobby Lobby this week), quilt batting, cheap fabric, ribbon, and 5/8" nails. I ran out of staples, but that worked well for a little bit as well. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out! :) I do think I need to find some brown upholstery tacks or something to help hold the ribbon tighter where they cross.

P.S. If we have a baby girl...yes, her room is going to be blue & brown. I bought the bedding set in those colors to use for either a boy or girl--and these picture boards match wonderfully, even if you can't tell that the blue in the ribbon is a little brighter than a baby blue. :) I may add a few hot pink "accents" for a girl, but that's about it--I'm not much of a pink girl myself.

Rollercoaster

Well, here we go...again! :) Our social workers called today; we still don't know any more about the situation with Mia as she is currently not responding to anyone's attempts to communicate. But that's not what the sw's called about anyway. They wanted to tell me (us) about another possible match with a birthmom due Nov. 11 with a baby girl! They had already sent her our profile earlier this week and she called them today to say that she loved it and we are the family she has hoped for! So--I couldn't exactly pass up an opportunity to learn more and gave the okay for the birthmom to call me, which she did...about 10 minutes after I got off the phone with the sw's!

We talked for an hour and she truly seems to be the birthmother of our dreams. The only "negative" is that she lives so far away--6 hours south of us, almost as far south in AR as you can get without going into Louisiana. ( I know, not so far really compared to other adoption situations, but about as far as you can go and still be in the same state). We were both very comfortable talking to each other for the first time and she just kept saying that she is "so excited" and can't wait to meet us. Definitely encouraging!

Of course, we still don't know what will happen with Mia's situation and the baby boy we've carried in our hearts these past weeks--but it sounds like we may need to move on and seriously consider this other situation. I don't think it will be a problem for either of us--our minds are already spinning furiously and we've been trying to imagine the possible scenarios already.

Thanks for taking our rollercoaster ride with us--if you hang around long enough, you just never know what kind of thrill you might get. ;)

P.S. I think you can probably understand why I'm not in bed snoozing like my hubby right now--my mind is in overdrive (plus I don't have to get up for work in the morning). :P

Riding the Waves

I know you all are waiting for an update...unfortunately, I don't have much to offer in the way of happy, cheery, baby news. I don't know how else to say it or exactly what to say--but we're definitely riding the waves here. I won't go into all of the details, but the adoption is very iffy right now and may or may not go through. I guess that's nothing new--but it's just more obvious at this point. The last we heard on Sunday, Mia had decided not to go through with it, but there are so many factors involved. Thank goodness we have a terrific relationship with her and her changing her mind has nothing to do with us--which could still work in our favor. I didn't go to LR today for the check-up so we haven't heard anything new in that regard. I had hoped for a call from the social worker updating us today, but so far that hasn't happened. I know that she'll call when she has something to tell us, though.

We're remaining hopeful (but realistic as well) and will just have to wait it out and see what happens. The good news is that with the due date 2 weeks away, we surely don't have long to wait to get closure of some kind. We thank you all for your continued prayers, support, love, hope, etc. but we kindly decline any offers of pity because it just isn't very useful. :)

p.s. if any of you have any experience with surfing the waves, we sure could use some pointers. :P (a little attempt at light-hearted humor there--can't let it get too heavy or you just get drug under!)

Baby Check-in

I was in LR again yesterday for the weekly check-up. Everything's looking pretty good. Mia's b/p is still a concern at 142/90 but it probably always will be. She got a lecture from the dr. about taking her b/p medication regularly, etc. and how it can affect her and baby. I know it's important, but it's really not in my control so I just have to not worry much about it. Baby's heartbeat was good--always so much fun to hear it!! The dr. estimates that he's at least 6 lb. now, in which case that means he's been doing some pretty quick growing. Now I don't know whether to re-pack my coming home diaper bag yet again or leave the preemie outfits in there...maybe I'll add a nb size sleeper just in case. :P I enjoy packing & repacking the bag, so it's not like it's a chore or anything at this point. :) Mia has been having some contractions, but I know those can go on for weeks before the baby is born. I'm going to adjust my thinking from "any day now" to "3 weeks at the most." Maybe then I'll be surprised instead of feeling like I'm just waiting every day. I know, I know--everyone has to wait for their baby to be born, no matter how he/she joins the family. I'm recognizing lately just how many similarities there are between biological parents and adoptive parents, even during pregnancy. :)

I think I'll do some more work in baby's room today--put sheets on the twin bed, etc. We're waiting on a piece to come for the changing table/dresser that was broken when we opened the box so that Ryan can finish that and he did put the crib together this week. It's so much fun to imagine a baby in there! :P *Maybe* I'll also continue my trim project & work on the baseboard trim for the baby's room. Then the trim in that room will be finished except for some touch-ups!

Thanks for following along with our journey--I know that people wait for updates, so figure I need to be good about posting them but sometimes I feel like I'm talking about it too much. :P I guess if I were the pregnant one, I'd be talking about it even more because perfect strangers would be asking, etc. :P

Productive Saturday

The picture is of red velvet cake. If you've never had it, I'm truly sorry--you're definitely missing out! Here's a link if you'd like to know more about red velvet. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake

Saturday was a great day! I got lots of things done and felt so productive and satisfied at the end of the day. I made a trip to Sam's club to get cheese & meat then came home and boiled 7 lb. of chicken breasts to freeze & use later. I cut up the huge roll of hamburger into 2-people sized portions to freeze individually. Then I made two pans of lasagna and 3 pans of chicken enchiladas to pull out and bake at a later date! I also chopped up green peppers & onions to freeze and use later. :) My freezers really haven't ever been this full (that I can recall) and the best part is that it should make meals a lot easier & quicker once the baby comes and we're both too tired to do much cooking. Is this what they call "nesting"?

We topped off the day with friends and Red Velvet Cake, much to my delight and surprise! :) Thanks, Jordan, for another awesome cake--better watch out, I'm starting to count on it!

(the above picture is not of Jordan's cake--hers was much prettier--but notice the "was" and I didn't get a picture of it!)

This week's update

I went to Little Rock for Mia's weekly check-up on Wednesday. Everything seemed to be going good--b/p was down a little, dilated to 1 cm, measuring on target and that's about all the statistics I have. :P Next appointment: next Wednesday. We spent the afternoon together, getting some of her school supplies at the campus bookstore and eating a long (and delicious!) lunch at the Olive Garden. It was great to see her again and spend some quality time together. :)

Now you know everything we do as far as the baby news--she still feels a lot of changes and thinks he may be coming sooner than later, but we'll have to wait and see. He's definitely moving a lot--I watched him kick around when we were eating lunch yesterday. :)

Convention Visitors

We had some visitors last week for Rogers convention. It was great to have them here and we had a wonderful convention! Each night when we got home, we got to play with the boys and read bedtime stories and every morning it took a little longer than it should to get ready because there was *a little* playing involved. :)

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of everyone dressed and ready for the day--but pj pictures (of the boys) are cute, too!

Zaden sure knows how to make Xander laugh quicker than anyone and even when it seems like being a bit rough, Xander still laughs so he must like wrestling as much as his big brother. :) I got a big laugh out of Zaden one morning when he told Sonya "mom, wrestle with me" and when she declined he said, "mom, please punch me!" LOL

Whew--what a day!

Let me tell you about our day yesterday. :) We went to Little Rock for one of Mia's appointments with the high-risk dr. Her b/p was sky high and the dr. was very concerned. The u/s showed that the baby has gained some and weighs 4 lb. 5 oz. now, but that's still pretty small for where he should be at 35 weeks. He is now head-down (yay!) and the gains are a positive even if he's still small. Oh, and he has hair; we could see it on the u/s--too cute! Anyway, with her b/p and swelling, etc. the dr. was very worried about complications for her that could result. He consulted with her regular obgyn and they decided she needed to be admitted to the hospital for 24 hours of tests. So--that's where we spent our late afternoon/evening--at the hospital. At one point, the nurse was talking about the possibilities--none of which sounded good--if her b/p stayed high, etc. The dr. mentioned that we probably weren't leaving there without a baby so we had no idea what was going to happen. It was a crazy first couple of hours until they got the first bloodwork results back and they were normal and her b/p dropped drastically and stayed in the safe range. They dismissed her at 9:00 last night, we drove her home, then drove us home (getting here around 12:30 am). We were exhausted, but happy that it all turned out well. As Ryan pointed out, it was a great way to "tour" the hospital and now we'll know more what to expect when it's "for real." Overall, it was a positive day. It gave us the chance to bond further with Mia, find out more about Baby Boy, and get to know the hospital and staff a little bit. Glad the day ended well and BB can grow for a few more weeks, hopefully!

Now I need to get myself in gear and get busy! Today is the day that my mom, sister Sonya, and 2 of our nephews come to stay for convention! I need to get some very tempting dirt and junk off the carpets & floors so that Xander doesn't use it as a buffet. :P Then I've got several other things on my list for the day--before we head to convention this evening! Very exciting--and I'm thrilled that it's looking like we're going to be able to get all 4 days. Yesterday at one point we weren't sure.