Pictures!

Here are a few pictures; I know you've all been waiting and sorry to keep you waiting so long. Our time is filled with feeding, changing, loving, and cuddling Jacobi now--and time on the internet just isn't as important any more. :) It's amazing!!!! Jacobi's first Sunday meeting, pot luck lunch, and gospel meeting went so well--he slept most of the time and ate when he needed to; no fussing at all! Ryan promises to take some new pictures tomorrow when he has sunlight to work with. :)

These have been taken since Friday, just to give you a reference point. The pictures are nice, but he's so much cuter in real life, trust me! :) And yes, those cheeks are every bit as kissable as they look! Sometimes he wrinkles up his forhead when I kiss him like "awww, come on mom, you're embarassing me"...but it doesn't stop me now and probably never will!

Home Sweet Home!

First, thanks for all of your very wonderful comments and emails.
We got home last night with our precious baby boy! We can hardly believe it's real, but it is--and it's wonderful! He is doing fantastic, saw the pediatrician today and he couldn't have been happier with how healthy he is. He weighed 7# 8oz at birth and 7# 4oz. today. He is 21 inches long--with very big hands and feet and loooong fingers and toes! He's going to be a big boy. :) My parents are here right now, which is so wonderful and helpful. Ryan went back to work today but after tomorrow he'll be off again for his 3 days off, which will be great. We are both very much attached and in love with Jacobi! He is a very sweet baby and is just so extremely cute, but of course I'm slightly biased.

I'm sorry there are no new pics in this post, dad and Ryan are already sleeping and I can't get to the camera card reader at the moment. Maybe tomorrow. :) I really haven't slept much since the night before he was born, but oh well--I got 3 hour nap today, which made me feel a lot better. I'm finally coming down off of the euphoria and adrenaline...amazing how far that can take a person. :)

Remember: more pics will come later! :)

Jacobi Magsam

Today we met our son, Jacobi Shawn Ryan Magsam!

He was born on October 28th at 10:20pm. We got the call from Aries at around 11:20pm. I was completely surprised that he came so early, that he was a boy instead of a girl, and by Dalene flipping the light on and yelling/crying me out of a dead sleep. I'll keep that memory for a long time.

We already had the perfect name picked out, the only problem it was a girl name. We left home at 12:30am this morning and talked most of the 5 hour trip about boy names. We arrived at the hospital with Jacobi Ryan as our favorite. Aries had already picked out Shawn Ryan, as Shawn was the delivering doctor that had also been extremely supportive during her pregnancy. Since all the names have meaning that will be a part of the baby's heritage, at the risk of him one day hating his extremely long name, we combined them to form Jacobi Shawn Ryan!

We are having a wonderful time here at the hospital with Aries and Jacobi. We know we won't be able to have as much contact with Aries after we go home with Jacobi, so are trying to spend as much time with her as we can. It will be difficult to leave her tomorrow with Jacobi knowing It will probably be awhile before we see her again. Words cannot describe how wonderful it has been to know her above simply being the mother of our son, but also as a friend. We've already begun talking about a barbecue sometime about a year from now so she can meet some of our family!

Coincidentally we ran into some of the Friends here at the hospital who just had a son two days ago! It was special to meet them, we've only seen them once or twice before at convention. They are in the room next door to us!

And at last, the pictures...

Wonderful Visit

We had a wonderful visit with Aries this week. We went down on Sunday afternoon/evening and checked into our hotel and spent some time together that evening, just Ryan & I. We spent Monday and part of Tuesday with Aries and Saxton (her 16 month old son). He is a handsome little guy and very sociable/friendly. He took to us very quickly and we enjoyed playing with him and chasing him around so Aries could rest a little bit. Since we're missing all of our nephews, it was fun to play with an active toddler again. I really can't even describe our trip, our visits, or our relationship with this amazing lady in a way that anyone else could understand--but it is truly awesome. The baby seems to be doing great as well, but of course at this point she's hardly "real" to us. We also know that "she" could very well be a "he" if the u/s they did a few months ago was hiding things. :) We've probably got about 3 weeks left until we find out the particulars for sure...it kind of feels surreal and not quite believable and while we're excited, we're really much less anxious than with the previous situations. We'll just ride it out and see what lays in store. :)

In the meantime, I'm working this week (well today, tomorrow, and Friday anyway) and it feels good to be back with my students from last year in a resource math class. I feel right at home except for with far less responsibility/business than ever before. Ryan's still enjoying his job although it's been extra busy these past couple of weeks. I don't know what else to say so this is it for now...adios and good day!

Fall

We really don't have much in the way of fall color here yet, so I had to settle for a picture from the internet, but the weather has been wonderful! I love the cool breezes that fall brings. :) Can't wait for our own fall color--right now there are just a few trees here and there that are brilliant, but it hasn't really hit in full force yet.

I really don't have much to say but felt like I needed a new post. Aries and the baby are doing good. She has another appointment tomorrow, so maybe I'll have some updated news then. We're hoping to go back for a visit this coming Monday/Tuesday and we're all 3 excited about cementing our connection and relationship before the baby comes. I talk to her on the phone almost every day so that helps to keep us connected as well. :) She's 36 weeks now, so it's all getting closer. Funny enough, I feel better about this match than either of the others, but I haven't done a single thing to get ready for baby since we've been talking to her--I guess I figure it will all come together sooner or later and I'm not too worried about it. It feels great!

Ryan did some work in the garage yesterday, which made it much more navigable. I think he's hoping we can actually fit the car in there this winter--but then I'm not sure where the motorcycle will go. Hmmmm...maybe he just wants the motorcycle to have plenty of room. :P This is his "early" month on Wed. & Sat. so he'll be home at 2:30 today, which is awesome. Maybe we can get some more done around here. I'm a little more inclined to be productive if he's here and working too. :)

I sub the next 2 days, which will be good. Next week I'll sub Wed-Fri, so that should keep me busy enough. It's kind of wierd to be back at work a little bit--but it's so different from before that I don't feel like I'm completely "at home" there anymore. Guess that's how it works. :)

Hope you're all having a great week--I mostly post new entries so I can read your comments. So, comment away! :) lol

Awesome Weekend!

We had an awesome weekend! Our visit with Aries went fabulously and we didn't want to leave her--nor did she want us to leave. It is awesome to see that she is just as excited about the adoption as we are. We spent about 8 hours with her between Sunday evening and Monday--all wonderful. Mostly, we sat in her living room and just visited, getting to know each other. We went out to eat and on Monday took some sandwiches to a park where we sat enjoying the beautiful weather and just being together. She is a wonderful person who is so easy to be around and we can't wait to go back again, even though we're not sure exactly when that will happen. Sometime in the middle of the next 5 1/2 weeks, hopefully. :) I don't know what to say about her--but she truly is great. We were all very comfortable with each other. The only negative thing I can think of is that she lives too far away--I'd love to be able to spend more time with her, but the distance (330 mi) will make that difficult. I can't wait to talk to her again--hopefully later today!

In other news, we got a call from my dad this morning asking if he could come stay this afternoon/evening/and night. Of course! He's doing some trucking (hauling pigs) these days and has to be in Springdale to load tomorrow morning. Update: he got a call and had to turn around to take another load--so this didn't work. :( I still got to talk to him on the phone for a long time, which was great! We'll look forward to it working for him to stop in another time. :)

I guess that's all for now--knew some of you would be waiting for an update--and I don't feel like it's much of one. For me, our meeting Aries was a continuation of my phone conversations with her. It was even better meeting her in person, but not really different from talking to her on the phone. :) I love that through our face-to-face visits, though, Ryan can be involved and get to know her as well--and vice versa. :)

Recent Ramblings

Just a quick note so that there's something new and recent on the blog. :) Things are going great here. I subbed both Wednesday and Friday this week and survived to tell about it! It went well, got me out of the house, and I earned a little bit of $ while I was at it. I'm only going to sub on Wed-Fri (so that I'm home on Ryan's days off) and only in the building where I taught the past 3 years. That gives me a little more authority to start off with. :)

I've continued to talk to Aries, our new birthmother, this week and it has gone better than I can even begin to explain. I don't know where to begin so I guess I won't say much, but we already have a great connection and I really feel like she could be "the one." Time will tell-but I can honestly say that we both feel better about this match than either of the 2 previous ones.

We are actually leaving this afternoon when Ryan gets off work to go meet her! She lives 6 hours south of us. We'll stay with my aunt & uncle in Conway tonight, be with them until tomorrow afternoon, then meet Aries for supper tomorrow night! We're super excited to meet her and she seems equally excited for us to come, so we're all on the same page! We'll stay down there tomorrow night and hopefully spend some time with her again on Monday before we head home. I should have lots to tell you when we get back!

It's such a cool feeling to know that we're going to meet the woman who is carrying a baby who may become our daughter! I already feel like Aries and her son (16 months old) could very easily become part of our extended family, so that makes it even more exciting. :) Maybe when I get back I'll feel free to say that with more confidence and less hesitation...it seems logical that we should be hesitant, but honestly I can say that I don't feel hesitant at all--just like I "should" feel hesitant. (If any of that just made any sense to anyone) :P