Adventures in Adoption - ADOPTION DAY!

Morning. It's morning, everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are gonna get out of...
[beat] Morning. It's morning, everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are gonna get ….

A new member of our family!

Last night was a long night. Baby Moses didn't sleep well. I think he sensed all the excitement everyone else felt. The alarms go off at 7am and we get up and get going.  Cynthia has three classes today, but got permission from her professor to miss class today. After breakfast and dropping her off I get back in Time to shower, bathe the baby, clean up from breakfast, and sort some laundry. We didn't get much school done this morning, but I'm happy to say Nikki at least got her math lesson done :)

10:30 comes and it's time to get Cynthia and head up to the court. Depending on traffic and construction, it could take the entire two hours.  We get there in about 45 min, so we have 45 min to sit and wait.  

The fifth floor is pretty empty and quiet. We are not. I always bring the noise!  Loaded up with gold fish, milk, and toys, we take a seat in the hallway and wait. Hubby's aunt and uncle join us shortly to join us  this momentous occasion.

The Cps worker and agency caseworker come in.  The agency caseworker has an envelope of paperwork for me. I get halfway through and say I'm done. I will email it later.

Then the lawyer comes in. We meet with him for about 5 min. He has a few last minute papers to sign and instructions about the birth certificate, social security number, taxes, etc.  I should have taken a tape recorder with me. I forgot half the info before walking out.

Finally we go in. We are the third family to go before the judge. The process is very scripted and I simply state my name and answer yes to a bunch of questions. Then hubby does the same. Cps lady, then agency caseworker follow suite. We go take a photo with the judge and we are done.  

We are done!

I know that physically and mentally nothing has changed. Baby boy has no idea what just happened, but I'm momma now. I know I always have been, but I will forever, and legally be Mommy.

After lunch we go home to change clothes and it's off to AWANA.  We told everyone our good news.  I had created some announcements a few weeks back, and had been holding on to them, until now. I think the big kids handed out 50 just at church tonight!  

I am so thankful to be done with this process.  My little man is now my little man.

Photo Calendar Gift

Have you ever had someone you wanted to get a gift for and had NO idea what to get them?  I go through this a LOT.  Every month or two.  My mom, dad, grandma, step dad, brother, sister, in laws.  What do you get them?  Some of them have everything they want.  Some of them I don't see enough to know what they want.

Enter the photo calendar.  For Christmas this past year (2012) I made one for everyone.  Each one was customized for the specific recipient.  Since my parents are divorced I didn't figure my mom would want photos of the grandbabies with ex-grandpa, and my dad would not appreciate photos of his grandchildren with my mom's new partner.

On the large photo above the calendar is a photo that somewhat relates to that month.  Since my son's birthday is in August, all the photos were of him.  The large display photo was actually a progression of him growing up playing baseball (3 photos of him at 3 diff ages in uniform).  My older daughter is an October baby, so she got October and the baby is in November.

Throughout the 365 days there are dozens of photos.  On your birthday is a photo of you - my sister, brother, mom, grandma and late relatives all got a place of honor on their birthdays.  Same goes for hubbys family as well.  My mother-in-law appreciated a photo of her late (but favorite) Pomeranian on a few days.

 You could put a photo on all 30/31 days, but that was a little crowded, so we limited it to about every other day.

The hardest part about the entire process was making sure that Mom's calendar had no photos of Dad and then culling the ones I knew she already had.  I already had 2700 photos uploaded to the website - some she had never seen from our vacations (bad daughter!)

Overall it took us about a month to make about a dozen calendars, it was so easy that my 8 year old could help.  The time was well worth it, everyone loved the gift (only about $20 each!) and it's something that is practical as well as personalized.

I have already told many friends about this and plan to do it again and again.  I just forgot to make one for myself this year :(

Baby bell socks

I love making baby stuff.  I just really don't have a lot of time to do it.  I don't know how to use my sewing machine (and I have 2 of them!) and I am still learning how to read a pattern.  I really should learn, but until I do - I made do.

This was a quick and easy no-sew project for my little one.  He loves noise and I have see things like this for sale - $10+!  No way! I am way to cheap to pay $10 for socks that my sweet boy will out grow in a few weeks.

All I did was take a pair of socks and safety pin a bunch of bells onto them.  He's not crawling or walking so I wasn't too worried about the placement of any of the bells.  He can't really reach his feet either so I wasn't too worried about the pins, but the safety pin is hard to open any how.

I love to see my sweet boy kick his feet, then try to figure out where the sound is coming from.  It is so cute.  But then again, what isn't cute about a baby?!