Prayer

Can you all please pray for our sweet birthmother. She sent me an e-mail tonight that broke my heart. She is having a difficult time. She knows that she chose what was best for Hope, but her heart still aches for her daughter. She is such a sweet young lady and we do love her dearly. I wish I could be in Alaska and give her another big hug. The last hug I gave her I will treasure till we meet again.
Thank you

We're Home!

We got back early Friday morning. My family and Andy's parents where waiting for us at the airport. They all came back to the house for breakfast. Thank goodness my family had spent the night at our house and got it cleaned up and bought food. My sister said you could tell that we left in a hurry.

Halli was so happy to be home. She missed her box. She got in her box and fell asleep. She didn't care that there was a house full of people. Later she woke up, ate, and went back to sleep in the box.

Hope had a good night. She likes to be awake from 1:00am till 5:00am. We're are working on getting that changed! Other than that, she is a very good baby.

Here are some pictures. Please stop by for a visit!

Update on Hope

Hope's number came down last night so she got to spend the night without lights. She did really well. She likes to eat and be held. The nurse came in this morning and told me Hope's number is back up. The doctors are discussing what to do. We are praying that they let us go and come back for a check up. I don't think they will though. If we have to stay, Andy will probably be here and I will spend some time with Hal.

Halli wanted to make a silly face just like Hope.

If I give a kiss to Hope, Halli wants a kiss too. It's already starting. :)

Our Firsts

This is when I first got to hold Hope. We had left Portland at 9:00pm and arrived in Anchorage at 12:00. I think we got to the hospital about an hour later. We stayed for a short time. Halli had only three hours of sleep and was not happy to see Hope at all. We eventually made it to our hotel. I think Halli and Andy where the only ones that got any sleep.

This is Andy's first time holding Hope.

Hope under her special lights today. We came back Sunday to find her under these lovely lights. We thought she would be going home today. She is not. I am spending the night with her and we are hoping that she will be going home tomorrow. I do have to say that it is kind of nice to get to spend this time with her. I wish that I could hold her more though. Halli was not happy that I was staying and she was going back with dad.

Halli did warm up a little bit more today.

She actually wanted to feed Hope.

She will be a great big sister!

Hope

Look at all her hair!
I only have a minute. Hope decided to come early. She was born on the 19th, 9lbs 2oz, 21". We where in a hurry to leave for Alaska. We did make it, but Hope was born before we got there.
We are hoping to leave Friday. We will have to wait and see.

Alaska

Wanted to let everyone know that we are headed to Alaska tonight! We got the call this morning that our birthmom is in labor. We are very excited. I'm running around trying to get everything done. I haven't packed a thing.

Will post pictures later!

Our Journey to Hope

Thought I would give an update on our adoption. The due date for little Hope is the 25th. Our birthmother's doctor said she could go over by 5 days. So we are planning to leave on the 29th at 9:30 PM. We will be arriving after midnight. We are not crazy about flying at night with Halli, but it will save us almost $200.00. But what's worse, is our flight home. We will be leaving around midnight or 1:00am and arriving in Portland at 5:30AM. I'm hoping that Halli will sleep through pretty much everything. This will save us another $200.00. We figure it's only a three hour flight, so we should be able to handle it. We're praying that Halli will be able to handle it too.

We are getting everything ready. We have been filling out tons of paperwork and trying to find our birth certificate and marriage certificate. How come when you need them you can't find them? Half of our stuff is still in storage, so it was easier to go on-line and order them. I'm praying that they will get here within the next week. I didn't want to pay the extra $20 per item to have them UPS 2-day. I just mailed almost all of our paperwork to the agency, so we should know soon when they will want to meet with us. They are getting nervous.

I've enjoyed getting baby items washed and folded. It's so fun to look at all the little outfits. Halli and I will be doing some shopping. We need to get pacifiers, burp cloths, baby shampoo, baby soap, wash cloths, baby towels and just all the little stuff in general. You think you have everything, but all the little stuff starts adding up.

Last weekend my family did a garage sale. We have several friends and family donate items. We made $450 dollars. We will be doing another garage sale in a couple of weeks. We had so much left over. Some of the bigger items that catch people's eye went fast. I'm sure the Lord will still bless us. He has brought us this far and I faith that he will carry us the rest of the way.

Our birthmother and I have been chatting a lot on-line. I find it very easy to talk to her. I know this is God's work. You all know how chatty I can be around new people. :) Please pray that we will continue to have a good relationship and that when we meet in person that our conversation will flow just as easy. They will forever be part of our family.

Well, it's late and we have our parenting class tomorrow. So will update more as the day gets closer.

Family Zoo Trip

We thought it would be fine to go to the zoo with everyone. David and Chelsea couldn't make it. Well, it turned out to be an adventure. The zoo was doing a dinasour exhibit. Halli loves dinasours, but does not like life size ones. She freaked! We had to make sure that we did not go by any dinasours and she wore ear plugs so she wouldn't hear the roars. We did have some good times. We found out that they were closing the part of the zoo that had the elephant ears and snow cones. We hurried over there and missed the line for elephant ears, but did get in the line for snow cones. I asked a lady in the elephant ears line to get me one and she did. So we all got to have a snack while everyone else was seeing the dinasours.Halli and Auntie Heather spending time looking at some animal. They enjoy spending time together. Halli always asks where her Auntie Heather is.

Dad and Halli enjoying a good tickle. What a couple of goofs. :)

Halli loves looking at bugs. She could spend most of her time looking at them. She even got to pet a hissing roach.

Isn't Kylie cute?

After our zoo trip we went back to the house for dinner and a little Rock Band. We had a blast! Nobody wanted to sing. hhhmmm Jeremy and I plan to have a drum off. I'll have to keep practicing. Watching everyone play made for a good laugh. We'll have to do it again.

Even the kids played Rock Band. They were really funny to watch. Look at Halli dancing in the background. She would rather dance then play the drums or guitar. She cracks me up. We all had a great day and look forward to doing it again!

Our trip to the fair

Halli wanted me to post a picture from our trip to the fair. Doesn't she look happy? I'll post more later. Halli's face pretty much explains our fair experience.

Our New Friend

Little tree frogs like to visit our hot tub. Halli always tries to catch them. This time she caught one. She wanted to keep it as a pet. She thought it could live in her water table. She carried it around for awhile. He eventually got away. Maybe there will be more frogs later.