Two Words: Thank HIM!

Shout for JOY to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

I am overwhelmed this morning with a heart full of gratitude.  The Lord is good.  He is alive and on His throne!  In a world full of inconsistencies, what a blessing that the One in control was, is and will always be LOVE!

I am so thankful for all of you - my family, friends, and sojourners on this journey of life!  I pray that your day is full of good food, family, and friends.  And mostly I hope it's sprinkled with the blessing of small, simple moments that are actually big memories you will cherish always....

Nate enjoying his 1st Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade!

One Step at a Time

Rights were terminated today!!!

PRAISE THE LORD!

We are now one major step closer to adopting our little man! Things went very smoothly this morning. We were told it would be short, and it was, except there was a lot more questioning involved than we expected. There were 4 attorneys present (1 for Nate, 1 for birthmom, 1 for birthfather, and 1 for the state), so I guess it makes sense that all four of them would need to make their presence known and ask questions to represent their client. Nate's CPS caseworker did a fantastic job answering the questions with confidence and clarity. We are so grateful for all her work on this case.

To be honest, though, I was surprised by the emotions I felt after I said goodbye to Mr. Wonderful and drove back home by myself. It was a very bittersweet morning for me. Sweet for the obvious reasons: I am beyond grateful to be past this hurdle in our journey, we are one step closer to Nate being legally recognized as the son he already is to us in our hearts, and I would have been devastated had today gone any other way. However, I shed some tears in the car this morning grieving for Nate's birthfamily. Circumstances a side, they are people with hearts and souls, and I am sad for them that they are missing out on the life of this precious little boy. Everyone who knows Nate is aware that he is beyond special - he is such a content, easy-going, HAPPY little guy who brings joy into any room. I am humbled that God saw fit to entrust him to us.

What a huge day! I am physically exhausted from all the emotions, and am so thankful to have seen the Lord's hand today in our journey. Thank you, Lord, for this precious little boy squealing with joy as he plays right now. Every good and perfect gift comes from You! And what a wonderful present you gave to exactly 8 months ago today.

Speaking of presents, I am now the proud owner of this beauty...


Thank you, Carissa, for my surprise last night! I LOVE it and am so excited to get this baby signed in a few weeks with you!!

A couple of weekends ago I helped Carissa get ready for a photo shoot with her hubby. It was fun to pick out clothes and play make-up artist before her big shoot! :) The super talented, Jennifer, did a wonderful job, and the pictures turned out AMAZING!! (Check out Carissa's sneak peek here!) I'm telling you all this as a shameless plug for Jennifer's photography work. She has captured priceless memories for my family in the past several months, and she is the absolute warmest, funniest easy-going photographer. So if your family is in need of some updated, fun photos (and honestly, who isn't?!), contact her (or me) soon!!

Thank you again for your prayers today!

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning Mr. Wonderful and I head down to the courthouse for Nate's termination hearing!! This is a HUGE step in our journey to adoption, and we would appreciate your prayers that things will go smoothly and that the judge will choose to terminate Nate's birthparents' rights. According to CPS (who paid us a surprise visit last Tuesday night - love those...especially at night during dinner time and bedtime routines...ha!) there are plenty of grounds to move forward with the termination. So now all we can do is pray that the judge will see things the same way.

We fully trust that God's timing and His plan are not only best, but PERFECT! So we believe with every ounce of our being that He has this completely in His hands.

Thank you for continuing to support our family through your prayers and encouragement. What a blessing to know that we do not journey alone!

XOXO,
Erica

Sooo Proud

Happy Fall, Y'all!

October brought lots of "firsts" at our house...

My boy's 1st art project:

Paper Plate Jack-o-Lantern - October 2009

Definitely refrigerator-worthy!

I'm guessing he knew exactly what to do because just the other weekend he saw a lot of pumpkins at his first trip to a pumpkin patch!

Nate also started crawling (well, army crawling). And our life will never be the same - ha! He is already so fast and into EV-ERY-THING! He's all boy for sure!

And we also celebrated our first Halloween with our little man. The Artic blast that hit most of the country not only brought cooler weather to Houston, it also brought one of the Artic's cutest inhabitants.....a penguin!

One cool penguin crawling away from all the picture-taking...heading straight to the electrical outlet, of course! It's only just begun, people. :)

What a blessing this sweet boy is....LOVE HIM!

184 Days, Six Months, 1/2 of a Year...

My precious son,

Today you are six months old!

(Really, you are six months and six days old on the day I type this, but blogger allows you to back-date posts, which is very helpful for busy mommies, so we'll just pretend...)

I can't believe that a half of one year has already passed since you took your first breath on this earth, and six months have passed since you were placed in our arms and joyously welcomed into our home! What an amazing six months these have been. They are arguably the best of my life so far. You are such a gift, son!

In the big picture of life six months is but a blink of an eye, but these past 184 days have been full of events and milestones because you continue to grow and develop and blossom each and every day! You are getting so big! At your doctor's appointment last week you weighed in at 18 lbs 13 oz (75th percentile) and were a whopping 28 1/2 inches long (97th percentile)! I don't remember the exact measurement of your head, but no surprise that you were in the 100th percentile there...you have lots of smarts and brains in there, no doubt! :)

Your latest milestones include sitting up unassisted for longer and longer periods of time. You get better at this with each passing day. I'm guessing you will be an "official" sitter in the next couple of weeks for sure. You are also rolling everywhere now! If I lay you down on your activity mat and walk away for no more than a minute, you are no doubt several feet away from your mat and turned the opposite direction! Although you like grabbing at the toys that hang from your activity mat with both your hands and feet, you much prefer to sit and play in your activity center now. You love the lights and music and spinning the toys with your hands. You can walk/swivel yourself (in the infant chair) all the way around the activity table now. And, of course, you still love to make noises. In fact, I think you've gotten louder in the last month or so! But the exciting part is that your noises are changing now and are starting to become syllables (like "da" and "ga" and "hey" all strung together in some combination) instead of coos. The other day you had so much fun mimicking the syllables that mommy and daddy were saying! Another one of my favorites about this stage is that we can carry you around on our hip now. I know this may seem strange, especially since most people love to cradle new babies in their arms. And I enjoyed snuggling with you as an infant too, but I love that when I hold you on my hip, you latch onto me tight with your legs/feet and that you hold my arm or grab tight to my shirt sleeve. This is one of the first ways you've clung to me willingly I guess, so it just melts my heart everytime!

We had two wonderful surprises/gifts on your 1/2 birthday that we will remember always! The first, you cut your first tooth on your six month birthday day! It is one of your front teeth on your bottom gum. And since we already know that this post is a few days late, I may as well tell you and whoever else reading this that you have cut your second tooth now too! It's right next to the first one, and it looks as though the two top front teeth are not far behind!!


Our second surprise is perhaps the best. We had another status hearing for your adoption on your birthday, and daddy went to represent our family at court. At this hearing the judge set a very important trial date - the termination hearing - for November 5th! Mommy will explain what this means when you get older, but this is a major step forward in your adoption and one that came quite a bit earlier than expected! God is definitely at work, son, and we continue to trust in His perfect plan for you and our family.

Daddy and I love you more than words can ever express. You have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives and into our home. For a long time your room was empty and there was a void in our hearts that ached deeper than any physical pain. But God always sees to completion the work He begins. And even on the loneliest and emptiest of days, God was at work knitting our family together. Even when we could not see, He was creating. And as with everything imprinted with the Lord's craftsmanship - it was good. Very, very good.

One of the things I love most about our God is that He does not look at outward appearances. Not when He looks at an individual person, and not when He looks at a family. He doesn't define a family by biology or genetics. He cares only for the heart. And the heart of this family, our family, beats so strong and so full. We believe with every ounce of our being that God has amazing plans for you. He has designed you for a great purpose that He will fulfill in His perfect timing. And as your mommy and daddy, it is a great gift and honor to be there to support you, encourage you, challenge you, and love you every single day He gives us.

That is our heart, Nate. And we could not be more blessed to share it with YOU!

Happy 6 month birthday, son!

Now slow down and stop growing up so darn fast, you hear?

Love, love, love you,
Mommy

(P.S. I'll get pictures of those teeth up here soon. I haven't quite mastered how to download pics from our new camera...Mr. Wonderful will come to the rescue very soon I promise.)

Colorado Reunion

Earlier this month we escaped to the beautiful mountains of Colorado for a family reunion. Every five years my mom's side of the family (her parents, brothers and their families, etc.) all get together to celebrate my grandparents' anniversary - 60 years this year! - and reconnect with each other's growing families. At this renuion we had two new faces - Corrie, my precious sister-in-love and, of course, our new little guy Nate - and we also had another newbie that was with us in spirit - Jacob, my cousin Sarah's fiance that was back home in Iowa working - yuck!

We left bright and early Saturday the 8th and flew into Denver. Nate did so well on the plane - a little squirmish but no crying!! I think he was so excited about our trip that he just couldn't sit still. ;) My mom and dad were on our same flight, so my mom came back and sat with me and the baby so that my man (and his long legs!) could go sit up with my dad in the good seats! My mom and I enjoyed the couple of hours to catch-up and play with Nate.

While in Denver for the reunion, Mr. Wonderful, Nate and I were blessed to stay at my Aunt Amy and Uncle Paul's G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S house. It was so first-class, including gift baskets in our room with yummy treats. And we were completely spoiled with a pack-n-play in our room, a high chair, and toys for the little guy!!

We spent a lot of time sitting on Paul and Amy's back porch visiting with the family:



One day we visited the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO for a tour and free beer, of course!

Open! Open! Open!

After-tour "party"

Alex really wanted some beer, but he was too "short"!

The next day while several of our crew golfed, a bunch of us drove up to the Red Rocks for a hike. It was breath-takingly beautiful! There was even an ampetheater there where they host concerts! (The night before we were there was a Kings of Leon concert - how cool would that have been?!)

We went on a short hike - about 1.5 miles - and the pictures below show some of the easier portions of the hike, believe me! Especially since I was carting around a nearly 20 lbs kid on my chest. (I LOVE the Moby Wrap, by the way! Thanks, Jamie!!!) I wish I could show you pictures of Nate in his carrier with his cute hat...too cute for words!

Later that day my uncle and aunt treated the whole family to a Rockies baseball game at Coors Field. They were playing the Cubs, and it was an awesome game!

And probably the best part of the game -- we caught a fly ball!!! Actually, I don't know why I said "we" as I had absolutely no part in this achievement. In fact, this fly ball nearly took my life. Seriously. If it wasn't for my cousin Michael (who I dove behind) and my darling husband (who sacrificed his hand over two people to deflect the ball from hitting my body), I would have had a lot more than a ball to show for this!

Here it is!
That's Michael on the far left, Adam displaying our prize, Corrie laughing, and Mr. Wonderful's lap.
Where is Erica? Oh, she's still hiding behind Michael.

We had everyone from our family who went to the game sign the ball, and the family let us take it home as a keepsake for Nate! It was only his second baseball game, and he already "caught" a fly ball. Mr. Wonderful likes to think it's a sign!

Another day we went to Breckenridge. We rode the Alpine Slide and rented bikes in the afternoon for a ride around some of the trails in town. It was a pretty quick trip, but we had a blast!



And we wrapped up the reunion on our final night with a dinner to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary! We spent the better part of the evening sitting around telling stories and sharing memories and words of encouragement for my grandparents.

What a wonderful trip! And so many fantastic memories that we will cherish always. I think this was the best reunion yet because as all of the cousins are getting older (I'm the oldest, so I'm allowed to say that!) the age gap between us all seems to be diminishing and we have more and more in common. So fun! I can hardly wait for Sarah and Jacob's wedding next summer in California so we can do this all over again! :)

We had a photographer come out and take some pictures of the family while we were there. Here is a picture of the two people who started it all - my grandparents - with their 9 grandchildren.

Alex, Me, Matt, Amanda, Adam, Michael, Grandpa, Grandma, Sarah, Nicole, & Stefanie

FYI - Corrie and I are currently conspiring on how we can get back to Colorado someday. Not for another vacation...to live there! I know, I know - it's cold in the winter, it snows. But, people, it is beautiful! I jogged most every morning I was there. I hiked. I biked. Me, Erica, did OUTDOOR activities! Willingly! I think living in Colorado would do wonders for my overall health. And for my hair. I had great hair days in Colorado. :)

Change can be VERY good!

Lots of changes going on at our household.

Good changes.

Exciting changes.

First, starting this week I am officially a part-time worker! YEA!! My new schedule is Monday - Wednesday, which gives me two additional days at home with my little guy.

Be still my heart!

Another change, Nate's beloved babysitter Carissa must go back to her "real" job in a few weeks (she's a kindergarten teacher - those lucky little kids!), so we had to say goodbye to her last week. I'm not so sure that this is a "good" change, but one we are slowly coming to accept. ;) Life has to go on (somehow), so today is Nate's first day at his new school (aka daycare). Thankfully Mr. Wonderful was able to go with me to drop the little guy off. And it went smoothly. No tears even.

When we were walking out, my heart strings were being pulled a little. I'm not going to lie, it was tough to leave my precious boy with people I don't know. To top things off it smelled terribly outside the daycare because they had new mulch laid over the weekend. So my heart is hurting and all I can smell is filth. Not the best combo! But this sweet little boy (probably about 3) passed on us the sidewalk with his mom, and he looked up at her and innocently said, "Mom, who pooped out here?!" Made me smile...somthing this mommy really needed! Thanks, God! :)

One last change, Nate started baby food a couple of weeks ago. So far we are 4 and 0 on the veggies! He's loved them all - sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, AND green beans! Next up...FRUIT!!