Adoption Day: S'more to Love!

That evening we had an open house of sorts and had people over for desserts.  It was the windiest week, so no fire pit and roasted marshmallows.  This was probably a blessing because we made smores in the oven, making a dozen at a time, thus freeing up adults to chat rather than manage one child after another wanting to make a smore.  And the chocolate was so perfectly melted!  We declared them better than cooking them outside.    

 

Ollie, Uncle Josh and I got our craft on and made this banner.

 

I forgot to take any pictures that evening, but again, we had a blast.  We probably had around 40 or 50 people come and go; Nolan you are loved!  Pearl and her crew sent this bouquet, probably the prettiest bouquet we have ever received!  The first line of the card says, How deep the Father's love for us, and every time I see it in the days since, it makes me blink back tears.  Such a good reminder of our adoption into God's family and His perfect love for us.    

 

 

We had everyone sign a newborn picture of Poley Pie.  The picture below was before the evening party and was just the signatures from court.  That mat is pretty filled up now!  Aunt Joy also made this darling t-shirt for Noey.  He wore it that evening and it was so absolutely perfect.  I don't even need to tell you how cute he was! 

 

But we do have a little competition.... who wore it better??

My vote is for you, Nolan! 

 

We put the man (baby) of the hour to bed a little late, and kept the party going for another hour or so.  Really, such a fun day to celebrate!  Sorry if this is getting repetitive!  ;)

  Happy adoption day, Nolan!  Happy birthday, Jon! 

XOXO

Adoption Day: Birthday Celebration!

Let the festivities continue!  Time to celebrate a birthday!  After court and Noey's nap we went out to lunch.  We choose Cheddar's, super delicious, suuuuuppper long wait.  Good company though, so not too much of a biggie.  Ollie was on his A-game and kept making jokes about, "Oh sorry dad!  We just didn't get you anything.  It's just not your special day, you know".  The ribbing was actually pretty funny. 

 

After lunch and nap number two for Nolan, we opened some presents.  I made a scavenger hunt for Jon and the boys to find his birthday presents.  They were good detectives and tore through it all in no time.  Jon also opened some cards and goodies from grandma and grandpa.  We love you Jon!  Hope 34 has happy times in store!  

 

 

Adoption Day: Court!

Oh man, we had so much fun at court last Friday.  It was such a joyful, happy experience.  So many friends (plus family!) showed up to support us and demonstrate their love.  It was just too sweet!  I made Jon do all the talking, I knew I would be crying.  Sometime before we got there Ollie asked me if I would cry.  Does that kid know me or what?! We tried to keep Noey busy with fruit snacks and let him run around while waiting.  We had plenty of kids around to herd him along the halls outside of the courtroom, and he seemed to love being chased around. 

 

Daddy and Noey

 

Jon and I getting sworn in.  Everyone laughed when the boys raised their right hands, too.  The judge made some comments about how they have now sworn to always tell the truth, thus doing us a big parenting favor. 

 

Our attorney, Barbara Dickerson asking Jon her questions. 

 

Me, being asked two questions: name and do I agree with all Jon's answers.  That's all it took, and I'm crying.   

 

Celebration time!  Noey is declared a Mot!!

 

As soon as we put a squirming Noey down he made straight for Judge Hart and his STAIRS!

 

Noey is usually pretty stranger leary so it was such a cute surprise to see him so at ease with the Judge. 

 

Judge Hart has all the kids in his courtroom pick out a teddy bear to adopt. 

 

We're official!  Picture time!  

 

Jon, myself, and a couple teddy bears (one later named Fuzzball) are way more excited than Nolan.   

 

Seth; enjoying a doughnut on the witness stand.  :)

 

Uncle Josh, on "hold on to these, will ya?" bear duty. 

 

Family Pictures!  Our beautiful family! 

 

Aw!  This is tearing me up!  Three handsome sons! 

 

Grandma and Grandpa in on the action! 

 

And Uncle Josh! 

 

And here we are!  Official family of five! 

364 Days and 65 Nights

Daniel spent his last night here with us.  Night number 65.  

 

Saying goodbye to our tenth foster child has not become any easier than the first few, and I suppose that's good.  We knew from the beginning that he had a grandma and grandpa fighting for him, it just took cps a while to get their homestudy done and all the paperwork in order.  My grief surprises me; we knew he was only staying with us temporarily.  If I think back, I'd guess I always have these feelings when our kiddos leave, even on the couple of kids where I also felt relief at their departure. It's a weighty thing to parent a kid, then just hand him/her off to someone else.  We love that little guy, and hope the best for his life with his grandparents.  Mwah, baby Ty Ty!!  We are sending you off with prayer and all our smooches!    

 

 

And this crazy sleeper (he will fit right in with his brothers) will spend exactly 365 days in foster care as he will be adopted tomorrow, exactly one year since he came into our home.  He is a curious and explorative lil guy, always ready to head off on his adventures.  We feel so blessed and honored that God choose to place him in our family.  We love to love him and delight in his accomplishments.  I don't think Jon will ever get another birthday present remotely close to the pricelessness of this one.

 

It's safe to say we are feeling all the feels over here. 

 

Pray for Daniel as he transitions to a new family.  

Pray for the five of us in our grief over missing our Tiger. 

Praise God for Nolan's adoption. 

Pray for wisdom for Jon and myself as we raise our boys. 

Spring Broke

(I decided I was going to past-tense-ify that phrase, just so you know.) 

 

We had a lovely spring break last week. Once upon a time we talked about going to Austin, but that was quickly vetoed once we realized we were still going to have two babies.  So we stayed in Lubbock and did stay-cation types of things, and it was so grand.  No packing, our own beds, all that good stuff.  Maybe look back to a post I did last spring where I declared camping in the basement the best ever.  Similar vibes.  Plus I didn't even feel bad about spending extra money, because we surely would have spent more in Austin. 

 

Noey started the week by learning CPR and practicing chest compressions on Ollie.

(He's an extremely advanced 1 year old.)

 

We celebrated 3.14 with Pi.  I broke my diet for this bad boy.  #noregrets

 

We went to Safety City one cool morning.  This is the only activity I took all four kids to by myself, which explains this single picture I snapped.  The big boys rode bikes, scooters, and pedal cars and played an elaborate game of cops and robbers with new and old friends.  Daniel was a little peach and a friend's young girls fought to push him around in his stroller.  This lil lion was not happy unless he was off exploring and chewing on sticks.  (Mentally, think of Jennifer's favorite saying: "at least you're cute, kid!)

 

I think my favorite part of the whole week was taking Seth and Ollie out individually for an evening to spend some one-on-one time together.  (They are currently very opposed to the word "date", but using it sure would have made that previous sentence shorter.)  Seth and I went out on Tuesday evening and went to the Lego Batman movie again.  It's a favorite for sure.  We went to my favorite theatre, Alamo, so ate our dinner while we watched the movie.  Yum!  Seth was so very darling, I let him sit in the front seat on the drive and you could tell it made him feel so special.  He usually is not much for small talk or chatting but he went on and on telling me all sorts of things that were happening at school. 

 

After we spent some time rock climbing.  I didn't actually climb, but should have.  Next time. 

 

He made it to the top several times!

 

Noey was way into legos for the week.  ;)

 

We played outside at home lots. 

 

 

 

On Thursday Ollie and I went out.  He choose Burger King for dinner.  Not ideal, I know.  :) With the babies it's been hard to get some alone time with these bigs for any extended period of time.  They really are such cool kids and I'm glad we were able to spend some time hanging out. 

 

We went to Adrenaline City, a place with a trampoline park, ropes challenge course, and laser tag. 

 

The surprise of the evening was how much Ollie loved laser tag.  He only wanted to jump for a few minutes before we played tag over and over.  Playing tag with Ollie and watching him zoom around was so fun.  Maybe the bigger surprise of the evening was how much I ended up loving laser tag because of him.  

 

Then on Friday night Jon used a free hotel night and we swam and ate pizza. 

 

Two minutes there and Ollie's already in the hot tub.

 

Noey, quite in love with the hotel mirror.

 

The babies and I went home for bed and this was not a mistake.  Pearl tells me that you take the o and t out of hotel, and you are just left in hell.  

 

Reason number 173 why spending time in a hotel with a young family is terrible: Young boys can not figure out how to sleep in a queen bed thus making bed sharing nearly impossible. 

 

Reason number 1,093,776 why Jon is a good dad:  He knows this and chooses to go on adventures with them at this stage anyway. 

 

 

We finished up our week by going out for ice cream/doughnuts on Sunday!

 

Two thumbs up for stay-cation spring break 2017!