Heaven's Little Blessings

Christmas 2012

2012-02-05T21:58:00.004-05:00

Blake's first Christmas and our first Christmas in Texas. We had a great time with the kids and had so much fun watching them open their presents. Blake did really well opening his first present ever and of course, loved playing with the paper and the boxes:-) Later that afternoon wound up being a little rough because Blake got a fever and had it for 4 days so he was quite the crank. Alexa had a blast and was super excited because "Santa" brought her makeup that she had been asking for for months. She is still telling people that Santa brought her makeup for Christmas.

A few days after Christmas Nic's family came in a spent a week with us and it was so much fun to have them here. We really miss being near family and we are realizing just how important family is!

Blake enjoying his cookie at our Christmas lunch...it was the only thing that would keep him happy because he was so fussy from his fever.

Blake was really getting in to tearing the paper off of his presents.

Alexa showing Daddy her Tinker Bell from Grammy.

Opening Tinker Bell.

Her makeup from Santa...the highlight of her Christmas!

Blake's train from Grammy.

Putting out cookies for Santa...Blake thought they were for him:-)

Just a cute picture of my sweetie:-)

Blake messing with my ornaments.

With Santa...Blake wasn't too sure about him!

Indoor Play and Fun In The Sun!

2011-12-23T17:42:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun day yesterday! We made the best discovery...well, one of the girls from MOPS told me about it but yesterday we decided to check it out. One of the large churches around here has a huge play area that is open to the public. It is so nice...honestly, the nicest indoor play place I have been to. It as a huge 2-story play structure that is great for older kids and they also have a nice play area for the younger ones that is walled off to keep them from getting plowed by the bigger kids. There are tables so you can bring your own lunch to eat. And the best part about it...it's FREE! I was really not expecting it to be as nice as it was because it was free but it was great. Both kids loved it. The only damper to the day was I had packed a lunch for all of us and Alexa was so excited about it, but I forgot it on the counter top! She kept asking for our lunch while we were there and saying she was hungry so we didn't stay as long as I would have liked, but we met Nic for lunch so that was fun. We will definitely have to got back next week when Nic is off of work.

Then, when we came outside the sun was shining so bright and it turned out to be a really warm day. So, after naps we walked to the playground in our neighborhood and then had a picnic outside (the lunch that I had packed and forgot earlier). It's so nice to be able to enjoy a random day in December outside.

(Having a good time getting out of the house!)

(8 little Blake's...what could be better?:-)

(Alexa going to the amazing long slide...I have to confess that I took a turn myself with Blake as my excuse)

(The right half of the big play structure)

(The play area for the little ones. Blake had the most fun crawling in and out of the door)

(Our impromptu December picnic)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...well, almost!

2011-12-21T16:30:00.008-05:00

This is our first Christmas in Texas and it is a little bit different. We have had some fairly cold days but for the most part it's been very sunny and warmer. It's odd to be outside in a long-sleeved t-shirt with my windows rolled down some days. Then other days, I'm freezing and feel like I'm back in Ohio. I'm definitely enjoying the sunshine though, even if it's chilly. We've had a lot of fun driving around and looking at all the lights and touring they "Christmassy" things to do around here.

We also had a lot of fun taking the kids to see Santa. It was particularly fun this year because it is Blake's first Christmas and because Alexa really "gets it" this year. Of course, everything she sees a toy or candy she says "I want this for Christmas Mommy" but she has been very consistent on the one thing she asks for over and over. She says "I want my 'owm' makeup for Christmas" (that is how she pronounces "own"). It was funny though because when she saw Santa she said "I'm having my own makeup for Christmas" instead of asking him...I guess she's pretty confident! Every time we drive to look at Christmas lights Alexa yells "Christmas Lights" at every house. She asks me almost every day if Santa is coming yet.

The other day Alexa found my hiding spot for the presents and came running out with her Tinker Bell toothpaste and some candy I got for Nic for Christmas. She was so excited that she found something and she has asked for her Tinker Bell toothpaste every day since then. I didn't really know how to explain why it was in the closet.

My little Blake seems to be growing up so fast! I can't believe he's almost one! He has four teeth now which are so cute! Especially since there is a big gap in between the top two and he just grins so cute with them:-) He is getting around really good walking with his walk toy but no steps on his own yet. He will stand on his own for a long time and I ask him to walk to me and he just slowly sits down and then crawls over. Right now we are working on getting rid of the bottle and exclusively using a sippy cup. It's been quite the challenge and very frustrating since he drinks water out of it great but he knows his milk is supposed to be in his bottle so he throws it down. He is finally drinking his milk out of it for the first morning cup but won't touch it the rest of the day. I keep reminding myself I went through the same thing with Alexa but it seems like he's a bit more stubborn than she was...I wonder where he gets that from? :-)

Here are a few random pictures from December. I have many more to post but I have to get them organized first. I at least finally got Blake's birth photobook done (now that he is going to be one in 2 weeks!) and Alexa's 2 year book...can you tell I'm a little behind?

(On the hayride for the "Live Nativity")

(Petting the baby Camel. He was only 6 weeks old...so cute!)

(Alexa petting the small cow at the petting zoo)

(Eating his puffs...he stuffs his face so fast!)

(I turn my back for one second...That's a toy knife by the way:-)

(My cutie in a pair of his Christmas PJ's trying to pull the garland down off the banister)

(Blake's beautiful curls...definitely red but there's some blond in there too)

(My beautiful Angel)

(Alexa was being silly and buckled herself in Blake's carseat so Nic carried her around in it)

Some Pictures of Our New Home

2011-11-30T15:51:00.008-05:00

Now that we are finally settled and we got the house put together I am finally posting some pictures of the house. There's still ton's to do but at least the boxes are finally gone:-)

(Nic's Office)

(Alexa's new bedroom...she wanted green so I had to paint it for her)

(The playroom we made out of what was the storage room and the carpet we found in the attic)

(The loft area/bonus room)

(Going from the loft to the top of stairs and balcony overlooking great room)

(Leanne's "play room" and craft center where I do all my sewing and embroidery)

(The eating area and my new kitcen table we bought in Amish Country right before we moved)

(The Kitchen)

(Entryway)

(Dining Room)

(Great Room)

(View of Great Room from Loft)

Welcome to Texas!

2011-09-30T11:31:00.006-04:00

In case anyone is wondering, yes we are still alive and yes, we made it to Texas:-) I actually had a long post typed up right when we got here and my computer crashed before it was saved. Things got to crazy with closing on the house and getting settled in to post again so I'm going to try to catch up. Following is what little bit was saved from the original post so I will leave it:

After a very long trip of a week and a half, we are finally here! We really enjoyed driving in and seeing the different countryside. Everything was really pretty driving in with rolling ranches and lots of cattle...we even had a moment of panic when there were 3 huge cows grazing on the side of the interstate! Fortunately, they are not fast like deer. We even saw a gorgeouse ranch that had the white horse fence and lots of horses...it reminded us of Kentucky so we thought we might not get so homesick. It got dark about an hour or so before we arrived so our sightseeing was over.

(Some scenery driving in)

(All the flags Texas has flown under)

(The bike path driving into our neighborhood)

(A view of our street from our driveway)

(Our front yard...figured I better get a picture of the flowers before I kill them all:-)

(More scenery of the drive in)

(Driving up to our subdivision)

(Our subdivision)

(The community center in our subdivision)

And of course, I had to check out the mall while we were waiting to close. The kids enjoyed the play area.

(This was Blake's first time getting down and playing in one of the play areas and he had a ball!)

(Alexa wouldn't sit still long enough to get a good picture)

(Enjoying the last days of summer at the pool at the hotel...It seemed weird to be swimming at the end of Sept)

Leg 3 to Texas...Arkansas

2011-09-28T15:21:00.011-04:00

Even though our drive to Arkansas was the longest leg (7 hours with no stops) it was actually the easiest drive. We decided to leave later so most of the trip would be the kids bedtime. I was really afraid it would backfire on us and they would just be really cranky, but much to my shock...they actually slept about 5 hours! We didn't get in until after midnight and man, was I dreading unloading the car again.

The next morning, Alexa woke up and was so excited to see the kids. She had so much fun with them all weekend. She saw Ryan's picture at Nic's parents and said "he's my best friend!" She is so funny because she isn't yet into all the girly stuff and would rather play with him because he is 8 and carries her all around the house and makes a big deal over her. She went to school with Lanette to pick him up and he was introducing her to all his friends. She had a great time playing dress up and play-doh with Emma. Emma was crazy about Blake and was a great helper with feeding him and changing his diapers.

(Alexa and Emma playing so sweetly together)

(Emma entertaining Blake for me)

(I've never seen Blake laugh so much as did with the dog. He crawled after her everywhere and she loved jumping on Blake)

(Blake was in love with Marley...it almost made me want to get a dog...ALMOST)

(My big boy sitting in Ryan's chair...he loved it!)

We got the opportunity to go to the fair in Arkansas and it was so much fun! Alexa had a ball petting all the animals and riding some rides. I laughed so hard at the look on her face while I watched her on the on the Tilt-A-Whirl...it was a mixture of glee and, I'm going to puke:-) It was so funny at the animal barn someone had a giant rubber spider hanging from the ceiling and they would drop it when you walked under it and Alexa would not go past it even when I told her it was fake.

(Alexa would not quit sticking her hands in the cages...I was afraid she was going to get her finger bitten off)

(Alexa and Emma petting a baby bunny)

(Alexa and Daddy on the Ferris Wheel...I don't think he liked it too much)

(Sweet baby calf)

(The giant pig was the only thing Alexa was afraid to get too close to. She finally touched his snout when the owner showed her how)

(so cute!)

After a great weekend with Kieth and Lanette it was time to load the van yet again for our last drive into Texas! I dreaded loading up but I was so excited to finally get to our destination. All week Alexa has been asking to go to her new house so it was nice to get one step closer. Unfortunately, we have 5 nights in a hotel before we can move into our house but at least we can explore our new city. After a fun time at Emma's birthday party we headed out of town...

...Texas, Here We Come!!!

Leg 2 to Texas...Owensboro

2011-09-28T14:37:00.008-04:00

The drive to Owensboro was a little stressful since both kids decided to be a little fussy. After 3 hours we made it and were very glad to spend some time with Nic's parents. Blake had a wonderful time crawling all over MawMaw and Daddy Bob's house exploring and Alexa had so much fun in MawMaw's garden picking all the baby watermelon that weren't ready yet...sorry Mawmaw.

Nic and I were even able to go on a date night...we had forgotten what that was:-) We spent a lot of it at the cell phone store since I had lost my phone. I thought for sure it was at my parents house until I finally found it in the bottom of my suitcase after 2 days. Poor Blake probably had to listen to it ringing 100 times since the suitcase was in his room. I was actually disappointed to find it since I am trying to talk Nic into getting me an Android:-) Nic and I also went to dinner where we ran into some of his friends and had a great time talking with them.

(I think somebody wanted to escape)

(Blake had a wrestling match with the bear...he resorted to biting his ear)

(Blake loved this bear...it was wearing on of Nic's outfits from when he was a baby)

After a great visit with Nic's parents, it was time to say goodbye. After the dreaded loading of the car with all of our junk (I am already tired of it and we still have 2 more stops), we said our goodbyes and went to Meet Nic's Grandparents and Aunt Barbara at Ryan's for lunch before heading out of town. We had a great time getting to visit with them. After lunch we rolled out of town...On to Arkansas!

(Alexa and Blake enjoying ice cream cones at Ryans)

(With Pawpaw and Aunt Barbara)

(Alexa and Nana...I love this picture!)

Leg 1 Of Our Journey...On To Lexington!

2011-09-26T16:16:00.008-04:00

After leaving Columbus it was on to Lexington/Georgetown to spend a few nights with my family before we move halfway around the world (well, halfway across the US anyway...but it seems much further).

We had a pretty pleasant drive...of course it was only 3 hours of our 18 hours we had to drive. We really enjoyed spending time with family.

(Grammy just couldn't leave anyone out so she had to give 3 horsie rides at once)

(The highlight of the trip for Alexa was making cookies with Grammy)

Alexa had a ton of fun with her cousins, especially when we went to the pumpkin patch. I was so excited that the timing worked our for us to go since it's my favorite pumpkin patch and I may never get to go again. Plus, it was really special since it's Blake's first fall and pumpkins. It was a great time, especially since our friends Kyle and Isaac were in town so they came with us.

(Sweet Brother and Sister)

(Kate, Graham, Alexa & Blake)

(Alexa and Graham walking in the "Rat Run")

(Grammy and Poppy with the Grandkids...I was sad Blake was asleep in the Bjorn so he couldn't be in the picture)

(Blake and Big Cousin Graham)

(Blake's first experience with Pumpkins...he's so cute! :-)

(With Kyle and Isaac)

We got to meet my new nephew Owen who is so tiny and just precious. It made me think that I may just need another baby:-)

The timing was also perfect to be in town for our friend's Mark and Traci's baby shower for their twins! It was so great to see them and all of our KY friends and I loved getting to see her pregnant. I am so excited for them! We had so much fun with everybody.

(With our friends at the shower)

As expected, it was hard to say goodbye to my family and of course I cried some more. I think it would have been much worse but I don't know if it has fully set in yet that we are moving and will be so far away. It felt like we were just there for a visit and then going home to OH. It also helped that my mom and dad are planning to come to Dallas for Thanksgiving. It's in writing here Mom so now you can't change your mind:-)

After 4 nights we loaded the van back up (I felt like we were moving again with all our junk we had to load back up) and started out on the 2nd leg on our journey to Dallas.

On to Owensboro...

Officially Homeless...Goodbye Columbus:-(

2011-09-26T15:04:00.008-04:00

It was a sad goodbye to Columbus and friends. It was really nice to have a girls night the day before closed on our house. I got to go to Cheesecake Factory with my good friends Shannon, Alicia and Bethel. It was such a great time but it was sad knowing it was the last time I was going to get to go out with them.

We closed on our home Thursday AM while the movers were at our house loading the truck and packing the last minute things. We were so excited to finally be closed after our last sale fell through the day before closing! Yay, we are officially out! While the movers worked I was able to meet one my friends at the mall to meet her new daughter Ana that they just got from China. It was a little bittersweet because we really enjoyed getting to meet Ana and play with her and her big sister Audrey but it sad knowing it was the last time we would see them. After we said goodbye it was back to the house to help the movers finish things up.

(Audrey, Alexa & Ana)

When I got back to the house I was busy helping the movers finish things up and cleaning things for the new owners. When the movers left my friend Shannon and her girls came over to tell us goodbye. When I had to say goodbye to her I had my first tears because it was so sad to say goodbye to my college friend that I was so fortunate to get to spend the last 3 years with in Ohio. Hopefully we can live near them again and Alexa and Blake can grow up with their buddies.

(Shannon with Blake and her baby Juliette...Blake looks so huge next to her!)

(Alexa and Ava saying goodbye)

Then it was time to say goodbye to the house. It was kind of sad to see it all empty. Alexa kept saying, "those guys are taking my stuff!" and I had to keep explaining they were taking it to our new house. The funniest was when she wanted a Popsicle and I told her I didn't have any scissors because they were packed and she said, "we have scissors, they're right here" and opened the drawer and said "hey, somebody took my scissors...put them back!" She managed to make friends with the movers though and kept saying "those guys are my friends" and taking them bottles of water.

(Our empty living room)

(I'm over living with boxes everywhere. This is my new table that was delivered the morning the mover's came. I can't wait to see what it looks like!)

(our empty dining room)

After we said goodbye to the house and pulled away with the van loaded to ceiling we went to our friend Alicia's house to goodbye to her and Bryce and Jillian. It was another really sad moment and after some more tears in the car it was on the pick up Nic at his work and leave Columbus for the last time.

On the the next let of our 5 leg journey to Texas! It's going to be a long two weeks as homeless gypsies until we settle into our new home.

Heading To The Lonestar State

2011-09-12T09:50:00.003-04:00

Well, I can't believe it since I told Nic before we got married that he would never get me to move to Texas, but 7 years later we are Texas-bound. The movers come in 2 days to load our truck and then we close on our house on Thursday. I can't believe it is almost here. I am a little excited and a little sad. I am really sad to leave our friends here in Columbus and to be so far away from our families. And I'm nervous about how hot it is going to be but I can't lie, I am NOT going to miss the horrible winters here:-)

I'm not sure Alexa really gets it yet. She goes around wearing Nic's cowboy hat singing a song he taught her about Texas but I don't think she understands we won't be coming back to this house. We sold our kitchen table and she came downstairs and asked where her table and chairs were and I told her we sold it for the move and she said, "put it back!" I don't think she really likes change much. Blake is just having a ball crawling all over the place getting into the boxes that aren't sealed yet! Since we won't see everyone as much now, I'm really going to try to update more on our new lives in Texas.

Despite all the reserves I am feeling, I am excited for the adventure of starting in a new place. It seems like a great place to live from the limited time I have spent there while looking for a house. We did find a house and will be closing on it two weeks after we leave here so I guess we will be drifters for a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to spending some time in KY with our family and friends before we make the looong drive to our new home.

Some Family Pics

2011-09-09T14:27:00.005-04:00

2011-07-08T11:18:00.003-04:00

Blake eating his fruit out of his mesh feeder...you can't get this thing away from him

My precious angel at almost 6 months.

I don't get too many chances to get a pic of the two of them sitting still and looking at the camera...much less both smiling!

My two cuties

Blake's first time having solids...he wound up wearing most of it.

I know it's shocking and hard to believe but I am actually updating my blog. My new goal is to try to do this more often but we will see how that works. Things are absolutely crazy for us right now and the only reason I am getting the chance to update this is because I am totally procrastinating. We are moving in a week and a half and I'm supposed to be packing but I am hitting a wall so I thought I would take a break. For those of you who don't know we sold our house in 3-1/2 weeks which was a bit of a surprise and now we don't know where we are going! We had planned to build and were about to sign the contract but we felt the Lord was telling us that wasn't His plan for us so now we are just moving into a townhome for 6 months. We are praying for the Lord to direct us where he wants us. At this point we are not sure if we are supposed to stay here in Columbus or move out of state. If we are supposed to move out of state we aren't sure where yet. Hopefully God will fill us in soon:) Rather than rushing into buying a new home here we thought we would just take a break and find out what we are supposed to do so this should be an interesting 6 months.

It's hard to believe but my little Blake just turned 6 months old! He is such a blessing and a joy. He really is a happy and joyful baby and laughs and giggles so much. He is rolling over both ways and can sort of sit up on his own...he leans over so much to put his toes in his mouth that he looks kind of funny doing it. He's just getting so big that it makes me sad but it's fun to watch him grow and learn new things. Alexa loves her baby brother and is sometimes a little possessive over him. She is such a great helper and always bringing me diapers and wipes but sometimes she wants to act like she's a baby too and get in his seat and exersaucer and wants me to "feed her like a baby". I can't believe she is 3-1/2 and talking so much. Some of the things she comes up with are just too funny! We really have to be careful of what we say around her because she hears and repeats everything!

I really am going to try to be better about posting. In the next few weeks I'm going to try to catch up and post some old pictures of when Blake was born. Please don't mind my Christmas background...it may be awhile before I have time to change that:)

2011-01-08T09:04:00.003-05:00

He finally made it! Born at 7:47 Friday night at 9 lbs 7 oz & 21.75 inches with strawberry blonde hair. They are both doing great.

Ultrasound Picture

2010-12-01T17:07:00.002-05:00

I'm finally putting an ultrasound picture of the baby up...even though it's from our 20 week ultrasound:)

October/November Update

2010-12-01T16:24:00.007-05:00

What an amazing year it has been. It's crazy how fast time goes by but we celebrated the 2-year anniversary of Alexa becoming part of our family on Oct 20th. I can't even believe how much she is growing up and that she is going to be a big sister soon. I also can't believe how these weeks are flying by in my pregnancy and we only have about 4 weeks to go! I'm ready to get this "giant" baby out but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to be a mother of two yet:) I have a hard enough time updating this blog with one child, I don't know how I will ever get it done with two. Hopefully though there will be a post in the next couple of weeks announcing our baby boy's birth! That just seems so weird to even think about and we still have so much to do. His nursery is pretty much done. I have a shelf to hang and then put his name on the wall and we will be done and then I will try to post a picture. We still have to install the carseat and I have a lot of monogramming to do for him but we are slowly getting there. Now if I can just get my Christmas shopping done...I at least got the tree up and the stockings hung but I don't know how much other decorating we will do this year with the baby coming so close to Christmas. Anyway, here are a few pictures from October.

Alexa trick-or-treating in downtown Westerville with her buddies.

Alexa was a Vietnamese "princess" this year.

As you can tell, Alexa loves putting on Mommy's lipstick.

At the Circleville Pumpkin Festival

Me and Alexa with the winning pumpkin

Alexa on her first pony ride...I wasn't sure how she would do but she loved it!

Alexa having a ball on the horse-drawn hayride in downtown Westerville.

It took awhile but she finally put her hand in.

Me and Alexa in Amish Country with Grammy on our Family Anniversary day.

Alexa opening her gifts from Vietnam.

October 20th...Two years as a Family!

My whacky lopsided belly with half a uterus.

The cute diaper cake my friends made me at my baby shower.

2010-09-26T19:38:00.002-04:00

Oh, and excuse how my blog looks. I can not figure out how to get this stupid pink thing off the top of my blog. If anyone has any tips please let me know:)

September 2010

2010-09-26T18:31:00.008-04:00

Fall is in the air and I am loving it! It is my favorite time of the year and this year is even more exciting for me because it means that I am getting closer to our baby boy coming. I can't believe that I am already 6-1/2 months pregnant and almost in my 3rd trimester! It's crazy how fast time flies. Sometimes I feel like it is moving slowly but when I think about the fact that it's almost October and there will be so much to keep us busy the next few months like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and just getting everything ready for the baby I know Jan. 1st will be here before I know it. Sometimes I get kind of impatient for him to get here but since I know once he's here life is going to be a lot more hectic I am trying to slow down and just enjoy the last 3 months.

We still haven't decided on a name for this little guy so he's probably going to get stuck with being called "baby Rogers" forever. We have it narrowed down to a couple and I think I know the one we might go with but I'm too afraid that we will change our minds so I'm not embroidering anything yet. We need to decide soon though because I know that I won't have time to embroider everything I want once he's here. We've started on the nursery somewhat. We have it painted and cleared out and now we are just waiting for his furniture to come in. It should hopefully be in sometime this week and I'm really excited to see it all set up. We also finally got his closet shelves up and this kid already has tons of clothes. I know that he will outgrow the small stuff so fast though but I really have no idea how much you need for a newborn.

Alexa is getting excited about her baby brother. She is so cute...every time she prays at bedtime or for her meal she always prays for "Mommy, Daddy, Alexa and baby brother"...although a lot of times she calls him by random names that aren't even in the running for his name. She talks a lot about changing baby brother's diapers and brings me pretend "milk for baby brother" as she says. She is going to be my big helper when he gets here...hopefully not too much though:) Alexa has moved into her "big-girl bed" and she's doing really well in it. She thought she was something else the first night that she got to sleep in it. It's so funny to watch her on the monitor though because she moves around every square inch of that bed before she actually falls asleep...that is why she doesn't get to sleep with us:) Anyway, here are a lot of pictures from the last month. I'm going to try to get up the courage to put some of my belly pics on here but I'm just not sure if I can do it:)

Alexa's new "Big-girl Room"

My little "pumpkin"

I can't believe how much she is growing. We were watching a Christmas video of her tonight and it is so amazing how much she has changed in just 9 short months...makes me sad:(

Alexa thinks that every time she sees a pumpkin she has to sit on it and she says "take a picture Mommy"...I guess she's used to it:)

Alexa modeling the candy apple shirt I made her.

Modeling yet another shirt...and her adorable big girl pigtails.

Our big girl going up the giant bouncy slide...I wasn't sure she would do it but she just climbed up it like a little monkey.

Alexa and her cousin Ethan riding the cars at Kings Island. She was barely tall enough to get on anything.

I love this picture but I don't think Alexa was so sure about her.

Alexa and daddy in front of the fountains at Kings Island.

Alexa on her first ride ever...she had the same expressionless look on her face for every single ride:)

Alexa and Ethan with Snoopy.

This just cracked me up so I had to put it on here. Alexa went around the house all day with her backpack and sunglasses on. I think she was ready to go somewhere.

IT'S A.......

2010-07-15T16:17:00.005-04:00

.......................................

(The top one is where you can see he's a boy, the 2nd one is is hand and the 3rd one is his face with his arms above his head and his belly)

BOY!!!

We went in for our ultrasound yesterday at 15 1/2weeks, totally not expecting to find out what we are having since they said we would find out on our 20 week appointment but apparently our little man was being very cooperative so we were able to find out. We were really okay with having a boy or a girl since we are getting a boy from Taiwan but we are very excited. I'm still wanting to wait for confirmation on our next ultrasound before I start buying a bunch of stuff but apparently it's pretty obvious to the doctor. What a blessing:)

Our Big Surprise!

2010-06-22T15:03:00.004-04:00

We are finally getting over the shock so I'm ready to post it on our blog...WE ARE PREGNANT! We were not trying and we were definitely taken by surprise but now that we are 12 weeks I think we finally have a grasp on this:) Many of you already know this, but we are also in the process of a second adoption. We are adopting a little boy from Taiwan and we were supposed to get him in about 12 more months. Unfortunately, our agency is putting our adoption on hold until this baby is 12 months old. We were very disappointed at first but as we know with how everything worked out with Alexa, God knows what is best for us and what we need. He must know I can't handle 2 children that are 3 months apart...I would probably lose my sanity:) As it is now, we will probably get our child from Taiwan when this child is 2 or 3 and Alexa will be 5 or 6 so I think it will all work out great...God is in control. We are just excited for this blessing.

We are due on January 1st (1/1/11). Nic is not too happy about the due date and told the doctor they would have to induce me the day before because he is worried to death that he won't get the tax credit this year...that is Nic for you:) The doctor's told me I probably would not go full term anyway since I only have half a uterus so that is a big prayer request for us...I am considered a high-risk pregnancy for pre-term labor. Anyway, we are going to try to be more diligent in updating our blog to keep everyone updated on the pregnancy, the new adoption, and our life with Alexa. As pregnancy and newborns are very new to us, this is a new and exciting journey in our lives.

Europe Trip 2010

2010-06-22T13:35:00.016-04:00

We had such an amazing time in Europe this May! It was a very long trip...17 days, and with a young child that can be very challenging although Alexa did surprisingly well. By the last day or two of the trip though she was done (and me too) and ready to be home. It was exhausting at times because we found out that we were pregnant right before we left and I was pretty tired and nauseous and we did so much walking...but it was all worth it! The most interesting part of our trip was when Nic and I went to a German hospital at about 1am to have an ultrasound done since I had some bleeding and we were worried about a miscarriage. Fortunately, everything is fine and we got to see our little baby's heartbeat for the first time! The hospital was deserted and very dim and it was just a little creepy:) We traveled around in Germany and Italy (seeing Venice, Rome and Pisa in Italy). I'm posting a lot of pictures but I feel like I did pretty well narrowing it down from 1,240 pictures to about 27.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

At the "American Beach" in Pisa. Alexa would not even touch the sand last summer and now Nic had her laying in it and trying to eat it:)

Alexa bringing me her treasure.

She still wasn't about to go in the water...even though she loves the swimming pool

Alexa trying to get in the fountain in front of the Vatican City.

Alexa cooling her feet in the Trevi Fountain.

Alexa and Daddy in front of the Trevi Fountain.

Alexa and Daddy in front of the Colosseum.

Us and Nic's sister and brother-in-law and their 3 boys with the Colosseum in the background.

Alexa climbing on some ancient pillars.

View of the canals in Venice.

Nic and Alexa in Venice.

View of the Alps where we were staying in Germany.

The fountain at King Ludwig's Palace in Germany

Castle Neuschwanstein which was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disney.

Another view of the castle...it looks like it's in the clouds.

The castle in the background is the one King Ludwig grew up in. It was so cold that day I had to borrow my sister-in-law's coat and gloves.

The streets of Rothenburg, a medieval village in Germany

Finally, I got Nic where I want him...to bad we don't have one of these:)

Alexa overlooking the village below.

The tower in Rothenburg.

My cutie at the ancient well in Rothenburg.

Alexa and her cousin Joshua were completely exhausted after a day of sightseeing.

Touring the grounds of an ancient castle ruins. Alexa was obsessed with picking the dandelions.

Alexa sitting on the castle lookout.

Alexa's 2nd Birthday!

2010-03-11T20:04:00.005-05:00

I can't believe my little baby is 2 years old! It kinda makes me sad that she is growing up but at the same time she is getting more fun every day. I think she kinda got the concept of it being her birthday. She would walk around singing "Happy Birthday" (sort of:) and she can say "I two". And boy did she love opening her presents. It's amazing how quick kids learn that the day is all about them.

A few updates about how Alexa is doing. She had her two-year checkup and as I expected, she is tiny. She is actually in around the 50% for her height at 34 inches and only the 10% for her weight at 23.6lbs. She still absolutely hates the doctor though. For some reason she still screams from the time they call us back until we get back into the car. She is starting to able to sing some songs (or parts of them:) and is saying two and three word sentences. And the biggest news of all...we are officially Potty Trained!!!! Yay! I started about 3 weeks before her birthday and after 7 accidents on the first day I almost gave up. Then by the second day (and 5 more accidents) I was ready to cry but I knew if I gave up I would have to repeat those 2 horrible days all over again so we kept at it. After her nap on day three something just kind of clicked and she started going every time I put her on the potty. We still have our occasional accidents but we did go for 9 days straight with no accidents...and then we had 3 in two days:( But over all I would say she is doing great. Anyway, on to the pictures...

We did a tea party theme since Alexa loves playing with her tea cups. My cakes didn't turn out quite like I had invisioned in my head...

Alexa with Aunt Jo Jo, Kate and Graham. Alexa is crazy about Jo Jo!

Alexa with her little buddies who came to help her celebrate turning two.

Trying to figure out how to blow out the candles.

Alexa was all about eating some cake. As usual, she was the last one at the table and then (even though there was still a lot of cake on her own plate) she went around to all the other kids plates and ate some of their cake since there were gone. What is it that makes every one else's stuff look so much better than your own even though it's the same thing?

Alexa went crazy over her Veggie Tales coloring book. That is her favorite "toon" right now and she started jumping up and down and yelling "Tale Tales", which is what she calls it.

The girls were patiently waiting for Alexa to hurry up and open her next present.

I don't know what it is about turning two but suddenly Alexa looks so much older:(

Beautiful girl!

Our first semi-warm (or at least not freezing) day and of course we had to go outside and take pictures:) Alexa loved touching the snow with her bare hands. And yes, finally the snow is gone!

Christmas 2009

2010-03-11T19:13:00.008-05:00

We had such a fun Christmas this year! Alexa really got into it and had so much fun opening her presents. When she walked down the stairs her face lit up and she said wow when she saw her table and her stroller. After our little family Christmas we flew to Arkansas the next day to be with Nic's family. Sadly, Nic's parents didn't get to be with us because Nic's grandpa passed away a few days before Christmas. It was so good to spend some time in Arkansas though with Nic's brother and sister-in-law and Alexa's cousins Ryan and Emma. Then we went to Kentucky to spend a few days with my family. Alexa really enjoyed being around her 10 cousins.

We had so much fun but it's been such a cold, long winter that I can truly say I'm glad the winter season is finally over and we are ready for spring!

Daddy is reading Alexa the true Christmas story

Alexa's Christmas "loot"

Alexa couldn't decide what she wanted to play with first so she held the stroller while she sat at her table.

Alexa loves having a tea party

She was really getting in to it after a few presents.

Pausing between presents to play with her new toys.

Having fun in all the paper.

"Finally, mommy and daddy let me eat chocolate!"

We've decided Alexa is going to be a bag lady when she grows up since her favorite thing to do is load her stroller up with trash and junk.

Alexa with her cousins Ryan and Emma...we miss them so much!

Alexa was in love with Ryan and Emma's dog Marley. Daddy wants to get her one but I had to veto that...I'm the mean one:(

So cute!

Alexa loves her big cousin!

The girls talking to Mawmaw and Daddy Bob via web cam

Poppy reading the Christmas story to all the grandkids.

Alexa was fascinated by all her older cousins.

Winter 2010

2010-02-05T19:56:00.008-05:00

Okay, so I'm not the world's best person about updating my blog so a lot of these pictures are from before Christmas. We've had such a busy few months with all the holidays and everything that I just kept forgetting to update but it's finally here:) We really had a blast over Christmas with Alexa this year. She had so much fun opening her Christmas presents and screamed when she came down the stairs and saw her table and chairs and her doll stroller. I'm still trying to figure out where Nic saved all those pictures so I can put them on here too:)

Nic and I just had a wonderful weekend away in Gatlinburg with our Lexington friends. We hated to leave Alexa but we enjoyed getting away for a couple of nights and Alexa had a blast with her Grammy and Poppy in Georgetown. We weren't sure we were going to get to go because Alexa got sick a couple of days before our trip. It was the first time since we've had her that she has ever been sick so it was a little interesting. I just hope we don't get to repeat that again any time soon. As soon as we got home from our trip we started potty training the next morning. Let's just say that has probably been the most stressful and frustrating thing that Alexa and I have been through together...even more than going from a bottle to a cup:) Alexa is finally in Big Girl panties!!! Yay, I didn't think we were going to make it! After 7 accidents the first day I almost quit and I totally understand why people do, but she did go in the potty 3 times so I decided to press on. We had 4 accidents the second day, one the third day and by day number four it just clicked and she didn't have any accidents. I know we still have a long road ahead of us but I can't believe she is doing so well. I think I might actually survive this:)

It's hard to believe but Alexa is turning 2 this month! It kinda makes me sad but she is getting more fun every day and talking so much more so it's easier to communicate. I'm not sure what we are doing for her birthday yet but hopefully it will be a fun day for her.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months. For some reason they uploaded in reverse order and I didn't fool with fixing it so the newest ones are first.

Alexa is trying to figure out her new toy shelf...in her new panties:)

Alexa decided she needed all 12 pairs of her new panties on...at the same time!

I had to help her a bit but she got them all on.

Alexa's new pigtails at the bottom of her hair.

She looks so grown up with her hair like this:(

Alexa's first snow-angel

Alexa is thinking "I'm a tropical baby, I'm not made for this!"

In the airport coming home from Christmas with her doll

Alexa and Santa...we had to stand in line for almost 2 hours for this!

Cutie-pie with her hair bows from Aunt Lanette

Modeling her outfit I made for her.

This is our new fun game...

At Wild Lights at the Zoo...the weather was really nice this day.

At the aquarium in the Zoo.

Chillin' out in her wagon...what a way to see the lights.

Daddy and Alexa on the carousel

Alexa is enjoying the light show...her arms look so long:)

Alexa's first haircut...I can't believe how much it's grown since then!

Alexa Playing The Harmonica

2010-01-22T18:44:00.004-05:00

She's played with it a couple of times the last 2 weeks, but today is the first day that she finally figured it out. She's a natural!!

Our Anniversary As A Family!

2009-10-23T14:10:00.006-04:00

I can't believe it's already here but Tuesday, October 2oth was the one year anniversary of the day Alexa came into our family. It has gone so quickly but at the same time it seems as if we've always had Alexa. I can hardly remember what my life was like before we got her. The last year has been amazing and we just feel so blessed and lucky to be the parents of this beautiful and energetic child. She is so full of joy and life and keeps mommy and daddy quite busy:) Alexa has changed so much in the past year. You forget how much until you start looking back at pictures and videos and then you think, wow...were you really ever that small and that bald?:)

We had a fun day celebrating with Alexa. Daddy of course had to work so Alexa and I went to the library for story time and the weather turned out so beautiful that when Daddy got home we had to make a trip to the playground. Alexa is getting so independent now and loves to go up the steps and down the slide all by herself which of course kinda scares me. After the playground we had planned to take Alexa to this nice Vietnamese restaurant in town and of course when we got there they had a sign on the door that they were closed that night due to equipment failure. We were so disappointed but wound up just going to our favorite restaurant so it was fun. We will take her to the Vietnamese restaurant next week. We got Alexa a small cake which she loved and kept saying her favorite word, "more". She didn't like the icing on her hands though and kept trying to wipe her hands off. That evening we sat down and looked at Alexa book of our adoption journey. Nic took off work the next day and we made a trip to the Zoo to enjoy probably the last day of really nice weather.

Here are some pictures of our day:

Alexa is enjoying her cake very much!

She was not loving the icing on her hands but she kept saying "more"

Daddy's little girl...learning how to use the computer.

Daddy pushing Alexa in the swing...her favorite part of the playground.

Going down the slide all by herself.

Chillin' out on the bench in the play area.

Checking out the pond at the park.

Trying to be a big girl at the top of the playground...scary!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-06T09:36:00.008-04:00

Alexa and her Buddies

I am so excited that we got to take Alexa to the pumpkin patch for the first time! This is my favorite time of the year and we just missed getting to take Alexa last year since we had just gotten home from Vietnam the day before Halloween. It's so hard to believe that we have had Alexa for almost a year this month. A year ago right now we were running around like crazy getting ready for our trip to Vietnam. I still remember thinking last year that I couldn't even wrap my mind around the fact that we were getting ready to fly halfway around the world and meet our baby. It just didn't seem real at all and now I can't imagine my life before we got Alexa. We have been so blessed this year.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a very nasty, dreary day when we went but we had a great time with our friends anyway. We'll still be going a few more times before fall is over so it was worth it:)

Alexa's not so sure about the Hay yet...

Alexa & Daddy watching Mommy Zipline

Alexa looking pretty in the outfit Mommy made her

Alexa having a blast in the Giant Corn Box (so much better than sand!)

Climbing up the Hay Bales to go down the Slide

Having Fun in the Hay

Farmer Alexa on the Big Tractor

Pictures of Alexa - 18months

2009-09-13T20:05:00.005-04:00

Hanging out on the front porch.

Enjoying the sun at the pool.

Like father like daughter:)

Checking out the elephants from Daddy's shoulders.

Brushing the animals at the zoo.

Pictures of Alexa on the pier at the lake near our house.

I can't believe Alexa is 18 months old! It seem just like yesterday we were dying to go to Vietnam to get her. It's so hard to believe that we will have had her for a year next month. She is changing so much and is so much fun. She is a very busy little girl and never stops. She loves to go to the playground and climb up all the steps and go down the slides by herself (which scares mommy to death). She is starting to talk a lot and knows her eyes, nose, ears, mouth and knees, etc. She can do most of her animal sounds when you ask what they say but her favorite is "mooo" which is what she says for most things. She can put her shoes on (of course on the wrong feet and can't buckle them but she likes to try). My favorite is when we go somewhere and get out of the car she pats her head and says "hair bow"...she knows mommy doesn't get her out of the car without one:) She loves her bath still and every time we change her diaper she says "bath?". She's turning into a little girl now which is kinda sad but at the same time she is getting more fun every day.

Alexa's 12 Month Pictures...About 6 Months Late:)

2009-09-13T20:00:00.001-04:00

Alexa's First Birthday!

2009-03-10T21:53:00.008-04:00

Happy Birthday Alexa!!!

It's hard to believe it's already happened but Alexa is now 1. It kinda makes me sad that she is growing up so fast but at the same time she is getting more fun every day. She is now starting to walk. She is getting a lot more confident with it and will now let go of the furniture on her own and take about 7 or 8 steps. She still has her 4 little teeth but she is working on a couple of new ones. We had her one year checkup the other day and the doctor said she was doing great! She weighs 2o lb 2 oz and is 29-1/4" long. She is about 50% for height and 38% for weight. She's still trying to get caught up on her vaccines so that wasn't fun. She knew as soon as the doctor walked in what was going to happen and just started crying. It's so funny how at such a young age they remember stuff like that.

Alexa is just such a joy and is such a fun and happy baby. We've had a string of really nice days recently so we've been enjoying some outdoor activities like going to the zoo and riding our bikes with Alexa in her little trailer to the park. She really loves being outside.

We had a great Birthday party with Alexa and enjoyed celebrating her special day. My thoughts and prayers were with Alexa's birth mother as I'm sure it was such a hard day for her and I just pray that she knows that Alexa is very loved. Here are some pictures from Alexa's party.

Daddy helping Alexa walk.

Alexa's own little cake.

Alexa was trying so hard to get that lollipop:)

Alexa Loves her rocking chair!

I'm still amazed she kept her party hat on.

Alexa's first experience with balloons...she had a blast with them!

Alexa and her cousin Kate.

Time to blow out the candle.

Alexa is sharing some of her cake with Daddy.

"So this is what I've been missing..."

Alexa and her buddy Ava playing

Walking on her own like a "big girl"

Our First Christmas As A Family!

2009-01-10T18:58:00.011-05:00

Our First Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas! There were times that we thought we might be celebrating this Christmas with just the two of us but the Lord is good and he allowed us to celebrate Christmas with our amazing daughter. We are so blessed and it's amazing to think back to last year at this time when we were just starting our journey and it seemed like it was going to be such a long road. Alexa is doing great. She had her 9month check-up in December and she is very healthy and everything went great...well, except for her having to get caught up on her vaccines. It will be awhile before she is completely caught up but at least we got a start. She was 17lbs 11oz and 27-3/4" long at that time. She sure feels like she has gained some weight since then:) She has her two bottom teeth and one of her top ones is half out and the other is popping out now. It's amazing how much just a few teeth change the way she looks...she is cuter than ever...and finally, she doesn't have a mohawk anymore:)

Here are some pictures from our Christmas. We had a great time with both of our families!

Alexa's first visit with Santa.

Alexa with Daddy Christmas shopping at the mall.

Alexa and mommy in line to visit Santa.

Aparantly Daddy did something really funny:)

Alexa modeling for her first Christmas card...isn't she pretty?

Alexa is of course having more fun with the box:)

Alexa was enjoying pulling stuff out of her stocking.

Playing in the paper.

Christmas at Grammy & Poppy's house.

"Wow, this present is bigger than me!"

Christmas with Da-Da's family

Its a Christmas Miracle! A new post!! :)

2008-12-08T14:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since we've updated our blog (not sure if anyone is still reading it) since we were traveling and then exhausted and then we've had company since we've been home. It was a very long and stressful trip but we made it. We loved Vietnam but we are so glad to be home! Alexa is doing great and really adjusting to her new surroundings. She loves people and reached right for her Grammy and her MawMaw when she saw them. She took a few nights to get adjusted to the new time zone.
Here are some pictures of our last few days in Vietnam and our trip home. Through all the excitement and exhaustion when we got to the airport we somehow only got videos and no pictures. Our next update (hopefully soon) will have some more pictures since we've been home. (by the way all the pictures downloaded in reverse order so you might want to start at the bottom :)

Alexa is touching US "soil" for the first time!

Alexa enjoying her cozy bassinet on the first four hour plane ride...unfortunately we didn't have one on the 15 hour one.

This is the crazy Vietnam airport at about 10pm. There were so many people there we couldn't hardly move.

At the Vietnam airport getting ready to come home!

Alexa with her friend Haven in Vientam

Alexa loved the swimming pool! She was trying to dive off Leanne's lap into the water even though the water was freezing.

Alexa was having so much fun kicking her legs in the water. We are definately going to have a swimmer on our hands.

This was in the Vietnam version of a shopping mall. It was pretty nice and had 4 or 5 stories.

At the Chocolate Buffet at a nice hotel in town. Leanne was sick for two days from this:)

Alexa and Haven at the Chocolate Buffet...unfortunately for them, they didn't get to sample the chocolate.

Our last night in Vietnam

At the Temple of Literature

We are with our in-country facilitator Anna.

Celebration! We have Alexa's US visa and can travel home!

Alexa in one of her hand-smocked dresses we got her in the Old Quarter for $8!

A beautiful cave in Ha Long Bay. This ray of sunlight coming into the dark cave through a small hole reminded me of God.

Alexa was the main attraction in the cave. Everyone wanted to touch her and ask about her.

Standing outside the cave

Our Little family in Ha Long Bay. We will never forget this trip.

A view of the bay from our boat...so beautiful!

Nic and Alexa "flying".

On the boat.

Alexa loved the air blowing on her.

We are going to try to post more regularly from now on now that we are finally settled and know what we are doing:)

We Are Coming Home!

2008-10-28T08:36:00.002-04:00

We got Alexa's visa yesterday and were able to change our plane tickets to leave on Wed. at 11pm! We will be flying into Columbus at 2:15pm on Thursday. We are very excited to be home but are a little sad to leave because we will really miss it here. The people here are so friendly and happy. We are really dreading the 25 hours of travel time and anxious about how Alexa will do on the long plane rides. She doesn't like to sit still for too long:) I'm sorry this is so short and there are no pictures but I have a lot to pack and get ready before we leave. Maybe Nic will be able to post later and add some pictures.

We are fine and having a great time!

2008-10-25T23:26:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posts, but our internet was down for a couple of days and I just got it repaired. No need to worry. Should it happen again please do not be alarmed. Leanne & I can both honestly say we have not once been fearful in any situation. Everyone here is very friendly and we are not worried. I feel safer here than in most big cities in the US! I started this post the other day, but it didn't post because the internet went down. Yesterday we went to Ha Long Bay and I'll try to post some stuff on that later.

What we learned about Miss Alexa so far…
We went to the doctor and got of her checkup for her Visa today. She weighs about 16 pounds & is a little more than 27 inches. No teeth yet, but she likes to chew on stuff. The doctor said for some reason Vietnamese get their teeth later, so not sure when they’ll come in. She has a very small Mongolian spot on her lower back (you wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t looking) which is very uncommon for asian babies. Most asian babies have large Mongolian spots (but they do fade)

She’s typically a very happy baby. Even when she is cranky/hungry if she sees herself in the mirror she will instantly start laughing or giggling. However, she doesn’t really like to have her clothes changed. She’s ok with the pants, but not when you start forcing her arms through!

She always loves to be held. We were shocked to see that in 80-85 degree heat (with very high humidity) she stayed in the baby carrier for 4+ hours 2 days in a row and even took a nap with beeping horns! We have been very blessed with that! (Daddy was more cranky than baby :) However we did find out that she doesn't care for 3 hour car rides when she can't sleep or strech out.

She doesn’t seem to be very needy, but she will decide in an instant when she’s hungry and you better be quick at getting the bottle! And boy does she have a grip. She holds on to her plastic keys for the majority of the day and will only drop them once or twice all day. When we got to dinner the other night we noticed she had brought the tv remote with her!

So far we’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to console her with any problem she’s had. She doesn’t appear to have gone through her grieving period which is very common. Most of the
families we’ve talked to their babies went though it on the 3rd or 4th night. (we’re on day 6)

There wasn’t much scenery in the orphange so she is very interested in the world around her. She really likes to crawl around the apartment hunting for cables or bottles, etc.

Most of the time she is fairly laid back, but once we get about an hour or two from bedtime she gets pretty wound up! We have been very lucky that she has been sleeping 8-9 hours without waking the last several nights. We are hoping it stays that way!

2008-10-23T09:15:00.003-04:00

This is going to be pretty short because I'm about to fall asleep but I at least wanted to put some pictures on here for those of you who keep hitting refresh:) A quick update on things: we got Alexa's passport yesterday (that was exciting:) and we have her medical exam tomorrow at 2:30 that we have to get done for her visa. Most of these pictures are when we went to the Old Quarter to shop (we got some great bargains) and walked around town. We met some friends here that we have been hanging out with. They are another couple from Nebraska that adopted a baby girl and we've been having a great time with them.

This is outside a temple.

Nic and Mike with the babies...we bought our new strollers in Old Quarter for $28 (470,000 Dong!)

Lake Hoan Kiem

Alexa was wore out from shopping and had a nap on Daddy at the Ice Cream parlor.

Alexa napping again in our cyclo

One of the ladies selling flowers off her bike.

Talk about a big load.

This picture is for you Carrie...everyone takes their babies on their scooters, even ones younger than this.

The Rogers Family in our cyclo. We weren't sure if we were going to make it out alive. The drivers just cut out in the middle of traffic in the intersections.

YAY!!! KFC...now I will have something to eat:) When we tell people we are from KY they know what we are talking about because of this.

Nic and Alexa in front of Hanoi Hilton which is the prison where John McCain was held. We haven't been in yet because it was closed.

Just another picture of our pretty baby:)

We will try to update more later and I will see if I can get Nic to add some videos:)

-Leanne

Day 2

2008-10-21T04:21:00.009-04:00

We had a pretty good night. Alexa fell asleep about 6pm and didn't wake up until 3 (we were both awake, just waiting since we are still mainly on Ohio time and were wide awake. We gave her a quick bottle and she fell back asleep until 6. We can only hope she stays on a pattern similar to this :) After a successful bath we went down for breakfast and then to the pool. We were surprised at how well she enjoyed the pool & her bath (we didn't get any photos from that, but have some longs videos on the camcorder). I did add couple of shorter videos at the end of this post. (the 30 second videos take about 30 min each to upload, so we'll have to save the larger ones for when we get home)

Her pouty look after getting out of the pool

But happy again after she was dried off

On the way to our first breakfast (suprisingly she never bothered her bow)

She loves her puffs!

She wanted everything on the table!

We found out she could crawl today and she found every cable in the room

Videos

Introducing Miss Alexa Quyen Rogers!!!

2008-10-20T08:04:00.009-04:00

Sorry for the delay (for those refreshing every 10 minutes..ahem.. Jolie & Lanette :). It was a VERY long day today and we just got in about an hour ago. It was about 9 hours total. We didn't plan on it taking that long so all we had to eat until tonight was a breakfast bar. The ride to Alexa's town of Hung Yen was a little less than 2 hours each way. However, we had to get some paperwork from a Govt office, then drive to the orphanage and get Alexa. Then back to the Govt office for our ceremony and back to the orphanage again! I'm sure no one is even reading this part so I'll just skip to the pictures that you want to see :)

Here's our Angel:

She is starting to warm up to us. Our inital timing was great as we arrived just before her naptime. She cried nonstop for the first 5-10 minutes so that was great :) I imagine its taking her a while to figure out who these Giant blonde people are :) She soon settled down after getting her bottle. The car ride home was a bit rough as she would mainly cry if she didn't have her bottle in her mouth(even though she wasn't eating it) I assume it was for comfort. But as soon as we got to the hotel room and laid her on the bed she streched out and started playing an smiling.

Our first family photo:

She is definitly very inqusitive and trying to take in all the world around her.

We are supposed to go to the doctor tomorrow for her screening, but overall she appears to be in good health and good spirits all things considered, so that definitly a blessing!

We were very glad to see that she was well loved by her nannies. As it turns out there was only 3 infants in the orphange, but 6 nannies so I'm sure she got all kinds of attention, so hopefully our spoiling won't change her much :)

Well that's all for now, Leanne & Alexa are both asleep and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Change of Plans!

2008-10-19T09:59:00.002-04:00

Praise the Lord! We found out our ceremony was moved up and we are going tomorrow morning to get Alexa instead of Tuesday!!! Please pray that everything will go smoothly as we haven't quite adjusted yet. We'll try to post again after the ceremony, but for now we gotta pack!!

What do babies eat anyway? HA, I'm so glad Leanne is here :)

-Nic

Good Morning Vietnam!!

2008-10-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

Well after 20 hours in flight and a 36 hour door to door trip (from our door to the hotel door) we made it to Hanoi. It was quite exhausting, but about what we expected. Leanne was a trooper and handled it better than I did. We both did good up until the final flight from Seoul to Hanoi. I had a few stomach issues and I couldn’t keep myself awake. We really wanted to stay awake on that flight since it was from 8pm-mignight Hanoi time.
Our hotel is pretty nice, though we couldn’t see much coming in. Its not quite the nicest room we’ve stayed in, but is by far the largest. Its really more an apartment and has 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, living room, kitchen, laundry, and a balcony.

For those who are unaware, Hanoi is 11 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone so its already Sunday morning here. I can’ t help but feel there should be someway to profit on being in the future. HA!
So for now we are just supposed to sit tight an hang out the next 2 days while we wait to go get Alexa! Not sure what we’ll end up doing, but we’ll try to take some pictures.

-Nic (Leanne's still sleeping :)

We're in Korea!

2008-10-18T05:43:00.002-04:00

What an awesome trip! And we haven’t even made it to Vietnam yet! We are sitting in South Korea waiting for our flight to Hanoi. We left this morning at 7:45 am from Columbus and flew to New York (JFK) It was a beautiful day for flying with sunny, smooth skies. We got to the see Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park, and Yankee stadium from the plane ( I had never seen any of those before) After a couple hours in NY, we boarded our Korean Air plane. It was the biggest plane either of us have ever ridden in. Each row had 10 seats (3 then 4 then 3) and it even had an upper deck. In an interesting turn our flight pattern took us over the arctic circle. We could see some glaciers and a few frozen rivers. I’m assuming it shortens the trip since the Earth is smaller at that part. We both were impressed with Korean Air for the flight. When we boarded each seat had a pillow, blanket, headphones, toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, and a night mask. They also brought us steamed towels and facial cleanser. We rode in economy, but it was a lot better than US economy. Our seats reclined probably twice as much as a normal seat and every seat had a personal video system. Which were awesome… we literally had about 30 US movies to choose from and they were all pretty new. We could also watch a couple of TV shows, listen to music, or play games. Leanne & I even played Yahtzee against each other over the network. We were fed two pretty good meals during the 15 hour flight. For lunch we had roast beef, mashed potatoes, roll, potato salad with shrimp, and fruit. For dinner we had pasta, vegetable medley, roll, and cheesecake. They also had a snack service every couple of hours with drink and peanuts, fruit, or stuffed hot roll. Overall I’d say the 15 hour flight wasn’t too bad, but I probably got a total of maybe 3-4 hours sleep. ( I couldn’t quit playing with all the flight information and reading the maps but…I also watched 2 movies and a couple of shows.) Leanne is very tried because she couldn't sleep all that well, but we have 2 days to get settled in Hanoi once we arrive.

-Nic

We Are Leaving In The Morning!

2008-10-16T20:22:00.005-04:00

I still can't believe it but we are actually flying out tomorrow at 7:45am! It's so amazing to me that in just a couple of days we will meet our precious baby girl. God is so wonderful and He has finally brought this day about. I wonder how our first meeting with her will go. Will she connect with us right away or will she be afraid of us? Will she be tiny or big? Will she look the same as her pictures or will she have totally changed in the last 3 months? I just can't wait to find out.

Here are a couple pictures of Alexa's Nursery. It is all done and just waiting for her.

This is just a few of the dresses that we couldn't resist buying for our princess.

I can't quit buying hair bows. I justify it by saying that it's the one thing I can buy Alexa that it doesn't matter what size she is when we get her:)

Next time we post we should be on our way or in Vietnam!

We Have Our Travel Dates!

2008-10-07T21:08:00.002-04:00

Yay! We are going to fly out on October 18th and were told we could fly back on October 31st!!! It's so exciting that I don't even know what to do. It seemed like that was plenty of time and then I looked at the calender and noticed we only have one more weekend before we leave...that is just crazy! It's so hard to comprehend that we will be holding our baby in two weeks. We still have so much to do but I am looking forward to it.

We went shopping last night to get a bunch of medicines and bottles and practical stuff for Alexa for the trip and it was like Christmas:) I had so much fun going through it all last night and today and going through her clothes to decide what to pack. I still have a few more things to get and we need to install our car seats and baby proof the house. Plus, we have a lot to do regarding getting our paperwork ready. I have to make a bunch of copies and organize it all. Nic is mostly working on the airline tickets and is a little nervous about that. We've been warned against a few airlines so we are trying to make sure to pick a good one but it's hard to find a perfect itinerary. The travel agent was supposed to email some itineraries tonight but we never got them so we are stressing a little since we need to get these booked. We have our visas though and once we book our tickets we can relax a little bit and look forward to meeting our baby:)

We Are Still In Shock!

2008-10-02T10:34:00.002-04:00

I can't even believe it. Nic woke me up this morning before he left for work to tell me some amazing news. We have USCIS approval to travel!!! I still don't even hardly believe it...it's a miracle that we got it this soon. We were told by the USCIS that it usually takes 60 working days and our agency told us not to be disappointed if it even took longer since they are behind but God is good and has blessed us and we got approval in 9 days! Of course, now I'm in a panic thinking, wow am I ready for this and we have so much to do that I'm overwhelmed. It may be a week or so before we actually get our travel dates and then could be a week or more after that before we actually travel but with how fast this last part happened I'm not taking any chances. I'm so excited and happy and blessed and now I am relieved to know we are approved and that we will have Alexa home before Thanksgiving and we should be with her in Vietnam in a couple of weeks. I just can't wait to hold her in my arms.

We have a lot to do to prepare to bring her home. I have to get medications for her for our trip, find a pediatrician, add her to our insurance, pack, put up baby gates on our stairs and baby proof the house, just to name a few things...YAY! I'm loving every second of it:)

Applied For Our Visas!

2008-09-26T14:42:00.001-04:00

We got eveything sent off in the mail yesterday for our visa's so we should hopefully be getting them in the next two weeks or so. It is so exciting to finally be at this stage to be able to apply for them! It is starting to all seem more real now:)

Finally...We're Moving Again!

2008-09-24T13:08:00.003-04:00

Well, after months and months and months of waiting without hearing anything we finally have some progress. We had thought months ago that our I-600 was being filed but unfortunately our agency just had us fill out the paperwork in preparation for it to be filed. Well, yesterday morning we finally got the email from our agency that Veitnam released our paperwork to the USCIS and that we should hear something within two weeks from them that they received it. Much to our surprise, we actually got the email from them this morning so we are officially in the countdown! They said they have most cases done within 60 working days but we are praying and hoping it will be sooner than that. For now, we get to apply for our visas and prepare for our trip and bringing our baby home!

Waiting For Our Updated Paperwork

2008-07-13T17:20:00.002-04:00

I feel so relieved! We got our notarized medicals on Wednesday and I was able to get them county certified (which I had to drive to some county way out in the country) and then I went to downtown Columbus to get those and our addendum state certified. It was like a big weight lifted off my shoulders when I was able to overnight them to the Vietnam Embassy on Thursday. I got confirmation through the tracking number that they received it so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we should get the authenticated documents back.

I also was able to get an email response from the Ohio USCIS that they got our file from Louisville and are working on our new I-171H! After the scare we had the other day with them telling us our fingerprints were expired and we had to have new ones this is a huge relief to have this straightened out. I'm just not sure if we will have to have our new I-1717H authenticated once we get it.

For now, we are just waiting to get a confirmation email from Hanoi that they have filed our I-600. Hopefully we will get that soon because I'm not sure if our 60 countdown will start until then...of course that's an approximate but at least it's something:) Right now I'm just trying to get things ready and we finally got Alexa's crib put together. Now I just have to make her baby bedding so I have plenty to keep me busy.

We Finally Got Our Addendum!

2008-07-06T22:32:00.002-04:00

YAY! I am so excited...after a week or so of completely stressing out over it we finally got our addendum to our homestudy in the mail:) The best part is, the agency already had it county-certified for us so I don't have to drive two and a half hours to go do that. We went on Wednesday to get our new medicals after finding a new doctor and we have to go back tomorrow to have a TB test done. Once we get the results from that on Wednesday we will get our notarized medical forms and I will be able to take those and the addendum to the Secretary of State and have them state certified and send them off to the Vietnam Embassy to be authenticated. We already put our request in to the USCIS office here in Columbus for our new I-171H and our agency sent them our addendum so hopefully we will be getting that soon. It feels good to be making some progress again. I'm just looking forward to getting the email that our I-600 was logged in and filed and then the clock begins:)

Filing Our I-600!

2008-06-26T14:48:00.003-04:00

I was totally surprised yesterday when I checked my email and had one from our agency saying that we were ready to file our I-600! It happened a little sooner than we expected which is always great:) It was so exciting to get the I-600 from our agency with our baby's information filled out. We got it sent off last night and our agency received it this morning. I think this is our last leg and from here on out it is in the hands of the US gov't. I think the next step (besides all the moving updates) is waiting for the call!

Of course, everything can't go smoothly and quickly. Unfortunately we are still waiting for our homestudy addendum and after calling the homestudy agency for about a week I had a little freak-out session. It is so frustrating when they won't even call you back. Well, we finally talked to her this morning and apparently the social worker that had done our visit hadn't sent her the addendum yet and she was hoping to have it today but of course it didn't arrive. The social worker told her that if she didn't have it in the mail tomorrow she would overnight it so hopefully we should have our copy by Tues or Wed...we'll see. We also found out we are going to have to get a new I-171H...boy, does it ever stop? I feel like we are starting all over again sometimes but I know that God is in control and it is all going to get done somehow. Our homestudy agency is supposed to send our addendum to the Ohio USCIS office and I emailed both they KY and OH USCIS office to have our file transferred. I'm just nervous about how long it will take to get it and if it is going to hold us up.

Once we do finally get our addendum we have to have it county and state certified along with our new medicals and then send them all off to California to be authenticated. I had such a hard time too trying to make doctors appointments for us. I called several doctor's offices and most of them were scheduling 2 or 3 months out! Well, obviously that wasn't going to work for us. I finally found an office that could get us in sooner but they wouldn't do physicals on the first appointment and they didn't have a notary which we need. Well, FINALLY I found a doctor that is going to see us on Tuesday and they have a notary and they are going to do our vaccines for our travel. It's all starting to come together but I just really have to lean on God so I don't go into panic mode again. I still just don't see how we are going to be able to get all the stuff done without it holding us up be we are trusting Him. God's timing is perfect and we are going to go get Alexa when He thinks the time is perfect. Well, hopefully my next post will be about us receiving our addendum...oh, and any prayers would be greatly appreciated:)

It Finally Happened!

2008-06-19T14:08:00.004-04:00

I can't believe I have been so bad about updating our blog...especially since we have the best news ever but in the move we were so busy with remodeling the house and I didn't have computer access, BUT... we got our referral of our beautiful daughter! I'll never forget the day our agency called. It was May 6th about 4:30pm and I was working out in the yard and fortunately I went into the garage to get something (where I had left my cell phone) and as I was getting ready to leave my phone rang. When I saw that the caller ID said it was my agency my heart started racing. I kept trying to tell myself not to get too excited because she was probably just calling to ask me a question about our move. When she said she had good news for us and that she had a referral for us, all I could say was "are you joking with me?" and she said she would never joke about something so important:) I then screamed a little and started jumping up and down. Once I caught my breath she told me a little about this precious baby that God was making part of our family. She was born on February 24, 2008 so she was about 2 and a half months old. She told me she was hitting the submit button on the email to us with her photo and medical information but that she had been having problems with her email and to let her know if it didn't go through. As soon as I hung up the phone I screamed and jumped a little more and called Nic and basically told him that he needed to come home immediately because we had a baby and I wanted to look at her picture for the first time together. He was in shock when I told him that we had a referral because we just weren't expecting it that soon...we hoped but didn't think it would really happen.

I went upstairs and checked my email and I hadn't received it yet so I called our caseworker back and she said she would send it from someone else's email. Well, after about a half an hour Nic was home and we still hadn't gotten the referral and we started to panic because it was after 5pm and the agency was closed so we thought we would have to wait until the next day. But finally, the email popped up and Nic and I prayed together, took a deep breath and opened the email and fell in love. I know I am a little biased as a new mother but I have never seen a more beautiful child in my life:) She was just more beautiful than I ever imagined and my heart was in her tiny hands at that moment. Unfortunately I can't post her picture until we have her home but she has the biggest round brown eyes ever and the cutest nose and mouth and in spite of the huge sweatshirt and pants they have on her you can tell she is tiny.

After looking at her medical history and hearing back from the adoption doctor we were a little concerned with some of her red blood cell counts. The doctor told us she could just be anemic or be malnourished or it could be more serious and to think about that before we accepted the referral. Well, Nic and I prayed about it and individually decided that we felt like this was the child God had made for us and we both decided we wanted to proceed with the referral and I have never been happier. We accepted the referral and asked if there was any way we could have the orphanage give her iron formula. The neatest thing was the dream my mother-in-law had a few months ago. She had written it down the night of her dream and after we got our referral she called me and told me about it. In the dream a baby was born and God told her that this baby would be part of our family. She looked at the baby and she had big, round brown eyes and clear, pretty skin (which looks just like Alexa:) and she looked at the date of the dream and it was on February 24th!...wow!

On Monday, June 16th I couldn't believe it when Nic told me we got an email from our agency with updated pictures of our baby! I ran to the computer and we opened it together and we were very excited to see that they had sent us four new pictures of her. She looks very healthy and happy and is cuter than ever. She even has a small smile in one of the pictures and I can see more personality in them. The email said that she was doing well on her new formula and that her caregivers say she is active and happy. It's just so hard because I want to hold her in my arms and have her now. It's hard to know that when we get her she will have changed since her pictures and I don't want to miss a minute of her life. We are praying that we will get to travel sooner than the 5-6 months that we were told. It's already been a month and a half and I am praying we will get to travel in September (or sooner of course)

Our Monthly Update

2008-04-17T08:26:00.002-04:00

Good news...we are now 4th on the waiting list for a referral! Of course we were hoping we would be #1 or 2 but at least my fear of still being 7th didn't happen. I just can't believe there are only 3 families ahead of us! We are really hoping that we will get our referral in May. Since they got 7 referrals last month and 10 both months before that, there is a really good chance that in the next 30 days it will be our turn (if they have another good month of course:) Our prayer is to get our referral before Memorial Day weekend so we can have Alexa's picture before we move so we can show everyone right away. In the meantime, while we are waiting we will be plenty busy closing on our new house next Friday and fixing it up. We will be working hard on the house for the next month and then moving at the end of May. Hopefully before we know it we will be done with it all and planning our trip to Vietnam:) We still haven't had any offers on our house yet and as stressful as it is, we are trying to leave it in God's hands and let him take care of the situation. We know that it is God's will that we move to Columbus for Nic's job so we just have to trust Him that He will allow our house to sell.

Updating Our Homestudy

2008-04-10T09:51:00.004-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. We've been pretty busy traveling and making our plans to renovate the house we are buying in Columbus. On top of of that we are having to update our homestudy when we move to Ohio. It seemed a little overwhelming and frustrating at first. We thought we were finally done with all of our paperwork but not yet. However, it actually hasn't been too bad. We have found our new agency in Ohio to do our addendum to our current homestudy and have sent back the application to them. We've also already submitted our paperwork to have our child abuse checks run in Ohio and we've had our background check and fingerprints run for Ohio. We called and set up our appointment to have our fire department do a safety check on our new house. I think the only thing we have to do now is actually move and then our agency will inspect our house and we should be done. Our agency told us it should only take a couple of weeks to have everything completely done and written up once we move so overall it hasn't been too difficult. I'll just be so glad when we are home with our baby...it will have all been worth it then:)

We also finally got to register at Babies R Us a couple of weeks ago. That was so much fun but a lot harder than I thought it was going to be:) We were there for several hours and still didn't get done and it was just so hard to decide what to get. We had to come home and read all the reviews on stuff we registered for so we wound up having to change some things. It was such an awesome feeling that we were finally getting to register for baby stuff and we are finally going to have a baby! There were days when I never thought this day would be here and I would go to Babies R Us and just dream about what I would get "someday"...and the day was finally here!

I get to email our agency next week to get our monthly update. I'm a little nervous. I'm so afraid she's going to tell me that we are still #7 and haven't moved up any. I don't really know what to expect this time. We moved halfway up the list last month so this time we could be next on the list or maybe only move up one. I know God is in control so no matter what number we are it is His plan to bring us to the child that He has made for us. My prayer right now is just that she is healthy and will bond with us. Oh, and that our house sells:)

An Amazing Update!

2008-03-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

I can't even believe it...I am still in shock! A month ago when we submitted our dossier we were #14 on the waiting list. I emailed our agency to get our update for this month and I was so surprised and excited when she told me...we are now #7!!! Our wait was basically cut in half in a month! I guess they got 7 referrals in the last month so that means the we could actually have our referral in another month. Of course, I am not expecting that at all. I'm sure they won't get as many referrals this month but I am still very excited.

I guess now Vietnam is saying (although not "officially") that they will continue to process people's adoptions that have their dossier's submitted by September so that is all I care about:) Let's just hope they make it official. Of course now the rumor mill is working overtime that Vietnam is going to cancel agencies licenses that are not Hague accreditated by April 1st but others are saying that the US is trying to pressure them to do that but that Vietnam isn't going to do that. Who knows? Our agency has applied for their accreditation but with the overwhelming number of agencies applying it is taking longer. They say they should have it any day now so then we wouldn't have to worry either way.

We have been so busy with preperations to move and everything. We have actually purchased a new house in Ohio and after we close and do a little work on it we will be moving near the end of May. Unfortunately, that means we have to do an updated homestudy and redo some of our paperwork. I wasn't too worried about it but then I found out we will have to resubmit our homestudy to the USCIS in Ohio and get a new I-171H so hopefully it won't take to long. We are in the process of looking for a new homestudy agency in Ohio. One said we have to do a whole new homestudy and our agency and one of the new ones said we should just have to do an update so let's hope that's all. As stressful as all this is and frustrating to have to do new paperwork, God has been good to us so I can't complain! God has really blessed us and we have gotten so far that I know He will see us through and bring us to our sweet baby girl:)

The Lord is so Good!

2008-02-18T19:14:00.003-05:00

I can't even believe it but on Friday, Feb. 15th we received our authenticated dossier back from California! They received it on Monday and on Friday of the same week we got it back so it was definately worth paying the extra money to get it expedited. I had to take everything to the UPS store and make photocopies and then mail it off to our agency. It was four pounds of paperwork! I shipped it to them on Friday and today they said they received it and everything looked good and we are #14 on the waiting list! I was floored when she told us that because last time I asked about a month ago there were 17 people in line so I figured by now the list would be even longer. I guess they had gotten more referrals since then and no more dossier's. It feels so good to actually know what number we are and know that no one else can get in front of us. God has really blessed us in this process and exactly 2.5 months to the day from our application to the agency we had our completed, authenticated dossier done! Thank you Lord!

This is all of our different stacks of authenticated papers

This is our stack of copies and originals that we sent our agency

Pictures

2008-02-14T10:34:00.006-05:00

I'm finally adding some pictures from when we got our dossier "state certified".

We're paper-pregnant! This is the day we got our I-171H

Outside the State Capitol before getting dossier state certified.

Nic outside State Capitol.

Sitting in the Secretary of state office after getting dossier State Certified.

Since I was already on here adding pictures I wanted to go ahead and put a couple of pictures of my niece Kate on here from when she stayed with me.

This was Kate's first Sleepover with us.

This was the mess Kate made after her nap. She pulled all the stuff out of my gift wrap drawer.

A Poem about Adoption

2008-02-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

This is a poem my social worker sent me. I read it today and cried...I thought it was so sweet.

"Legacy of an Adopted Child"

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other
One you do not remember
The other you call Mother.

Two different lives
Shaped to make yours one.
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun.

The first gave you life
And the second taught you to live in it.
The first gave you a need for love
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent
The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile
The other dried your tears.

One gave you up--
It was all that she could do.
The other prayed for a child
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me,
Through your tears,
The age-old questions
Through the years--

Heredity or environment--
Which are you the product of?
Neither, my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of love.

- Unknown

What a Relief!

2008-02-08T21:36:00.000-05:00

We made it! It was as crazy a day as I thought it would be (I went to Scott county, Jessamine county, Fayette county and Franklin county getting documents cerfified) but it was also fun. The Secretary of State is in the Capitol building and Nic had never been there so we walked around a little bit and got some pictures. It was surprisingly a very simple process and it only took a few minutes and we were state certified. After that we went to FedEx and sent our documents overnight to the Consulate General of Vietnam in San Fransisco. As soon as I get a chance I am going to post some pictures.

The next step is waiting to get our dossier back after they authenticate it. We paid the extra fee to have it expidited so we are praying we can get it back in a week. Once we get that back we just have to make four photocopies of ever page and then send it to our agency and they will ship it to Vietnam. From that point we will officially be on the waiting list and then the real wait begins.

We are "Paper Pregnant"!!!

2008-02-07T21:07:00.001-05:00

I am in Shock. I still can't even believe it. I went out to the mailbox today hoping to have received our marriage certificate and not even thinking about anything else. I pulled out an envelope disappointed because it didn't look like it would be our marriage certificate because it didn't come from Kentucky. Well, I looked at the return address and it said it was from US Immigration. At first it didn't even register to me what it was. Then, all of a sudden it dawned on me that it might be something to do with our I-171H but I was still thinking it couldn't be true...it must be something just saying that they had received our homestudy or something...it couldn't be what I was starting to hope it was because it was just in a plain old white letter-sized envelope. Well, I got into the car where my niece Kate was waiting (I was watching her today) and was so excited I couldn't contain myself. I opened the envelope and quickly scanned the certificate and to my surprise and amazement it really was what I had prayed it was...our I-171H immigration approval to adopt an infant girl from Vietnam! I started screaming and jumping up and down in the car and Kate just sat in her carseat laughing at me and grinning. Tear of joy came to my eyes as this meant that we are officially doing this. Until you get that immigration approval you just can't imagine that it's real...but it is! I prayed and hoped we would get it by Valentines and expected to get it by March but God heard our prayers and answered them. We are so excited and grateful...praise the Lord!

Now for the fun stuff...we are going to be running around like chickens with our head's cut off tomorrow. Luckily, Nic is working from home in the morning and then taking the other half of the day off so he can help me. I really wanted him to get to do all this with me. First, I have to run to the bank Mom works at to have our I-171H notarized and then take it to the courthouse to have it certified, then I have to run to Jessamine county in Nicholasville to have our Physician letters county certified, when I get back I will check the mail and pray that our marriage certificate came, then Nic and I will drive to Frankfort to get a marriage certificate in person if it didn't come and to get our police background checks county certified and then all of our other documents along with those State certified. Once we do that then it is off to FedEx to have everything overnighted to the Vietnam Consulate in California along with a certified check. Needless to say we are going to be extremely busy but I love it and I can't wait until tomorrow:)

Alexa's Nursery Furniture

2008-02-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that we already bought Alexa's nursery furniture when we haven't even turned our dossier in yet but I just couldn't stand it. I have been looking at this set since we first started trying to get pregnant and I loved it but it was too expensive so I never thought I would get it. Well, I just happened to go into Babies R Us one day just to look at it and it was on clearence. They were getting rid of this set so I knew that I had to act fast because there were not many left. I went home and talked to Nic about it and he found me a 15% off coupon so with that and the clearance price we got an amazing deal. I just couldn't pass it up. I'm glad that I acted fast too because there was only one hutch left anywhere so I got the last one:)

All of the pieces are finally in so now I just have to figure out when we can pick it up. Unfortunately, since we are moving I won't be able to set it up until we get into our new house. Plus, I don't know where we are going to put all the huge boxes while we are trying to sell our house. I need to see if we can use Grammy and Pawpa's garage:) I can't wait until I get to start decorating Alexa's nursery!

Dossier Update

2008-02-05T10:59:00.001-05:00

Things are starting to move along with our dossier. We finally have all of our documents except for our certified marriage certificate. Everything is notarized and I went to the Scott County Courthouse yesterday to get our documents "county certified" that were notarized in Scott County. Of course we get to live in one of the few states that make you get everything county certified before you can get it state certified. It's really not too bad though since we can just take it in person and they certify it right then. I am going to the Fayette County Clerk either today or tomorrow to get our Fayette documents certified. I guess we'll wait to get our police background checks certified in Franklin county until we have everything and go to Frankfort to get everything state certified. However, we won't do that until we get our I-171h (which we just found out that in Kentucky it's actually called a I-797c so that is how I will refer to it from now on).

Waiting for our I-797c is the part that is nerve-wracking. Everything hinges on that as it is our official "approval" saying we are allowed to adopt internationally. Our social worker told us that the current wait time that she's been seeing is 30-40 days but when Nic checked out the USCIS website it said that they on Jan. 15 they were just now processing Oct. 15 applications so we have no clue when ours will be ready. We are just praying for God to work a miracle for us and let us get it sooner. Our prayer is that we will get it by Valentines day but I guess that is a lofty goal. I'm just worried that it will come the day that we leave for our trip. We will be leaving the last week of Feb. and we'll be gone for about 10 days so it would be nice if we could get it all sent off to to the Vietnam Consulate in California before we leave. It's supposed to take about 2 weeks there so then it would almost be done when we get back. I just have to keep reminding myself though that everything is in God's plan and there is a reason if we have to wait a little longer.

Things have been very hectic around here lately since our house is officially on the market and we are trying to get all of our adoption paperwork ready on top of that. Two days after the house went up we had someone come and look at it and then she came back with her parents two days later. It was her favorite house but her parents think it may be too big for just her so we aren't any closer to selling. Which, I have to say that it kinda relieves me because I am just not ready to move. Hopefully we can have our dossier done and sent to Vietnam before we have to worry about moving.

Received Dossier Guidelines

2008-01-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

We've been a little busy lately so it's been a while since I have updated our blog. In the last couple of weeks we went to Gatlinburg with some friends and then when we got back we went to Columbus to start looking for the area we would like to live. The day before we left we got our dossier guidelines which was pretty exciting! It was like getting a present at Christmas to go through it all and see what we needed to do. It just felt good knowing that we could start the next step to getting our baby.

Well, I suddenly realized after looking through everything that it was going to be a little more complicated that I realized. I know everyone said it would be a lot of work but I had seen a checklist and a lot of the stuff we already had from our homestudy. We have to compile all our documents and then get them all notarized in the state they originated from, after that we have to have them all certified by the Secretary of State but apparently, Kentucky is a little different from other states because before we can do that we have to get it county certified in the county that the document was notarized in. That should be fun because our documents have been notarized in at least 3 different counties. Luckily though, we can take it to the Secretary of State in Frankfort in person to be certified so we should be able to get it back right away instead of waiting two weeks. Once we get that done then we will send everything to the Vietnam Consulate in California to be authenticated which will take about two weeks. Once we get our I-171H we can get it certified and then send out dossier sent off. We are hoping to have it all done and sent off by the end of February. It's a lot to do, but it will be so worth it when we see our baby for the first time.

Things are a little stressful right now with the situation with the Vietnam adoptions. The agreement between Vietnam and the US expires on September 1, 2008 and the US is saying to be cautious because it might not be renewed. I am a little nervous about what that will mean and if we aren't going to get to complete our adoption but I just have to have faith that God will see it through because we truly feel that this is His will. Hopefully we will know something in March when the intent to renew is supposed to be signed. Our hope is that we can get our dossier in and have our referral before September...we are praying that even if they don't renew the agreement they will at least let families that are in the process complete their adoptions. We will just have to continue to pray that God will see us through and have faith. We are pressing forward with that in mind.

Our Home Study Is Finally Approved!

2008-01-11T17:12:00.001-05:00

I am so excited...our home study has finally been approved by our agency and sent back to our social worker! Of course, when I say "our agency" I mean the first agency that we had originally started with. I know we are crazy:) but we switched back to them. This is our final switch but we just never felt comfortable with the new agency and then when we started having communication problems with them we just felt we should change. I had called and emailed the agency several times with no responses or I was told he would call me right back and he never did. Then I was told twice that he would contact our social worker "first thing in the morning" and another time "I will contact her tonight" and two days later she had still never heard from him. Needless to say, I was stressing out. Luckily, we had only sent our application and that is all so we did not lose out on any time. Well, after going back with the first agency, within about 2 hours we had the approval for our home study! I am so relieved and excited! Our social worker is having it notarized and then she is sending it to the USCIS on Monday so she said we can expect our I-171H approval in about 30-40 days. Once we get that then we will be sending our dossier off!

We also started our adoption education classes today. We have to each complete 10 hours of education for our adoption and it feels good to be able to do something while we are waiting. Of course, right now we should have plenty of things to keep us busy and hopefully make our waiting go quickly.

Home Study Update

2008-01-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

I thought that we would have a definite answer today on our home study but I called our agency this morning like they asked me to and was asked to call back in a couple of hours. Well, when I called back I just got the answering machine and did not get a call back today. Basically, our agency is just supposed to review our home study and let our social worker know if it is okay for her to send off and it has been a little frustrating because it is hard to talk to anyone. I guess they are really busy because they were closed the week between Christmas and New Years so they have a lot to catch up on. I am trying to be patient but I just really want to get our HS sent off so we can get our I-171H approval and get our dossier together. I decided this evening to go ahead and email him about it and to ask him a few other questions as well. Specifically, can we go ahead and start gathering our dossier documents and what do we need to do to start our required 10 hours of classes. Hopefully I will get an answer tomorrow so I can quit thinking about it:)

It's been a busy day today because we also had two different real estate agents come look at our house today. This is all new to us so hopefully we pick the right one. I still can't believe we are getting ready to put our first house up for sale. I sure thought we would live here longer than three years but I know this is a great opportunity for us to move to Ohio. Both of the realtors think our house should sell quickly but of course I'm sure they have to tell us that so we will "pick" them:) I have to say though, I don't really want our house to sell too quickly. We have until the end of July to move and I would like to take every minute of it. I guess we will make our decision this week and officially put our house up for sell. In the meantime...hopefully our HS will get sent in!

We Got Our Home Study Draft!

2008-01-02T10:10:00.001-05:00

I am so excited! When we got home from our trip to see Nic's family last night I had an email from our social worker with the draft of our HS. We were just talking about it on our way home and wondering when we would get it. It is such a relief to know that it is in the process. It had a few minor changes and corrections that she wanted us to email back to her and then she has to send it to our agency for approval. Once she gets that she will get it notarized and certified and then it will be sent in to be added to our I-600A so we can get our I-171H approval to adopt. Things are moving along again after being at a standstill over the holidays. We are going to contact our agency this week to see if we can go ahead and start getting our Dossier documents together.

It's A New Year!

2008-01-01T18:05:00.000-05:00

Christmas and New Year's are over. We had a great time with both of our families and we see how blessed we are. Nic and I had a nice time just the two of us on Christmas morning. He is so sweet and thoughtful...he gave me the cutest ornament that has a stork carrying a Vietnamese baby in a Vietnam flag. I was so excited when I opened it and I took pictures so if I can figure our how to post pictures on here I will.

This other ornament was given to me by my friend Rebekah the day after we started the adoption process. It is our first "Expecting" ornament.

It is going to be an exciting year this year! After over a year of infertility and crushed dreams a new year and new hopes and dreams are beginning. God is so good and I'm so grateful that he has led us to this path. I feel such joy and excitement over our adoption that is is hard to explain. Hopefully this year we will get our referral and picture of our beautiful little girl. We've got a lot going on this year especially in the next few months. The two major things are getting all of our paperwork and dossier done and sent to Vietnam and our move to Ohio. Now that Christmas and everything is over we can put our energy to getting our house ready to sell. Thankfully, we are so blessed with Nic's job that they are having movers come and pack us up and move us so I don't have to worry about doing that. I'm excited and nervous about moving. I'm looking forward to the adventure of moving but I'm really nervous of what it will mean in our adoption. It will probably be about 5 or 6 months before we move so I'm hoping our we will be DTV but I don't know what it will mean to have to change our address and what all that will involve. Hopefully it won't delay us too much but we just have to leave this in God's hands. It's hard because my nature wants to control the situation but God has been teaching my through my infertility that He has other plans for me than I have and His plan are better. His timing is perfect and there is a reason for any delays we may have. Every delay we experience is to bring us to the one baby that God has for us in Vietnam. I just hope that through the delays and bumps that I remember that:)

We bought our first little dress for Alexa this weekend! I am so excited to hang it in her closet as a reminder that she IS going to be here to wear it some day. It's hard because we can't really buy many clothes for her because we won't know her age and size until we get her but I couldn't resist with this dress:) The way it's made she should be able to wear it for a decent age range and with the colors I think she will be able to wear any time of the year so that is why I decided to go ahead and get it. I will try to post a picture of it also.

This is the dress I made for my niece Emma and I made an identical one for my niece Kate.

We Have Finally Gotten Started

2007-12-23T21:35:00.000-05:00

After so much research and prayer we have finally gotten started on our adoption journey! It has been a little stressful trying to decide on an agency and after 6 months of researching and calling agencies and getting packets in the mail we thought we had found our agency. We even sent our application with the fee into the agency and I threw away all the packets and notes on the other agencies. Well, after we stumbled across some information about the agency that we felt was very negative we made the difficult decision to switch. Of course, that meant we had to start over again in all our research...ugh!

Well, we prayed and prayed about it and we feel like the Lord has led us to go with VORF. The really great thing about it is that they are located in Ohio, about an hour and a half from where we will be moving and they have reunions every year with the families that have adopted through them so it will be great to be able to get together with them and meet new people and Alexa will be able to meet other children from Vietnam. We are so excited about that! We have a peace that this is the agency He wanted us with and that is so important in this process. Adoption is stressful enough without having to worry that your agency is unethical.

Right now in this process we have completed our homestudy with an agency in our state and are waiting for them to write it up. It went so quickly that I'm amazed. We turned our application in and got all our background checks and everything we needed and within about two weeks we were done with the whole thing (interviews and all). We have also already filed our I-600A and had our fingerprints done. It was such an easy process...we just drove to Louisville and turned it in without even having to wait in line. Now we just have to send our homestudy in to get our approval. We are praying that it doesn't take too long so we can get our dossier done and get "in line".

Overall, it looks like this is going to be at least a 15 month process so we know we have a lot of waiting ahead of us. We are leaning on God to guide us through this journey and to give us peace as we hit those inevitable bumps in the road. We know God has one particular, special little girl waiting for us and we are so looking forward to meeting her!