We have a Daughter!

On April 26th at 1:21 pm I received a highly unexpected call from the adoption agency that we went through for Samuel's adoption. I was at work when my phone rang. The social worker asked me if I had a minute. I said that I did. She started talking about Samuel's birthmother, and I thought maybe she finally wanted to meet us. No - the news was much different. She was in labor at a local hospital and she wanted the baby to be placed with the same family that had Samuel. The question before us: Did we want to adopt this baby? All I could say was "Wow." James and I had not even begun to seriously consider another adoption. This call come from completely out of the blue. I asked the social worker a few questions and then I called James. He was also at work. When he answered the phone I asked him if he had a minute and if he was sitting down. He said yes to both questions. I told him the the adoption agency called with some news, but that it was good news. (Take note of the comment about "good news.") He was just as surprised as I was. We had a few days to make our decision. Since we didn't know the gender of the baby, girl names and boy names began floating through my head. And yes, I found it extremely difficult to concentrate on my work the rest of the afternoon.

Right after I got off work, I got another call from a social worker letting me know that the baby had arrived. It was a girl who seemed to be in good health, but maybe born a few weeks early. I called James to let him know, and we agreed to talk more when I got home. As I drove home, I started thinking about reasons that might keep us from adopting the baby girl. Thankfully, God had provided the money to pay the adoption/legal fees - so that wasn't going to stop us. We were going to use James' bonus and part of our tax refund to have a roof built over our patio, but the contractor who came to take measurements never got with us regarding an estimate. God knew there was a bigger plan for that money than a roof! I wondered how we'd ever tell Samuel that we had the chance to give him a sibling that he was biologically related to, but we decided not to adopt her. I asked myself how we would answer the regret that we'd eventually have if we didn't proceed with her. I had no answer. I began to pray and I asked God to make James and I in agreement quickly if this child was to be part of our family.

When I got home, James asked me if I was ready for another child. Samuel was 14 1/2 months old, and I would never have planned to have my children that close together - but sometimes God has other plans. I told James that I don't know that I'd ever feel really ready, but I was willing to add this baby to our family. We called the social worker that was on call for the weekend with the agency at 7:36 that night and we told her that we wanted to adopt this little girl.

James asked me what I was thinking of for a name. He said he had a name picked out, so I asked him to tell me first. His choice was Evangeline (Ee-VAN-juh-lynn) Katie. I started to cry, so it was agreed upon. Evangeline is after My dad's mom (Eva Lena) and a parish in Louisiana. Katie is after my mom's mom, whose first name was Katie. Most people didn't know her as Katie because she went by her middle name. Remember what I said above about the agency calling with "good news"? Evangeline means "good news." We are calling her Eva Kate or Eva for short. Evangeline, may God give you the faith and perserverance of the women you are named after. May your mouth ever be quick to proclaim The Good News of our Redeemer.

Saturday morning we got the green light to go to the hospital to meet our baby girl. On our way there, James dropped me off at Babies-R-Us to pick up a little gift for her while he and Samuel picked up lunch for the three of us. I stepped into the store and saw the baby girl clothes. I started to cry. After the four little girls that slipped through our fingers in Ethiopia, we finally had a daughter. Sweet redemption.

We got to meet Evangeline at 1:30 pm the day after she was born. Samuel got to meet her as well.

We had a lot to do to prepare to bring her home. We had to get our homestudy updated, get rid of bed and replace it with a crib, borrow or purchase a crib, meet with an attorney, find a rocker for her nursery, finish child proofing the house and go through Samuel's baby things and pull out things that she could use. The first time we got paperwork together for a homestudy, it took us six months to finish it. We could not bring Eva home until our homestudy was updated. We got everything that was in our control done in 6 days! I told James the day we met Eva that it would be nice if we could have her home by Mother's Day. I emailed our small group about our big news the day we met Eva, and they blessed us with help. One family come over and helped us get her room ready and the house child proofed and loaned us some baby things. Another family let us borrow their crib. Another family watched Samuel one day so I could run errands and get her crib assembled. They've brought meals, prayed for us and rejoiced with us. Friends and family served as references for our homestudy update. Our neighbors have been a blessing to us too. A couple of them have watched Samuel for us so James and could visit Eva together while she was in the hospital. Others have brought baby gifts and come over to meet her. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you have done to help us bring our daughter home!

The day after we meet Eva, we went to church with photos and videos of her. We had a small crowd of friends gathered around us in between the services while we shared our news and photos. Much rejoicing!

For a few months, we'd had a trip planned to Louisiana for the weekend after we meet Eva. We were going to see my parents in Little Rock too, so we thought it would be fun to share this big news in person. To share our news of Eva Kate, I made this shirt for Samuel:

That is what he wore when he saw his grandparents, aunt and uncle, great-grandparents and his godparents.  I got pink photo albums to give to our moms and James' grandmothers for Mother's Day, and I filled them with photos of Eva. We also gave them Mother's Day Cards with photos of the four of us.

Samuel with his Godparents

Eva stayed in the hospital for two weeks due to having issues taking a bottle. We brought her home the day before Mother's Day.  I had her in my arms at church on Mother's Day. Best Mother's Day gift ever.

Back in 2009, when we first started the process to adopt from Ethiopia, we were asking for siblings. Now we have siblings, not from across the planet, but from across town. This is a story that only God could pen. Many of you prayed for perseverance for James and me. Your prayers were answered. He does hear our prayers. He is faithful. He will never forsake his children.

Initial Goal Met!

The day we got to meet Samuel, I resolved to start taking better care of myself. I'd been exercising, but not really watching what I ate, so I wasn't seeing a lot of results from the exercise.  I set a goal to loose 42 pounds by his first birthday. I stepped up the amount of exercise that I was doing, but I didn't get a a very good handle on what I was eating until October last year.  That's when I joined Weight Watchers, and I saw results right away.
Here's a photo from 2010 when my weight was at it's worst:

 Here's a photo from this past September, just before starting Weight Watchers.  I'd been exercising regularly for 8 months, and I'd yo-yo with my weight. I had only been able to keep about 6 measly pounds off.

Here's a photo from last night.

Those jeans were so tight a year ago, that I couldn't comfortably wear them. I bought the Cardnial's t-shirt back in January with the hopes that it would fit by opening day of baseball season - which is today! I've lost 42 pounds since October.  I'm about half-way to my long term goal, but I'm happy with the results so far.

James has been super supportive. Dinner is the only meal that we eat together most of the week, so he gets to eat whatever he wants for breakfast and lunch & we eat a Weight Watcher's friendly recipe together for dinner.  I could not do this if I was having to prepare a separate dinner for myself. We've enjoyed almost every recipe that we've tried.  There are a lot of recipes on the Weight Watcher's website, and there are several food bloggers that post Weight Watcher's friendly recipes. My favorite food blog is skinnytaste. I tried a few of her recipes before I started Weight Watchers, and they were what got me to seriously consider giving Weight Watchers a shot.  Here's some of our favorite recipes from that site:

Three Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Soup (We're having that for dinner tomorrow.)
Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes (Sounds odd, but they are quite good)
Crockpot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps

I'm still exercising. I try to get in 4-5 hours of cardio each week.  I rotate between one hour on an elliptical machine or stationary bike and walking outdoors.

The main thing that I like about Weight Watchers is that it is flexible. You don't have to entirely give up eating out or desserts.  You just have to plan for indulgences and make smarter choices.  Most fruits are vegetables and considered "free" - so they don't count towards your daily limit.

I've had a few people ask me if it is hard to follow Weight Watchers.  There is a learning curve when you get started, but after you get into the routine of things it's not that tough.  They have a mobile website that I use on my smart phone to keep track of what I've been eating if I've not close to a computer.  There are a ton of chain restaurants and fast food places in their database, so you don't have to make a guess about the food at those places.  It is a little time consuming to keep track of every last little thing that you ate and to weigh or measure your portions of food out, but it is worth it!  I'm just using the online program with WW for now. I haven't been to any meetings yet, but I think will eventually start going to them.  If you're wondering about cost, the online program is less than $15/month.  That's the cost of three trips to Starbucks. I've traded in my weekly trip to Starbucks for a healthier me.

First Birthday - Dr. Suess Style

Last month, we had the joy of celebrating Samuel's first birthday.  The theme for his party was Dr. Seuss. It is hard to find ready made Dr. Seuss party decorations, so I made a lot of the things we used myself.  I found a lot of great ideas online, so I though I'd share what I made in case someone else could use the ideas.

Here's the invitation. I found the idea for the invitation here.  I used Photoshop to add the text and the photo of Samuel. Printed these out at home to save a little money.

The cake was made at Susie G's Cakes.  They did a great job & the cake was really yummy.

The Seussian Food:

Deviled green eggs.  My mom made these by adding green food coloring to this recipe. 

Yertle's Caramel Turtle candies.

Roast Beast Sandwiches. James smoked a pork shoulder for these.

Grin-itch Spinach Dip (in the chaffing dish). I used this recipe. Very good.

Beezle-Nut Juice and cupcakes.  The punch is made from mixed berry Kool-Aid and 7-up.

The blue topping on the cupcakes is cotton candy. I didn't know where to buy it. The only place I'd ever seen it for sale lately is sporting events.  I found it at a party supply store.  I had to buy it in a bag with other colors, not just blue.  I put the left over cotton candy in a bowl and served it at the party. I couldn't find red cupcake liners at the grocery stores around here, so I ordered them from Amazon.

I made all the signs for the food by scanning images from Dr. Seuss books and adding text to the image in Photoshop. They are printed on card stock.

This is the decoration we made for the front door. I used two unpainted wooden plaques and a number one that I found at Michael's.  I painted the three pieces and James put the hardware on them and drilled holes for the ribbon.  I used hooks to secure the number one to the plaques, and it can be changed out with different numbers.  We'll use this again next year.

The party favors:

 I didn't want to give candy or little toys away as favors, so I decided to make bookmarks.  The only thing that I had to buy to make these was a spool of ribbon. I had everything else at home.  This is taken for a page of "There's a Wocket in my Pocket."

 Decorations for the dining room:

 The photo banner is made from a photo from each month of Samuel's life. I printed the pics out of home. I did have to buy a color ink cartridge, which was about $30, but would have cost twice that to have thirteen 8 x 10 photos printed out.

 We had a great time celebrating with our friends and family!

Satan hates what God loves

Almost a year ago, we brought Samuel home.  We'd been in the adoption process for three awfully long years, and we had completed all of the adoption related training that we were required to do.  Seminars, books, documentaries. We'd bought a few things that we'd need for a child, and we got several things while Samuel was in the hospital right after his birth.  However, there were several aspects of having a newborn that James and I were not at all prepared for. Some of those things were things that most new parents face - like the struggle to treat each other with kindness when we were both sleep deprived. 

I have come to realize that Satan hates the things that God loves. God loves children and he loves the fatherless. Satan hates it when Christian couples add a child to their family. Satan hates it when Christian couples adopt.  The Bible calls Satan the father of lies, a murderer, the deceiver of the whole world, our adversary who seeks someone to devour.  Those are very strong words. Satan is not the cute red character that people dress up as for Halloween. He is evil, cunning, deceitful, and dangerous. When we began the adoption process in 2009, we had no idea what the road would hold for us.  We were hopeful, prayerful, and well, naive.  When we answered the call that God had put on our hearts to adopt, Satan entered our lives in a new way and we were blindsighted. After our first failed referral, I was heart broken and angry that God had not chosen to let the little girl live after we had pleaded for her life.  After our second failed referral I was even more heart broken and began to wish that we'd never considered adopting.  We went to counseling for a little while during that time.  In the midst of all this, there were losses and hardships in other areas of our lives. I lost a job and broke my leg (which is fine now), and we lost three people that we loved. A third referral came and fell apart after we'd met her in Ethiopia. A dear saintly Ethiopian couple read James and I the story of Abraham and Sarah and assured us that our child would come to us.  Our hope was restored. A fourth referral failed and we both knew that it was time to step out of the international adoption program. We had our son in our home about 3 months after we switched to the state side adoption program. Our social worker told us that our adoption story makes little sense outside of the work of God. God gave us a desire to adopt, and he was faithful to give us a son. He also allowed us to walk through a terribly dark valley with Satan quick on our heals, wrecking havoc.

After we brought Samuel home, James and I had some hard times in our relationship. We argued more intensely than I can ever recall.  It has always been important to us that we attended church together as often as possible, and we have always enjoyed it. Sundays suddenly became one of the worst days of the week.  On the days when I had to go to work, I usually managed to get myself and Samuel ready and get our dogs taken care for the morning without an undue amount craziness.  You'd think that Sundays would be simpler since I had James home to help me get Samuel ready. That was not the case. We'd get so angry with each other just trying to get ready to leave for church. There was one Sunday that I asked James why we were even bothering with church if all we did before we left home was argue.  It was then when I saw our Enemy's work.

Here's my advice for couples considering adoption, waiting in the process, and adjusting to having a newly adopted child in your family:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
Do not expect for the things God call you to do to be easy and without sacrifice.  There will be hardship, pain, and suffering.  But there will also be blessings, grace, and mercy beyond measure from the God of Peace.

Christmas Recap

This Christmas was so much happier than the past few had been for us. The child that we'd waited for was finally with us.  We spread our celebrations out over three weeks.  The week before Christmas we spent a few days in Arkansas visiting my parents.  One night while we were there, we all went to see the Christmas lights at Garvan Gardens.  It was a very nice display. After we had finished walking through the garden, we went to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Samuel didn't want to eat the dinner that I had packed for him, which was sweet potatoes. So I decided to try to offer him the only that I'd ordered that he could chew - refried beans.  He thought they were great.

 We spent Christmas at home, and some of our neighbors came over for Christmas dinner. The main gift that James and I gave Samuel was a Fisher Price Nativity set. We didn't have it set up for him. I had just wrapped up the boxes. I'd unwrap one box & he would crawl away with a wise man. Unwrap another box, and he'd crawl away with a sheep and so on. I wasn't sure that all the pieces had been accounted for, so after he was put down for a nap I decided to set it up and see if we had all the pieces.  Well, we had everything except baby Jesus.  James and I both crawled around the living room looking under the furniture looking for it. No luck. I had already bagged up the discarded wrapping paper and taken it to the garage, so I brought it back inside so we could go through it. I was very glad that we found it mixed up with the crumpled paper!

The cake was my main contribution to dinner. James baked the ham.  This was my first time to try making fondant, and it was not as hard as I thought it would be.  I used marshmallow cream and confectioner's sugar. I blended them together in my stand mixer, which kept me from getting super sticky marshmallow cream all over my hands.  I flavored it with almond extract, and it tasted much better than boxed fondant.  Here's the instructions I followed: The Farm Girl Recipes

We went to Louisiana for a few days around New Year's to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with our family there.  James' grandparents gave us Sky Miles tickets, so we were able to fly.  Samuel did great on the plane. Not a bit of crying.  He will barely tolerate an hour long drive to downtown in his car seat without having at least a small melt down. He's learned how to crawl, and he doesn't care to be restrained for very long. 

 After having two very active dogs in our house for several years, I'd learned to put only unbreakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree. Samuel was excited to find pretty ornaments at the bottom of his grandmother's tree. We got to the ornaments before he broke anything. 

Samuel got to see his cousin for a little while.  I think these two will love playing together!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had the chance to go to Louisiana this year for Thanksgiving. Most of James' family lives in northern Louisiana. My parents, who live in Arkansas, were also able to join us for a few days. We stayed for about 4 days, and we had a good visit. The car ride was not so good. It is a long trip, and I certainly understand that riding in the car all day is no fun for a baby. Our next road trip is coming up soon, and I am already praying for Samuel to have a fun time in the car. 

 No Black Friday shopping for us. I can't deal with the crowds and insanity, but good for those you who can take advantage of the deals. We spent Black Friday taking family photos.  Here are some of the funny out-takes.  

 Not quite sure what my husband is doing on the tree there.

 I was trying to get some photos of Samuel and his cousin. This was my first attempt at taking photos of two babes at once, and it was hard. 

James and I spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving with his grandmother. We took her to see the new Lincoln movie, and she took us to dinner.  We all really enjoyed the movie. It was the first time James and I had been to see a movie since we brought Samuel home.

Sunday, we tried to keep Samuel in the church service with us, but he got mad when I wouldn't let him crawl around on the floor and go trucking along from pew to pew. I took him to the nursery and played with him in there. We'd made plans to meet James' cousin Stephen and his wife Elizabeth for lunch.  We also ran into one of his other cousins at the same restaurant, and we all ate together.  We had a really fun lunch outside on the patio - especially after one of the kids grabbed some berries from a shrub and stuffed them down James' pants!  James was wearing pants that were way too loose, and all of a sudden he started doing an odd dance. We asked him what he was doing, and he said he had berries in his pants. We all (James included) got a good laugh over that.

 Sunday night we had the chance to catch up with these fine folks:

My sister-in-law is holding Samuel, and next to her is her twin sister and her family. We met for dinner at Johnny's Pizza. It was so good to get the chance to catch up!

Halloween 2012

Halloween is a big event on our street. Most of the neighbors decorate their houses, and some of the adults dress up. Someone grills hot dogs for the kids, and we give those out for free. James' brother and his wife came to visit this year for Halloween, and it was great having them here. We had fun. The weekend before Halloween, I made up 300 little baggies with candy inside. Last year, we just left the candy loose in a bowl, and we had trouble with kids taking two fistfuls of candy.  The baggies prevented that, but we still ran out. We had over three hundred trick-or-treaters. We started giving out punch last year, and we did it again this year. We gave out about 4 gallons last year, so that is what I prepared for this year, thinking we might not have as many trick-or-treaters since Halloween was on a Wednesday.  I was wrong. We ran out. The last batch was lemonade, because that is all we had left in the house to mix up.  We gave out 6 and 1/2 gallons of punch, and had none left. I think we had more trick-or-treaters than we've had before. We had to turn a few kids away.

We stuck with our Alice in Wonderland theme from last Halloween, and we added The White Rabbit to the mix:

 Alice, the King of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts.

 Our next door neighbor usually dresses up as Frankenstein, and but he was called out of town for work. I had a number of kids ask where he was. I even had one kid mournfully tell he that he was so sad that Frankenstein was not home. 

 Here's a pic from last year:

 We played Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland on our outdoor screen.

 Our front porch:

A couple of pics from the neighbors' yards: