Isaac's quilt

My mother in law took some of my adoption shirts and made a baby quilt for Isaac. I loved how it turned out and cannot wait until he is home crawling around on it!

A sweet update from Ethiopia

Here is an update from an adopting mom who is in Ethiopia for her court date:

"Jackie, all that I can say is that your wait was totally worth it! Your little guy is AMAZING!!! So, so adorable and sweet...crazy hair standing up on end and quick to smile! I actually went to find him at feeding time and got to give him his whole bottle...he burps really easily! (I know that may sound funny, but at least one of my kiddos took forever to get a burp out of)! He finished his whole bottle like a champ, and is just a charmer! You are one blessed momma!"

I am so ready to jump on an airplane and go get my baby and my big boy!

Time to Register!

Our church is giving baby Isaac a shower in November and now that we know how old he is, we thought that today would be a good day to register. I have NEVER registered for anything before. Not my wedding or all the kids, so this was a new (fun) experience for me. Abby was so much help and she loved beeping all the stuff she thought Isaac would need!

Here we are getting ready to go beeper crazy!So many bibs, so little time...I had to explain to her that babies that dont walk really dont need 25 pairs of shoes!Diapers on the other hand...we will need LOTS of!!!Greg met us at Target later with the E and N and Esther was able to beep some stuff with us. Nate on the other hand, he was about as thrilled as his daddy to be there "helping us"

I can't wait until the baby shower and see all the cute stuff Isaac gets.( I am also thankful I live in the south where you get baby showers no matter how many kids you have had!) It has been almost 10 years since I had a baby shower and so we are pretty stoked with all the baby cuteness around here! :)

care packages

We are blessed by families heading to Ethiopia soon to deliver care packages for our boys! Yay!! We had so much fun gather things up for them. Micah was a lot of fun to pick out toys and clothes for. Nathan realllllly wanted to give Micah one of his hats from his "collection". At first he put in his last years YMCA baseball hat and that is what is in the picture below. We later changed it to a W-S Dash hat. We also sent a disposable camera and hopefully he can take some pictures of his time in the Transition Home. A young man that just recently came home to the US from Ethiopia has offered to translate a letter for Micah and so we are working to compose that and will send it next. Its really hard though..what do you say to your 10 year old son for the very first time? I am struggle with wanting it to be just right and have decided to pray over it and just let the Lord lead.
Here is baby Isaac's stuff. Complete with a FL Gator onesie, some toys, some infant vitamins and Mr. Elephant. I have to say I was a little bit weepy sending off that stuffed elephant I have kept under my pillow for the whole summer. Hopefully it will smell like mama when Isaac cuddles it!One of the best things is that the families taking it to them are also going to take photos and maybe videos of the boys for us! Yay!! I cant wait to get more pictures you look at!

Isaac's elephant

Once we get our referral we will be able to send over a care package with a travelling family. I have not bought a lot to go in a care package yet because I am waiting to see what size he is before I buy clothes. I did buy this elephant.

Actually, I bought 2 elephants. Every morning when I get up and make my bed, I put one of the elephants under mine and Greg's pillows. There is stays all day and so hopefully when we send him to Ethiopia, he will smell like mommy and daddy! Once we have sent the first elephant in the care package, I will do the same thing with elephant number 2 . When we go to bring him home, it is not certain that we will get the elephant back, so we will have #2 ready with us. That way he will have a smell, sound ( you pull his tail and it makes music) and feel that is familiar to him with us.

We are kind of at that point of waiting to where there is not much to do but wait. I cant buy clothes because I don't know what size or what season I need, his crib is up, I have no pictures yet to start a scrapbook..all we are doing is waiting. Mr. Elephant is something small I can do to start the bonding process with my baby boy!

Hoping for that phone call SOON!