Friend Shower Photos

Back on the 19th, my besties threw one heck-of-a shower for me.  It was SUPER cute and my wonderful friend/neighbor/cousin Katy took a whole bunch of photos and gave them to me so I could share.  And you know what?!  She also can take photos for you too!  You should check her out here, at her website.

Anyway, it was just great!  I got to spend lots of time with a lot of lovely ladies, most of whom I don't get to see as often as I'd like.

Here are a few photos showing all the work the girls did to insure that the party wasn't only fun, but it was coordinated with a delicious spread.

Isn't this SUCH a cute banner?!

This little magnet board will one day be played with by G-Baby, one of my bestie's little kiddo and MY boys!  I really cannot wait.  They are all going to be such great friends, I know it :)

And I was given some awesome gifts.  THANK YOU ladies!  It is such a blessing to receive everything you need.  There were a lot of things checked off my "need to get" list.

We definitely know how to have a good time.

I really can't express what a fun time it was.  But us girls love any excuse to throw a party, especially one that requires cute decorations.

Since this is such a photo heavy post, I will wish you all a great week and head back to the piles of homework I should be doing right now.

Three Showers Down, One More to Go

This past Wednesday, I had my second shower.  So far they have been a lot of fun and I have been blessed with so much.  The amount of storage space in the boy's room is slowly and steadily decreasing.

After each shower, I try to head upstairs and organize everything into different categories, like feeding, changing, clothes, bedding, etc.  I am hoping this will make it easier for me to keep track of what I've received and know how much space I am going to need once I store everything permanently.

Since Eric and I decided to use clothe diapers as opposed to disposable, I was a little nervous about how many diapers we were actually going to need and whether or not we were going to receive enough or if we were going to have to make that big purchase out of pocket.  Thankfully, we have received almost everything we need in the diaper department.

In other baby news, I bought my second crib.  It is an Ikea crib which is normally $100-$130 for only $60.  Now that I have most of the furniture, my hope is to get them cleaned up and a fresh coat of paint on them by the end of the week.  They are already white, but I want to freshen them up because they are "new" to me.  My hope is to have one or two days of nice weather (on my days off) so I can do it outside instead of in the musty basement.  When I actually take on that project, I will make sure to take before/after photos so you can see how their room is coming along, but that's only if I get it done :)

I am hoping to post some photos from my third shower soon (which took place Sunday).

A Slight Change of Plans

As most of you know, Eric and I have documenting the majority of this process to hopefully create something for the boys to watch that can show them the process that took place in order to bring them home.  For us, the most important part of this documentation was when we were going to pick them up and document where they are from and what it is like.

Recently, our adoption agent informed us that there is now an additional step needed to leave the country and bring children home.  In addition to acquiring the child's visa and passport, you now must obtain an exit approval from the Congolese government.  We were first under the impression that this would add a few days to our trip.  No big deal right?  Well, it turns out that the exit approval takes everywhere from four to twelve weeks to get.

As you can only assume, this put a wrench in our plans.  What were we going to do?

After much discussion, we have decided to use an escort to bring the boys home.  This is a very hard decision, but one that we feel will be best for us and our adoption process.  Our agent informed us that the exit approval tends to take less time when a national is getting it as opposed to two white American parents.  This insight only affirmed our decision.

Despite this decision, we would not get out of our heads the need to show the boys were they come from and to experience their culture first hand.  When they ask us what it's like in the Congo, we want to be able to tell them because we've been there, not what we've read.  This prompted our next decision, which is to go and visit them in the Congo.  Yes, we know it's going to be hard, very hard actually, but we feel that it's the best thing to do.

So Friday night we booked our tickets and are flying out of Detroit on October 17 to go visit our boys.  We are planning on only staying a few days, since they longer we stay, the harder it will be to leave.  We have spoken with some families at our adoption group who did the same thing, and they think we'll be fine.  They also visited for only a few days and recommended not staying more.

I am so excited for this little adventure, as well as terrified, nervous, anxious, happy and sad all at once.  Added to that is the stress of making sure my schoolwork is done, so my grades don't suffer.  I know we have taken on a lot with this, but I know I will regret staying home because of schoolwork/stresses and missed seeing my boys and experiencing their culture and where they are from.

We know not everyone would choose this, but we know that it's important, for us.

Sorry for the Inconvenience

Hello All,

I wanted to apologize for any inconvenience as of late.  I received an email from our agent, telling me that I am not allowed to blog AT ALL about the adoption.  This was upsetting, but Eric quickly reminded me how important our boys are and whatever needs to be done, will be done.

Well, today I spoke with our agent for some clarification and it turns out, that as long as I privatize my blog, I can continue.  So, I have sent out a few emails inviting those that read the blog already to visit.  This way, you can all be kept updated but the general public can't access it.

And the best part of all, since it's privatized, I CAN SHOW PICTURES!

So, I know most of you have already seen these, but for any of you that haven't, here are my boys!

Atticus Carver (currently 8 weeks)

Baxter Moses (currently 18 weeks)

Aren't they SO cute?  I think so, but I guess I am a little biased :)

If you know of anyone that visits the blog here, let me know who and possibly their email address to I can add them to the list of readers. 

Thanks!!

Some Progress with the Boys' Room

This past weekend, as Eric tore up the floor in one of our rental properties, I did some projects for the boys' room.  I had to split my time between homework and projects, so not much was accomplished, but any progress is good progress in my book.

Several months ago, I found a children's book that had stories from all over the world.  More importantly, it had some really cool art as illustrations for the stories.  So, I ripped the pages out of the book with the intention to frame them on the stairwell wall.  We have a lot of frames in the house, mostly filled with pictures, so I wanted something a little different for the nursery decoration.  Well, after months of being moved around the house to avoid ruin, they are finally up.  And along with them is a frame, filled with chicken wire to hang photos, art projects, etc.  It's super cute and really easy.  You can check out the tutorial at Under the Sycamore.  It is one of my favorite blogs and I would totally want to hang out with her, if she didn't live in Oklahoma.

While we're on the topic of inspiration, I think I figured out what I am going to do about hanging clothes up in the boys' room.  Because our walls are only 48" before the ceiling, there isn't a closet.  I was hoping to find a wardrobe, but think they don't exist at 48" or less.  But it just so happened that Smile and Wave posted some photos of her children's wardrobes this past weekend.  Apparently, they don't have closets either.  As a make-shift wardrobe, she used a regular bookshelf to hang all of her son's clothes.  Her bookshelf/wardrobe is full size, but I totally plan on using a 3-shelf bookcase.

Here is the one of the photos she had on her blog, showing what her son's wardrobe looks like now.

And here is the one I found at Target and bought today.  I picked up two of them since they were on sale.  If I can fit both, I think I will keep both since they are only 24" wide, which doesn't allow for too much "closet" space.

Anyway, things seem to be coming along quite nicely.  I think I am going to try and find out second crib this week and start the repainting this weekend.  But that mildly depends on how my homework ends up going.

I guess that's all for now folks.  I am off to accomplish some of the many things on my to-do list.

Fall, My Long Lost Love

I really should be doing my homework right now; a psychology quiz or reading about the Age of U.S. Industrialism.  But I have found several distractions in the form of the Photobooth application on my computer and the spontaneous urge to blog.

What inspired all of these random distractions you ask?  Well, it's because today is a beautiful fall-weather day and I am in love with it.  A cozy flannel, and some chai tea is all I wanted on this school day.  You know, I also am in love with chai tea.  It's just so delicious.  I even went out and bought myself some Oregon Chai to make it at home.  It's a nice compliment to a wonderful day and cute clothes.

You see, fall is my absolute favorite season.  The only real downfall to it is that it is followed by winter.  But we can't fault fall for that, it didn't choose it's place in the year.

For my birthday last month, I received some money to spend on new clothes.  With the fall weather currently upon us, I was super excited to find some cute things.  I am a lover of flannel and cardigans, but I was hoping to pick up some new jeans and some long-sleeve tops (non-flannel or cardigan).  But so far, I have shopped without success.  It's such a sad thing to want some new fall clothes, have the money for it and just not find it.  I guess this means I am just going to have to spend more time shopping, which I wouldn't be opposed to :)

Well enough procrastinating, I am off to get my nose to the grind.

Happy Thursday!

One Shower Down

Well, I cannot believe that it's already September!  I won't lie, fall is my favorite season of all, particularly because of the great clothes and ability to layer.  When Eric and I first started dating, he would travel throughout the fall.  Not until our third year together, did we actually participate in fall activities together.  Needless to say, I am enjoying the mild weather we have been having.  I hear that over the next ten days, the highest temperature we are going to have is 73 degrees.  Woohoo!

Almost a week ago, I had my first baby shower.  It was with Eric's side of the family.  There weren't a ton of people there, but it was a good time nonetheless.  We are totally blessed by all of the gifts we received from everyone.  Over the long weekend, I was able to go through and separate everything into categories, like bedding, toys, blankets, clothes, etc.

 

See, you can see how I have organized the boys room.  You know me, I must do it now so I can stay on top of everything as I have more showers.

It's crazy as we receive more and more items.  It becomes more realistic and more surreal all at the same time.  But we are SUPER excited to put the finishing touches on the room and start the process of completing and adding furniture.

And Bella is really excited for the boys to come too!  She is a lover of soft items, so I must keep an eye on her.  She's eyeballing all the new blankets I have brought home.  As you can see below, you can't leave her alone with them.  She will slowly inch her way closer and closer.  She just so crazy, but cute!  She is just going to be so good with the boys.  I can't wait to see a dog and her boys :)

Quick Sunday Morning Update

This morning, we received some photos of the boys from our agent!  They are OH-SO cute and it's even harder to wait after seeing them. 

In other news, they haven't seen the doctor yet because there are now 27 children waiting to come home form the Congo.  Wow!  We just think that is totally awesome.

And there has been another step in the process of taking the boys out of the country.  But more on that soon.

Eric and I are off to Nantucket Bakery, to continue our Sunday morning tradition of bran muffins and french press coffee.  It shall be absolutely splendid on such a cool morning!  Happy Sunday!

Waiting to Hear from Our Agent

Today I emailed our agent since I haven't heard anything from her.  She left for the Congo two and a half weeks ago and I can only assume she is back by now.  I'm just so anxious to get an update about our boys.  And I also emailed her about their doctors appointments, which were supposed to take place this week or last week.  I also have some questions after reading some interesting information in their agency newsletter.

I'm crossing my fingers I hear from her soon.