A day of firsts

So today was a day of big firsts around here starting with Miss A's very first "awake" smile! She's given us lots of asleep (gas) smiles, but this was her very first awake "hey-I-recognize-you" smiles! It instantly made me forget about the 5 times she had woken me up last night. Her smile is just as beautiful and perfect as I imagined it would be :@)

Our second first occurred in the carline waiting to pick up big sis. Avery had her very first diaper blowout. WooHoo!! It was followed by our first emergency change in the car on the floorboard in the backseat. Did I mention that it was raining?? Seriously, what a MESS!! Out both sides and up the back! Gross!

Our last first came tonight with Mackenzie's first skate night at school. She did so well for her first time roller skating. We had to go straight there from her ice skating practice, and I think she thought she was going to do much better than she did. I had to remind her that these things take practice and that she did well for her first time. I tried to take pictures, but none of them came out well :@(

Post again soon,
~Jeny

Picture Post!!

Some of my favorites!

Yep, we're still here!

That has probably been the longest lapse in Jeny-blog history! And this time I have an excellent reason. Miss Avery is growing like a weed. She is up to 7lbs 6oz as of her last doctor's visit and is starting to outgrow her newborn clothes.

She's also starting to sleep for longer stretches of time. YAY!!!
She doesn't always do this at night though. BOO!!!

Despite the lack of sleep we are absolutely smitten with her :@) There is some jealousy and sibling rivalry starting to sneak in though. Mackenzie is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to not being the center of the universe any more and the crying does not sit well either. Yesterday she told Avery that her crying was "Unacceptable!" and today she told her "Avery, please stop crying, you are giving me a headache!" She then proceeded to start crying herself. Considering we were stuck in the car in traffic, I was close to tears myself.

I'll try to update here as often as I can at least to get some pictures up.

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Meeting Avery (Part 2)

Sorry it took so long, but here it is…

While I waited for DJ to get home I started getting everything ready to head to the hospital. Luckily since the last false alarm we had everything washed, put away in nice little bins and ready to go. Getting the diaper bag ready to go was the easy part, getting me ready to go was crazy!! It took me forever to figure out what to wear! Seems silly now, but I just had no clue. I wanted to look nice, but not too nice. Luckily my friend Adrienne was there to keep me sane (while she cleaned my house – Thank you Ade!!!!)

Once DJ was home and Mackenzie was picked up from school we were ready to head to the hospital. It was a very surreal drive. We headed up to Winnie Palmer and met with Michelle, the director of our Adoption Agency. We got a quick background on the birthparents and a rundown on how the rest of the evening would go. Then we got our hospital stickers and headed on up. Walking into the hospital room was such an amazing and overwhelming experience. We were lucky to meet both Avery’s birthmother (ABM) and birthfather (ABF) and spend some time talking to them and getting to know one another.

ABM asked me if I wanted to hold her so I did. She then asked Mackenzie if she was excited to be a big sister. In true Mackenzie fashion she said “I’m already a big sister.” It was comforting to know that since they had read our profile book there was no need to explain :@) We sat with them for awhile and I’m proud to say that I did not breakdown crying like I was afraid I would. We took some pictures together and then left to give them some time to say their goodbyes. I will confess that I did breakdown crying right before we left the room. I just couldn’t contain the overwhelming sense of greatfulness that I felt. I tried to express it and hopefully it came across.

After we left we then had to wait for the hospital social worker to handle the discharge paperwork. We learned that she had been called to Arnold Palmer to handle an emergency and we would have to wait. We decided to head down to the cafeteria where amazingly, part of our church family was waiting having just visited another member of our church who had their son the previous day. We ate some dinner, hung out and answered Mackenzie’s endless requests to “Please go get my baby sister.” We were finally able to go back up and start the discharge process.

They brought Avery to the nursery and we changed her into her going-home outfit (the same outfit Mackenzie and I both wore) and wrapped her in her blanket. We headed down the elevator to the lobby. Amazingly, Jack’s nurse, Brie, was working and was able to meet us in the lobby. It was at that moment that it really struck us that we were leaving Winnie Palmer with a baby. We got Avery loaded up and headed for home.

I’m sure that I missed many details as much of the night was a blur. We are settling into life as a family of four. It’s still amazing to think that we have a new daughter. She currently has her days and nights mixed up but is getting better. I'll get some new pictures posted soon.

Post again soon,
~Jeny

Meeting Avery (Part 1)

So we've been busy over the last couple days. On Tuesday we got "The Call". The one that we've been waiting for...the one that I have been glued to my phone waiting for. So naturally I was nowhere near my cell phone when it rang....and rang....and rang. Nor was I at my desk while my desk phone rang....and rang...and rang. I was in my boss' office up to my elbows in a project. A co-worker finally came and got me saying that someone was trying to get ahold of me. By the time I got back to my desk my cell phone was ringing again. It was the Director of our adoption agency. Since our adoption specialist is out on maternity leave she got to deliver those words we have been waiting for. "You've been selected by a birthmom." Followed shortly by "She had the baby Sunday and the birthparents are waiting at the hospital to meet you guys before you take the baby home tonight." I'd like to say I had something fabulous, eloquant and wonderful to say, but I just burst into tears. Not delicate sniffles, but sobbing, ugly sounding tears....followed by an f-bomb. Oops!

After pulling myself together I quickly informed my boss that I had to leave to go pick up my new daughter. I grabbed the things from my desk I had to have and then headed for home. My first order of business was to get ahold of DJ. He was in the midddle of a service call about an hour away. I'm pretty sure he was still in shock when he hung up the phone (pretty sure he's still in shock actually). I made a ton of phone calls and made it home safely to begin packing our stuff for the hospital.

There is much more, but I am tired and I will post more tomorrow...

I'll leave you with the real reason that you came here...

Introducing Avery Joelle...

I will post the rest soon,

~Jeny

Picture Post!!

Yes, I have been bad about posting lately. "We" started back to school this week so I thought I'd share some pictures from our last day of freedom at Seaworld and our first day of school.

Waiting for the new Shamu show to start. Man was it HOT!!

Daddy and M made the big screen after the show. She was so excited that Shamu "sent" her a text message thanking her for watching the show....what will they think of next!?!

Princess hands!!

Dressed and ready for the big day!!

Waiting patiently to cross the street

Daddy carrying our second round of supplies!

Have you ever seen a kid so ready for school!?!

She has had a great first few days. My favorite story (and the one that sums up her personality) is from her first day. When she came home she told me that she was the teacher's helper that day. When I asked what she did she replied "Reminded the other kids to raise their hand first." Since that didn't sound like a typical helper job I asked if her teacher told her to do that. Her response: "Nope, I just thought it would be nice of me."

That's my girl - you keep those other kids in line!!!

Post again soon!
~Jeny

A Year...

A year ago yesterday we attended an informational meeting at our adoption agency. We had intended only to gather information - we did not really think that domestic adoption would be our path. Seems like we were wrong! I remember very vividly sitting in the car outside of the church downtown where the meeting was being held. I prayed quickly before we got out of the car, "Lord, if this is where we're meant to be, just let us know."

A year later here we sit, an "actively waiting" family. I'd like to add "patiently waiting" to that description, but one must not tell lies Delores... It's been difficult for me to rein in the impatience but I swear I'm trying. I wish I had a hobby that was all consuming and distracting, but I just haven't been able to find one. Maybe I will work on that one. I keep coming back to the chickens, but we haven't been able to get a fence up yet. I also wanted to take up gardening, but a) it's too hot and b) we have sand...not soil.

Quilting is another one that I have really wanted to try but I have no sewing machine (and I am not about to go at that one Amish-style). Reading got expensive - shortly after I learned that the library lets you borrow books for free, I learned that they do charge you if you don't bring them back. (Have they learned nothing from Netflix??? I've had Four Christmases since well...Christmas...and I haven't even heard a peep out of them!)

So I'm putting out the all-call, what do/did you do to pass the time?? And by the way, make it cheap :@)

Post again soon,
~Jeny