It's really starting to hit me...

I haven't been able to get to sleep, so I thought I would come on here and write a new post. Things are starting to feel pretty real -- it's hitting me that we're going to be parents very very soon. We went and looked at gliders tonight. My parents told us they want to get us one, so we've been looking around. I think we found one that we like. It's sort of surreal. I was sitting in the chair in Babies R Us and picturing myself holding our little baby. I've pictured us with our baby before this, but this time was different. This time feels more real.

I guess it's kind of a transition. The past three years were filled with waiting and hoping and then let downs and then back to waiting and hoping. Right now it's nice just to feel up. Just to feel happy. It's nice to feel hopeful again.

Getting Ready

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to write for this post. Things have been pretty busy since my last one.

We have been in contact through email with the expectant mom that chose us. We're getting to know her better. She is really wonderful - very funny and nice. We're hoping that we might get to go to one of her doctor appointments in the future. We'll see what happens with that. She sent us pictures of her and her family with one of the last emails - I'm so happy to have those. We're keeping copies of all of her emails, so that we can share them with our child some day.

We've been talking about what we want to do with the baby's room as far as decorating goes. I love anything that has to do with decorating rooms -- it must be the artist/art teacher inside me! :) I keep saving ideas on my "favorites" bar on my computer - Steve laughs at me because of how many favorites I have!

This is what we have so far for the room. (Nothing is up on the walls yet, but it's in the room until we decide what we want to hang where.)

A bookcase that I repainted. We have a few children's books on it. The chair will probably not stay in the room because we will probably need the space...

An armoire that I bought a few years ago and repainted (I'll have to take a picture of the inside, too - it has a few shelves and an open space for clothes to be hung) I added the little knobs to it, too:

The dresser (that will also be a changing area) It's from Buy.Buy.Baby

The crib (and a mattress that's not in the picture) It's also from Buy.Buy. Baby

My sister, Janice, cross-stitched this for our baby. She worked on it for quite a while and even changed the pictures in the pattern so they would work for a girl or a boy! She said she added the books because we like to read so much and the crayons because of my love of art. :)

This is fabric from an outfit that I like. I really like the colors in it. It's sort of an "inspiration" piece for me for the room. The pink won't be part of the whole mix if we adopt a little boy, but I do really like the other colors. We'll have to wait and see!

We had sock monkey dolls when my sisters and I were growing up. I saw this night light about a year ago and knew I wanted to save it for our future nursery!
The nightlight is from a store called Leon and Lulu's: http://www.leonandlulu.com/. I wish I could LIVE in that store - it's that great of a store!

We saw this painting/collage when we were on a vacation in Rehoboth Beach, DE. We loved it, but didn't buy it at the time. I came across it online and bought it a few years ago. It's been waiting to be hung ever since! (The colors in the painting are the same as those in the fabric above.)


I haven't really found a set of bedding at this point. I really just want a cribskirt and a quilt (no bumpers.) I think I'm going to buy a solid color cribskirt, and my mom said she could add ribbon to it for me once we know if it's a boy or a girl. She also said she would make a quilt for the baby!

We bought a car seat this past weekend, too. We'll be ready for the day we get to bring our little one home!

Thank you so much!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who left a comment after my last post. It is so nice to read (and re-read) all of them!

About 3 or 4 people asked me if we know if it's a boy or a girl...we don't actually know. It's going to be a surprise - very exciting! We have narrowed down our lists of names for a boy and a girl, but I think we'll be keeping that a secret. Lots of surprises in September! (I'll certainly take suggestions, though, if you have any names you want to throw out there!)

Things are going very well here. We are just so so happy!

Excited, Stunned, So VERY Happy...We Are Linked to a Birth Mom!

This is the look on our faces when we saw the words "Linked with a birth mother" under our picture on our agency's site!

Yes, you read that right! We are so excited to announce that we are linked with an expectant mom!

We got "the call" while I was in Chicago on Friday, June 26th. The expectant mother's caseworker left a message on our voicemail saying that she had a case she wanted to discuss with us. Steve didn't get the message until 8:30pm that night, so we had to wait until Monday morning to get some more information! Talk about a LOOOONNNNNGGGG weekend!

Monday morning, June 29th, at 8:15am we called the caseworker. She told us that we had been chosen by an expectant mother who is due to give birth in September. She said that we would get more information when we went in for our "linked" meeting with the director of our agency. We called our families and shared the good news! Everyone was very shocked and excited! My sister, Janice, even started crying in front of her coworkers when she took the call -- she was so excited and happy!

We made some phone calls and were able to schedule our linked meeting for the very next day Tuesday, June 30th. Our appointment was in the afternoon; even that felt like such a very long wait because we were so anxious! We met with the director, and she went over the file of information including background and health information. We even learned a bit about the expectant mother's likes and hobbies. We signed some paperwork and found out that she wanted to meet with us as well.

We were waiting to hear from the agency to see what the best date was for the birth mother. We were prepared to cancel our trip (to Vegas) at that point if she was available that week. In the end, she couldn't come to the meeting until this past Thursday, July 9th, so it all worked out.

So with almost no sleep (because of all of the excitement) we went on our trip and couldn't believe that we had just been chosen! We had been LINKED! Steve kept looking at me throughout the trip and just mouthing the words, "We're linked!!" What an amazing feeling -- we know how fortunate we are to be picked at this point. Our agency had told us it could be a TWO year wait (or more). We had been waiting 6 1/2 months at that point (7 months as of today.)

We got home Sunday, July 5th, and had to wait until Thursday, July 9th, for our meeting. While it gave us a chance to recover from the time difference from Las Vegas to Michigan, it was REALLY hard to wait!

We drove to another branch of our agency's office and met with the caseworker, the expectant mom, and her mother. We were nervous, excited, and did I say nervous?? We all sat together, though, and started talking, and it felt more and more comfortable. We got to know them better, and they asked us some questions as well. Our visit was over 2 hours long, but it didn't seem like it at all. The time went by so quickly. We're hoping that we will see her again soon; we may even get invited to a doctor appointment...we'll see!

We are so thankful that she chose us and so very very excited and hopeful for September. We celebrated tonight by going out and buying a crib mattress! I haven't posted anything until now for a few reasons...I was waiting for our meeting on Thursday, and I also wanted to wait until I had spoken to a couple of people I hadn't reached on the phone yet.

But now I'm making the big announcement! :) What an exciting, wonderful whirlwind these last two weeks have been!

Our Summer Vacation

I know my last post and this post will probably make it seem like all I do is travel, but it's really not true! We occasionally go out-of-state to visit family or take a day trip, but it's rare that we go on actual vacations. Two in one summer is a record for me.

Steve and I went on our trip to Las Vegas last week. (I had won the 50-50 raffle at a fundraiser and we decided to put the money towards a vacation...) We were gone from July 1st to July 5th. What a great trip! It was so much fun. We treated each other to a show for our birthday gifts to each other. We went to see the Stone Temple Pilots concert at the Hard Rock, the Kathy Griffin show at Mandalay Bay, and the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show "Love" at the Mirage. (That last show came with our travel package.) All 3 shows were so good. We also walked around A LOT and checked out the different casinos. We didn't really gamble much - I spent a whopping $11 on a slot machine!

We were there over the 4th of July so we got to see fireworks on the Las Vegas strip. We went up in the Stratosphere for an aerial view of Vegas. We had fried oreos in Old Vegas!

The best part was just relaxing by the pool and swimming. It was so nice to be outside and just read and have fun. If you can believe it, it was 107 degrees there the day we left!

What a great trip -- I'm so glad we went and spent such a great time together. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the summer brings...

Us walking to New York, New York:

Steve in the Venetian:

The pool at our hotel:

Stone Temple Pilots:

The Stratosphere:

Steve checking out the view from the top of the Stratosphere:

Dressed up for dinner:

Kathy Griffin at her show:

Us at the Love show:

Palm trees...I wish I had one in my yard!