2 weeks and counting!

So we've been home 7 days now. We arrived home last Wednesday evening. Talia has been glued to Kate ever since. She is a terrific baby! She is sweet, calm, laid back and cute! Talia is in love with her "littler" sister. It is very sweet. We to the doctor yesterday for her 2 week check up and she is up to 8 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces and already grown an inch. That's what I'm talking about! My parents have spent a few nights here so I've had at least two nights of good sleep...now they are gone. Sniff. Don't expect coherent conversation!

She's Ours!

At 5pm Arkansas time, the wait to see if babymama was going to revoke the adoption ended!!! She is officially ours! Tomorrow the judge will sign the papers and legally Kate will be ours. Yippee! Tonight we are going to eat Mexican and celebrate! Right now I'm in Walmart for the 8th time. Buying baby stuff, of course.

Court's Finished!

So our fabulous lawyer handing the adoption (read: handling babymama) found us a local attorney, who changed around her schedule and met with us today. Then she got a good judge at the courthouse and she stopped court to meet us and Kate! Her first question was "So, you're from SC. SC's been in the new recently....What do you think of your governor?" She was very nice and funny. She also has a 33-year old daughter named Kathryn and called Kate. Cute. So, we have made our appearance in court. Now the judge will sign the papers on Tuesday and FedEx them to us! We'll have another daughter, officially. Now we're off to the store-need MORE baby stuff!

More Kate!

So we are out of the hospital and in our Staybridge Suite, overlooking Lake Hamilton. This is an amazing place! Awesome staff folks, too. One with a great name-Kara. She spells her name wrong, though. We even went to a free BBQ sponsored by the hotel this evening. Seems they do a theme dinner Tues-Thurs evening, with beer and wine! We're never coming home! Oh, wait- I miss my Talia.


This is the card on her nursery bed in the hospital. Nurse Tina made us a new one, too, that said Kate Senterfeit. Sweet. We brought them both home.



Little purple bow...seemingly withstands everything. May never come off.


Wrapped! Actually my father is telling her something goofy-which is his nature.


First car ride. Didn't cry-looked a bit perplexed, but she has that "What tha..." look often. I would too if I was 2 days old.

the story

So we got to Hot Springs around 6:30am. Ate at IHOP with some weird people. One comment heard was "and then I shot that bottle rocket into my trailor!"
Got to the hospital before 9am...killed some time then went to meet Babymama. Babymama less than thrilled to see me. Some time in the night she must have changed her mind about seeing us, so instead of a lovely visit, I got screaming. Meh. That's the way it was supposed to happen I guess. No contact. So we ran to the nursery and the sweet nurses let me hold Kate! I gave her kisses and she ate ate 35 ml of her bottle. I am a natural! Let me say that tonight, and tomorrow, and in the next few weeks!
So we met with the lawyer and the lawyer got Babymama and Babydaddy to sign all the paperwork. I will get to spend the night tonight in the hospital with Kate. Then bring her to our hotel tomorrow! Babymama has until Monday to change her mind. We'll go to court on Tuesday and hopefully head home! Anticipating home on Wednesday at this point.

T-minus 45 minutes

We're headed toward the hospital. Visiting hours are at 9am. We are going to be there to be the first visitors! I have to go to babymama's room and introduce myself and inquire about her health. Then as soon as politeness allows, run to get the baby. Please let my tact button work full power today.

Bon Jovi

So that's been the song in my head all night...Whooooooah, we're half way there...whoooaah....living on a prayer," mainly because it is Elias' song of the moment and he sings it all the time. And I wanted to be half way to Arkansas quickly. Now we are, over half way to our destination. 3 hours to go. Very excited. First I have to go introduce myself to the woman who is giving us her daughter. What do I say? How do I start that conversation? In between fits of sleep, I've been over and over opening lines and rejected them all. Everything seems so trite and silly. Giving. Us. Her. Child. Whoa. Then after visiting her, I am supposed to get to the nursery and see our baby. That's another, less stressful, weird never-before-experienced conversation. And then the "first" we've been waiting on...seeing Kate. 7-7-09 is going to be a day for the record books.

Baby's Here!!

Kate was born this morning! She was 8 lbs, 13 oz and is 20 inches long. We are in the van now, heading to the hospital. It is a 12 hour drive to get there so we'll be driving all night to get there by 9am when the doors open! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers because she isn't officially ours yet! Have a week to go, but if the birth parents are still willing, we'll be able to take her to the hotel (i.e. temporary home) on Wednesday when she is discharged!

John Deere girl

I know this isn't a John , but I can't think of any other farm-type references. Daddy had to drive the lawn mower. Had to. It was just sitting there, begging to go for a ride. So, he pretended to start it up for Talia. She enjoyed it anyway.

Little Fish

So this weekend, with Nona's encouragement and teaching, Talia can do a front flip, a black flip, hold her breath for a while, and has come a long way in swimming. She can hold her breath, cup her hands, move her arms and kick-just not all together. But is this weekend's learning speed continues, she'll master that with swimming lessons next week. When her daddy came out, he showed her how to float on her back and after a few tries, she had that too. She also has learned to ride her bike and can go a huge distance without tiring.

Do a little dance....

A performance by Elias and Talia...

Elias has Talia's leather jacket on that I scored from a thrift store.


And a couple's dance.

Work day

So, Beth was in town and we were going to work on the house. Suddenly it became a nursery! Bella spent the night before with me and refused to go to school since Talia wasn't going to school. Actually they played quite well together and Beth and I got some things accomplished. Here's a little Popsicle break.




A perfect mess. Half red and half blue. Awesome.


This is a wink. Honest!

Berry Picking

So a couple of weeks ago (I', a bit behind), we went berry picking. It was threatening 100 degrees, even in the mid morning. I went to pick blackberries after taking the required 100+ shots of every actitity. Pretty soon Bella joined my hip and I continued to pick blackberries with an extra 28 pounds.



Lotsa picking and lotsa eating.






YUM!!! (At least the blackberries and strawberries...I don't care for blueberries at all. )