An update on our lives!

This might be short... or longer if our little guy takes a longer nap :)

We are doing well and got a FULL night of sleep last night! M slept from 8:15pm until 5:00am! We were both in bed before 9:00 too so we more or less got a full night of sleep! Yes, he did wake up and cry many times during the night but went back to sleep easily. If you know me well you know that my body longs to sleep from 2:00am until 9:00 in a dream world so I have to train my body to a new reality!

Two night ago was our roughest night as M was UP at 12:30 and really didn't sleep much after that.. I was so tired yesterday and I decided it might be time to start drinking coffee :)

Dr visits have been going well and we are impressed with everyone we meet with. MAJOR bummer that the "samples" we collected were not deemed good enough and we have to recollect them! NOT looking forward to this... AT ALL!!! Hopefully Brandon and I will be able to collect them together so that M doesn't scream as we scrape and mix and clean! So ready to find out if there are parasites and hoping to deal with less and less poo as the days continue! Speaking of poo, he was in outfit number 5 before lunch yesterday due to explosions! Poor guy!

Other news: I forgot to update you all on the Gift of Adoption grant. We were able to use it to help pay for the tickets and we are so so thankful for Gift of Adoption! Yes, grant processes are a lot of work, but we were very blessed by 2500.00 so the work is worth it! We continue to be in awe of how God provides. The check came as we returned from ET and today the airfare bill arrived! In this adoption we have never had a surplus, but EVERY time something needs to be paid, the money is ready! Yes, God loves adoption!!!

I need to run, sorry for anything that doesn't make sense!

New Photos

This is actually Brandon writing. We just wanted to add a couple of new pictures from the last couple of days. They show his favorite current activities (besides eating and taking a bath) - walking with his "walker," reading "Brown Bear Brown Bear" (which he tries to say - "Brah Bah Brah Bah" - and wants to hear over and over), and playing "hide and seek." He's a fun little guy!

2:30 wake up call for this momma!

1. I am totally in a fog and have a brain full of mush, but I have a handsome and amazing son to make up for it!

2. My son was up at 2:30 this morning... for the day! Wow!

3. Shabby blog made me change the background... not a huge fan of this one, but someday I will choose something that is more me!

4. I am sorry for all the typos and errors in previous posts... a better blogger would change them... I will just say I am sorry :)

5. I am sure you are waiting for photos so here are a few to enjoy! Click on photos to enlarge them. There are so many more where this came from :)

This is what he does when he is ready for another bite!

First photo in the airport!

In front of a huge flag... Our family!
Father Son matching shirt day :)

WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!

We praise God that after 30 hours of travel with an active, loud, and ultra digestive :) little boy we are home safely! We are weary but blessed!
There is no way I can write about this trip like I did the last one. Time is limited (at least right now). Maybe Brandon will have a father-son night and I can get caught up on blogging... or take a nap :)

Sleeping... not so much :)
We are attempting to get our sweet boy on American time. He takes a morning nap from 10:00-11:30 an afternoon nap from 2-4 then sleeps from 8:00 until about 1:00am. He wakes from 1-3:30 (WIDE AKAKE) and then sleeps from 3:30 until 5:45. We are so hoping that his late night "play sessions" will be for a short season of life. I love the morning nap by the way! He is so happy at night that it isn't too horrible to wake up, though not great long term of course... we are also jetlagged and weary, but filled with joy in it all!


LOVED LOVED LOVED Ethiopia Guest house!!!!!!! We were in an adoptive family suite and it is SO worth the cost... I would have paid double for that room! We were in the newest house (there are 4) and we were the only family there which meant they cooked all Shelly safe foods... AMAZING!!!!!!

Thoughts about our son at 17 months:

~He is crawling well and looks good doing it!
~He loves to hear his voice!
~He can walk holding on to our fingers
~He only likes formula and rice cereal, but with everything else in his life changing... we will stick with that for a few days!
~He his a great digestive track and is able to produce a 5 gallon pail of diapers in 36 hours!
~He will be wearing paper diapers for a while based on the above comment!
~He SINGS all the time! Hums all sorts of tunes!
~He loves playing with a tiny cup and a spoon... out of all the toys those are his favorite.
~Daddy is his hero and he looks for him when he isn't around.
~He screams whenever he is done eating, but is easily distracted by something else!
~He had no sticky diapers while on airplanes (thanks for the prayers)!!!!
~He now enjoys the camera, when he wants to :)
There is so much more to say, but nap time is limited. Once we get the photos off the camera I will post MANY on here... so stay tuned!

Looking younger, Showers, and planes!

I am trying to combine several posts into one. It is late and I have to get up early so if things don't exactly make sense or are cheesier than usual, that is why!

1. I am looking younger every day friends. What is my secret? Eating junk food, getting little sleep and plenty of stress, and not drinking enough water! How do I know I am looking younger? Well, my face has acne like a teenager from following the remedy above :) It can't be helped, it is just sad that the most stressful times in my life are the most documented with photo and video :) Actually, I am glad that I am not too young as I just couldn't handle wearing skinny jeans. Honestly, I am NOT a fan of things which are tight fitting on my legs and I am thankful that my age makes it more socially acceptable to wear boot-cut!

2. While traveling over Christmas Brandon's family had a gift time for our son, not exactly a "shower" but we did get many great things! This week I got to experience TWO amazing showers. The first shower was at our church. It was a special night of fellowship and food, of laughter and of tears and of prayer. I was blown away by the generosity and love of our church family. Our church has walked this adoption journey with us with joy, excitement, and plenty of patience. I was stunned the whole night. It was very surreal and almost felt like an out of body experience.
I just got home from a shower with my friends from our time while Brandon was in seminary. As I drove down today I was listening to some wonderful music and praising God. I was crying A LOT as I reflected on our upcoming trip, motherhood, and God's abundant blessings through Christ. This shower was LONG awaited. This group of women walked with me through those years of longing and infertility. This group of women is... well... for the most part... VERY fertile :) and I attended many baby showers for them. Then, because it was just too emotionally draining for me, I missed a few baby showers too. It was easier to send gifts and make excuses. I know that sounds silly, but it was just so hard! Another part of the women at the shower were those who I ministered with for youth group. They all ministered to me with encouragement and love through the hard times and together we poured into amazing young women! There was a time of prayer and a time of introductions. That intro time was one of the most special times I have ever had (sort of like Senior's Only encouragement circle). What a gift! I also got to see 2 sweet boys and Gideon! I don't have the right words to convey how thankful I was for the day or how cherished I felt, but the piles of wet tissue from tears of joy tell you that it was special!
3. We are leaving for Ethiopia SOON! Actually, we are leaving in just a couple of days! We are beyond excited to see our little man again. I want to try to post from the country since I don't think I will have 10 hours to devote to trip recap when we return as I did last time :) Everything is in order with the embassy and we will be able to land in the US with him on the 16th if the Lord wills it of course. We will be cocooning for quite a while, but soon we will emerge and will be excited for park dates, trips to the area I was today, times at church, time with family etc. It will all come... but first we will just focus on M learning who we are.
4. Last night I re-read Sarah's posts about M (Keller's Miracles) and cried and cried and cried. God's faithfulness and His care for the bigger picture is so clear. I am just in awe of Him!

5. We had a great time traveling over Christmas. We spent about 33 hours in the car, but got to see lots of family and create wonderful memories!
Well, it is almost 1:00am so I better get a few hours of sleep before another REALLY busy day!