Date night and baby prep

Last night was the second time since J came home that TJ and I had a date! It was a much needed time for just the 2 of us. We had so much fun even if we were only gone for a few hours. We dropped J off with our friends the Raymers. This is the only people so far that J will stay with without a fuss, including my parents. We are so blessed to have them close by! Jerrett loves to play with their two little girls and Alison and Scott are well versed in Jerrett's hang ups since their oldest daughter was adopted at the same age that Jerrett was. They know how to deal with the fears, anxiety, and tantrums because they know what the underlying fear is. But we were still a little worried this time. It was the first time that we had gone out at night and left him with anyone plus we have been having a rough month with Jerrett. But all went well and we are excited.
Not only did this give TJ and I a chance to spend some alone time together but it was also to prep J for when the baby comes. Since we do not know when the baby will actually be here, we want J to be prepared to stay with the Raymers no matter what time of day. Thankfully their house is on the way to the hospital! The plan is to drop Jerrett off with them when I go into labor and he will stay with them until my mom and dad can make it down here to pick him up. It only takes mom and dad 2 hours to get here now so that is great! But knowing that Jerrett will be ok with the Raymers is good to know. We are really hoping that we do not have to make this flying trip in the middle of the night but we also know that the baby will be here when it is here and there is nothing we can do to control it. Once mom and dad get here though, they will pick up Little Man and take him to the hospital and to the house. Hopefully I don't have to stay at the hospital for too long. I am not a fan of them plus we want J back into his normal routine as soon as possible. We will be leaving J several more times before the baby gets here just to make sure that he is super comfortable in knowing that even if we leave him, we are coming back to get him. That is still his biggest fear.
Anyway, I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband and it was wonderful to go to a grown up restaurant and not have crayons sitting on the table and spilled water glasses. We love our little man and love having him with us, but have missed getting to be a real couple instead of just parents. We are going to make more of a point to make time for each other without kiddos.
Now off to finish cleaning house, we have a super busy couple days planned! Tonight is pjs, hot chocolate, and driving around looking at Christmas lights! Finished off by sleeping in the living room with the tree lights on. Tomorrow is going to see a movie with J and coming home to just spend time together and make reindeer food. We will leave Santa what he requested, chocolate milk and Oreos. That is what Santa told Jerrett was his favorite! We will also read the story of Jesus's birth. Sunday morning we will wake up see what Santa brought and then cook a nice breakfast before heading off to church in our new Christmas clothes! We have a nice dinner planned and we will make Baby Jesus a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Him. The rest of the day will be spent playing and just being together. And Monday TJ is off work! More family time. So pumped!

Christmas Part 1

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas celebration at my parents house. We had a long and crazy weekend but it was loads of fun. The first picture is of Jerrett and my mom making and decorating Christmas cookies. That is a tradition that Mom started with us when we were little. Jerrett loved helping to make the frosting to go on the cookies and loved to lick the frosting off his fingers even more! But in the end we had some pretty cute cookies. The next picture is of TJ and his new toy. He is more than a little excited about the new shotgun that mom and dad bought him for Christmas. Even more excited about the reason for it. Dad, the boys, and TJ are in the beginning stages of planning a big bird hunt in SD. I think that while they go out and hunt, the kiddos and I will stay at a hotel with an indoor pool! Brrrrrrrrrrrr! Hoping that the trip is next year and that we can save enough money that I can give TJ the trip as a gift. But in the meantime, The guys hunt at Grandma's house for quail and go to the Panhandle every year to go pheasant hunting. TJ has a rifle but did not have the shot gun needed to go bird hunting. Now he is all set and ready to go!

Lets see... The next picture is of Jerrett and his Christmas gift from his Uncle Chris. My older brother loves this little guy like crazy and is just a little bit ornery. Chris bought Jerrett a collectors edition of retro Hotwheels. A cool gift that Jerrett loved; however, my lovely brother wrapped each individual car separately and then wrapped them all in one big box. There were like 50 cars in the collection! Poor J sat there and unwrapped these little cars forever! But he loved it. He has not stopped playing with them since he got them.

The next picture is of Jerrett, his Uncle Russell and his cousin Addison. Since she lives so far away Jerrett does not get to play with her very often but they get along really well. She just turned 6 and is the cutest little girl ever. In this pic, they are both using Russ as a jungle gym. Good thing that he is big and strong, these little monkeys were crazy! I was so glad to get to pend time with Russ and Bizzy. They are both super busy with their jobs and we have not gotten to see them since Easter! Russ is a restaurant manager and Bizzy just finished up nursing school and is working at a veterans hospital. I have the best one day to be sister in law ever. Not only does she put up with my rotten little brother, but she fits in with the rest of the family perfectly. I am so glad not to be the only girl anymore. Prayers are going out for her right now though as she is preparing for a trip home for the first time in many years. Bizzy is from Washington state and so it is quite a trip home for her.

And this is one of my favorite pictures ever. It is our first family Christmas picture. I look like road kill but I still love it. Traveling while pregnant is not exactly fun and relaxing! But... we had a great Christmas full of family and fun. Today, Jerrett and I are at home relaxing in comfy clothes and TJ went back to work. Not a whole lot planned for this week. Sort of recuperating from our trip. Thursday night though, I have a date with the most amazing man ever... my husband! I am so excited to be able to go to a grown up restaurant and have a conversation with him just the two of us. I cannot think of a better gift that the Raymers could have given us. Jerrett will hopefully do well without us. He has stayed with them several times when I have doctor appointments and just going over there for playdates so our fingers are crossed that he will do ok for a few hours while we go eat and finish up a little bit of Christmas shopping.

Jerrett has not really been himself since Thanksgiving, a bit extra clingy to me and so we are praying that the night goes well. I will share more of this later when I get into my post for the Folsom's after Christmas. But for now, I am getting off and going to play race cars with my little man! God bless and hope everyone has an amazing week!

Congrats!!!

Got some awesome news today! I just found out that one of my good friends from college and his wife just found out about their adoption! They are working on an international adoption and received their match this week! Since this is not the exact same as our adoption, I am not totally sure on all of the details but I do know that it will still take them quite a while before they get to travel and meet their new little boy for the first time! Matt, Courtney, I am so incredibly happy for you guys. God is good and you guys were so faithful in waiting for what He had in store for you guys. You are in for a whole new journey now.
They have asked me to gather some info on attachment and bonding as their little guy is not an infant either. I promise that I will get some info put together to send you from our research as well as get you some contact names of some other great people to speak with. I will also post some basic stuff on the blog after the holidays and things calm down a little in our house.
Anyway, just thought that I would share their good news with you. We are so ready to meet your little one and are so happy for you. We will be praying that God will continue to work in your lives as you prepare for your new little boy and for your little man as he waits on his mommy and daddy to come and pick him up half a world away!

One year!

Today is exactly one year since we received the phone call that would change our lives forever. I was sitting at work not really thinking about anything other than the Christmas break coming up when my cell rang. It was a SD number. This was not anything super surprising since we had been talking back and forth with different case workers in SD for a long time. But when I answered, not only was Tyler on the phone but his supervisor was as well. Thinking that we had made it to the next round of interviews with an adoption I was ready to answer a ton of questions in front of another panel of people. Wrong! They told me that there was not going to be another round of interviews and that we had been selected as the family for a precious little boy! I immediately called TJ. We both sat there quiet for several minutes. It was the call that we had been waiting for for so long. It was hard to understand that it had really happened and to a little boy that was so healthy with no serious issues. Our dream child. The child that we had prayed for for so long. The little boy that immediately felt like our son. After I called TJ I called Alison. I knew that my mom was in class and couldn't answer so I called the person I knew would totally understand what we were feeling. She cried with me and then we went into planning mode. We did not know exactly when we would be able to go pick up J but we knew that it would not be long. We had so much to do in such a little amount of time.
When I got home that night TJ and I immediately went shopping. We didn't know what J would come home with but knew that we wanted him to have a complete room with new clothes and toys waiting for him when he got to his new house.
Now we are a year past that phone call. The end of Jan will be one year since we left to go get J and Feb 2 will be our Gotcha Day. It is crazy what all has happened in that one year time span. How much our little guy has gone from a toddler into a real little boy. How much we have done as a family, how much TJ and I have grown. The love that we have between the 2 of us and the bond that is almost fully there. I cannot imagine not having Jerrett in our lives. God created this little boy just for me and TJ. We went through a lot of heartache in order to bring him into our lives but it is worth it. We are a forever family the way that God intended. We are a family of 3, soon to be 4, a very blessed little family unit who loves, laughs, and lives our lives together. We will continue to grow, the bond will continue to get stronger, the attachment more secure, and love will also continue to grow. We will serve God and live our lives for Him each and every day. Jerrett is an answer to so many prayers and we are so happy that he is with us. We are blessed.

Christmas Train

Here are just a few of the many pics that was taken on our trip to the Christmas Train. TJ and I were so excited to share one of our favorite places not just with Jerrett but with my parents this year! Everyone has a wonderful time. We were so worried because it had poured rain all day long and we just knew that it was going to be puring while we were there too. But once we got there and went to eat, the rain stopped! God answers prayers no matter how trivial they may seem! The temperature could not have been better. Jerrett is way more bundled up than was really needed but... My favorite part was just getting to experience the whole thing through Jerrett's eyes this year. As you can see in the pictures, his eyes were huge as he was taking everything in. There has not been one single day that has gone by that we have not talked about how much fun he had at the Christmas Train. His favorite part changes all the time. He loved getting to ride the train and the horse drawn wagon. Not so fond of riding the ponies though because he said it was babyish because they only went in a circle. That is definitely my son! I would have hated it as a little kid too, but I started riding horses way younger than he is. He also loved getting to see the Christmas story on the train. We talk all the time about how bad guys put Jesus on the cross. But now he can tell you that it was God who told the bad guys to put Jesus there because He loved us so much that he died for us. That is a little hard to understand for a 4 year old but he is really working on getting it! It is amazing to see God working in our little boy's heart at such a young age. That is one of our prayers for Jerrett. J will also tell you that Jesus is not dead that the guys put him in a tomb and when he was in there is owies went away and he rolled the stone away himself and went to live with God in heaven. Love getting to hear him talk about God!

Right now we are preparing to head to my parents house for Christmas. We always have a Christmas celebration the weekend before Christmas so that we can spend the actual holiday wherever we need to that year and never have to miss with mom, dad and the boys. I really like that because we are no longer going to be traveling for Christmas. A long time ago TJ told me that he really wanted our kids to be able to open their Christmas gifts at home on Christmas Day. So that is our plan. Now that we have J and the baby on the way, no more traveling on Christmas Day. we are actually really excited about this and the traditions that we can begin with our kids. Some Christmas's we may travel after we open gifts at home or the next day but that will be a year to year thing.

TJ and I also really want the focus of Christmas to be on Christ and not on what the world makes Christmas out to be. Yes we are doing Santa Claus but just not as much so as so many others do. We do not want that to be the focus. We decided a long time ago that we do not want our kids to be spoiled with gifts and think that is what the holiday is all about. Our children will receive 3 gifts for Christmas and that is it. And the three gifts are not huge or expensive gifts. But Christmas is really about Jesus's birthday and He only received 3 gifts so that is all they are going to get as well. One thing that TJ and I have been doing for years and just now got to include J in, is shopping for less fortunate kids. This year we had 5 kids to shop for and $100 per child. 2 of the kids were J's age and so he loved getting to help pick out the toys and clothes for those 2. He really knows and understands that these kids would not have anything if it was not for what we bought them. Our plan is to continue to do this with our kids in hopes of teaching them that giving is so much better than receiving. We know so many kids that are so selfish and just want want want for themselves, we really do not want that for our kids. Every time J gets a new toy he has to look through his old toys in order to find something to donate. He has been amazing with this and loves to be able to help others. Our prayer is that his heart is always tender and that he can share that with his younger sibling when the time comes. God is good and I love this time of year. God bless and hope you have a wonderful Christmas!