Sunday, July 31, 2011
Week with the cousins
Shelley, Morgan & McKenna came into town last week. We had a great time hanging out with them for a full week. Shelley meet Sammy in April but this was the first time Morgan & McKenna had met him. Sammy got to stay home from daycare one day while they watched him. He had a great time getting to know his cousins. Here is a picture of Sammy with his cousins: Morgan, McKenna, Reagan & Rylee.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Infertility Sucks
Yep, I said it.....infertility sucks! After battling infertility since the loss of Annabelle almost 3 years ago, Glen and I both have struggled with the question, "why us?" Well, we now know that answer. As much as infertility sucks it has also been the greatest blessing of our life. Without infertility, we would have never had Sam come into our life. Sam is the greatest gift God could have ever given us and I would go through all the months of negative pregnancy tests, failed/cancelled IUI's, surgeries, blood draws and days of crying all over again. I always wondered when we would realize "why us" and every time I look at Sam I know. I pray that all my friends going through infertility will soon know their answer to "why us?"
I have had several people ask me if I will continue going to my infertility support group now that we have Sam. The answer is "yes." As I am still infertile and we want to continue to grow our family. We are currently seeing a Natural Family Planning doctor that is trying to help me get pregnant naturally. We know that it can happen. I have been pregnant 2 times now without any assistance; 1 stillbirth at 35 weeks and 1 miscarriage at 10 weeks. Maintaining the pregnancy is an obvious factor at this point. My doctor will test my Estradiol levels through ovulation this next month. Glen & I also had genetics testing done recently. We had genetics testing done on Annabelle but never did it on ourselves. They both came back normal which was a great relief.
I have had several people ask me if I will continue going to my infertility support group now that we have Sam. The answer is "yes." As I am still infertile and we want to continue to grow our family. We are currently seeing a Natural Family Planning doctor that is trying to help me get pregnant naturally. We know that it can happen. I have been pregnant 2 times now without any assistance; 1 stillbirth at 35 weeks and 1 miscarriage at 10 weeks. Maintaining the pregnancy is an obvious factor at this point. My doctor will test my Estradiol levels through ovulation this next month. Glen & I also had genetics testing done recently. We had genetics testing done on Annabelle but never did it on ourselves. They both came back normal which was a great relief.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sammy's Baptism
What a wonderful day it was......Sammy's baptism. We had all of our family in town for the big event. Glen's family came in from South Dakota and Texas and made a whole weekend trip out of the visit.
Mom and I had shopped all around to find just the perfect outfit for Sammy to wear. Here he is in his white tux!
Glen's sister and brother-in-law are Sammy's Godparents.
We had Deacon Rich baptise Sammy as we have known him since I started going to RCIA classes at the church before we were married. He has been with us through all that we have gone through over the past many years and he has a special place in our hearts.
After the baptism, everyone came over for dinner at our house. It was great celebrating such a special moment in Sammy's life with all of our family.
Mom and I had shopped all around to find just the perfect outfit for Sammy to wear. Here he is in his white tux!
Glen's sister and brother-in-law are Sammy's Godparents.
We had Deacon Rich baptise Sammy as we have known him since I started going to RCIA classes at the church before we were married. He has been with us through all that we have gone through over the past many years and he has a special place in our hearts.
After the baptism, everyone came over for dinner at our house. It was great celebrating such a special moment in Sammy's life with all of our family.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Mother's Day
Mother's day was such a bitter sweet day this year. I was so happy to finally have Sammy home with us and celebrate being his mommy. On the other hand, I also will never forget Annabelle on this day. We took Sammy out to the cemetary and "introduced" him to Annabelle on Mother's Day. We plan to let Sam know about his sister when he is old enough to understand.
Here is a picture of my mom, Sammy and I on Mother's Day.
Here is a picture of my mom, Sammy and I on Mother's Day.
Post Placement Meetings
We had to have 3 post-placement meetings with the social worker from our adoption agency. Two were in our home and one was over the phone. They all went really well and we really enjoyed working with our social worker from Adoption & Beyond. We now have them all finished and we are hoping to be able to finalize the adoption within the next month. This is such an exciting time as we will finally be able to celebrate Adoption Day and officially be official. Sammy will not only celebrate his birthday every year, but we will also celebrate adoption day every year. Glen & I feel that the celebration is such an important part of the process for Sammy. We have been forever changed with the adoption of our sweet son! I have seen a clear picture of the face of Christ every day since Sam was placed in my arms.
The Flight Home
We were so excited to finally be going home. We had an evening flight so we were able to spend one last nice day in Florida. Heading to the airport was very emotional as it was a closing to this chapter of our adoption. Over the past few days I had really started missing the birthparents as strange as that may seem. We just felt so connected to them over the 2 days we spent with them and now we will not have any more contact. It is almost like a break-up or something.
Anxiety was also coming over me for the flight home. Taking a newborn on a plane just scared me. We were still "new" at everything so I wasn't sure how Sammy would do on the flight.
As we were checking in we gave the attendant our confirmation and said that we had a "lap baby" with us. The attendant asked how old the baby was and we told him "11 days." Then he asked us if we had our doctors "permission slip" for Sammy because every child under 14 days old must have a doctor 'ok' it to fly. Panic came over me as I knew we didn't have anything except our adoption paperwork. I frantically sifted through our paperwork to see what we could give the guy. I mentioned that we had just adopted and he said "oh, I adopted my son when he was 6 days old, you are ok to go." I again, started to tear up and thanked the guy for letting us go. That was the last thing that I wanted to stop us from getting home!
Our flight was packed because it was Spring Break and everyone was coming home from Disneyworld. Mom was not able to get on our flight so it was just me, Glen and Sammy. Mom said she could see the anxiety I had getting on the flight!!
We took our seats and I got a bottle ready for Sammy to drink on the take off. I thought that might help with the air build up in his hears. We feed him on the take off, he stayed awake for about and hour and then slept the rest of the flight! He was a perfect little angel the entire flight. I was a nervous wreck the entire time. I kept making sure he was breathing every 10 minutes or so. I am sure the people seated next to us thought I was crazy!
We finally landed in KC and we couldn't have been happier! We headed to get our luggage; which we had a ton of. Glen flagged down a Thrifty bus to take us to our car and we were on our way. Sammy was crying the entire time we waited for the bus because it was feeding time again. It was a little nerve wrecking getting him feed in the car and put in his car seat in our car for the first time. I was one of the crazy mom's that sat in the back seat with him on the way home. I felt like he was in shock because of the temperature difference. We left Florida with 88 degree weather and landed in KC with 33 degree weather. That would put anyone into shock right?!
Glen had to shovel snow off of our car and we headed home. Finally! Walking through our garage door into the house for the first time with Sammy felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted off of our shoulders! Sammy really seemed to like his house and bed because he fell asleep shortly after we got home.
Here is a picture of us the day we left Florida.
Anxiety was also coming over me for the flight home. Taking a newborn on a plane just scared me. We were still "new" at everything so I wasn't sure how Sammy would do on the flight.
As we were checking in we gave the attendant our confirmation and said that we had a "lap baby" with us. The attendant asked how old the baby was and we told him "11 days." Then he asked us if we had our doctors "permission slip" for Sammy because every child under 14 days old must have a doctor 'ok' it to fly. Panic came over me as I knew we didn't have anything except our adoption paperwork. I frantically sifted through our paperwork to see what we could give the guy. I mentioned that we had just adopted and he said "oh, I adopted my son when he was 6 days old, you are ok to go." I again, started to tear up and thanked the guy for letting us go. That was the last thing that I wanted to stop us from getting home!
Our flight was packed because it was Spring Break and everyone was coming home from Disneyworld. Mom was not able to get on our flight so it was just me, Glen and Sammy. Mom said she could see the anxiety I had getting on the flight!!
We took our seats and I got a bottle ready for Sammy to drink on the take off. I thought that might help with the air build up in his hears. We feed him on the take off, he stayed awake for about and hour and then slept the rest of the flight! He was a perfect little angel the entire flight. I was a nervous wreck the entire time. I kept making sure he was breathing every 10 minutes or so. I am sure the people seated next to us thought I was crazy!
We finally landed in KC and we couldn't have been happier! We headed to get our luggage; which we had a ton of. Glen flagged down a Thrifty bus to take us to our car and we were on our way. Sammy was crying the entire time we waited for the bus because it was feeding time again. It was a little nerve wrecking getting him feed in the car and put in his car seat in our car for the first time. I was one of the crazy mom's that sat in the back seat with him on the way home. I felt like he was in shock because of the temperature difference. We left Florida with 88 degree weather and landed in KC with 33 degree weather. That would put anyone into shock right?!
Glen had to shovel snow off of our car and we headed home. Finally! Walking through our garage door into the house for the first time with Sammy felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted off of our shoulders! Sammy really seemed to like his house and bed because he fell asleep shortly after we got home.
Here is a picture of us the day we left Florida.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
11 days in Florida
We left the hospital on Thursday afternoon and headed to our home away from home. The first night with Sammy at home went pretty smooth. Glen and I were still really nervous as is all new parents but we were so thankful to have my mom there for assistance. I didn't sleep a wink that night as I was starring at Sammy all night to make sure he was breathing! That lasted about 2 nights and then I realized I had to get some sleep!
Friday morning we got up bright and early to go to Sammy's first pediatrician appointment. We had contacted our insurance to refer us to a doctor that was covered under our policy. When we pulled up to the doctors office we were a little hesitant to go in as it didn't look like the nicest place. But, we were taught never to judge a book by its cover right?! So we went in and the place was as dirty on the inside as it was on the outside! We were called back to the room for Sammy's check-up. Mom sat in the waiting room. As mentioned before, we weren't able to get a circumcision for Sammy in the hospital so we were hoping that this pediatrician could perform the procedure for us. After seeing the facility we decided we would skip that part and look around for another doctor. Mom didn't know that we had decided this so she was in the waiting room a nervous wreck thinking that little Sammy was having this procedure done in the dirty office! When we came out and told her he just had his check-up we could see a sigh of relief on her face! The office was so small that mom and I headed to the car while Glen checked out because there was no room for all of us in the waiting room along with all the other patients. After the appointment we headed out to get some breakfast and got about 2 blocks away when mom noticed she had forgotten her purse in the waiting room. With the traffic jam packed at the intersection we were at there was no way we could turn around fast enough so Glen told mom and I to jump out of the car. We did and we started sprinting back to the doctors office. Mom was panicking knowing that most likely her purse was gone by now. She had all her check books and credit cards in it because she didn't know how much money we might need with everything going on. I hadn't ran that fast since high school track! I got to the office, opened the door and there sat her purse. Safe and sound and not touch! We were so thankful.
The next couple of days we searched for a pediatrician and did a "drive by" before we decided on one to do the circumcision. We were running out of days as they prefer it to be done within the first 10 days after birth if possible. We finally found a clean office that we felt comfortable with and made our appointment. The procedure wasn't as bad as I had imagined. Sammy did fine and didn't have any majors problems with it.
Most of our days in Florida were spent hanging out at the condo, going to the pool and shopping. It seemed like we were at Target, Babies R Us or the grocery store every day! Sammy was a good traveler and shopper.
We had been keeping in contact with the attorney's office to see how the paperwork was coming along. They were waiting for the hospital to release the medical records which would then go to ICPC in Florida, then Missouri and back to Florida. Well, the hospital was taking their sweet time in releasing the files so Glen and I decided to head up to the hospital to see if we could speed up the process. Bad idea! Being the adoptive parents, at this point, we still really do not have any legal rights to get any medical information. We didn't want any info, we just wanted them to release the info to the attorney/ICPC as soon as possible. The hospital didn't understand that! I winded up breaking down in the hospital medical records room! They just couldn't understand why they needed to put a rush on this. I started crying, telling them we were running out of money and just wanted to take our baby home. As nice as Florida was, it was costing us several hundred dollars a day staying there plus we wanted to get Sammy to his home. So after my breakdown, I think they knew how important it was to get this paperwork going. This was a Weds. and the paperwork still had to be FedEx'd to ICPC in Florida and then to Missouri all before Friday at noon when the offices closed. If this didn't happen we would be in Florida at least until Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Somehow, by the grace of God, we got a call on Friday morning that ICPC had approved us to go home! Our flights were already booked for that Saturday so we were set! Glen went out and bought a bottle of champagne for us to pop open and celebrate us going home with Sammy!!!
Friday morning we got up bright and early to go to Sammy's first pediatrician appointment. We had contacted our insurance to refer us to a doctor that was covered under our policy. When we pulled up to the doctors office we were a little hesitant to go in as it didn't look like the nicest place. But, we were taught never to judge a book by its cover right?! So we went in and the place was as dirty on the inside as it was on the outside! We were called back to the room for Sammy's check-up. Mom sat in the waiting room. As mentioned before, we weren't able to get a circumcision for Sammy in the hospital so we were hoping that this pediatrician could perform the procedure for us. After seeing the facility we decided we would skip that part and look around for another doctor. Mom didn't know that we had decided this so she was in the waiting room a nervous wreck thinking that little Sammy was having this procedure done in the dirty office! When we came out and told her he just had his check-up we could see a sigh of relief on her face! The office was so small that mom and I headed to the car while Glen checked out because there was no room for all of us in the waiting room along with all the other patients. After the appointment we headed out to get some breakfast and got about 2 blocks away when mom noticed she had forgotten her purse in the waiting room. With the traffic jam packed at the intersection we were at there was no way we could turn around fast enough so Glen told mom and I to jump out of the car. We did and we started sprinting back to the doctors office. Mom was panicking knowing that most likely her purse was gone by now. She had all her check books and credit cards in it because she didn't know how much money we might need with everything going on. I hadn't ran that fast since high school track! I got to the office, opened the door and there sat her purse. Safe and sound and not touch! We were so thankful.
The next couple of days we searched for a pediatrician and did a "drive by" before we decided on one to do the circumcision. We were running out of days as they prefer it to be done within the first 10 days after birth if possible. We finally found a clean office that we felt comfortable with and made our appointment. The procedure wasn't as bad as I had imagined. Sammy did fine and didn't have any majors problems with it.
Most of our days in Florida were spent hanging out at the condo, going to the pool and shopping. It seemed like we were at Target, Babies R Us or the grocery store every day! Sammy was a good traveler and shopper.
We had been keeping in contact with the attorney's office to see how the paperwork was coming along. They were waiting for the hospital to release the medical records which would then go to ICPC in Florida, then Missouri and back to Florida. Well, the hospital was taking their sweet time in releasing the files so Glen and I decided to head up to the hospital to see if we could speed up the process. Bad idea! Being the adoptive parents, at this point, we still really do not have any legal rights to get any medical information. We didn't want any info, we just wanted them to release the info to the attorney/ICPC as soon as possible. The hospital didn't understand that! I winded up breaking down in the hospital medical records room! They just couldn't understand why they needed to put a rush on this. I started crying, telling them we were running out of money and just wanted to take our baby home. As nice as Florida was, it was costing us several hundred dollars a day staying there plus we wanted to get Sammy to his home. So after my breakdown, I think they knew how important it was to get this paperwork going. This was a Weds. and the paperwork still had to be FedEx'd to ICPC in Florida and then to Missouri all before Friday at noon when the offices closed. If this didn't happen we would be in Florida at least until Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Somehow, by the grace of God, we got a call on Friday morning that ICPC had approved us to go home! Our flights were already booked for that Saturday so we were set! Glen went out and bought a bottle of champagne for us to pop open and celebrate us going home with Sammy!!!
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