Thank You

Today is a day where I say thank you to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Today, some 2 thousand years ago, a man died on the cross for me. I know that to non-Christians this seems impossible. But I truly believe that he saw through time and heard my heart cry out for a Savior. He died a horrible death on the cross and was buried-but in 3 days he rose, body and all and joined His Father in Heaven.

I could never say thank you enough for this free and life changing gift.

This past year has been very difficult for me. I lost a very dear sister-in-law, and was struggling with infertility and trying to adopt. I could not have made it through any of these things without God. As I remember this Easter holiday, I feel so grateful for everything that God has done for me.

Growing up

I am just amazed on just how fast our little girl is growing up. She loves to stand-assisted of course. She loves to hold rattles and put anything into her mouth. I know this sounds trivial but just one month ago, she could do none of these things.

We have been feeding her cereal for about a week now. She is really starting to get the hang of eating with a spoon. She will open her mouth for the spoon and swallows most of what we are feeding her. I just love to watch her smile because she's doing just a great job.

She is also doing great at sleeping through the night. She will fall asleep about 8pm and doesn't wake till 5-5:30am. I know this sounds early, but her crazy daddy is always up this early so I guess she's taking after him.

I look forward to her growing and changing even more. I know that soon these days will be over, so I will cherish every moment of her precious life.

Tired, but Greatful

I have just finished a 5 day work stretch. It doesn't seem that much to most people, however, my days are 12 hour shifts. I'm tired, but very thankful to still have a job. I have the next 4 days off and then I work Easter weekend. I love having many days off in a row to spend with my wonderful hubby and daughter.

Our sister-in-law, Anna, came to visit this past weekend. We hadn't seen her since Christmas, but more importantly, she hadn't seen Alexis since Christmas. She was amazed how big she had gotten and what a great baby she is. Craig and I are so lucky to have amazing families that we love being with. This May will be the 4th year that we have taken our vacation with Craig's family. This year we are going to the Outer Banks. I have only been once-we had a weekend trip with our dear friends Will and Michelle before we both had kids. I'm looking forward to spending a week exploring our coast.

Well, I'm off to take the cat to the vet-pray for me!!!!

4 Month Check-up

Alexis had her 4 month check-up yesterday. She got 2 shots-it just kills me to see her get stuck, but I know it's better then getting these horrible diseases.

She was 23 3/4 inches long and weighed 12 lbs and 7 oz. She droped on the weight curve slightly. Her doctor was not overly concerned with the drop, but just wanted us to encourage her to eat as much formula as she could. He also stated that she was ready to start some rice cereal, but not in her bottle-just by a spoon.

We tried the cereal last night for the first time. She did pretty well. I think that more cereal ended up on her check and bib, then in her belly. It was so great to see my little girl try to be a big girl.

I had to return to work today. I wish that I could just stay home and play with her forever.

Harris Lake

We took Alexis to Harris lake today. This is one of her first trips outside into nature. It's just been so cold and rainy lately that we haven't wanted expose her to this. It is so great to share these wonderful things with her.

I carried her in my ring sling-I just love it. It makes carrying her so easy and she seems to love it too. Craig doesn't understand the sling and since it's pink he refuses to try it out. But he doesn't mind if I want to use it.

She had a hat and sunglasses on that her Nana gave her for Easter. She looked so cute-but I didn't get any pics because I forgot my camera-I know what a bad mom I am that I forget my camera. Hopefully we will get to take her out again soon and I will try to remember my camera.

Church Visit

We took Alexis to church for the first time today. She did so great!!! She didn't cry or make much noise. Everybody was so impressed with how quiet she was. We sat next to another 4 month old and he made lots of noise. We had previously been scared to take her to church, fearing that she would make lots of noise and disrupt everyone around us. But I guess our fears were releived today.

I'm so impressed with my little girl and how wonderful she truly is. We feel so blessed to have this beautiful girl in our lives.

Adoption

As most of you know Craig and I were blessed with a baby girl in December of 2008. We've been asked many times to share the story of how she came to our family--so here goes:

I got a call on december 1st, asking if we would like our profile shown to a birthmother who had a baby on November 28th. This baby would be bi-racial and the mother had no prenatal care. I immediatly stated that she could see our profile-since we were open to a bi-racial baby. I didn't think anything of this conversation, because we had recieved numerous calls just like this one, so we didn't get our hopes up too high.

I got a call back that afternoon stating that the birthmother really loved us. It took me quite a while to realize that this was the phone call we had waited so long for. I called Craig and told him the good news, and he rushed home immediatly. When Craig got home we worked for 2 hours putting the car seat in my car-good thing we had already bought our van. We then ran to Wal-mart to pick up some last minute things-like diapers, more clothes, etc...

On December 3rd we went to Charlotte to meet with the birthmother and her social worker. Meeting her was strange, but the connection couldn't have been more real. We all headed to the hospital. Our daughter had breathing problems at birth and had to be in the NICU for 5 days. But she was doing great and was able to be discharged that afternoon.

When we saw her for the first time, my heart melted. I had waited so long to be a mom and this was all happening so fast. She was so beautiful. I got to feed her and Craig changed his first wet diaper.

We named her Alexis Jo. Alexis was the middle name her birthmother had picked for her and we wanted to honor that relationship and we thought Alexis was perfect. Jo was Craig's sister's middle name. It was a great way to honor this wonderful woman whom we miss so much.

Alexis is 4 months old today-it's just so hard to believe that 4 months can go by so quickly. We are truly blessed with this wonderful little girl.