A Huge Day

Are we excited? Oh yes. Can words begin to express our excitement? Nope. Pretty much, besides my wedding, having my babies and the excitement to be able to finally meet the little nudgers, and bringing Collin home, I have not been so excited! Have I been somewhat testy and emotional? Oh yes, just ask Mike!

* Mike will attest to the fact that my emotions are high and low at any given window,
but I know he would not speak unkindly so I am doing it for him!*
Tomorrow marks the 8 months since we brought Collin home. It is strictly coincidental
that our finalization day is the same day of the month, but I feel very appropriate. We are in court at high noon, and barring anything crazy, we will be in the temple at 5 pm to dot any more I's and cross any T's. This is such a blessing. And although it was a little longer than expected, we are very grateful that it still is a timely manner.
* I also think the temple will be very happy for us to stop calling,
scheduling, and than re-scheduling!!!
It may not seem like a big deal, but leaving Collin when we did was very hard. The fact of the matter is that had something of happened to us, Collin would not be ours legally or forever. This allows us to breathe that huge sigh of relief!!! So I will post pictures, and please just say a little prayer that things will go according to the plans!

Enter this awesome giveaway!!!!

Click here to enter a photography giveaway!!! Emily is so talented and I love her pictures and style. She is super-talented and so well-rounded it is a little daunting! But Love her!!!! Good-luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (Oh, and some good news!!!)

We had such a great Thanksgiving. The HUGE reason Mike deals with the rat-race that nursing school is in this area is so that we can be close to our families, and hence, the Grand-kids can be close to their Grandparents. We always visit both families. Thanksgiving in Mike's family is held at his Uncle Mike's house. There were about 30 people (just estimating!) and it is a lot of fun. Even though there are more people than my family gathering, it is quieter and calmer.

We love to see the cousins. Gracie and Collin are so funny. They are about the same size, but do not worry about either being a bully: both can watch out for themselves. Collin would steal toys. Gracie would let Collin know she did not appreciate this, so she would give a good ol' tug to his hair. Collin would let go. Around the third time that this happened, Collin started crying. It was really funny to watch. Gracie was just so dang cute in her little outfit.

Collin is such a little social guy. He loves people. He especially loves his family. He had the happiest day today. The picture below is of Collin with his Aunt Mary. He was just loving and hugging on her, just like she was his Grand-baby.

Collin adores his Grandparents. He gets so happy when he sees them. I love this picture of Collin with Grammy. (And if Mom is reading this, this picture makes you look really young, or so many family members have said so! ) He just thinks Grandma and Grandpa are so funny.

Grandpa loves to have Collin giggle, so he tries to get him to do so. I've never heard someone so little giggle like Collin. He really has this belly laugh.It is the funniest sound, and everyone who hears the sound can not believe his little laugh. Cracks me up!!!

Collin is really tired here!!!

The video is of him swinging and one little giggle. It really is too cute!!!

Since Mike had to work, we had to go and visit him. Collin, during Thanksgiving dinner turned to Uncle Jason and patted him and said "Da" which is Dad. I teased Mike's Mom and told her we should of just had Collin get his picture with Uncle Jason, and pretended it was actually him!!! It was sad to not have Dad with us, but we are grateful for our jobs and any sacrifices are worth it.

Collin and I went over to my sisters for Thanksgiving # 2. I just love to see Collin and my Dad. They both are so happy, and it is funny to see their little relationship. My Dad and Ryker were very close. I know that seems impossible, but besides Mike and myself, nobody saw Ryker more. My Dad works near the Children's hospital, and he would go up during lunch, or before or after work. It is healing to see him with Collin. His Grand-kids are such a huge part of his life.

I know I promised the Mexico post, but I will get to that this week or early next. I have some really great news: we are finalizing next Wednesday at 12:00!!!! Whoo-hoo!!!! And since we will have the family still in town, we will be doing the sealing that night at 6 pm. We will wait to do the baby blessing till December 20th, and for those who are interested in attending, just e-mail me at littleforeverfamily@gmail.com and I will e-mail the details!!!

Because of our computer crashing, I have to relocate the CD's of Lilly and Ryker. So I will also be posting a little angel tribute to our sweet Princess (her angel day was November 25th, which also was my little sister's 18th b-day *sniff sniff*. The neatest tribute to Lilly is that my brother and sister-in-law are having a little girl, and although it is not set in stone, they want to name their little girl Khloe Lillian, using Lillian in honor of Lilly of course. Very touching and sweet, and I know Lilly will be very happy. So more posts to look forward to, and cross your fingers that everything goes through next Wednesday!!!

I just wanted to say how grateful I am for our family and friends. I am also very grateful for Mike, for the AMAZING husband he is. I love having Collin in our lives. I am forever grateful to his birthmother for this amazing blessing in our lives. What are you grateful for? Let those you know how much they mean. Life is short, sometimes too short.

Need Some Help

Here is one of the crumbiest parts about having a new hard drive: I have lost ALL the pages I had bookmarked. So if you could please leave a comments with all of the links for your blogs. I have some on the side of my page, but I had SOO many I visited. And I promise, I will post about Mexico and Collin!!!!

I'm Back

Our computer crashed *sniffle, sniffle for some pictures and videos* so I have not had computer access for awhile (plus being in Mexico which does not encourage computer addictions like ours!) So I know it seems like I have been away for awhile. I have lots of pictures, lots of cute things Collin has done, and we may possibly be finalizing in a few days *cross your fingers!* So I will update, but jet-lag has set in and I have luggage mess to go and fight with. So stay tuned: there are posts to follow!!!
P.S. Hope this made some logical amount of sense, because I do not feel like my head and body are connected today!!!

Kick-Off National Adoption Month

We love adoption. Always have, always will. Even before it became such a personal nature to our little family, we have always found it to be a blessing. This may be an unusual way to celebrate the National Adoption, but I want to pay tribute to the Moms, birth-mothers and all mother's alike. I know that I am not a perfect Mom. I hope someday I will be there, but I am so far from perfect. But something I find that is perfect is the love I have for and each and every one of my three children. Collin is just as much a part of me as Lilly and Ryker are. This video is just a reflection of the love I have for my children, for what they have given me, which is the very best present of all: they made me a Mom. A baby changes everything. I know that there are many hearts breaking, especially this time of year, because the desire to be a parent is so strong. Last year this time, I heard this song for the very first time. We had just celebrated Ryker's first birthday and Lilly's second, without them. It was a hard time, and I remember I was driving home from class, thinking about how hard it was going to be to celebrate the holidays again without our children. I than heard this song. I know the struggle of infertility, I know the struggle of saying goodbye to your children all too soon. I know the feelings of having an infant placed in your arms that may not be biologically yours, but yet feels like he has always been a part of you. So to each and every woman out there, Moms, or those wishing and praying to be Moms, this is for you. It warms the heart.

This little princess made me a Mom.

Our little family.

Seeing Ryker for the very first time.

I could not love him more.

Holding Ryker for the last time.

Holding Collin for the first time.

Holding our little guy on Easter.

My Sunshine.

A Must Read

The wonderful thing about our heart group is the variety and strength you can draw from the group. Well, when I heard about a family that are facing saying goodbye to their little one, I was touched. It breaks my heart to see ANYONE have to say goodbye to their little ones. I for one do not think it fair to bury your kids. It is supposed to be the other way around. There is a little boy named Stephen. He was born with some complex heart defects, and after some exploration and a week in the hospital, they discovered that his heart defects were inoperable, words that are anything but what you want to hear. So I want to share the miracle Stephen is, and really invite you share in the miracle. So if you want to be touched, click HERE and have your heart softened a bit this amazing time of year, and hug those little ones a little tighter. I promise the post will come of our celebrations of Ryker and Lilly's birthdays, and Collin's cute little first Halloween. He was a skunk: way too cute!!!