Baby Shower

This week my amazing 3rd grade teammates threw me a baby shower. They did a beautiful job!! It was so much fun to open all of our presents!

James and I ordered special fortune cookies that had custom fortunes inside about our adoption.

Yes, I made James go to the shower!

The very next day James' office surprised him with a big basket full of really cute baby stuff. I love all of the monkeys!

Last night James and I went to Babies R Us armed with the gift cards we received and bought a lot of the essentials we were missing (such as bottles and a crib mattress ) and a few fun things (bath toys and wall art). Somehow we were in that store for 3 hours and didn't realize it!

Today Henry's crib will be delivered also. We finally are beginning to create a nursery for him. Since we know we will be moving we aren't going to be able to do as much creative stuff yet as I'd like, but what have done so far has been a big improvement! Before, we just had a guest room with his stuff just piled all over the place, but now we have moved some furniture in from other rooms in the house that will work well in there, and we have been organizing his things. One thing that bugs me, though is that the room is painted blue (from when it was a "beachy" guest room), but all of his stuff is green and brown. It stinks to have to repaint it when we're likely going to be moving soon, but I think it must be done! James disagrees. He thinks that would be a big waste of time. We'll see....

Photos coming soon!

The Waiting Game

It's a question I get asked on a near daily basis:
"How long until Henry comes home?"

I always put on a brave face and say, "Sometime this summer. Hopefully before his 1st birthday in August." I really, really hope that this is the case. If things go as planned, then he should be, but keep in mind that the GOVERNMENT (US and Korea) is controlling everything at this point. Very terrifying when you think of it that way, huh? Some of my prayers for the USCIS office were answered last when when we received approval on his I-600a form. That's a biggie that we've been waiting a couple of months on. Now they just need to approve his I-600 (not to be confused with the other one...sigh) and then the US government will have done it's job, and we'll be waiting on the Korean government to finish the process.
It has been an interesting few months since we decided we wanted to pursue adopting Henry. He's been ours officially since Feb. 23, but we've been in love with him since early January. There have been rough patches in our wait, such as the development of anxiety induced insomnia, which has mostly gotten better, but I still struggle with sometimes. Here are some of the little distractions I've had to find to help me deal with the day to day longing for my son to be in my arms:

• The Twilight book series. Don't laugh. I know it's for teenagers, but those books have been tremendously helpful in giving me something to do during all of those looong sleepless nights that I've been having. I added up the pages from all four books and figured out that I've read 2,444 pages in the last 2 months.
• Gathering things for Henry. This is hands down the most fun thing I've been doing during the wait. Those of you who know me know that I love nothing more than to shop, and that I also am very talented at finding bargains. Yes, the photo below looks like a lot of stuff (and it is) but keep in mind that it was all on SALE!

• Searching for a new place to live. James and I have decided that we need to sell our lovely historic house and move to a more family-friendly one. I am extremely sad to leave, but I think it's so much fun to look at houses on the market. Each time I see one with a lot of storage I get really excited. Can you tell that we have no closet space here?? One thing that is going to be a big job is getting our house ready to put on the market. I'm not looking forward to it.
• PUPPIES! Our miniature poodles, Fifi and Rocky, have had their 3rd litter of puppies. The puppies, two dashing boys named Bruce Lee and Rambo, are 5 weeks old and have been greatly entertaining to us. They both have talents (much like their father) in barking, giving kisses, playing with toys, and peeing on the floor. Snuggling with them has made our wait for Henry infinitely easier. They are so cute that they make me cry. I don't even want to think about how soon they will have to go live with their new families.
  

Our chunky monkey by Mary

On Friday we were suprised with these updated photos of Henry. We knew from his Well Baby checkup reports that he was getting chubby. We were amused to see just what a little chunky monkey he really is! Our latest report, which was when he was 6 1/2 months old in February states that he is 20 lbs, and that his nutrition is "good." It will be interesting to see what his March report will show.

Also, we expected that he would have more hair--he seems to have even less than before. When my mom saw his new pictures for the first time, she squealed with delight and said he looks like Buddha.

We love that he seems so happy. He has personality for sure. Just look at those pictures where he is kicked back on the crib--adorable. I have to admit it was a little strange to see his new pictures at first. I had been staring at his first two pictures for so long (ever since early January) that those images of him were all I could imagine. It was slightly difficult to transition to the idea that this is him now. Some adoptive parents never do receive updated photos, so the first time they see their baby in person is probably quite a shock. We are blessed that we have gotten these pictures.

On a funny note, a couple of weeks ago when we went nuts and shopped for Henry at the outlets in San Marcos, we (and the grandmas) had purchased quite a few baby clothes for him despite warnings about "you don't know how big he will be."

Well, very few of those clothes are going to fit our little chunk. We had purchased 12 month clothes for the summer when he first comes home and 18 months for the fall/winter. Yesterday we went to several stores to swap out sizes for what we could. Now we are getting 18 months for the summer and 24 months for the fall/winter. If Henry continues to get "fluffier" then none of the new things will fit either. James and I laughed about imagining going back to the stores again and again to size up.

Baby FEVER!

Last weekend we went to San Antonio to visit James' mom and stepdad. My mom went along too and visited with her dear friend Betty. While we were there, we went to several fabric stores to pick out material for Henry's crib. James' mom Anne bought all of the fabric and is going to sew all of his crib bedding! We are so excited about having fun, custom baby bedding. It's definitely not going to be traditional baby! It's hard to tell in the picture, but the brown and the stripes are corduroy fabric. I know it's going to be super-cute. I'll let exactly what it will look like be a surprise for now.

**I also need to give credit to Brandy Webb, the lovely and talented wife of James' cousin Kevin. She went with us to help us put together the bedding. She creates gorgeous handmade baby/children's items. Check out her website: http://www.simply-adorable.com/.

Also on our trip we spent an afternoon at the awesome San Marcus outlets. James' mom and my mom both went with us as we shopped for baby gear and clothes at stores like Pottery Barn, Gymboree, Carter's, and Baby Gap. We found a lot of great deals on some extremely cute things. It was sweet to see both grandmas getting so excited about Henry. He is going to be one spoiled little guy for sure!

James and I are experiencing some major baby fever. We try not to, but Henry is almost all we think and talk about lately. We are both obsessed with finding the perfect things (on sale, of course!) for him. One of our prized findings lately was a Maclaren stroller at TJ Maxx. We are also trying to find a crib for him, but cannot decide on one. We want it to be affordable, but yet good quality and attractive. I am not exaggerating when I say that we've been to Babies R Us 20 times in the last 2 weeks! My friend Jennifer pointed out that we seem to be nesting, ha ha.

Finally, I want to say that we got a new "well-baby" checkup on Henry from February. He was 6 1/2 months old at the time and was assessed to be developmentally on target. He is starting to crawl and is teething. He is still not too steady at sitting up. I hope that he doesn't start walking before we bring him home. Also, I hope that the March "well-baby" report will include an updated photo.