LAST DAY AT WORK

Today was my last day of work before I go on MATERNITY LEAVE. Surprisingly I was a little emotional about leaving my first graders for the next 12+ weeks. But of course, my fellow first grade teachers had to throw one last surprise celebration before me leaving. They all wore PINK shirts to school all day and I had so much on my mind I didn't figure out the significance of the PINK shirts until our little celebration at the end of the day. They surprised me with a PINK bouquet of balloons, a cake, and some non-alcoholic PINK champagne. They are so awesome! There are a total of 7 of us first grade teachers at my school and we are all such good friends. I'm truly blessed to work with them. As much as I'd like to quit my job to stay at home with my precious Dominick, deep down inside I really feel that teaching is what God wants me to do at this time. It's going to be horrible to leave Dominick and go back to work, but I feel it is what is best for our family at this time.

They wrote a little poem attached to the balloons and that's when I realized why they were all wearing PINK shirts. Here's the poem.

Celebrate

Lynn received the call,

She'll look forward to a joyful Fall.

Her time of waiting is done,

She's off to get her son!

With pink slip in hand,

She'll travel to another land,

Where she'll start her family of three,

A mommy, a daddy, and one sweet pea!

WE HAVE P-I-N-K!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh-My-Gosh, I can't believe it! WE HAVE PINK!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Embassy appointment is next Friday, Oct. 6, and we will get his VISA on Tuesday, Oct. 10 (b/c of Columbus Day). So we will be flying out of New Orleans next Wed. and returning the following Wed., Oct. 4-11.
WHOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!!! Dominick will be in our arms FOREVER next week.

I will keep you all posted through this blog while in Guatemala. Just bare with me because if we fly in late Wed., I might not get to post here until like Thur. night or something. I don't have a laptop, so I have to go to the hotel's business center and it takes forever to download pictures and stuff.

HE'S LEGALLY OURS!!! MINE, MINE, MINE...ALL MINE!

Yeah, you heard that right. Dominick is legally our baby!!! The birth certificate is finished with my and Jonathan's name as his mother and father. Too bad my precious baby is off in another country away from his Mommy and Daddy, but that's about to change. Our paper work was submitted to the U.S. Embassy on Monday and we should have our PINK slip by Wednesday afternoon, but we will be notified on Thursday. Wow, I can't believe it. I think my face is starting to hurt from smiling so much. Anyway, I have no clue as to the actual date of our embassy appointment, but I'm guessing it will be around October 11th, which means we'll be traveling around NEXT FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! And that also means that my last day of work would be either this Friday or next Monday-Tuesday. YIPPEEEEEE!

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, IT JUST MIGHT HAPPEN

My 30th birthday is coming up in December and believe it or not, I'm actually really excited about turning 30. Don't ask me why...I guess it just seems like a good age or something. Anyway, it made me start thinking about when Jonathan and I got married 9.5 years ago. I was only 20 years old and I repeatedly said "I don't want any kids until I'm at least 30 years old." I think the reason was because I wanted to finish college, save money and buy a house. But I also thought it was neat when I saw a somewhat older couple with their first baby. Well, about 4 years into our marriage, I was graduating from college, we had just bought our first house, and Jon and I both decided we were ready to start expanding our family. So we began the long journey that has finally led us to our precious Dominick. We tried to conceive for over 5 years, resulting in 3 heartrending miscarriages and a strained marriage. Do I regret all those years of trying to get pregnant? Absolutely not, that was God's perfect way of preparing our hearts for this precious baby He had always intended to be ours. God knew it all along, but Jon and I had to walk the road of infertility and loss after loss to find God's chosen path for our lives. Now the whole picture is crystal clear, but there was no way for us to see it until God had fully ripened our hearts and opened our eyes. I now fully understand why God has to put you through trials and tribulations to get you where he wants you to be. And I'm getting what I asked for, to wait until I'm just about 30 before having our first baby.

This was one of our engagement pictures. Look how long my hair was, it was down to my waist!

This dress was a size ZERO and still had to be tightened up 3 times! I know those days are long gone.

Me and my Daddy walking down the aisle to be given away to my new husband.

Jonathan and I, HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!

MORE GOOD NEWS!!!

My agency called today and told me that Dominick's birth mother has signed off on the adoption decree for the fourth and final time and that they are hoping to have his new birth certificate issued by tomorrow. WOW, I thought it would take 1-2 weeks to get the new birth certificate! Like I said, they are hoping it will be ready, but you just never know. Anyway, that will make him LEGALLY OUR BABY! YIPPPEEEEE!!! They also said that they are hoping that I might have my PINK slip by next Wednesday...I really didn't think it would all happen this fast. I guess I better get busy doing lots of lesson plans and packing!

MORE SHOPPING

After being stuck in PGN for so long, I had gotten discouraged and stopped buying clothes for Dominick, thinking that it could be a long time before he would come home. But now that I know he WILL be coming home soon, I'm back to my weekly shopping sprees. Here are the outfits we got Dominick yesterday.

This is the hat to match the outfit above... though I may have to use some super glue to keep it on his head since he's now old enough to yank it off. Just Joking...I'll have him hat-trained in no time.

These 2 gray outfits were picked out by Dominick's Daddy.

Daddy insisted on getting the matching shoes after Mommy repeatedly told him they are going to be too small by the time Dominick can wear these clothes. He said, "I don't care, they are only nine dollars". Then I realized that Daddy really wanted them so I shut-up.

Dominick's Thanksgiving bib, isn't it adorable!

One Year Ago

One year ago today was the official day we signed up with my agency and began the mounds of paper work to bring our baby home. I can't believe it's been a whole year and my baby is still not home. But praise God, he will be home soon!!! This week has been so awesome since hearing the news that we are OUT of the PGN. It feels so good to not have that burden any longer. I am so excited I don't know what to do with myself. I lie in bed every night and try to imagine him crawling...I just can't picture it. I can't even come up with a picture in my mind of how much he has probably changed. I haven't seen new pictures of him in 2 months. I have re-played the memories of our visit trip in my mind so many times, I just can't imagine what he's like now. Regardless, I know I will instantly get a kick out of the new ways of his little personality and only fall more deeply in love with him.

We are hoping to hear that they have begun the new birth certificate sometime next week. Once we are submitted for his new birth certificate, it will take 1-2 weeks to process, and hopefully in about a week after that we will have our travel dates. I'm just praying that this last part of the process goes smoothly. My agency is telling me that I should have PINK (travel dates) within about 3 weeks from last Monday...I hope they are correct.

Dominick is OUT-OUT-OUT of PGN!!!

Praise Jesus, I can't believe I can finally say that. Let me say it again... WE ARE OUT!!! That's my new favorite word "out". My next new favorite word will be PINK (when you get your embassy appointment and your okay to travel, it comes on a pink slip, so we people in the Adoption-World just say "I have PINK" and that means we are going to pick up our babies and take them home forever.

Okay, so I got "The Call" Monday morning (Sept. 11) while at work. The office called me in my classroom and said "You have a call" and that never happens, so I got very excited. When I went into the office I asked "Is it a hispanic lady on the phone?" and they said yes, and then I got even more excited. And of course the lady on the phone ended up being the director of my adoption agency telling me that PGN has approved Dominick's case and we will be traveling to get him in 3-5 weeks!!! So the office were the first to know since they were all standing there when I took the call, then I tried to call Jon but he didn't answer, so the first grade teachers were the second to know because they were the ones watching my class while I took the call. Then I called my mom at her office and told her and she started crying and waving her blue pom-poms that she's been carrying around with her for months, so her whole office started CHEERING, it was so funny. Then I finally got in touch with my hubby and of course he was ecstatic! Poor guy, everyone knew before him, hee-hee. And of course the first thing I did when I got home was to get on my hands and knees and thank God for answering my prayers, Praise God!

Things have not stopped since I got that call with all the excitement plus we have other things going on, so that's why it took me awhile to make my announcement on my blogsite. I have tons of things to do to get ready for this trip (more paper work and documents to be notarized to finalize the adoption, getting things ready to take my maternity leave from work, getting Dominick on our insurance, and let's not forget to send my attorney the other half of his money or I won't be getting my baby!).

So, after being stuck in PGN for 20 weeks (143 days), I am finally OUT!!! YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!

OH NO...HE'S ALREADY CRAWLING!!!

I got a little update on Dominick today. All they said was that he was very active and crawling, he stands up in his crib, he's a very happy baby, and he eats well. It breaks my heart that I wasn't there to watch him learn to crawl, but I pretty much knew he was probably crawling so it wasn't really a surprise.

I miss Dominick more than anyone could possibly imagine (except for those of you in the same exact situation, of course). But he is worth all the heart ache in the world...I am so in love with that little boy!!! And I am forever grateful for this whole experience. As hard as this is on me, at the same time it is the most AMAZING thing I could have ever imagined. My family and I have been bonding with his pictures and video and the memories from our visit for the past 7 months...and we are so IN LOVE!!!

TATTY TEDDY

Every child has to have at least one teddy bear so, I had been looking for a really special one for Dominick. I found this gray teddy bear with a blue nose and thought it was so cool because you rarely see gray teddy bears. Sooooo...of course I bought it for him. Well the bear came with a little story explaining how he became gray with a blue nose, and I thought it was even more special after reading the story.

A Grey Bear With a Blue Nose?

The oldest smallest house you can imagine was about to be knocked down. All the things that once made the house nice and cozy had been thrown outside and piled up in the front garden, from the soft springy bed the owners slept in, to the old wooden floorboards they used to walk on...

...and even, surely by some mistake, a little brown teddy bear. He was trapped amongst all the other unwanted things, and couldn't move.

Then one day...a very, very cold day, something fell from the sky,...a little snowflake. It landed on the teddy bear's little nose and was then followed by many more. He began to get very cold, very cold indeed. More and more snow fell, heavier and heavier. The little bear was now so cold that his nose started turning blue...

...so cold that his brown fur started turning grey. He was cold, unloved and all alone in the world and felt very, very sad.

Winter finally passed and the weather got warmer. One beautiful spring day, a little girl was playing by the house, when she spotted the gray bear in the pile of unwanted things.

He was like no other bear she had ever seen, and she pulled him out from where he was trapped. She dusted him down and lifted him high in the sky to look at him. "A grey teddy bear...with a blue nose?" she thought, "How strange!"

The teddy bear wanted to cry. He thought she didn't like him and would throw him back with the other unwanted things.

"But he's lovely!" she continued, and she fell completely in love with him. She ran home as fast as her little legs would carry her, to see if her grandma could patch him up, as a lot of his stuffing had fallen out, and he was very much in need of repair.

She looked on as her grandmother replaced his stuffing and patched up his holes. His stitches had started showing where the fur had worn away, but the little girl thought he looked perfect.

It was all cozy and warm in the little girl's house and the bear felt cozy and warm in his heart. However, his nose was still blue and his fur was still grey, and they would never return to brown. He was unique amongst teddy bears. The little girl gave him a great big hug. She loved him more than anything else in the world...her little, grey, blue nosed...

...tatty teddy.

And here is Dominick's first Teddy Bear (Tatty Teddy)!!!

WILL HE BE HOME FOR HALLOWEEN????

Okay, I know Dominick might not be home for Halloween. In fact, I am just going to assume he won't be so I don't get my hopes up. But I have to admit that I've been looking at costumes on-line just for fun. I am not a big Halloween person and I don't plan on making a big deal out of it when he is older. But this being our first child, I would love to dress his cute little self up in a costume. Anyway, since I have nothing better to post at the time I thought I'd show some of the cute costumes I've been looking at.
This is one of my favorites since his Maw Maw nick named him Chunky Monkey.
I have a bit of an obsession with barn yard animals ever since I did his room in that theme. I buy just about every toy that has to do with farm animals.
Here's a little lobster, but we could pretend that it's a crawfish since they is so popular down here is Louisiana.

This is supposed to be a dragon, but I thought it looked kinda like an alligator. My students would get a kick out of this because our mascot is The Gators.

Love the big ears on this one!

Here's a cute little froggie.

Isn't this the coolest frog you've ever seen? I love those big feet!

And last but not least, a baby Cat In The Hat. How cute is that? I love Dr. Seuss!