April 2014- Baby, it's you

I am a few days late getting this blog out. I am still pretty proud of my abilities to keep up this online journal by the month as it is the most consistent journal writing I have ever kept up with. I had a whirlwind of a month. Getting ready for baby has taken all my free time, and most of my life (sorry to my work friends who have had to hear about it almost non-stop). It is a stressful, but exciting, time for our family in general as it is getting to the end of the school year and we are preparing for Kindergarten graduation. Matt has also had a stressful time at work as he has had a re-occurring Corvette complete with owner in the shop for almost the entire month. He now has PTSD when he sees a 'vette on the road.

All kidding aside, we are completely grateful for our jobs, the path we are on, and especially the people who have been a support to us along the way. I am dedicating this month's post to our incredible Baby Mama. I have had the amazing pleasure to get to know her even more and it only re-assured me more that our finding each other was fate, universes colliding, kizmit, good joo joo. Even more than her being the strong and incredibly self-less person that she is to consider adoption for her baby, but I am grateful for the bond that we've made with each other. It is a rare and special thing to have such a friendship and I value it more and more. Many people have been asking about Open Adoption, and I have told them there are varying degrees of "openness". The position I find myself as a future adoptive mother, this would be the ideal open adoption relationship that not many are lucky enough to find themselves in.

Here are some adorable baby sonograms of little Boy Earl. The technician told her they don't often see pictures this good, and with eyes open!

This one is Baby Mama and my favorite!

We are happy to be part of the Mesa Families Supporting Adoption and attended their Easter picnic. We arranged to meet Baby Mamma and the birth Daddy. We invited a Shannon and Patrick from work to come with us (she is adopted) and they brought their boys. We regret we didn't pay anyone else much attention as we were distracted by the meeting and getting to know our Baby's birth family. We were understandably nervous as a first date. We had a great time and talked until everyone else had left! It was a great day (if a little windy).

Speaking of friendship, I must also give a shout-out to my friend, Sarah. She did us the favor of taking the adorable pictures of us for our profile. After we were picked for our cute profile, she honored me with a Baby Shower to the level of cuteness that any young lady would dream of having. The theme was ROCK'N' STROLL. Not only did she make me feel so special, but Baby Mama as well. We were so thrilled when she accepted the invitation to come. She made us matching sashes with Mommy-to-be and Baby Mamma to wear. EVERYTHING was matching and color coded.

That's right. A CANDY BAR!

We got many helpful gifts for baby from my friends at the Glen Lakes Ward. On that same day, I took a trip over to Scottsdale baby store called Zoolikins where they had the Great Cloth Diaper Change. I learned about cloth diapers, made a few purchases, and watched them change diapers on the lawn all at once while the Guinness World Record representative (man on the left) looked on. It was exciting.

I also got to stretch my art muscle again and get a few panels of canvas painted for the nursery. I have always been an admirer of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. You might know that Bill Watterson does not endorse and commercial product of his artwork. So, I could not just order some Calvin and Hobbes bed sheets online or something. So, I searched my comic books for the best panels to recreate on canvas. I am very proud of the pieces that came out of them. I used acrylic and Sharpie marker.

Among all the excitement, we've been saving every penny (literally) and getting our Adoption Fundraiser set up. We have had donations coming in from family and friends-see the sidebar for a link to donate. It will serve a great help to the adoption fees when Baby Earl gets to come home. We have been gathering loose change in baby bottles from our local friends and donors get to "Tag-a-Bag"- sign their name on our diaper backpack .