The Adoption of Emily Grace

Emily Grace's adoption was finalized on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009!!! Of course, we have considered Emily to be our's since we picked her up at 6 months old on June 24th, 2007. This however, made her "offical" in the eyes of the law. Please enjoy our day in pictures.

Emily Grace (with her baby)

Emily with Mommy

Jessica

Emily with Mommy and Daddy

Alex and Emily

From Left to Right
Nancy (My Dad's Girlfriend), My Mom, and My sister-in-law, Liza

My Dad and Sister, Glenda

My Dad and my beautiful niece, Laura (Glenda's Daughter)

Us waiting for the Judge

The Adoption Decree being read to us declaring she is Our's forever!!!

YEAH!!!!! It's FINAL!!!

Me signing her new birth certificate
Yes, when you adopt the child gets a new birth certificate.

Chris signing the birth certificate

Reading the decree stating on this day Emily has adopted us and from this day we will forever be known as Mommy and Daddy : )

Us with the Judge. This was his first adoption! What a way to go!
Back row--CJ (my oldest, age 15), Me, Chris and Judge
Front--Zachary (age 10), Alex (age 6), Jessica (age 8) and Emily sitting in the Judge's chair

My Mom and Dad joined in on the picture.

Chris thanking the Judge.

Emily lovin' her balloon.

Us with the Social workers---Lisa (Emily's social worker) and Ana (Our home finder)

From Left---Alex, Zachary with Mason and my nephew Andrew

CJ---doesn't he look sharp.

"Don't even think of getting my balloon."

Emily

Our Family
Yes, they are ALL mine!
Back--CJ and Chris
green shirt, Zachary
yellow shirt, Alex
Emily on my lap
Jessica next to me.

WE HAVE A DATE!!!

I am excited to announce that we finally have a date to officially adopt Emily----Tuesday, February 24th!!!!!!

UltraSound

Wednesday I had an ultrasound to check placement of the baby due to my history of 2 ectopic pregnancies. I am thrilled to tell you that baby is exactly where baby needs to be, they said there was no bleeds (meaning there was no other pregnancies placed in my tube) and baby measured right to my dates.

Two things that did amaze me---1. Baby is a whopping 6 mm. and 2. The ultrasound detected the heartbeat (which just started beating this week). 120 beats a minute---beautiful. I knew-obviously-that I was pregnant before Wednesday, however, this made it real for me. As excited as I was previous to day, I had a bit of caution to go with it. I was afraid I was going to be told that it was another ectopic. But Praise God!! I have a life growing inside of me. It's a wonderful thing : )

13 Reactions to My Pregnancy Announcement

When you already have 5 children you definitely get a mixed bag of reactions when you tell people that you adding to the family. These are 13 of the different reactions I have gotten when telling people.

Me: We just found out number #6 is on the way!
Them:
1. Laugh
2. Dead-Silence for a good 10 seconds (both my parents gave this response separately.)
3. "Sounds like it is time for your hubby to join the V-club" (vasectomy club).
4. "Will you be able to handle ALL those kids?"
5. Hug (with a huge smile attached)
6. "Very Good" (Dad. He called me back the next day to tell me this.)
7. "Where is this one coming from?" To which I respond "My Belly : )
8. "Are you serious?" With kind of a bewildered/disgusted look.
9. "What a blessing"
10. "Hey maybe you'll have triples and then 8 will be enough"
11. "WOW!"
12. Excitement---my sister was so loud at work that people in her office told her to tell me congratulations.
13. "What does you husband think?" This one always makes me laugh. I don't know if they realize this but he had something to do with it ; )

What about you? What kind of reaction have you gotten?

Head on over to Happy to be Home to view other 3 Mom's Thursday Thirteen.

Relief is on the Way.....

At least I am hoping it is. I have been sick. Well should I say morning sickness. It has been awful. It is pretty much ALL-THE-TIME. I am having a hard time even drinking because of it. I am also dizzy. Today made a total of 6 pounds already that I have lost.

I have tried sea bands, saltines, nuts, lemonade, B6, ginger snaps, ginger ale, Sprite, tea, dry toast, eating frequently (not very successful on this one), granola bars, dry cereal....okay you get the idea. I have pretty much tried it all. So finally today I throw in the white towel and called the doctors office. The nurse called me back a little while later and told me she called in Zofran for me. Hallelujah!!! Chris will pick it up when he comes home from work. I am to take it 3 times a day. The nurse said if it doesn't work or I continue losing weight to call her back and they will order something else.

Don't get me wrong.....I am humbled and thankful that God would allow me to have another child. It truly was a desire of my heart (and still is). However, the morning sickness...ummm, not a desire. With CJ and Zachary I was sick for both of them. CJ was the worse. I was not only nauseated morning, noon and night with him but I vomited at all hours---even in the middle of the night. I lost 22 pounds and didn't feel better until around 20 weeks. I didn't have the responsibility I have now (nor did I have the knowledge to know I didn't need to feel that way). It is pretty hard to feel awful all day, try to run a house and take care of 5 darlings.

Chris and the kids have been great. Chris gave me an empty house yesterday for about 5 1/2 hours yesterday. What a man!!! You see why I love him : )

A Little Disppointed

Today in the news Michael Phelps admitted that a picture taken of him with a marijuana pipe is indeed true. In his statement he says....

“I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment,” Phelps said in the statement released by one of his agents. “I’m 23 years old and despite the successes I’ve had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.”

I find this disappointing. Millions of kids, teenagers and young people all were looking up to, cheering him on. He had the world at his feet this summer. He had the kind of success that others may have dreamed but he obtained. He has tons of gold medals and endorsement deals but yet something in his life must have been lacking for him to do drugs.

I wonder what kind of message is giving to all those kids now. As a christian I can use this to talk to my son about how this man had great worldly success....but does he know the Lord (which I don't know if he does or doesn't). That is where our true success comes from.