Dossier Documents

Hey, what do you know - we got our original Ukraine dossier documents returned to us. It only took 4 months! Now if we can just recoup some of the money we lost....

I continue to read about other families Ukraine adoption experiences, and I thank God everyday for sending us our Emmy. We got cabin fever in Missouri for 2 weeks, I cannot even imagine spending 8 weeks (or more) in Ukraine. In the end it's about finding your children and that is what most of these families are doing. I'm just very thankful that we found our daughter (or did she find us?) :) when we did. She is such a joy and she makes all the stress of the day go away when she smiles at us. She is learning and growing each day; it's an incredible feeling to be a part of that.

Happy Friday!!
Love,
S,T & E

Trick or Treat!!

Emmy's first Halloween was so much fun! We borrowed the costume from a friend and I'm so glad we did. I wasn't going to dress her up this year, but we got some super cute pictures of her. The past few weeks have been wonderful. My mom came to visit and we went to the pumpkin patch and got Em's 3 month pictures taken. This weekend Truman's parents came and Emmy got to spend Halloween with them and helping mom & dad pass out Halloween candy to all the neighborhood kids. Emmy also got to meet some of daddy's friends from "across the pond" who came in town for a wedding we all went to on Saturday night. Grandma & Grandpa got to watch Emmy while we were gone and they say she was a perfect angel. Hmmm....why isn't she like that with us???!! LOL! Em has really started to grab at toys or her blanket and put them directly in her mouth. Today Truman got her to give a little giggle. I think it was the cutest thing I've ever heard!! She is still eating well and sleeping very good at night - although with the time change today that may throw her off just a bit. Ten more days until we can officially try to feed her cereal. I'm hoping that goes ok. Some babies just aren't ready for cereal until 6 months. But, she is downing her bottles so I think she needs a little more to fill her belly.
I'll leave you with a few pictures from the weekend....
Love to all,
S,T & E

Adoption Music Video

Two very special people sent us a music video. It's definitely worth watching if adoption has ever touched your lives. I have added the link on the right sidebar of the blog under "Adoption Articles". Have the kleenex's ready....:) And let me know what you think.

3 months!!

Our 3 month old Kentucky girl!!

Update

Well, I see it's been awhile since we updated you on our baby girl. She will be 3 months old on Sunday and I think it's been the quickest 3 months of our lives!! Since I last updated we have spent our first weekend apart from Emmy so we could go to Bourbon Fest in Bardstown, KY. Thank you so much to my good friends, Rachel & Melissa, for coming to spend the weekend with Em. I only wish I could have spent more time with them. But, I'm quickly learning that when you have a baby, it's not about YOU anymore. It's about THEM! We have also completed our "post-placement" requirement for the state of KY. Whoohoo! All that's left to do on that front is to get a court date in our county and finalize. All that should happen before 2008 is over. We also visited the doctor twice. Once for a cold that she got from her mama(poor girl was so congested and coughing!) and 3 days later for her first round of shots. Em weighed in at 13 lbs, 10 oz and 23-3/4" long - that puts her in the 70th percentile according to the doctors charts. She hollered during the shots, but calmed down pretty easy and fell asleep on the car ride home. She is still trying to get over the cold, so in the meantime she continues to sleep in the carseat at night to help with the congestion. Speaking of sleeping.....this baby is a gem at night. Since 8 weeks old (give or take a night or 2 for whatever reason), she has been sleeping through the night. I give all the credit to following the "Babywise" philosophy. It's a feed/wake/sleep pattern that you start from Day 1 and it has worked wonders for us (and for several friends!). There have been no other huge issues for her other than the yucky dry skin. That is why her face is so red in the picture. It gets so dry, she starts rubbing her face against her hands or against our shoulders or in the crook of our elbow if we are holding her. Finally we wised up and started putting on vaseline-type stuff and it has cleared up pretty good. But, going into colder weather will probably not help the dry skin. We'll just keep her slathered up each night!
Truman and I seem to be adjusting quite well. I can now say, "what did we do with our time before she came along??". Sometimes it's so cool just to sit and watch her and try to get her to smile at us. (which comes REALLY easy in the morning!!) She is quite the talker and happy to chat back & forth to us most of the time. The teachers at her daycare love her. One even said the other day that she came in early to hold her because she didn't get to the previous day. Awwww.....it's good to hear those kinds of things.
The dogs are still doing good with Emmy. I catch her watching them every once in a while, so I know they will all be good friends. They greet her just like they greet us when we come home -- with kisses! She doesn't seem to mind one or 2 kisses. :) Tonight we are off to an event at the distillery. She has so many admirers there, so I know we'll enjoy ourselves. Then next weekend Grandma Peggy is coming to visit & we'll get some 3 mo. pictures done. I'll try to do a better job at updating this blog a little more often. Thanks for reading...

Love,
S,T & E

2 MONTHS!

In her new Bumbo seat!

Our baby girl is two months old today! She is still a little unstable in the seat, but her head control gets better each day. We'll put her in the seat a few minutes each day until she can sit on her own. Em is doing well in daycare -- all the teachers love her of course!! Mommy is doing good going back to work (except for coming down with a cold - which we are trying to keep from the baby, but we are pretty sure she's going to catch the crud too!) Daddy is also doing good at work and we are all getting used to our new normal. Bourbon Festival is coming up this weekend and Aunt Raq & Aunt MO are coming to stay with Miss Emmy. We look forward to a weekend away (and maybe some sleeping in!!), but I know we'll miss our little girl. She'll be in awesome hands though and we know she'll be spoiled rotten when we come back on Sunday.

As far as working with the agency that closed it's doors on us....we are working on getting some money back from their insurance company. Who knows if it will work, but we have to try. It blows our mind that they can keep our money and the money of all the other families they were "working" with. We did have our first Post Placement Visit with the new agency last week. Everything was great with that, and we will have one more visit in a couple more weeks at our home. All they are looking for is to make sure Emmy has a room/bed. Yep - got that one covered!!

Every day is still an adjustment, but we still look at our daughter in awe sometimes and know that she was meant to be ours!

Love,
S,T&E

Our new normal

Today was my second day back to work and Em's 2nd day at daycare. All the teachers love her (of course!) and say that she's such a good baby. I am enjoying being back at work and getting back into what will be my new routine. We are all still making adjustments, but it seems to get better each day. Each day we are learning more about parenting and more about our beautiful daughter. Thanks to all our friends & family who have given us such great advice!!

Since the last blog, we have traveled to IL, IN & MO. Em is quite the pro at riding in the car, sleeping in the car, feeding in the car.....actually she is a pretty good traveling companion. We stop for her to eat, we get to stretch our legs, then she promptly returns to uninterrupted slumber. (at least that's how it goes most of the time, she does cry & fuss on occassion) :) Our families threw us incredible Dr. Seuss showers and they helped us fill Em's closet with so many cute clotes from 3 mo - 18 mo!!! As well as give us many much needed baby items. Our latest roadtrip was to Missouri to attend court. That was a huge milestone as we are now legal guardians of our little girl!!! There were several other families there at the same time for the same reason and it was nice to chat with them for a while about their experiences.

She will be 2 mo. on Friday so she still isn't doing a whole lot of "fun" stuff, but we have gotten some really cute smiles. (whether it's gas or hiccups coming on, I don't care - she still has a cute smile!) She continues to be a good eater and boy she knows how to let us know when she's hungry!!! Em is also starting to sleep longer at night and we have been blessed with the timing of it all!! Just as I'm ready to go back to work, she started sleeping until about 5:30-6am (with no waking up from about 9:30-10pm!). Perfect timing! She also really enjoys bath time and getting outside in her stroller for walks and she has truly found her thumb!! (sorry for the next part Aunt Patti...) She loves to suck (LOUDLY!) on her hand and her thumb. We have tried repeatedly trading the thumb for the paci, but to no avail. So, we let her go and let her do her thing. If it's thumbsucking or fussing...I'm all for the thumbsucking. Gotta maintain your sanity somehow, right??

Below are a few pictures of our little darlin'!

Love,
S,T&E


She's smiling because she's excited for "school"!!

The dogs adore Miss Em!