Surprising Mom and Dad

We knew that we wanted to do something special to tell my mom and dad about our referral. We knew that  we weren't working on Friday, the 29th, because we were going to our fingerprinting appointment in Des Moines, we decided that we would make the trip to Riceville after we were fingerprinted.

On a side note, being fingerprinted was a little stressful.  My hands get really dry and I had one finger that kept being rejected. Hoping and praying it isn't a big deal and we still get our I-600 approval.

We made up a rather elaborate story about not being able to get our fingerprints done that day and since we already had the day off, we had decided to come and spend the weekend with Mom and Dad. We told them that we would bring supper and we would see them in early afternoon.

I had made each of them a frame with a picture of Jax and here's the video of them opening them.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mom and Dad with pics of their newest grandchild!

Referral Day

Tuesday, April 26th started like any other day at school for me, little did I know it would be the day that changed our lives forever! We had gone outside for fitness time and my kids and I were doing our walking. At 2:05 we were lining up to go in for SuccessMaker and I could feel my phone vibrating in my pockets. I took it out and I had a missed call from my social worker.  I knew it was our referral.

I got the kids in the lab and got them started and then I called her back. I got all the details and she told me she was sending us pictures via email. I HAD to tell someone, so I called my good friend, Jodi, and told her to get down to the lab NOW.  She literally ran the whole way.

I knew that I had to come up with a special way to tell Steve.  I knew I had bought a book from the book order that would be the best way. I made him sit down and unwrap his gift.  After he opened it, I told him, "That's our son." It was a priceless moment!

Even Ally had to get in on the action!

That's our son!

IT'S A BOY!!!

On Tuesday, April 26, 2011, at 2:13pm, I got the call from our social worker, that we had our referral.  It's a beautiful, 7 month old baby boy!  She emailed me pictures immediately and I instantly fell in love!

Look at that smile!

I made sure that she hadn't called Steve because I wanted to surprise him and tell him in person.  I knew exactly how I would do it.  I had bought a book from the book order called My Daddy and Me.  My original thought was that I would give it to Steve for Father's Day, but I knew that book would be the perfect way to tell him.

Pretty soon there will be a picture of Daddy and Jax!

We've had so much fun telling people!  We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family in our lives.

Thanks for all your love and support the last few months.
Heather and Steve

The True Test of a Marriage

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I moved our bedroom upstairs. We live in a small house and realizing that our child is going to require a lot of stuff, we decided that we would turn our downstairs bedroom into a "playroom" and our bedroom and the baby's room would be upstairs.

We worked hard and got the dressers moved up rather easily and then it was time for the bed.  We had thought ahead and replaced our box spring with a split one last December, but that huge pillow top mattress, that is so comfortable to sleep on, is not so easy to get up narrow stairs with a short doorway.

As we got the mattress started up the stairs, I looked at Steve and said..."This is a true test of our marriage, getting a mattress that should never fit up these stairs, up these stairs." We worked together and we got it! It took a lot of pushing from me and a lot of pulling from him, but we did it.

So, that was the first big step in getting our house ready for our new addition.  Of course, I have about 1000 other things that I plan on doing this summer to get ready, but I'm happy that we have a start.  Feels like we are really beginning to make some progress!