Poor Husbands of Breastfeeding Babies

Aaron would like to announce the start of his "side business."

Making children's apparel.

His first project...

I'm sure this one will see record sales.

Don't worry...what Lisa Loeb was to the music industry, Aaron will be to the baby fashion industry.

Milk and Sharks

Hayden came into the kitchen and said...

"Mom, there's something I've been wondering about."

Yes?

"I've heard of this stuff called Skin Milk. I was wanting to know what that is."

It's always more fun if you don't answer Hayden directly, so I said...

"What do you think it is?"

"I think it's milk that comes out of your skin."

Never a dull moment around here...nope not a single one is dull.

In other news...

It's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

I'd love to blame our love of this fabulous week on our boys...but Aaron and I lived for Shark Week even while we were in High School.

So, in case you were wondering...yes...we've always been big dorks.

Right now, we're spending our evenings bonding with our baby, piled up on the couch with our boys watching Great White Sharks eat people.

What sweet times these are.

Oh Boy...

I have so much more to write and even can with a baby tied to me...but I'm so tired!

Which is obvious since after waking up from a short nap, Hayden looked at me and said:

"Did you take a good nap, mom?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Oh...good. Because, man...you are looking older and older."

Super

just super

Later, I repeated what Hayden said to Aaron.

Hayden then said, "Well...it's true! You were looking old...and really white and..."

Thankfully, Aaron interrupted our far too honest child and said...

"Go away, and I don't think you need to talk to your mom."

Give us a break.

That's what parenting looks like on no sleep!

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Right in the middle of our time in Galveston, Aaron and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.

And I do mean celebrated.

Not celebrated in the way we normally celebrate our anniversary.

I was hardly up for a date, and everyone in one hotel room made it hard to "do other traditional anniversary things."

HOWEVER...

Here's what went through my stressed out, emotional, basket case mind on my 12th anniversary:

"There is no one I could be going through this much "stuff" with today. No one but Aaron."

Twelve years ago, Aaron and I could not have walked through this hot of a fire and come out strong.

No way.

Twelve years ago, Aaron would not have known how to love me through those four intense days in Galveston, waiting on our son.

Twelve years ago, I would not have known to lean on Aaron...wouldn't have known how much I needed him, how much I could depend on him, how weak I could be because of how strong he is.

Twelve years ago, we would not have made it through something like this, feeling loved, feeling cherished, feeling like we had each other's back.

That's something to celebrate.

I love you Aaron.

Lots.

You're my favorite person.

You're my first choice.

I'd pick you and only you any day to laugh with, to be silly with, and to walk through tragedy, pain and sorrow with.

No one but you.

Our Beautiful Brown Baby

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get a chance to write about meeting Hudson for the first time.

For now, you can "Oooh" and "Ahh" and "Oh crap, that baby is cute" with me over these sweet pictures Aunt Lynsey took of our newest little man.



It's nice having a photographer in the family!

Now, if only Aaron's brother would marry a chiropractor...

or a hair stylist...

or heck...

someone who works at Target and gets a discount.

(Will is rolling his eyes)

Love you Aunt Lynsey!

Look What I Did, Honey!

Rachel let me borrow this amazing Moby Wrap.

We saw them in our adoption training, but SERIOUSLY...I took one look at the long length of fabric and thought...

"I can't even fold a fitted sheet. No way can I figure out how to use that thing. My baby would fall on the floor."

Well...last night, I held Hudson while Lynsey and Aaron found You Tube tutorials.

Between the two of them, they figured it out.

As Lynsey was demonstrating, I kept thinking how I was going to get to bond with my baby AND look like I'm dressing up for a Star Wars convention.

Awesome.

This thing is amazing.

I put it on...acted like Princess Amidala for a second, loaded Hudson up...then, proceeded to make THREE sandwiches, get three glasses of tea, everyone some chips...WHILE WEARING HUDSON and using BOTH of my hands!

I'm blogging with a baby tied to me.

Bonding and blogging.

This Moby, multi-tasking bonding machine was made for me!

*Up to date, breaking news...

I also just cleaned up an enormous spill and mopped the kitchen floor while wearing Hudson.

I'm sitting here thinking of all the other things I could do right now while wearing a newborn.

This will be fun.

We're Home...All SIX of us!

Hendrickville just got a little bit bigger today.

We arrived to the house to find a sweet welcome.

Balloons, signs, notes and a mack daddy, pimp my crib, pack n play set up in our bedroom.

What wonderful people we have in our life!

We left town with no computer, so this week has been hard to keep up with everyone.

We're emotionally and physically spent, but so thankful.

The placement was yesterday (Tuesday) but we spent last night in Galveston.

I could not have imagined getting Hudson and then sticking him in a car seat forever.

I wanted to hold him! I got my wish since Hudson slept all of NO hours last night! He's a little mixed up on the day/night thing.

A baby does precious things to a household.

We'll write more about the delivery, our days of waiting and hanging out as a family in Galveston, and about the placement.

We'll slowly answer emails.

Right now, we're so tired and ready to be here, at home, introducing Hudson to all of our sounds and smells. I'm also trying to get this crazy form of breast feeding down. Yikes!

Four boys.

I am overcome with thanksgiving...and joy...and peace...and contentment every time I think of that.

Please continue to pray for our birth mom.

She's home today with no baby to hold.

Her body is broken and will forever carry the scars of the child she carried for 9 months, but no longer holds.

It will take a long time to heal.

Her milk will be coming in, with no baby to feed.

Pray.

please.

pray.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

We'll post more soon. Aunt Lynsey is coming here with her camera tonight. I'll have some great pictures of our little man soon.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Praise God with us for...

Hudson Isaiah

Born Saturday, July 19

3:30 p.m.

7 pounds, 1 ounce, 19.5 inches long

We're on our way to Galveston.

It's 11 p.m.

Hopefully we make it there awake!

Details to come...

What do YOU do Wednesday

What do you do when your kids start wanting to spend the night with friends?

That sounds like such a simple question.

Maybe I'm WAY more freaked out about this than I need to be...but maybe not.

Here's the sitch in a nutshell.

Looking back over my school years, I can say with full confidence that I never learned anything horrible, or did anything awful while I was AT school.

So those of you with kids in public school, I can confidently say, that in retrospect, I see how during the school day, the teachers did a great job of keeping us busy (all those worksheets) and productive. I don't have one single memory of participating in awful things or even getting to talk about icky things while I was AT school. For the most part, for ME, school was a pretty safe place where nothing noticeably different happened that wasn't allowed at my own house.

HOWEVER...

I remember tons of talks about sex and other nasty things I would LOVE to protect my children from for as long as possible happening while walking home from school, while playing with neighbors on my street, and hanging out after school unsupervised.

I could repeat for you, word for word, how MANY of those talks about sex went, what I learned, etc. and that was a long, long, time ago. Those images and thoughts are STILL tattooed to my brain.

The WORST things I ever saw, watched, and did happened while spending the night with other kids.

I saw pornography...as in pornographic magazines and TV shows.

We spent hours talking about sick, perverted things.

We even DID some sick, perverted things.

ALL of those experiences, unfortunately are still with me...in my brain.

I hate that I knew at such an early age about things I hope my kids are protected from for a very long time.

And here's the deal...

I didn't grow up unloved or unsupervised. My mom cared about who I was with. So, a lot of the things that happened to me, I'm sure would shock her.

I'm also sure that my past is what makes me such a freak about the thought that my child could be down the street, in a neighbor's house doing things that could hurt them GREATLY and I'm sitting here, naively letting it go on.

Anson has spent the night with family and one family from our church, but has just now been asking to do so more.

My answer so far has been..."Daddy and I still have no idea what we think about this!"

How do you handle your kids spending the night with friends, or playing with neighbors on your street? How do you know if it's safe for them to play inside someone's house?

The fact that I know what I did and saw while away from home is something I can't change, so my experiences will make it very hard for someone to convince me that I'm over reacting.

Maybe you had wonderful sleepovers and play dates away from home, but I didn't. And, there were far too many sick situations I found myself in to just shrug them off as "strange and uncommon."

I don't want to be crazy, but I do want to be wise. Aaron and I certainly want to take our responsibility seriously.

So, for all of you with older kids, who have already gone through this, please tell us what you do.

For those of you who don't have kids, then maybe just sharing some ways you think you could have been protected will be SO HELPFUL.

Let's hear it!

Aaron's Potato Soup Baby

When your kids grow up

We have officially moved past the preschool stage in our home.

I can tell for many reasons.

Diapers are never on my grocery list.

No one drinks out of sippy cups.

I can sleep in on Saturday mornings because it's Pop Tart Saturday, which means, my kids are all old enough to wake up, eat a pop tart and watch cartoons until Aaron and I make our way out of the bed.

I miss my babies being babies, but it has been fun to share with them some things that were a part of our growing up years.

Aaron hates that Anson loves these people...


They drive Aaron crazy, but Anson talks about them like they are real.

Remember, our kids don't get a whole lot of TV time (summer has been more lax) but wow, you would think the Tanners lived next door to us or something.

We'll be driving around and Anson will say, "You want to know something funny Uncle Joey said?"

Then, we got the kids to fall in love with these people...

It didn't take long. Who can watch this show and not love this family?

Every single time I watch this show, I wish I were like Mrs. Huxtable. She's so sweet to her husband and her kids. I love how much they love each other, and how patient she is with her children.

The most recent show we've exposed our kids to is...

Family Matters

Can you be an American and not know who Steve Erkel is?

Maybe, but I don't think anyone should try it.

Today, I remembered one of my all time favorite shows EVER. I was still in love with this family even after I was married! I would tape this show and watch it every afternoon.

I loved the Torkelsons.

I still think of them and wonder what ever happened to sweet Kirby Scroggins.

I'm going to try and find this show on DVD to buy for my kids.

If you have never seen it, you will LOVE it. We will share with you!

I'm not saying kids should watch TV all the time. We don't let them watch all these shows every day, but I love sharing with them the shows I loved growing up. It's hard to believe that I have kids this old, who love shows that aren't animated.

Have I said often enough that one minute kids are tiny and the next minute they are watching the Cosby Show?

There are times when I'm sad that the baby moments have melted away. But then I look around at my boys piled up on my lap, sprawled out on the couch in the living room, laughing at Steve Erkel and I think...

I sure do love ALL their stages.

I miss those fat baby thighs, and nursing my babies...but there are sweet blessings in watching my sons grow up.

This Crazy Thing Called Life

One minute, you can be trying to hit Patrick Williams in the face with a dodge ball...

And the next minute, you can get a phone call from your adoption agency.

And then, within 24 hours, you can be driving to Houston to meet a birth mom who is due within two weeks.

How's that for crazy and unexpected?

We meet a precious birth mom at 5 p.m. today.

She is due in two weeks.

Pray we love her today and encourage her.

It's so different this time.

This time, I am completely fine with meeting this sweet birth mother, praying for her, supporting her...but I would be okay if her baby never comes home to us.

Not okay as in I don't care. I want a baby. I might even steal yours.

Just okay as in I've learned...God's in control of this, not me. He calls us to love. I'm eager to do so. And no matter what...He'll either grow us by blessing us through adopting a baby...or He'll grow us through our grief, and perseverance as we wait on Him.

Either way...we grow.

And for the first time in my life, I'm fine with growth being the only reward.