Vacuuming Fool!

Last weekend my sister and my friends from the town we used to live in threw a shower for Hudson. It was so great to see them again. We have been so blessed by their friendships and their support of our adoption. My sister asked if everyone would give money towards a new vacuum cleaner for us....we felt incredibly blessed by their generous gift. Yesterday I was able to go buy the new vacuum. My house feels sooooooo wonderfully clean! Like I had said--the floors were icky!!! (Lindsey--our sw, if you are reading this please disregard this comment as something that should be noted in our post placement) :) Having a bunch of kiddos and a dog leads to one needing a good vacuum! It's all good now!

Today I spent the morning as a vacuuming fool! Hudson was in the sling (he fussed if I put him anywhere else) and I had some jammin' KJ-52 on in my ears! I looked pretty funny doin' the white-girl-30- year-old-dancin'-to-the-music-that-no-one-else-but-me-can-hear-while-manuvering-the-vacuum-around-the-house dance. But wanna know something...I had a blast! :)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all of you who donated to making our house a clean environment for the little dude! And thank you for celebrating Hudson's arrival into our family! We are so blessed to have you as our family and friends!!!!

the longest blog post ever--

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Here we were at our Christmas Program when in another part of the country our baby boy was being born! We had no idea that the Lord had big plans for our family!

I answered the phone Monday morning to hear my social worker say "well, we have had some significant developments...a baby boy was born last night." My heart began to pound as I said, "ok"...she went on to give me a bit of information and left it that she would be calling me back after she heard from the other caseworker. I quickly called Matt and he said, "WHAT!?!? Are you serious!?!?! OK...Let's Go!!!" He then went on to tell me that he wasn't going to be able to leave work. The mama in me initially wanted to get mad at this declaration, but I decided to give this detail to the Lord. I figured if He wanted us on a plane He would cover the details of Matt being able to leave work. We called our family and spent the rest of the day wandering around wondering what was about to happen. I was trying so hard to keep my heart protected. We just kept praying for the Lord's will to be done that day! The girls didn't know any of this was going on all day long. They were just excited because I told them that if we got the house clean we could open one present each that night! (Bribery is a good thing at times, dear friends!) They held up their end of the bargain and we opened the one gift. However we hadn't heard back from our social worker so Matt and I sat there wondering if we should just put them to bed. As the night lingered on we began to think that this adoption wasn't going to happen. We knew the social worker was meeting the birth parents at the hospital at 6:30 to sign the paperwork. We thought that would probably take an hour or maybe two. Finally at 9:30 our social worker called...and said, "Congratulations, Mama, you have a BOY!" I screamed...Matt came over and gave me a huge hug. The two of us were cheek to cheek trying to listen to her tell us all of the details. We hung up with her called our families, then went and opened all of the Christmas gifts with the girls. At the end of it Matt told them we had one more surprise. Our 9 yo dd said with glee, "Are we getting our baby?" We told them the details and the girls and I started crying! We prayed together, tucked them in...and Matt and I started flying around the house. We were up until about 2am.

Bright and early the next morning...we dropped the girls off at my parents and headed to the airport. All day long my sister was working on calculating the donations that were coming in. We would call in between flights and she would give us an update of where we were and what we were going to need. She also found us an amazing suite for super cheap and a great rental car. The Lord provided in AMAZING ways. I can't tell you how humbling it was to see so many of you donate to our adoption. We thank God for you and pray that you will be blessed for your obedience!
First time I held Hudson in my arms! We received clearance from the hospital to come see him that night after we landed. We were there for about an hour and then went to find our amazing hotel.

First time Daddy holds his son!






Before we showed up at the hospital to get Hudson discharged, we made a frantic stop to Kmart to grab diapers, bottles, and blankets.

Oh how I love these two...they melt my heart!

This is when it became official as we were leaving the hospital!

Hudson's first Dr. appt. He hates being cold!

Matt and I figured that if we were in FL, we needed to take him to the beach! It was a cloudy day, but we had fun. We needed to get out of our hotel room so a little road trip to the beach was great!

The most amazing thing happened as we were taking these pictures...a group of dolphins came right up near the shore and were swimming around. Matt and I were pretty awed by how cool of an experience that was.

Aren't they the cutest??!?!?!!

Here we are with our most amazing Christmas gift!

We had just arrived at Courtney's when there was a knock at the door...my sister sent these beautiful flowers to welcome Hudson. (yes...it made me cry) :)

I am married to the most amazing man. He called me earlier in the day on Christmas day to tell me to keep my phone on me that night. He called me and said, "Mommy, we are keeping our family tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music...and tonight we are taking Hudson and you with us!" I was choking back the tears...I put Christmas music on in my room and listened as the girls describe the lights on houses. I have never loved to hear such rambling as I did that night! :) I held it together while talking to them, but when I hung up I started sobbing again. I missed them so incredibly much!

We were on our way to the beach when my social worker called to tell me that we got the "all clear" to leave FL with our baby boy! Here I am calling the girls to tell them...they all screamed and squealed on the other end of the phone! We spent the next hour searching for seashells for the girls...Court's kids did an awesome job helping me find shells for the girls.

While starring at the beauty of His creation, I was so overwhelmed with praise to God for the way He performed these miracles in our lives. It was a very special memory!

(you've seen all of the coming home pics) This was early the next morning...the girls were so mesmerized with their new little brother. They came in and just starred at him while he slept. Then they started begging me if they could hold him. They still can't get enough of him!

Well...there you have a glimpse of our beginning with Hudson! I still hold him in my arms and become completely overwhelmed with the miracle that he is. Everyday I am praising the Lord for what He taught us while we waited for Hudson and for how He provided. We are so humbled for the journey and for the end result of holding this beautiful baby boy in our arms forever!

Oh, how the boy grows...

I love the way his face scrunches while he sleeps...we can't help but kiss those cheeks about a thousand times a day!!!

Oh...they are just sooo cute together!!!! I am so in love with all of our kids! They are such an amazing blessing from the Lord!!!
He held this "sitting" pose for about the 2 seconds that it took to snap the shot. But we thought he looked like such a big boy today in this outfit. Yes...we thoroughly enjoy dressing him each day! And yes...we take pictures of him in pretty much every outfit he wears! What can I say!?!?! :)

The measure of success???

Does today count as a successful day just because not only did Hudson get a bath, but I was able to take a shower today too? The girls finished their schoolwork. The kitchen was cleaned up. The dog was fed and watered. I read and took a little nap with a special 4 year old. I fed the baby and kept him dry. I spent time with the Lord. Do all of these things add up to a successful day? If I look around there are still loads of laundry to do. Beds that need to be made. I have absolutely no clue what to make for dinner. Our vaccum cleaner broke, so the floors are icky. There is still that table full of junk that I need to go through. Lessons that need to be graded. Books that need to be read. Garbages that need to be emptied. On and on the list could go...

Can someone tell me what is the measure of a successful day?!?!

Sorry!

I've been experiencing a bad case of Blogger's Block! I have however thoroughly enjoyed each and every comment that has been posted! I will be awarding Steffany the award for most creative blogger commenter...Congrats! And yes, Kimmie, you can take *my* idea...since it isn't my idea and I took it from my friend Heather over at From Under the Laundry Pile. (Which by the way, to answer your question about what I was making for dinner...that was too hard a question! I didn't know what to make for dinner and we resorted to going out for pizza.) Destiny--what a fun surprise to see you here! Guess, I could start listing all of you that were fun surprises to see you here...

Thanks to all you lurkers that de-lurked...you made my day ur, ummm, days! :) I started this blog not really knowing why or who I was writing for. The obvious was to keep family and friends updated about our adoption journey. I think it has become my journal of sorts. At times there are things that the Lord lays heavily upon my heart to share and other times I am just my silly self. In reading your comments I found it amazing how touched many of you have been by our journey. Our adoption journey has been the most amazing experience of our lives with the Lord. He has done things in our lives that we never could have possibly imagined. Many times I write just so you can see how Great and Wonderful He is. I want Him to receive all the glory and praise for walking us through this most amazing experience. I want you to see how real He is. I want you to read about how Faithful He is and how powerfully He works in our lives. Yes, I share stories about our lives, our family...but in the deepest parts of my heart I really just want you to see Christ in all of this! There is still much about our journey to Hudson that I want to share with you. I just need to find the time to collect my thoughts enough to make it all coherent. Hopefully it will come soon! :)

Thank you for making this exercise in de-lurking a super fun one! You guys really are so great!

I do declare (said in my best southern-belle accent)---

OK...I have come to the conclusion that sleep is a non-essential for me! It is completely irrelevant, and really I have no idea what the big hoopla is about getting enough of it. A person is able to function on very little, extremely interrupted, sporatic moments of sleep. With that being said, if you ask me today's date...there is a pretty good chance I will have no clue. If we are in the middle of a conversation, I very likely will completely forget what we are talking about. And if I was a good blogger, I would not have missed de-lurking week...but I did.

So therefore, since this is my blog and I can make up the "rules"...I am declaring a new de-lurking week! If you are one that just likes to read my blog...post a quick comment...I'd love to see you. Don't worry about making yourself committed to regularing commenting...this can be a one time deal! Regulars you are always welcome to leave your comments too...just no asking me any detailed questions (like the date).

Love is in the air...

Our 6 year old said the sweetest thing yesterday while holding Hudson during church. She had been starring at him and snuggling with him when she looked up at me and whispered in my ear, "So... can I marry him?" It was from a heart overflowing with love and adoration for her little brother...and it melted my heart! I explained that he is her brother so they can't get married. She was pretty disapppointed. This pretty much sums up how completely in love we all our with him!!!!