I am in LOVE!!

Last weekend (a week ago) my dad came back down with my little brother and sister and they got to meet Mia for the first time. They were soo cute with her. Chessie was in love with her and treated her like a little baby doll. She wanted to do everything for Mia; feed her, change her, dress her, carry her, put her in the swing. It was precious. We went for a walk in the park and Chessie insisted on carrying her in the baby bjorn. it was too cute! She also kept propping her head up under a pillow, it was hilarious.

Carmen secretly adored her too, he just wouldnt confess to it ;).

A Proud Grandpa!



For lunch last Sunday I cracked into the olive spread my Aunt Sue gave me a couple years ago and Carmen and I made Muffaletta sandwhiches, which were awesome, if I do say so myself! The key was definitely the olive spread which was especially made in New Orleans. If you've never had a Muffaletta, you will just have to give it a try! And don't worry, these were quartered!



Now I'm sitting here writing this blog with the most beautiful little girl cuddled up next to me. Sometimes I just stare at her all day! Mia and I had a very eventful day today. This morning, my friend Jessica came over and we put poor Mia through all kinds of crazy poses to get newborn pics. I love her little naked body, its just so so cute. She's hardly ever naked because she doesnt like to be uncomfortable and usually puts up a fight when I change her clothes (usually about 4 times a day!) Anyhow, I know that we ended up getting some great pictures, I cant wait to see how they turn out. Jessica also brought over her little 2 year old daughter who was absolutely adorable. She helped her mommy "pose baby Mia." It was really cute! She also got a little jealous but was quick to arrange a flower around Mia and give her lots of kisses. What a sweet morning. These pictures arent from today, but she is just so gorgeous I cant help taking them! The first one she looks hilarious like she is sunbathing, and the other ones she was looking at Daddy, so so sweet.

Then I trekked downtown (I say trek, but really its like 10 minutes) and brought Mia to human resources to add her to our insurance. Then of course I had to bring her by labor and delivery so my friends and co-workers could see her. I really do love my job and I am blessed to work with some amazing women! It was so much fun for everyone to be able to share in my joy. Its hard not to adore Mia after meeting her. The girls at work planned a shower for next week and I am just so excited! We really are like a family. We spend such long hours together and go through very wonderful and difficult things at work, its hard not to get close! Plus they have been rallying around us since we decided to adopt, and really even before that. Not everyone understands adoption, but I am blessed with people in my life who both understand it and love it.

I have just one more itsy bitsy thing to say =). Its something I've got to get out even if its not easy to say. 3 people on 3 separate occasions today commented innocently "Now that you've adopted, you'll get pregnant!" And 2 out of the 3 said "You'll see, you'll have one of your own soon!" I know that they don't mean to be offensive, but it really hurts to hear that. Mia IS our own, shes our daughter, even if I didnt give birth to her. We love her every bit as much and she is more than we could ever ask for. Someday we may get pregnant, but we are not planning on it and adoption is not a means to pregnancy. I am so so happy with the way God chose to grow our family, I already dream about where we will adopt our next child from! Please dont be mad if you read this and you have made this comment to me, I know you didn't mean anything by it, but I just want to make readers aware that it does hurt to hear those comments and part of being an adoptive parent is education to others who maybe don't understand adoption as well.

Well tomorrow I will be separated from Mia for 8 hours for a class I have to take at work. I'm on FMLA but nurses have to keep their licenses updated and unfortunately this class is a requirement to stay current so I have a job to go back to!

Thanks for following!! =)

Prayer needed for an adoptive friend!

I wanted to pass on this post from my friend's blog site. They have been in the process of adopting their sweet baby girl from Ethiopia and have been running into so many problems! If you could lift them up in prayer that would be amazing. my heart breaks for them and what they are going through. thanks!

 

10.07.2011

I wish we didn't have to write this...

Below is an email that was sent out to our family and friends. We felt the need to share it our our blog because we know just how incredibly supportive people have been through this whole proces. Thank you for coming besides us, every step of the way. We believe Degeme will be home in God's timing....

Dear Family & Friends,
This morning Justin and I received some very difficult news that we feel we need to update you on. Our case has been determind as having insufficient evidence to allow us to bring our Degeme home at this time. [Please do not ask us to go into details. Thank you for respecting our family's and our daughter's privacy with this.] We have learned that the US Embassy is now forwarding our case to another government entity and we were told that, in about 1-2 months they will notify us that our case has been reviewed and what additional paperwork they want.
We have no idea what this all means. We don't know why our government is making this so difficult, however we recognize that this battle to bring her home goes beyond men's hands. God is true to His word, and we are reminded that He is in controll of all the uncontrollables in our lives. Hopefully, this morning we will be able to talk with our agency to gain a better understanding of what comes next.
Right now, we ask that you would be covering our family in prayer. Please, understand that we appriciate your concern, but it has become incredibly weary to explain what is happening over and over or going into specific details. We know you care, but we need you to support us without all the details. Believe us that we will update you as we feel we can--we very much appriciate your encouragement and prayers. It's the fuel that keeps us going. Thank you for coming alongside us each step of this process. We see God in the details of this network of support He has given us. He is unmistakable. We have amazing family, friends, dear freinds in Ethiopia and a new extended family of other adoptive parents whom we could not do this without.
We have dedicated ourselves to His calling to build our family through adoption and we love this little girl beyond words. Thanks for taking the time to pray for our little family.
Because of Christ,
Kati & Justin

http://fillingthenest.blogspot.com/

 

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Our life with Mia =)

Hi everyone!!

Well, all of the family is gone, and now its just me, Dan and Mia. Mia is now two weeks old! The first two weeks were, well, rough. Mia has been a sweet little baby, but 3 days after we brought her home, I got miserably sick. Then as soon as I started feeling better, Dan got sick (of course!) He's starting to feel better and I feel great, other than the sleep-deprivation, which I don't think is going to go away! Thankfully, my wonderful sister Emily stayed with us for almost the whole time, she left yesterday morning. I really don't know how we would have gotten through it without her help. Dan and I swapped the night hours and Emily did the morning shift so we could sleep!

My wonderful friend Carissa signed us up for mealbaby, which is pretty much a meals on wheels for new parents. It has been such a blessing because sleep deprivation +illness+new baby = very bad cooking!  We have also had so many visitors the past couple weeks, its been so nice to see our friends and have company. Its funny how the days, hours etc all kind of blur together with a newborn. We are falling in love with Mia more every day. Sometimes I just stare at her and cant believe shes our daughter and we have her for the the rest of our lives. She's so beautiful and sweet. Well, we have gotten alot of questions, so below I'm going to answer some of them!

What type of stuff do we still need? Well, thankfully we have been given alot of the big stuff. We have a carseat, bassinett, swing, crib. We bought a cute little dresser from Target to match her room, and I found a changing table at Once Upon a Child in perfect condition. We have been given soo many clothes too! For the stuff we still need, we are registered at Target. We would love to get a stroller and we can always use diapers and formula (Similac). We are flying through both of them!!

How are the dogs with her? We were a little nervous because although we adore our pups, they are somewhat, hmm, wild. Amazingly, they have been so gentle and sweet with her. When she cries they get concerned and really mopey. I think Bailey (our little girl dog) is a little jealous, but shes really good with her and tries to cuddle with her every time I'm not looking! Jack, our giant softy, licks her across the face whenever he gets the chance.

How is she sleeping, eating, etc? Its funny because every day is different. Two nights ago, she slept beautiful and woke every 3 hours for feedings. Last night, she got up every 1-1.5 hrs. Shes not a huge eater but she eats more and more! Plenty of potty time too! ;)

Are you going to keep blogging? Yes! I love sharing our journey with you, adoption through parenting!

How are we doing financially? We have paid all of our agency fees, amazingly we had enough money in the bank for it! It was an enormous amount but she was soo worth it. Our adoption isn't finallized, so we still have $4,000 to go. If you havent supported our adoption and feel called to support us, we will be so thankful and blessed by your donation. I'm not going to be shy and say we dont need a little bit of help! =)

What type of contact do you have with the birthparents? We chose to have an open adoption with the birthmother, as you know from previous posts. The first few days were soo hard emotionally because the bmom was constantly contacting me. I felt that I couldnt bond with our little baby and that she wasn't mine. Thankfully, we have set up some boundaries and I feel much better about our relationship. We are going to send her occasional pictures and do visits every 2-3 months for the first year. We really want to maintain a healthy relationship with the bmom and we really care about her. bdad said that he would be involved but I have a feeling he will fall off the grid in a little while. 

Thank you so much for following our blog, a new and wonderful friend offered to do newborn pictures for free, and she is coming tomorrow morning. I'm so excited! Mia is so beautiful and photogenic I cant wait to see her captured through the lens of a good camera. My camera is just ok. Anyhow, I will post pictures from it when we get are finished!!

Mia's birth story

           Mia Cadence Burgess 9/26/11 at 10:44am, 7lbs 0oz

This is the first opportunity I have had to actually sit down and right an update on our situation!! It's hard to believe I am sittng here telling you about our adoption story =). The Lord has been so good to us, we are so so blessed by this little life.
                                         Your love oh Lord, reaches to the heavens
                                        Your faithfulness, stretches to the sky
                                     Your righteousness is like a mighty mountain
                                       Your justice flows like the oceans tide

                                                     And I will lift my voice
                                                    To worship you my King
                                                    And I will find my strength
                                                    In the shadow of your wings

                                 

 "...I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him" 1 Samuel 1:26-27

Sunday night, a little over a week ago, I received a text from the bmom, saying that she thought her water broke. This was at about 1245 at night. She didnt know what to do so I told her to go to the hospital because if her water was broken, she would need to be delivered. Meanwhile, we had gone to hibachi with our friends earlier that evening, and Dan had been exposed to seafood and his tongue was starting to swell. The worrier/nurse in me gave him two benadryl, just to be safe! Well here I am anxiously awaiting bmom's text to find out if shes ruptured. I am a nervous wreck so I start cleaning (lol later dan remarked that someone must have come and cleaned while we were gone). Then I find out that she is in fact ruptured, and shes now laboring. The physician decided to let her labor as a VBAC(vaginal birth after cesarean) instead of going straight to the operating room. This was great news because now we had more time to get to the hospital. I really really wanted to be there when the baby was born. So I go into the bedroom to wake my husband and he is knocked OUT. I'm like, babe, we gotta go, now! He mumbles something under his breath and falls back asleep. I could not wake him up for anything. Thankfully, he did finally wake up and we got in the car and started the 3.5hr treck to the hospital, at 1:30 in the morning, mind you. When we got to the hospital, bmom was still in labor. I dont really want to give any more details for privacy, but at 1044 that morning, our baby girl was born! I was able to be in the delivery room for her birth, and I even did her initial stabilization because the nursery nurse wasnt there yet. At my hospital, we as labor nurse stabilize the baby after its born, but at their hospital the nursery comes in for baby. It was so special to dry off my own baby, check her heart rate, muscle tone, color etc. The labor nurse was like, phew, I'm glad you're here! How special is that. We spent the next 24 hours a basket of nerves waiting for the papers to be signed. During the labor, the bfather showed up which terrified me. He hadn't been present for the entire pregnancy, and then he showed up for the delivery. At first he was really upset about the adoption (even though he knew about it) and did not want to sign papers. He really could not contest much since they werent married and he wasnt involved during the pregnancy. He did decide to sign though which was a weight off of our chests. The bmom was awesome during the delivery and the next 24 hours. Although we were nervous, she never wavered from her decision and knew what she was doing was best for the baby. We even had the opportunity to pray with the bmom and bfather after the papers were signed, which was really special.

I am exhausted so I will end the story here for now, but we were able to take our sweet baby girl home on Wednesday morning. She is beautiful, sweet, and precious. She spends alot of time eating, sleeping and pooping! We are so humbled and thankful for this gift. We DONT deserve her, but we are so so thankful for her! I want to thank each and every person who has read this blog and encouraged us. We are especially grateful for your prayers.

 
1 Chonicles 5:20 "He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him."

We have absolutely no clue what we are doing! Its funny because we thought we would have like at least 6 months or a year to get ready for a baby. We are learning that we know nothing about newborns, but Mia is showing us what she needs and wants, she is so sweet! I am still kind of in shock to be honest. Everything happened SOO fast. But we are thankful and overwhelmed with love for our little girl! More soon. =)