"Transition"

Sorry for the super long lag in my blogging. Who would have thought living in a hotel with a newborn was much easier than living at home with two kids? We are getting back into the swing of things after taking three days just to unpack our bags. We had to get our lives in order b/c both of our families are coming in town tomorrow to celebrate Nel's 2nd birthday and meet Julien.
On our last day in AL we went to the botanical gardens. Our 11:00 a.m. flight had to be pushed to the 5:30 p.m. flight because our ICPC hadn't cleared yet. The flight home was exhausting but Julien did so great!
We finally got home around 11:00 p.m. and my parents got to meet Julien. They watched Nellie while we're gone all week and cleaned up our house and stocked our pantry...woo hoo!
In the morning we brought Nellie out to meet Julien but it's on film so I don't have any pics. But here's the first thing she does...sits in his bouncer and plays with it.

It was a rough couple of days getting use to the whole brother thing for her. I asked her to hold his bottle and she let go and started screaming.
Here's a little look into our life right now. A mess!
"Proud" big sister.
Here is Julien's and I's first date. We went to a bridal shower for a friend.
So Nellie is obsessed with her duck costume for halloween and never wants to take it off, if I let her put it on. Here's cody reading to Nel in her duck costume on the couch with J crashed out.
sweet handsome boy.
Julien's first day to go to our church.
Here's my attempt to get a pic of the kids together. i put J in nellie's arms and she pulled it out and he fell back.
At least she gave him a kiss!
This is what we had to resort to.
She loves to give Julien his pacifier and feels so proud when he takes it. AND she likes to use a paci now too. ugh...
Another attempt at a pic of both of them.
Look how huge she looks! I feel like I came home to kindergartner after spending the week with my newborn. Her hands and feet and diaper are enormous!
And here's a pic of Julien today. We had his two week check up this week and he has thrush and a congenital breathing problem that causes him to gasp and breath loudly at times. It's b/c his trachea and esophagus thing didn't develop all the way and it's flappy causing him to have trouble breathing. The doc says as long as it doesn't get too bad we won't have to go to a specialist and it should clear up on his own in the first two years as his stuff matures and gets harder cartilage. Confusing, I know. It's hard for me to explain cause I don't fully understand it.

Anyway we have spent the last few days adjusting to being a family of four and trying to figure out Julien and how to handle Nellie. More pics to come!

Counting down

Look how strong Mr. Julien is! He can push off the bed and pick his head all the way up and look around. Julien is two weeks today.
Yesterday we roamed around the civil rights district in downtown Birmingham.

That's MLK behind my boys.
Sorry our family pics are so lame but we have to set them up on a timer.
then we visited the Peanut Depot which is a 100 year old peanut factory.
they have salted and cajun and boiled peanuts...delicious!
Here's Julien's makeshift bed for the week.
Just relaxing.



Sorry this post is so short but we have to check out of our hotel right now. Julien is doing great. Right now our paperwork is on the fedex truck headed to santa fe. Just waiting to here that they received it and we can indeed get on the plane. We are headed to the Botanical Gardens to kill time before our flight leaves. Hopefully we'll back in ABQ tonight and writing tomorrow from home!

Too tired...

Dear Faithful Blog Readers,

I did take nearly 200 photos today so i have some cute ones to share. However it's 11:00 and Cody and Julien are already asleep so I think i better head to bed. Julien likes to get up at 4:30 a.m. and play. Maybe tonight he won't because he actually stayed awake some tonight. Once that baby is out, he cannot be bothered for anything! I will post photos in the morning b/c they take FOREVER to upload on our slow hotel internet.

ICPC update: the package did not go out yesterday as we had hoped. it got picked up today at 5 pm and left montgomery at 8:00. it should arrive in NM by noon tomorrow and hopefully we can get everything squared away to catch our flight. After hearing this news i switched our 11:00 a.m. flight to 5:30 p.m. Now we won't be arriving in ABQ until almost 11:00 p.m. Which is still better than staying another night. We really miss our Nellie! See ya tomorrow!

the Vulcan

Today we visited Birmingham's most famous tourist attraction, the Vulcan. Plus we ate at a DELICIOUS bbq place and visited Julien's transitional fam again and went to the country's largest Target...PHEW! What a full day!
Morning yawns. Julien slept well last night and so did we. We had his last feeding at midnight and went to bed. Then I got up at 3:30 to feed him and Cody got up at 6:30.
Showing off his guns. Julien finally lost his umbilical cord so he took a bath with his daddy tonight and got his hair washed. His hair curled up so tight right after his bath...so cute!
"I am so sleepy and the day has yet to start!"
Here is Julien at the Vulcan, the world's largest cast iron statue. It was the main event at the 1904 World's Fair. See how impressed he is?
the Vulcan sits on top of this "mountain" (HA! we're from NM, we know mountains) and overlooks downtown. Birmingham was one of the hardest hit cities after the Great Depression because the mining industry tanked. It was fun to learn about Julien's birth place and some southern history.
Downtown Birmingham.
Can't wait to get a full family pic soon! We should be hearing about our ICPC clearance tomorrow. Please Lord, let us clear tomorrow so we can go home on Thursday. thanks for your prayers sweet peeps!

Lawyer Day

Hello there sweet sleepy boy. This is how Julien looks most of the time. We are trying to keep him awake for periods during the day so he will sleep at night. So far, he's really easy to put down to sleep. He LOVES my sling and cuddles up and sleeps every time.
All dressed and ready to go for the day. Thankfully our hotel room has a kitchen so we bought some groceries and are eating breakfast and dinner in our room. Plus we have a place to wash J's bottles. Honestly, this bottle feeding is a whole new realm for us to get use to. Nel was exclusively breastfed and rarely took a bottle. So we are having to figure out how to do this whole formula/bottle thing and much to feed him and stuff.
Let's go Daddy-o! The lawyer was really nice but there was no way around not returning to Alabama to finalize our adoption at the end of the year. We signed up our papers and now we are awaiting a court date.
We also strolled through a really nice mall today. It's nice to get out of the hotel...I get some serious cabin fever depression if I stay in too long.
Eating lunch at a local joint. Julien had is favorite food...Similac :)
J's first sponge bath! He was NOT a fan. He hates to have his diaper changed so we knew the bath would really tick him off. He calmed down as soon as we were done though.
Umbilical hanging on by a thread!
And finally, here he is peacefully sleeping. This is what he looks like as I type this. What a sweet lil boy! Peace out!

10/10/10

Let's start off with a "smiling" pic. Now, back to yesterday...
Here's the first time we held Julien. Heather, the sweet mom who took care of J for his first week handed him off to me first. Then, Cody took a turn.
Here is Heather's family. Her two boys played with Julien all week! And her sweet husband Dale, who also loved on and took care of J. We will always remember and be grateful for this loving family.
Julien's first bottle while we were still at the agency. He will drink it cold...crazy!
Daddy burping baby boy. Julien is a really good burper.
So far, J sleeps most of the time and only cries when he's hungry and getting changed.
The high here today was almost 90 degrees!
Sweet lips!
We went to a big church in Birmingham this morning. Cody had heard of the pastor and we wanted to check it out. It was HUGE! Julien slept in my sling but he's such a loud sleeper after the music finished we had to listen to the sermon in the lobby.
Lest we forget about sweet Nellie waiting back home, here's a pic of her from this week. When you ask her "What is your brother's name?" She replies "JULIEN!" And she can say "brother" but she does not understand the implications this is about to have on her life. This baby will be here to stay! She gets very jealous when I hold other babies and wants to be held immediately. I am sure she'll get use to him soon :)
Here's some pics of J's nursery the night before we flew to Alabama.
I made the animals hanging above his crib and the stuff in the corner. Janny made the crib skirt and valance. you can't tell but it's gingham. the animals are cut out of gingham paper and framed.


So we find out some disappointing news. Because of the desire of the birth mom to remain completely anonymous and refusal to name the birth father in public records, Cody and I both have to fly back to Alabama with Julien to finalize the adoption. This will most likely be around the end of the year. It's a long story why we have to do this but we can no longer finalize in NM. The birth mom went to another state to have an abortion only 3 weeks before Julien's due date. The only people who knew she was pregnant was her mom and brother. I'm so thankful the states don't allow for late term abortion. Also, the court approved three months of her living expenses we have to pay..ugh. Adoption is very expensive, but abortion is costly beyond measure.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day and the gov't offices are closed and we are praying this won't delay our ICPC clearance. Please pray fervently that this would clear so we can fly out on Thursday. Thanks everyone and we will keep you posted!