Half a decade

WOW! Yesterday we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it was just 5 years ago that we were blissfully saying "I do!"

We had so much fun at our wedding! The anniversary wasn't quite as big a party, but we still had beautiful flowers...


a heavenly cake...


and a happy couple!


I love my sweet husband so much!! I can't wait to get my 5th anniversary gift. I don't know when I'll get it, where I will be when I get it, or what it will look like, but I know it's just what I've always wanted. Can you guess what it is??

We passed!

Our visit from the fire marshall this morning was a bit anticlimactic, but in a good way! I cleaned everything (even scrubbed toilets last night) and we tested every fire alarm. My friend Bethany was so sweet to get a twin pack of fire extinguishers when they went through this a few months ago. They gave us the other one so we'd be prepared. You know you're adopting when you get fire extinguishers as baby gifts!! :) Maybe we should have gotten these to make us look extra kid-friendly...

He was only here for less than 5 minutes! He checked our water heater, fuse panel, smoke detectors, and fire extinguishers. All that worrying for nothing!

A lot of you have looked at us wide-eyed as you listened to everything that goes in to adopting a baby. We had that same feeling when we heard all the hoops we would have to jump through! It was really hard at first to come to grips with the feeling that it was unfair that others can just have a baby with out any certification process at all, even if they are definitely not in a place where they are ready for a baby. Now, I am just excited as we complete each step in the process. They are all good things to do before you have a baby, but I wouldn't have taken the time to do most of them! I think it has to be reassuring to birthmothers to find out that the adoptive parents are so thouroughly checked out before they can accept a baby.

I headed over to Office Depot to copy our entire binder of paperwork. (Thanks for the tip, Holly!) I'd hate to have to start over if it got lost! Then I got it mailed off. WHEW! I feel SO RELIEVED to have it out of our hands! Now I'm starting our scrapbook with the hundreds of pictures we've been taking and collecting since January. That's the last part that we have to do, then we just have to wait for our agency to schedule the home visit...

Have you slept here?

I am so excited! We just set up a very special item for our baby. It's the cradle! It's not just any cradle, but one that TWENTY ONE of my family members have all slept in!! When D and Nonny first started having grandkids, they wanted their grandkids to sleep in something special. So, they bought this Amish-made cradle for all of us. We passed it around from family to family as they had more grandkids. After the grandkids, now 12 greatgrandkids have slept in it too. Nonny has countless pictures of tiny babies sleeping peacefully in the cradle up on her infamous picture wall. I can't wait to send her a picture of the cradle with our baby in it!

Isn't it beautiful? Every baby has his full name and birthday engraved on the well-loved plaque.

Can you find your name??

Thank you, Kevin and Christy for bringing it back from Corpus for us! You never know how soon we'll need it... :) It gave me an excuse to hang out with my sweet nieces when I went over to pick it up. I didn't take any pictures while I was there, but I'll get some next time. We also took Max to the best vet ever. Our dog Max has a clean bill of health, so we're one step closer to completing everything on our list!

It's wedding season!

My little cousin Ali got married in Baton Rouge on Sunday! There's nothing like a summer wedding. :)
Our original plan was to drive to my brother Eric's house in New Orleans, but they were recovering from a stomach bug, so we went straight to Baton Rouge. A lot of family was already in town, so we stayed up with my cousins Aaron and Sunny and Wes and Kelly. So fun! On Sunday, Eric, Melissa, their kids and my parents came in to town. Mark and I were so excited that they bought us some fresh beignets from Cafe du Monde! If you've never tried them, you need to take a trip to New Orleans soon. YUM. We spent the afternoon playing at Bass Pro Shop. They have this summer camp program, and the kids fished, painted lures, shot laser guns and had a blast!
Brooke, Braiden & Bennett on a wild ride
Eric and Bennett painting a lure.
Hanging out with Uncle Mark

Sunday night we all headed off to the wedding. It was an outdoor wedding at a beautiful plantation. I'm just glad I'm a girl, and I don't have to wear a suit!

Jonathan and Ali looked so happy!

Of course, we took about a million more pictures for our adoption scrapbook!

My dad and mom, Eric, Bennett, Melissa, Braiden, Mark, me, Brooke, and Nonny at the reception

We also had a great time when Mark's mom came in town. We saw her before we left and picked her up on our way back into town. Mark's dad had to work, but we can't wait to see him next time!
Mark's parents

It was a crazy weekend, but lots and lots of fun! I even got to preview the BEAUTIFUL blanket my mom is knitting for our baby! Now we just need a sweet little baby to go along with the blanket...

Almost there!

Whew! We are moments away from getting all of this mailed off! We just need to wait for the documentation from our doctors to arrive so we can include those. The doctor's questionnaire even asked about the condition of our teeth! I don't know how a cavity or two would be a reason to keep us from getting a baby. Luckily, our doctor agreed. :)
Here's our binder full of paperwork!


I just got off the phone with the owner of our agency, and she said they "are very busy" and had a birth last week and this week. That's GREAT news for us! The more babies they place, the better chance we have of getting chosen soon. We won't be able to be chosen until we complete the home study, but it's still very encouraging!!
Thank you for all the GREAT book suggestions on the last post. I've already ordered two from Amazon, and I'll be checking the rest out soon!

Read all about it

Well, I started reading my first baby book this week. It's so fun to actually get to start doing "baby stuff" now. I need your suggestions! What baby books did you love, and which ones should I stay away from? Leave a comment and let me know!! I've got all summer to read up on everything. Of course I should be focusing on finishing the school year and moving my classroom, but I've got baby on the brain! :)