Our AMAZING birthmom!

If you would have talked with me at the start of this summer, I would have told you that I wanted to meet our future baby's birth mom, but I wasn't quite sure about the whole "open adoption" thing. After we first met our birth mom, my mind began to change. After spending that time together in the hospital when Landrie was born, we felt such a bond with her! It's kind of like when you come home from church camp or an amazing vacation. I could try to put it all into words, but it's just impossible to explain. How to you explain the way you feel about the person who gave you her daughter? She is such a blessing to us!!


Many of you have asked about our birth mom. I know I was so curious about what a birth mom might be like before I met ours. I asked her about the blog, and she said she didn't mind if I started using her name or posted pictures. Whew! Now you all get to see her beautiful face, and I can finally start calling her BRIANNA! :)

Now you can see why Landrie is so beautiful! Check this out. 2 DAYS after delivering Landrie, she was in size 6 jeans. Now, she's even tinier! She's one of those legends you hear about or read about in People. :) That's good news for Landrie when she has her own baby! (sniff!)

I've been emailing Brianna pictures, and we sent her pictures of her first month. She agrees that Landrie is just as cute as can be! Saturday was the first time that we met in person since the week Landrie was born. It was Brianna's birthday, and she came in town with her boyfriend Chet and daughter Brynn, who is Landrie's half sister.


We spent a LOT of time just oohhing and ahhing over Landrie. She's grown so much since they've seen her! Chet was with us in the hospital, so he and Landrie have a special bond too.

Of course I had to make her a birthday cake. Brynn loved blowing out the candles!

She also loved the chocolate frosting! Isn't she a cutie?? She doesn't usually have a lot of sweets, so she was in heaven! Brynn's newborn pictures looked a LOT like Landrie's. Believe it or not, Brynn had the same dark hair too! We'll just have to wait and see if Landrie's stays dark or turns lighter.

Then we all headed to the Cheesecake Factory for Brianna's birthday dinner. Brynn adored Mark, and dubbed him "Markers!" That's one nickname he's never had!

When we went to the adoption training for our agency this summer, an adoptive mom spoke. She had adopted both of her kids. She still spends time with one birth mom, 9 years later. The other birth mom she never saw again. Like I said before, birth moms can be anyone. We are so thankful for Brianna. We may have another birth mom who wants an open relationship, or one who doesn't even want to meet us. You never know!

One Month Old and Nursery Sneak Peek!

Our sweet baby girl is one month old today! All of the sudden she looks big to me, and she's even getting those cute thigh rolls. I love it! She's about the same size as some of your babies were when they were born! We think she's between 8 and 9 pounds. Today I took the CUTEST one month old pictures.

They involved one BIG

source

and a TON of

If you want me to email one to you, just leave your email in a comment, and I'll send it over!

I've also been having a lot of fun working on Landrie's nursery. I don't want to post the real pictures until it's all done (maybe by her 1st birthday??) but I've had a request for a sneak peek...

I can't wait to get it all done!

PS- Did you notice the new header for our blog? It was Mark's idea to change it. So sweet!

Landrie's Night on the Town

Our sweet friends Laura and Josh came into town this week to meet Landrie. We had a great time!! They have 2 boys, Noah and Wyatt, and 2 year old Wyatt was especially enamored by Landrie. He walked in, pointed at her and said, "cute!" We'd better watch out for that little womanizer! :) You should see all of the adorable things Laura sewed for Landrie. She made a beautful quilt, a bib, and fun burp cloths. She's so talented!! While they were here, we decided to brave our first outing (other than the adoption agency and doctor's office). We snapped her in her carseat, covered her completely with a blanket, and headed to Posados. I love some yummy Mexican food!

Josh, Noah, Wyatt, Laura, Landrie, me and Mark

This is the cropped version, so that I could post it here. We also took a picture of her with her own bowl of salsa and plate of chips. So cute!

Landrie loved it! Well, she slept through 90% of it, but I know she enjoyed getting out of the house. :)

My Church Shower!

We LOVE our church, and all of our friends from there! Several other friends and family members also came to celebrate Baby Long, and it was a beautiful shower! This shower was more than 3 weeks ago, but our birth mom went into labor during the shower, so things have been a bit busy since then. I intended to do a post that night, but I was waiting for our daughter to be born! :)

Here are my sweet friends and hostesses. They completely outdid themselves at this AMAZING party! Sunny, Alicia, Bethany, me, Mindy, Tracy, Candy, and (front row) Kimi, Lindsay, Amber, Beth, and Terri

Isn't the table gorgeous?? The cake was a Nothing Bundt cake, and it was heavenly! They know how much I love sweets, so there was this entire table of sweets and more food in the other room. YUM! I love the pacifiers hanging from the chandilier. If this tells you anything about how crazy it was when we were frantically packing for the hospital, when we got to Wichita Falls, I opened our bags and there were these pacifiers with the pink ribbons still attached!!

We had to plan a shower in a hurry! My parents were already coming in town for my niece's birthday that weekend, so it worked out great. I was so glad that my mom could be there!

My friend Bethany had her shower the day before! Check out the flowers in the background. WOW!


So many great friends were there! Here's Nicole, Shari, and Tracy.

The girls were so creative when they came up with the games. This one was the "How Well Do You Know Corrie?" game. Everyone answered questions like "Where exactly did Mark and Corrie meet?" and "What's Corrie's favorite summertime treat?" Some people did so well, they even had to do tie breakers!

I was a bit worried when they blindfolded me, but this game was a fun one too! They placed all kinds of baby objects in my hands, and I had to guess what each one was. This one was the hardest.

Farrah and Jan got us this "My daddy is a hottie!" onesie. Adorable! Guess what one of Mark's favorite gifts was?? :)

These are the tiniest pink shoes I've ever seen! My nieces were very helpful in passing me the gifts. :)

So many of the girls at the shower have been through these years of waiting and have prayed and cried with us through it all. I am so thankful for all of you! At the end of the shower, they prayed for us again, and this time it was a prayer filled with joy and thankfulness!

I am so thankful to all of you sweet friends! Mark and I are so blessed. About those thank you notes...I promise they are coming! It's hard to write with a sweet baby in your arms. :)

Happy Due Date!

It's hard to believe that we were supposed to wait until today to meet little Miss Landrie, but today was her official due date! Maybe her early entrance into the world means that she won't be a procrastinator like me. :)

Some of her firsts have already happened:
-first vacation/car trip (She was born on her first vacation!)
-first smile :)
-first visits from both sets of grandparents
-first ponytail (Can you say adorable?!)
-first time to be babysat by Daddy alone- He did great!!