Happy Birthday, Jaxson!

Jaxson turned three earlier this month, and we had such a fun time celebrating his birthday! Sometimes it seems crazy that he is already three, but then there are so many times when I feel like he has been part of our family for so much longer. I am sure a lot of parents feel that way...it is weird to imagine a time when he wasn't part of our family.

Jax has really been into superheroes lately and had been talking about having a Batman cake for several months. Thankfully he was still into Batman when his party arrived. He loved having a Batman cake and seeing all of his Batman decorations. Of course, when it was time to get ready, he insisted on wearing his Spiderman shirt instead of the Batman one. :)

I think that Jaxson must be going through a little bit of a shy phase, because he was super bashful about having so many people come over and getting all of the attention. At one time, he told me that he wanted everyone to stay home. He eventually warmed up to the idea of having everyone there and was able to enjoy himself, although he was super shy when we sang "happy birthday".

Jaxson really did end up having such a fun time. We love having such a great family that would come and celebrate with us. Growing up, we didn't have any extended family around, so I love being able to have all the family over for celebrations.

I always get really sentimental this time of year when thinking about how Jaxson came to be part of our family. I am SO thankful for adoption and for his wonderful birth mother who was able to make the decision to have him be part of our family. I know that he is supposed to be my son. His adoption was such an amazing experience, and I am so appreciative that I am one of the few people lucky enough to have that opportunity. I will never forget the feel of "getting the call" and telling our families that they were going to have a grandson...within just a few short weeks! Yes, giving birth is also very special, but as someone who has experienced both, there is just something so different and so special about adoption.

Blog Challenge, Day 22

I am going to try and get back on this bandwagon...I am SO close to being done!

Today's challenge is to post about a website. I thought a lot about which website to share...I considered some of my favorite craft ones, or maybe a cooking one. In the end, I decided to post about Stirrup Queens. I stumbled across Stirrup Queens about a year or so ago, and it has been an emotional life saver. Basically, it is a website for all things related to infertility, pregnancy loss, and adoption. It has connected me with so many other women that have similar experiences. There are message boards, informational columns, support boards, and my favorite, ICLW (basically a time once a month for concentrated blogging). I would highly recommend this website to anyone who has experienced anything related to infertility or who is just trying to get a better understanding of what it is all about.

Too Good is True!

Mike and I are proud to announce that we are now a family of three! Jaxson was born on Monday, November 8, weighing in at 7lb, 15 oz and 20.5 inches long.

We found out about two weeks ago that we had been chosen by a birth mother (K) to adopt Jaxson. We had the opportunity to meet her and her mom before he was born. She is such an amazing person, and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

We got a call at 1:40 on Monday morning telling us that K had gone into labor and for us to drive up to the hospital. We were able to visit with her and her mom for a little while, and then we went out to the waiting room. Shortly before she was ready to start pushing, we were told that we had been invited into the delivery room to witness Jaxson's birth! After he was born, I was able to cut the cord, hold him, and give him his first bottle and bath. K was so wonderful to want us to be involved.

This is our first family photo after Jaxson was born.

We were able to have our own room in the hospital, which was great because it allowed us to help take care of Jaxson and get to know him better. It also allowed our families to come up to the hospital and see him. We honestly love him so much!

While he was in the hospital, there was a photographer that was taking newborn pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

We brought Jaxson home from the hospital today, and so far things have been going really well. The only eventful thing was that his bilirubin was high, so we had to have home health set him up with home bilirubin lights. It makes it hard because we can't hold him as much as we would like to, but he will hopefully be done with them within the next few days.

Paper Pregnant!

Last week, I got a phone call from our case worker saying that we have officially been approved for domestic adoption! That means that all of our paperwork is in order and has been approved. Now, we are just waiting to be selected by birth parents.

If you want to check out our profile, click here. Please keep us in mind if you know of anyone who is considering adoption!

Coming Out of the Closet...

...the infertility closet that is. When Mike and I first started trying to have a baby, we naively thought that everything would happen easily. I envisioned posting pictures of ultrasounds and a growing baby belly. We thought that we had timed everything "perfectly". Unfortunately, life doesn't always happen as we would like, and the best laid plans rarely come to pass. So, after one miscarriage, at least one chemical pregnancy, and a lot of frustration, we headed off to see a specialist. We eventually learned that I have a condition called an intrachromosomal insertion. In a nutshell, that basically means that a piece of one of my chromosomes has broken off and attached to another. So, this makes it very difficult for an embryo to be able to survive and grow into a baby.

The reason that I have decided to write about this now is because Mike and I are in the process of getting approved for adoption! We are hoping that we will be approved by the end of the month/beginning of August, and then it is just a matter of waiting until we are chosen by birth parents.

Since we are going to be adopting, we are going to be making two big changes for our blog so that we can include it in our profile for birth parents to view. First, our blog is going to be public again. Second, and most importantly, our blog address is changing. I am planning on changing our blog to www.mikeandlisafamily.blogspot.com. I will probably make the change in a week or so. We are changing the blog address so that it won't have any identifying information in it. I will do another post a day or two before the change happens, so please stay posted!

Needless to say, infertility has been a difficult trial for us to go through. If you have never experienced infertility, I can't expect you to understand what it is like. I can say that the one good thing about all of this is that it has brought Mike and me much closer together. I understand if you don't understand what this is like or if you have questions...and that is okay. I just ask that you please try to be sensitive of the issue and respectful of our decision. :)