A year later

It has been over a year since Dominic came into our lives- fourteen months, to be exact. I haven't kept up on this blog because I have turned my blogging time over to our private blog for Dom. It's kind of his baby book, I guess. All his new tricks and habits, cute things he does, etc. However, I figured since it has been a long time, I can at least update on our lives today. Dominic is the happiest, funnest, craziest little boy ever. He walks about half the time. He eats like he is a teenager (I can only imagine how he'll chow when is a teen!), and he is adored by everyone- family, friends, and strangers alike!

As for our adoption, it is an open one. We didn't know exactly what his birth mom wanted at first, but we could not be happier with how things have worked out. He has his family here, and his birth family in Arizona. We have gotten to go down there once and we're hoping to go again this winter. We stay in touch with his birth mom and his two sisters. We miss them all the time- there are moments when Dominic is making a certain face or doing some little thing, and I see his sister in him--- I honestly don't even know how to describe that feeling- it's pure love. And I love how adoption has expanded our family, not only with a child of our own, but an entire crew from Arizona as well.

This picture sums up his life- he finds entertainment in the most random things. I swear he climbed in and out of this box (usually needing my help to get out- lol) for a good half hour. Like a said, crazy, cute little dude. :D

Meet Dominic

Here's our baby boy as a newborn. He was born on June 16th at 5:33 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.

And here he is at 7 weeks. I still plan on blogging about our entire adoption experience, but with a little baby ruling my life it's just going to have to wait a little longer. lol.

CHOSEN

It's been awhile since I've blogged. We have been chosen by an amazing birth mother in Arizona!!! She is due June 14th with a boy! The time, all be it sporatic, that I dedicate to this site I have started using to create a new blog for our son. It is private- just for Davin and I to tell our son's story, so that some day down the road he can read it and hopefully feel the experience. Once our bundle of joy arrives I will make an effort to continue this blog with our adoption story. I'll just have to change the name! :)

Hope everyone is enjoying springtime!

It's starting to feel like spring...

Until then, we'll continue to enjoy winter! Today I went to the Mall of America with my sister and her two little boys. I always have fun with them- they never fail to crack me up with their little innocent (and blunt) comments. Jack wasn't big enough to go on the carousal by himself so I went on with him. About halfway through the ride I said, "Whoa, I'm getting dizzy", and Matthew said, "You're gonna fall when you get off!" and started laughing hysterically. They would have been so amused if I fell on face. :P Luckily, I wasn't TOO dizzy. Funny how going to the mall with kids is a day of rides and not going in a single store! :)

A birth mother's decision

This is a post I wrote on my personal blog last year. I was debating whether I should share it here, and today I have decided to. I think it's important for birth mothers to know how we feel about them- in that we love and respect them. Anyway, here's the post:

When we started the adoption process, we were so consumed in ourselves. The home study and paperwork required us to look deeply into who we are as individuals and as husband and wife. We faced facts about ourselves that we would have never otherwise thought about. We took a hard look at our marriage. I was worried going in and facing all these deep issues, but was pleased to see how incredibly strong our marriage is. Davin and I balance each other very well, and we love and respect each other more than ever.

Anyway, a home study evaluates your life, but once it's over it is time to wait for a birth mother to choose you to raise her baby. It wasn't until S and C changed their minds about the adoption that we could see just how difficult it is for a birth mother to give her baby away. We were told from the start, and we thought we understood that it is very hard for a woman to place her baby for adoption, but I think we had under-estimated the extent of a birth mother's burden. Even when a woman knows she is not ready to be a mother or cannot provide for her child, she still loves him or her all the same. For those of you who are mother's, you can't imagine carrying your child for nine months, giving birth, and then handing this little life to someone else, trusting they will provide a better life that you could. It doesn't matter that a birth mother may not have wanted to get pregnant in the first place. It does not matter if she is 16 years old and trying to get through high school, or 30 and trying to get her life in order. Every woman who carries another life inside her loves that baby. No matter what. And it is that love that makes adoption so difficult, but also what makes it possible. A woman can only hand her child to another person to raise when she knows she cannot, for whatever reason, raise that baby, and she loves him or her way too much to try raise them in her situation.

In S's case, she was trying to get her life in order and panicked when she found out she was pregnant. Her love for her child immediately made her start an adoption plan. As things calmed, I believe she grew stronger as a person, as did the love for the baby she was carrying. She was lucky to have a strong support system to help her, and she found she could in fact raise her baby. How could anyone blame her for changing her mind?

Not every birth mother has family and friends like S. There are girls and women who would love to raise their babies, but just cannot. One of them who loves her baby so much, will choose us to raise him or her, and we will have a family. However, the mother will grieve. A birth mother placing her baby for adoption is losing her child. It is never easy for her. When I am rocking our baby to sleep someday I will be praying for his or her birth mother- I will pray that God will give her strength to help her through her loss, and that He will continue to watch over her always.

I cannot write exactly how I feel- it comes out all rambly, but what I am saying is a birth mother's decision is not easy. It is made out of love. And I will never take that for granted.

Winter fun

This past Christmas Eve we were at my parents here in Minnesota. Not everyone could make it because we were in the midst of snowstorm, but we still had a great time. It's tradition to go skating on my parent's rink. The "big boys" have a hockey game after the kids have their turn skating. This year the rink wasn't skate-ready yet, so the brothers play boot hockey instead. Pardon the shaggy looks- they worked up a sweat playing! ;)

Then we had dinner, opened gifts, and played games. Oh, and Santa made an appearance, of course. :)

I hope your holidays were wonderful and blessed.

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Merry Christmas

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Christmastime

I could write an REALLY long post about Christmas, but I'll keep it short for now. We are both from large families and the holidays are all about spending time with loved ones. This year we'll be with my (Laura) family here in Minnesota. I've already done a lot of baking- our freezer is full of sugary goodies. :) It's been a tradition for a few years now to decorate sugar cookies with my brothers kids. That's what the pictures are from. There is nothing like decorating cookies with Christmas music in the background, and laughing with the kids- notice the frosting on Davin and our niece- frosting 'war'. I thought they went pretty easy on each other. :D

Davin's off to play hockey and I'm wrapping some gifts tonight. Later! :)

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Chicago

We took a quick weekend trip to the windy city. It was our first time actually staying IN the city. Here's a few pics I took- at the Bean in Millenium Park, walking along Michigan Avenue, and on the Skydeck of the Willis (Sears) tower. We had a great time-even in the rain! :)

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Lawn Games

My brother introduced Monster Golf to my family several years ago, and no one is bored of it to this day! Davin brought our sets (3 of them) to his family camping trip a week ago. It looks like his family likes it as much as my family does! Seriously, these guys (and sometimes us girls) can spend hours playing this game with giant clubs and giant golf balls. This is just one of many lawn game we love!

Visiting Family in Upper Michigan

We took a vacation to Upper Michigan this past week to visit both my (Laura) and Davin's families. We spent every day at different family camps on Lake Superior. It was really windy so we couldn't go out kyaking or on the jet skis, but we still had a ton of fun in the sun with our siblings and nieces and nephews! On our last evening we went to visit my grandparents, who live on Lake Superior. Grandpa had lit the outdoor sauna for us, so we did the traditional "sauna and swim"- get super hot in the sauna, then run as fast as you can into the lake! There were big waves so we spent time surfing them! I took the chance to take pictures of Davin and my brother riding the waves- it made for great laughs! Here's some pictures from the trip- all the kids are nieces and nephews. Oh, and it seems I must always have the camera in my hands, because there are always WAY more pictures of Davin with the kids than me- I'll have to make sure Davin takes some more often! :D

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4th of July

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We spent the 4th of July at my (Laura's) brother's with his family, my sister's family, and a few friends. We played bocce ball, the kids played in the sprinkler (so did Davin!), and my brother grilled some amazing food! It was a day of fun, sun and laughter!

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Brother's graduation

One of my (Laura) brother's graduated from high school yesterday, and we spent the afternoon with my family at the open house party. I realized when I got home that I didn't have my camera out as much as I would have liked. But here are a few pictures anyway. The first is my youngest sister, Mary, and I. The second is my graduating brother, Steve, and all my sisters, minus one who could not make it from Michigan. (And my nephew who insisted on being in the picture!) :) The last is Davin relaxing amongst the choas with one of our nieces.

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Our Anniversary

Davin and I took a quick trip to Arizona (our second time there) for our wedding anniversary. It's been nine years already- time flies! The weather was hot- over 100 degrees (!), but we spent plenty of hours sitting by the pool, listening to music and reading books. Although we spent most our time poolside, we dressed up for one evening- our anniversary, June 5th- and went out for great food and fun conversation. We love taking vacations together, but look forward to bringing our child(ren) with us in the future!


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Family

This first picture is of most of Davin's family. It was taken at a family reunion in Michigan. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, but there is a family camping trip being planned for this summer that we are planning on going to! One fun thing to share: Davin's dad always has goodies for the kids- he likes to hide little treats around their yard, and let them go on a treasure hunt. This is always a big hit, of course! :)

This second picture is an impromptu photo taken at my parents. I believe we were having a fall cleaning day- cleaning brush out of the woods, raking, cleaning gutters- all the stuff that is fun when you do it with family and share good laughs! :) My mom wanted a picture of all her kids- my dad and the boys were playing football in the back yard (this was after the cleaning and before the grilling)- some of the girls had just gotten back from a walk. Kids were playing games and having adventures all around the yard. Somehow we managed to get all the kids together (we let the nieces and nephews keep playing!) for a quick photo op before the burgers were put on the grill!

We have so many good memories with both families. And we look forward to making our child part of these fun family gatherings!

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Winter get-away

We went to Arizona last winter for the first time. We loved it there! So much in fact, that we have another Phoenix vacation planned! (Unless, of course a baby is born for us, in which case- YAY!) :D We loved sitting by the pool and reading books. Then in the evening we would take hikes in the desert as the sun went down. It was amazing!

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We love, love, love spending time with our nieces and nephews! My favorite sound is children laughing. There is no sweeter sound in the world! :)

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We love Lake Superior!

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We have been to the north shore of Lake Superior dozens of times- the first time being our honeymoon almost nine years ago! We usually stay near Two Harbors and spend time at Gooseberry Falls and Splitrock lighthouse. However, the last time we went- last fall- we decided to stay on the canal in Duluth. We walked downtown and browsed all the little shops, and spent hours watching ships come and go from the canal. One day we drove to Enger Tower, and along Seven Bridges Road. It was the first time we had seen these landmarks, and we couldn't believe we had been up there so many times and never gone on this drive! It will for sure be something we do more often when we take our weekend vacations up there. In fact, we plan on going up within the next couple weeks! :)

When I was a kid, we took many family vacations up to the north shore. Often we would camp, or stay at a resort right on the lake. Davin grew up in Upper Michigan, and spent much of his summertimes on Lake Superior also. We both have memories of swimming, playing games in the sand, and many, many nighttime campfires. So, it is a a sure thing that we will take our children to both the north shore, and the south shore in Michigan, where much of Davin's family still lives.
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A new cousin...

This little niece is especially excited for us to adopt a baby. In this picture she is doing my hair while we talk all about her getting a new cousin. She will be one of the very first to know when our baby is here! :)

This is a letter she wrote to us:

All of our our nieces and nephews are very excited to have a new cousin! :)

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Wintertime Fun

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1. Davin helping our niece skate for her first time!

2. Our nephew helping Davin shovel. :)

3. Me (Laura) helping our niece skate.

4. A common occurance- a hockey game on my parent's rink. In this picture- Davin, my brothers, and one nephew.

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