June Update

Wow, so we dropped the ball on the blog when we got home! I think it was just a combination of settling in, settling down, and getting back to "normal"... if that really exists.

We've been busy since being back. It's been wonderful watching Isaiah grow. Joni got to spend some wonderful time at home with the kids. She is now back at work. Childcare for the little man lined up perfectly, as a friend from our small group signed up to watch him Monday's and Tuesday's. Karen (Joni's mom) on Wednesday's and Thursday's, and of course Joni is home on Friday's. Miya is going to Jo's (where she has been for the last year) on Monday's and Tuesday's.

Things we've learned about Isaiah are as follow:

The good:

• His smile can warm your heart
• He loves to move his little legs like he is running somewhere
• He sleeps pretty darn good (we can't complain)
• He loves being outside
• He is so darn cute
• He loves the swing chair... I mean he really LOVES it!

The not so good:

• He hates pooping. 
• He spits up.... a lot!
• He can be pretty fussy.... depending on the day, and the hour... although sometimes it seems like most days, and most hours
• Every time we burp him.... he screams like we are poking him

Kris (who watches him Monday's and Tuesday's) just sent this to us. Pretty good, first day and she got him knocked out sleeping. Of course he still has that eye ever so slightly open in case something happens.

Home Sweet Home!

As you probably guessed, we are home in IA! We had an incredible homecoming from Kelli and Marcus who were riding their bikes up and down our street waiting for our arrival. Our lawn was imacculate and there were balloons, signs and a tribute in each room welcoming us home. Not to mention the house had been cleaned from top to bottom! Thank you to Marcus & Kelli!

The neatest thing about coming home is that once our house was in sight, it dawned on me that not once while we were so homesick did I think about our house. Don't get me wrong, it was great to finally sleep in our own bed and be in our house, but that is not what I was homesick for. We were homesick for our family, friends, church and community. That is what home is - relationships! How awesome!

The last few days have been good. We are still adjusting and feel so blessed. If you haven't had a chance to meet Isaiah, please let us know if you want to stop by. We will post some more pics in the next few days!

Answer to prayer!

We got the call at 6:18pm MI time that our interstate adoption papers have been processed! We are heading back to IA! I don't know if we will get much sleep as we are SO excited to come home, we may start heading back after Isaiah's 3am or 6am feeding. Pray for safe travels! Stop in to meet Isaiah this weekend if you like! GOD IS GOOD!

Moody

I would have to say we are all a little moody the past few days!

Moods down (wah wah): Wednesday we were all sick (Derek, Isaiah and me) all day! Needless to say I now have a strong taste aversion to authentic Mexican food. We are all feeling better today thankfully.

Moods up: We were able to met Isaiah's birth father today. It was a huge blessing!

We are waiting (not so patiently anymore) for IA to process the interstate adoption papers. MI has already processed their papers, we we are waiting for IA. We are optimistically hoping to be heading back to IA tomorrow. Please pray the papers are processed tomorrow AM so we can be home this weekend. We are pretty homesick.

Here are some cute pics of the little man.

Miya's New Friend

We were going through our pictures yesterday and came across a lot of pictures of Miya and Kenzy. These two became pretty good friends over the couple of weeks she was here.

Concluding a Much Needed Weekend

Let's get pictures out of the way first:


We had a great weekend with family here. We hadn't gotten the chance to do all the "tourist" stuff in Holland, we had saved it up knowing that we had people coming.

On Friday we spent the day in downtown Holland. Which is kind of like Valley Junction. Lot's of little shops, restaurants and coffee shops... you get the picture.

We first went to JP's coffee shop. It's a great little local place that serves a great coffee. Then we went up and down the strip hitting all the shops. Holland is a sister city to Pella so they are coming off there tulip festival. So there are remnants along the strip. Joni and my Mom hit just about every shop, while my dad and I made up games with Miya to keep her entertained.

We stopped for lunch at the 8th St. Grille. They have awesome soups, I've been there twice since we've been here.

After that we went back to my parents hotel room to go swimming, play ping-pong and just have some fun, relaxed down time. We then went out for pizza and beer at the New Holland Brewery... good food, good beer. It was perfect.

Saturday we wandered the farmers market downtown, and then went to the beach on Lake Michigan. It was Awesome! Chilly, but very fun. We played in the sand, got our feet in the freezing water, played frisbee and just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and the chance to get out and do something unfamiliar. We closed up the day with a little miniature golf, that was a lot of fun too.

Sunday came and we had to make a tough decision. On Saturday Miya had a meltdown because she wanted to go home. Sunday morning we sat down and had a talk with her and we decided that she should go home. It was a tough decision because she keeps us entertained and feeling somewhat normal. But she was missing things from home, Gizmo...our dog, and we knew her last day of preschool was this week and she would benefit from having closure with that.

We were very sad to have her leave! It brought out the homesickness in us. We had a rough couple hours as we just let out all our emotions. It's been an emotional month and it all came out.

At this point we are blessed by the people we have met and the time we have spent here, but we are ready to be home. We know that by this weekend we should be on our way, but this weekend just can't come fast enough.

So we are making plans for the week to keep ourselves busy for two reasons. One, to keep time moving so we don't get bored and the time goes fast. And Two, because we don't want to be loafs, we need to have fun while we are here.

Thanks for the support. We love and miss all of you.

Too busy to blog!

You can probably imagine our life is a little more busy these days with a new baby (notice the lack of postings since we gained custody). We are still in MI and Isaiah is keeping our hands full. Miya is LOVING being a big sister and wants to hold him constantly. He is a pretty good baby, but is definantly a night owl.

Derek's parents and my brother and sister-in-law Marcus and Kelli are here for the weekend (one because they missed us so much, but mostly to meet the little dude). Isaiah is loving the attention and has been great with our 'on the move' weekend. We have LOVED having some IA come to us as we are VERY homesick! We have enjoyed our time here in MI, but are very ready to come home! We hope to be home by next weekend.

Will upload some pictures soon!