Our day with Mikayla

We got home about an hour ago from Wisconsin. It has been a long day with a lot of driving but yet it was such a great day! How can I complain about anything when I just got to spend some time with Mikayla?! We got to spend a few hours with Mikayla this morning at her foster family's house. She was getting a bottle when we got there but the foster mom is so sweet she stopped feeding her so we could finish and then let us give her a little bath. It was great to just be able to hold her again and love on her. We did take a few pictures but they are not on our computer yet so those will have to wait, sorry.
Mikayla's doctor's appointment went well. She was a little wiggly for her echo, which wasn't great but she just wanted to see what was going on. After her echo we meet with the cardiologist. The doctor was very nice, which is always a blessing. Mikayla will have to have surgery on her heart it is just a matter of when. With what she has they usually do surgery between six and nine months but the doctor said in Mikayla's case he would rather see it closer to three or four months. He of course wants her to have the surgery in Wisconsin, which would kind of be crazy for us, driving five hours to stay in the hospital for one to three weeks does not sound great. He did say we could do the surgery in Rochester or Iowa City, we of course get to make that decision. We of course know that Mayo is excellent so in the long run that is probably what we will choose but we have a little time to think it over. The doctor wants to see her again in about four weeks, however we hoping that Mikayla will be in Iowa by that time so she may just see the cardiologist that we see for Jennifer, who is also very, very good. We will of course keep posting about Mikayla's heart as we know more.
We did have to laugh at the hospital today as we confused everyone. Mikayla had three parents, which really confused some people and then the nurse really wasn't sure who she should ask questions to or who Mikayla's parents were. It was kind of funny and we got a good laugh out of it. In a few weeks she will be ours and ours alone, hooray!! I will post some new pictures of both our girls when I get them on the computer, it is off to bed after a long day...

going to see Mikayla

We did not go see Mikayla over the weekend, which was hard. But tomorrow after Bill gets off of work we are getting in the car to make the trip to see sweet Mikayla. Tuesday afternoon Mikayla is having an echo and then has an appointment with the cardiologist so we are going to the doctor with her. We are going to make the drive tomorrow night so that we can go see Mikayla for a few hours Tuesday morning before heading to her appointments. I am very anxious to see our baby! I can't wait to hold her and love on her again. A week and a half is a long time to not see our daughter. Jennifer is not going to make the trip with us this time. Mikayla's appointments will probably take a few hours and we didn't really think J would do so well with all the waiting. Some good friends of ours offered to keep Jennifer and we are very thankful. Jennifer is not even going to know we are gone, she is going to have a blast with our friends. Our friends have four kids who love on Jennifer like crazy, they love letting her do whatever she wants! To be honest she will probably not want to come home Tuesday night! I will post some new pictures of Mikayla after we get back.

Here are a couple of pictures that Mikayla's foster family sent to us the other day. Some families from Pittsburgh sent Mikayla a care package! They heard about Mikayla when our adoption agency was looking for a family for her and they decided to send some stuff for her. How sweet!

Jennifer

The past few posts have been all about baby Mikayla so I decided maybe I should do a post with pictures of Jennifer! She has been doing some funny stuff lately and it is fun (most of the time) to just be with her. She continues to amaze me each day at the things she is learning and doing.

Bill wanted a haircut before we left for vacation and because it was nice we thought we do it outside. Jennifer of course thought she needed to give her baby a hair cut as well. It was really very cute.

Bill and Jennifer on their last day of school! I think I was more sad than J was on her last day. Bill made it through his first year of graduate school. His break didn't last long, he is taking a class this summer that has already started, he is in the basement now reading and taking a quiz.These pictures make me laugh. Jennifer did this a few weeks ago while I was getting ready for us to leave the house. She got into her cupboard, which is filled with her plates and bowls as well as the storage containers, and she proceeded to "set" the table. She got out all the plates, bowls and cups she could find, as well as many other containers. It really was too cute. It occupied her for the longest time and she was very proud of herself!

I decided to let Jennifer finger paint one afternoon. As you can tell she had a great time! Good thing I took her clothes off before we started!

The hotel we stayed at this weekend had a water park in it, which was very fun. Jennifer loved going down the little slides! They were just her size.

Making sure that baby sister Mikayla is ok. Once the newness of having a sister wears off Jennifer is going to be a great big sister!

more pictures

Here are a few more pictures of our time with Mikayla. We spent a few more hours with her Saturday morning and then had to kiss her good-bye until next time. It was hard to leave I must admit. She is in very good hands but it was still hard to pull myself away. After meeting Mikayla for only a few short hours we find ourselves completely in love with her and she feels like our daughter. We have had several people ask if when we will go again and I'm sure we will be making trips to Wisconsin between now and July 17th. We just won't be able to stay away.

I love this picture of our two girls. Jennifer has her arm up because she was trying to put it around Mikayla, it didn't work so well, but it is a cute picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! Bill with his two girls, just sweet!

Wide awake after we messed with her by changing her clothes about three times for pictures!

Resting in daddy's arms after a bottle. See you soon baby girl...

baby Mikayla

We loaded up this morning and made the six hour trip to Wisconsin. We got to spend about two hours with our new baby girl! She is sweet, that is all I can say sweet. Of course she slept pretty much the whole time we were there but that's what all babies do at a few weeks old. Jennifer was a little crazy. She had been in the car for six hours, only slept about twenty minutes and had a lot of energy to burn. Jennifer was all over Mikayla!! She could not keep her hands off of her sister. Of course Mikayla will have to get use to it! The family that Mikayla is staying with is such a nice family. It stinks that we cannot take her home right now but she will be in good hands until she can be with us for good. My mom was in Wisconsin this week for work, she just happen to be about twenty minutes from where Mikayla is staying. So she stayed this afternoon so she could see her new granddaughter. She is staying with us in a hotel tonight and will head home in the morning. We will probably go swimming in the morning and then head over to spend a little more time with our sweet girl. We did take some pictures this afternoon, none are that great but we wanted to share with everyone. So hopefully tomorrow we can get some better ones.

It's a girl!!!

We are loading up the car in the morning to head to Wisconsin to meet our daughter!!! Yes you read right, we have another daughter! Last week while on vacation we got an email from our social worker saying there was a baby girl that had been born and they were looking for a family for her. Our social worker wasn't sure if we were ready to dive into another situation yet but she wanted us to know there was a baby that needed a home. Bill and I talked about it and decided if there was a baby that needed a home we felt that we needed to make ourselves available and see what happens. A few weeks ago I had this huge aching in my heart that there was a baby that needed a home, that needed us. I began to pray that God would show me if that aching was from him or just something I wanted. We called the social worker and told her to send our information to Wisconsin. We got a phone call Monday afternoon saying that we had been picked to be the baby's forever family!! God made it very clear that the aching was from him, that my heart was aching for our sweet girl.

I have to be honest and say our emotions are a little all over the place. We are so very excited to think of this little baby girl joining our family. Yet we are a little bit on guard after all that happened in Michigan. This situation is a ton different than Michigan and I have a ton more peace about it but yet we never know. For now though we are preparing for this little girl to come home.

Here are a few details: Our baby was born June 1st at 4:14 in the morning. She weighed 6lb. 1oz. and was 18 in. long. She just went to the doctor on Tuesday and was up to 6lb. 6oz. so that is good. She is currently living with a foster family through our adoption agency. She will have to remain there until after the termination hearing, which is not until July 17th. So we still have a whole month before we will be able to bring her home with us. The family she is staying with is very willing to let us come and visit her though, which we are so grateful for. We cannot wait to hold her and love on her for a little bit. Right now her name is Mikayla. Bill and I go back and forth with leaving her name and changing it. We are having a hard time coming up with a girls' name! So for now she is baby Mikayla.

We will be taking lots of pictures during our visit and will post some tomorrow night or Saturday. I am very excited for Jennifer to meet her sister. It will be a little hard for her to understand everything, meeting her sister and then not getting to bring her home but I know it will be sweet none the less.

The past few days when I go to open my Bible I am drawn to Psalm 116. I read some of the verses and think "God why are you having me read this?" But yet there are some sweet verses that I know I am suppose to be reading right now: 1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. 5 The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. 6 The Lord protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. 12 How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?

I love the last verse! How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I think of starting this process about a year ago. We heard about several children during the past year and we thought for sure that two months ago we were going to bring home our son. Yet God knew all that would unfold. I have written in the margin of my Bible the words "His love endures forever". I think back over the past year and know that God has walked every step of this journey with us and He will continue to lead us down the path that only He knows, His love does endure forever. God will fulfill His promise to us from Psalm 68:6a God sets the lonely in families. May our hearts and home always be open to those that need a family...

We are coming sweet girl...

more vacation

Here are a few more pictures of our vacation. After a crazy day today I was kind of missing our relaxing, lazy days of last week.

Bill thought it would be great fun this year to bury Jennifer in the sand. Much to my surprise she actually let him! She thought it was the funniest thing. It was great to listen to her giggle the whole time Bill was putting sand around here. Once he was done and she got out of the sand, she sat back down and asked for more!

Where did all the fish go?!

Feed us uncle Bill, feed us!! I am pretty sure Ben and Connor gained a few pounds on vacation, where ever there was food they were there! Ok, so they weren't any different than the rest of us, we all ate a lot of treats!

Jennifer and Papa having a little popcorn together. Jennifer was all about having her picture taken one night. Bill was going to take our picture and Jennifer wrapped her arms around my mom and I, too sweet!Bill and my brother tubing. I wish I would have video taped the two of them laughing like little girls the whole time! It was too funny. My sister-in-law and mom were sitting on the beach and said they could hear the two of them giggling the whole time!

vacation

Sadly we are home from vacation. What a great week just relaxing and having fun with our family. Although the weather was not that great at the beginning of the trip it ended well and we were still able to have a ton of fun. Bill and Jennifer braved the cold lake water a few different times, I on the other hand was not as brave. The fishing was great, we caught lots and lots of fish, some really big fish even! Jennifer loved having her grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins around for a week. We had hoped that after a few days Jennifer would leave Ben and Connor alone a little bit, no such luck. The poor boys were mobbed by J non-stop. We took a ton of pictures, so here are just a few!

Packing up to head out the door!

Bill and Jennifer fishing one cold, cloudy afternoon.

Jennifer was not all about touching the fish, she loved looking at them while they were still in the water but once they were out, no way!

I not only caught this fish but yes I even held it!

Notice Bill standing to the side with his hood up and hands in his pockets, Jennifer didn't care that it was cold she just wanted to get in the water!

There are a few more fun pictures to share but they will wait for another day...

swimming

We went swimming today!  The first time of many this summer.  We have been trying to go the past few days and each time we get there they have already closed because not many people have been there.  Today we made sure to get there by five and we were able to go swimming!  It was a little chilly but Jennifer loved it!  It is going to be a fun summer at the pool with her.  She is very brave and excited.  As we walked in she was saying yeah, yeah, pointing to the water.  Bill and I told her we had to take our shoes off first so she just sat down right were she was to take her shoes off, too funny!  She was jumping in, walking until she couldn't touch, going between Bill and I, it was fun to watch her.  I can't wait until our next trip.

As fun as our swimming trip was, we are even more excited that in a day we will be leaving for vacation!!  Tomorrow will be spent getting the house clean, packing and baking.  Then Friday morning we will be up and on the road.  This is the third year that we have gone with my family to a cabin on the lake.  Bill and I are looking forward to a week away, just relaxing and having fun.  I think Jennifer is looking forward to spending the week with her mama, papa, Uncle Nick, Aunt Amy, Ben and Connor, some of her favorite people in the world.

Here are a few random, fun pictures of Jennifer.