Looking back...

As we prepare for a new baby to come home I find myself looking back over the past almost four years of Jennifer's life. I was going through a tub of clothes this afternoon, looking for a few boy things that I knew we had, and as I looked at some of Jennifer's old clothes I was taken back to when she was just a tiny little baby. I was holding stuff up to Bill and remembering when Jennifer wore this or that and remembering little things about certain outfits. (I think Bill thought I was a little silly!) It kind of made me sad to think of how big she is now. Going to school, potty training, wanting to do everything herself! As I was looking back at our sweet daughter's stuff I quickly became excited about all the memories we will have with our new baby. A year from now I will be looking back and remembering when he was born, his first days our home, when he started rolling over, the list will go on and on. I can't wait for our baby to be born, so he can start making new memories for our family.

A few pictures

Here are a few new pictures of Jennifer. I love the first one. She would really be a cute model/spokesperson wouldn't she? The girl loves her chips, so she was very excited to pose for this picture. If you can tell in her other hand is a hot dog. Jennifer's favorite meal: hot dog and chips. As you can tell by this picture Jennifer really wanted to go outside. She got on her hat and mittens all by herself and then came to show Bill and I. It was very cute, she however was not so cute when we told her she was not going outside.
Finally it was warm enough to be outside! The past couple of days have been even warmer than this day, Jennifer is loving the outside!

I of course think this is one of the best pictures. Jennifer is just getting out of the bath at mama and papa's house, to her life couldn't get any better. She usually hates to get out of the bath so this is a rare picture of her.

I don't really have anything new to share about our adoption.  We were able to talk with the birth mom's social worker a few days ago and that was a great conversation.  We have been trying to get some stuff done around our house to prepare for the baby.  It is still hard for us to believe that in about a month we will have a baby boy!

Baby McLeland

I had been waiting to post this but the word is getting out so I thought I should share. We are having a baby!!!! We have been chosen by a mom to be the forever family for her baby!!! We found out late last week and have slowly been sharing our exciting news (we actually found out a few days after I typed the "waiting" post). Our baby will be born at the end of April, so needless to say we are very excited about the fact that we will get to have the baby right after he is born. Our hope is that I will get to be there when the baby is born (the mom has said that she would like for me to be in the deliver room)! We do know that the baby will be a boy, that is funny to type, a boy! We have been so use to just a girl for almost four years that I'm not sure we will know what to do with a boy. There is a lot that needs to done around our house before a baby can home but I'm sure it will all get done before he arrives home.

There are of course a few uncertainties of how the next month will unfold. There is always the chance that the birth mom could change her mind and want to keep the baby. Which as hard as that will be for us, it would be a sweet decision for the mom. There is also the chance that the baby will not have Down syndrome, which in that case the mom will probably keep the baby (she has had some sort of testing done but that can always be wrong). So as excited as we are, we are also guarding our hearts a little bit, waiting to see how everything unfolds. As the next days and weeks unfold we will simply pray and trust God that he knows what will happen. As we find out more information I will be share with you all! Thanks for praying with and for us and for being a part of our journey!

funny morning

Jennifer was just being funny this morning. When Bill came home for lunch this afternoon we smiling about it still. Jennifer decided to sleep in this morning, which was actually kind of nice for us all, Bill has not been feeling well and none of us have been sleeping well so it was great to get the extra rest. After waking up Jennifer decides we need a book in bed so goes out to the living room and brings back to our room her Bible, her favorite book to read in bed, why I'm not sure but it is cute. So she throws the Bible in the bed, crawls over Bill and gets herself set. She then opens her Bible and just starts reading. I wish you all could hear her reading, it is really one of the best things in this world. You cannot understand anything she says but I could watch and listen to her for hours while she is looking at books. She then decided she needed a different book so she tells me "I be right back". To get the whole effect of her saying this you have to picture her pointing her index finger and leaning forward, it is darn cute. She comes back with a Froggy book. Climbs back into bed and reads this book. She can however really read these book. She yells "Frooooggggy! What". Bill and I were cracking up as she kept on reading. Then she was hugging and kissing us and telling us all sorts of great stuff. I truly love mornings like this one. We didn't have to rush anywhere (although we were almost late for speech later in the morning because of all relaxing) and it was great to have some snuggle time in bed! I wish every morning was this way, I know I will have to keep wishing, tomorrow is a school day and those are not always so pretty at our house!

Waiting...

Have you ever wanted something, really wanted something but had to wait for a while to get it? You know that waiting can be hard, you just want to get whatever it is so you can stop waiting, worrying and wanting.
I have had several people ask recently if we have heard anything about adoption and so I thought I would just let everyone know we are waiting. And I have to say waiting is hard. I was talking with a friend last night who has also adopted and we began to discuss how much harder the waiting is when you adopt verse when you are pregant. When you are pregant you know about when the baby will come, the baby is always with you, you feel it moving and you prepare yourself for the birth. With adoption we don't know when our baby will be born or even where our baby will be born. We simply anticipate an email or phone call saying that a mother likes our profile or that a baby was born that needs a home. The waiting is hard.
However there are lessons in the waiting, lessons that have changed our hearts, opened our eyes and made us grow. So although the waiting is hard we are thankful for the lessons we are learning. Throughout this process when my heart is breaking and aching for a child I am often brough back to the fact that God knows our family best, He knows who our next child is, where he will come from, when he will be born. God knows who baby McLeland will be and I need to let go and trust, which is not always easy. But oh the peace that comes from letting go and trusting it makes the waiting a little easier...

More pictures

Look at us one big happy family on vacation!

What a cute picture of Jennifer and Bill. We went to see the manatees one afternoon and Jennifer spent a lot of time on Bill's shoulders. I love this picture of them!

Jennifer would love to drive a car. If she is put in a vehicle, not in her carseat, she always goes for the drivers seat. She thought grandma's convertible was very cool. (So did Bill and I as we drove around with the top down, windows up and heat on high!)

Jennifer likes to dress up so grandma got some dress up clothes for Jennifer to play with while we were at her house. I had to put this picture on for Jennifer's friend Ellie who loves to pretend and play princess (Ellen, Ellie would love this dress!)

At the beach

Here are some pictures of us at the beach. As you can see it was slightly chilly, but that didn't stop Jennifer from getting the water. The third picture down is my favorite. As the wave came up Jennifer was walking in, the wave didn't stop her, she would have kept on walking had grandma not stopped her. The fourth picture down is after all the playing, a soaking wet Jennifer. The last picture is our attempt to get her warm again. We of course did not have extra clothes because we were not expecting to get wet. So Jennifer has on grandma's socks, which act as pants and grandma's hooded sweatshirt for a shirt. She is really looking good! At least she was warm.