Saturday

Today we have had a fairly relaxing day, which was nice. We were all up a little early, that is the down side of being in a hotel, once one person is up, everyone is up. We did a bit of everything today, trying not to stay cooped up in our room all day. Four people in a hotel room can seriously get to be a bit much. Jennifer especially thinks so. So of course we did a little swimming, found a park to play at and walked around a few stores. Now it is time for everyone to get a little sleep. Here are a few pictures of our day together...

Jennifer and Mikayla getting ready for bed tonight. Jennifer does love her sister! One of favorite things today was listening to Jennifer say "Hi sister, hi sister" to Mikayla. Too cute!

Our two sisters! Jennifer thought this afternoon that she should hold Mikayla. Slowly but surely she is getting that she cannot touch her all the time. We are going to have to keep a close eye on Mikayla for a few weeks I'm afraid. Jennifer has some happy hands as we like to them towards Mikayla.

We found a park at an elementary school this afternoon. It was a fun park with some fun stuff. A little different than your average everyday park stuff. Bill and I joked that the school must really focus on strong kids. Some of the stuff was really hard!! Here is how Mikayla enjoyed the park, sleeping in her car seat, in the stroller. It was a little chilly so she is all covered up.

Random picture of Jen, just because I thought it was cute. A rare moment when she smiled while I took her picture.

Tomorrow we are off to find more "stuff" to do...

great day!

Both of the girls are sleeping soundly after a busy day. We were up early to get on the road to Mikayla. The ride went quickly, yet long, sounds weird I know. We wanted to get to Mikayla but of course there was that nervousness in the back of our minds, the what if. Right as we walked in the door of the foster families house the phone began to ring. The social worker gave the word that everything was done and Mikayla was ours!! I think Bill and I both breathed a sigh of relief, what an exciting phone call to get. We spent some time hanging out at in our hotel room, then we went out to eat as a family, ran to the store to grab a few things for both girls and then it was back to the hotel. Jennifer of course wanted to go swimming so she even got to do that today. A sister and swimming in the same day, life is good for J! After an exciting and busy day our girls are sleeping soundly. What a great feeling to have us all together at last, it may be a hotel room but at least we are together, as a family for the first night.

Our first pictures together as a forever family!!

Jennifer enjoying some swim time with dad! She loves swimming, it is very fun to watch her. She of course thought Mikayla should swim as well!

Our first night with Mikayla! She is sleeping so soundly, it is great to finally get to put her to bed!

Hope you all sleep well tonight, even if we don't get much sleep it will be a great night...

family of four!!

We are together as a family of four!!!!! What a great day it is for the McLeland's. We arrived at the foster families house just as the social worker was calling to say that they were done at court. Everything went well and Mikayla was ours!! We were able to load Mikayla up and leave together today, what a great feeling. It is such as joy for us to finally be able to just be together, all four of us. Jennifer is loving to have her baby sister close yet it is going to take some getting use to for her, she is not going to be the center of everything anymore, which may be a little hard for her. We are rejoicing in this day and cherishing the sweet moments as a forever family! I will post of pictures later this evening after we have settled in more for the evening. I just had to share our sweet news with everyone!

excited yet overwhelmed

In forty-eight hours we should be in a hotel, as a family of four. Hard to believe I know. Can you be excited and overwhelmed at the same time? That is what I am feeling right now. I am beyond excited to make the trip to Wisconsin on Friday. I am beyond excited to get to bring Mikayla with us for the first time, to put her in her car seat, to get to feel like she is finally, really ours. But yes I am a little overwhelmed. We were finally able to find a hotel room for three nights, it is amazing how difficult it was. Everything was either full or crazy expensive! My sweet husband to the rescue, he started just calling places and found us a room, hooray! We still have details to work out for next week. I am hoping to be home by Thursday but that is not a grantee and we have a sweet big sister to worry about. To stay with me or come home with Bill that is the question. While chatting with a friend tonight she reminded me not to let the little things consume me. Friday is suppose to be a great day for our family to cherish, she reminded me not to miss that by worrying about all that I think I need to get figured out. As I have been trying to figure out life the the past few days I keep hearing the words "be still" in my head. Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God". I need to remember Who has everything under control!! It's certainly not me, I'm not sure why I keep worrying about things over and over again. I need to take a deep breath and just enjoy these days, everything will work itself out. I just read these verses and had to smile Psalm 89:9 You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. When life becomes crazy and I think it is out of control there is One who can calm the storm and make things still. As I take one more deep breath I find myself a little less overwhelmed and a lot more excited!!

almost...

We are back after spending some sweet time with Mikayla. Jennifer and I got to visit her four days in a row, it was great! We had a great time with my mom and of course Jennifer was very excited to see her dad Thursday afternoon, along with grammie. Mikayla is growing, which is hard because we see her changing but don't get to be a part of that change everyday yet. As we drove home Friday afternoon all I could think about was when we go back next week we get to take her with us! I am hoping that this week goes by quickly so we can go get our baby for good. Here are a few new pictures from our time with Mikayla.

Jennifer has not seen Mikayla since our first trip to meet her, which was a few weeks ago. She was very excited to see her sister again! It was sweet, when we pulled up the foster families house she jumped out of the car and started jumping up and down in the driveway yelling Mikayla, Mikayla! Jennifer and Mama checking out Mikayla.Giving Mikayla a bath. It fun to be able to give Mikayla a bath. She loved it, which is good because her big sister will be wanting her to play in the water lots!All bundled up after her bath.
Meeting grammie for the first time. Of course grammie thought she was pretty sweet.Having a little quiet time with daddy after a busy morning. Just four more days and Mikayla will get to be with her forever family. We can't wait!!

off to Wisconsin

I need to be packing right now but really have no motivation. In the morning Jennifer and I are going to be traveling to Wisconsin with my mom, hooray! My mom has to go for work so she thought we could ride along and see Mikayla. We will get to see Mikayla tomorrow and Thursday for a little bit, I am very excited to see her. My mom will leave sometime on Thursday and Bill will make the trip on Thursday, with his mom. So Jennifer and I will hang out at the hotel Thursday afternoon and then we will see Mikayla on Friday as well.
This week will be the last time that we have to go and "visit" Mikayla. A week from Friday we will be making the trip to get Mikayla. We are counting down the days and getting ready for her to come home. We are getting clothes out and getting her room ready. We will get to take Mikayla into our care on the 17th, meet with the social worker on the 20th and then I will have to stay in Wisconsin a few days until all the paper work is official. (Bill has a beyond busy week the week of the 20th and I won't be home, it should be interesting for him!)
I will hopefully have some new pictures to post this weekend of the girls!

pictures of the girls

Here are a few pictures of Mikayla and Jennifer just as I promised. Mikayla does looks big in the pictures but she is still little to us. She weighed 7lbs. 5oz. yesterday at her appointment.

Ready for her big day at the doctor. Don't you love the little hat?! She looks sweet in it.

Sleeping soundly on mommy after a bottle and a bath.

Getting a little sponge bath before heading to the doctor. Oh how we love our time with our sweet girl, even if it is for just a little while.

I had to include a few funny pictures of Jen as well. We got a "new" to us washer and dryer and before taking them inside we decided to clean them off a little bit. Jennifer thought it would be great to hop in the dryer, it was kind of funny. She sat in there for the longest time, singing away.
One afternoon last week while Jennifer went to the park with a friend I was in the basement painting doors. I needed to get one more coat on a few of the doors and thought I would get it done before Bill got home from work. Jennifer was back from the park so I thought I would let her paint while I painted. I set up the easel and gave her some paints. I looked over a few minutes later to find this...

Jennifer decided to pretty much paint her entire body!! All I could do was laugh. I did set myself up I guess, leaving her free to do what as she pleased with paint! The paint is washable so it did come off after some time in the pool and a bath!

I look at these pictures and am reminded to cherish each moment, no matter how little.