Spring!

This week has been pretty rough on all of us. Jacob came down with a double ear infection early on in the week. Our sleep patterns have been greatly disrupted. But he is showing signs of improvement for which we are very happy!


We have made steps towards the finalization of adopting Jacob. We hope to have Jacob officially adopted in April. We are excited to be at this last stage of the adoption process.

Spring is officially here (as of yesterday) and winter is no longer appreciated to be around (in my opinion). Todays weather was probably the best so far in '09. We spent some time outside doing yard work...my hands are quite sore. There is lots more spring clean up to do, but it was good to get a start at it today. Jacob sat so nicely in his stroller, watching the cars go by and mom & dad work.

It's good to be home together...since Tuesday Nate and I have basically been on our own with Jacob while the other worked. Now we can spend some quality relaxation time watching college hoops. Both of our brackets are quite similar - we even both picked the same team to win it all...UNC. I didn't pick too many upsets, but one we both picked was Wisconsin! Way to go Badgers. Take it to Xavier too! Can I pull off a double upset with the WI? We'll see.

Posted below are some pictures I took of Jacob on the first day of Spring...he's so stinking cute in his new hat!

Of course Nate had Jacob decked out in a MI state shirt!

Do you see his two teeth on the bottom? I believe he is working on two more on the bottom. His gums looked quite swollen...poor guy.

It won't be long and he'll be crawling.

Hammin' it up for the camera.

Too cute! We're ready for summer!

Once he saw the 'red eye' lamp on the camera come on he would get all giggly and smiley.

changes happening!

What's happened lately? Jacob has cut two teeth in the last two weeks, he has learned to sit up completely by himself and puts his hand down when he gets off balance. (Occassionaly he topples over unharmed.) He is taking less naps during the day and continues to amaze us at how happy and excited he continues to be.

We also can turn himself in circles when laying on his belly. It won't be long until he figures out he can move forward! We need to baby proof our house! Baby gates, outlet plugs...those will be purchased and put to use soon!

Last week we received an email from one of the grants we received stating that the donor of our grant wanted to send us a gift basket. We received the basket on Saturday and were completely overwhelmed and taken back by the generosity of a 22 year old college student (her parents adopted her as an infant & her brother) who raised money to support our adoption! It is truly an incredible story and we give thanks to God. The grant matches up people who want to give money to help with an adoption to families in financial need. This young woman wants to be an elementary education teacher and when she read our story she knew we were the family she wanted to help!

Jacob tried some peas. Here's one of his reactions!

We had a very pretty snow on Sunday with big flakes. Jacob really hadn't interacted with snow, so we put him in his booster with a pile of snow. He didn't quite know what to do with it!