We Have A Date!

I was on Pinterest the other night holding Capper while the rest of the world slept and I came across a photo whose caption described the photo as displaying the, "Vulnerability and fierce proudness felt in those early days of motherhood." It really seemed to capture the essence of our home right now, and to a lesser extent, our home ever since deciding to adopt Anellah. We love our kids and are so proud to call them (and soon be able to call them) our own but how daunting the task of raising them! It's truly by God's grace that we've not only survived but Anellah has flourished. So far Capper is doing pretty well too!

But here's the news you really checked the blog to hear: Anellah's last foster care court hearing occurred today, by the end of the month Anellah's case will be transferred to the San Francisco County Adoptions Unit! The next court date is set for August 6th. As long as there are no hang-ups between now and then (and none of us see anything being an issue) then on August 6th Anellah will officially become a Royal!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll start the party planning now, who wouldn't want to have a dance party with this kid?

On the 12th Day of Life...

It's been almost two weeks already! I can't believe it! We are FAR from having any sort of regular schedule but I think that has as much to do with having company for the past three weeks as having a new baby. My Mom flew down on January 8th to help out with Anellah in case the baby came early, we spent the week going on lots of walks and enjoying the last few days before our family of three grew to four. A week later my Dad flew down. Evidently Capper just wanted to wait until Grandpa arrived because I had started having contractions the night before he came.

As you know, Capper was born on January 17th. We spent one night in the hospital and asked to leave the next day, they let us go because we were both healthy. It's funny because as we were leaving the hospital our friends were driving there to have THEIR baby girl who was born on the 19th.

My parents stayed until the 22nd, then we had two days without Grandparents then we were joined by the OTHER Grandparents! Daniel's parents arrived on the 25th, his Dad left this morning but his Mom will be here until February 1st. We have been so blessed to have our family join us, I haven't had to cook in WEEKS and Anellah has gotten special attention. I think having the Grandparents here has made the transition easier for her although jealousy has started to set in a bit.

Since coming home from the hospital we've been enjoying spending time with Grandparents and getting to know Capper. We still have a lot to learn about each other but I am loving every moment. Being parents of two has solidified the stage of life we are in. It has changed our perspective on what's important, and it has convinced me that without this little bundle of joy our lives would never have been complete!

Big Sister Loves to Help!

One Week Old

Special Singing Time with Grandma A

Holding Baby Brother

Farmers Market

Grandma A Made Matching Hats!

Our First Sunday As a Family of Four- We've run out of laps to sit on!!

 

Firsts

Soon I will write a "real" post but for now I'll suffice it to say that we are so happy to be the parents of Capper William Royal who was born Tuesday morning at 12:33am. He weighed 7.0 pounds and was 21 inches long. We're all home from the hospital as of yesterday and doing well.

Last Belly Photo!

First Moments

First Time Away from Mom's Body Heat (15 Minutes Old)

First Night? First Day? I don't remember, it's all a blur.

First Time meeting Sister

First Family Photo

First Bath

After First Bath

First Time Meeting Sister (Anellah LOVES her little brother, "Baby Nameless")

First Champagne

First Indian Food (on the way home from the hospital)

An End In Sight!

As I'm sure you've figured out, we don't have much baby news yet! We're still waiting for the little guy to decide he's ready to make his appearance. He was due this past Tuesday (January 10th) but doesn't seem very interested in leaving his cozy home. The great news is that I feel fine and I'm not really in any rush to evict him. BUT, on the other hand, my Mom (who is here now) and Dad (who comes this Sunday) will be leaving on January 22nd and don't want to miss meeting their new grandson and Daniel goes back to work on January 20th.

In the past I had been very opposed to being induced but as we've read and thought more about it I'm a lot more open to the idea. Since my hospital only schedules a certain number of inductions per day I went ahead and scheduled one. Hopefully we'll have a baby in our arms soon without any medical intervention soon but in case he decides to be stubborn like his parents, we'll definitely have a baby by Wednesday January 18th!

In the meantime, in true Lindsey spirit, my Mom and I are keeping very busy crafting, walking, shopping, cleaning, cooking, and running errands. Anellah is LOVING getting to be with grandma and I don't think my Mom minds being with her too much either. Anellah is still going to preschool/daycare Tuesday through Friday to keep her schedule consistent and because she is only allowed to miss a limited number of days but will take a couple days off when the baby is born.

Did I mention we live in Oakland, CA which has the best weather in the world??

How is this the only recent photo I have of Anellah? I'll work on that!!

Looking back and looking forward

Looking back through 2011 I am remembering that January of last year was when God really began to lay it on our hearts that adoption might be His plan for our lives. So much has changed since then as it now seems crazy to think about taking Anellah out of this family!

I am so blessed by all the ways God used you during this past year as there were some super-fun times and a period of "survival." God taught me how to rely on Him and how to accept help from others. I am hoping that this next year doesn't include that kind of teaching, but I'm definitely excited for the different challenges we'll face.

We're pretty much ready to welcome Scorpion Tornado home, as ready as one can be to welcome home an infant for the first time at least! Now we'll just wait and see when he decides to arrive. In the meantime we've all be spending some quality time together celebrating Christmas and enjoying being together with hardly anything on the calendar. Here are some photos to show you what we've been up to:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls

Christmas Morning Presents

More Presents!

Using our new Zoo Membership, the dirt was the best part!

Our fabulous babysitter, Kerianne, came to the zoo too to help out since I was having an exhausting couple of days.

Sorting through baby boy clothes, we have been super blessed with gifts of clothes! These are ALL from the same person!!

Countdown and Cookies

It's getting close, close to Christmas, close to the end of the year, and close to Christmas. Scorpion Tornado is now considered full term which means he could come any day. According to my doctor we probably still have a couple weeks which is good news because we're in no hurry to have our hands more full!!

I'm trying to focus on enjoying this extra time with just the three of us but I am pretty good at distracting myself from what really matters- the present. Nevertheless, I think just an awareness of how precious these moments are is a start. Today Anellah and I tried to potty train, it felt like a failure of a day but in reality it meant we spent A LOT of time together and she enjoyed it because I was almost 100% focused on her all day. Daniel and I have also been going on lots of lunch dates on his days off which are fun and special since it won't be so easy to be spontaneous in a few weeks.

Yesterday we had fun with our friends Lindsay (my friend from growing up in Fall City) and her daughter, Katy. We made over 300 cookies to give away and just had a good time being together. If you want some cookies feel free to stop by!!

In case I don't post again before then, Merry Christmas every one! 

Childcare Approved!!

I received the following email from Anellah's social worker today, 

Hi Lindsey -

Just got word yesterday that the childcare funding was approved again!   Why can't anything so right be so easy!!  We'll resubmit the paperwork today.
Kimberly   

I read it three times before believing it. So simple? I only made phone calls, I didn't write letters or go to court. Thank you, God!

In other praise: 

Anellah is loving preschool! We went again today for about an hour and tomorrow she'll go to two hours (one hour with me and one hour alone). Tuesday she will be there for three hours (one hour with me, two hours alone). The location is very set on a SLOW transition time but I think that may be more for their staff than for Anellah. Regardless, she'll do great.

Anellah is also really working on her speaking skills! Yesterday she said, "Moon! Moon! I SEE Moon!" Here's a photo of her at speech therapy this morning. It looks like hard work doesn't it?

In Baby News: Last night we went to visit the Birth Center at Alta Bates where we'll be having Scorpion Tornado (ie. Baby). It made things really real!