Oregon - Day One

I'll start with the positives.

Noah had his first airplane ride today! (One more item off the Life List). Aside from one little over-tired meltdown, he did fairly well. What I love about going out in public with him is seeing how people react to him. SO many people smile and wave and make faces at him. I just love my social baby! The folks around us on the plane were friendly and kept him entertained from afar at times.

It's a 3.5 hour flight from Texas to Oregon so I was stocked on bottles and toys. Changing a diaper in the lavatory was laughable though. If you think you have a hard enough time just using the restroom in those things try changing a baby's diaper.

Daddy and Noah on the plane

Once we arrived in Portland and got on the road, we found the nearest Babies R Us to get Noah's bed, an umbrella stroller and stock up on diapers, wipes, etc. Then first stop - teriyaki! Nothing tastes as a good as a teriyaki bowl in the Northwest. The husband found a local mom and pop place for us to stop (using Yelp of course) and we shared a table with a couple from Tyler, TX who were now retired in Oregon.

We're staying in Hillsboro for two nights which is just West of Portland. Our friends aren't expected to arrive until late tonight so we spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel and found a quaint cafe for dinner.

As for the not-so-positives...

I can't say it was one thing in particular. Like I mentioned, the "getting there" part of traveling stresses me out, so running on a few hours of sleep and then being corralled through the airports and into a hotel is wearing on me. Plus, as a mom, when Noah has the slightest meltdown I start beating myself up about taking him away from his home and royally screwing up his schedule. It's been an emotional roller coaster and it's only day one. I honestly considered paying the $150 change fee and flying straight back home.

Just need to get some sleep and things should look better in the morning...

Next: Day Two

Noah's Adoption Pool Party!

In good summer fashion, we celebrated Noah's finalization this weekend with a pool party! My sweet boy was a true champ and enjoyed nearly every minute of the attention. Even better, our assumptions were confirmed...we have a water baby on our hands! Saturday was Noah's first time in the pool and he was ecstatic! (Crossing off another item from his Life List - a pretty easy one at that)

With family and close friends over, we grilled out and just relaxed and enjoyed watching the 12+ kids all swimming.

Now for my Pinterest recipe of the week: Sand Pudding. I came across this and wanted to do something special for the kiddos at the party. They ravaged it! I also found the small tin buckets in Target's $1 section so each kid got to take home their little pail. I'm not super mom when it comes to themes and parties, but I do like to throw a little special touch in every now and then.

As for Noah...since we were staying at the in-laws due to AC issues...he went swimming again on Sunday and then again on Monday. Yep, total water baby!

Finalization

When the husband and I got married, the best advice someone gave me was to remember to soak in everything and not forget to just enjoy the day. The same can definitely be applied to adoption.

It seems like ages ago that we were in the Gladney nursery waiting to meet Noah for the first time. On the day, we were in the moment and I remember relishing every minute BEFORE we held him in our arms. It's like an out of body experience to count down your final seconds as a parent-less couple...not many people have that luxury. But at the same time, each minute was painstakingly slow because of the anticipation of meeting our son who we had waited for so long. I remember everything about that day.

Fast forward 5 months (give or take) and already we found ourselves this past Friday at the family courthouse standing in front of a judge and walking out with Noah as our legal son.

I tried my best to "soak everything in" - and I'll remember alot about the day - but we were definitely in uncharted waters so I worked hard to keep any stress down. The end result was still the same! AND we get to cross off Noah's #1 item on his Life List!

So here's an overview of the day:

Our appointment was around noon to be at the family courthouse downtown. The reason we have not legally been Noah's parents for the last 5-6 months is because the adoption agency gives you that time to a.) make sure that they are satisfied with you as the parents and b.) that we as the parents are satisfied with the placement. So during that time we're more like stewards of the agency caring for the baby. The court hearing, as described to us, is the adoptive parents "suing" Gladney for custody of the child. Nicely suing, of course.We used Gladney's recommended lawyer and 99% of our interaction with her offices was via mail - verifying documents, sending in final fees, etc.

Both our parents, my brother and my best friend were able to take the afternoon to come to the hearing. As we walked into the courthouse and onto the floor we were directed to, there were several other families scattered about that were all there for the same reasons. The husband and I were taken aside by one of the lawyers to sign a couple more documents and for a brief overview of what would happen in the courtroom.

A few pics of the family waiting around:

My brother and I

The Grandmas

The husband with Noah and Grandpa

My parents

Best Friend!

Once the courtroom was opened, all of the waiting families piled in at once and just as you'd expect, the bailiff had us all rise for the judge. They had the entire front of the room and the judge's stand covered with an array of stuffed animals and one by one they began to call the adoptive families up. We were fourth to be called. They let everyone from the family come and stand before the judge, who was handed each baby. Noah was very excited to see what was going on behind the stand and of course play with the judge's gavel. (She kept calling him the perfect Gerber baby.) The husband and I were sworn in and our lawyer/representative asked the husband all the hard questions (not really) and I was asked to affirm. And that was it! We were invited to come up behind the stand and take pictures with the judge.

On the way out, they let us choose a stuffed animal for Noah. When we first walked into the courtroom, I had my eye on a cute monkey but the first adoptive mom took it for her son. They had plenty of teddy bears and regular-looking stuffed animals, but I wanted to be sure to get something special. So I zoned in on this cute hedgehog-looking animal and was excited to be able to pick it out! We're not sure if it's a hedgehog or a porcupine so I'm either calling it a "porkyhog" or "hedgepine". LOL!

And of course, like the foodies we all are, we went to lunch afterward (Noah had a good nap on the way).

I'm so thankful for our families and was glad that we were smart enough to invite them to this special day. It ended up not being as stressful as I'd imagined and like the day we first met Noah, I will never forget his Finalization Day.

Batter Up!

Today we get to cross off a portion of one of Noah's Life List items!! Woot!

We've had tickets to a Ranger's game for several weeks now and thanks to Gladney, we had a nice discount for the "all-you-can-eat" section of The Ballpark. Since it was technically a Gladney event, we decided to bring Noah along for the ride to experience his first professional baseball game.

He was pretty cute in his Ranger's gear.

Our baby boy was cute, sweaty and completely overwhelmed.  Noah's typically a very sociable, curious baby so we were wondering how he would react to the crowds. Well...

Noah - 1
Mom & Dad - 0

Poor little guy broke down in tears every time the crowd erupted into cheers or if the announcements came on too suddenly. It was also a combination of the heat as well so off went his little shirt and we spent the remainder of the game taking turns walking him around where we could catch a breeze. He also made do by obsessively sucking on ice through a little washcloth that I'd brought.

 

So note to self, we're not taking Noah back to a game until he's a little older. Also, we must invest in a stash of personal misters pronto.

Great memory though and will be fun to look back on one day!

Life List

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions. Maybe it's a fear of failure or that I'm mostly a private person when it comes to sharing goals or dreams for my life and I prefer to keep them to myself. Who knows? After thinking it over, I realized that there's nothing really too poetic or scary about letting people know about some of the realistic and maybe unrealistic things that I would like to accomplish or experience in my life. For instance, one thing I would like to do before I "kick the bucket" is sky dive!

Wait for it.....wait for it......

There, that wasn't so hard. I've accepted the fact that people I may never meet now know about this secret ambition of mine. For those of you that do know me, perhaps this is an opportunity for us to do more things or have ambitions together.

I've been inspired over the last couple of months to actually make a list and thanks to one blogger's post (Chookooloonks), I've been released from the pressure of feeling bad if I'm unable to complete something. She also provides some great guidelines on how to make a list and what to leave off.

On that same note, I wrote last month about a little girl named Avery (see post here) whose parents created a growing bucket list for her as she did not have very long to live on this Earth. Sadly, Avery passed away April 30th at just 5 months old and although her list stemmed from having SMA, I feel compelled to make one for Noah. He is healthy and happy but I too want him to experience everything life has to offer.

Instead of calling it a bucket list, we're going to call them "life lists". And while the goal is to write down at least 100 things, I can guarantee that Noah's list will be much longer. Plus, I certainly plan on his to be ever-changing and growing. Since I'm the one creating it, it's obvious that these are the things I, as his mom, am hopeful for him to experience. Hopefully when he's a little older, he will help me add to or subtract from the list. (For reference, I'm purposefully leaving out goals such as potty training, walking, etc...what the average human being will eventually accomplish as he/she grows.)

Here are the links:

Mom's Life List

Noah's Life List


I'm excited to put these together! For now it's a work in progress but it will be fun to update and write about each one we cross off as we go along.