Texas Day One

Texas Day One – September 20^th, 2012

Day One of our adventure started really early! After staying up too late the night before with last minute packing, visitors, and nerves, 4:15am alarm seemed like it rang way too soon! Amber was sleeping on the couch because Jeff’s parents were staying in her room for the night. The alarm clock rang and we all sprang into action. We let buddy boy sleep as long as possible, much easier to haul our luggage around without taking turns passing the baby. Plus he had slept so good the night before we knew he would be starving when he woke up. Amber woke up with no problem; she was so excited to get the show on the road! She was nervous about flying too, but more excited than anything. We woke up little man, fed, changed, clean jammies, and loaded him in the car seat. He was all smiles of course. I wonder if he thought something was out of the ordinary. There usually are not so many people at the house scurrying around at 5am. We loaded the cars, picked up my Mom from her house next door, and headed to the airport. We had received an email the night before that our flight would be delayed about 40 minutes but they suggested still arriving on time in case they were able to move things along quicker.

 

All in all, I think we did pretty good getting through security – all seven of us. An infant, a nine year old, 5 adults – 2 non-flyers. We did fail security the first time through. My MIL had hair gel in her carry-on and apparently I was packing too much Desitin. A crime, I know. Well, my mother in law took the items and was going to backtrack to the ticket counter to see if we could put the items in our suitcase. When she came back she was trying to talk to me through the glass wall, well, I could not hear her so I opened the door, maybe 2 inches. You would have thought I had committed the biggest crime of the century! The security workers started yelling at me “You must go out the door! Once the door is open, you must go out!” Well I calmly told them that I had already gone through security, my id and boarding pass were with the other members of our party at our gate. Well, they didn’t care, they made me go through the door, only to wait at security for my mother in law to pass security (after we threw our liquids away cause the plane was already loaded), she then had to go dig out my boarding pass and ID and bring them back to me so I could proceed. It’s a good thing our airport is so very small, or it would have been an even bigger debacle. But, the good news is that we made it, and we were ready to board our first flight!!

 

It is only a 45 minute flight from our home to Charlotte, NC so once we got seated and leveled out good it was time to start our descent already. Amber loved flying! She thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever! She had a window seat next to Jeff, Johnny & Debbie sat behind Mom and I, and Caleb sat with us as a lap baby. He was the PERFECT flying companion! Seriously, I could not have planned it any more perfect! He took a bottle on take-off, slept the entire flight, awoke when we landed. He actually did this on all four flights this weekend! Others on the plane commented that he was so quiet they didn’t even realize there was a baby on the account! That’s my boy!J

 

We landed in Charlotte and had over an hour to burn before our next flight to San Antonio. We grabbed some breakfast (breakfast burrito at Salsaritos!!), let Caleb stretch, and play on a blanket on the floor, and then it was about time to board. This was a 2.5 hour flight, all went well, but we all were ready for the plane to land! Except Caleb, cause he was still sleeping so good. We landed in beautiful San Antonio at 1pm (their time), and after locating our luggage went to the car rental counter where I had reserved our 2 vehicles. We ended up with 2 cars because all 7 of us and our luggage could not fit in one comfortably. We hopped on a tram that dropped us off at the car lot and we loaded our GPS with our next destination. Lunch…..at Bill Miller’s BBQ. Jeff and I had eaten there on our first trip in January and we had enjoyed it so much and were looking forward to it again. We didn’t waste any time.

After lunch we headed to our adoption agency to drop off our final 6mo report including pics and doc report on Caleb. We also wanted the family to meet the ladies at the agency, and of course they wanted to love on sweet baby Caleb. They scooped him up right away, although he gave them his little head drop/shy look. We stayed and talked for a few minutes and they said they would welcome us back when we were ready to adopt again. J

From there, we headed to find our rental house. We were very pleased with our house! It was a great, new neighborhood and the house was clean and beautifully decorated. It was spacious, nice and cool inside, and the furniture was very comfortable. I had communicated with the house owner beforehand and wouldn’t you know it, out of all the houses I researched, I chose the one whose owners were also adoptive parents! How cool is that? She was able to share our joy with first hand experience. Caleb loved the carpet and he is oh so close to crawling! I don’t think it will be long now. Eek.

We settled in to the house, unpacked and lounged for a bit then it was time to meet D. and her husband T. for dinner at the Alamo Café. Oh boy, that restaurant was great! They make their own tortillas and they were scrumptious. It was great to catch up with them, although the meal was over way too soon. We hugged each other so tightly, we had been through so much in the last 6 months. She looked fantastic! It was soooo good to hear her laugh!

 

 

After dinner I returned her baby blanket and bear from her childhood that she had given to us on our first visit this year. She had given them to us since she had chosen us to raise her child, it was to be a sweet gift for baby. But, since our story was written differently, she needs those items back, because one day she will have a little bundle in her arms that will love those precious items.

 

After a very long day, lots of emotions and excitement, we drove home, all of us dozing in the car. Well, except for Jeff, our driver. LOL And what trip out of town would be complete without a trip (or 4) to Walmart??? We made a quick stop (remember the Desitin that I had to toss?) and grab a few food items for the house. Then we finally made it to the house and settled in for the rest of the night. We were gonna need a good nights sleep, cause the next was was COURT!!!

 

To be continued......

6 months!

Oh my gracious, Buddy Boy is 6 months old!!! This has been the fastest six months of my life! Now that we have finally turned the corner on the sleep situation, I am actually remembering more of each passing day. Ha-ha I will be the first to admit, I totally and completely underestimated the whole sleep deprivation thing. I will also admit that it has been 100% totally and completely worth it. Even if I did go to work with mismatched socks/shoes, etc. I only fell asleep at my desk once, but thankfully I don’t think anyone noticed. Caleb continues to thrive and has the sweetest personality. We feel so blessed and often say “Not only were we chosen for a healthy baby, but he is so handsome AND so good and sweet!” He does love to be held but also loves to spend time in his various activities. He loves his exersaucer, Johnny jump up, and lately just rolling around on the floor with his toys. At his recent 6mo well-baby checkup the Doc was impressed by how well he is sitting up so straight. He had to show off his tricks: picking up small toys, passing them from one hand to the other, then to his mouth, holding items above his head, leaning forward while sitting to reach a toy and then sitting back up again without toppling over. He finally made it up to the 25% in weight!! Yay!!! And it did my Mommy heart good to hear her say that even though he is on the small side he is beyond his age developmentally. Tears started to sting my eyes, isn’t that silly? Oh, and by the way, I absolutely adore our pediatrician’s office. There are several doctors in the practice, and I love them all. They are so kind and patient and are great with the babies as well as Amber’s age. They never look at me funny when I have questions that probably sound stupid. They understood when I burst into tears when they sent us to the hospital when Caleb was 8 weeks old. And they all have shared in our joy over our adoption. If you are not 100% satisfied with your Pediatrician, find another one. Makes all the difference.

Jeff’s parents bought Caleb a Cars themed walker that has a honking horn, steering wheel, and turn signals that beep. Super cute and he loves it! He loves to lay down on the horn and then looks around and grins. He can not go forward in the walker yet, but he is good at going backwards across the floor. LOL I’m glad we don’t have carpet in our main living areas anymore; I think he will really be able to ZOOM across the floor soon! He also has a new trick, just this week. He rolls off the blanket onto the floor and then scoots backwards on his belly all the way across the room. Kind of like a reverse army crawl. It’s precious. He also saw his shadow for the first time last night when sitting on the floor in the living room. He slowly waved his hand around, and then tried to “scoop” up the shadow and eat it! hahaha I’m thankful I got it on film.

His six month birthday is also an important time in our adoption process. Finalization can not take place in TX until 6mo after our placement date. He was born on the 5^th of March; we received The Call on March 7^th, and we checked him out of hospital on March 8^th. So now that 6mo has passed our placement date we can now officially finalize in Texas. Of course, we have been waiting for this day for months, but the actually plane tickets and court date could not be set until they received our 5^th month post placement visit last month. But, everything is now set! Rental cars (2- cause all 7 of us and car seat won’t fit in one), rental house (Love VRBO.com), and plane tickets (OUCH!) Being the planner that I am, I also have a list of suggested restaurants and activities to do while we are there. I know we are going to Sea World and the Alamo, and if we have time I would love to visit the zoo. We will also be having family photos taken with my sweet friend Briana. So excited to see them again!! They recently shared some exciting news, but since she hasn’t written a blog post about it, I’m not going to say a thing......but I am so happy for them!! Anywhoo….. we will also get to spending some time with my sweet D. and her husband T. I miss her smiling face and even though we email and text regularly, I’m looking forward to hugging her neck. And I know she is looking forward to seeing our sweet baby and meeting the rest of the family!

 

Baby Boy we love you so very much! Thank you for letting me be your Mommy, it is the greatest feeling in the world.