Ten Weeks

My goal to update the blog regularly is one that I have found to be pretty unrealistic! Evan leaves me very little *free* time, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Evan is 10 weeks and 3 days old today and he is growing so quickly, I can't believe it!

At 8 weeks old, he was 12 lbs. and almost 11 ounces. David and I are SURE he has gained at least another pound since then, if not more! He eats 6 ounces every 2 hours. The pediatrician suggested we try to stretch the time between his feedings so he is eating about every 3 hours, but Evan is having NONE of that.

About two weeks ago, Evan started sleeping trough the night!!!!! We have had a few days here and there where he woke up once, but for the most part, he sleeps from about 8 at night until 6 or 7 the next morning. 10 to 11 hours of sleep a night is AMAZING! Now, if David and I could get to sleep at 8 when Evan does, we would be set! When E wakes up in the morning, he is so happy and spends the first hour or so that he is awake grinning and 'talking' to us. After he eats and plays a bit, he is ready for a nap. He sleeps anywhere from 1-3 hours and then is up and ready to eat again! The cycle continues the remainder of the day. Overall, E is a very easy baby! Once in a while, he has what we refer to as a 'witching hour' sometime around 5 or 6 pm. This has become less and less common as he has gotten older, but every once in a while it sneaks back in...we will be glad when he outgrows this all together!

Evan holds his head up, sits well with support, grabs things with both hands, responds to my voice and David's voice, smiles back when we smile at him (it's our method of conversation these days!), likes his BUMBO chair, his play yard and his sit and spin froggy. His favorite is still his lamb swing and we have decided that it is worth it to buy stock in Duracell for the next year or so, as we are FLYING through D batteries.

We have been so busy lately! Evan has spent a few days at school with me working,

we even visited Sara one day after work- she loves baby E :)

we have had coffee dates and lunch dates with friends, we attended Cora's birthday party, and we spent a week at the beach with David's family. We had such a great time, and it was so wonderful to see Evan with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

E really loves his Aunt Karen!

We even got to slip out TWICE for lunch dates while the crew kept an eye on E. He did a good job sleeping the first few nights, but by the end of the week I think he was craving the familiarity of home and his routine.

couldn't you just eat those cute little toes?!?!?

He didn't get to spend much time on the beach, we went out for a few minutes the evening we arrived and the evening we left. On our last night, we put him in his swim diaper and dipped his feet in the ocean. It was so sweet! Unfortunately, he wasn't as excited as we were :(

Here are a few more photos from the beach:

just chillin in his hoodie :)

family portrait, 2010 (minus Blake- we missed you!)

E and daddy having some snuggle time

The Myers Family :)

My two men snoozing :)

I love this next photo for two reasons. First, it is of the love of my life, E, and my nephew, Max. Second, it shows Evans cute bubble butt in his precious cloth diaper!

We have made the switch to cloth and we are NEVER GOING BACK! Seriously, cloth diapering is amazing. Evan stays dry for hours, we don't have the leaking and rash issues we did with disposables, and we are saving a ton of money. We are also saving TONS of diapers (literally, TONS) from ending up in landfills. I read a statistic somewhere that the average family spends between 2 and 3 THOUSAND dollars a year on disposable diapers for one baby. Since most kiddos are in diapers for about three years, we are saving anywhere from 6-9 THOUSAND dollars by using cloth. Yes, there was an initial investment (these are not as cheap as pampers!) and we are using electricity and water to wash them, but so far the increase in our power and water bills has been negligible. The most important thing is that E LOVES these diapers. He seems so much more comfortable in them, and overall they seem to be a better choice for our family. Isn't he the stinking cutest thing ever????

We love E more every day (if that is possible!) and we can't imagine our lives without him! I can't believe he is almost 3 months old! I am going to close my eyes and he is going to be a man! I just hope he always loves his mamma the best :)

Starting to Settle In

Since we've arrived at home, Evan has been showing us how he likes things to work. My mom was waiting for us on June 8th when we got back to NC and she spent the first week with us while David and I tried to get our feet underneath us. It was great to have mom spending her days with E so we could get the nursery put together and take care of things like unpacking and laundry, etc. Evan loves his mimi and spent close to 7 full days in her arms. I don't think he napped anywhere but on her chest until she left, and then he had to rough it a time or two and nap in the crib.

I was able (with mimi's help) to get to school for out 8th grade graduation ceremony so I could present my Honors English awards. It was great to see everyone, especially my kids. Because of testing and our trip to get Evan, I hadn't seen them in almost three weeks! They were SO EXCITED to see Evan, and they were all so very good about keeping their distance and not touching, etc. Evan also got to meet lots of my teacher friends. It was a big day, and after a quick lunch we headed home and ALL took a nap :)

Since returning home, Evan has spent lots of time snuggling with me during the day and hanging out with Dad at night. He has been to mass four times, attended a diaconate ordination,

traveled to Clinton for the 4th, hung out with Grandma on Fridays, been to Babies R Us and Target a few times, had lunch with the Bethesda girls, had his first snack time at Mad Hatter with Amanda and Karen, went to Duke for a shower that Dad's co-workers gave us, attended a shower the Yeungs had for us at Trali,

had lunch in Hillsborough with Kristie, has had visits from Stacie and Nick,

Amanda,

Carrie, Pam, MST and Kreis,

Bethany,

Anderson, Anderson's Mimi, Ryan, Jenna Beth,

Steven, Danielle,

Susan,

I don't know why this photo is so little, and it is a SHAME because Aunt Susan looks Faboulous!

Bonnie, Karen,

Katie, Blake,

and the Fourmans.

He has also been to the pediatrician twice.

This is our pediatrician, Dr. Moses, and we love him!

Evan also got to share in his mother's love for Cracker Barrel when we had breakfast with Sarah. He thought she was pretty cool.

Evan also met his Godparents, Chris and Shepard Yenney, and their boys Christopher and Frank. It was so great to see them and introduce them to our son! We are so blessed to have the Yenney family in our lives, and we know that they will be the perfect godparents for little E.

Evan is really easy going and I don't think twice about heading out and about during the day. I am very thankful for his disposition, as I have needed to get out of the house. I wouldn't be able to stay sane if I had to stay in the house all day every day.

Evan is six weeks and five days old today. I can't believe that in five weeks (give or take) I will be back at school full time and E will be at daycare. I am dreading having to leave him, but I am thrilled that we were able to find a spot at Master's Garden Preschool in Hillsborough. Our dear friend Amanda takes her little girl Cora to Master's Garden and we felt very comfortable when we went to visit. We spent the day in the infant room and were very pleased with the workers, the ratio of adults to babies and the facility. We are also pleased to know that Evan will spend the day with women who will share Bible stories and surround him with new vocabulary and lots of love. He was a HIT when we visited, everyone thought he was precious. Of course he is!

Evan is sleeping a good deal of the day still, and when I can force myself to lay him down, I am able to get a few things done around the house. The past few nights, he has fallen asleep and slept for 5-6 hours! It is A.MAZ.ING. The night before last he slept from 10-3 and last night he slept from 7:30-1:30ish. Once he is up, I feed him and change him and he is *usually* back to sleep within 15-30 minutes. I am able to get back to sleep easily too, so it isn't too terrible. Once E has slept for that long stretch, he is usually back up every three hours or so until we are up for the day. Today he was up at 6 am and we both took a nap from 7-9 :) He is eating 5-6 ounces at each feeding and I don't know how we will make it to four months before we start feeding rice or oatmeal. This boy is an eater!

We had a dear friend and his wife come over last week to take some photos of E. Matt and Carrie brought dinner too, which was fantastic, and I was thrilled to be able to visit a bit while Carrie worked. We have seen a handful of the pictures so far and we are in LOVE. Evan is such a grinny-pants these days, and Carrie did a wonderful job caching some of his smiles. We can't wait to see the rest of the photos! Carrie agreed to design our adoption announcements for us using some of her photos, so hopefully those will be in the mail soon!

This is the lovely and talented Carrie Richardson Fry. Check out her website. She is SUPER TALENTED!!! http://carrierrichardson.com/

Whew. That was exhausting. I am sure I have left out tons of important people and things. We are so blessed to be able to share this journey with our family and friends. Evan is such a gift and we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from our families and friends. We can't wait to continue to share Evan with you as he grows!

xoxoxoxo,

Emily, David and little E

ps- I'm working on a separate grandparent post. These people are CRAZY for E. :)

Welcome Home Evan!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged...now it seems I have a great deal to share!

***Note- due to the closed adoption agreement, I am keeping certain details about Evan and his biological family and foster family quiet. Thank you for understanding and helping us to keep Evan's identity private, as his biological family requested***

David and I recently traveled out of state to take custody of a baby boy named Evan. We have begun the process to adopt him and we should have the completed paperwork in our hands in less than 8 months! For now, we are home and adjusting to this new life together. Evan is A.MAZ.ING and we can't imagine our lives without him now!

Evan was cared for by two extraordinary people from the day he came home from the hospital. His biological parents chose not to parent, and he was blessed to be placed in the care of these two angels who loved him from day one until we could get him to love him ourselves.

We received a call about Evan on Tuesday, June 1. We were texted this photo of him and we loved him IMMEDIATELY!!!

On Wednesday were told "you may want to come on down". On Thursday we secured an attorney (THANK YOU FRANK FOR YOUR HELP!!!), and by the time Saturday rolled around, we were in the car! This is what our house looked like before we left! The girls at work (Kristie, Sara, Amy, and Jennifer) had us ready for a baby before we knew it! Thanks to Bethany and Anderson, we had a car seat and stroller too!!!

I felt like I had to cover nine months of preparation in four days, so we needed HELP! Our dear, dear friends, Shepard and Chris, came from Rocky Mount to help us with the last minute preparations and they spent the night with us before we left on Saturday. This was perfect, because these two seem to have been with us during every "BIG" moment of our lives. They were with us non-stop the week before our wedding, running errands, preparing the church and reading the intentions at our wedding mass. They also came to sit with me when David had his cryo procedure, and I don't know what we would do without them. As a matter of fact, while Shep and I did laundry and packed, Chris and David were sterilizing 10,392 bottles using BBQ tongs. Evan- your Daddy and Uncle Chris are good to have in a pinch- they can make anything work!

This is our last picture as a family of two. We headed out Saturday afternoon and drove as far as Atlanta. We spent the night with my Aunt Ann and Uncle Mike.

We woke Sunday morning and had a FANTASTIC breakfast (courtesy of Mike) and headed to Mass. This is the same church that David and I attended the week we got engaged. It was our first mass together as a married couple to be. How fitting that this is the same place where we attended Mass the day that we got to meet our son.

We drove the rest of the way to meet our son and headed for the hotel to drop off our things before heading to meet Evan. This is the view from the balcony of our room. Not too shabby :) Thanks dad for the accommodations!

Needless to say, the first minutes with Evan were PRICELESS. I couldn't take it all in fast enough. I wanted to remember how he looked, smelled and felt in my arms. Thank goodness were were surrounded by such good photographers. Here are our first few minutes as a family.....

And our lives will never be the same. God has been so faithful to us throughout our lives. The only way we can explain this unbelievable blessing is to say God is good. He brought us to each other under the most unique circumstances (hello...SEMINARIAN???) and has brought us through some of the hardest times of our lives together. We believe in our hearts that he created Evan for us and brought him to us to complete our family. Thanks be to God.