We are enjoying the Christmas season--we hope you are, too! The last few months have been a whirlwind, and I have come to the blog to post many times but haven't because I have been overwhelmed with catching up to where we are now. So, I have finally bitten the bullet and I am going to do the "cliff notes" version of the last few months.

We enjoyed football season! We get season tickets to the NC State football games and always enjoy driving to Raleigh to watch the Wolfpack play. It wasn't a great season, but the middle and end were much better than the beginning! We took Riley to a couple of games and he did really well. He seemed to enjoy the sights and sounds.

For Halloween, Riley was Tigger. His cousin Mason was Pooh. Together they looked precious! We went to our church for a while that night--they had games, dinner, and a few of the blow-up jumping things. Afterwards, we went to a few houses in our neighborhood. Riley was content to be pushed in the stroller and then at each house he would run up to the door with the rest of the kids.

At Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a visit with Michael's sister Beth and her family who live in Colorado. Beth and the kids (Austin and Jacob) were able to stay a full two weeks! It was great having them here, but it always makes us wish they lived closer so we could seem them more. One day we went to Spencer for a few hours and the kids got to ride the "Santa" train. They had a blast!

Now we are ready for Christmas! (Actually, I'm not quite ready--I've still got things to do, but we can't wait for Christmas to be here!) Riley LOVES seeing all of the lights up around town. He calls everything "Sanka" (aka Santa). Christmas trees, lights, presents, etc... are all "Sanka." It's hilarious!

Today at my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting we had a speaker who encouraged us to make the Christmas season "simple" and "significant." She shared a poem with us that I would like to share with you. Below the poem are a few pictures of our sweet boy who has truly turned from a baby into a little boy!

Christmas Resolution
Let us keep Christmas softly,
Apart from crowds and noise and vain display.
Let us hang garlands fresh of prayer and praise
All love entwined in glad array
In deep chambers of the heart where He,
The Holy Child, alone may see and gladdened be.

It's Official!! Riley's adoption is finally final!! :)
In NC we don't go to court to finalize--everything is done through filing papers at our clerk of court's office. It has been one delay after another--too many unreturned phone calls, "disappearing" files, wrong dates stamped, etc... Finally, Riley's adoption was finalized on September 21st, but we just got the decree on Friday. I didn't want to post that it was official until I got that piece of paper in my hand so that I was 100% positive it was actually true!

We are SO EXCITED that our son's adoption is final! I took a few pictures of America's newest citizen since we didn't get the courtroom picture opportunity! Thanks for sharing in our joy!!

We have had a lot to celebrate this week! We celebrated my mom's birthday and my sister Karoline's birthday. This weekend Michael's parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary! This week Riley and I and his three youngest aunts (Kaitlin, Annie, and Meghan) went to the fair! We met up with some other friends of mine from church. We had a blast! It was a little warm, but we went during the week and it wasn't crowded at all. The girls had fun because they could walk up to any ride they wanted and get right on--no lines!! Riley also got to taste his very first funnel cake!
Tonight my brother Ben and his wife Jenna and their little guy Mason came over to eat dinner, watch football, and finish our Risk game that has been going on for the last month! (I won by the way!) We put Mason and Riley in Riley's crib for a few minutes and they had a blast jumping around and pretending to go "night-night." This is my first attempt to post video like this on my blog! (Hope it works!) Also, enjoy the pictures from our day at the fair!

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We had a fun day at the NC State football game--despite their loss and the heat! It was SO HOT! It shouldn't be in the 90s this late in September! We had decided we wanted to take Riley to at least one game this season and see how he did. He seemed to have such a fun time taking in all of the sights and sounds. Every once in a while he would interject a "yay-yay-yay!" I think he would have been fine to sit with us in our seats for the whole game, but it was so hot that I kept him in the shade some and we walked around the stadium. It was a wonderful day!

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, RILEY!!!!

A year ago today Riley arrived in the Detroit airport! It was such an exciting day! Michael and I woke up early, and I packed and repacked the diaper bag. We went next door to "Big Boy" and tried to eat. Then, before we knew it it was time to take the hotel shuttle to the airport. We met another family on the shuttle bus whose baby girl was on Riley's flight. Riley's flight was supposed to arrive around 1:30pm, but by the time it actually landed and everyone went through customs it was actually closer to 4:30pm before his escort walked through the doors holding our precious son!

What an amazing moment that was--when we held our son for the first time. All of the loss and struggle and disappointment in trying to become parents felt truly worth it because that journey led us to Riley. It is hard to imagine the pain that Riley's birthmom must have felt in making an adoption plan for him, but I pray that God gives her peace and that one day she will have the opportunity to parent other children. Because of her selflessness we celebrate our son today.

This year has been one of the best years of our lives. God has truly turned our mourning into joy. When we got married we had great "plans" for our life together, but never could we have scripted it more wonderfully than the Lord did. The words to this song were ones I clung to when I wondered WHEN I was going to be a mom, and they were also the words that my heart celebrated with joy when the day finally came.

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Here are some pictures from September 13, 2006 and then a recent picture of Riley's contagious smile. Also, I have posted below the pictures the link to the slide show we made for Riley's birthday, which has a lot of footage of today a year ago.








Here's the link to Riley's video: http://www.clipshack.com/riley1

This time last year Michael and I were in our hotel room in Detroit--nervous, excited, and overwhelmed that the very next day our precious baby would be landing in America!! About this time we realized that we were hungry and so we walked across the street to a Wendy's. The dining room was closed but the drive-thru was open. We had no car, so we just walked through the drive-thru and they refused to serve us. The girl at the window got an attitude with us and all we wanted was a burger! The area we were in was very sketchy--trust me! But, we were so hungry. So, we crossed over the highway (by foot) and went into a convenience store. I think Michael bought a piece of pizza--I just bought a carton of ice cream--I do not buy food made in convenience stores--yuck! We walked back to our hotel, ate, and then took Tylenol PM so that we could sleep. Little did we know how needed that sleep would be because the next night was quite a paradox!

We had a great time at the beach with Michael's family! We went to the beach with my family after Christmas, but this was Riley's first trip to the coast when he could get in the ocean and play in the sand! It was SO much fun! I have waited and waited and looked forward to the day when I could take my own little one to the beach and play in the sand, so it was SO EXCITING to finally have the time come! Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Can't believe it's already August! We are excited that it's August because my parents and rest of the family are coming home from Oklahoma; we get to go to the beach with Michael's family; and it's the start of football season!! It has been hot, hot, HOT here! Every day lately has been in the 90s and this week is supposed to be no different.

Riley is still enjoying swimming at the waterpark! He has gotten a little more independent and can go down a slide all by himself. His speech has really taken off. His newest words are "no," "up," "help," "night-night," "baby," and "clock." There are a little over 20 words that he uses consistently, and each day he repeats more and more of what we say.

We have turned in all of our paperwork to the clerk of court to finalize Riley's adoption and our homestudy agency has turned in all of the paperwork, so now we're just waiting for the court to set a date and issue Riley's adoption decree. Once we receive his adoption decree he will be completely, legally our son. In NC we don't actually go to court; everything is done through papers/mail. Hopefully, things will go quickly now!

Here are a couple of pictures--the first one is a family picture taken on Michael's birthday weekend and the second one is Riley posing in the t-shirt his Aunt Beth got for him! Have a great week!

We have been having a fun (and hot!) summer. We spend a lot of time at the water park--hanging out with friends and trying to stay cool.

We enjoyed our 4th of July (Riley's 1st Independence Day in America). We went downtown to the parade with my sister Meredith. Later that afternoon we went to a cookout with some friends and then headed back towards downtown for the fireworks.

My parents and youngest siblings (John, Kaitlin, Annie, and Meghan) are living in Oklahoma this summer on a Christian ranch/camp. My parents are working at the ranch and my siblings (most weeks) are campers. They are having a blast. Riley and I flew out to Oklahoma and spent a week with them at the camp. We had a great time!! It was so fun to see where they've been living this summer and to see firsthand what they have been up to.

The first two pictures are from the 4th of July and the rest are from our time at the ranch!

A year ago today we were matched with our precious boy Riley Michael. It is hard to believe that it been a year since we first laid eyes on the pictures of the baby who was to be our son.

What a precious gift God has given to us, and we continue to be thankful for the honor of raising this little boy.

Here was the post a few days after receiving our referral last June 15th.

WE ARE PARENTS!!!!

We received a referral of a beautiful baby boy on Thursday!!! We wanted to talk to our international doctor before we posted and accepted, but last night our doctor gave our little one a clean bill of health! He is three months old. I can’t believe that we are finally parents!! We are SOOOOO HAPPY!!! It feels very surreal! We are so thankful that God has allowed us to be the parents of this precious baby!"

Here are some pictures---some from when we were first matched with Riley and then some from today, a year later.

We have had an eventful last few weeks. We traveled to Columbia, SC, to watch the NC State baseball team in the NCAA regionals. Sadly, our team lost in double elimination but we had a very fun weekend! On Saturday all of the games were rained out, so we headed to a children's museum in downtown Columbia. As it turned out, it is the largest children's museum in the country. We had a fun time and Riley did, too!

Our local water park has opened for the summer. We have season passes and have already been a few times. Riley loves the water and is really enjoying the park.

We are having so much fun with our little boy!

It is confirmed--I am a terrible blogger! I always mean to update my blog, but then I don't and then so much time gets away from me that I begin to feel overwhelmed in updating on everything that has happened, so then I don't post. And, then even more time gets away and I feel even more overwhelmed and so the cycle continues!

So, I am just going to start with what we have been up to this past week, and I am going to try harder to update more often. Although, I often wonder if anyone even reads this at all!!!

A few weeks ago I celebrated my very first Mothers' Day! It was so much fun, and I could hardly believe that I was finally a MOM and could actually celebrate the day. I love my mom and my mother-in-law, and I have enjoyed celebrating them on Mothers' Day the past few years but those days have also been really hard days for me. It is hard when everything within you wants to be a mom but it's not happening. It is hard reading the church bulletin with the announcement of all of the families who had babies the previous year and not seeing your name because another year has gone by and you're still not a mom. So, this year's Mothers' Day, for me, was very emotional as I feel so much gratitude to God for allowing me to experience motherhood.

Last Friday, I took Riley strawberry picking with some friends. We had so much fun! Riley actually did well picking the strawberries. He would pull them off the plants and then drop them into the bucket. It was a gorgeous day--not too warm, not too cool. And, the strawberries were delicious.

Riley is really growing up. It is so fun to watch him learning things and experiencing things for the first time. He loves to be outside and help us plant and water our flowers. He is still a great sleeper. He takes an afternoon nap for about 3 hours and then sleeps from about 8pm to 8am. We are looking forward to the summer! We got passes to the local water park and are looking forward to our family beach trip in August.