Our Christmas

Nathan become our son legally!

On December 19th, our journey of adoption came to incredible end! We went to the courthouse and went in front of a judge. We pledged to love Nathan forever. What a honor it is be his mom and dad. May we be the best parents we could be for our sweet boy. My dad and Lin come up for the special day! Our dear friends Mark and Kathy were with us too for the special day!

Adoption Celebration!

Meeting Santa!

Old Fashioned pictures

Trip to the Dave's Pumpkin Patch from 2011

6 months and family pictures

Nathan and mommy!
The Garris Family
Nathan sitting like a big boy in the high chair at the restaurant

Apple Hill September 2011

We took a trip to Apple Hill one beautiful Saturday! It was so fun to to especially with our precious son! Went to High Hill Ranch and walked around and got lunch. We watch children on the pony rides. I can't wait for Nathan to be able to ride on one. Then we went to Abel's Acres and got dessert.

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch October 2011

Nathan and the pumpkin!

I love my family!

We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch for the 1st time in October. We had a so much fun! We heard a friend who sings children's songs perform and got to see friends.

4th and 5th months

Nathan 1st bite of cereal

Nathan in September sitting up!

Nathan in his bed at family camp

Nathan grabbing his toes!

August, we took our 1st trip to Lake Francis Resort with Olive Branch Church for family Camp. It was amazing how much we had to take for such a small boy! But we had so much fun with Nathan.

Also we gave Nathan his 1st cereal. He wasn't happy with it!

Trip to the Fair

3rd of July and 4th of July

We went to see the fireworks that Thunder Valley Casino put on from the parking lot at Bridgeway Church. It was a fun time to hang out with other families and see a great fireworks show.

Then the next day, we tried to go to the parade

in Lincoln, but we were too late, so we went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch:)

Nathan is 3 months!!!

Unbelievable how fast life can past when you are a mom to a newborn and finishing your last semester of school and graduation. It is such a a blessing to be a stay at home mom and not have to think about exams and studying. We did spend most of June getting ready for our home inspection with the social worker. Nathan has gone from being a newborn who loved to be swaddle and sleep all the time to be a delightful 3 month old who loves to talk and move his arm and legs. Last week, he learned how to roll over both ways. It is amazing to see what he has learned in his 3 months of life. He is so delightful! I love to see the changes of his life and look forward to seeing what the future holds for us as the parents of this precious boy:)

This picture is one that was taken at a shower thrown in our honor at Mimi's in Roseville in May. What an incredible time of fellowship and celebrating this precious boy that God has given us:)

A visit to dad's office-June 15th

Nathan is 2 month old!

Unbelievable Nathan is 2 months old. Time is going so fast. I love being able to enjoy every minute while Nathan is a baby. It is great to spend time to hold him and snuggle him! I love how he fits under my chin!

1st Month

May 10,2011
May 8th,2011

Nathan's Story

Nathan is such a gift to Tom and I from God who loves his children and blesses them when they least expect it. We were able to pick out his name. We picked out Nathanael because it means God's gift. We had so much fun announcing that we were going to be parents! Everyone was so excited for us. We found out that his due date was April 7th, 2011. So we had from February 25th-April 7th to prepare for our sweet boy. How fun it was to day dream about my son while I was trying to finish my school. But I was also concern that something would happen to us getting him.

But Nathan was also prayed for before he was even a thought in our hearts and mind. The Easter of 2010, we were at a friends house celebrating the resurrection of our Lord when our friends Dana and Brenda thought to pray for us along side with the others that were there. that God will bless us with children before the Easter of this year. I thought of that prayer a couple weeks before we were told about Nathan. I figured that it wasn't going to happen because I wasn't pregnant. But then I remembered and realized that Nathan was going to be born before Easter. How incredible. What a precious precious gift.

The journey towards our son:)

Tom and I have talked about adoptions for years. We decided to wait till I graduated from college in May to start the process. But God works for us even when we don't see it coming.

I had made plans to go to Uganda this June with some Facebook friends to visit our friend Christi in the village that she works and lives in. But then February 25th, I got a call that would change my life forever. My friend Sally who I have known for 8 years called me. We just talked for awhile then she asked if I had a minute. She said that she had a niece who was pregnant with a little boy. Would we want the baby? My heart already said yes. But I needed to talk to my husband. It didn't take us that long to make the decision to say yes. The following day, we went to register at Babies R Us. What a fun experience that was to register for our son when I had been to so many showers in my almost 37 years. But overwhelming with so many choices. We then went to Red Robin for a late dinner.

The whole month went so fast between getting our house ready for a newborn and us doing our normal life. We also got a lawyer to help us with the paperwork. Everything come together.
Now our lives is about this precious little one who deserves a post on his own.

1st week Photo's

We were so blessed to have Sara Field take pictures of our sweet boy when he was only one week old. It was enjoyable time! Nathan also did a great job too. Thanks Sara Field for giving us priceless treasure of our son! We got pictures and a slideshow of our precious son!

Nathan's birth

The Friday before he was born, I was at the science lab at school when I received the call that the birth's mom water had broke. So I hurried out of there and called Tom on the way home and told him that the baby was on his way:) When I got home, I finished making sure that I had everything ready for our stay at the hospital and for Nathan:) When Tom got home, we loaded up and got to the hospital. When we got there, we checked in with the birth family:) We had some time on our own while the nurse found out that the birth mom's water officially broke. But the nurse told us that labor would start in the morning. So we went out to dinner because we didn't know when we would get to go on a date again. It was surreal to think that the next morning we would be parents. Then we went to Target just to make sure we had everything we needed when we got home. It was so fun to be so close to our son. We went home and went straight to bed.

                                                Me holding our son! He is so precious and I couldn't believe he was in my arms!

The following morning I woke up at 6:30 exactly and called the hospital to see what the status was. The nurse told us to come in. So we quickly got ready and head to the hospital. We were told to wait in one of the waiting rooms. We weren't in there for very long when the birth mom's mom and the nurse came in and told us that we have a son. WOW!!!! I was given my bracelet and took us to our room. We were given a room at the hospital. So we went to the room and we got settled. We had our stuff and the baby's bag that was stuffed with everything the baby might have needed. About 15 minutes later, they wheeled our son in our room. Oh my goodness. My heart just burst at the sight of our beautiful son. They let us bond with our son. What a incredible moment that was when I was able to hold him! He was perfect in every way and continues to be. We had a couple of visitors. Our friends Mark and Kathy Schuyler came by and then we had Stacey George. Carrie McChesney came by too. It was so fun to have them all meet Nathan. The only scary part was after his bath, the nurse noticed his breathing was a little off. So they took him to the nursery for observation. But due to it was during the closed hours, we had to just leave our son. That seemed like forever to this new mommy. I kept looking at the clock. When it was almost time, we decided to wait by the door to be able to see our son. The nurse wheeled him out to us and told us that he was fine. We were so relieved. So we spent the night in the hospital taking care of our newborn son. Sunday was a day of tests and finishing the legal paperwork for us to take Nathan home

Welcome to the World Precious Nathan! You are very loved by our parents and the mother who gave you to us!

                                                        Going home outfit!