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!

It has been forever since I have written. I am busy with school. Almost done getting my AA in Early Childhood Education. Will graduate in May of 2011. There is so much going on in my brain and my heart. It would take a book to write about it. But I will go from today and try to write more as we are on journey to Africa. Oh my goodness, that put excitement in my heart. I can't wait to see what God is going to do. But I know he has given us a desire for the children of the world. Also wanting to get out of our comfort zone! Here we come, Lord! Use us as you created us for.

Trip to Maui!!!!!

We are so excited that we get to go to Maui next month for almost a full week. We are going with my family. It will be so great. We are staying at this condo. We are starting to make a list of all the fun things we want to do while we are there. It will be so fun to be with my husband and my family in Hawaii. This trip could not come at a better time due to being so to this semester of school being close to being done.

October already?

I can't believe that it is already October. I have been very busy with school work. The classes are great! But alot of work. Sorry for not posting! Even though I don't know very many people who read this blog. I do need to start reading more.

A wonderful 4th of July!!

Tom and I had a wonderful 4th of July. We spent the morning, making a Taco Dip to take to a party that we were going to that afternoon. We spent the afternoon at a friend's house. There was swimming and fun by all that were there. We had yummy food. That night, we went to a friend's house to watch fireworks at the fairgrounds near there. It was so fun. We had yummy rootbeer floats and watched the fireworks. Then we did fireworks in front of the house. It was fun.

Thoughts on this Friday

I can't believe it is already the beginning of June. I have been busy with all my work at church. It is summer time. So we are doing our VBS. Which we do diffently from other churches. We do it all summer. We are doing Power Lab from Group.It is alot of fun so far. I am taking the 5 days and turning into 13 weeks.

I got the CD from Steven Curtis Chapman today. It has a beautiful song called Cinderella. It is very precious song especially since Steven and his family lost his youngest daughter in a tragic accident a couple weeks ago. I heard it on the radio one day this week. I was sobbing as I was driving.

I am trying to get into menu planning and eating healthy. I also want to get into baking more. I just have to do it so it is healthy. I am hoping that I will be able to post my weekly menu on Monday.

Our 6th anniversary weekend

This was such a wonderful weekend! Tom and I started our anniversary weekend staying at a bed and breakfast in Sacramento. It is called Amber House. We stayed in the Poet's building. It was such a nice place. We walked down to Cafe Bernardo. We had yummy food. Tom had italian calzone. I had chicken with asparagus and potatoes. In the morning, we had waffles with fruit and bacon for breakfast. Very yummy:) We definetely didn't want to leave. We are already trying to figure out when we can go back. On Saturday, we went to the mall and checked out a Lego store there and just spent time together. Then we went to see the movie Knowing with Nicholas Cage. Which was a interesting movie. We then had dinner at Mimi's Cafe. After that, we went home. Then today, we went to Delta King for their Sunday brunch. We then walked around Old Sacramento and a little bit of downtown Sacramento. We then went to Ikea. I am so blessed to call Tom my husband and my best friend!!!

God's blessings

I am blessed to have a God that loves me. That he wants me to come to him and spend time with him. I know that he has so much planned for me and my sweetie. I am so blessed to have a husband who loves me with all his heart. He is such a blessing to me. God blessed my husband with a pay raise that will help us so much. I am debating about going back to work. I miss certain things about being a pre-school teacher. I know that God will show me in his timing what he wants me to do. I love working at the church once a week, doing children't ministry stuff.

I am facing my insecurities that are in my life right now.

I haven't posted on this blog in a very long time. We can't adopt right now due to medical situation that prevents us from adopting from China.We are looking into Ethiopia. I know that God has a plan for us to have a family. I am trusting in him to direct. But one thing I am sure of is that we will go overseas and serve. I am not sure what that will look like. But I praise God that he knows and has a plan for us. I hope someday we will be able to adopt Hannah. She is definetely in our hearts.

Thanksgiving 2008

This Thanksgiving, we had two of them. We spent Thanksgiving at the retirement home that my husband's grandma lives out. It was fun. We had a chance to look at old family photo's and spend time with her. Then on Friday, we went down to San Jose where my father and step-mom live. We meet up with my brother and his girl-friend there.

A fun day!

Due to Tom working last Sunday, he was able to take today off. After we had to get one of Tom's tires fixed. We decided to go to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. We have been before. But it is such a fun place to go. It was busy. But it didn't stop us from being able to go on the factory tour. It is so neat to see how the jelly beans are made. Then we got free jelly beans. Then we had a late lunch. After that, we decided to go to the Nut Tree area in Vacaville. They have a cute family park there. We didn't go in. Since you had to pay to get in. But we got ice cream at a creamery and watched all of the action. They had some cute kids rides. We then went shopping. There was a Old Navy store. I got two sweaters each for $6.00 and a bag for $6.00. I got a Rachel Ray cookbook at Home Goods. We headed home. Then we went to Target and had dinner at Pei Wei. It was such a fun day.

Our 5th Anniversary

On Saturday, Tom and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years already. Since our anniversary fell between Good Friday and Easter, we decided to stay in town. So we went for Afternoon Tea at a place called Afternoon to Remember in New Castle. We had a full tea. So we started off with a sweet potato soup and black ham quiche. So very yummy. Then we had tea sandwiches and scones with Devonshire Cream and lemon curd. A couple of yummy desserts also. We were so full. So we were able to bring home some of our goodies. We also got a picture taken of us that was put in teapot frame. Which turned out to be a great picture of us. It was fun to have tea. When we were on our honeymoon in Victoria,Canada. We went to have tea at the Empress Hotel. Which was fun. So having tea together is special thing for us to do.

After tea, we decided that we didn't want to go home since the day was so beautiful. So we decided to go out to the outlets. We just walked around. I got a couple of kitchen stuff.
Then we had a couple of errands to do. So we did those and went home. It was a nice day. I love spending time with my husband. He is so much fun. I love him very much!!!

Spring Reading Thing 2008!

I am so glad thatI am able to take part of this opportunity to share my list of books that I would like to read.

1. The Postcard and the Crossroad by Beverly Lewis.

2. Desire by John Eldredge

3. Close Enough to Perfect. This book is a collection of 4 stories by different authors.

This is a short list for now. I will add more later.

Today, I picked up two book at the local christian bookstore. I got

1. Treasures for women who hope by Alice Gray

2. A walk with Jane Austin by Lori Smith.

I am so looking to reading A walk with Jane Austin.

A New Chapter in our lives!

I can't believe how long it has been since I last wrote on this blog. Life has been crazy. We lost my mother in law to cancer the day after my birthday. She was only 52 years old.The next day, we lost my grandfather. My grandfather was almost 98 years old. It was a hard time to have two deaths in our family. We are now the owners of the house that my mother in law lived in. I am so glad to be out of our apartment. We moved from a one bedroom apartment to a three bedroom house. Moving is not fun:) But now I have to unpack everything. But I can take my time.

Fall into Reading 2007

It is that time of the year for the Fall into Reading Challenge hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days.

Here is my list of what I want to read this Fall.

1. As sure as the Dawn by Francine Rivers.

The book club at my church have been reading the Mark of Lion series by Francine Rivers. This is the last book of the series. I have enjoyed the other two books. Looking forward to starting this one.

2. A Tendering in the storm by Jane Kirkpatrick.

3. Beauty by the Book by Nancy Stafford.

4. The power of a Praying Wife by Stormie

Omartian.

This is my list so far. I am starting small.

A Fun Swap

I am taking part in this. I think it will be alot of fun! Check it out here.http://watibg.blogspot.com/2007/07/introducing-sisters-shoebox-swaps.html.

I will be posting another entry soon.