The Close-to-Being-Finished Nursery!

Last night my parents came over, and Mark and Dad set up the crib. We are really pleased with how good it looks! Here are a few pictures of the nursery.

The finished crib.

This is the bedding my parents drove 45 minutes on a bad weather day to get so that we could start painting the room. They're awesome!

Can you believe that we have several (okay, quite a few) more shelves of books for Steven? He will be one well-read baby!

My mom is going to make a cover for the chair. . .when we find the time :)

The little man's clothes. We sure appreciate Eli's letting us borrow his newborn and 0-3 month clothes!

Trying out the new place--I think it'll work!

Such a LITTLE man!

We still have to finish the dresser. My mom is stenciling it, and I also need to get the letters for his name that we're putting above his dresser. We're also painting the fan to match the room and need to get curtains, but considering we haven't even had the little guy for a full week, I think we're doing pretty well!

Thank you, Marie!!

Yesterday my friend Marie loaned us a basinette. It's the traditional kind that it about bed height, and I had been wanting one but definitely didn't want to spend the money on it. Last night I put a rolled up blanket under the top part of the mattress to raise it and then placed Steven on his side in it (propped up by another rolled up blanket), and. . .he slept!!!

He woke up at 2:00 and 4:00, and I fed him both times (2:00 was only a half bottle). He seems to be pretty congested, so he was having a bit of a hard time breathing, but he fell back asleep both times fairly easily. We just went without the pacifier so he could breathe easier. It was so nice to have him right by my side of the bed, and I had already set out bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, and purell. My bedside table has a bit of everything on it! That allowed Mark to sleep most of the night while I took care of Steven.

This morning Mark got up with Steven around 7:30, and I slept in a bit longer. I was glad that it worked out for Mark to sleep better through the night because he goes back to work tomorrow :( and he needs to get his sleep if he's going to be able to focus at work!

So, thank you Marie for letting us sleep last night!!

A Day of Firsts

Today's been a big day for both Steven and us. We're getting to know each other and learn how life is going to work. In the process, we've had some small adventures.

1. Mommy got to experience green buggers. It was not a good sign when she started dry heaving :(

2. Steven got to hang out in a swing that someone is loaning us, and he LOVED it. He slept in it for hours, which allowed us to actually get a few small things done. He does a really good job of focusing and tracking things, and he enjoyed watching the fish rotating on the mobile.

3. Steven also got his first bath at our house. He did really well and didn't really fuss at all! It was a bit of a challenge for us, but we all came out cleaner in the end :)

Yum! The burb cloth from Aunt Rachel must be very tasty!

Look at those curls!

4. Steven is sleeping in a borrowed bassinette tonight. I placed a rolled blanket under part of the mattress so he'd be on an incline. I also put him on his side. We're hoping that he'll sleep tonight! (And since we now know that he sleeps in the swing, we have a back up plan!)

Well, mom and dad are off to bed. Tomorrow we'll post pictures of his newly painted nursery. Grandma (and Grandpa if he starts feeling better) is coming over to set up the crib, and then we can start getting our house back in order. (Probably a lost cause, but I'm being optimistic!)

Have a good night!

Steven's Story

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we brought home our son, Steven James! He was born on Thanksgiving Day and weighed in at 6 lbs. 2 ozs. and was 21 inches long. He was a few weeks early, so he spent some time in the NICU.

His birthmom had already contacted Bethany Christian, so after he was discharged, he went to live with his interim care parents (similar to foster care parents), Mary and Allen. A week ago Friday (Dec. 7), we were contacted by Dawn at Bethany and asked if we were interested in him. We scrambled and put together our portfolio (picture scrapbook), and waited and prayed.

She looked at two portfolios on Thursday (Dec. 14), and even though the other couple already had a biracial daughter, she felt a connection to us and liked that we had been together for so long (12 years on Jan. 4!!). We met her on Friday night and really hit it off. We went to visit Steven on Saturday at Mary and Allen's and got to know him a bit. Steven's birthmother went to court yesterday and relinquished her rights, and we brought him home yesterday afternoon.

In the midst of this, we had our last homestudy visit (no, we weren't approved yet!), and rushed togther our psychological evaluation reports, financial statement, and other details. Our poor sick social worker got the report finished this weekend, and we were approved yesterday morning!

Steven was named after his birthfather, and after calling him that for the week we were praying and waiting, we just couldn't change his name. After visiting him on Saturday, we went through our list of 15+ names (we never had a boy's name picked out, so that was a scramble too!), we said that he didn't seem like a Jacob or Michael or Silas or any of the others. So his name stayed the same. His middle name is James, after my dad.

Yesterday at the courthouse, Dawn told his birthmother that we kept his name, and she was really touched by it. It is a nice gift for him to have the name his birthmother picked out for him, and we liked that he was named after his birthfather.

Steven is a pretty easy going little guy. He likes to eat and sleep and just be held. The only real problem we've had is that he's not used to sleeping on a flat surface (he slept in a bouncy seat at Mary and Allen's), so he and Mark were up most of the night. Mark was so sweet and took his pillow and Steven to the living room and let me sleep the entire night. When I got up this morning, Mark went back to sleep and Steven and I hung out.

Thank you to all who have prayed for us. The past eleven days have been an absolute whirlwind, but God's hand has been so evident in this process. I only got one class for next quarter, so I'm only teaching on Friday nights. I'm also on break and don't go back to work until Jan. 11, and we had been praying for a long time for a baby by the end of the year. What an amazing God we have!!

We can't wait for each of you to meet Steven!

Love,

Rebekah, Mark, and Steven (and Sadie and Jo too!)

An Answered Prayer!

I think this sums up our day.

For more pictures from today, see my dad's facebook page!

The Big Day!

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Steven's birthmom, has a court hearing at 10:00 a.m. to official relinquish her rights. Please pray for her; I can't imagine what she's going through right now. We have no doubt that she'll go through with it, but I'm sure it'll be hard.

After that, the social worker will meet us at Bethany's office, but it's about an hour or so from the courthouse. We'll sign our paperwork (probably around noon) and then go pick up our son! He's about 30-45 minutes south of the office, so it will be sometime in the afternoon by the time we get him.

Tonight we had a friend call to see if we wanted help painting, and four of them came over and helped us get Steven's room painted! It looks really good, so we might be able to get by with just one coat. We'll have to see what it looks like tomorrow when it's dry and the sun is out. It nice to have such good friends--they truly are a blessing!

We've also been washing clothes, sterilizing bottles, and realizing the things that we still need (such as a diaper pail or at least a garbage can with a lid!). We already have been blessed with so much though. My parents bought us our crib and mattress; Katie and Lauren bought us our bedding as an early shower present; and Katie also bought us an extra pack of diapers! A friend just brought over clothes, a boppy to use until we get our own, and a car seat to use for now. Even more so, she brought advice and encouragement. We are overwhelmed on so many levels, but it is amazing how God is providing.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us, encouraged us, and given to us. We truly appreciate all that you have done. I can't imagine trying to do this without a community of Christian friends to walk through it with us!

Introducing Steven James!!

Today we met our little guy, and we absolutely LOVE him!! We stayed for about an hour and got to feed him and everything. We took over the cutest little outfit, but it was way too big for him--the pants would have come up to his little nose! We would have gotten him one in newborn size, but they didn't have any :( But, we did get to put on his little Christmas onsie!


Notice that in almost all the pictures he is looking at us!

We're Parents!!

I'm way too tired to tell the story now, but here are some pictures of our little guy (we meet him Saturday and bring him home Monday!!!) and his birthmom. He was born on Thanksgiving day and is just over 3 weeks old. This has completely taken us for a loop, so we don't even have a name for him yet!

Facebook Update

so, there's no news today. thanks so much for praying--i had a peace that could only come from God today, and it was such a blessing! keep praying, and i'll let you know when i hear something!

Adoption Request

In the morning (Wednesday) we have our third, and hopefully final, homestudy visit. Please pray that everything goes smoothly as we wrap up this stage of the process. It's been a stressful week so far because of all the adoption stuff we have going on. We truly appreciate your prayers for us!