A Busy Girl!

Well we have been adjusting well to having Raegan with us now. She has been doing really good sleeping at night ( hopefully she will keep that up!). She is becoming more alert every day and she is starting to smile ( and we are pretty sure it's not just gas!). Yesterday my parents came down and brought our dog Kona back home. She was really excited to be back home ( although she is probably wondering where the royal treatment is, as my parents certainly spoiled her while they were keeping her). She did really well with the baby and Raegan seems to like to look at her so I am sure before long they will be best pals! Then later on Josh's aunt, uncle and grandmother came to bring us a bassinet and clothes that were given to us by Josh's brother ( thanks Chris and Heather). They enjoyed visiting with Raegan and Raegan seemed to take a particular liking to her great grandmother! We must have worn her out because she slept really well last night. We are looking forward to introducing Raegan to all of our family and friends!

Today Raegan had a checkup and the doctor said she is doing great! She weighs 10 lbs 4 oz already so she is growing quick! Her appointment wore her out too because she took a really long nap this afternoon but when she woke up she was really happy and all smiles!

Here are some pictures from our family time yesterday...

We're Home!

We are finally home! We arrived yesterday morning at BWI airport after a long night of traveling. The flights were good. Raegan did really well on both flights, she pretty much slept the whole time (at least one of the three of us slept!). We had a long layover in Atlanta and then flew home. When we got to BWI I went to use the restroom and as I was walking in I saw someone filming and there was a little girl in my way going in. I thought she looked familiar and then when i went in to use the restroom I noticed that it was Cara from John and Kate Plus 8 ( a tv show for those of you who don't watch) and then when I went in Kate was in there helping all of the girls go potty! I didn't get a chance to talk to her b/c she was a little preoccupied but it was cool to see them there! I don't know where they were flying but if you watch you may see me walking in to the restroom at BWI airport ( what a great thing to be caught on tape!)

Anyway. We got to spend some time with all of the grandparents and then Josh and I headed back home with Raegan. We were greeted at our house with beautiful pink decorations ( thanks to our Evergreen Family!). We were all exhausted but very glad to be home! Our friends Desi, Colin and Christian came over and brought us dinner and got to meet Raegan. And then we headed to bed early. Well Josh ended up getting a good night's sleep ( which was good since he had to work today!) but Raegan had her schedule a little mixed up so she didn't sleep very good until about 2 am. We have been napping a lot today though so I am starting to feel better now! I know it will take a little while to adjust and for Raegan to adjust to the East coast but we are just glad to be home!

We'll write more and post some more pictures later but I just wanted to let everyone know we have arrived and we can't wait to get to see everyone!

Leaving Las Vegas with our Vegas Baby!

We got the call! We called our social worker this morning to ask her about the processing (even though we weren't supposed to) and she said it was ok since the process was taking so long for us. She told us she was following up on the processing for us and within the hour we got a call saying we were free to leave! So we didn't waste any time. We got on the internet and booked a red eye flight for tonight! We usually don't like red eye flights but since we are used to "red eye" nights anyway with a new baby we don't mind! We are just excited to be able to finally come home! We are flying into Atlanta and then we arrive in BWI at 9:45 am tomorrow morning. We are going to spend some time with my parents and Josh's parents ( who are coming to Baltimore) and then we will head back to Virginia with our new baby and our dog Kona ( who has been getting spoiled at my parents house for the last 3 weeks!) sometime tomorrow.

So now we are in the process of packing up our temporary residence in Las Vegas and then we will head to the airport this evening. I am sure we will have stories from our travels through the airport with a newborn baby and three weeks worth of luggage! And don't worry we aren't planning on packing Raegan in a suitcase, it was just a good photo op!

Can't wait to see everyone soon!

Still no news!

Well we still haven't heard anything about our processing. We didn't really expect to hear anything until at least today since yesterday was a holiday. We are hoping to hear something today. We are not really allowed to call the offices to check on our processing and our agency said we weren't even allowed to call them to ask them any updates but we are going to try to find out something today. We figured since there was such a delay in the Nevada processing that we at least need to know if it has been sent out of Nevada yet because if it hasn't then we need to make plans for Josh to go back to Virginia while I stay out here and wait for the processing to finish. We are hoping and praying that doesn't happen but we can't afford for Josh to run out of vacation time.

We are trying to make the best of our situation but Josh and I are about at our breaking point! We are enjoying our time with Raegan of course but are anxiously awaiting our departure back to Virginia. And If I have to cook one more thing out of a box or package I think I am seriously going to go crazy!

Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement! We hope to see everyone soon!

Not Leaving Las Vegas...Yet

Yes, it's Saturday, February 16 and we are still in "Fabulous" Las Vegas. We are still waiting on the interstate paperwork to come through. We haven't heard any news and unfortunately Monday is a holiday so nothing will be processed then. We are hoping to get notice on Tuesday so that we can come home Wednesday but unfortunately in this process we are not allowed to call the offices to check on the status so we just have to wait to hear from them. We are praying that it doesn't take much longer because besides being anxious to get back home, we are also becoming concerned because Josh has had to use up so much vacation time from work. But God has blessed us so much already and we are sure that He will continue to provide for us and provide a way for us to get home soon! For now, we are just trying to enjoy our time together as a family in Nevada. Although, we really haven't been able to do much since Raegan has a demanding feeding schedule, and we also don't want to take her out much since it is flu season. We were able to find a great church to visit while we are here called Central Christian Church. We went in shifts last week - Josh went while Jen watched Raegan and vice versa - to see Paul Teutul Jr. from the show American Chopper share about his journey of faith. It was a great service and it was interesting to hear his testimony. We also registered to win an authentic custom Orange County Chopper. The church is announcing the winner tomorrow at the service, so we will definitely be there to see if we won! (Of course, the motorcycle is not the primary reason that we are going to church).

We will continue to keep everyone posted on our status and hope that we can get back this coming Wednesday!

We're in Love!

Josh and I have a new love in our life this Valentine's Day! We are completely in love with our new daughter and find that we grow to love her more every day! She continues to grow and change before our eyes and she continues to keep us busy. We are becoming bored being stuck in a hotel room but she has done a good job of making the time pass while we are waiting to be able to go home. We haven't heard any new updates today regarding the status of our processing but we are expecting to not be able to go home until sometime next week. If we don't hear anything tomorrow we'll have to cancel our flights for Saturday and just wait until we hear something. We are a little bummed that we may have to stay longer but we are just focusing on the blessing of our new daughter and just enjoying the time we have together as a new family! We'll keep everyone updated as soon as we hear any more news about when we can come home! We miss everyone! We hope everyone has a nice Valentines Day! I am treating Josh to a romantic dinner from In and Out Burger (he says he needs to get his fill while we are out west!)

Still Waiting In Nevada

We're sorry that we haven't updated the blog in a few days. It seems like little Raegan has developed quite an appetite and that we are feeding her on a continual basis! As all of the other parents probably already know, there is an ongoing cycle of feeding, changing, sleeping, feeding, changing, sleeping, etc. (I'm sure Jen was aware of this too, but I'm a little slower to pick up on things like this.) Needless to say, we have been a bit busy!

The other major story of the day is that we are still waiting for the interstate paperwork to be completed so that we can all go home. We got an update from the social worker on the status of the interstate compact today and the news wasn't great . We found out that the person responsible for signing off in the capital city of Carson City, NV has been out sick and has not been able to work on our file yet. While we are sorry to hear that she was not well, it was disheartening to hear that no one had looked at our file yet. Thankfully, she was supposed to be working on it today and sending it off to Virginia for completion. Hopefully all of that will be done by the end of the week so that we can all fly back on Saturday, but it doesn't look very likely. We trust that God is in charge of even this step of the process and that everything will be completed in His time (but we're still praying for Saturday, please :p).

Growing so fast!!!

" what a day!"

Well it's hard to beleive that Raegan was one week old yesterday! She is growing so fast! She is growing before our very eyes and she is becoming more alert with each day. Yesterday morning she was up for a long time in the morning just looking around and exploring! Then we decided to go to get out for a while so we took her on a drive and i had to go to Target so josh dropped me off and sat in the car with Raegan. We thought she would sleep the whole time since she was up so much of the morning but she decided to have a meltdown and Josh had to feed her a bottle in the backseat of the car. But after that she was fine and we enjoyed the rest of the day. She is starting to sleep a little better at night but she has told us that she would rather us hold her while she is sleeping rather than being put down alone. We are currently trying to work out a compromise with her and she seems to be agreeable. We are enjoying our time with her out here but are still very anxious to get home!

No News is Good News

Well we are now in the process of waiting for the interstate paperwork to go through so that we can all go back home to Virginia, so things are pretty quiet at this point. Raegan is still doing very well and she's getting more and more adorable everyday...of course, our opinion is biased! Yesterday we did have a milestone - Raegan took her first trip to In'n'Out Burger with dad and mom. For those of you back east who don't know about In'n'Out Burger, suffice it to say that it is THE BEST burger place in America. If you're ever in California, Nevada, or Arizona find one and try it out for yourself...you won't be dissapointed.

Sorry, I digress. No one wants to hear about burgers. The people demand updates on Raegan and the adoption. One other update is that since Raegan was born on 2/2, or Groundhog's Day, we had a baby girl groundhog made for her at the Build-A-Bear store in the mall close to us. It's not quite as cute as a teddy bear, but it's the thought that counts.

We will update you all on the progress of the interstate paperwork as soon as were know anything. We were told that we won't hear anything until it has been approved. Hopefully that won't take longer than this next week. We are planning to come home on Feb. 16, and we are praying that we will be able to head home on that date.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Raegan had her first bath with mom and dad last night. She didn't seem to mind her bath too much. She doesn't really like to be changed out of her diaper or clothes but after we got past that point there wasn't too much screaming. And she really seemed to enjoy when we washed her hair in the sink ( i see lots of mother/daughter salon trips in the future!). Afterwards she seemed very content and she slept good last night so that was a plus for everyone!

"What are you doing to me mom?!? I'm freezing"

"Ok, I guess it's not that bad"

First Day "Home"

Well we are not quite "home" yet and can't wait to be back East but it was nice having our daughter with us at the hotel and out of the hospital. Today we took Raegan for her first pediatrician's visit to the doctor that she saw in the hospital and he said she is doing great. She didn't mind her carseat too much and she seemed to like riding in the car. We have just been back at the hotel for the rest of the day. We are trying to stay inside with her as much as possible since it is cold and flu season. We are getting a little bored but we are definitely enjoying having Raegan with us. Now we just need to wait until the processing is done so that we can come home. Right now we have tentative tickets for Feb 16th so we are hoping it doesn't take any longer than that.Here are a few more pictures of our little girl...

It's Official!

Raegan Isabella is home from the hospital and is now officially in our care. We still have to have a finalization in 6 months but she is now in our custody. The birthmom signed the TPR (termination of parental rights) today and we were able to bring Raegan home with us just a little while ago.
Sorry we haven't posted much but on Sunday the hospital staff offered Josh and I a room at the hospital so we were able to stay there with Raegan. Mom experienced her first official sleepness night on Sunday night but that's ok... we are just happy to have her. Last night she slept much better. She is just trying to get her days and nights straightened out. We have completely fallen in love with this little girl and we are really starting to feel like her parents.
This adoption journey has been a wild and emotional ride and it's not quite over with but we are just happy to all be together and to be out of the hospital. Now we just have to wait about 2 weeks before we can come back to Virginia. We are very anxious to get back home and see everyone!
Please continue to lift up Chelsea and her family in prayer. We had the opportunity to visit with Chelsea and her mom on sunday before Chelsea was discharged from the hospital. It obviously has been very hard on them and it was hard to watch as they said goodbye to Raegan. But it was a neat time to have a very transparent talk with them -we won't share all the details now - but it is very obvious after talking to them that this adoption is completely from God. Like my mom said, His fingerprints have been on this from the beginning and now it is becoming obvious to us.

Both Chelsea and her mom told us that it is hard but they are at peace with the decision because they really believe this is all in God's plan. We really had a hard time leaving Chelsea and right now she doesn't really want to have a relationship but we are hoping that maybe she will change her mind. We really care about her and are thankful for the great relationship we developed with her. It will be neat to share about her with Raegan as she grows up.
We will continue to post pictures and words as we now begin our journey as parents and watch Raegan grow! Below are a few more recent pictures ( we think she gets more beautiful everyday!)

Day One

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you for all of your prayers and thanks for checking out our blog and for all of your comments...it all means a lot to us. We definitely appreciate your support. We also ask that you keep Chelsea and her family in your prayers. It has been a blessing to get to meet them and to develop a relationship with them. They are amazing people. We are also thankful that things have been going smoothly so far, and we are certainly praying that the process continues to go well and that we can come home soon!

Here are some more pictures of Raegan as promised.

She's Here!

Raegan Isabella arrived at 7:57 a.m this morning. She weighed 7 lb 8 oz and was 19 inches long! The birthmom and baby are both doing well. And the baby is absolutely beautiful ( if you want our opinions!). We got to spend some time with the baby, the birthmom, her parents and friends. And then later Josh and I went with her to the nursery for her first bath, hearing test and another feeding. The birthmom wanted to have some time with her after that and we think she plans on keeping her in her room for the rest of the day but she said we are free to come and visit with them anytime. We are exhausted from everything so we are back at the hotel right now and plan on going back to the hospital tonight for another visit. We have to wait 72 hours before the birthmom can sign her TPR paperwork so it will be kind of a stressful 72 hours knowing that she can change her mind. But we are just putting it in God's hands and trusting Him. And we have no indications at all that she is planning on changing her mind. We are glad she is taking some time with the baby before she says good bye.

Thanks for all of your prayers and comments!

It's really time this time!

We just got a call about an hour ago from Chelsea saying that she was having contractions. She said that the hospital that she was supposed to deliver at is full ( i guess they weren't kidding this morning!), so she may have to deliver at another hospital. So we are just waiting to hear back from her to find out where she is going to be delivering and when we need to go over there. So our little girl may just be making an appearance on groundhog's day too! We'll keep everyone posted and hopefully will have some pictures to share soon!

Another delay!

Well yesterday in Vegas went well. We had the opportunity to have lunch with Chelsea ( the birthmom) and that was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed the time with her and I think we all feel much more at ease about everything now. Josh and i spent the rest of the afternoon running some errands and preparing for the "the big day". Then we turned in pretty early and we actually both got a good night's sleep. But in the morning as we were getting ready we got a text message from Chelsea saying that she wasn't going to be induced today because they ran out of room at the hospital. So we were all pretty bummed to say the least but we are trying to make the best of it. We are trusting that God has this all in His plan and maybe He has some reason for this that we can't see. Chelsea didn't know if they were going to reschedule her but she said she would keep us posted. We don't think anything will happen over the weekend unless the baby decides she wants to make an appearance on her own! Our prayer is that they will induce early next week if the baby doesn't come sooner. We are trying to maintain a positive outlook but this means we'll be out here a lot longer than we thought we would be and the travel expenses are already starting to pile up on top of an already expensive adoption process. And Josh only has limited vacation time so it is our hope that he doesn't have to use up all of this time off on this trip. But we are remaining prayerful and we know that God will take care of us. We are so blessed to even be able to be where we are so we are trying to not even be concerned about the details.

So we'll keep everyone posted. I guess we have some more free time to enjoy before our lives really change. We are not really "Vegas" type people but I am sure we can find some things to do while we wait.

Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement! One of these days, we'll have a baby ( and a good story to share with her when she gets older!)