Welcoming my Nephew

So this is off subject from the adoption blog but I am very excited and happy to introduce my Nephew Cooper Douglass who was born at 7:48 pm on November 17th, he weighs 7 lb 7 oz and is 19 3/4" long!

Cooper's First Picture:

 First picture of Cooper with his Daddy (My Brother):

A Year With Ashden...

Hello All,

So I wanted to do this around his birthday on October 21st but didn't get a chance...I'm going to share a year of Ashden with you because he grew up so much!  I am missing a few months, August & September, and I'm putting these for the order I got them in so they might have been taken in a different month...

The day he was born 10-21-2009:

Thanksgiving 2009:

Christmas 2009:

January 2010:

February 2010:

March 2010:

April 2010:

May 2010 (Mothers Day):

June 2010 (First Visit):

July 2010:

(Missing August & September)

October 2010 ONE YEAR!!:

And just for fun...his 2010 Halloween Costume!  He's standing on his own!

I hope you all enjoyed!

~Deanna~

Update from Visit...Sorry it's been so long!

Hello All,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you on how the June visit went, especially with our next visit coming up at the beginning of December.  The visit went very well and we all had a great time getting to see each other again!  I was very nervous but my nervousness went away as soon as I saw them again.  I wish I would have played with him more but there is always next time.  We hung out at a park for about an hour just talking and getting to see Ashden laugh and play for awhile.  Then it started getting hot so we headed to Red Robin, one of my favorite resturants, and had a great meal!  Then it was time to say goodbye which was hard but not as bad as I thought because I know that he is with such a great family who loves him very much.  Below are some pictures...

Ashden and I

Then last month on October 21st he turned a year!  I still can't believe it!  I'm just in shock.  The time has flown by so fast and he is already walking now.  B & T told me that he is talking about 10 steps all on his own and every day he is working up to taking more and more.  Before you know it he'll be running around like crazy!

We have our next visit on December 4th and I'm a little nervous for it but not too bad since we had our visit in June.  So we'll see how that goes and since the semester is almost over that means I'll be able to update you all a LOT sooner on that visit with better detail than this post.  (Don't feel too bad, I still haven't uploaded or posted my pictures from my New Mexico vacation in August...oops!)

Well I hope you are all doing well and I will upload a picture of Ashden that his Mom, T, sent me on his birthday tomorrow...for some reason this photo uploader thing won't let me add another photo!  I don't know what's going on.  :-(

Take care and Good Night!

~Deanna~

First Visit...

Hello All,

Our first visit is coming up this Friday. I'm nervous yet so excited at the same time. My parents and Sister will be joining B, T and little Ashden. I'm nervous and I know things will go smoothly but you can't help but worry about that.

My biggest question is, what if he won't come to me and he doesn't want me to hold him?! Very nerve wracking.

I'll update more on Friday night after the visit and let you know how it went and what's been going on. I don't understand how people can update every day. I think it's awesome that you all can update your blogs daily but man my schedule just gets soooooo busy that if I do have an extra 10 minutes I want to use it to breath. LOL.

Take care!

Mark Schultz's Beautiful Song...

Hello All,

Just wanted to share this wonderful song with you. The song is called "Everything to Me" and it is written by the Christian singer Mark Schultz. He wrote this song about his Birthmom and it makes me tear up every time I hear it, even before I became pregnant and the adoption happened, but now it touches at even more places in my heart! Grab a tissue and enjoy...

http://markschultzmusic.com/media/

Click on the above link and then is is the third video posted!

I hope you all enjoy it and have a wonderful weekend! :-)

Always,
Deanna

Mothers Day Gift...

Hello All,

So I wanted to do a quick update. My Mother's Day gift to T is on it's way, so hopefully she will get that before Sunday. I got home today to see a package on my door step! T, B, Ashden and Pet Crew sent me a wonderful Mothers day gift. It contained a wonderful home made card with Ashden's foot and hand print, another home made craft sheet with some scribbles on them (I'm sure from little Ashden) and some other fun bath items and chocolates! It made my day to receive such a wonderful thing and the home made card was just amazing! :-)

I also sent out an Easter basket to Ashden. My Mother has always had a tradition of making Easter baskets for us since we were little. I decided that I would start the tradition with Ashden. It contained some things for bath time (since Ashden loves bath time), some teething toys, a taggie blanket and book, one of my favorite books as a kid "Are you my Mother", and a few other odds and ends. T informed me that Ashden loved the basket and has been playing with a lot of thing items. :-) It just makes me so happy to know that I can send them all things and know that they will enjoy them all.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Deanna

My Review of Sunshine...

Hello All,

So I really enjoyed that movie last night...well it was a film really. 1 hour long. I'm not the artistic type, so I don't really look into the meaning of different objects they decide to focus on. I did really enjoy it though. It was nice to hear how much Adoption has changed in about 30 years.

The film hit on many issues such as unexpected pregnancy between two individuals, single parents, adopted families, where birthfamilies fit into a childs life from their birthparents to their birthgrandparents, as well as the reason different people go different directions.

It was nice to see the film maker capture different aspects in her life and it was wonderful to hear that even though she didn't stay with her daughters father, he was (and still is) a huge part of their daughters life. They are both single parents but they are not single parents in the same way I had viewed single parents. For some reason, whenever I thought of single parent I also thought of someone who wasn't with their child's father/mother and was raising the kid all by themselves with no help from the father/mother. How weird is that?! I guess the fact that they had such a wonderful relationship with each other even with a child involved and not being together just threw me off. It is a weird concept to me since most individuals I know that have kids and are single do not have a good relationship at all with their children's mother/father. I mean none of them! They either don't say two words to each other when they have to pass the kids over for visitation and if they do they argue. It was refreshing to see a child be raised by a mother and a father even with them not being together.

It was also nice to see how fortunate I am to have had an unexpected pregnancy now and go through adoption. I like the fact that they have open adoptions now and that it is ok to share your experiences with others and not have to hide away somewhere and never let your feelings out. I think it's great that now we are able to choose what would be best for ourselves and our babies...if you want a closed adoption that is fine but it is also become normal to have an open one. :-)

Well now that I babbled a lot and probably didn't hit on much, I will repeat that this was a wonderful film from Independent Lens...I hope that it is available to more people to watch so others can check it out!

Have a great night!
~Deanna~