Progress

We are so pleased that it is coming out well. This is the fairy that will hang above her changing table. I still have detail work to do overall, on the flowers, her skin, and on her face. Her wings are a peralescent(?) pink and I think it's reflecting the flash and that's why you can't see the color. But I'm excited that it looks descent. The tree in the post below is so detailed that I think I'm going to tackle that one last. I think we are doing 2-3 more pictures, not quite sure how it's all going to come together, but it's progress. Anyways..I said I would show progress, so here it is.

Mural preview

So here's a preview of one of the mural pictures that Jon is doing. I had to make it black and white and mess with the sharpening and stuff to try to get the outline to show up at all. It wouldn't show well at all in the photo. I know it's not a great picture of the outline, but you can get the jist. It looks soooo good!! I am so excited at how well it's turning out. I'm going to start painting later, but I can't paint while Jon is projecting/outlining. I'm a little nervous about messing up the pictures with the painting....Jon's advice to me...."just stay in the lines".....yeah...kinda figured that!

p.s. if you click on the photo you can see the mural better

An update to Melt your heart!!!

Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks and kiss her neck!! I love love love her face. I've been staring at her pictures for two days now and I couldn't wait to post them any longer. She is just so darn cute. This is my new favorite picture. I can just hear her belly laugh when I look at this.

She was 16 pounds and 24 inches about three weeks ago. She looks so healthy and that's the best thing. She's eating 150cc every four hours. She can hold objects briefly. She initiates vocalization with adults, can lift and hold her head.

Her report also says that she watches her own hands, which I am told is a good thing. Another tug at our hearts thing that Jon noticed right away was that before under Father and Mothers name, it was blank....

NOW.....we are listed as her Mother and Father!!

Bring on the tears....again...

Enjoy!!

Bedroom suite complete..

We were able to get the rest of the nursery furniture to add to the crib. It's soooo beautiful and we love it. Thanks to my parents for gifting us all this!! Right now we're trying to figure out how to arrange it in her room. We have come to the conclusion that we are big furniture people in a small furniture house. Claire is going to have to play in the drawers cuz there's not much room left. Notice she already has a stuffed animal collection going. The dogs however believe that all the new toys are for them....that's going to be an issue....haha!

We have decided that we are going to try to do the mural ourselves and have purchased a small projector. Fairies and Fairies all around is what we're going to do. Jon is going to trace it all and I am going to do the painting. Uggghhh....I hope it turns out okay! I'll show the progress b/c there's not much to report.

Our paperwork made it back to the orphanage on March 31st. Say a prayer that we get a fast, efficient judge. We don't anticipate hearing anything until July. Hopefully at that time we will know about our court date, then travel two months later. PRAY!!!

The care package was rec'd on Friday, so visions of Claire with lots and lots of new things gets met through the day...

The weepy gene?

Please tell me when that weepy gene thingy sneaks in? Because all I was trying to do was track a package from here to ....oh I don't know...Taiwan, and all I did was read this:

Your item left the United States from MIAMI at 6:52 PM on April 8, 2008.

Next thing you know....tears....

GAWD!! Seriously!! Is this going to happen a lot?

1st care package

So I'm thinking we may have sent just a little too much. Jon said he felt better knowing that we sent her some clothes. The care package included: a photo album with pictures of us and the grandparents, a giraffe that plays music, a crib toy that lights up when spun, the softest blanket eva, a homemade blanket, booties, and hat(b/c I know that she just needs a hat in the tropics), 4 sleepers with footies, the "Daddy says I'm beautiful" onsie, and two disposable cameras.
We're trying to hold off on some of the other outfits we bought her b/c we know that we may not get any of this back. We're hoping that she's home before she outgrows some of them. If it looks like she'll be too big before she's home, then we'll send them over.
It weird to know that in a little over a week, our precious baby girl will have something from us, finally!!

34 well earned years!!!

I was wrong...
I thought it was going to be a bad birthday.
I thought that yet again, being without a child, would define me.

But I was wrong.
It was not being childless that defined me, but the journey that got me here.
So now it is simple.

I was wrong.
I was never without
I just had to get there

I was always a mother
journeying to her child.
Waiting for her to find me

So I was wrong.
It was a good birthday
Because she found me.