Nolans birth

I figured out I can post from my iPad! Awesomeness. I was going through my Facebook messages today and found one from my cousin who is a vlogger. She had sent me a link to another vlog about adoption. Anyways after checking out the videos, I decided I needed to get nolans birth and adoption story written. Not that I think I could ever forget, but still. So here goes. This last year and a half has been a total roller coaster ride. I have changed jobs twice,moved,etc. Well the hubby and I made the decision to buy a house, and that was a huge long process. About February I was getting sooo depressed. After looking at what seemed like thousands of houses, we finally one! But it seemed to take forever till closing. Anywho when we finally closed we had tons of work to do. So needless to say the last few months have been stressful.I tell you this so you can understand what kind of place I was in. Well April 15th happens. A horrible tornado hits my hometown and friends lose homes, businesses destroyed. It also pushes back our home update. I went to bed the night after the tornado feeling so defeated and down. In fact I think I probably cried myself to sleep that night (not just for me but for those affected by the tornado). For some reason I woke up at 5 am and felt the need to check our adoption email, which before I rarely did. We had an email from a young woman who said she might be interested in placing her child with us. Well we also had an email from our social worker asking how our house was cause he might have a placement for us. There may have been some excitement and waking my hubby up to show him the emails. Later that morning I called the social worker and he explained that he had not yet met this young woman but had an appointment with her that afternoon. Oh and to make it more interesting they told us her due date was the next day. After I got off work I still had not heard from him, so I asked my husband if I could call. He said no, give him time. We waited about an hour and finally gave in and called. First words were "I've got good news and bad news". Good news being she had chosen us and bad news we had drive a week later to meet her. So a week later we were on the road to meet this sweet girl. I should mention here that a few days before we met we received a call from our social worker saying that there might be a few problems. Which I'm not gonna go into. Anyways we arrived and spent about 30 minutes or so talking with our social worker. We were made aware of the potential problems before he brought the birthmother in. When he left, I was feeling a tad nervous, but my honey and I looked at each other and we both just felt an incredible peace. For the next little while we talked to the birth mom and got to know her. I explained why we are unable to have our own children and just broke down and cried. We explained how appreciative we are to her for her sacrifice. Well about two weeks later we found out drs had gotten her due date wrong, so we were no longer sure when baby would arrive. Fast forward to may 11th. I got the "phone call" that every adoptive parent waits for. There's a baby coming! So I quickly left work and was gonna meet the hubby for lunch since we didn't know how long it'd take for baby to come. Well on my way we got another call saying to get there as soon as we could. We quickly packed a bag and hit the road. We arrived at the hospital and our sweet baby boy was born a couple hours later. We couldn't stay at the hospital cause they didn't have enough room for us but it worked out ok. The next day we spent several hours with Nolan and his birth mom before the social worker arrived to do the placement. Our angel birth mom had a few moments with him and then placed him in my arms. I will admit I cried like a baby. What an emotional moment. The hospital released her to leave and we spent the night at the hospital with Nolan. We came home Sunday, which was also mothers day. So that's it in a nutshell. Nolan is the biggest blessing to our family. He is truly amazing. He amazes me every day. God truly hears and answers our prayers. We are truly grateful and humbled by his birth mother for her sacrifice. I hope to get a computer sometime soon so I can post pics and stuff.

Seth turns 2

So this post is actually recent (sort of ).  My handsome nephew Seth turned 2 back in February and we had a birthday party for him at Grandma Smith's house.  Happy birthday sweet Sethers!  He is so much more interested in his gift than the camera, LOL.  I have several more pics of the party, but my computer is being slow right now and not really uploading pics, so for now this will have to suffice.

On Motherhood

So I know I am not a mother, yet, but this subject has been on my mind for quite a while.  I often struggle with this subject.  In my chosen profession, I read horrendous reports every day of mothers (AND fathers) who mistreat their children in awful ways.  A few I have had to hold back tears.  I had the amazing opportunity to do my last internship at a shelter before I graduated.  As part of my learning experience, I was given the chance to set in trauma focused therapy sessions with teenagers who were in what we call "out of home placement" and had experienced trauma.  Several of these teenagers were not very excited to come to "group" therapy.  However, most were cooperative when we got started.  In one of our sessions some of the kids began talking about their mothers, and one young man cut in and basically said that he knows we as therapists and workers are only trying to help him, but that the ONLY person who could truly help him was his own mother.  He continued on and told us that essentially mothers were what got them into this situation, and they were the only ones who could decide to clean their lives up and get their children out of their current situation.  I was sort of lost for words.  Mothers have the biggest impact on our lives whether we realize it or not.  I took an inventory of my own life and realized that my mother has had a huge impact on my life.  I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for a mother who took care of me and loved me enough to teach me right from wrong and protected me.  I also realized that even though I am not a mother myself, I have an impact on those children in my life. I am very blessed to have six fun loving, cute, and energetic nephews and two beautiful nieces that truly bring me such happiness.   So mothers, love your children, appreciate them and never take them for granted!

Graduation

So after three years of weekends, nights, early mornings, lunch breaks, etc. doing homework, studying, researching, and basically all that fun stuff that comes with graduate school, I FINALLY graduated with my Masters in Social Work from the University of Oklahoma. Since it was in the midst of us moving and packing to come to Woodward, I didn't have a party, but my family came and spend the weekend. The night before we hung out at the house and rode the 4 wheeler, and ate dinner. Saturday was spent running around OKC then to Norman for graduation. This isn't the best pic of my hubby and me, BUT we were in a hurry after the ceremony. I have to say that this man was one of my biggest supporters during the whole graduate school process. There were many nights were I'd ask myself and him if all this work was truly worth it. But he wouldn't let me quit. My family was also a huge support, I love them all! Congrats MSW class of 2011! Boomer Sooner! (just fyi, I am also a Cowboy fan, so for all my cowboy family and friends, Go pokes!)

Hello

I think I'm like the worst blogger of all time. Yup. A few weeks back I began thinking about blogging again and why I began this blog in the first place. My main reason for starting it was so that potential birth parents (or whoever really) could catch a glimpse into our life and also to give those family members and friends who don't live near us something to read to see what we are up to. so I'm gonna try to put together a few posts of the highlights of the last year. Some might be old, but better late than never right?

I'm Back

Soooo, I'm finally back. It's been a while since I've blogged. To be honest, I have just been super busy with school and my internship that I really have not had time to really blog. And when I do feel like I have time, I don't really feel like it.

But heres a quick recap of what we have been up to lately

In March Norm started a new job that is taking us to Woodward!!!! (Yes, I am SOOOO excited to be moving home)

Also in early March/late February my oldest brother scared us all and had a stroke, so my other brother Jared and I hopped on a plane and went to visit. We were only able to visit for a few days, but it was nice to be there with all my family and spend time with my two beautiful nieces and two handsome nephews. (p.s. to all my Utah and Idaho friends: Sorry I didn't get to see any of you, but hopefully I can come for a longer visit next time!)

April/May- I finished up school and will be getting my masters next weekend!!!!! I seriously never thought this day would come, and I know its prideful, but I gotta just say that I am pretty dang proud of myself.

April 29th- Landed my first post-graduate job!!! Another exciting thing. I will be working for a small private agency called Northcare. They work with families who are struggling and could potentially get their children taken away by DHS. I am so excited to get to work with clients and help them better their lives. It will be a good experience. I also have the potential to work on getting licensed if I want.

Anyway, between preparing for the move, and finishing school and doing my internship, I haven't been able to blog much, but hopefully I will get back on the bandwagon.

Weight Loss

So, a couple years back, I joined weight watchers. I lost a bunch of weight, and have managed to keep MOST of it off. BUT a lot of the pants i was wearing at the height of my weight loss I can barely squeeze myself into now and have hit a major plateau. I've been the same now for about a year. Soooo I am starting back up on weight watchers and thought if I made my weight loss somewhat public, I might be more willing to challenge myself. My sister-in-law Lynsie has become quite the runner and has really made me want to start also. (This might be far fetched, but I think it'd be fun to do a race of some sort SOMEDAY, when I'm more in shape). I made Norm buy me an elliptical so I'm gonna start exercising and being more healthy! If anyone wants to be a weight loss "buddy" please let me know!