Weekend

This past weekend we went down to Mena to see friends and family. It was a really good weekend. It was fun showing Esther off and catching up with people we don't see very often. Esther did really good on the trip considering some issues that came up with her. (turns out we think she really does have a milk allergy, the birthmom told us she did but we decided to test it ourselves and the milk formula gave her really gross poop and congestion so we switched her back to soy formula. This also involved a trip to Mena Wal-Mart at 2am.) Besides seeing friends in Mena, we took her to the church down there that we consider my "hometown" church. We also spent time with my parents and some other relatives.

Here is Esther in a new shirt we bought her. We found some band shirts at Target on sale that we could not pass up.

Here is her cute dress for church on Sunday

We stayed with some good friends in Mena and had a great time hanging out and seeing some other friends while there. Somehow I did not get any pictures of Esther with them, but I did get some good videos of them with her. Here is a good pic we got of the three of us on their deck.

We went to see my parents in Hale Town. Most people don't believe me when I tell them my parents live in Hale Town. It is several miles east of Waldron which is north of Mena. The Hale family settled in that area in like the late 1800's or something like that. All of my ancestors lived there and a lot of my dad's cousins still live around there. My parents built a house there last year on my grandparents old property (my dad was born on the front lawn). Anyway here is proof of Hale Town.

Here is another pic with my parents house in the background

Here is Esther with my Aunt Freddie

And with my cousin Cindy

There is a small country church in Hale Town that my parents go to (my dad went there growing up), and after church on Sunday night a lot of the people came over to my parents house for snacks and to see Esther.

Photo Shoot

As I mentioned in the previous post, one of our friends who has started doing photography on the side, came out and took some photos of Esther the other day. She put some of them online and they are really cute. I thought I would share her site with you so you could all check them out. Her website is http://www.alishiasnookphotography.blogspot.com/ and there are a few pics of Esther on the main page if you scroll down, but if you click on Babies at the top of the page and scroll down until you see her name, there are many more. I will try to post details about our weekend whenever we get home tomorrow.

Quick Update

This week has been a good week. We are starting to settle in with having and taking care of a baby. Esther is sleeping about as well as can be expected, and we have figured out our sleep schedule so we are doing good on sleep. We have still been able to see lots of friends who have come to see Esther. Margo took Esther to her work to introduce her there and she was a hit. This weekend we are going to Mena to see friends and family so that should be lots of fun. Here are some pictures.

Our friends BJ, Brandy, and their kids came out the other night and brought dinner. Their kids are really cute. I took them out and let them feed the goats which was a lot of fun. Here is Jordan (4) holding Esther. She is very mothering and did a great job holding her and supporting her head for the little bit that we let her hold her. I was very impressed.

We started using cloth diapers this week intermittently. We are still need some cloth diaper things but our good friends Adam and Sarah are lending us their newborn stuff until we get all of our stuff so we can get started. They also brought us dinner this week which was awesome. Right now we are just doing cloth diapers during the day. Once we get a little more used to it, we will try and do nights also. I think when we travel we will probably just use disposable.

Although you might think this picture is something I would do, it was actually Margo.

Last night, a friend from work, Ali, and her husband Josh came out. Ali does photography on the side and she did a little photo shoot with Esther. This age is kind of tough because she does not stay still for very long but also doesn't have good head control or smiling on queue ability. Anyway, I will let you know when she gets done with those and share them with all of you. I have seen a few and they are super cute.

Busy Weekend

This was a really busy weekend for Esther. It started on Friday. I will tell about it in pictures.....

Margo's good friend and co-worker Linda and her daughter Kaylee came out to see Esther Friday afternoon. Linda brought us lunch and a bunch of other food and gifts. It was awesome. Kaylee was super excited to see Esther and "hold" her.

Friday night our good friends Rick and Ashley came out and brought us dinner and stayed to hang out and watch a movie. It was fun to hang out with friends for a while like we did pre-Esther. And the big story of the night is Rick held Esther and I have the pictures to prove it. He has always said he would not hold a baby under 3 months because he was worried he would do something wrong. But with lots of peer pressure we got him to do it but only while he was sitting down.

Saturday was our big baby shower at our church. It was awesome. The girls did a great job getting it all set up. It was fun to get to see lots of friends and family and hang out with them. And Esther racked up the presents. Here we are at the shower. The awesome cake was made by one of our friends we go to church with.

Some really good friends of ours drove up from Mena for the shower and to meet Esther. They are really important people in our life so it meant a lot that they came up. We were able to go to dinner and hang out more after the shower which was fun. We are going to try and make a trip to Mena this weekend to see more of our friends down there.

This is a picture of Esther and I trying to recover from the busy weekend.

She's Legal

Today was our court date to make the adoption official and have the a judge sign off on it. We were not sure what to expect and were a little nervous but it was a piece of cake. Judge Martin was the judge we saw. We went into his office and chit chatted for a little bit and he signed off on the paperwork and we took some pictures. Then we went and filed the paperwork and we should get her new birth certificate in like 6 weeks. Judge Martin was really nice, he has adopted 3 kids (I think) so he is all about adoption. Here is our picture with him.

Esther also made a new friend at the courthouse. There was another couple there getting their adoption finalized also. We talked to them a little bit. Their little boy is a month or so older than Esther but he is a chunk. His name is Cooper, maybe one of these days they will meet up again. We took a picture of them together.

We also went by LifeSource today and let Esther meet our friends Ernie and Terry. Ernie is my brother's father-in-law. Ernie did our pre-marital counseling and he is one of my mentors.

And yesterday, Margo's roommate and good friend from college, Magevney and her husband, stopped by. They live in Memphis and are moving to Kazakhstan soon. Their daughter, Kirsten, is a year old.

Here is Esther today wearing her first dress for her day in court. I am not sure why babies need shoes but they are cute.

Update

The people are demanding an update.

Tuesday was a good day for us. The adoption paperwork became legally binding on that date. There is a waiting period after adoption to give the birthmom a chance to change her mind. It is 10 days in Arkansas but 5 of those days can be waived by the birthmom (which ours did). That put the day on Saturday so it would go to the next business day which was actually Tuesday because of the holiday. Now we just have one more thing to make it official official. Our court date for the judge to sign off on the adoption is tomorrow. They say that it is more of just a formality but I will be happy when it is all done. Also Tuesday, we talked to the agency (Bethany) we were working with to adopt to let them know we would not need to continue with them since we had adopted Esther (privately without an agency). They were happy for us but sad for them because they really liked us and wanted to work with us. We had already paid there upfront/non-refundable fee to use them (which was several thousand dollars). But they told us they had not yet deposited our check so they were not going to worry about it and not deposit it. So, we got that money back!!!!!!!!! Side story....This was a huge answer to prayer. We had been really worried about the money aspect of adopting. The average cost is $20,000-$25,000 and we had made a lot of changes to our lives to save this kind of money and it was going to completely deplete our savings. Private adoptions are hard to come by but God answered our prayers and provided a private adoption for us that is costing us less than 10% of what we had thought we would have to pay for adoption through an agency.

My work had a shower for us on Tuesday also. It was a lot of fun and totally blew us away how much stuff Esther got there. It was funny because I work with almost all women and a lot of their kids are grown and older so they were really excited about baby Esther and they were oohing and awing over her. I really like my job and the people I work with. Some of them are like family and it was awesome to see how much they already love her. It meant a lot to me.

I am still working on the furniture for her room. I finished repainted the cradle, crib, and changing table that we were given. She has been sleeping in the cradle in our room. We are trying to hold off buying bunch of stuff and getting her room set up until after the shower on Saturday. Right now I am working on stripping and repainting the dressers that are going in her room.

Here is the before picture of the cradle. This cradle was my cradle when I was a baby. It was given to my parents when I was born (almost 30 years ago). Hopefully we can pass it on to Esther when she has kids.

Here is it is after being repainted. I think it turned out pretty good. Much more up to date looking.

Our good friends Russ, Kristy, and their daughter Sophie came over the other day to see Esther. Here is Sophie holding Esther.

More pictures

More Firsts

Well, Esther got to meet lots more friends and family this weekend. She got to meet Margo's brother and family briefly. They were on their way out of town and stopped by just for a minute. They have three young kids so figured it was better not to unload everyone since they were on their way to a family reunion. On Saturday night we went to some friends house and we got to watch our first Razorback game as a family (and we won). Today, we took her to church for the first time and let me tell you she was a hit. We could not even make it in the door before a crowd formed around us. It was really awesome that everyone was so excited about her. She did pretty good during church, just a couple loud farts. This afternoon she got to meet my brother and his family. They were in town for the weekend. My niece and nephew were really sweet with her. They had even made a video for her on the day they found out we had got her telling her how excited they were to meet her and how much they loved her. Here are some pics, there are more if you click on the pictures link on the right sidebar (I put the newest ones first).

Here she is with Uncle Zack (Josh's brother)

With Aunt JoAnna (Josh's sister in law)

Uncle Chris (Margo's brother)

Aunt Megan (Margo's sister in law)

Watching the Razorback game

Her new Razorback outfit

Awesome little bow that JoAnna made for her

With first cousins Lincoln and Keylor

On a side note, our baby shower is officially planned for next Saturday from 2-4pm at our church (the grove church). It is open for anyone to come to (men, women, kids) and is come and go as you want. In case you are going to buy us something, we are mostly registered at Target and Terra Tots, and we registered for a little bit of stuff at Wal-Mart today. Don't feel like you need to get us anything but come if you just want to meet sweet Esther. Also we are having her baby dedication at church next Sunday at the 9:15 service.

Meet the Grandparents

Yesterday, Margo's parents came out to see Esther for the first time. And today my parents drove up to spend the afternoon and meet her for the first time. Then later in the afternoon Margo's mom brought Margo's grandmother to come see Esther for the first time. I think they liked her.

Margo's Dad

Margo's Mom

My Parents

Margo's grandma

I also wanted to share this picture from the other night when some of our friends brought us dinner. They just had a baby boy on July 25th. We have been celebrating his birth with them since he was born. Little did we know at the time that God had already provided us our little girl and she was actually born three days before him. Here they are on their first date.

And here is a picture of Esther on a baby quilt that my grandmother made for me when I was born (almost 30 years ago). Be sure and pay attention to the awesome hair.

There are lots more pictures on our picasa web album. Just click here. I will also add a link to this album on the right side column of the blog. I will add more as often as I can.

You don't have to buy us stuff, but we sure appreciate it.

Lot of people have been asking about what we need and what they can buy us. We really appreciate everybody wanting to get us stuff, but it is hard for us to ask people to buy us stuff. I guess that is just what people do when you have a baby. Please don't feel obligated though. Just your friendships and kindness to us is gift enough. But, since everyone has been asking, I wanted to let you know that we finally had time to register a little bit yesterday. We registered at Target and at a local store called Terra Tots. Terra Tots is owned by a friend of ours and they sell cloth diapers and lots of other really cool and natural type baby supplies. We want to try and do cloth diapers as much as we can. So, if you live in NWA you can check that store out, it has lots of great stuff and if Bernice (she is the owner) helps you, she has been a friend of mine since growing up. We will also try to register for some stuff at Wal-Mart at some point this weekend when we get time. I know some of you may not have a Target where you live but most of the stuff we needed we registered for at Target. There is a shower being planned for next Saturday afternoon/evening so if anyone is interested let me know and I can give our friends your contact information so you will get an invite. It will be a casual/co-ed/come and go kind of thing. But again, don't feel like you need to bring a gift if you come, just come and hang out and check out Esther.

I will try to put up more pictures later today.

Crazy

I wanted to share a quick fact with everyone. Normally I get around 20-30 hits a day on this blog. Yesterday we had 817 !!!!!!!!!!!

Day 2 - Finding which way is up

So, the first night was a little rough. We did not sleep much. She was having a hard time adjusting to new people, new place, sleeping by herself, sleeping flat. But we had a great day yesterday spending time with her and sorting through stuff. We tried to make a plan of action of what we need and what we need to do to have a baby even though we already have the baby.

Esther did a lot better sleeping last night. She slept for about 4 hours before she woke up the first time and then went back to sleep for another few hours. It was pretty nice, we got to catch up on our sleep a little bit. Some of our awesome friends have already been blessing us. A friend from work stopped by and brought some diapers, blankets, and other needed things. Some other good friends brought us dinner last night which was really nice. And then another friend from work brought us some stuff from her sister's little girl from when she was a baby. It is some stuff we really needed...a swing, a play mat, a boppy, some clothes, and more.

Today, we are going in to town to register for baby stuff (a shower is being planned by our friends). And we have to meet with the lawyer. Later today, she will get to meet her grandparents (Margo's parents) for the first time. And tomorrow she gets to meet her other grandparents.

And then there were 3

Ok, crazy story. We got a call at 5:30pm MONDAY night that there was a baby for us to adopt in Little Rock. A 6 week old baby. And we could come down and meet the birthmother and if everything worked out sign the papers and bring the baby home. So, we went to Wal-Mart on Monday night and bought a car seat, pack n play, diapers, formula, and bottles. We drove to Little Rock YESTERDAY and met the birthmom and baby, the birthmom signed the papers and we drove home around 3pm from Little Rock with our DAUGHTER. It was totally a miracle how it all happened. God was in complete control of our situation and blessed us beyond what we could ever imagine.

So, we are parents. Just like that.

She is awesome. We have named her Esther Louise Hale. Louise is one of Margo's grandmother's first name and her other grandmother's middle name. She was born July 22nd. She was a couple weeks early and weighed around 6 pounds and now she is up to about 7.5 pounds. She has brown hair and deep blue eyes.

We have lots of stuff to share about how it all happened but I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know about it and give you a few details. I know, I know, you want more than details, you want pictures. Here....

It's Official

We are officially in a drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. And let me tell you, it is dry here. I have never seen it like this around here before. All the grass is brown and completely dead, all the farmers are feeding hay (including me). The drive out to our house is crazy because of all of the brown fields. My ponds are the lowest I have ever seen them, the smaller one is almost completely dry.

Here is the drought map to prove it (you can click it to make it bigger). We are in the light brown (drought moderate) in the northwest corner.

Where's the Kitty

As you who read the blog know, we had kittens a while back. We gave away all but one of them. The one we kept is starting to get big and he is at that really playful age so he is a lot of fun. We are still discussing names for him. I think Smalls might be the leading candidate right now, with Goodbye a close second.

Big Milestone

Something big happened today. We went to Mena for the weekend and on our way back while on interstate 540, between Chester and the tunnel, our car hit 100,000 miles. It is our CRV that we bought brand new in 2004. It is the first car we bought together. It has been a great car for us, Margo loves driving it. I hope it goes for another 100,000

I thought I would give a brief description of where it's been and what it has been through in it's 100,000 miles. Besides taking us all around Northwest Arkansas, it has been to the far reaches of Arkansas, to Mena tons of times, Little Rock a bunch of times, Dallas, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Nashville (TN), Omaha, and many other lesser known cities. It has been in a wreck where a guy sideswiped it and it has hit a deer (both while Margo was driving).

Here is a picture of when we bought it and brought it home.

Here is today on the way home. Yes, I took the picture while driving (it is against the law to text while driving, not take pictures while driving). What is most amazing is I am only going 70 on the interstate (I slowed down for safety while taking the picture).

Death of a Farm

It seems that every year we have a period of the summer where it gets really dry and does not rain for a while. Well, we are experiencing that right now. Every year I think it is the worst it's ever been. I don't know if that is the case or not but it sure feels like it again this year. We have not had rain in several weeks here on the farm. There have been lots of pop up showers around the area but none of them have been here. The grass is mostly brown and dead. There are still a few spots in wetter type areas that still have a little green grass for the animals to eat. If it does not rain soon though, I will have to start feeding hay to the animals. Another thing that is dead is the garden. I tried to keep it going for a little while but it was just taking to much watering so I let it go. Luckily I was able to keep it going long enough to get all the veggies we needed to can and freeze for the rest of the year. If it ever rains again, I may plant some stuff for a fall garden. The only thing that I am still keeping alive is the cantaloupe and watermelon. Here is a picture of the last thing I got out of the garden, the butternut squash and spaghetti squash.

And here is a picture of a couple cantaloupe.

The natives are getting to comfortable

This is a picture looking out the back window. (that's a deer, not a goat)

Since we moved in and put up fence, cleared land, etc., we have hardly ever seen deer on our property. Sometimes you would see them back up behind the house on the hill in the winter but never near the house. But, the past month or so, two doe's have been right behind the house like it is no big deal. I just hope they don't get so comfortable that they get in the yard or garden and eat our plants. Otherwise, we might be having deer steaks soon.

Chicken Stimulus

I bought some new chickens over the weekend. Our current chickens are getting older and not laying as well and we have lost some of them to varmints a while back. I am not sure what varmints because I never caught any of them, but I think it could have been hawks. Anyway, back to the new chickens story. I took a couple of our goats that were born this year up to the Centerton Livestock Auction to sell on Saturday. I happened to get up there right when they were having the poultry sale. I decided to check it out to see how much the chickens were going for and they happened to be going for really cheap. So, I just had to buy some to replenish our numbers. I ended up buying 15!!!!! Oops (I am supposed to be trying to save money these days). After buying a few I realized that I did not have a cage to hold chickens with me so I had to buy a cage also. Luckily they had some they were auctioning off and they were pretty cheap. The chickens I bought are a little younger and may not be laying eggs yet but they should be soon. I got them for around $3 each which is really cheap. Usually these chickens go for $10+ each. I am not sure why they were so cheap, I guess the economy effects chicken sales also. And they probably have not been getting any stimulus money at the Livestock Auction......trade in your old inefficient chickens for new energy efficient ones. Now that would be a sweet deal.