Forever Family and Love

What a busy weekend our little Lola has had! Nana, Papa Jay, Gamma, and Gampa came to visit on Friday so that they could be here for Lola's (and our) big day! How special it was for us to finalize our adoption of Lola. We got up Saturday morning and Gamma had to get her hair done. So she and I headed out to do that. When we were finished, we headed down to the juvenile court four our appointment. The court house was decorated for a celebration! We were taken to the court we'd be in and waited outside for our turn. When we went in, our lawyer asked us a bunch of (easy) questions, and then the judge talked to us for a bit. She told us that this should be a day that we celebrate every year. That this day is as important as her birthday. That we need to remember every moment so that when Lola gets old enough we can tell her about it. What she was wearing...which was also very special! Mom gave me a dress after Lola came home with us that my aunt Judy made for me when I was a baby. It's a beautiful dress with hand stitched smocking around the neck and arms, and it fit Lola perfectly! My aunt Judy died when I was 6, so it was extra special to have Lola be able to wear that dress!

What I remember most about what we said to the judge is what I believe in my heart to be true...Lola is the baby that God intended for us. After all the years of trying to have a baby, she was born in my heart! That judge really made that day special for us, and told Lola, "God bless you, little baby."  I thought that was extra special!
We had our first picture taken as a family, and they gave us a picture frame to put it in when we get it. We had cake, and then headed out to lunch.
Gamma and Gampa left Sunday morning and we will be seeing them again on Wednesday as we head home for Thanksgiving. This will be the first time I've been to Las Cruces for a holiday in 20 years!  Nana, Papa Jay, Aunt Kristi, Uncle Bob, Cousins Hannah and Jake will be there. And we will be able to meet Cousin Jaycee for the first time!  Lola is really looking forward to meeting her new cousin!

I mentioned in my last post that I was looking forward to seeing New Moon. Those of you who know me well, know that I am a Twilight freak (or a Twi Hard fan!) and was very excited to see this movie. It's my favorite book of the series and I was much more impressed with this movie than the first one. And was also excited to hear that the next movie will come out in June. That means I don't have to wait another year to see the next movie, I only have to wait 7 months!  And this last movie really is testing my commitment to Team Edward! Team Jacob is really tempting me! My age was definatley revealed during the previews...There was a movie previewed with Robert Pattenson, and when he first came on the screen, the teenie boppers in the theater woo-hood and squeeled. Then they showed the actor playing his father...Pierce Brosnan. This is where I woo-hood and squeeled! 
I have not introduced Lola to the world of Twilight, she may be a little young at this point, but I'm looking forward to sharing the wonderful world of reading with her as she gets older.

Here is our "Forever Family"

Changes and Twilight

This week has come with some change to our lives! We had an employee take another job starting this week, so Rodney and I both went back to work to cover her shift. So last weeek, we were on the hunt for a day care, anticipating that we would need someplace for Lola eventually. The place we like doesn't take children until 8 months old. OK by us, we are a little leary with all the flu going around anyway, so that's actually fine by us. However, we still had to find a place to keep Lola. Monday we both work, so this is the day we decided to try a sitter. Our neighbor has kindly agreed to watch Lola while we are working, the overlap is just a few hours, but still, a little nerve racking leaving our new baby girl with someone else. But Lola did fine, and we were able to get our shifts covered!
Saturday is the big day! We are very excited that both of our parens are going to come to Phoenix for our court date. We aren't really sure what to expect. We have our time, but the festivities start at 10 that morning. We had to sign a media waiver, so I'm sure that means there will be TV, but not sure how many people to expect. Anyway, when it's all over, Lola will OFFICIALLY be ours!  And we are so pleased to be a part of something so big as National Adoption Day! We will certainly celebrate this day for years to come.
A milestone for us has been Lola learning how to roll over from back to front. We find her determination to get there very interesting, as she still HATES being on her stomache. So we saw it coming...she rolled and rolled and tried to get over on her belly...and then, she did it. And then...she screamed. And screamed. So we picked her up and loved on her, but it WAS funny.  She IS determined, but has not yet learned the whole cause/effect relationship.
She has also discovered (or rather we have discovered) that Lola enjoys looking at books and having us read to her. This has been fun. I truely hope that she enjoys reading when she gets older.  I love reading, so I hope that we can teach that love of reading to baby girl, Lola!

Speaking of reading, New Moon comes out this week. Last year, when Twilight came out, Nada (my friend Cheri) and I went to the midnight showing. We decided to make it a tradition and will be hitting the midnight showing again this year for New Moon. Of course, we aren't so dedicated as our teenage counterparts...my administrative assistant will be saving us seats so we can saunter in at 11:45 without having to fight the throngs of Edward crazed teeny boppers! And, unlike them, I'll probably have a nap first! I figure I'll be home just in time to give Lola her middle of the night bottle.

Birthdays and Halloween

Happy Halloween! I totally meant to post an update earlier this week, but somehow, time just gets away from me! Lola and us went to see Gam-ma and Gam-pa last weekend for Gam-pa's 80th birthday.  It was such a nice trip and Lola got to meet some more family...Her Great Aunt Chris, Great Uncle Ed, and Cousin Taire (I know there are some 1st's and removeds in there with that one, but let's just say Cousin Taire to keep it simple!) We have figured out there is nothing like  a new baby to entice family you haven't seen in a while to make it out to see you! It's been a while since we've seen the Diaz's, and it was a delightful visit! Taire didn't get to stay for very long, but so glad that she came too! I just love getting to spend time with family! So does Lola!

We got our letter in the mail with our court time. Since we already had our court DATE, all we were waiting on was the time. We were glad to as there were a few glitches on OUR part in meeting the deadline. Typically, we sign in blue ink. I like blue ink, it's a much friendlier color than black, and it's easier to tell which is original and which is the copy. On our way back from Las Cruces, I was checking my e-mail and had an e-mail from the lawyer telling us we had sent her the copy of the paperwork, rather than the originals. Of course I freaked out as we were in the car and couldn't really check right then, but we were pretty sure that we sent originals. Of course this was AFTER the first set of paperwork got lost in the mail. She had called to ask us where it was, and we had mailed it more than a week earlier, so she had to fax it to us and we had to mail it back in. Talk about STRESSFUL! The other OOPS we did was not reading our homestudy paperwork closely to see that we had until the 27th to get our final post-placement paperwork in in order to file on the 28th. I read that date on the 24th. We made it, but phew! Not sure why I wasn't on top of all that, but glad I caught it before leaving town last weekend. Sometimes my blonde roots show! Anyway, we are scheduled to finalize on November21 at 1:00 p.m. Every time I think about that, it brings tears to my eyes. Still doesn't seem real!

We did not go all out for Halloween, just an orange "My First Halloween" onesie, black pants, and her pumpkin hat. Our neighbors typically have a pot luck in the cul-de-sac before they take their kids out trick-or-treating. One year, they just stayed and everyone passed out candy. The trick or treaters tend to skip our house as our lights are motion activated, so there is no way to keep them on. Handing out candy with the neighbors worked well for us. But we came back in when they headed out, which was fine as Lola is having a melt down. We think this is a growth spurt, she is sleeping a lot and started waking up a few nights ago in the middle of the night to be fed. Tonight we are going to try to get more rice cereal in her before she goes down. It lasts longer in her tummy, however, she gets mad at the bottle because it is so much more work for her to get the cereal out of the bottle. HOPEFULLY it will work.

Our friends, Russ and Rebecca, dressed Lola's BFF, Kate as Elvis...hoping they don't mind, but I HAVE to pass on one of her pictures. It is just to precious not to post!  We have decided that we need to buy stock in Duracell! Every toy we own is run by batteries. I even tried to protest that fact and was going to buy a wind up mobile. I have apparently been living in the 50s as they do not make wind up mobiles any more. What a conspiracy! We have bought rechargeables, so tonight, Rodney rounded up all they batteries and they are on the charger. Still, that's a lot of batteries. Well, I think it's time to bid farewell to October--looking forward to having family closer to our time zone tomorrow, Gam-ma and Gam-pa will be the SAME time, and Nana and Papa Jay will only be an hour later. We welcome November! Lola will OFFICIALLY become a Sherrard and we get to see family at Thanksgiving...we truely have something to be thankful for!

Taire told me that her son, Josh, feels like Lola "dethroned" him...so Lola sent Josh a note:

AFTERTHOUGHT: Please forgive any spelling errors on tonight's post...apparently Blogger did away with spell check and I'm not the best speller!