I can sit all by myself...

Shortly after we got back from Pittsburgh, Julia starting sitting on her own for a few seconds at a time...until May 28th when she was steady enough to stay up long enough to reach for a toy and grab it. By the next day, she was happily playing with her toys on the floor for up to thirty minutes at a time. It's so strange how quickly they catch on!

Julia has a new cousin!

On Wednesday, May 21, 2008, Julia's aunt Tracy and Uncle Darrell had a beautiful baby girl named Olivia Carolyn May Land. She was 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Mom and Grandma Roof rode down to meet her while Julia stayed with her daddy. After her long trip to Pittsburgh, Julia was happy to be home and to see her daddy again.

Olivia is doing great and her brother Andrew is adjusting to sharing his mom and dad's attention. Grandma Roof is staying with them for a week to help out and I'm sure they'll appreciate the extra pair of hands. We're all looking forward to future family vacations since all of the kids will be so close together in age...Andrew is 20 months old, Julia is 6 months old on the 30th and Olivia is brand new ( =

Julia in her jumparoo...

A sad goodbye...

Sadly, my Aunt Maryellen passed away suddenly on Saturday, May 17, 2008. I was torn because I wanted to be in Georgia when my new baby niece was born (Tracy said I could be in the room and watch!) but it was important to be with the family at the funeral, especially to be there for my mother. So Julia and I headed up to Pittsburgh and Julia was an angel baby in the car. We left at 6:00 a.m. and made it all the way to Pittsburgh with just one stop for breakfast. Julia wolfed down her cereal and (almost) an entire banana and was content for the rest of the trip.

We found out when we got there that the viewing would be Thursday and the funeral would be Friday, so we would be in PA for almost a whole week. Although the circumstances were sad, it was nice to see all of the relatives and for all of them to see our baby girl. Julia did great and was her chatty, smiley self all week. She really seemed to enjoy meeting all of her great aunts and uncles and cousins...especially since I don't think she was put down for longer than two minutes all week.

Mom rode back to Tennessee with Julia and me so that we could drop her off with David while we made our way down to Georgia for the happy part of our trip--to see baby Olivia Carolyn May Land, born on May 21, 2008 ( =

Julia eating bananas...

Julia's first "solid" food was mashed bananas...this is a video of her second time eating them. She really seemed to like them and it's fun watching her reaction when she tries something new.

Our first family Easter...

Every holiday is SO much more fun with a child--even if she's too young to care about all the fuss. I had a great time putting together Julia's Easter basket (and one for David and me!) and of course, I loved shopping for her Easter dress for church. We had so much to be thankful for this year and I really enjoyed Easter like I haven't done since I was a kid myself.

Bubbles!

Julia's always loved her bathtime...here she's taking a bubble bath at grandma's house and was so upset when we took her out to dry her off that she screamed until we got her pjs on.

Family Photo...

Julia's daycare teacher, Ms. Sveta, asked us to bring in a family photo of the three of us for a Valentine's project she was doing. We realized we didn't have one of all three of us, except for when Julia was just a day or two old! So we quickly took this picture to give to Sveta and even though we don't look our best, I actually like the photo pretty well.

6-7 week pictures...

Here are some pictures of Julia taken around the middle of January...I took some of them just to keep on my camera so I could look at them whenever I wanted while I was in Arizona ) = It was a great trip and I really enjoyed seeing my brother, sister-in-law, and my nieces but I missed Julia SO much.

More Baby Shower Pics...

Welcome Baby Shower!

Well, even though Julia came very unexpectedly (or at least much sooner than we ever thought!), my friends Jodi, Papi, and Elizabeth were fabulous and threw us a baby shower anyway. It was so wonderful, and the best part was that everyone got to meet the baby since she was a guest at her own shower ( = It was so nice to get together with everyone to celebrate her birth and welcome her into our family and circle of friends.

Julia's first bath!

I was really looking forward to giving Julia her first bath--even though we can't put much water in the tub until her cord falls off, it was fun to see how she reacted to the water. She really seemed to enjoy the bath and loved to have the warm water poured over her. Hopefully, we have a water baby (=

Bringing Julia Home...

At about 3:30 on Sunday Julia arrived at her house to find her Pappap and Grandma Roof waiting on her. We were happy to come home to some cute little girl balloons and decorations, dinner waiting on the table, and Julia's very first birthday cake that Grandma decorated for her ( = She slept through the celebration though and chose a bottle over chocolate cake. Julia had some other visitors as well, including the Roskinds, the McKellars, and the Tiptons. Thanks guys for all the baby stuff!! Julia is swinging happily right now, thanks to the swing Andy and Jodi brought over. It was a good evening and even though we were a bit tired, we were SO happy to be home.

Meeting our baby girl!

The day after Julia was born, she had a few visitors at the hospital--the first ones being her parents of course! We were called at around noon on Saturday and were told that "this is the call we've been waiting for" by our agent. She said that the baby we had been praying for was born last night and the birthmother reviewed profiles this morning and chose us!!! We were both so excited and couldn't wait to get to the hospital. Our agent had to run home and grab some lunch (she'd already been at the hospital for hours with the birthmother) and get some paperwork and told us she'd call us as soon as she was leaving her house again for the hospital so we could meet her there. We ran to Babies-R-Us and raced through the store throwing baby stuff in the cart as fast as we could. Both of us were talking on our cell phones at the same time, trying to get a hold of our parents to tell them the news. After we loaded ourselves down with diapers, wipes, a pack n' play with bassinet attachment (since we have no crib), blankets, and whatever else we could think of, we went to Parkwest Hospital and anxiously waited for our agent to call to let us know she was on the way. We got to go up to the nursery just in time to give her a bottle for her 3:00 p.m. feeding. The hospital was great and gave us our own room and let us spend the night and keep Julia with us in the room the whole time. It was indescribable to be able to be there from (almost) the very beginning (= After many phone calls, Jeff and Christie were the first to see our new baby girl. Later, Andy and Jodi Roskind came by (video camera in hand) to see the new arrival and were loaded down (thankfully) with some baby supplies and gifts. Lastly, her Pappap and Grandma Roof arrived to see her around 8:30 p.m. after driving from Springfield that evening. We can't wait for everyone else to meet her, especially her Grandma and Grandpa Wright who we know are anxious to be able to make the trip themselves.

Julia Noelle Wright was born!!

Julia Noelle Wright was born on November 30, 2007 at 7:25 p.m. ..but her mommy and daddy didn't even know about her until the next day at noon (= Julia was born by C-section on Friday night after her birth mother checked into the hospital on Tuesday. She was 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long. Her Apgar scores were excellent and the nurses took wonderful care of her during the night until her mommy and daddy got there the next day. Julia's birthmother reviewed profiles the morning after Julia was born and so we got "the call" around noon on Saturday, December 1st. We are so grateful that Julia's birthmother had it in her heart to place the baby for adoption and we're honored that she chose us to be her parents.

Maybe cancel those Turkey Day plans?

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we received another phone call that the birth mother who we were being presented to could go into labor at any time and we should probably stick around town in case she did go into labor and in case she did in fact choose us. We tried hard not to get our hopes up...but spent most of Thanksgiving and the rest of the weekend waiting anxiously by the phone. I did convince David to get a carseat and an emergency diaper bag with a few unisex outfits just in case (even though we knew this particular baby was a girl, we figured we could use those clothes later if this baby wasn't meant for us).

The First Phone Call

On Monday, Kim was sitting with her Mom and nephew Andrew in the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville when our adoption agent called us to say that there was a potential birth mother who was actually already a couple of day overdue. When asked whether we wanted our profile to be presented,we of course said an enthusiastic "YES" and were so happy that we were being presented. Since this was the first birth mother that would look at our profile, we felt like the waiting process was now officially underway. We crossed our fingers and hoped that this would be our baby--but we knew that even if we didn't get picked this time, every time our profile was presented we were closer and closer to "our time."

Uncle David and Drew

My sister Tracy came in to town with her son, Andrew, and we both really enjoyed playing with him for the weekend. We offered to keep him for the next, oh, eighteen years or so but Tracy and Darrell decided they were too attached to the lil' booger.

Why don't you make like a tree and leave?

Well, that's what ours did anyway. One of our beautiful Bradford Pears finally bit the dust on a windy day (I don't even think it was raining...) after we procrastinated way too long on having them all topped. The next door neighbor's little girl was quite frightened as she was nearly squashed--but luckily for all, she managed to escape any damage from the falling foliage. As a result, we decided to get rid of both of our Bradford Pears to prevent any future catastrophes...unfortunately, our neighbors also decided to have all three (or four?) of their trees cut down as well. We're all feeling a little bare and exposed now--and we quickly realized that our respective houses needed power washing in a serious way since the gorgeous trees were no longer there to hide our neglect. Now the trees are gone and the power washing is done...and none of us can wait until the Spring to plant some pretty, but sturdy, trees.