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.

Christmas 2006 in Gatlinburg

David and I decided to spend a quiet Christmas with just the two of us, so we rented a cabin in Gatlinburg for a few days, packed up the dog and our stockings, and drove up to the Mountains after work.



It ended up being a WONDERFUL idea and the cabin was great...we had a jacuzzi in the living room right in front of the fireplace, a hot tub outside on the deck with a great view, and a pool table upstairs in the loft. Dakota was thrilled to have complete freedom running around the mountain and was happy we hadn't forgotten her stocking...


The weather was gorgeous and we spent some time hiking around Newfound Gap. The views were really great for this time of year--although it was quite a bit colder up here...and David had no jacket.










David proudly showing off the portion of the Appalachain Trail that we hiked. Er, okay we hiked some of it. Alright, we really only walked long enough to get a picture of this sign. It was COLD, okay?










I actually managed to get David on ice skates--he promised he would skate if there were at least five other grown men on the rink. He was appalled to see so many guys out there skating, but took his loss like a man and laced up. David and this little guy in the picture had a quite a show down as they were going in opposite directions and neither one would let go of the bar long enough to navigate around the other. Not that David was holding on the whole time...there were the times he was sitting on his rear on the ice (=



We spent a day at Cades Cove and went for a hike...












There are always a lot of deer (like this one) and sometimes black bears in the Cove. Although we didn't see any bears on this day, we did see an elk. They've just been recently released back into the park. Sadly, I only got one picture of an elk buck with a great rack, but he was already disappearing back into the trees when I snapped the picture.













Kim and David at Cades Cove....................Dakota wearing her holiday finery


We were lucky to have this kind of weather while we were there--except on our last night when it rained and sleeted a bit. But even the sound of the rain on the tin roof of the cabin was incredibly therapeutic.

Pap's 80th Birthday photos

Pap and Betty, Patty, Margie, Kim and David, Tracy and Darrell, Michael and Brandi, Curt (and Eliza) and Lois (Kaitlyn was outside playing).

Pappap's 80th Birthday

On St. Patrick's Day, Kim's grandfather, Jack Roof, turned 80 years old!! We had a surprise party for him and he was thrilled that his daughters flew in from Pittsburgh to be there with him. Coming soon will be photos from the big day...

Kim and Demelza's daughter, Lauren. It's like hanging out with Demelza as a kid!! She is definitely Demelza's "mini-me".

Kim, Demelza, and Lauren.

Christa's Wedding

On Easter weekend, I went to Thomasville, GA to see my friend Christa from high school get married. It was a beautiful wedding and it was wonderful to spend the weekend with Christa and Demelza (another high school friend).

Is...it...midnight...yet?

Crazy kids are excited for the New Year.

Hanson and Elizabeth Tipton--hey, where's your jammies?

Jeff Warkins and Christie Sandstrom...in their fashionable pjs.

The Roskinds, the McKellars, and the Wrights...

For New Year's Eve 2005, we spent the evening at the Roskind's--for a pajama party! It was a lot of fun, for the adults and the kids.