Luke is 3 months old!

So, I know I promised an "All About Luke" post right after we brought him home, and I totally dropped that ball, sorry! But I am making up for it by posting this update. :)

Here's Luke at about two months old. He was just holding his head up well for a minute then.

Luke is now three months old, as of June 25. He has quite a personality already and LOVES to smile. He is just beginning to laugh - a little cackle that blesses my heart so much. Luke rolls over accidentally sometimes from his stomach to his back.

He was smiling big at his Mimi!

 Everyone always asks how he is sleeping . . . Luke prefers to sleep on his stomach and is sleeping about 5 or 6 hours in a row at night. This is great, considering when we first brought him home, he was only sleeping 2 hours at a time!

Sleeping in the carseat, which is the only time he'll sleep on his back! :)

Luke likes to sit in his bouncy reclining seat and he loves to watch me do whatever I'm doing. If I'm not talking directly to him, he usually makes sounds to get my attention. He loves to "talk", ranging from the traditional goos and gahs to more eccentric squealing and interesting gurgling sounds.

Luke eats formula. Hampton keeps threatening to give him a "taste of sweet tea" or a "little bit of this french fry" - but I'm making him wait to taste real food until he's 4 months old. We'll see how he does with some healthy mashed carrots or oatmeal or cereal in a few weeks!

One major event that many of you saw on facebook was Luke's first time in the swimming pool. He was really apathetic about the whole thing - didn't smile even once, just let me hold him in the water. Hampton even swam around with him some and he didn't bat an eye. I think he was kind of sleepy, so we'll have to try again when he's more alert. Good to know that he didn't hate it though!

Just barely a twitch of a smile here. I think he liked it.

Hope you have enjoyed this update! I will try to keep these going and blog about some other stuff again too! :)

God's Timing

Right after getting in the pool for the first time!!

As I was pondering my precious boy being 3 months old yesterday (wow!), I started thinking about God's timing of our adoption. 

We have been so blessed to only have waited 5 months for a placement, while many families wait years for a child. And we were blessed to be matched and placed with Luke before our move to FL, which turns out to be a big relief - saving us a bunch of additional paperwork and a good amount of money. But another timing thing occurred to me last night that had me praising my great God for His higher ways.

Check it out . . .

Luke was born on March 25, at 38 weeks into the pregnancy. 

Somebody go ahead and do the math. You know you want to. 

The first week of July 2012, God was knitting our little Luke together in his birthmother's womb. 

So, why is that significant? 

July 3, 2012 - we submitted our preliminary application to the adoption agency.

That's right. Let it sink in . . .

GOD WAS FORMING LUKE'S BODY AS WE WERE APPLYING TO BE HIS PARENTS!

Mind. Blown.

As my husband would say: You're welcome.

Adoption Day!

As our sweet little Luke snoozes away in his swing, I'm so excited to share with you about our Adoption Day. Before I go into the details that I can share, please understand that there is a lot I cannot share here. 

Our little boy was loved from the moment of his birth and his birthmom chose adoption for him in love. We are incredibly thankful to her and to God for this amazing gift!

Monday evening I was able to talk to the foster mom who had been caring for Luke. She told me all about his little personality, his schedule, and how he likes to sleep. Luke was 6 weeks old exactly on Monday, and he had even visited the pediatrician. Healthy little man! It was so helpful to talk with the foster mom and I will cherish her part in Luke's life forever.

Tuesday morning, Hampton and I drove to our adoption agency office to complete the final paperwork that would make us legal parents of Luke. We had a great conversation with our case worker and signed all the papers in just a matter of minutes. We were excited and nervous and anxious, yet God reminded us of his perfect peace that surpasses all understanding. He also gave us a special blessing right there in the agency office that morning. A group of ladies from a local church were volunteering there and asked to pray for us before we drove the rest of the way to get Luke. It was such a special time of prayer and fellowship with ladies we had never met before, but we KNEW because of our common bond in Christ.

After many well-wishes and loving thoughts, our case worker sent us to the other office another 2 hours away to meet our little boy. 

We arrived at the office before the foster family, so we sat and talked with the pregnancy counselor there who had worked with the birthmom. She gave us medical records and all kinds of information that brought us a little closer to knowing our little boy.

Finally, they were here! The foster mom walked in with Luke and with tears all around, she placed him in my arms.

I was overcome. We have a son! 

There were many pictures and more tears (not as many as I thought there would be), and we were left alone with our little boy.

 

The next few minutes were spent oohing and gooing at Luke, as he opened his eyes and saw his new parents for the first time. The foster mom and her son prayed for us and said goodbye. We gathered our things and then, just like that, it was time to go. Time to take Luke home!

 

As we loaded him the the carseat and into the backseat, I was still in shock. We are going home with our son!!! 

We had decided that I would ride in back in case Luke needed anything. The 3-hour trip home was mostly uneventful. Luke slept for most of it, we stooped once to change him, he gulped down a bottle, and then got antsy the last 30 minutes from home.

We finally pulled into the driveway and unloaded all of our stuff. I carried Luke inside in his carseat and he was finally home!

We are incredibly blessed to be a three person family! 

I'm looking forward to sharing some of what we have learned about our Luke in the next post! 

Adopted!

Wow! The last 36 hours have been a whirlwind. It all started Monday morning at 9:50am when our adoption case worker called my cell phone. I knew something was up. And the kind of questions she was asking made me more suspicious: Is your husband there with you? (No, he was at work out of town, of course) What is your work schedule like this week? (Mine, flexible as usual...Hampton's, crazy busy as usual) Is this a good time to talk? (Yes, yes, yes, of course!)

After the evasive questioning, she finally got to the point: we had been selected! And then the surprise twist: our baby was already born - over a month ago actually! And then the big shock: we want to place your baby with you tomorrow!

Tomorrow. As in, Tuesday? Like the next day? Oh my gosh.

So, after some details about our precious boy, the case worker told me to call Hampton and then call her back if we would be able to go to get our baby on Tuesday.

Yeah. I lost it with emotion at this point. I mean, wow. We had a baby waiting for us! 

So, I pulled myself slightly together and called Hampton. He had his usual work voice on and could spare a few minutes he said. I told him the news and he was floored of course. We talked through the details and he got off the phone to straighten things out with work. He called back 30 minutes later and was on his way home! I called our case worker and confirmed that we could pick up our baby boy the next day. I got a bunch more details and then ended that conversation just to start an epic phone marathon for the next 3 hours.

"Hi, beloved member of my family or dear friend, yeah whatcha doin? Not much here, just found out I'm gonna be a mom tomorrow."

So, that's not exactly how most of the conversations went, but you get the idea. Lots of excitement and emotion, and plenty of surprise! 

The rest of my Monday was a blur of preparation, including a BIG shopping trip, assembling a pack n play, and several loads of laundry. Oh, and a little bit of sleep before the big day.

So, as I sit here typing this, I'm listening to the precious sounds of my baby boy sleeping on the other side of the room. Oh, he is so precious!!!

I will be sure to recount the details of our Adoption Day in another post. 

For now, introducing Luke Thomas McClendon...

Love. Pure love.

Web Profile . . .

Our adoption web profile is up on the Bethany website! I sent it in last week and have been checking the site every day to see when it would be up. Our profile books are also AT the agency, which means we could be shown to a birthmother any day now. Woohoo!

Here's the link: (feel free to share)
http://waitingfamilies.bethany.org/home/mississippi/hampton-and-nicole

In related news, I'm mobile blogging today, which is weird because I can't seem to change that link above into just words! It's also fun, cause I'm learning how to do more stuff on my Christmas gift, an iPad. :)

Speaking of Christmas, I know I haven't really said...errr, written much about the holidays. I'm not purposefully avoiding the topic, but I really just didn't have time to write about it and now it seems too late. Suffice to say that we had a great Christmas, was able to see almost all of both of our families, and rung in the new year quietly, just the hubby and me.

So, while blogging mobile-ly is convenient, I really miss all of my formatting buttons, so this probably won't happen much. Anyone else blog via tablet or phone? Suggestions are welcome!

I CAN add a picture, though. So, here ya go! You know I love flashbacks! This is Hampton and his brothers when they were obviously much younger!

Approved!!!

Adoption Update:

WE ARE APPROVED!!!

We got our official approval letter from the agency . . .

AND . . . we've finished our profile book. It is being processed right now and should be at our agency by Wednesday, the 9th.

So, what does all this mean?

We are officially a waiting family. At this point, our profile will be available for viewing by birthparents and we will be eligible to be matched with a baby (or at least their birthmom). As you can read in the letter, there isn't a specific time frame given, but we are trusting God with that as with everything else!

We are so excited to be at this point finally! We are eager to grow our family and are super-excited about God's plan for the future. We are asking for your prayers of course, but specifically that we will stay focused on what we are called to RIGHT NOW. We know that God has each of us exactly where He wants us and we want to be faithful to that calling.

In conclusion, we want to share our profile book here, which we feel is part of our testimony and part of God's story in our lives. We are excited to share our story with as many people as possible, so feel free to share with others, as well.

Adoption Profile Book

(It uses Flash player, so if you're viewing on your phone, it probably won't work.)

Hope everyone is having a great 2013 so far! I know I'm late in posting about resolutions and such, but that is coming. I'm taking a different approach this year. :)