Wednesday, January 27, 2010

more thoughts on this weekend

so this weekend was so wonderful, and very similar to our experience in germany parts are hard to put into words how things were. so i will share a few things with you. first of all i know that this weekend would not have gone as smooth without the help of Heavenly Father paving the way because we had nasty snowy weather up where we live, it was fine everywhere but to get out of town was interesting.

You see when the weather gets bad here they shut down the main highway and back roads, so basically people cant get into town or leave. some people cant come home from work when this happens or leave for work in the morning. but somehow, someway we managed to get to every city we were headed to and on time (or miraculously early to the temple). We had so much support from people this weekend it was amazing, we are so thankful for everyone in our lives who helped make our weekend special.
all right so the run down.....
tuesday and wednesday last week-
-find out for sure that our court hearing would be held on friday afternoon.
-set up things and finalize details with our attorney and court clerk
-call the temple to make sure there will be openings on saturday because i know i can't schedule our sealing until friday after the hearing.
-weather is snowy and lindsay has short days at work to make sure he beats the snow home.
thursday-
-my parents come in that day. we are concerned they will be shut out of our town and have to stay overnight in another city.
-parents make it well after a long exhausting day, eat dinner, go to bed
friday-
-the first BIG day
-we head to the courthouse, meet our attorney in person for the first time, file one last document with the clerk, who knows us by name at this point, and head up to where the court rooms are
-there is one adoption before us-how wonderful!
-we go into the court room and sit down where the judge has told us. we are sworn in, my parents are told they can sit in the jury box if they want for better viewing, also were allowed permission to get up and move wherever they wanted to take pics.........yeah our judge was that cool! we are asked a series of yes or no questions regarding our understanding that we are completely responsible for our little man, sign the official agreement, keep the commemorative pen that we signed it with permission of the court
- take pics witht the judge..........interesting other tidbit, our attorney's first name is James, erik's middle name is James, and the judge's son is named James. Also the attorney referred to Erik as Erik Moon in the hearing before he made it official ;)
- go out delighted and ecstatic. stop by costco, call the temple and schedule our sealing, and rock n roll home!
saturday- the next BIG day-
- we leave early for the temple and make it passed the closed portion of the highway
- arrive at the temple and are escorted to the childrens care area where we drop off erik and are told how they will handle his part of the activities.
- talk with the records person to make sure the adoption has been finalized and record things for church records.
- change into appropriate attire and wait together in the celestial room until sealing is to begin. it was beautiful, glorious, and wonderful
-go into the sealing where erik giggled the entire time, he totally knew where we were from the time he got into that room.
- we pick up erik from the childrens area once we are done and the workers say they have never seen a child act in such a way during a sealing
-we head home
- i look exhausted and not very cute in all the pics because erik didnt sleep hardly at all that night before and i had zero energy to get myself dolled up, plus i knew that it didnt truly matter what i looked like, just a little self conscious that's all.
sunday-the last BIG day-
- we head to church with erik in his white suit once again and lindsay gives him the most amazing blessing. i dont remember all of it, my friend took notes but i forgot to get them from her yet. but i do remember he was blessed to be brave and courageous. that he would always remember the love and sacrifice that went into his adoption, an understanding desire for the scriptures, and something about when he was a man. honestly though it was awesome! and when lindsay held him up when it was over he laughed and waved his hands, such the charmer!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

the big day(s)

first it involved this sweet and special boy


this great lawyer who has been heaven sent is currently on a church service mission to help lds adoptive couples


this awesome judge who happened to attend BYU but is not lds



and this beautiful building where all the magic took place. erik giggled the entire time while we were being sealed together as a family for eternity. he definitely knew what was going on and got excited the second he was being taken to the altar. he kept grabbing lindsay's hand also. it was AMAZING! I dont remember anything our sealer said because i couldn't take my attention away from little man.(i chose to post this picture so you could see his little suit better. i am scowling because it was so bright outside. his suit was made from my wedding dress and had lots of sentimental value...we also had hankerchiefs with s and b's initials that lindsay and i carried with us through the temple to honor them out o fmy dress as well)


we couldnt have asked for more

Thursday, January 7, 2010

sooner or later...

first off erik has this amazing ability to reach for things because he doesnt want to crawl. the other morning i had set him down by the fridge to play with magnets while i took care of something and all of a sudden i heard a splash. i looked over and sure enough he had grabbed boomer's water bowl and was playing in it. i figured since he was already half wet to let him continue in the frenzy since we are hoping to keep that from happening again. he loved it!
we went home for christmas and erik's favorite spot was standing at grandma's coffee table watching what was going on, playing with things, throwing things, and slamming his hands!
erik and zoey were so fun and enjoyed taking toys from one another, taking baths together, waking one another up, and made us realize how much we wish we lived closer to let them grow up together.
right before our trip home lindsay went backpacking with matty and this shows how silly we all get out in the woods!
boomer was extremely spoiled when we went home and sometimes forgot that he isn't a lap dog.

erik thoroughly enjoyed all the attention he got as different people played with him. here is happy to play with his great grandma and grandpa

erik and zoey are only weeks apart in age and got along great. it was so fun to see them "play" together and get along....even if erik did teach zoey how to grunt, growl, and throw things!


while away we had a small snow fall and thus took the opportunity to go sledding. erik had a great time being pulled behind a sled or going down the hill for about 30 minutes and then he was done and we played in the car while everyone coninued. it was definitely fun though!


overall our holiday was fantastic, we got spoiled more than we deserved and loved being with family. there is never enough time when we go home to see everyone so i am sorry that we didnt really call people or get together. with both families in the same town and limited time in the year to see them we take all we can get.

erik's first christmas was fun. he had no idea what was going on but loved ripping wrapping paper and playing with anything he could get his hands on. he wants to walk so bad and much of our trip we walked around the house until he decided he wanted to stand somewhere or someone would want to hold and play with him. we got the least amount of sleep i have had in a long time staying up till midnight most nights and getting up early with little man, but we knew we were only there for a short time.

also sooner or later.............we found out that we will be taking little man here........
(the temple!!!)

by the end of month! that makes it all come full circle and we could not feel more blessed!