The Meeting

November is National Adoption Month. Obviously, this is something I hope to promote, as adoption is near and dear to my heart.


And, ironically, it "just so happens" to fall during the same month that we will be visiting Lydia's birthmother, affectionately known in our home as "Mama Heather".

This will be the first time we've seen her since the day she was discharged in the hospital and she left Lydia in our arms. Granted, we have talked on the phone several times since then, and we've sent a good amount of pictures and even a photo book to her residence in the past few months, but it's not the same as meeting face to face. The last time she saw Lydia was when she was either 1 or 2 weeks old...I can't remember which, since it was with Lydia's Bridge Care mother and we weren't present.

Am I nervous? Heck, yes! And honestly, I'm having a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing. Part of me hopes and prays that Lydia won't cry when Heather holds her (as she's begun to show a little bit more of that "stranger anxiety" lately), and yet a part of me almost wants her to cry...so I feel reassured of my role as her Mother. It's a mix of emotions, and though I feel calm about the meeting, I do find my overactive imagination running away on me sometimes.

As of now, the plan is to meet Heather at a McDonalds near her place of residence at 12:30 on Satrday, and chat and hang out for a while. If it's nice out, maybe we'll visit a park, but otherwise we'll just be visiting together....and hopefully Lydia will be in good spirits. :)

Dear friends, would you please pray? Pray for peace for my anxious mother's heart, and peace for Heather's as well. Pray that Lydia will be in a good mood!! :) Pray that conversation would flow smoothly, and that seeing Lydia in our family would bring healing to Heather's heart, and a joy for her future. Pray that we'd have an opportunity to share the Gospel. These are just a few of the things on my heart.

As always, we are indebted to you all for lifting us up to the throne of grace!! I will definitely post about how the meeting goes! :) Thanks!!

Finalization!!!!!

I had this post all typed up last week, but then my computer ate it. Kind of like your dog eats your homework...except this is for real!! :) So...here's the info on how our adoption finalization day went!!

Finalization was Friday, Sept. 30th at 10 am. My parents and sister, made a trip up to join us for the momentous occasion, and Joe's parents, sister and her 3 boys accompanied us as well!! First we got ourselves spiffed up, and then took a photo of the girls...



Then we all made our way to our local county courthouse, where our social worker, Laura, and the Honorable Judge James Duvall awaited us. Aside from the fact that Liddy pooped on our way to the courthouse, and we had to do a quick diaper change on the floor of the bathroom, we arrived with 10 minutes to spare (thankfully)!

Laura walked us into the courtroom, and told us to sit up at the defendant's table. She and the rest of our family sat out in the courtroom watching area. As we waited, Liddy enjoyed the echoing sound of her hands slapping the table, which I quickly shushed once Judge Duvall entered.

Waitin' for the Judge...

He greeted us and stated the formalities of our court precedings, and then asked which one of us was going to be taking the stand to testify. He told us we could arm-wrestle for it...hehe...but we had already decided that Joe would be the one. So Joe, lookin' all handsome and spiffy, took the stand, and Judge Duvall proceeded to ask him a few questions. Things like how long we'd been married, if we owned our house, how long Lydia had been living with us, where we both work, and if he understood that we will be taking responsibility for Lydia as her parents for the rest of her life. Then Judge Duvall asked me if I agreed with all his answers, and I nodded.

There were a few more moments of the judge reviewing our request (things like whether the termination of parental rights had been finished and about her name change), and confirming things with Laura. Then he looked at us both and said, "There are a lot of bad things that happen in this courtroom. This is one of the few happy occasions." and then he went on to say, "I would like to be the first to welcome Lydia Joy Kathleen Roemer....I think that calls for a round of applause!" I gulped back tears, grinned and joined in the applause. And I'm pretty sure that the grandma's and auntie were crying too... :)

Once everything was finished, we asked if we could take some pictures with Judge Duvall, as well as with Laura. And they were happy to oblige! :)



Us with Judge Duvall. Liddy looks very underwhelmed... :)

 

Us with Laura!!



Lots of smiles...and check out Liddy's sneakers! :)



After finalizing (yay!) we went down the hall to order her birth certificate, which went smoothly (except for the moment of panic when I realized I didn't have any checks in my checkbook! Eek!! Thankfully, I found a starter check in the back of my checkbook...though I just found out that they will not accept it, so I have to send another. But still. Minor problem. ). And then we all went to one of our favorite places, Buena Vista Park! It has a gorgeous view of the Mississippi, and we'd never showed it to my family before, so we thought it would be a beautiful spot for a few family pics.

We attempted to get these 2 five-months-apart-cousins to look happy,
but they would have none of it.



The Roemers...family of three!! :) :) :)



Haha...I know Joe looks silly, but I couldn't resist showing how much Liddy
loved her high tops!! :)

Squishy kisses!!!!!!



Weber-Roemer family



Roemer family!!

And that sums up our Finalization day!! Woohoo!! Hopefully posts will be coming more frequently in the future! :)

Proud Auntie

I thought I'd take a few moments to brag about my newest nephews, Bodie and Jack :) There couldn't be two more opposite cousins, as you can see from this adorable pic of them with "Milly" below...

Yesterday we spent lots of time at Joe's parents house, and because I'm behind in taking pictures of the family, I snapped a lot of these two cuties. Born 3 months apart, they are getting spoiled rotten everytime they're around any of the aunties, and especially Grandma... :) It's so fun to kiss their little cheeks! It will be so special when our anticipated child gets added to the mix! 3 cousins less than a year apart (Lord willing)...too fun!

And, in conclusion, here's my favorite pic of the day of Bodie being his adorable self - Enjoy!! :)

Meet Quincy...

The newest addition to our family. :)

Isn't he adorably handsome??

He has both of us smitten, for sure. Especially my husband...

They're becoming fast friends.

And they're so adorable I could just eat them both up!!

Family Tragedy Strikes!

My family loves ice cream.

I mean....they really love ice cream.

So you can imagine the shock and horror we endured when we this morbid scene took place during our traditional stop at a small town ice cream shop.

That's ice cream on the floor there, folks. Chocolate ice cream.
A big fave amongst the best of us.

Especially my sister.

Just check out her facial expression!!!

And why in the world my Mom and Aunt Linda appear so cheery
in the middle of an ice cream CRISIS is beyond me.

Seriously.


However, the picture below captures how the majority of us felt in our hearts...

Thankfully, the staff and manager were able to get the
majority of the mess cleaned up while still taking our orders.

I guess ice cream just gives you power like that.

Ketchup!

I promised a "ketchup" post last time, so here it is -- what's been going on here at our place since April...

During a college preview week at my alma mater, Emmaus Bible College, my good friend Charissa wanted to take pictures of me as a special gift for Joe. However, that gift has yet to be given to him...but I'm working on it! Here are a few of the shots, though not necessarily my favorites. The rest can be viewed here:






In the beginning of June, we had a Girls Nite with our youth group girls to talk about the touchy topic of modesty. We made yummy smoothies, laughed, played games, and painted our toenails and ended with a devotional on honoring the Lord in the way we dress. I don't know how much it impacted their hearts, but it went smoothly and we pray the Lord continues to use our words. Here's the gang below:



Later that month, I went on a second girls outing -- with several ladies from our Bible Study plus a few extra. We went to a very relaxing and refreshing cabin, it was so wonderful!


We also were blessed to see some incredibly beautiful sunsets...



Next was an energy packed trip to Valleyfair with the youth group! I even braved the Power Tower! A fun time was had by all :)

We finished out June with a family vacation to northern MN with the rest of my extended family - at least all that could be there. We enjoyed our time sleeping, eating s'mores, taking pictures, playing poker, hiking, roasting marshmallows, watching Fiddler on the Roof and talking, of course! It was a weekend I will cherish forever...

Listening to Grandpa's reminiscing...

Hiking Buddies!!

Mom Surprised me with her Poker Prowess!

Recently, we had a family reunion at a park near us with Joe's side of the family. I used the time to experiment more with my camera and got quite a few adorable shots of my nephews and niece, as well as others!

Tanner's my silly buddy :)

Sutton has a way with the women in our family!

Precious brother and sister!

Tanner loves his Uncle!

Laina is the little princess of the family :)

And that brings us up to date!