Another 5 years

5 years ago today was the first time that we meet Matthew's birthfather and birthfather's mom. We were able to share the ultrasound pictures with them. It was an emotional time for me!  The LSS birthparent worker facilitated the meeting and we each got to tell a little bit about ourselves and our hopes and dreams. It's hard to believe how our relationship has grown and developed over the last 5 years. They are a blessing to us and we are so thankful to have them a part of our life!

5 years ago

It's hard to believe that 5 years ago today, we met Matthew's birthmother and some of her family. For those of you who have not heard our story I'll take a few minutes to share. A good friend of ours from church who knew we were planning our family through adoption called and asked if she could give a young woman our name and number. Of course we said YES! I also told her that I would drop off our profile the next day. The day after I dropped off our profile we got the call!  We quickly planned a dinner and had them over. We talked for 6 hours! We were able to feel the baby move and he even had hiccups while we were feeling him move. We were told she had an ultrasound on Thursday of the follow week and we were welcome to come too! I have to be honest. I cried like a baby at the ultrasound! We were told the due date was first part of October! Our little man decided to surprise us all and come about 3 1/2 weeks early on September 8. It is awesome how our relationship with Matthew's birthmother has developed and changed over the years. We have a great relationship with her and her whole family as well as Matthew's birthfather and family. 

Happy Adoption Day!

Happy Adoption Day!

3 years ago today, we finalized Matthew's adoption!

Bowling with Adie

I know that it has been awhile to get these pictures upload to show you:

To celebrate Mother's Day with Adie (Matthew's birthmother=just in case you are new to the blog), we went to dinner at Pizza Ranch and then went bowling.  We were suppose to go to Arrr Matie's Cove (Matthew's name for our local Pirate's Cove mini golf) but it was raining.

Matthew cheering himself on:

Scott showing us what he's got:

Adie bowling:

Matthew had to carry his own ball:

(He is in that stage now where he has to do everything himself)

Matthew helping Adie:

Scott even had to get a picture of me:

We had so much fun!

I can't imagine our life without Adie! 

She is wonderful!

We are blessed that she chose us to be Matthew's parents!

How does someone thank someone else for such a wonderful gift!

Even though there are days that I want to change my mommy name to Nick or Sally or something else, I wouldn't know what to do without our little blessing.

We love you Adie!

Time with Adie

Last weekend we were invited to dinner with Adie and Anissa.

Mamma (Anissa) bought Matthew some things to play with at her house. 

They had lots of fun playing with the play-doh.

They were making snakes.

This bottom picture is so cute.

He looks so big sitting on the stool.

Thanks Anissa for dinner!  It was awesome!

We had a great time!

We love spending time with Matthew's birthparents and their families.

When we started our adoption journey, we never would have believed that we would become a part of two wonderful families.  We have the most amazing relationship with Matthew's birthparents and their families.

Matthew's Birthday

Matthew turned 2 years old yesterday!
How did that happen so fast?  It seems just like yesterday that we were waiting for him to be born!  We were changed forever that day!  There are not enough words in this world to express to two very important people (Adie and Sebastian-Matthew's birthparents) just how happy that they made us!  Not only were we blessed with a wonderful son who we love to pieces and can't imagine our lives without but we were also blessed with lots of wonderful people who love Matthew and us and who we are so happy to now have as part of our family. 

 Open adoption is so wonderful! 

And now here are some pictures from Matthew's birthday:

(Don't worry there will be more to come after his BIG party tomorrow)

After he went to bed on Tuesday, I brought home some Lightening McQueen and Mater balloons!

He loves balloons!

He was pretty excited to see the balloons when he woke up yesterday!

Right away when he seen the balloons (or when he seen the big Lightening McQueen one) he said "KaChow". 

 He loves the Disney movie CARS!

He played and played with them as well as his new art easel that you can kind of see behind the balloons!

He loves the chalkboard!

Our birthday boy!

I still can't believe that he is 2!

He is so darn cute!

We had a very busy day!  Take notice from the above picture to the next picture his hair!

We went and got his hair cut along with mine, had lunch with daddy, had a blizzard from DQ, took a nap, dinner at playland McDonalds and then a small party with DQ ice cream cake at home.

Playing at Playland McDonalds!

He was in a really good mood!

Opening some presents!

He was really getting into it!

More opening!

Having Aunt K help him!

His new Lightening McQueen/Mater shoes that light up!

Mater legos!

His ice cream cake from DQ!

See the one purple dot?

That is my sister's signature!

(My sister works at the DQ and she happened to make his cake and put the purple dot (her favorite color) as her signature!)

Patiently waiting for his ice cream cake!

  

Camping 2010

Every year for the last 23 years, Scott's aunt, Karyl has been taking her nieces, nephews, grandkids and great nieces and nephews camping.  It is so much fun.  I have been going since Scott and I first started dating 16 years ago.  Things have changed a bit since then and we had added a quite a few more people.

Two years ago while camping, we let our niece, Emma, announce to everyone that she was getting a new cousin.  We had found out 5 days before camping that year that we had been chosen to be parents!

I remember the day clearly.  After we had set up our tent, we took Emma inside the tent to finish getting the inside ready to sleep in and we explained to Emma (she was 3 years old) that Auntie and Uncle were adopting a baby and she was going to get a new cousin.  We asked her if she wanted to tell everyone and of course she was excited!  So at dinner that night when everyone was there, I had Emma come over to me and I stood her up on my lap and I told her to tell everyone her secret.  The first time she said it, it was really quiet and I don't think anyone heard her.  She repeated it several times after that! The first thing I remember hearing was "Does that mean what I think it means Scott and Joanna?"  It was the best part of camping in 2008!

Here are lots of pictures from Camping 2010:

Matthew on his 1st motorcycle ride!

Uncle Kyle gave him his first motorcycle ride and he LOVED it!

Coming back around the campground on his motorcycle ride!

Our Camp Site at Gull Lake Recreation Area!

I got to hold and cuddle this cute little boy!

There was LOTS of swimming!

The kids helping bury Whitney!

Finishing touches! 

 Only her head was out!

Emma

Alexa and Eva

(These two are the sisters to the little boy above!)

Matthew having fun with all his cousins!

Little Levi! (Emma's brother)

Levi again!

Scott's uncle Wayne giving Scott's cousin RaeAnne a boat ride!

RaeAnne is due in October with a baby girl!

She was going to roll up her pants to get to the boat but Uncle Wayne just picked her up and carried her to and from the boat so she didn't have to get wet!

Auntie Debbie pushing Matthew on the swing.

He had lots of fun at the park with Debbie, RaeAnne and all the cousins!

Uncle Wayne did a fly over!

Can you see him waving?

Kyle and his girlfriend Jessica went for a boat ride.

It was the first time Jessica had been on a boat in 15 years!

While pushing the boat out, I almost fell in!

YUMMMMMM!

Making pudgie pies over the campfire!

Pudgie pies?

Similar to a grill cheese but it has a fruit filling!

We had cherry, blueberry and apple!

We made s'mores too!

I tried a new idea for a s'more: graham cracker with peanut butter on one side and chocolate frosting on the other graham cracker with a roasted/melted marshmellow in the middle!  It was YUMMY too!

Matthew on his 1st boat ride with Daddy and Uncle Wayne!

Giving Uncle Wayne a hug for his first boat ride!

Getting ready for a second ride because he LOVED the first!

On the way out on the 3rd ride!

The 3rd ride was too much and it put him right to sleep!

Sleeping on his momma!

This was our camping crew!

We are missing a few in the picture!

Aunt Karyl is the one on the bottom right side of the picture!

We had so much fun and can't wait until next year!

PS Matthew slept on me for just over an hour and a half before I slowly woke him up so he could eat dinner.

It was our last day so he was really tired!  He is still catching up on his sleep! 

Visit with Uncle Rory & Kevin

Our last stop on Saturday was in Clarissa, MN to see Uncle Rory & Kevin.

(Uncle Rory is Adie's Uncle and for those of you who don't know us or just started reading, Adie is Matthew's birthmom.  Adoption is an amazing experience.  We have added an awesome extended family!!)

They have 26 horses and some chickens (Bandee Chickens).

Then there was a tractor ride!

The little white horse was my favorite.

Emma had to meet all the horses. 

 So Uncle Rory, Emma, Matthew and Scott walked and walked and met all the horses.

I love this picture!

Matthew sure is listening to what Uncle Rory had to say!

Uncle Rory with Matthew and Emma.

Sorry Kevin the pictures that I took of you and Matthew didn't turn out.

Did I mention that they made us a wonderful supper and dessert?

Well if I didn't they are amazing cooks!

We had lots of fun!

Thanks for a great time Uncle Rory & Kevin!