Naomi's Crib

Over the past few months I have had a lot of fun creating spaces for Naomi. This weekend I put finishing touches on a lot of her spaces and took several things out of their packages finally! It is a mix of old and new. We did it very economically for the look we got, I'm actually pretty proud of it. We have been very blessed to have many special people give us and her so many wonderful things over the past few weeks to help us start our life with her. Trust me, those thank yous are coming! So on this very special episode of Cribs (what happened to that show, I loved it?) we show you where Miss Naomi will chill.

She is still sleeping in a crib according to the updates we received. The front comes off of ours and we have a little guard rail to replace so either way we are set. Many people think I got the crib from Ikea, it actually came from walmart.com and was a very good deal. Also a little deerhead hook to hang a bag with her stuff on or her jacket. The print above her bed is her Chinese name. The little mushroom on the bookcase is a night light.

Get ready America!

Naomi is coming home! We leave Nov. 29th and meet Naomi Dec. 5th. We will be back in Omaha on Dec. 16th! It's going to be a crazy 2 and a half weeks until we go, more details later!

Last Naomi Update

We received what will likely be our last update on Naomi before we travel! We received four photos, I had to significantly crop at least two because her foster mom and foster sister were in them, the quality on those two was a little lower. We are lucky to have some of her foster parents however to show her later. She is still rocking her hair and her attitude. She hasn't grown too much, still going to be a shorty. They described her personality as smart, outgoing, and lovely. She is talking and is good at expressing herself. She likes attaching to others, not sure if they said that because they thought that is what we wanted to hear, hoping it is true. We asked if there were things she did not like. She does not like eating birthday cake. I found that pretty hilarious as the first thing listed. Adam is thinking maybe ice cream cake she will be game for. She doesn't like thunder or setting off firecrackers. Not sure if they are letting her light firecrackers or she doesn't like the sound of them, I'm thinking its the latter. She also likes animals and there are currently cats and dogs in the house it sounds like, and she likes them. Looks like Ester, Timmy, and Baxter are safe. We should be letting everyone know when we are traveling very soon!

Places to go, people to see

Can you handle this much cuteness? I doubt it.

Cats in Clothes!

These are awesome! I just bought the notecard set to use for hallway art. 

Etsy shop for more Cats in Clothes

I want her home...

I want our daughter home now. The closer it gets the more I let myself think about her. The more I love her and miss her. That is all.

The Bookworm

We received a giftcard to The Bookworm at one of our baby showers and went to use it last night. We loved this bookstore! You forget how charming an independently owned bookstore is. The whole basement is a children's floor with reading nooks and all kinds of different books you couldn't find at Barnes & Noble. Adam has been obsessed with getting lunch at a taco truck that parks near UNMC, so we couldn't resist this book.

We also got a Children of The World matching game. You match the boy and girl from different countries. Each match has the way to say hello in that country's language. Probably a little above her age right now but she will have fun just tossing them around I'm sure!

Highly recommend you stop by there, they are in Countryside Village across from Westside High School. We received great customer service and when they asked what we were buying the books for and found out we were adopting from China, they let us know about a new set of blocks with Chinese characters they had just ordered that day. We will be going back in a couple weeks for them!

Baby Shower!

We had our first baby shower/ welcome shower on Sunday! It was a fantastic day and a few of my fellow workmates did an amazing job putting it together. It was great to finally start celebrating Naomi's arrival with some of Adam and I's friends. It was a "family" shower which was fun, a big party. I discovered I go through a lot of expressions when opening gifts, it really reveals my unphotogenic nature. She and us are truly blessed to have such amazing support. Work has been a place for both of us that has been such a huge support, I would have missed a lot more days over the past few years if I didn't work with some great people! Warning: most of these photos are of us opening gifts since I figured most guests didn't want random photos of them at a party posted!

NPR changed my life

I loved to read as a kid. Book-it was a favorite part of my summer. I mean you got free Personal Pan pizzas for reading.  I loved to write as a kid. I'm not one to brag......but I did win our Young Author's competition every other year in elementary school. I once wrote a story about a boy being sucked into a video game and living with the characters. Yeah, awesome, you don't need to tell me. I had a column in the school newspaper and thought I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up for awhile. There are definitely days I still do. I miss creative writing, I always found writing to be one of the easiest ways to express myself and let people know who I am.

I didn't know about NPR back then but if I would have I'm not sure I would be a pharmacist today. It would have been my ideal job. I love being a pharmacist and my career but I hate to think I would do one thing my whole life, I don't plan to. NPR did not alter my course back then to a career in journalism, but it did help alter an even bigger event in my life last year.

I listen to Fresh Air every once in awhile and I happened to listen to a podcast last August of Scott Simon talking to Teri Gross about his new book. That sentence should blow your mind as an NPR nerd. Anyway, the book was titled, "Baby We Were Meant for Each Other." It is sort of an "ode" to adoption. He is the father to two girls from China whom him and his wife adopted.

We were at that time in the thick of our fertility treatments and

California Babymoon

We spent a 4 day weekend in California this past weekend. It was what some might call our "babymoon." What is that? It is an adult vacation for a couple prior to introducing that new little one to change your vacation habits forever! According to wikipedia it includes things like prenatal massage. Ours included wine tasting, hiking, and lots of seafood.........ha! Advantage adoption!

I dare you to take this.

We flew in to Los Angeles and went to The Getty. It's a great art museum overlooking the city and has beautiful gardens and buildings. It's very peaceful.

More!!!!!

Naomi Update!!

We received another update and lots of new photos on Naomi again on Wednesday! We got a detailed schedule of her daily routine and new growth measurements. She is a short little thing. We know what language is being spoken in her foster home, she is potty trained for the most part, sleeps in a crib, has an older foster sister who were in some of her photos (although we took her out of those on here), like toys with sound and music, and will get to stay with her foster parents until we come! The other awesome thing was the foster family took photos of her in a red headband we sent. They put it on workout style but it's the thought that counts. In the same photo, the photobook we made her is sitting beside her too. Our picture and her picture are on the front. The stickers all over her in the other photo are the ones we sent her. It was amazing knowing our daughter has seen us and are so happy her foster family did this for us, without us asking. Her  hair is still what we are calling "90's flattop" and leaves a bit to be desired but she's able to overcome it with her cuteness right now! And it looks like she loves a good dress, she's got a few waiting for her here already. She is so loved in the US and China right now!

Yellow is my color

I'm number one!

These people look easy to wrap around my finger....

Where do you want this next one?

More photos........

They said 'YES'!

We proposed with a lovely, organized mound of paperwork that included all of our personal and public history. They new we didn't have herpes and how much we still owed on our mortage, probably some questions a few people wouldn't have minded knowing prior to taking the plunge. We laid it all out there. China said, let me think about it, I need to be sure I'm ready and.......after a long, long, long, did I mention long, 3 months after Naomi's referral, they said 'yes'! We finally received our Letter of Acceptance from China last Tuesday. Never has a summer lasted so long, we pretty much went from Memorial Day to past Labor Day waiting for this piece of paper to change our lives. The bad thing was it was taking longer than expected and there were many, many people waiting, some a month longer than us, which was scary. Our Letter of Acceptance is China's official acceptance of us as Naomi's future parents and of her specifically as our daughter. The adoption is not completed until we sign the papers in China. We received it in the mail on Thursday at which time all paperwork was promptly FedEx overnighted to it's next stop. I've never been so happy to start engaging my FedEx account again. They should give adoptive families some sort of special FedEx card that affords you exclusivity. Exclusivity to what, I'm not sure, maybe a specially designed envelope or....just something to fill my need to feel special. I'll spare you the boring details but bascially the US government is working on our paperwork for the next month and a half probably and then everything back to China's government who will approve us to travel and then we set our travel dates. Our agency optimistically told us very late November to December to expect to leave! I'm thinking we leave closer to Christmas but we will see.

For the first time in 3 years we feel us becoming a family of three is going to happen, and happen soon. We've allowed ourselves to think of Naomi as our daughter but truthfully

Cooks 6, IKEA 0

We waited to start Naomi's room until we knew it was for Naomi. Some people adopting before or after infertility are able to start preparation for a little one before they reach that milestone. We are not one of those couples. We were only able to start creating her space once we knew we could walk by her room and envision her playing on the rug or sleeping peacefully in her bed (they always do that, right?). Also we wanted it to suit her personality. That may sound odd given we have never met her face to face. From the moment we saw her photos however we started to get a sense of who she was. While very few can understand a connection with your daughter you have never held or heard make a noise, it happens and you start to think about who they are. Naomi....we have a feeling she's a strong willed little girl who marches to her own beat. We hope in the end her spaces end up creative, fun, and unique.

When people asked us what we were painting her room and we said, gray!, it sounded pretty boring. But stick with us! We added a 

Someone needs a 12 step program.....

Ester has developed a destructive obsession this summer.

Who me?

In the mornings recently I've been finding my flip flops drug out of my closet and

Fall Clothes are here!

I secretly loved back to school shopping. I still get excited when I see the school supplies out and can't resist looking at them. Lisa Frank stuff anyone? I know I was (am?) a pretty big nerd. I also love fall clothing. I think part of it is that it's my favorite time of year, but layering jackets, sweaters, t-shirts, skirts, leggings.....I'm getting excited thinking about it. Usually I'm looking for myself but now I've switched almost all of my clothes shopping efforts to Naomi. She may end up being a little spoiled, with clothes at least. Some day she'll thank me when she wins Project Runway and meets Tim Gunn. The new fall styles are coming out and I love them!

I would walk.......10,808 miles?

That is how far Naomi is from us right now! As I was wonder what she is doing at the same moment I am thinking about her the thought occurred to me, how far away is she? Turns out 10,808 miles....approximately. That is actually almost as far away as two people can be on Earth, at least according to wikipedia. Apparently the Earth's circumference is about 24,900 miles which means we are only a little less than 2000 miles off from being as far away as two people can be. She has been feeling that far away.

It's been about 48 days since we received her referral and there is no sign this process is going to speed up. Unfortunately it looks like processing of paperwork is slowing down a bit in China. We are waiting for our Letter of Acceptance which we were hoping would show up in the next couple of weeks but doesn't look like that will happen. There are people who have been waiting

Naomi Update!

We received an update on Naomi yesterday! We weren't expecting it for another month or so. We found out her palate was repaired in April and are awaiting the surgery report from this. So now there is a possibility that we won't have to do a major surgery when we first get home, just have to see how the repair was! We also received a little bit more info on where she is living and that she is eating well, walking, and beginning to speak and follow instruction. Her foster family also calls her "ding ding" as a nickname!

Our last major renovation..........probably

It took us about 6 weeks but we finished! We are really proud of it and I love cooking in it. Of course it snowballed as any renovation does but we stayed pretty much on budget. We did all of the work ourselves with the exception of having the cabinets installed. Reused our office chairs as dining chairs which I love. Check out before pictures in the "Our House" tab. We finished a couple days before our referral for Naomi so it was great timing because now we can focus on her room. Hoping to have a celebratory party for being in our home 5 years soon!

It's a girl!

We have been matched with our daughter! Introducing......Naomi Xiang Cook.  It is so wonderful to be able to say that after waiting so long for her! As some of you know the week leading up to Memorial Day was very difficult for us and God brought us this little girl when we needed her most. We were matched with her on last Thursday and sent our letter of intent to adopt her on Friday!

She is just over 15 months old and has a repaired cleft lip and an unrepaired cleft palate. She will have those surgeries to repair her palate when she gets back to Nebraska. Luckily there is a great pediatric craniofacial team here in town. We are totally in love with her and can't wait to start preparing for her arrival!

Sore thighs and other random weekend stuff

It has been a pretty excellent 72 hours! Today we got our LID (log-in date)......which means we are officially eligible to receive a referral for a child and will be eligible for the May match. The date our dossier was logged in actually was 4/27 but we didn't find out until today. Don't know if we will be matched but actually being able to be is a huge psychological milestone.

I did the Lucky Bucket Run Saturday night as well. That is where the whole sore thighs title comes from....just in case you were wondering. It was a good time. I saw someone running in a full gorilla costume go down hard in a mud pile. That was pretty awesome, and I kept running. She was okay. I'm pretty sure it was a she because it had a seashell bra on. I guess it could have been a cross-dressing gorilla. We'll never know. Anyway.......I finished the 7K and it was a pretty tough trail run. This was a preview of the course.

I did get to run through several small streams and then pull myself up steep embankments with a rope. It was challenging for me and I got a good idea of where my fitness was and wasn't. Here we are with our co-running couple post-race. They all did much better than me but I did finish!We look much cleaner than we actually are. Fun time if anyone is interested next year!

Adam, me, Emily, and Jon

Our kitchen remodel is progressing.......slowly. We did reach the official "I want to burn this renovation down" point the middle of last week. That usually comes a few weeks in to any renovation around here. I cried, Adam mumbled through his teeth, but we moved past it after

Mother's Day

It has been an uneasy week. Amidst all of the other distractions in our home this week, I had in the back of my mind today was approaching. Mother's day is one of the most difficult days of the year for women who have been struggling to be one. I am very lucky to still have my mother. There was a time I didn't know if that would be the case. I appreciate her and celebrate that today. But..........If I'm being completely honest, there is part of me that can't wait for today to be over.

I found myself quickly flipping through a TV channel this week if there was a commercial on for a Mother's Day sale, which there a a freaking lot of. Avoiding the question from people who don't know me, "what are you doing for Mother's Day?" Providing the canned response, "we don't have any children."

I find myself already thinking about our future child's birth mother.

3 weeks later

It was 3 weeks ago today that our dossier was sent to China and that we started demolishing our kitchen. Where are we today..........no kitchen, no log-in date! Our kitchen has went from this.....

to this....

1960's wallpaper anyone?

Basically all we have are the cabinets in. It is progress but still nothing we can actually cook on or wash dishes in. Have you ever spread peanut butter on a sandwich with a plastic fork.......I have, not easy. Next week we get our new stove, countertops, etc. in. Only thing left will be the backsplash after that. I never thought I would miss cooking so much. We've been pretty much eating out every meal for the past 3 week as well. We have covered the dining scene here for the most part so any type of cuisine we can tell you where to go probably! I think at one point