Official!

(I started this post several weeks ago, but as you can see, I was interrupted and just got around to finishing it, enjoy!)


It's official (as of August 8th), James Alexander is finally a Swanger and part of our "pack"!   We couldn't be happier!

Before we went to court, we stopped by the Star Wars Exhibit at the Indiana State Museum.  It was actually the 2nd trip for James and I, but Scott really wanted to go so we checked it out again!

 Starting through the exhibit!

Some of our favorite characters!

 Scott is explaining the finer points of Wookies

 

 

 

 

 

After our court hearing we met with family and friends for dinner at a great little place off Binford Blvd.  They were so accommodating and friendly, I would highly recommend George's Neighborhood Bar & Grille! 



This was the cake we got for the party.  It says "Finally part of the pack, Congratulations Swanger Family"

 

Part of the family that joined us for the court hearing and dinner!

Everyone is here!

 

 

 

We really enjoyed having everyone there for our court hearing and dinner afterwards.  The judge couldn't stop commenting on how great it was that we had so much support from family and friends.  Scott and I couldn't agree more!  James is such a lucky little guy and so loved by us, our family, and friends.  We are forever grateful to his birth mom, without her this day wouldn't have been possible.

 

 



Guess who is 2 months!

This little man turned 2 months on Sunday!  Hard to believe, he is growing so quickly!

Enjoy!

Hospital Adventures!

I am sure many people were wondering about our adoption story and how we met little James, so here goes!  It's a long one, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Scott and I started working with our adoption agency last June.  We started the long process of completing the paperwork, medical tests, and home visit in order to complete our home study.  Once this was complete along with our couple profile we were considered Active and able to be shown to birthmothers.  We were active as of September and waiting to be matched with a birth mom.

Well, I was at work on a Friday in December when that call came.  As you can imagine I was so excited and overwhelmed with emotion!  We had gotten a call that a birth mom had picked us and that she would be due in the spring, originally thought to be due in March.  It was decided that we would meet with her sometime in January or February.

January came and went and we didn't meet, but we were given ultrasound pictures.  We learned that our birth mom was having a boy!  We finally were able to meet with her in February and I was so impressed with her maturity.  I can't imagine how difficult this decision must have been for her but I know that she did it because she wanted the best for her baby. I did feel awful for her as her original due date had been the end of March but after her ultrasound in January they determined that May 10th was a more accurate due date.

After meeting with her in February, I texted back and forth with her for the next couple of months just to check in and see how she was doing, get to know her more, and give any encouragement that I could--she was so ready to be done by the end of March!

We got through March and most of April when we finally got a call from the agency that our birth mom was at the hospital in labor and that we should be close to Indy.  We headed up that afternoon and wandered around Circle Centre Mall and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  We then hung out at a Starbucks near the hospital and waited. 

We got a text from our birth mom around 8pm Tuesday that James had just arrived and that we could come see him anytime.  We went as soon as we could get there, after stopping at Donatos for a pizza and Pepsi for our birth mom, her request!

This was one proud papa holding his son the night he was born, I love the smile on his face!

We visited with our birth mom and James for a bit and then headed home that night.  We were back at the hospital the next day about noon to sign all of the paperwork.  Once that was done, we left for a bit to get some lunch and to do some much needed baby supply shopping!  A kid needs a place to sleep right??  While we were shopping we let James visit with his birth mom until she decided she was ready to be discharged from the hospital about 8pm Wednesday night.

The hospital gave us a room to use Wednesday night so we could stay with James and start the bonding process.  Scott of course was fascinated with taking pictures of the room and various amenities....such as the bathroom toilet.  Who knew bathrooms could be so fascinating!

I spent the night with James while Scott took some baby blankets home to get the dogs used to his smell.  James and I enjoyed plenty of snuggle time!

My Mom was able to bring me coffee and breakfast the next morning, so of course she got to meet James and hold him for awhile before she headed to work.  Of course Granny was in love!

Here are some other pictures to enjoy!

 Another favorite of my two guys!

 

 Meeting Aunt Sherry-Berry for the first time! 

 Check out my cool camping outfit...given to us by the hospital!  :)

Meeting "Uncle" Brian--James was born on his birthday! 

Cuddling right before leaving the hospital!

 

Next post, meeting the family!

 

Blythe  :) 

Welcome to the pack James Alexander!

Scott and I would like to announce the newest addition to the pack, so to speak!  Welcome to James Alexander Swanger.  James was born April 23rd about 7:50pm in Indianapolis.  He was 5 pounds 15 ounces and 19" long.

We are so thankful to his birthmom and her family, for choosing not only to adopt, but to allow us to be his parents!   He is such a good baby, only really crying when he is hungry or dirty.  I cannot even begin to imagine how hard that decision must have been for her but I know that she loves James so much and wanted him to have the best life possible.  We want to have as open of a relationship with her as she wants.  We are hopeful to meet with her after everything is finalized.

He is sleeping a little longer between feedings at night and he is starting to enjoy tummy time a little more with each try.  He is doing great with the dogs, or should I say the dogs are doing great with him!  They were certainly curious about him when we came home from the hospital but since they have been fine. Madison seems to be his protector and wants to know where he is at all times.  When he is on the floor at least one of them curls up next to him to keep him company.  It is really pretty sweet.

The girls have also loved all of the visitors we have had lately as they get marshmallows!  :)

You might wonder why we waited so long to announce that he was here.  Well, in Indiana a father has 30 days from the child's birth to claim parental rights.  Thursday was 30 days.  We wanted to make sure that before we announced our good news to everyone that we were through that initial 30 days.

We still have to go to court in a couple of months for our finalization hearing.  This will permanently make James part of our family and give him the same rights that any biological child would have.

While we wait for our hearing, we will just enjoy this time with our little man! 

 

 

I have TONS of pictures already so I will be sure to post some more photos later!

 

Blythe & Scott

Cloth, disposable, or hybrid???

We still don't really have news on the baby front but we are hopeful that we will get a call soon and be bringing home a baby later this year.

While waiting to get this call, I have managed to keep busy with work and researching many options for all things baby.

Lately, I have been researching options for the diapering world.  I never, ever knew there were so many options when it came potty time for baby!  You can pick between disposable, cloth, and now there are "hybrid" options.

I am realistic to know that we will probably use a combination of both disposables and cloth, even the "hybrid" version but I am really sold on one brand in particular.

Gdiapers caught my eye on a website the other day.  These are what I would call one of the hybrid diapers.  They make cloth inserts so you can cloth diaper, but they also make biodegradable inserts that can make it "disposable"...even though you keep the outer covering.  The cool thing about the disposable inserts is that they can be composted (just the wet ones), flushed down the toilet, or tossed in the trash.  Even when placed in the trash, they biodegrade in about 2-3 months.  This is amazing compared to regular (plastic) diapers which take about 500+ years to biodegrade!

I know some in our family and friends like to call us tree-huggers, and we do have pictures of this from several trips to the Great Smoky Mountains, but the thought of using diapers that take 500+ years to decompose just doesn't sit right with me, or Scott for that matter! 

I will still be working part-time and I don't know if they would be willing to work with the gdiapers but if we need to use disposables like Huggies or Pampers we will...only when really necessary.  I also have some good friends that have used cloth diapers with their kids so I have "tech support" handy and there are TONS of websites with tips and tricks to make the process easy.

So this is the plan for now!  I am sure that we will have a learning curve and there will be times when I will probably think it is just "easier" to use disposables, but I have always been told that what is right isn't always easy. 

This will be my mantra at 2am when all I really want to do is sleep but I am up to my armpits in poo...cloth diapering! 

We are officially.....Active!

Our paperwork is done, our bio/couple profile has been created and proofed and we have contacted our attorney.   In the adoption world this means that we are "active" with our agency and that they will be giving our bio out to the birthmoms coming to their office. 

Now all we need is a birthmother to find us and decide that she wants us to raise her child.

Some people might tease (especially if they have hung out with us regularly), saying, "Can you even imagine?"  But at least we know that he or she will get to know the great outdoors and we will have a blast teaching him or her all that we know!

Scary thought, huh??

Chloe & Molly hanging out at the house

 Madison playing in the snow, she had a great time!

 

Scott & I at our happy place, Smoky Mountains in Tennessee!

I will keep you posted on any new news, but we are once again waiting!

Blythe

Now we wait....

Scott and I just had our home study visit today and so now we wait.  We wait to get our home study finalized so we can then wait for a call that someone wants to meet us and then we wait to be picked by a birthmom. 

I must say the adoption process, while it seems long, the paperwork at times seems endless, it really hasn't been too bad.  We had to collect pictures for the agency and that for me was a lot of fun to look through everything and see where we had been and the memories of what we have experienced together over the past 7 years together.

We recently attended a newborn care class with the agency, Ready the Nest, and that class had a lot of good information and tips for what to worry about or not worry about with a newborn.  They even talked about all of the things we could do while we wait, so off to researching pediatricians in Columbus!