We've Made it to Connecticut!!

We took our time this morning getting on the road. The car was packed and Carter had his breakfast so we hit the road at about 9:00 this morning. Go figure we hit traffic on the Capital Beltway in Maryland and that slowed us down about 40 minutes, we had smooth sailing up the NJ Turnpike (Carter even slept just about the whole length), even the GW was open. The Merritt Parkway was a little slow too once we crossed over into Connecticut; all-in-all it wasn't too bad, we arrived at my parents at close to 4:00. We had a nice visit with them, Auntie Dana, Uncle Scott and cousins Jimmy and Kyle. We had some dinner and hung out in the back yard for a bit before heading over to Nana Bainie & Papa Los's house, our home camp for the next few days.

Tomorrow will be a get together here at the Wild's for family & friends to come meet Carter and then we will repeat it again on Sunday at my parent's house. We'll post some pictures and chronicle the events of our trip after we get home. Hopefully Maddie & Preston are enjoying having their house back and having fun with Chris while he stays at the house while we are away.

Have a great weekend. - John

1st Post Placement Visit Done, 2 to Go

Last week we had our 1st post placement visit with our social worker. She met with us for close to an hour. She wanted to know how we were all adjusting and what we feel is working in our routine and what we feel is not. With one visit behind us we now have two more to go over the next 5 month. Here in Virginia the adoption is not final until 6 months after we return home and have 3 visits from our social worker and they say we are fit parents and the child is happy. Once all that is approved we can go to court and "re-adopt" here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Once we are able to complete the process we can move on with our lives as a family. We have a lot going on, I have mentioned before in a previous post that my job as I know it will not exist in the very near future, if I want to stay with the company, on the merchant side of the business we will have to relocate to Seattle. Until the re-adoption is final we can not completely move, that is if a job offer comes my way in the new structure.

Last Saturday we attended an Asian Cultural Event in Bethesda, Maryland. It was a Dol celebration for two little boys who are cousins. They graciously invited adopted families to come experience the 1st Birthday Celebration (Dol). It was a great experience and the food was terrific. Later in the day we also attended the 7th birthday party for our friends Andrew and Michelle's son Dylan. It was an Indiana Jones themed party, Andrew created a snake pit in the back yard and hid a treasure for the kids to find. They all had a great time.

Next weekend we are going to head home to Connecticut so Carter can meet the rest of the family. He has already met his grandparents from both sides but he has yet to be introduced to his Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and Great Aunts & Great Uncles and a host of family friends from both sides. My grandmother passed away a year ago this week, Carter would have been her 6th great grandchild (the 5th boy). She would have gotten a kick out him, she loved babies, always looking at the shape of their heads, she loved C-Section babies because they had perfect shaped heads. If she was still with us, in the state she had been in the last few years of her life she would have laughed at Carter and and just smiled. Writing this bring tears to my eyes, just picturing it and remember her near the 1st anniversary of her passing is a little emotional.

We'll update again after our trip to Connecticut, I think the dogs are looking forward to us giving them some time at home with Chris (our dog/house sitter), give them back their space. -John

Easter Week

We continue to experience new events as family each and everyday. In the last week we have celebrated Easter, had a marathon teething experience, had our 1st night of sleep without waking up, our first restaurant and standing on our own.

The weather has been absolutely spectacular this past week, we actually hit the 90's for a couple of days and had to turn the air conditioning on. Easter Sunday was beautiful and we had a very nice dinner just the 5 of us and we then had a nice visit with Carlos for the first time.

I went back to work this week, since my mom and dad are still here Paige wasn't on her own yet. Everyone came out to Tysons Corner to meet me for lunch one day, our first trip to a restaurant, Carter was sleeping in his stroller when they met up with me and slept for a short time once we were seated. Once he woke up he was a "pro". He sat in a highchair, we had his food warmed in the kitchen and he eat with the rest of us. Afterwards he came by my office to meet everyone.

I think it's only a short period of time before Carter is walking, he has been standing on his own for short periods of time for the past couple of days, he is over being held and wants to be on the ground and moving!! At least he will force us to be more active ourselves.

This will be our last weekend with grammy and papa, they are leaving to go back to Connecticut on Monday. Paige will be on her own for the first time from here on out. Mom and dad have been a huge help over the past couple weeks, making meals, doing laundry and shopping and doing yard work. They really helped make the transition home with an addition much easier for all 3 of us. I think Carter might be a little confused after they leave since they have ben here since he got here but in the long run I think he will be ok since he has adjusted so well to everything else. Paige will also have her 1st overnight this week on her own since have to go to NJ on business, it will also be good practice since I leave for England and Germany the following week on a buy trip. It will also be test for me, leaving my little guy for 1st time. Not seeing that smile of his everyday will be a challenge!

1st Week Home

Sorry we haven't updated much, or at all, this week. Our first week home has gone by with a blur. Paige came down with a stomach bug on Sunday night and was down all day Monday, I came down with it Monday night and was out of commission all day Tuesday and then my mother came down with it and was in bed all day Wednesday and was back up and around for her birthday yesterday (not an April Fool's Day joke). Somehow my dad has escaped it, lucky him. Thankfully, you only have symptoms for 24 hours but you still don't feel well for another 24 hours after.

Carter had his first doctor's appointment on Tuesday and received his 9 month check-up complete with all his vaccinations and boosters. It was all good news, he is on target for a 9 month old and is in the 95th percentile for weight and 91st in height. He's good for another 3 months until his 12 month exam.

Spring has definitely sprung in Northern Virginia this week, it's been 80 degrees the last few days and we have all the windows open and we are enjoying some time outside. Carter got to meet a bunch of the neighbors this week since we had taken a couple walks and some have come over to visit and meet him.

The dogs continue to bond with Carter too, Madison really gets concerned if he's crying for too long and will lay at the foot of whatever chair we are sitting in with him and Preston like to lay as close as possible to protect him ( see photo).

This morning he had his 1st Cheerios! At first he wasn't quite sure what they were all about or what to do. Once he finally picked one up and put it in his mouth it was all over! He loves them! He also had his first picture taken with the Easter Bunny tonight at the Mall. He was so serious for his picture and he was kept turning his head up to look at the bunny, kind of like, "WTF"...

As we get more and more into our routine (figure it out) we'll try to do our best to update more frequently. I know what it's like when you following one of these and you're waiting and waiting for updates, on the flip side I now have a greater understanding for all those adoption journey stories I have been following and why the updates slowed after they returned home with their babies.

Happy Easter everyone! - John