Adventures with a Poodle & Baby

Moving Update

Everything's still moving ahead. We've had lots of paperwork and lots of situations to figure out along the way. But it's on track for the closing on May 7th still. We'll be getting a new furnace and a/c installed before we get the house. Then we're moving on Memorial Day weekend.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, downsizing and packing.

Our Future Home

Our agreement has been reached. Next Thursday will be the home inspection, then closing on May 7th. Ann Arbor, here we come...

Making an Offer

On Saturday we went to see two more houses, not thinking we would go for either one. Well, now it's Thursday and we're in the midst of counter offers to buy a really great house. More details to follow, hopefully when we close the deal today.

Haircut 2

Today we did Sam's second haircut. This time it was done by dad, and it turned out pretty good. Jacob's not interested in getting his hair buzzed, so he'll continue going to professionals.

Teeth update: Sam has 14 teeth in and numbers 15 and 16 are starting to poke thru (those would be upper molars).

Jacob and dad enjoyed some of the first snow today. We went outside and threw snowballs at the house and a couple at each other. We also shoveled the driveway and sidewalk. Jacob made sure we got everything, when dad was being lazy and just getting the "important parts".

2o11 Photos

For you Facebook fans, we've posted a Year in Review 2o11 for your viewing enjoyment. We'll post some more to the blog soon as well.

Spelling M-a-r-i-o

Should we be concerned that Jacob can spell "Mario" but not "cat"? It's remarkable that he can turn on the Blu-ray player, launch You Tube and look up Super Mario Galaxy videos by typing "mario g" into the search bar and then selecting the right entry that pops up.

We've been touring elementary school's in Ann Arbor in advance of house hunting next year. One of the things that the schools tell us about is the computer usage the students are taught starting in kindergarten. That's one subject Jacob will definitely get A's in.

In the meantime we do work with him from time to time on site word flash cards and reading the Bob books. He's currently enjoying his third year of preschool. We have a new program his year so he's going everyday for a couple hours. Karen still enjoys being part of the co-op and participating in his classes. That's one of the things we're looking for in the next school, is one that she'll continue to be able to be involved in the school day. It seems like most have accommodations and encourage the involvement.

We have one more school (or maybe two) to tour and then we'll start looking at houses more seriously in the new year when we have a better feel for which school we hope to get Jacob into.

Blog website change

In a cost savings decision, we will no longer carry the www.jacobdillenbeck.net domain name. Access to this blog will still be active and available through the direct address of: http://poodlecafe.typepad.com/

Please make a note of this and update your favorites and bookmarks accordinly. Thanks for reading!

Sam's 1st Haircut

With less than a month to go before his 1st birthday, Sam had his 1st haircut tonight. It was at home with a man we recently met who is very helpful in teaching us about Sam's hair and some good tips on how to cut and treat it. The haircut went pretty well at first, but as he grew more tired he got pretty fussy. We were happy to see the hair go and to see Sam grow up right in front of our eyes. He looks much better with his hair cleaned up. Without further ado, a couple photos...

Not Always Easy

Even though he's a real easy-going kid and always ready to smile or laugh, it's not always easy to get a good picture. Here's some from tonight while using the flash, he kept closing his eyes. It was also a bit past his bedtime, so he was tired, and just had his first haircut trauma.

Sams eating a lot

Today Karen reports that Sam ate all of his food and also everything that she was eating. Looks like we'll be needing to get out the next size clothes if he's in a growth spurt.

Sam's Peek-a-boo video

One of Sam's favorite things to do at bed time.

 

It's been a Very busy summer

Around these parts we've been coming and going here and there and everywhere. Jacob's been in soccer and in swim classes. Sam's been getting more mobil, but not yet crawling. This next week we'll be taking a week long vacation, so maybe we'll have some time to blog a little more about what's been happening.

Goodbye Bristow

With much sadness we said goodbye to Bristow today. His health took a sudden turn for the worse as it appears that he had a tumor in his heart. Bristow was the best dog we could have hoped for, the first dog for our family. He was the first baby for Karen and I. Tonight we took Jacob and Sam to the vet and said goodbye to Bristow, who had been there since yesterday. We said goodbye and then came home and looked at pictures of the better years we had with him. He'll be greatly missed.

Remembering him as a puppy, see more pics.

Jacob in Soccer

Today Jacob played on his first organized soccer team. He did really great at pratice when everyone had a ball. Halfway through the game he was a little disappointed when his friends scored goals and he didn't. But he still had a good time and enjoyed a snack at the end. There are two preschool friends on the team with him, so that makes it much better.

 

Courtdate Milestone

Yesterday was the courtdate that we have been waiting for. It's the day that the birthmom signs off on all rights to Sam and allows us to take the next steps towards being the official parents. We enter a 6 month review period now and then go through Finalization at the end. If anything were to happen, Sam would not go back to the birthmom, the chapter is now closed on that option.

While it's a great day for us, it's a bittersweet day. We know that there is lot that the birthmom is going through at this time, even though we don't know her. They say that adoption triangle is built on loss - Loss on the adoptive parents part because they're usually unable to bear children, Loss on the birthmom's part because the child she conceived is gone, Loss on the child's part because the mom who gave birth to him is out of the picture.

For now, it's good that we and our family have a piece of mind knowing that Sam is here to stay. We've been having a great time making a video and seeing all the fun stuff that's happened over the last 8 weeks. Last night we went out to dinner to commemorate the event. We had nice experiences with waitresses and Sam was wearing his "Little Brother" shirt for the first time.

Baby Samuel

Yesterday morning Karen got a call from the adoption agency that there was a baby available for adoption. We made quick arrangements and got to the hospital at 3:30 to meet Ashley from the agency. She filled us in on the background of the situation and let us know it would be a closed adoption. We had been hoping for an open adoption, especially after reading what a difference it can make in the life of an adoptee as they grow up. But we're thrilled to work within the parameters we were offered. We brought flowers and a card for the birthmom and Ashley delivered them, since we will probably never meet her.

Anyway, then we went into the NICU (Neo-natal intensive care unit - ICU for babies) where we met him. He's doing great, he was born on Sunday morning, 6lbs 13oz. 19inches long. He's just having some trouble eating from the bottle, so he has a feeding tube. At each feeding they/we try with the bottle and do as much as he'll take, then the rest goes in the tube.

At the hospital they have a shift change at 7pm, so we have to leave at that time. We can come back at 8, but it works good to go home at that time. He has feedings at 10, 2, and 6 - so today we were at the hospital for all three day time feedings. Our nurse has been really nice and helpful. It's strange how much we forget about infants since Jacob was born.

As we were really caught off guard, we didn't have everything in place - like a nursery, carseat or name for a boy (we had one picked out for a girl). So last night we borrowed a car seat from Nate & Heidi, then headed home and spent an hour and a half processing name options and coming up with Samuel David Dillenbeck.We're really happy about it and think it suits him well.

We have only been waiting for 3 months, so that's really fast. We had been told to expect anywhere up to 6-12 months. We were also thinking we would be matched with an expecting mother and have time to process everything, but that wasn't the case so quick thinking was in order. I've had to drop everything at work, but really glad for the blackberry to keep up with the email traffic.

There are some things that are different about adoption that most people might not realize. Mostly that Samuel will be coming home with us, but the adoption will not be official until a court date in 3-5 weeks. So we won't be posting any online photos of him until that time, just to be safe. After that the adoption isn't completely finalized for 6 months to allow a period of observation on how we're doing with him. Based on the particulars of our situation, we don't foresee any problems and these will all be formalities.

We'll continue to post updates via twitter/facebook - and for longer stories we'll continue to use the blog as things progress. Thanks to all for your continued support during this process, it means a lot to us.

September Update

I've been meaning to give and adoption update for a long time. We found out about a month ago that our profile had been shown 4 times already, which we were thrilled to learn. That was the first news we've had, so we were glad to hear that there's potential out there and our stuff isn't just collecting dust on a shelf.

The other fun thing is that on Monday my co-worker came in and announced she was going on maternity leave. I had no idea she was waiting to adopt, but she had been for over a year. She got a "gift baby" - one that a mom didn't make an adoption plan before giving birth and they just got a call out of the blue to come to the hospital because there was a baby ready for them. So that was exciting for us to hear about.

Other big news around here: Jacob started Preschool again - he's trilled. Bristow got a bath.

Jacob on Vacation

Jacob had a great time on our family vacation to New York and Penn.

Publishing the Book

Today we sent off our order for 4 copies of the photo book that we spent the last 4 days working on heavily, and the past 4 weeks thinking about. That should finally be the last thing we need to do for the adoption before the waiting period begins.

So.... speaking of the waiting period - we got word today that our Home Study was approved and they're moving forward with getting our web profile online and everything's getting in place. That means we are now finally beginning the waiting period. We also know that there are not many others at our agency who are waiting for a child of any race, the way we are. So the good news is we'll just enjoy being in a short line.

Things could really move quickly now.... In the meantime, enjoy one page from our book:

What's going on with Adoption

We've got all our info into the agency, now we're just waiting for our web profile to get posted on their end. Our last step is to prepare a photo-book for the agency to show birth-moms who come in to get matched. We hope to have that done this weekend. Besides that, we've got a reading list to keep us busy while we wait. We're reading book on trans-racial adoption and books on adoption through the eyes of adoptees which should give good insight on how to handle things right from the beginning.

As you may or may not know (or may or may not be interested) the agency asks what our "openess" is to a range of factors, such as race and medical conditions. We're pretty good with being open to almost everything. Our view is that our home is available for a child who needs a family and we don't want to stand in the way of letting God bring the right match together, whoever that may be. While certain situations may pose more or less of a challenge, we're certain that we won't be given more than we can handle.

So we wait with eager anticipation. We've gotten books from local libraries and ordered some that weren't available. We've got a big trip to upstate NY planned in a couple weeks with the family, so hopefully there'll be some reading time in the car and while not working for the week.