Transition Weekend!

Matt has been working LONG and UNPREDICTABLE days/nights lately.  Thursday he ended up doing a double lung transplant so he made it home after 21 hours of straight work.  Due to this he wasn't allowed to work all day Friday!  WOOHOO!  This was especially nice since Matt is finishing up this rotation and a new one starts Tuesday.  That is an unprecedented amount of time off for Matt.

Friday Matt still had to spend a few hours at the hospital but a few beats 12 or 20!  Friday afternoon we opened packages from Nani and PopPop!  I had birthday gifts which of course I decided to go ahead and open.  Joshua and Nathan had Halloween treats and cards to unwrap.  We love getting mail at our house!

We also had a fun time playing at the park.  We have had absolute beautiful weather here in San Antonio.  It has been a lot cooler!

Saturday I picked up our bountiful basket order.  I haven't done this in awhile but with honeycrisp apples as an extra to the order it was a must!  We love those apples in our house.  I enjoyed doing the pick up because I had several friends there and we chatted while we waited.

While, I picked up the basket of produce.  Matt and Joshua made rice krispy treats together.

Love Joshua's pronunciation in this video.

Saturday afternoon we went downtown as a family and took the boys to their first play.  A little friend had a birthday party there.

Our family of four joined our friends at the current showing, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Both boys were great!  Nathan had a bottle right before it started and he just relaxed in my arms.  Joshua sat there silent and studied the stage and everything going on for the hour long show.  We will definitely take them to see more shows.  We ended the day with cake, ice cream, and the park.

Sunday was the blessing day and church.  See previous post.

Monday Matt had one more day off as he transitions to a new rotation where he will be working on weekends.  Matt had to get some things sorted out with Nathan and Tricare now that the adoption is finalized in the morning.  We also decorated these pumpkins or punkins as Joshua calls them.  The name of the game for me this month is easy so we just did stickers.  We might get out paint and add to these before Halloween but Joshua was happy.

These are two other fall crafts that we did last week.  

Finally, as I am trying to do this post Matt took this little video of Nathan.  Relaxing family day.  

Blessing Day at Church

Nathan's blessing day was a success in the fact that it happened.  I wish that life were always rosy and I could in theory write this blog to reflect that but I want this to be real life.  I get it printed every year and I want it to accurately record our life as a family.  So, I will tell the truth.

The day started out fine.  We actually slept in a little and then Joshua talked to Nani and Grandma using Facetime.  Then Nathan took a nap and didn't wake up until really close to church time.  I wanted to take all of these pictures of him in his white outfit.  We took two and the camera died plus the pics weren't even that great.

Matt was at a church meeting before church and I'm trying to get both boys ready.  We currently don't have church until 1:30 so it is this hang out all morning and then wait until the last second to get dressed because I want to feed J lunch not in his church clothes.  We rolled into church at 1:28.  (never a fun feeling)

Nathan was blessed first thing in the meeting.  It was sweet to have Matt along with his friends Andrew, Brad, Milt, and our Bishop to give our son a name and a blessing.  This moment was all that mattered truly about the day.  However, I am a woman and I had other expectations in mind.  I wanted pictures of Nathan and of our whole family.  We took the picture you see at the top and then Nathan puked everywhere.  Hahaha end photo shoot.  

I didn't plan any big event with food and friends over because I am the primary president and we have our big primary program in one week so as soon as our sacrament meeting was over I hit the ground running with getting kids in their right places and trying to get everything in order.  Matt and I balanced our two boys while we each did our church responsibilities.  Although, my pictures didn't work out I still had high hopes for our relaxed family dinner at home.   Well, after church was over I was meeting with the chorister as we finalized everything for next week.  Matt and I didn't communicate very well and I thought he and Joshua had walked home and left me with Nathan and the car.  However, I didn't have my keys or my phone since both were in Joshua's backpack with him.   I carried my diaper bag, my huge church bag, and Nathan in his car seat all over the church and didn't see them.  I saw the car though and decided to borrow a phone.  I called Matt.  No answer.  I then had someone go to my house (we live around the corner) and knock on the door.  No answer.  Long story short - Matt was still at church just chatting it up with a work colleague on the phone.  I was sweating and irritated to say the least when I was rescued by my husband who was oblivious to the whole thing since he didn't leave me as I thought.  We got home from church over an hour late.  Now, it was time to eat pbj sandwiches and put cranky kids to bed.  My special dinner would have to wait.  Matt and I were able to move on from the little frustration.  We laughed about it....later.  I was happy that what mattered most happened that day even if the extras I had in mind didn't go as planned.  That is life isn't it?

Happy 4 months Nathan!

Nathan is 4 months old today.  His smiles are contagious and he loves to smile with his whole body.  His smile quickly turns into a cough type laugh and legs are always kicking.  This is so new to us as seriously I used to look up signs of autism with Joshua.  That kid never smiled!  Nathan is always willing to share a smile.  He had his check up today and we have a big healthy boy!  Joshua was always proportional but all measurements were between 40th to 50th percentile.  Nathan was in the 90th percentile in all categories!  I have two very proportional boys but Joshua better continue to be a sweet big brother because he may not always be the biggest. :-). Nathan is 25.35 inches and he weighs 15.1 pounds.

Unfortunately, his head is misshapen.  We already noticed this and have tried to do all of the suggestions of rotating him, keeping him off of his head as much as possible, etc.  The fact is though that when we had Joshua we secretly smirked when people were having issues like this because we said people read the books and follow...it is really simple.  Joshua alternated head position each nap, hated his car seat, and slept through the night by 2 months.  He loved tummy time and even wanted to sleep on his tummy occasionally.  Of course we supervised that dangerous tummy sleep because we were new parent experts.   ;-) I always fed him his bottle at a different position.  He had a perfect little round head.  However, on child number 2 we are eating a big slice of humble pie.  I have learned that you want to do all of those things but you are also at the mercy of the screams.  Nathan likes to take his bottle in a certain arm.  He always turns his face into my arms and screams when I hold him the opposite way.  He also LOVES his carseat and sometimes this is the only way he will sleep.  I hope the helmet isn't in our future.  There is still 2 months of reshaping time before something like the helmet is your only option.  I guess Mr. Nathan may have to fuss a bit as we try to revisit some of these options.  It will also be easier to push through as is his reflux is now controlled.  I know he will thank us later when his head is round.  I don't know if we can completely fix it though because there is also a little protruding in the front and I don't know what you would do for that.  As far as I can tell the military doesn't cover the helmet though so let's hope it corrects itself.

Anyway, that is the update.  Nathan is a happy boy and full of love.  He looks at me with eyes that say I will love you forever and I just can't believe how blessed I am to have him.  We all love him dearly.  We love the sweetness that a new baby has brought into our home as well as the adventures of parenting a new kid with his own rules.

SC Trip

Our flight was very uneventful, thankfully.  Joshua got these headphones and entertained himself for a few minutes with a movie.  He spent most of the flight though examining the wings, discussing lift, and reading his safety manual.  One flight attendant said she wants Joshua to sit on the exit row because he was the only passenger to really pay attention to the speech.  We were the last ones to leave while we waited for our stroller and carseat.  The pilot started talking to Joshua and discovered he has a future pilot on his hands.  He invited Joshua to the cockpit.  Joshua was thrilled but when invited to sit in the seat he panicked.  We asked him what was wrong after leaving and in his most serious voice and face he replied, "I was afraid if I sat there I would make it take off."  Hahaha such confidence in himself.  I do believe there may be a bit more to it.

We enjoyed a baby shower at my parents house, cute cake, good food, and lots of laughter.  It was nice to celebrate our little man.

Aunt Julia gave Joshua a haircut.  I wasn't feeling so cute since I had a 7 pound weight gain right before leaving.  (My body/hormones really hates me.)  I thought I should get Julia to wax my eyebrows and then I thought why stop there...lets do the whole face.  I just have the fine baby hair but I thought let me be "celebrity" pretty.  Well this resulted in serious break out all over my face and neck.  I was so self conscious the whole time.  Tuesday at court and temple were awful.  My sweet husband told me he loved me even with my "zit stache."  

Cuteness!

We had a fun picnic and day at the park.  

Apple picking at Skytop Orchard

Hiking to waterfalls

Our stay for a few days.  It was on this small lake and very peaceful.  The only problem was it was very old and Matt's allergies went crazy.

Delicious ice cream at Kilwin's

Posing on the pumpkins

First time being successful with babywearing

Paddleboats and canoes right at our lake!  Joshua repeated over and over how much fun he was having and had!  He loved the lake despite this picture.  There were picnic tables and other places to sit along the water to observe and relax.  We all took turns and had a great time.

While we were there we also had a little photo shoot by the lady that does our family photos when in SC.  She does a great job!

Legally and Eternally Ours

Tuesday morning we all went to family court to have Nathan declared a Turek.  He has currently been "Baby Doe" according to the legal system.  We waited and waited which was proving to be very difficult for Joshua.  He never misbehaved but just kept saying this is taking a really long time.  He actually fell asleep in PopPop's lap during the hearing.  (This is highly unusual for Joshua.  He only sleeps in his bed.  However, since he "slept" in our bed for about two and a half hours the previous night it was also not that surprising.)  Our attorney had informed us the day before that we actually testified at this proceeding.  I have never been to a court room and really only anticipated sitting quietly and smiling and nodding as appropriate.  He also informed me that I would speak first and then he would just call Matt up to basically affirm what I had said.  WHAT?!  I don't want to talk.  Okay, so you all are saying, "Vanessa, not talk...yeah right."  Okay, I agree I would probably have gotten in trouble if Matt were the sole provider of the story because I would want to interject.  I am really bad about that.  Our time arrived and I was called to the stand.  I was able to answer basic questions but then I was given the opportunity to share briefly about our adoption story on our side and in regards to our beautiful birth mother and family.  I was also asked to share about the day Nathan was born and the way I feel about him.  Obviously, I have loved him from the beginning and I love and respect his birth family but having the opportunity to put it succinctly in a court room just reaffirmed and strengthened those feelings.  It was a wonderful experience.  Matt then was called to the stand, and he verified all that I said to be true.  He was then asked to describe our marriage.  He gave length of marriage, a few facts, including that I take care of our boys, feed him dinner, make him lunch (at which the bailiff began chuckling.)  He said, "everything is 50/50, okay 90/10" and everyone chuckled.  Matt has a great way at bringing laughter to any situation.  The judge then expressed how much he had enjoyed this hearing.  He declared Nathan to be Nathan James Turek from this day forward.  Matt and I held hands and just felt a huge sense of relief.  Joshua was woken up, and we rushed to the front to take a quick picture with the judge.  The court gave Joshua a bear to commemorate the day that his brother officially was adopted.  He named him Wally????  (3 year olds)

It was home to eat lunch, have the boys nap, and then drive to Columbia for the icing on the cake of the day.  We were going to take Nathan to be sealed to our family forever.   When people are married, the preacher says until death do you part; we believe that marriage is eternal and should be forever.  We are married, or sealed, in temples and believe that this way after this life we will still be husband and wife.  Any children that we have are automatically sealed to us, but children that come in another way, like adoption, can be sealed to your family as they come.  Matthew 16:19 reads, " And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 

The simple ceremony is very special and done inside a beautiful and peaceful room.  We were all dressed in white which is how we dress inside of the temple.   Our parents, one set of Matt's grandparents, and some of our friends attended the ceremony.  Joshua was quiet and really appreciated that he was inside of a special place.  Nathan cried during the first part but Matt was able to rock him for a few moments and he was asleep.  The person performing the ceremony says a special blessing that basically says that all the blessings and promises that would be to a child born to you are the same to this child.  At that moment, the pain that I have felt and sometimes still feel over infertility seemed erased.  The sadness that I have felt sometimes over the fact that I didn't carry Nathan for 9 months and the worry over Nathan's feelings about adoption in the future seemed minuscule.  He is ours and we are his.  We will take each day as it comes but the temple blessings are real and the sweet feelings we all experienced there will be remembered by all of us.

A couple, Jeff and Cindy, basically an adopted set of parents for us, set up tables at a church building close by.  Matt's mom picked up sandwiches, chips, and fruit.  Another sweet friend, Dora brought dessert and helped us set up and clean up.  We were all able to eat and visit about our special day.  Dora also gave Joshua a wooden block with the Columbia temple on it with the words families are forever. Joshua opened it in the car on the way home.  He was excited and instantly began reflecting on the day and the significance.  

It was truly a wonderful day for our family as Nathan officially became ours legally and eternally.  We are blessed beyond belief.