Happy New Year!

As I look back on 2007 I must conclude that it was a great year. We purchased a house, Jen and I completed most of our coursework, and Amanda selected us to adopt her baby. Things could not be any better. We met Amanda a couple weeks ago and it was fantastic. After our first face-to-face meeting she invited us to the hospital where they ran a few tests and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. The nurses say she is very active. We've not settled on a name yet, but the leading candidates are Abigail, Adalyn, Sydney, and Hayden. We want to use Amanda for the middle name, but we may use Rae instead (Amanda's middle name). We think Amanda is wonderful and would like the baby to know about her from the start. Our plan is to introduce photos of Amanda just like we would other family members, and teach names and relations as the child grows.

We've been gathering cloths and furniture for the nursery. Jen's sister Tiffany has twin girls and two of everything, so we now have lots of cloths for a 0-1 year old. Tiff has good fashion sense so we appreciate all the clothes. They would cost a ton to purchase. Also, we did purchasae some furniture at IKEA and painted an old bookshelf white to match.




The nursery will probably get painted a light pastel green or yellow--Tinkerbell is our motivation but we'll keep her images to a minimum. We both love Disney so there will be some of that in the room, but again, we're also minimalists so that stuff will be limited.

Today we're off to Baby's R Us with our new found 15% off coupon. We still need to purchase a crib and a sliding/rocking chair. Thank goodness my mom gave us a lump of cash for Christmas. It was specifically addressed to the baby. That makes much of this possible. LDS Services is a very inexpensive compared to other adoption agencies, but it is still pretty pricey for a couple of graduate students. That, with all the materials to prepare for a baby, can break the bank. It is a good thing we have such generous family and friends.