Malachi's first week at home

Mommy and I wating to get discharged from the hospital so we can go home!!! I was VERY excited!

After my first bath at home, I was so snuggley!

My first bath at home, I am a wiggler and NEVER like to lay still.

Here I am meeting my cousin Ethan, we love each other!!

Sleeping in my swing, my favorite place to nap!

I feel asleep in my car seat and mommy took advantage of me staying still.

Happy Thanksgiving! Do you like my sweater? Mommy got it for $1.99, she likes a bargin!

My and my Uncle Mark, we are going to be best buddies, he is going to teach my how to play basketball!

Me and Uncle Mark, daddy and Grandpa! Grandpa is excited about getting me out to the race track!

This was my first week. I love my new home but I miss the nurses who took care of me for so long. I am getting lots of love and attention. I am eating better and starting to focus more. I rolled over twice so far and my strength surpirsed my doctors! I am also off my moniter which makes mommy and daddy VERY happy! Wish you all were here, I am having a blast!

Joy unspeakable

"Joy unspeakable it wont go away" thats how we feel right now! Everything is going great and we are getting to know eachother and us as a family! Malachi sleeps great at night, he actually needs to be woken up to eat (and to take his meds). Its is neat to see my husband as a dad! He is great with Malachi and loves him so much. Im slowly getting used to being a mom. I woke up early sat. morning and washed bottles while the boys were still sleeping. I said to myself "this is my life now" truth be told, I like it!

Josh has to go into work today to get subplans together for the rest of the week so i am home alone today. Which leads me to this amuzing story. Malachi eats at 6am and Josh leaves for work at 5:45 am. So he brought up a bottle and started warming it up in some hot water. When my alarm went off at 6 I woke up, went to the restroom and grabbed the bottle. I realized we were out of diapers so I went to get some more out of His bedroom. I tossed the bottle on the bed. When I came back I realized there was an empty bottle in the bed. I thought that maybe I was so tired that I put an empty one back in the bed at the 3am feeding. I began to search for the bottle that I threw into bed. Suddenly I realized that my butt was wet. Then it hit me. The empty bottle was the one in the bathroom. Woops. Everything got we. The sheets, comfortor and blankets. GREAT! So now I will be doing layndry all day to gett the nast formula smell out of our bedding. All I want to know is why Josh took the nipple off the bottle to warm it in the water?? I will laugh about it someday.

Tomorrow we are off to Chicago for Malachis Cardio appointment. THey should be able to tell us some more detials about his upcomming heart surgery. Then wed. It is back downtown to his Peds doc. Then next week he is going to have a cardio cath done. Yike, we are going to be busy. Sometime with in all of this I need to get some hours in at work too!

Well Malachi is waking up and in need of a diaper change!

Welcome home sweet baby!

Malachi is FINALLY home! We ended up getting to bring him home on friday! He is doing wonderful and so are we! He has been a complete joy and a perfect member of our family! The dogs dont even seen to realize he is here. I will post more later, right now we are off to church with peewee!!

Homecoming...postponed

Thats right. It doesnt look like Malachi will be comming home tomorrow. He is still in the hospital. I am sad, devistated, pissed, and angry. We dont know why he has not been released as he has not had a fever all week and is off the IV along with good feedings and good updates from the nurses. I am trying to get answers and will update as soon as we figure something out. Until then please pray that God gives us peace and understanding. Its so hard to be positive right now!

Latest update

Well Malachi is supposed to come home tomorrow!!!! There are a few medical issues that we are trying to work out but the plan is for him to be realesed to us tomorrow!! YEAH!

Admist the excitment of bring our peewee home there is also disappoinment and anger. THere are 2 family members that have chose to not be supportive. They don't agree with our decision to adopt Malachi and even said that it was a mistake! My first reaction to this was anger. Malachi is NOT a mistake and will NEVER be a mistake. He is a BEAUTIFUL baby who will grow up to be a wonderful man! And along the way he will touch people and change lives. As a Chrisitan I am called to love everyone in every circumstance. I am struggling with this especially towards the people who choose to not be supportive. I know we will encounter these types of people our whole life, but the fact that its family really crushes me. They are not even open to the idea, and even went as far as saying that he will be a burden! Im getting angry just talking about it! But it comes down to the fact that Malachi is our number one concern now, and if he is being treated unfairly, then we will have to seperate ourselves from them. It is not what we want to do, but to protect our child, it is what we will have to do if that cituation arises!


My sweet Malachi,
Your mom and dad love you so much! You are PERFECT, beautiful, smart, loving, strong willed and a fighter. God made you that way and remeber that He never makes mistakes. Our hope for you is that you grow up happy, loving, accepting, honest, strong, and healthy. You can be whatever you want, and accomplish whatever you want! With hard work you can do it and you will do it. God has given you something extra so that you can change the coldest of hearts. You are an assett to the world and our family! You will prove them wrong! We love to the moon and back peewee! We can't wait to bring you home!!

Love, Mommy and Daddy!

I am thrilled to let you know that we are all....DONE!!! The home study went great and we got in the final paperwork we needed to. Josh and I are so happy its done and now all we have to do is wait.

We got to go to Malachis Dr. appointment on Wed. He was please with the weight Malachi has gained and decided that they could go ahead and schedual surgery. We don't have an exact date yet, but expect it to be done in the next 2 months. After the appointment, we went back to the home for some trainging and visiting with the little man. They told us about a staffing next week and that we needed to be there for it. They would be discussing a relase date!! WHAT? Josh and I were shocked that they were already talking about this, we were led to believe that it wouldnt be for a few more weeks. The head nure also told us that we needed to get downtown 2 more times before friday next week. So we came up with a plan. We are going to another Dr. appointment on wed so we will go visit and do some more medical training then. We have to go back on friday and have the meeting and then we have our CPR certification and the Heart moniter training. After friday we will be 100% complete with EVRYTHING! Friday is also the day we will get an exact relase date. Woo hoo. I cant believe that this is all finally over and we can start talking about a homecomming for the prince.

Speaking of homecomming, we will be having an open house once we bring him home. I know there are lots of people out there who want to meet him. Please let us know if you want to be invited.

Please keep praying. There are still a few HUGE mountians in our way and we will need strength and endurance to get us through it.

Home Study Tomorrow!!

Well tomorrow is the big day. The day that we have been preparing for, for weeks! The floors are washed and the carpets have been cleaned. We are ready! This is the final thing on our list. After tomorrow we will be 100% done with our part. I could not be more excited or happy!

We are also going to Malachi's doc appointment tomorrow. Josh and I both took the day off to travel to Chicago and attend him appointment at the Heart Doc. We are hoping to get many questions answered and hopfully get a better idea when his heart surgery is going to be. We are praying after the holidays!

After the Doc we are going back to the home with him to do some more of our medical training! This is another HIGE step we must complete before we can bring our little prince home.

We want you all to keep praying for us and DCFS. Pray that they process our paperwork quickly and issue our liscense. Pray for Josh and I as we prepare for the adjustment in our lives and our new roles as parents. Pray for family members who are still not supportive of our decision. Pray that Josh and I have understanding and patience with those people. Pray that Malachi will be a blessing in peoples lives and that he will continue to grow big and strong! Thank you for joining us on our journey and for those of you that have faithfully prayed for us!

I will post tomorrow night on our day with Malachi and the home visit!!

Answered Prayers

It feels like it has been forever since I have written. Man how things have cahnged in the last week. We have some VERY exciting news, we will be finished with everything by November 17th!!! Our case worker will submit everything to DCFS that very day. Then we wait for DCFS to process all our paperwork and as soon as they are done...we get to bring Malachi Home!!!!!! It usually takes DCFS a few weeks to process the paperwork, but our case worker is going to try and expidite it. SHe did that with our finger prints and background checks and they came back in 2-3 weeks rather than 6-8 weeks! PLEASE be praying that this last step will end quickly and that we will be able to bring our son home by thanks giving or shortly after. God has provided through this entire process, we are beyond blessed!

I am so excited about all the little things I will get to do with Malachi. Rocking him in a chair when he is upset, changing his diaper, feeding him, getting him dressed in the morning and tucking him in at night. I cant wait to push him in a stroller, putting his carset in the car and giving him a bath. I can't wait for him to meet his anunts, uncles and great-grandparents for the first time. I can't wait to show him to our church friends who have been so faithful in praying for us and him. He is such a lucky little boy and we are lucky to have him as our son!!

We will be planning a "Welcome Home" party for him. We hope you will all be able to come and celebrate our little prince. We love you all more than words can express and are thankful you have joined us in our journey!! You have been the trunks that held up our branches when the wind was trying to push us down. God has truly given us the best friends anyone can ask for!! We love you and can't wait to celebrate with you!!

Ps. Josh and I both have our final interviews this week and our home visit next week! Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to bring home our son!!