2 months old!
Our little princess is 2 months old! This post is a day late because we were at a family wedding yesterday. Lydia had fun getting all dressed up and thought that the party was for her birthday! She reached 10 pounds at exactly two months! We are so thankful that our teeny tiny baby is so healthy and growing so well. She LOVES smiling at Mommy & Daddy. Getting her diaper changed is one of her favorite activities now, during which she looks up at me and "asks" me to sing by opening and moving her mouth around in a certain way. Then she smiles and "sings" along with me, making really cute sighs and squeaks.
Adoption Updates:
A quick review of the adoption process... we completed our Home Study in January of this year which made us eligible to be matched with a birth mom. Our first payment of $10,000 was due at that time. Then, in September, Lydia was born and her birth mom signed to relinquish her parental rights and we signed to become her legal guardians. We are so thankful to announce that of the $11,000 we had to pay at the time she was placed in our home, we only had to pay about $3,220 our of our own pocket - the rest came from fundraising! Thank you so much to all of you who have sacrificed to help us bring her into our family. In Ohio, the adoption cannot be finalized until 6 months after placement. That means that we have monthly home visits from our adoption agency and will be working with a lawyer to complete the process. It sounds intense but it really isn't! We will go before a judge in March and he/she will declare that Lydia is ours as if she had been born to us. We will receive a new birth certificate listing us as her parents. Our estimated final payment at that time is ~$8,000. Although she is already ours in every other way, it will be a joyful and celebratory day when we can say that she is also legally and completely ours!
Life and Health updates:
My back pain & sciatica worsened dramatically when they tried to decrease the frequency of my physical therapy appointments so my doctor ordered an MRI. It showed that I have degenerative disc disease in my lower back and several bulging discs (this is all in addition to the compressed L5/S1 that we knew about previously from the X-ray). The good news is that it did not show severe inflammation or herniated discs, meaning that more invasive treatment is not necessary. I'm back up to going to PT twice weekly and am feeling much better. Please continue to pray for healing of my back and infertility!
We are excited about our first holiday season with Lydia! I'm planning to go back to work part time in January.
Love and peace to all of you!
