Christmas Cards

Last December, I wrote this (http://vbkfamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/hope.html):

 It's the most wonderful time of the year, right?  Or at least it is supposed to be. 

Yes, it is a hard time of year for us.  We are still on our journey.  We don't have answers.  We don't have an end in sight.  We still wonder why we have to go through this.  We thought we'd have a little one traveling home with us to Virginia for Christmas. 

Yes, it is hard, I'm not going to lie, but this year, I have hope.  I know that I don't have a "match" yet and I don't have a baby in my arms this year for Christmas, but I do have hope. 

Hope that someday, hopefully before next Christmas, that we will be a family of three instead of a family of two. 

Hope that this year is the last year that I have to send out a Christmas cards with only the two of us and our puppies. 

Hope that instead of just seeing the baby's first Christmas ornaments in the stores, that I will actually be able to purchase one for a VBK baby. 

Hope that there will be three stockings to hang instead of two (and one for the pups, of course.)

Hope that Brennen (our nephew being born in the spring) will have someone to play with and grow up with. 

Hope that God will get the glory and honor from all that happens.  I can't wait to sit back years from now, or even months from now, and be able to say, "I can see how God had this planned from the very beginning." 

As Melody, Dave's cousin in Michigan, wrote in her Christmas card to us this year:  May 2010 be a year to remember!   :)  

So, this year is our year.  This year, we get to send out Christmas cards as a family of three (and two pups).  I couldn't be more excited, well, actually I could.  Why you ask?  Because Shutterfly is giving away 50 free Christmas cards to people who blog about their products.  

So, here are two of the folded cards that I'm thinking about for our Christmas cards this year:

Good Blessings Religious Christmas 5x7 folded card

Count Your Blessings Christmas 5x7 folded card

I also thought about going with one of the photo Christmas cards this year, especially since it would make our cards easy and simple.  

Light Line Christmas 4x8 photo card

Their personalized gifts , are pretty awesome, too.

Would you like to earn your free cards?  

Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly:http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

My Love

This next picture might possibly be my favorite picture from this month!!!!

Glasses

We finally decided on some glasses for N.  They should arrive some time this week.  

N IS CRAWLING

Zoo

After going to the NICU the other day, we decided to stop by the zoo to see the new baby leopard.  That's the great thing about having yearly passes-you can stop by for a few hours and not feel the need to see or do everything before you leave.  

Can you see the baby leopard?  (He was behind super thick glass with horrible lighting.)  

N loves to chew on his look book.  

Can you find the jaguar in this picture?  

N loved the Cayman Lizard.  

Do you see that thing behind us?  It's called the baird's tapir.  It's this STRANGE looking creature.  

The female lion was being the boss.  

We love the snake areas and so does N.  

NICU Visit

We decided to go and visit some of the nurses that took care of N while he was in the NICU.  We haven't been there since the day that we took him home, six weeks after he was born.  It was weird to be there, carrying N through the halls.  So many memories went through my head, memories of happiness and sadness.  

I remember...

 ..standing with my ear pressed against the crack in the door of the waiting area hearing him crying seconds after his birth.  

...getting a hospital bracelet, letting the world know that he was mine.  

...seeing my baby boy for the very first time and then watching him through the nursery window for hours.

...making phone calls in the hallway outside of the nursery, telling our friends and family the news about our little man.  

...being the first one to hold him and realizing that our dream of being parents was coming true.

...spending that first night cuddling with him in the hospital room with him and J. 

...feeling helpless as they admitted him into the NICU and hearing him scream as they put the feeding tube in his nose.  

...realizing that the few days that we were told that he might need to stay would probably be weeks and maybe months.  

...sitting in the NICU with J, watching her kiss him and tell him how much she was going to miss him.   

...hearing the words that J had signed the final paperwork and that he was officially our son.  

...my heart breaking as we spoke with J after she signed the paperwork.  As happy as I was that N was ours, it hurt to see her hurting.  We'd gotten to know each other pretty well, not only in the time leading up to his birth, but in the time that I spent with her those first days after he was born.  I was with her when she was in major pain, was there when she needed help to the bathroom, was there to talk to her in the crazy hours of that morning when we were both awake.  

...crying like a baby as I called my mom to let her know that J had signed the paperwork.  

...sitting in that NICU for countless hours, taking care of the little man.  Some days, we would get to hold him for hours, other days we had to let him sleep in his bed and we would leave without getting to hold him.

...feeling exhausted after working all day and wishing that N was home so that I could hold him in the comfort of my own home without having to sit in the cold NICU.

...feeling like he would be a year old before he would ever come home.  

...the beeps from the many monitors in the NICU.  

...getting upset at some of the NICU nurses as they gave him high scores.  (If only I'd known then what I know now.  haha)  

...meeting countless families and getting attached to the babies that were around us.  

...realizing, one day, that all of the babies that had been in the NICU when we'd arrived had been discharged and we were still there.

...taking an Easter basket to the nurses, letting them know how much we appreciated them. 

...getting the call that we could bring him home the next day.

...seeing the monitors being turned off when it was time to go home.  Such a sweet sight to see him without wires attached.

...getting wheeled out of the hospital, with our little man in my arms.  

This time, on our way into the hospital, he got to ride on Daddy's shoulders.  :)  

These nurses were SOOO happy to see him.  The nurse in front was one that took care of him a lot and she kept saying that seeing him had made her day.  They see lots of babies with issues like N, but they rarely get to see them after they leave.  The nurse in the back is the one that discharged us that blessed day that we got to bring him home.  

We plan on going back soon to see even more of the nurses that took care of our little man.  

My Lazy Boy

On some school mornings, when I need to get ready and N decides that he is going to die without food right that very moment, he gets to eat in his pack and play.  On this morning, he was being super lazy!  He just looked so cute, with the bottle all propped up on the boppy.  

More and More Curls

Playing His Piano

I Love Him