Our Little Man

Although it is something that is common knowledge in my "real" world, I realize that there is something I have never shared with you about Mr. Will. He is African American. When I first wrote about being chosen as Will's parents, it crossed my mind to share it with you immediately. And yet I decided not to. Why? Because I didn't want it to be the "main focus" of his adoption story. The real focus should be his arrival into our family, not the color of his skin.

In every way, this is reflective of the way I want to raise my son. I want to teach him that his race is a part of who he is, but it is not who he is. I want him to find his identity in Christ, in our family, his friends, and in the things he loves to do.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that I think race is unimportant, or that I will choose to pretend it doesn't exist. I have already spent many hours in my head trying to figure out how to balance teaching Will to be proud of his history and heritage as an African American with the idea that his race isn't an ultimate definer of who he is. Not sure that definer is a word...but I like it. But...since he's not even here yet I figuring we have plenty of time to figure that one out.

So, for now, we are doing our best to prepare for Will's arrival. Mostly, that means washing his clothes and putting together the crib. But we are also praying and preparing to become a transracial family. Do I know exactly what this means and everything that is ahead of us? No. But I know what is. Great love.

Getting Settled

We've been on our house for almost three months now, and we're starting to get settled. We still have a lot to do, but here are a few pictures...

The Man Cave

Just a little sneak peek of Will's nursery!

13 Weeks to Go...

Well, we are about 13 weeks away from Will's due date! It's starting to hit me that we are running out of time, and I am so anxious to get the nursery finished...or started!

I picked up the crib and dresser right before Christmas from Babies R Us. I thought it would be a simple little trip up there in Mike's truck while he was at work. Oh my. Can I just say, when the guys load the boxes in the back of your truck, they know what they are doing. I decided the crib was going to break in half the way they had it, so I pulled over to fix it. Ha!! I spent the next hour and a half going about 15 miles an hour down the road while the crib flew up and threatened to blow out of the truck. After three or four rearranging and tying down stops (and one guy pulling up next to me to let me know straps were flying around in the air) I was home. Covered in sweat, shaking, and in need of a Route 44 Cherry Coke. That Sonic ice never tasted so good.

Anyways, the furniture is now in the garage waiting to be put together. And this just makes me laugh:


I'm so glad they reminded me not to use a water mattress. I was going to go with an '80s theme. Back to the drawing board.

Lone Star Visitors

This weekend my mom and sister headed on over to visit us in Mississippi. It was so fun! Mike and I got to take them to all the places we have enjoyed so far, and it was great to spend time together.

On Saturday we started at Natural Born Grillers, and then ended up at the Cheesecake Corner in downtown Memphis. We got there two hours before they opened, so we occupied our time walking through The Peabody, showing them Beale Street (we have yet to actually walk down it since we moved here), and just standing in the window dreaming of what cheesecake we would get once they finally opened.

Sunday we went to church, saw a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad football game, and went to see Leap Year. Kind of what we expected: cute, but not the best movie in the world. Here are some pictures I managed to steal from my mom...


Natural Born Grillers...see all that food?

Now you don't.




Where's our cheesecake???


Mike in his natural state.

Our matching rings. Mine is the man-hand. Sad.

This is what happens when you don't have furniture in your living room. You turn it into a slide. Don't judge me.

Sliding...surfing. Same thing.