New pictures

I have added a few more pictures, so scroll down and enjoy. Some are pictures of seeing Justin and then the post just before that.

A few more pictures

We have been sparse on pictures lately, so here are a few more to catch up.

All dressed, hair done, and ready for church.

One of these kids is really sleeping, the other two are just pretending ... can you tell which is which?

Jacob thought Isaac might like to try his 3-D dinosaur glasses ... they make you dream in 3-D.

Thanks, Help Desk

Isaac received a gift from the best Help Desk I've ever worked with.

Hhm ... what is this ...

... a gift? for me? Can I open it? ...

... thanks for the gifts, Help Desk!

Have you wondered where we have been?

So have you checked repeatedly to find out how we are doing? Have you been disappointed that there have been no new updates? Well, now I remember why I haven't kept up on my blog! Being home and having four other children, well, there is a lot to do in life and unfortunately, keeping my blog up to date, is not really high on my priority list. Sure I want to, but it just doesn't happen:) Does anybody else struggle with this? Or is it just a personal thing? But never fear, I am going to try and update you on the last couple days of our trip and then continue to tell you how life is going with our new addition.

We have really appreciated your love and support during this entire process.

Baby Doll

Remember the doll that I mentioned earlier, that Kenya bought for us?  Well, here is a picture of the doll.  The doll measures 13 inches long.  Just an idea of the size of Isaac!

Home Again

The paperwork is going faster than expected, and we were able to come back to Utah. Our original return flight ended up not working out, so Scot was very generous and used his frequent flier miles to help us get home. We were able to fly first class (I've never done that before, it was nice) and we had a layover in Dallas so we got to see Justin and Hallie, Katie's brother and his daughter.



We arrived in Salt Lake about 3 PM. We had a few family members there to meet us and of course meet Isaac. Not alot of pictures were taken, but here are a few....



We will probably not be back to our own home for a few more days (we are visiting family), but it is nice to be back with our kids.

Really tired. More tomorrow.

Day Nine: Meeting up with old friends

Today we took a trip to Lancaster County, Pennslyvania. It is well known for the Amish community. This was also the area that made the news a couple of years ago, when the man went into the school house and killed several students. We met up with an old roommate of Mat's from college. Gary and his wife Chantel and children traveled from Maryland to meet us for lunch.

We ate lunch at a family style restaurant (http://www.goodnplenty.com/). It was amazing food and so much of it! We all literally waddled out the door. It was wonderful, and it just kept coming!

We had a great time visiting, in the last ten years, we have seen them twice. We followed them through the country side and enjoyed the sites. I loved the clean farms that they had. It was beautiful country. The horse drawn buggies were fun to see driving down the road, and then the small children that were dressed in simple and cute clothes, complete with hats and bonnets. I wonder how I would do living in a time like that?

On the way back to Philadelphia, we spend a good part of the trip on the phone trying to figure out how we were going to make it home. We were able to use my brother David's buddy passes on the way out. But due to Spring Break and the airlines weekend ban on buddy passes, and my brother changing jobs, we were stranded for an undetermined amount of time. But not to fear, we used more family connections and Mat's brother Scot was very generous and let us use some of his numerous flight miles to get home. As much as he travels I am sure that he has a few extra. Thank you Scot, for being very generous and allowing us to return home with very little expense involved.

We ended the day by going to dinner with Kenya and her son Jamir. We went to a Chinese buffet, one of Kenya's favorites. She brought her four year old son with her. He was really quiet for awhile, but soon Mat had him laughing and having a good time. At this point, Jamir does not realize that he is a big brother to this adorable baby boy. Hopefully later on in life Kenya will tell him and there will be no hard feelings. This picture was adorable with the three of them together. Kenya held Isaac the entire time, fed him, and yes, changed his clothes twice, since he kept peeing through everything. The picture was taken during one of those naked times.

We then went across the parking lot to Walmart and bought a black baby doll. Kenya probably thought I was a bit weird, wanting a doll for a baby, but black baby dolls are rather hard to find here in Utah. (More to come about the doll.) She wanted to pay for the doll, which we let her do. We walked out to the car and Kenya buckled Isaac in, kissed him on the forehead and turned and we parted ways. To say it was a bit heart breaking is a bit of an understatement. We were glad that she had Jamir with her to keep her busy. We are so grateful for Kenya and her generosity. She is a wonderful person and we hope to keep in contact with her in the years to come.

0.4 score days into our trip (i.e. day eight)

Isaac and Mat

The three of us: Mat, Isaac (in the baby sling), and Katie

When we were discharged from the hospital on Sunday, the nurse told us to bring Isaac to the pediatrician's office today at 8:45 am for a follow up appointment. We had already planned to take Isaac to see our pediatrician in Logan, but Kenya wanted to go with us to this appointment, so we went ahead and went to the appointment. In order to avoid commuter traffic we awoke at a not-so-bright-and-early 5:00am and left the house at 6:00am. We arrived at the hospital before 7:00am, so we had time to go to the cafeteria for some breakfast. Some things came up for Kenya, so she did not come with us. We went to the pediatrician's office early to checkin. Upon arriving, we were told that they had no record of our appointment. We were also told that they would not see the baby if we could not provide custody/adoption papers. We do not currently have the papers, but our agent did email me some of the paperwork late last night. So I told the receptionist that I had the paperwork on my computer and tried to show her. She said it would work if they had a hardcopy, so I emailed the file to her. She tried opening it on her computer to print it, but it wouldn't open. She sent it to someone else, who also couldn't open it. After three of them tried, we finally asked if we could cancel the appointment and see our pediatrician when we get back home. So, it was probably the quickest doctor appointment we have ever had :)

After the appointment (and a trip to Kinkos to print/fax paperwork), I went to visit Peter Guy at Golder Associates (one of EarthSoft's clients). I visited with him for a couple of hours, then Katie and I (and Isaac) spent the afternoon at Independence Hall and thereabouts. We had several comments on how cute he is and asking how old is. As you can see in the picture above, the popular opinion is that he looks more like me than Katie :)

After some quality traffic time in downtown Philadelphia at 5pm, and a stop at the huuuuuge King of Prussia mall for dinner at the food court, we made it back home.