Baby #4

I wanted to post a picture of our new addition at 19 weeks. We are pretty much half way there!!!! We have an ultrasound coming up soon, but we are not finding out if it is a boy or a girl. We found out with the girls, but we want it to be a surprise this time. :) I can feel the baby move more and more every day. Adam and Maggie have both felt the baby kick. We are all very excited. Zek is excited to be a big brother. He is doing well and growing like crazy. Sleep hasn't been the greatest except for last night when he went to bed at 9:30 woke up at 4 and again at 6:30. I think that was pretty good!!!!!! Good job Zek!!!! Lets do that again....

I will try to post some more new pictures soon.

Sleep

Right now I need more sleep than usual and I am getting less...

Zek woke up 8 or 9 times last night! This has been the norm lately! He hasn't been a good sleeper since the day we got him. When he wakes up he starts to fuss and then within seconds screams the loudest scream ever! So right when he starts to make noise we have to tend to him because if not he will scream and wake everyone else up. I really hope it gets better soon.

Last night was miserable then everyone wakes up at 6:45am wanting to get up. ugh! It is hard to function on lack of sleep being pregnant and taking care of 3 other kids and trying to do everything else that I need to do.

I dont know what to do about his sleep except for wait and see if it gets better...then baby number 4 will come along and I pray that this baby is the best sleep ever :)

Sorry to complain. Things are just a little rough!

new pictures of Zek

Things have been going well. Zek is doing great! We had his 4 month well baby visit last week and he now weighs 12 lbs! So he has gained about 2 1/2 lbs since the week after we got home. And he has grown 2 inches as well! We are still adjusting and it is still crazy around here. We would like to get on some sort of schedule someday :) The girls are great with Zek. Hazel has really warmed up to him and we are so happy that she has!

Zek has the cutest little smile and has a very expressive face and the most contagious little laugh. It is great!


Here are a few new pictures....

He holds onto my Africa necklace.

We love his big eyes

Things have been busy around here...

It has been forever since I have done a post...

Things have been a bit crazy around here. Going from two to three kids has been a bigger change than what we had anticipated! I havent had any time to do a post. Really I havent...

Our trip to Ethiopia was great! Meeting Zek was amazing!!!!!

Let's start everything off by telling all of you that.......Zek is going to be a big brother! We are expecting our 4th child on the 4th of July! We have known for awhile but wanted to wait to announce it publicly. I am 16 weeks now. This was a huge surprise for us!!!!! We talked to AGCI and everything was ok with me being pregnant because of where we were in our adoption process. Gods plans are pretty amazing! Our adoption from start to finish took 8 months! I know that it went so fast because it needed to if we were to get pregnant when we did. So our family is growing ALOT faster than we had ever imagined!

Up until about 14 weeks pregnant I get extremely sick. Yep I was having all day morning sickness while in Ethiopia! Not fun. I was actually dreading the trip feeling so bad, but I stuck it out through the week and made the best of it.

Upon coming home we hadnt slept in over a day, we had jet lag, I was feeling soooo sick, and we were coming back home to our two girls. Zek did not sleep well during his first two weeks home. He would wake up about every 20 minutes throughout the night! and he cried often...Hazel had a horrible time adjusting to her new roll as big sister and she got sick over Christmas. She is doing much better now adjusting to her new roll as big sister. Maggie has been in love with Zek from day one. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband and he has been an amazing help! He did pretty much everything the first two weeks home.

So needless to say we had a rough start. Things are going much better now. Zek is sleeping better and not crying like he did. Although he still prefers to be held alot. We are bonding and attaching well. He is so young that he cant really show preference to us yet. But I cant wait for the day he reaches his arms out for us!

I am extremely tired all of the time, so that is why I have not posted anything. I tend to go to sleep right when the kids do. Having a new baby and a baby on the way and the two girls is hard work!

Here are some pictures of the past month...

Us meeting Zek for the first time.

Isnt he a doll? Everybody says he looks like one :)

His hair can get pretty crazy. We are learning what to do with it :)

His new favorite past time. sucking on his fingers.

forgot to rotate this picture. this is new years eve.

Attempt at some family pictures. You can tell Adam and I are pretty exhausted!

another attempt


The girls making Zek some 4 month birthday cupcakes (i have to have an excuse to make them!)

Zek with icing on his nose. ( i didnt really let him eat cupcakes!)


Hazel eating cupcakes

Maggie icing on her face. We didnt make the icing look like a heart. Somehow it happened on its own. Maggie thought it was pretty cool.

Introducing Adam Ezekial (Zek)

We are home and so happy to be!!!!! Zek is doing well. We are exhausted so I will post more pictures later.

Leaving tomorrow morning for Ethiopia

We are getting everything ready to go (i think i may have overpacked!) and spending the evening with our girlies. Our plane leaves at 6 am tomorrow morning. We will be headed out from our house at 4 am. We are super excited!!!

We will be flying into Washington/Dulles airport and leaving there for Ethiopia. We will arrive in Ethiopia at 8:30 am Saturday morning!!!!!

I am still a little nervous about leaving the girls. I know that they will be ok, but it's still hard.

Pray for our safety and for peace for us and also safety and peace for our girls while we are gone.

We will meet Zek in 3 days!!!!

We will post as soon as we can when we get back!!!! Can't wait to share pictures!!!!

December 18th

If any of our family and friends would like to welcome Zek home at the airport please email me and I will give you our return flight information. My email address is cld123789@gmail.com. We return home on Dec 18th.

We are busy packing and preparing. I hope to get lots of stuff done over this weekend.

Continue to pray for peace for us and peace for the girls. Maggie said today that she didn't want us to go. She is really excited for her little brother, but scared to be apart from mommy and daddy for so long. I know she is going to have fun when we are gone. Just pray for peace for our two girlies.

8 more days to go!!!