Updates

So I will be the first one to admit to this fact, our blog is terribly, terribly, terribly out of date. We do know the last thing we blogged about is Brodi's adoption hearing, a lot of things have happened but we have yet to blog about them.

Let me get you updated by taking you back to July which is a good time because that is in fact the last time I had posted. One of our last postings was to announce that we were going to be adopting a baby. Well as we were waiting for the call to fly out to Georgia when Elijah was born I (Shannon) was waiting for something to happen which any woman will tell you you don't want to have happen when you are on a trip. As things were a few days late BJ and I started to entertain the idea of what if I was pregnant. We had been there and done that so many times that we were very sure that I was not, however, when things still didn't start I found a pregnancy test that had been expired for 2 years and told BJ I was going to take it just to ease my mind that I was in fact not pregnant. Something happened with that test that had never happened before....it was positive! Mind you this was Sunday morning and we were getting the kids ready to go to church so we finished getting the kids ready and took off wondering if we had a false positive because the test had expired 2 years ago. As soon as we got back home we headed off to the store (we figured if our ox had ever been in the mire, it was right then.) We got back home and took the test again and sure enough it was positive.

After the second test we hugged, jumped up and down a bit, and then looked at each other and thought what are we going to do? We told the birthmother of the baby that we were going to be adopting the next day. We all had a very important decision to make? Was it really in Elijah's best interest for us to adopt him knowing that I was pregnant and not knowing how my pregnancy would be. Also when he was only 8 or 9 months old we would be bringing home another baby. Would any of the children have enough attention? How would Sam and Brodi do? They would be the ones who would have the least attention. In weighing all the options we made a mutual decision with the birthmother that it would be in his best interest to go to another family. It was one of the hardest decisions we had ever made as a couple but it was the only thing that would bring us peace. He went to a wonderful family in Georgia who did not have any children yet and who had just gotten certified to adopt in Georgia. We are so grateful that he has a wonderful parents and that he is doing very well. We love that little boy, but do know that this was the best decision for him.

We are now a little over 17 weeks along. I am finally starting to feel better for the most part. I have become very efficient at throwing up so I do it without much notice several times a week but thank heavens I don't feel sick constantly. Everything to date looks good and my belly keeps expanding, so I think that we really are pregnant!! We know that this is such an absolute miracle. We were told that in order for me to become pregnant I would have to have a donor egg with IVF. This pregnancy is a complete miraculous accident.

It has been very fun the past couple of weeks with Sam and Brodi because with my expanding belly I think we really have convinced them that there really is a baby growing in there. Sam said to me the other day while looking at my tummy, "Mommy your baby is getting so, so, so, so, so, so BIG!" I had to laugh because he has no idea how big I am going to get before the baby is ready to done. Both Sam and Brodi will come up to me several times a day and kiss the baby. Sam will even put his arms around my tummy to give the baby a hug. They are very cute about it and are so excited to have a new baby to come live with us in March.

Here are the pregancy tests. When they first came up positive we had to double check to see if we were reading everything right.

It's official. We are pregnant!!

These are from our 12 week ultrasound. Look, there is a baby in there!

Little legs.

Little arm.

Meet baby Watkins.