Happy New Year

A day or two early, I know! What a year this has been. It is hard to believe that we'll be saying farewell to 2009 tomorrow night. Just for fun, I thought I might do a little year in review!

January - Rang in 2009 with family at the beach.
February - Scott was in a car accident and was thankfully fine.
March - We got a late winter/early spring snow storm that brought about 8 inches of snow.
April - The beginning of the wedding season. Scott's cousin Brad's wedding in Indianapolis kicked it off. We also celebrated Easter with our parents at the beach.
May - The wedding season continued with two more weddings (family and friends). We also got to host Scott's family for a couple of days which was fun!
June - My grandmother passed away.
July - Celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary.
August - Had a baby shower hosted by Scott's sisters and went on vacation to Asheville, NC.
September - Received the wonderful news that we had been matched with a birthmom.
October - Spent a relaxing weekend at the beach and got some things ready for baby!
November - Was extremely thankful for the many blessings in our lives especially celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Oh and got more things ready for the baby!
December - Spread Christmas out over 4 days (2 days with the Slonakers and 2 with the Gerkes). It was so much more relaxing and enjoyable. Oh and we let the family in on the baby's name, which was great!

What? You want to know the name too?? Well we think you have waited long enough. Our little boy will be named Caleb William Gerke and he will be here in just about 3 weeks!!

News

You know the old saying, "no news is good news" right? Well in our adoption journey "no news" has contributed to anxiety, stress, worry, fear, and even a few tears. With several weeks possibly even months of "no news" our mind has drifted from excitement, to curiosity, to anxiety and fear. We automatically assumed the worst. Our social worker assured us that this "no news" was not uncommon and that we should think positive and that all signs pointed us in the direction of a successful adoption.

So today, we got the best possible Christmas gift. We had contact with our birthmom's family. She is doing well (uncomfortable, but well) and is still confident with her adoption plan. They say the baby is going to be a big boy because his birthmom is huge! In just two weeks she'll be full term and her due date is five weeks from today.

For the first time, in quite a while, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We feel as if a 100 pound weight has been lifted. Now this "news" also contributed to some feelings of anxiety, stress, and still a few tears, but all in a good way!

I'm on my winter break now, so I'll get back to finishing up some things in the nursery and our goal is to have our little boy's bag packed by the time I head back to school. We'll also start doing some things like installing car seats and finalizing hotel plans (see all good things to be stressed about)!

Thank you for all of your prayers...many of them were answered today when we got that call!!