1 Month

Today our Everett is 1 month old! We've been home for almost 3 weeks and he has brought us all so much joy - much more than we could have ever imagined!

Amanda meeting her brother for the first time - talk about an unforgettable moment. Keep in mind that it was midnight by the time we got home, yet she could have held him all night!

Everett testing out his new digs. He's taking it easy on us in the sleep department, only waking up once in the middle of the night.

As promised, Amanda was first to feed Everett the next morning. She's been incredible ever since we got home and is beyond helpful!

Hanging on the blanket Amanda made him.

Yes, she even combs his hair!

She also likes to surround him with toys -- all of her old ones!

We've got an "Everett spot" in every room of the house. This is his kitchen spot.

The laundry room spot could use some work (although he doesn't seem to mind).

Bath time is pretty easy, especially with my 5-year old helper by my side.

Amanda was concerned that he wouldn't like all the pink in her room, but so far he doesn't seem to mind.

Sharing the love. (Just wait until he gets his first fistful of her hair!)

We see more and more of those big blue eyes every day.

And we're starting to see glimpses of a smile. I got my first real smile the other day! A real wide-awake smile! We don't see them every day yet, but it was definitely a glimpse of what's to come!

I had plenty to smile about on Mother's Day and am so proud of our family of four!

Thank you everyone for following along on our incredible journey! I can't promise I'll post anymore up here, but will try to keep you all informed of what's happening on the road to make this all official.

A quick update: We had our court hearing on May 13th. Everyone did a great job with their testimony and we were lucky enough to do our part by phone. After hearing the judge speak, we thought things went very smoothly and were expecting him to terminate the birthparents' parental rights that day. As it turns out, there were some interesting events that occurred before they called us for our testimony that have postponed this process until June 10th. In a nutshell, the guardian ad litem (attorney assigned by the courts to look out for Everett's best interest) is an unhappy and quite difficult woman to work with. She had some rude outbursts in the courtroom and for no valid reason, she's questioning our social worker's ability to properly ID the birthfather and the judge granted her permission to meet with the birthfather herself to ensure he is who he says he is. Everything was done properly and our attorney and our agency in Wisconsin have never seen such strange behavior from a guardian ad litem, and are working to move things through a little faster. Regardless, we have learned patience in this process, and one more month won't kill us. We're just happy to be home!

We're Outta Here!!

Pack it up Everett, we're going HOME!

Our amazing California agency approved us to come home today! Between our attorney, his paralegal, and our agencies here in WI and back home in CA, we have a tremendous team of people that helped make this entire journey possible.

I promise before this blog ends, I'll post pics of Everett and Amanda, so check back. Thanks for all of your support during this incredible ride. Can't wait to see you all!

Chippewa

Today was all about Chippewa Falls. We had lunch with Amanda -- the last time we'll see her. She brought her boyfriend and seems to be doing very well. She was the most talkative she's ever been and shared several of her plans for the future -- looking for a new job, dental hygienist school, exercise, etc. She's in a good place and seems so at peace with everything. We are thankful for her beyond words and have so much hope for her future.

Downtown Chippewa Falls -- much smaller than Eau Claire, but full of old charm.

Local post office.

Small town treats.

Beautiful country roads and open spaces.

We couldn't leave without a visit to the Leinenkugel Brewery, established in 1867. Who knew it was the 4th largest microbrewery in the United States and right there in this small town of Chippewa Falls!

Everett's first brewery (he didn't drink much).

I gravitated to everything copper (and there was a lot of copper!)

The lady giving out samples was a kick and made us take this picture.

I made her take this one.

We took the tour, which was 45 minutes and incredible! They only allow photography outside the building (darn!) Inside was very cool and we saw everything from fermenting grains to bottling. They do some serious production here and the beer wasn't half bad either!

Here they are separating out something from something else. Yes, I realize that sounds like I wasn't paying attention on the tour, but not so. I was only one in the group to correctly answer the post-tour trivia question correctly. I won a car ice scraper. Great. When we told the tour guide that we were from California, he said I could use it as a lottery ticket scratcher.

After beer sampling, we drove through the major park in Chippewa Falls, Irvine Park. It is massive with scenic drives, a mini zoo, river look outs, historic buildings and major open space.

It was a full day and we are glad to have spent time here in Everett's birthplace. It really is a cool little pocket of the world and without him, a place we would easily have overlooked. That being said, we are looking forward now and more ready than ever to bring this little guy home. Plus, he's got a big sister waiting for him. We miss our Amanda terribly and can't wait to introduce her to her little brother!

Strengthening those neck muscles.

Thinking of San Diego.

Speaking of home, we received wonderful news -- hurdle 2 of 3 (Wisconsin's approval for us to leave the state) was cleared today. That leaves California's approval and we are very hopeful that they will give their okay Friday after receiving the physical paperwork via Fedex Friday morning. We currently have plane tickets for Saturday, but if all goes well, you can bet that we'll be on a plane Friday night. Will let you know....

Cheese

We planned our entire day around cheese curds. These are "the thing" to eat here, so we're told, yet none of the restaurants we've frequented serve them. At dinner the other night over chicken wings, our waiter (who closely resembled Cameron from Modern family), made us a list of the restaurants to try before we leave the area. Regarding cheese curds, he did not steer us wrong. We spent the day around the hotel doing laundry, working and watching bad daytime TV and then it was off to downtown Eau Claire for dinner. Dooley's Pub had good beer, tasty burgers and these amazing bites of goodness they call fried cheese curds. We're hooked!

And look what we passed on the way to dinner...so applicable.

Everett is spending more time with his eyes open these days, although still sleeps practically on cue. He brings us more joy than we could have ever imagined.

Full and sleepy.

Eating is what Everett does best. Here he is attempting to devour the blanket.

Full tummy = happy baby.

Good news from our attorney this morning - we officially have a court date of May 13 for the termination of the birthmother's and birthfather's parental rights. It is not clear yet whether one of us will have to come back for the court date, or if we will both be able to do it via teleconference. Regardless, step 1 of 3 is complete! We had pretty much given up hope on getting home this weekend, but it looks like that possibility is still on the table!

1 Week

Everett was 1 week old today! We've been here for 8 days and it has flown by. Today, however, not so much. We stayed in and got some work done and literally watched Everett's cycle of hiccups and yawns. We finally ventured out for dinner to Manny's for Mexican food. This is our 3rd and probably final Mexican food adventure in Wisconsin. I know it's no surprise that Mexican food is not a strong point of the Midwest, but we're running out of food options and fast. One can only eat so much red meat and chicken wings). There is one last place to try - Taco John's. They boast West-Mex food, but surely John cannot do a carne asada burrito justice.

Snuggled up with my little guy.

Everett slept away most of his 1-week birthday.

But did manage to wake up this evening for a bit.

Here he is straining to see American Idol. Sadly it wasn't worth his effort.

We were hoping to hear today about our court date, but didn't, so we'll check in with our attorney first thing in the morning. At this point, there are three more steps to bringing us home early. Getting a court date is step one. Our optimistic travel home day of this Saturday is not looking great, so we're planning our next move. If we're still here this weekend, we'll probably move to a bigger city -- maybe Milwaukee or Madison, just for a change of pace. We could use a faster one.

By the way, thanks to everyone for saying hello now and again! Love all your comments, Facebook messages, emails and calls. We miss you all!!

Exploring

Today was our first with nothing on the agenda. We ventured to downtown Eau Claire, which according to the locals is "clear across town". Actually, it was only 4.5 miles away, but Eau Claire is big by Wisconsin standards. It's also quite clear that none of these folks have any idea what San Diego is like. I shocked some people yesterday when I said we had fences around our yards (nobody here does). And, when I asked the nurse at the hospital if we should use bottled or tap water with Everett's formula, she asked me if we lived in town. I told her it was pretty much all town.

Anyway, downtown Eau Claire was very quaint with cute shops and cafes, and worth the trek across town.

Walking bridge over the Eau Claire River.

Spring has sprung here and these trees are in full bloom everywhere!

Downtown.

Everett in the "desk turned changing table" in our room. Dennis said he'd never seen someone move so much furniture in a hotel room before. I'm now referring to this place as our apartment.

We are constantly commenting on how long Everett is. I think it's because Amanda stayed balled up with bent knees for at least a month. This little guy constantly has one leg straight out.

Our baby burrito in his crib for the night...well until Dennis realized that 20 minutes later he was still awake and swooped him up.