Some comments I have received from co-workers and friends lately have me smiling from ear to ear.

"What a doll! You all make a beautiful family. Thanks for sharing!"

"Your daughter is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!! She is a blessing....." and yes, that came from a co-worker that was adopted when she was little.

"Just adorable!!! "

Yes, she is adorable if I do say so myself. And I will say she is the blessing we have been waiting for for over 9 years of our journey through infertility, miscarriages and a few failed match adoptions. I reflect back to the days when I was so down and out from the losses we kept having and wondering when it would be time to celebrate a child in our lives. Well, we are at that time in our lives and let me tell you the wait was hard, but SHE makes it all worth it.

I will always be thankful for the support we got through the years, work understanding why I needed so many surgeries (ivf, d&c's etc) and my co-workers, family and friends telling us to hang in there. We did it. She makes us complete, well, except for my desire to have another baby in a few years time. A sister or brother for Julia! Yes, I said that to the hubby the week we brought her home. Call me crazy, but I have always wanted a family of 2 or 3 kiddo's and now we know this is possible through the blessing of adoption. (We have not given up on the idea of surrogacy either if we can find a surrogate.)

Julia has been and continues to be a very happy baby. She is spitting up some from the formula changes, but I think that will be ok in due time. I'll chat with the doc next Friday about that. I will also ask about adding in some rice cereal in the night bottle to see if that helps fill up her belly. She is sleeping some nights from 10:30/11 pm - 4:30 or so. not bad, but if we can get her to stay asleep a little longer I bet we would all be in great shape from good sleeps. LOL Heck, she slept from 9:30 - 6 am last Sunday night. Dh had baby duty that night so he got some sleep. If it would have been me on that shift duty that night I bet I would have went in to check on her several times. I just could not believe she slept that long. We have found that the nights we give her a bath, she sleeps so much better, thus last Sunday nights good sleep.

Being back to work this week has been an adjustment, but much better than I ever expected. Sure, I do miss Julia, but I get my 20 minutes before we have to leave the house to cuddle with her and chat with her and enjoy her sweet toothless smiles. I anticipated my heart breaking having to leave her with a sitter, but honestly I feel good about her care because I know she has constant interaction when she is awake and also has some interaction with the other kiddo's at the sitters house. The sitter said she is a very good baby and I really enjoyed hearing that from her. Oh, my m-i-l watched her Wednesday this past week and also said she is a dream baby and is so good. Ahhhh, I love it. I know that can change in her life on different days of being fussy, but overall she is a smiling happy baby most times. She loves to be interacted with by either us or her play gym or mobiles in her crib. She LOVES ceiling fans. I've noticed she is focusing on things further and further away each day.

We have been waiting to hear back from her birthmother for a few weeks now, but all is well. Now we just wait to set up a call to set up a time we can all meet up again in person. Julia's birth-siblilngs said they want to see her too. She has two older siblings so it will be fun to see them all together soon. I say my prayers that Julia's birthmother and siblings are all ok and I ask in those prayers for them to know we all love them so much and are so thankful for them and we can't wait to share who they are with Julia.

Ok, back to writing our first letter to the birthmother and gathering up the pictures we want to send also. This letter writing and picture sending will occur at least once a month for the first 3 months and then every other month for a while. This is one thing we did not put in ink with the birthmother, instead we chatted about sending these items when we have time. So I suggested the above schedule to the birthmother and she said that would be great. Heck, I think we will see each other in person b4 I send the 2nd set to our agency to forward to the birthmother.

I can't wait until next weeks ped appointment to see how big Ms. Julia is.