We took Zowie to Freestone Park to feed the ducks. She had a blast! She kept saying "Here duckie", or "Here birdie". She used up the whole box of cherrios! We then took her over to my parents house to meet them for the first time. They love her and thought she was so adorable!!
She was talking to my sister, Vanessa on the phone and then her future cousin, Zoe. She didn't want to give up the phone.
Hugging Papa
Hugging NamaWe had a "play date" with Zowie Monday evening. This was our first time being able to take her out on our own. When we got to her house, she saw us and said hi and then came over and hugged us. Zowie showed us her bedroom. So cute...tinker belle and purple. As we were leaving, we expected tears, but she is just a happy girl and said bye to her mom and dad. Rebecca, her mom, encouraged us to go ahead and start teaching her to call us Mommy and Daddy. We went to Chuck E. Cheese and played, ate pizza, and played some more. What a beautiful, fun girl she is!!
She loved banging on the plexiglass
Watching Chuck E. from a distance, she wouldn't go near him
Taking a picture of ourselves
She's a hugger!
Can you say "Daddy's Girl"?
At like 6am, Saturday morning, we left for Flagstaff and then on to Williams. We went camping at Kaibab Lake. My sister, Vanessa and her family from New Mexico came down and my parents, who live in Mesa, went up. Since we didn't have any plans to have a visit with Zowie, we decided to go ahead and go on up there, even if it was for only one night. I love my niece, Zoe (who is the same age as my future Zowie, same name, different spelling) and her brother, my nephew, Grant. We had a great time. Grant caught his first fish. He was soooo excited!!
Zoe had some princess lip gloss and kept wanting to put some on my lips.
Well family and friends, our prayers and dreams are coming true. We were contacted last week by the mother of this beautiful 3 1/2 year old girl named Zowie. We all met at a park Wed. early evening, talked, and played with Zowie on the playground. We were there for about an hour and a half. Rebecca and Jerry (parents) were so awesome!!! We felt so comfortable talking with them, just like old friends. Rebecca talked about how she found us on parent profiles and that she just kept coming back to our profile. She saw that one of my favorite movies was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is hers also. We had a lot of similar interests. They actually remind me a lot of my sister Vanessa and her husband Stephan. Anyway, we totally clicked. They wanted our next meeting to take place at our house so they could see where she would live. We were totally cool with that. We want an open adoption where we could meet with them every once in awhile and on birthdays and such. When we got home, she called us and said that they were getting in contact with the lawyer and that everything was looking good and that after everything was said and done that we would probably have Zowie living with us by the end of November. Waaaahooo!!!!! We can't wait to be parents!!! We've only met her once, but we love her already.
So on Friday, we told them that they should just come over and eat dinner since they were coming over in the early evening. While on the phone with Jake, she told him that they were moving and that they really didn't want Zowie to have to move with them and then move with us. So.....they moved the date from the end of November to the end of October!!!! Oh my, we're getting so excited!!!! This time they brought 2 of their biological children, Taylor and Andrew with them so they could meet us too. They were so well mannered and super nice. We ate, then showed them around the house. We showed them the bedroom downstairs and Zowie immediately started crying. They said that she probably thought we were putting her to bed. Poor thing. We then went upstairs and she started crying more. Her bedroom is upstairs in their house. We told her that there was a surprise in her room. We finally got there and she quickly squirmed down from her mother holding her. She was instantly smiling and happy. We bought a kissing Elmo and put it on her bed. She ran and grabbed that Elmo and wouldn't let it go. So adorable!!! As the evening came to a close, Rebecca said that they had a meeting with their adoption lawyer on Tuesday and that we should get in contact with ours so we could get the paperwork started. We set up a time to meet over at their house on Monday and Wednesday this coming week so we could take Zowie out on our own for a few hours or so. Can't wait!!! After they left, we decided to go up to Williams and go camping. We canceled on the camping trip because meeting with Zowie was more important. My sister Vanessa and her family and my parents were all meeting up there. We decided that since we weren't going to see Zowie until Monday that we were ok to go on up there. It was so nice to see my family and my niece, Zoe whose also 3 1/2 and my nephew, Grant. I was happy to see them and spend time with them, but sad because we got a call from Rebecca. She said that their plans fell through on Saturday and that if we wanted, we could come take Zowie for awhile by ourselves. UGGGGG!!! We weren't able to because we were already up there. But.....she mentioned that they were going out of town next weekend and that we could take her for the weekend. SWEETTTTT!!!! Can't wait to get to know her even more. Thank you so much Rebecca and Jerry!!! We feel so close to you and thank you so much for making our dreams come true. We can't wait for the years to come. We are so blessed to have you in our lives.
Here's Zowie ready to play the guitar
Zowie and Elmo
What a cutie!!
Taylor, her older sister and Andrew, one of her brothers. They are such nice kids. Very helpful and well mannered too!
I got this picture from Rebecca's facebook. Doesn't she just make your heart melt?This weekend we went camping with some friends. I had 1/2 off of school and Jake was able to come home early from work, so we packed up and traveled for about 2 hours or so and went to Rose Creek Campground. It's North of Globe off the 288. Anyway, we had friends from our FHE- Family Home Evening Group and also another family in our ward. It was short but lots of fun.
Jake, me, and Elijah
Trying to catch Jake with marshmallow on his face from the smores. He tried to hide, can you tell?
The Browns'
Little Miss Lucy, cute as can be
Little Miss Indy, short for Independence (cute name)
Devin with a toothbrush behind his ear. He even took it with him on the hike because he didn't want to go put it back in the tent.
We brought up our BB guns and the other guy brought up their Air Soft guns.
We all piled into the back of our pick-up and drove up to where the hike started.
Devin and Jason, always joined at the hip! Their poor wives.
The beautiful hike. We traveled along this creek and ended up at some beautiful falls.
Mushrooms growing out of a tree.
Not the real falls yet.
The real falls!!
Some of the guys ran through the shower of water.
