As you can all imagine, life has dramatically changed for us. We are now getting used to getting up in the middle of the night, changing poopy diapers, getting bottles ready as fast as we can, filling a diaper bag with all the essentials and not being able to do a thing when Bryce wants to be held (which he demands often and we are more than happy to oblige.)

We have had a good friend spend the last week with us, helping me get organized, washing tons of baby clothes and letting me sleep when I need it. Sherry is my friend Karen's mother from Dallas. I call her my "other mother" as she has known me over 38 years. She left this morning to go back to Dallas so Bryce and I are working on what our schedule will be like when we are by ourselves.

Today we had our first post placement visit with our adoption agency. We just talked about who had visitied Bryce, what our adjustment was like, how he was doing, etc. We will have a visit once a month until adoption is finalized. Jacob had to be home for this one. He hasn't been feeling real well so I kept him home the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow I will take him to the doctor to see if he has another sinus infection...we were just there yesterday with Bryce.

Speaking of which, Bryce now weighs 7 lbs...he has gained 8 oz in 2 weeks....he loves to eat!

This is a picture of us after we first drove in with him from Waco:


This is his celebratory cake..it has his name on it. We enjoyed that for a few days.

Bryce

Hey! What are those long things attached to my body? We couldn't get his attention as he was so fascinated by his feet!

First Family Picture

We had to take some pictures to send to the adoption agency for their newsletter. Here is the family picture that we sent:

Mommy and Bryce

Happy Mommy and baby

Brothers

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANE!!!! I keep teasing Shane that he gets to tell everyone that he was 38 when Bryce was born...but just by a few days. You can't ask for a better birthday present than this.

More Pictures

Tummy time...he is just starting to like being on his tummy

Jacob and Bryce...does he look happy to have a brother or what?

Sweet moments!


Not sure if Boo is more interested in Bryce or the bouncer that vibrates, makes music and has lights...I think she thinks this is her toy.

This is what I have in my lap all the time. Sidney already was having to share me with Boo and no way is she going to lose out on what is left of me.

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Today is Shane's mom's birthday....HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA!

Bringing Bryce Home

On Friday, we got up and to the hospital as fast as we could. We knew that the birthparents were set to sign their paperwork around 11am and that we would be signing ours shortly after that. We spent the morning taking turns holding and feeding Bryce. Around noon we got the call that he was officially ours. It took a couple of hours to sign our paperwork, get him dressed and get out the door.

When we arrived home, my parents and Shane's parents were there waiting for us, along with Jacob. Shane's mom, Gail, cooked us dinner while I ran around trying to unpack and get organized. Dad and Shane worked on setting up the swing, pack n play and all the other baby stuff that we needed that night. I can officially say, 5 days later, that I am pretty organized and getting into a routine. I think our washer and dryer run constantly.

Bryce is proving to be a great sleeper so far. The nights haven't been too bad as he usually goes right back to sleep after he eats. He is just so precious. We both love to hold him and watch his sweet faces that he makes. I guess you could say that we are IN LOVE with our new son. Here are some pics from his first day home:

Nana with Bryce

Mimi with Bryce

PawPaw with Bryce

Proud Daddy and proud brother

It just doesn't get any better than this!

Meeting Bryce

When we got to the hospital we had to wait in a room for a while before we were allowed into the nursery. The anticipation was so great, as you could imagine. We were both holding back a flood of tears. When they finally allowed us into the nursery, they started to wheel him to us. I couldn't wait to see his face. He looked so sweet, all wrapped up in a swaddle. They allowed us to take him into a separate room that had rocking chairs in it. We took turns holding him for a couple of hours. Then we went to eat dinner and then came back to hold him some more.

This is the first picture of us with Bryce...just minutes after we first saw him.

What a sweet face...he makes the cutest faces and keeps us laughing.

Shane feeding Bryce.

Napping in the nursery.

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Today we took Bryce for his first visit with his pediatrician. He still has jaundice but not enough for a repeat visit this week. He now weighs 6 pounds, 10 ounces.

Bryce David Cauley

Meet Bryce David, our new son. Born Tuesday, May 12th at 9:07 pm. 6 lbs 8 oz, 19 1/2" long.

As many of you know, we have been waiting for a birthmom to choose us for about 11 months. We recieved a call on Thursday, May 7th that we had been chosen. I can't even begin to tell you how excited we were.

But, let me start before that. Since we had been waiting for a while, I was starting to question if that is what God had in store for us. I shared this with Shane (who couldn't even believe I was feeling this way). You could say I was getting impatient but I seriously wondered if God was saying "No, Laura you need to move on to something else." That was extremely hard for me to have those feelings as I have wanted nothing else for 8 years than to have another baby. I woke up on Thursday, May 7th and prayed that God would show us His plan within a few short weeks by having a birthmom choose us soon. I wasn't giving God an ultimatum, but I know and believe that God grants specific requests.

Well, I felt that if God was going to answer my prayer, than I had better work on a baby registry (something I had not done in almost a year). I had spent about 3 hours on it when we received the phone call. I know I don't have to tell you that I cried or that I said "Wow, God! You were listening, weren't You?" Shane was working at home upstairs so he came down and we finished the phone call with our caseworker. She told us that it was a boy, due June 2nd.

I felt like I had some time so Mom and I started preparing the baby's room, working on baby registry, etc. Shane flew off to San Jose, CA on Sunday. We weren't too concerned as the baby wasn't due for another 3+ weeks. Well, imagine my surprise when my phone rang Wednesday morning and I heard, "He's here!" He had been born the night before, which was Tuesday, May 12th. I was so excited and in panic mode at the same time since I wasn't quite ready yet. I called Shane and said get on an airplane NOW. I called Mom and asked her for her help shopping, cleaning (for the homestudy) and everything else that I had to do in one day. Dad pitched in by helping with Jacob and picking up Shane from the airport.

Our case worker came out Thursday morning and we updated our homestudy. We left for Waco about 2pm not knowing when we would be able to see the baby but wanted to be close by just in case. As we were leaving, we were told we could see him that day. About 6pm that night, we got to see our baby boy for the first time. It was such an amazing experience. He was so beautiful. He has some hair, not a lot, which is brownis/blonde. He has blue eyes. He reminds me a lot of Jacob except that Bryce has a nose (Jacob just had a little tiny pug nose).

He had some bruising on his face from wanting to meet the world 3 weeks early (he was born c-section). He also had some jaundice. (His bruising and yellow tinge are now gone.) We just held him and stared at him in amazement. We stayed for about 2 hours, ran and got some dinner and then came back and held him some more. It was so hard to leave him but we knew he was in capable hands as the nurses had been so nice to us.

Please understand that at this point, he was not our son. We had no rights to him at all. We knew that there was a chance that his birthmom could change her mind and decide to parent him. We prayed nonstop that God's will be done, whether he came home with us or stayed with his mommy. We also prayed for his birthparents, that God would give them peace with their decision. These emotions are so hard to explain because your joy is someone elses pain. That is something that was constantly on our minds. Our stomachs were tied in knots for several days but especially Thursday night and Friday morning.

We knew that his birthparents had an appointment to sign the papers relinquishing their rights Friday about 11am. It wasn't until noon that we got the call that he was officially ours. We then met our case worker at the hospital and signed some paperwork. We left the hospital with Bryce about 2pm on Friday. Mom, Dad, Jacob, Rich and Gail were all waiting for us when we arrived home. Gail cooked a fabulous meal and we kind of got settled in. It has taken a couple of days to get organized.

I have some special pictures of when we first met him that I will share tomorrow. Thank you for all of your prayers. I can't even begin to explain how happy we are. God is so good!

Jacob's Drum Recital and First Band Gig!

Jacob has been taking drum lessons from Metropolitan Baptist Church's Contemporary School of Fine Arts for almost 2 years now. This is his most recent recital, in which he has moved into the same book that I (Shane) sometimes practice from. It's a great book that allows beginners and advanced players to explore different levels of playing for all styles of music. The second video is Jacob playing with the MET VBS band, which played after all of the recitals in the church atrium. This kid has mad skills for a 2nd grader. You can't tell we are proud of him can you ;-) Oh, by the way, he is the youngest kid in the band, and on drums nonetheless! He will be playing with the VBS band this summer during the MET's VBS week.