Our first night was a bit rough with Elijah. We didn't get a lot of sleep! We were quickly reminded of the rigors of caring for a newborn.  Fortunately, the last two nights he has done much better.  He is settling into a good routine of cry, eat, sleep, poop, cry, eat, sleep, poop.  The kids have been a little wilder than usual but we kind of expected that. The transition has been challenging but things are working out really well. We are on our way to a new normal.


Elijah checked out well at his first follow up appointment with the pediatrician yesterday and we had a good home visit from a nurse.  Nicole is feeling great.  We've had a few visitors and have almost lost track of the days. It's Saturday, right?  I'll be heading to church in the morning but won't officially be  back to work until next Thursday so we'll have a good amount of time to ease back into the real world.  But for now, we continue to take advantage of this life-pause to enjoy Elijah and the kids.

Wow.  What an amazing experience this has been!

Sunday morning I woke up extra early because I had some extra things to get done at church.  Around 4:30 AM Nicole thought maybe her water had broke.  It wasn't obvious so she decided to go back to bed and call the hospital in the morning.  Around 8:00 Nicole called me at church and let me know the hospital thinks it's probably that and that we need to come in.  I was standing on the stage, guitar in hand, with the Worship Team staring at me on the phone with Nicole.  You should have seen the mix of excitement and panic on their faces.  Everyone assured me they'd work it all out so I packed up and left.

Nicole was getting things together and the kids were keeping busy.  We finished packing our stuff and the kids' suitcases.  We took a few pictures, shot some video, and loaded up in the van.  After dropping the kids off at the Massarelli's house, we headed to the hospital, arriving around 10:00.  It wasn't long before Nicole was hooked up and feeling mild contractions.  We were indeed in labor.  Before long we were in our labor & delivery room.  About 27 hours after her water broke,  I was pushing record on the video camera (first things first) which was set on a tripod at an unrevealing angle and Nicole was getting ready to push a baby out.  She did extremely well during the whole labor - including the 10 minute rest she had to take while we waited for our doctor to arrive, who had been stuck in traffic!  And I fared well, too - not passing out, which was a realistic possibility.

The doctor hastily walked through the door which set forth what seemed to be a well-choreographed dance.  Carts moved, clothing covers went on, water buckets filled, shiny utensils were uncovered on a table.  In a matter of seconds the doctor was in place and we all stood still, silently awaiting Nicole's final contraction.  Only one more push was left.

At 8:11, Nicole gave it her all and a baby was born.   And it was one of the most indescribably wonderful moments of our lives!  At the moment he came into the world, our doctor looked at me and her expression signaled me to make the announcement.  I proudly announced "It's a boy!" to the delivery room.  Carts and trays and swirling nurses faded into the background as we gazed at this tiny person.  This little lump in the belly that had suddenly come to life right before our eyes.  What a moment it was!

We have spent the last day and a half with a little person in our arms.  We can now imagine his future  and our future with better clarity.  We say his name out loud and wonder who this stranger is.  We search his face to see who he looks like.  Though we are very sleepy and have a lot of work ahead of us, we have been filled with so much joy in all this.

We will be heading home sometime in the morning (Wednesday) and can't wait to introduce Elijah to his brother and sister.  Due to the new hospital policies, Emma and Elliot have not been allowed to visit us and they are really excited to meet their new baby brother.  We have been grateful to family and friends who have been so supportive and who have celebrated with us in person, over the phone and online!  Thank you so much!

God has been very good to us.

Some have been asking if we've set up the nursery.  Since we've been there and done that, and since we have less room in our house than before, our nursery is a little simpler this time around.  Here's a picture of our adorable baby nursery

We had our crib and changing table stored and ready to assemble so we dragged them out.  We had the crib ready to go a few weeks ago but I just put the changing table together a few days a go.  Just in time, too!

Emma and Elliot had an alternate plan all worked out.  Depending on the gender of the baby, they were going to give whichever room of theirs was color appropriate (blue or pink) to the baby.  According to Emma, her and Elliot could simply move in together.  They would also paint the room red and yellow with a dog theme.


Now the future room arrangements have been settled.  Emma was at first disappointed to hear the baby was a boy, not a girl.  We then figured out that had more to do with the fact that she wouldn't get to sleep in bunk beds.  She was much happier after finding out she could have a loft.

Yeah, the nursery is in the corner of our bedroom but it'll do! We were actually surprised we were able to conifgure our bedroom to fit the two baby things in there and we only had to loose one night stand!

Almost 28 hours of labor.  Everyone did great!  Here's a few quick pictures before we doze off for a little while!

This past weekend we took a final trip with just the 4 of us before the baby comes.  With season passes to the Zoo we headed to Columbus on Friday.  We spent half the chilly day at the zoo, which wasn't very crowded at all.  The animals were a mix of no-shows and good shows.  I think some of the animals preferred the colder weather and were more out and about.



We left the zoo and got some dinner.  After driving through to get the kids strawberry sundae's we checked in to our hotel and spent the evening hanging out in the room.  In the morning we slept in ('till 8, I think) and headed down for the continental breakfast.  Then we came back to the room where the kids enjoyed watching saturday morning (parent approved) cable.  A huge treat for them!



On the way home we decided to return the way we came - taking Route 42 instead of boring I-70.  42 veers off 70, heading south-west toward London (where my sister was born) and ends up in Xenia.  On the way home Nicole and I worked on narrowing down our baby names.  We're down to 4 boy names and 5 girl names - all beginning with E (No easy task!)



On the way home we took did an impromptu stop at the Indian Mound Reserve near Xenia.  After seeing the Cedar Cliff Falls we took the half mile hike to the Indian Mound. Unfortunately, Mom had to stop when the going got rough.  The kids and I headed up the rest of the way and saw the giant mound.  Pretty impressive!



We got back just in time to unpack the van, do some work around the house and head out to a Halloween party at the Murphy's.  All in all we had a great, low-stress final family trip - all the while imagining a little one in tow!

The kids and I emptied our first batch of leafs into the leaf bins.  It took a lot of convincing to get the kids to allow me to take their leaf pile away.  They didn't understand that there are more leaves yet to fall on the ground.  Many more leaves.  Oh, the leaves.  So we piled them into a sheet and dragged them to the back yard.

Emma got a kick out of me pretending to be Santa Clause.  I asked her what she'd do if she opened a gift from Santa and it was a bunch of leaves.  She said "I'd just make a pile with them."  After we dumped all the leaves, I put Emma and Elliot in the bins to play (actually, my secret plan was to have them compact the leaves).  There is one lesson I learned.  There's a certain thing a father should never hope to hear his little girl yell while playing in the leaf bin.  "I can't find my shoe!"


Amazingly, when the leaves are chopped up, they will take up very little room.  Experts say that chopped leaves take up about 1/20th the space of regular leaves.  We'll see how accurate that is.  I read that you can use a weed-wacker to chop up the leaves so I may give that a whirl (pun intended) while my lawn mower is getting repaired.  It feels really good to recycle my leaves and am anxious to see how we can put them to use in the spring.


Only 2 days after blowing and raking, our front yard is littered with newly fallen leaves.  This is our first home with a heavily wooded lot.  Living in a beautiful neighborhood with mature trees in the fall is quite wonderful - but it does come at a price.  Oh well.  I need something to keep me active to justify all my bad eating.  I only have 17 more days to blame that on the pregnancy.

See more leaf photos on our Facebook page.

Today we officially became full term.  37 weeks.  I'm pretty easy going and a low stress type person.  For the first time I actually felt a wave of genuine nervousness come over me about our pending event!  It's not so much the reality of a newborn in our house that worries me.  It's going through the delivery.  It's been a very interesting 8 months enduring our first pregnancy with 2 kids already occupying much of our time and energy.

Emma was born on a cold snowy Friday just before lunch - January 30th.  Her birth was a scheduled induction so we were able to plan for it.  We had received confirmation that we were to be the adoptive parents just 2 days before that.  We were blessed to be present for her delivery and, in fact, Nicole cut the cord and was the first to hold her.  We spent Saturday and Sunday night at a nearby Holiday Inn Express while we awaited Emma's release from the hospital.  On Sunday, Emma came home with us to our house in Huber Heights.


Elliot was born in the early hours on a Sunday morning - April 23.  After church, Nicole, Emma and I ate lunch at Bob Evan's and then started heading to West Milton for a high school musical dress rehearsal.  While we were getting on interstate 35 my cell phone rang and it was our adoption agency.  She basically explained that there was a boy born last night and he's ours if we want him.  We had been on the waiting list for a second adoption for about a year.  We dropped Emma off in West Milton with grandma and headed to Cincinnati.

On the way to the hospital we stopped at Meijer and picked up a baby name book since we weren't yet prepared for that!  We ended up deciding on the name Elliot the next day.  We spent 3 long days in the back corner of the hospital nursery with Elliot since he didn't have a room.  After those 3 long days we were on our way home with our second child.  So far so good.

Now we await a completely different experience.  We've had 8 months to prepare yet we still have bags to pack, phone numbers to list, 2 names to pick out (a boy's and girl's name) relaxation techniques to remember and probably other things I'm forgetting.  Everyone says it'll all be fine, which I'm sure it will be.

We adopted Emma and Elliot because 7 years ago Nicole and I sat in an office while a fertility specialist told us our chances of natural conception were "basically nill".  God could have allowed us to conceive at any time.  The way I see it, God was pulling the strings all along to get Emma and Elliot into our family.  How special our family is.  And how special this baby will be.  Hand picked.  Divinely planned.

 It won't be long until we're on our way home with baby number 3.  20 days to go.

Elliot survived his first trip to the dentist with flying colors!  He showed now sign of anxiety in the waiting room so we were hopeful at that point.  We all squeezed into the small room.  After picking out his sunglasses he dutifully climbed up into the chair.  He didn't complain once while his teeth were cleaned and counted.  In fact, he barely moved a muscle the whole time and only had to hold Mom or Dad's hand a few times.  You could tell by his face that he wasn't quite sure about the whole deal but must have trusted us enough to let it happen :)

After the dentist examined and complimented Elliot's wonderful teeth, we were all done.  He left with a nice goody bag which included a pencil, stickers and of course, a brand new tooth brush and toothpaste.  We were pleased with how well he did - just about as well as Emma on  her first visit.  While in the room, Emma declared that she would love to go to the dentist every month!  20 teeth.  Zero cavities!

My head is full of ideas and plans (good intentions) for our back yard.  For the past few years Nicole and I have been very interested in adding composting to our lifestyle.  So for phase 1 of many for the backyard, I decided I would finally construct some compost bins.  I've had basic ideas rolling around in my head for these so it was really great to actually complete these!

Our friends and previous owners had 3 really nice raised garden beds.  My first step was to remove all the wood from the garden beds.  They spent the summer growing over with weeds.  I used the wood from the raised beds and some additional scrap wood from a dismantled swing set to build the bins.

Though I had a basic plan in my head, I had to still engineer some of the details on the fly.   The slats on the front are removable for easy access.  Each bin is roughly 3'x3'x3' which is what is usually suggested.  I have a few plans for the bins.  One, I plan to use for all purpose composting - pretty much any and all yard scraps.  This compost will be available for flowers/plants in the garden beds.  The remaining bins I hope to fill with shredded leaves to use for leaf mulch around the property next spring.  I've never done this before so it will be an experiment.  Check back to see how it goes!  I still need to devise a cheap and effective way to cover the leaf bins to keep the leafs dry for the winter.  Let me know if you have an old tarp you can part with :) !

My next project will be constructing the plastic compost bin we purchased from Sam's Club.  This will go next to the wooden bins and will be used for organic compost to be used in our vegetable garden next Spring.  Here we will put our food scraps and other organic material.  Again, this is our first stab at composting so we'll see how it turns out in the Spring.

I screwed the bins right into the fence.  It seems very sturdy and should withstand the winter well enough.  We dumped our first pile of decomposed leaves into the all-purpose bin.  It had been sitting on the side driveway all summer in a pile and was nicely decomposed with some fat juicy earthworms helping out!

After many years in the making, in December 2008 our family finally made it to Beavercreek. We've settled down in a lovely home on Forestdale Avenue. Ask anyone who knows me - I am notoriously bad at correspondence. In less than a month (God willing!) we'll be giving birth to our third child and there will be lots to talk about! We thought we'd take a stab at maintaining a blog in order to share what's going on with our many family members and friends who are scattered throughout the world. In addition, I have figured out how to post photos on Facebook through iPhoto. With such convenience, we hope to get some family photos up to show what our family is up to. Our family's life is full of joy and we wish to share it with others.

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