Showing off the t-shirts... "Plumb" style

Here are some pics of Brian's brother's family sporting the shirts. The boys favorite part of the shirt was the "Team Plumb". They loved that it said their name!

Beautiful family!

Thanks John, Kelli, Carson, and Jace! So thankful to have someone to teach our son about spiderman and manies!:)

Can't wait for lake trips, slumber parties, and pizza night at the Puckett's with one more boy!

Stay tuned for more family and friends in the shirts!

If you got a shirt, I need your picture for Baby Plumb's Life book!

If you want a shirt, we still have a few more and will be placing another order soon!

Slacking off....

So I have been kind of slacking off in the blogging department lately. As I mentioned in my letter to Baby Plumb, I have really been trying to stay away from the blogs as much as possible. I was getting a little obsessed at checking blogs on the unofficial wait list. Like every hour people! But today I realized that we are number 5 on the unofficial wait list. There are 2 "either gender" and 2 "boys" ahead of us! Seriously!?!?!

Here's 5 high fives for being number 5!

Can you imagine that we are almost parents?!?! :)

I guess I had better get to blogging to document these last couple months as a family of 2!

So stay tuned for some fun posts!

I think I am going to challenge myself to 20 blog entries in 30 days!

Dear Baby P.-

Dear Baby Plumb-
You have been on my mind lately. A lot. I can not believe that we have been in this process of getting you home for over a year now. It seems like only yesterday that we went on a camping trip to pray about what God's plan was for our family. And now here we are. Officially waiting for you for almost 7 months. You are so close.

I will be honest, I have been trying not to think about how close you are. Maybe it will make the waiting easier. In this, I have failed. Everything sends me back to thoughts of you. Saturday mornings make me think of making you waffles and going to the park. Family Zoo day at the church takes me to thoughts of taking you to see the giraffes. We go to the mall and I find my way to the Children's stores daydreaming of dressing you up in little hats. I see the little boys next doors playing in the mud and I can't wait for you to get dirty and dig up worms.:)

But being this close is bring on so many questions. What do you look like? Is your hair straight or curly? Will you be a picky eater like your dad? Will we be able to comfort you when you are crying? Will you like us?

As we wait, we are preparing. We are narrowing down names. Getting ready to put the nursery together. Reading books. Watching videos. Researching toys, strollers, and diaper bags. Making plans.

We have not seen your face or your smile. We do not know your name. We have no idea where you have come from or the hurt and grief you have already experienced in your little life. But we love you. More than anything. You have already changed our lives. Can't wait to see your face, kiss your checks and hold you tight. We will see you soon!!!

Love,
Mommy

Six!

Has it really been six months?!?!? I don't know what else to say except that every month that goes by, I get more excited and this process feels more and more real. It is easy sometimes during this process of waiting to feel like nothing is happening. You are just waiting. But as we get closer it is easier to let yourself imagine a car seat occupied, or trips to the zoo with a stroller, or dropping off a child at the nursery on Sunday mornings instead of fighting those images.

Good bye month 5. Get ready month 7.:)

He Lives!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1 Peter 1:3

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Nesting....

"Around the 5th month of pregnancy (or referral waiting), the 'nesting' instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house, brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world."- pregnancy weekly

So, we are 5 months and 3 weeks into the waiting game, and I am beginning to feel a lot of pressure to get things done. I will not call it crazy. I will call it nesting!:) Around the Plumb house we are organizing drawers and closets, changing pictures in picture frames, and trying to knock of some "To Do Before Baby Gets Here" tasks.

I actually had a panic moment a couple of nights ago.

We haven't picked out a name yet.

I can't find the perfect baby bedding. (I know I mentioned in a previous post I had bought bedding, but it wasn't perfect enough!:))

Baby Plumb's Life Book is no where near finished.

It is getting close to time to update some adoption documents.

We still have some training videos to watch.

And the list goes on.

So motivation has hit. Let's start crossing tasks off the list!

Brian will be so excited.:)

Oh, and Brian wanted me to add that he is awesome. Whatever!:)

T-shirts are in!

We got the t-shirts!

I will be contacting you guys who ordered shortly to get your shirts delivered to you!

We also have some extras!

If you got a shirt, we would love it if you would send us a picture of you in your shirt!

We would like to put it in Baby Plumb's life book.

(We may even sneak them onto the blog, with permission of course!:))

Thanks again everyone!!!

Family photos

I don't have a whole lot of pictures of me and Brian over the past couple of years. I seem to be the one that takes the pictures in our families. Brian and I haven't had our pictures made since our wedding day almost 6 year ago! So, a few weeks ago Jennifer fixed that for us. Thought I would share a few of our favorites!


She really did an awesome job! I love them! Thanks again Jennifer for taking our last official family of 2 photo !

And in referral news... there has been 2 referrals for baby boys in the past week! We could not be more excited for both families, especially our friends the Carter's!
Yippeeeee!
Movin' on up!

Is this good news or bad news?

We got some unexpected news on the adoption front yesterday. The Ethiopian government announced yesterday that all adoptive parents must travel to Ethiopia for their court dates in order for adoptions to become finalized. This means that we will now have to make 2 trips to Ethiopia, once to appear in court and the second to pick our son up and bring him to the U.S.

The first trip will last about 5 days and we will have a chance to meet our child and appear in court. The second trip will be after the adoption is finalized and will be to appear for a U.S Embassy interview to process our son's immigration visa. The second trip should occur 3-6 weeks after the first. We are still not sure of all of the details, but should hear more from our adoption agency soon.

I must admit, yesterday I had a really hard time with this. 2 trips! Really! We definitely had not planned for this extra expense. And having to travel twice so close together! How is that gonna work with our jobs? And probably the worst part, having to meet our son, begin bonding, and then have to leave him behind!?!?!? Oh, I can't even imagine!!!

All of these thoughts became a little overwhelming and I will say, I threw myself a little pity party. I just started feeling a little down about the fact that the average wait time for referral has gone from 7.5 months to when we first got on the list, to 9 months at this point. There also just doesn't seem to be a lot going on with the unofficial wait list! And now 2 trips!

But the optimistic Shannon did find her way out eventually! Now we get to take 2 trips to Africa! We also get to meet our son 3-6 weeks earlier than we originally would have gotten to! God has blessed us so much, and we know that he will make this all work out.

Brian reminded me that when we get our son, nothing else will matter.

FIVE

Why is the number five so important?

Well, there is The Jackson 5

You can split lunch with a friend for $2.50 each, which makes $5.

(Sing it with me folks, "5....5 dollar....5 dollar foot loooong")

There are 5 Olympic rings.

James Monroe, our fifth president.

"Five Golden Rings!"

And we have been on the waiting list for FIVE months!

Wooohoooo!

This calls for a high five!:)