Fabulous Destination

What a wonderful day. Petra still has a fever, I stayed home today with her, but most importantly we made it as a family to the courthouse this afternoon for her adoption! WE COULD NOT BE MORE HAPPY!

Judge Cole oversaw the hearings today. And we were one of three adoptions. It was so rewarding to see so many happy children in a courtroom excited about their new lives.

Our great friends, Leigh Ann and her daughter Kacy, met us there and brought their camera. I could not thank them enough for doing this for us. You may remember that they actually got the phone call to take Petra as a foster child before we did ... Leigh Ann smartly said, call the Croom's they want a baby.

It went super smooth and we officially have a daughter. We even received the stamped copies from the court before we left. Petra was tired most of the time. However, right before our time with the judge she perked up and started babbling. By the time we were actually talking to the judge, she was performing quite nicely for him ... smiling, laughing and waving. The guard was quite amused by her the entire time and kept laughing at her.

Baby names

I started this post more than a week ago. Honestly, I just have too much to say, and these posts get too long. I want to say everything that's on my mind, give an update on the children, etc., oh well.... the baby is crying ... hopefully I'll make it back.

I'm back.

Let me first say: THANK YOU for all the gifts we received over Christmas! We all feel truly blessed. Thomas and I have been enjoying all our gifts ... we've both been sitting around reading all our new books (and I love the way our new sheets feel each night I crawl into bed). The children received so many new toys and clothes that I can't imagine when they will need anything new. They are set for at least several months. I'm hoping Petra will be able to wear her 12-18 month old clothes until the summer.

In the last month, Petra has appeared to grow like a weed. I can't figure out if she has gotten taller, or just leaner. But her legs look longer. I guess she is losing her baby fat. She also has 6 teeth now. She is surprising us each day with so many things. She will repeat her name now ... although she can't say "p" so it doesn't sound anything like it. Last week I sang BINGO ... and she amazingly said "B-I-N-G-O" when we got to that part ... all on her own. I would say she said half the letters clearly, but she had the rhythm down perfect. Thomas turned around shocked when she did it. I swear she also spelled her name with me this morning ... but it seems too impossible to believe. But it was just as clear as BINGO, and she only did it once. She is also trying to say ABCD now. For Christmas she got a babydoll and bottles, last week she was carrying around the baby trying to feed it the bottle. It was so cute. Of course, she dropped the babydoll on her head several times and carried it around by its foot some. She is doing great with her little brother. No real problems. Today she had a fever. I'm hoping it passes soon and is not another ear infection.


We received a few names for the baby from some of our family. Here are some of the suggestions that were emailed: Mica Thomas, McKinley, Hamesh, Gabor, Manford, Dewey, Casper, Asaya ... yes, some of these are mighty strange. I think my sister, Lynn, realizes that we like unusual names and happily sent us a long list of very unusual names. I never realized how hard it is to come up with a name you like. I thought we were set on boy names. I was obviously wrong. There are so many names that I think are OK ... but then I think, is this a name that I want to be saying my entire life ... do I love it that much? And usually the answer has been "not really." And then we also have to think about initials, possible nicknames, teasing, and whether it goes well with Petra. For instance, I ruled out the name Elektra for our next girl because it too closely rhymes with Petra. Plus, we had a very good reason for choosing the name Petra ... and I want to have a good reason for choosing all of our children's names. I want to tell them one day, we chose your name because ... and not because we just liked the name.

So ... we have decided on Jasper Hadley Croom.

Why'd we choose Jasper? Well, actually mainly because we liked it and it suits him. But here are some other reasons. Jasper actually means "keeper or guardian of the treasure." And I'm sure you all know that Jasper is a stone, revered greatly in the biblical times. (By the way, Petra means rock) In fact, jasper appears many times in the Bible. For instance, Rev. 21:11 says " It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." And just for a little trivia - one of the three wise men was named Gasper, a variant of Jasper. And then there is the character is in the Twilight series, but that wasn't a reason. (but I just thought I would throw that in there since Petra's name came from Ender's Game).

Hadley was an easy choice - this is Thomas great-grandfather's name - and it is a perfect fit. And just in case you are wondering, Hadley means "from the heath covered meadow."

So there you go, both of our children have names that are related to stones/rocks, have a biblical reference, and are characters from books that I have enjoyed. Don't expect us to keep up the trend ... I doubt we will keep coming up with stone related names.

A rose by any other name ...

Well, maybe I shouldn't compare our little boy to a rose ... but you get the point ... right? The bottom line: we are searching for a name for him. We had a couple picked out, the only problem is we don't think they fit him. So now's your chance. Please post any suggestions.

Everything here is good. At 3 months old, our little man weighed a whopping 14lbs and was 22.5 inches long. He is settling in to a schedule very similar to Petra's, and he is sleeping much better at night. About 4-6 hours between bottles. Petra is also stretching out and looking taller by the minute. Thomas and I both thought she looked like she grew today.

Here are some photos from today. I just woke up, so ignore my hair.

Finally ... Christmas Photos

Yes, we are busy

Busy is really an understatement. We are trying frantically to get everything that needs to be done, done. Thomas starts school tomorrow. A special legislative session starts tomorrow so I will also be busy at work. Plus we have to finish unpacking and organizing from our travel to NC over the holidays. And our home is filled again with two children under the age of two.

Yes, that's right. The stork made a visit the week before Christmas and brought us a healthy 2.5 month old baby boy. I posted a few photos above that we took over Christmas, and I hope to have the rest of the Christmas photos posted in the next day or two.

He is doing great ... we are not getting nearly as much sleep as we would like.
Stay tuned ...

I've got Annie

This is what went through my head after our last court hearing. All you women know what I'm talking about ... and the men ... well maybe not. But, this song has been stuck in my head for a good 2 weeks now. Except it goes something like this ... I've got Petra ... oooh ooh ooh.=)
This seems to be a common reaction in adoption. While I was reading up on China adoptions, I learned that the day you get your child is often referred to as Gotcha Day. I completely understand this ... and we have learned that our Gotcha Day will be Jan. 16th.

Today was a big day for each of us. For days Thomas has nearly been killing himself with end-of-semester assignments, papers, and exams. In fact, he had a whopping 30 minutes of sleep last night. Today he had another paper due... and I had surgery, and Petra had a fever of 102.6 degrees.

I'm not sure how many of you we told I had surgery planned. But basically, it was laporascopy and it was first thing this morning. They basically knocked me out, put 3 small holes in my abdomen and lasered out endometriosis. I'm on pain relievers, I can't pick anything up over 5 lbs for 2 weeks, etc. I had this same surgery 3 years ago when they discovered I had endometriosis. It's the only way to diagnosis it. Last time, I was lucky because while it was severe it wasn't on my fallopian tubes or ovaries ... therefore less of a chance if interfering with fertility. Today was different, it was moderate, however it was on my ovaries ... which is not the best of news. The good news is that it was treated so that it shouldn't cause a problem for the next few months ... the bad news is the stuff can grow back.

I was concerned about the surgery this morning, because there are always risks. I started to think maybe it wasn't wise to put myself through an optional surgery. There are too many dangers. But I feel good, no serious pain thanks to the meds, I'm moving around, and glad now I did it. Especially becuase of what they found.

Interestingly, I don't remember getting sleepy. I ususally do, often times the doctors have to ask me to close my eyes, or count backwards. Today, the anastesiologist said "I gave you something, you may feel it soon. What, I responded, I don't feel anything." And evidently I passed out right after that. And when I woke, the room was fuzzy, I wasn't thinking clearly, but I aksed whether I was finished, luckily someone was sitting right next to me and gave me an answer. Over the next 10 minutes I continued to talk this lady's head off, and all the time I kept thinking that I just want to see Petra ... who I knew felt miserable today.

So in the end, Thomas brought us both home, put us to bed, and we spent 3 hours snuggling together. Then our dear friends, who we consider our family by choice, brought over some food for dinner. The best Gumbo we have either ever had. Love them for it!

Petra's 1st Birthday Party

Thanksgiving came, and so did family. So we decided it was time for Petra's first birthday party. At the park, with family and a couple friends.




And she loved her birthday cake. She went for the care bear first, and then the candle, and then the cake.


She was pretty much finished with the cake by the time we took this video.






And Thomas rocked out to Rock Hero over the weekend ... for hours at a time. It was great to see him having fun and doing something besides studying and watching football.