Our little man just keeps getting bigger...and better!

Ohhhh, where do I start? I feel like Finn is changing so much everyday! I know he's less than 6 weeks old, but he just seems like he's turning into a little baby so quickly (rather than a newborn). Speaking of which, he finally grew out of his newborn clothes a couple of weeks ago! The little guy is very long, but pretty skinny- things seem to outgrow in length, but he never fills them out!

A few days ago, he started cracking little smiles at us every now and then- it's amazing! I can't wait for the day when we get a full on huge smile! He seems to have a slightly serious disposition, but Justin and I are working on loosening him up!! He is really just the sweetest little guy, and we are so proud to be his mom and dad :)

We're working on getting him to sleep through the night...it will definitely take some time! I have to admit, I'm getting hopeful though- the past few nights, he's gone 3 to 3.5 hours without waking up! It's such a difference to be able to get 2.5 or 3 hours of sleep rather than 1 to 1.5 hours at a time!

I can't thank you all enough for everything you've done. Your prayers, love, support, and the list goes on. I am so thankful to my mom and sisters for throwing us a shower in Medford, as well as my friends in Portland for the shower they threw over the summer. We are so blessed. We truly appreciate all of our friends and family who sent cards and gifts- we really appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness so much!

Oh, and as most of you know- my brother-in-law, Mark did our first family photo shoot. He did an AMAZING job! I highly recommend him :)

Family Photo Shoot

We just had our family photo shoot today! Mark did such a great job!! I highly recommend him!!

http://markempasisphotography.myshowit.com/thurmonds2009/index.html

I apologize to any of you who follow the blog regularly and haven't seen updates! Things have been quite busy....between getting in the groove of having Finn around, finishing the my classes for the winter term, and getting ready to head to Medford for Christmas- there has been little time for blog updates!

As you might imagine, Christmas has been truly amazing. We could not imagine a better Christmas day than what we experienced yesterday. We arrived in Medford Wednesday morning, and Finn was quickly greeted by family members. Everyone simply adores him and he is loving getting the attention! He is just the sweetest little guy, and we are so extremely blessed to be his mom and dad. Today we did our first family pictures- I can't wait to post them! For now, here are a few we've taken over the past several days!

I can't believe Finn is a month old already! He's becoming more alert everyday! You wouldn't believe how strong our little guy is either! He's already holding his head up- I think we might try a little tummy time this week :)

Settling in...sort of

We just can't stop staring at our little Christmas miracle. If we're not staring at his face, we're looking back through our camera at pictures of him. We are absolutely in love with Finley. He's perfect.

Justin, Finn, and I spent our first few days in Seattle. Our first night together was definitely an adjustment. Justin and I were both up all night...hearing every sound that Finn made. Saturday morning, we thought it might be fun to go to the Space Needle. Due to the newness of everything, and our lack of sleep, I was not feeling confident enough to take on something like that. We decided we could just stroll around Pike Place....wrong. That seems to overwhelming as well. We settled for a walk to Whole Foods. We're so exciting ;) We have now moved on to things like an outing to the mall and restaurants. Baby steps!

We were fortunate enough to be invited to our friends' house, the O'Brien's, for dinner Saturday evening, as well as Justin's boss's house Sunday evening. It was nice to hang out in an actual house (opposed to a hotel), and have a home-cooked meal. We drove to Vancouver, WA Monday afternoon where we will stay until we are told we can finally go home to Portland. My mom and dad are on their way up this afternoon to spend some time with us. We can't wait for Finn to meet his first set of grandparents!

Every moment seems so surreal...we just can't believe how quickly our life has changed. It's so amazing. I can't stop saying it...."God is soooo good!!!"

Finley Matthew Thurmond has arrived!!!

Well, it has been a crazy journey to say the least, but we finally have our Finn. He is about 7.5 lbs, and 19" long. He was born healthy and eating very well :)

We left Portland this morning, and met with Tiana and her family a little after 1pm at Tiana's house in Yakima, WA.

It was a wonderful meeting. When we got there, Tiana's father was holding Finn and he said "Would you like to hold your son?". Wow!! Their family friend/pastor, who was also at the house, prayed over all of us, as did Tiana's father and Justin. We gave Tiana our gift, they gave us a few gifts, and we visited for a couple of hours. Around 3:30 we were leaving their house with our baby boy!!!

We will have to spend the next week in Washington state due to interstate adoption laws. We decided to head over to Seattle for the first few days to sort of make our time in the state a little vacation. We plan to head down to Vancouver, WA Monday to spend the rest of our time, as it is just 20 minutes away from Portland. As soon as we get the call from our caseworker that we can cross back into Oregon, we'll head home!

We feel so incredibly blessed. We cannot believe how amazing this day has been! We are so thankful to have such amazing and supportive family and friends. Thank you all! We love you!