Patrick's First Christmas 2008

Patrick is really loved by a lot of people and they showed it by the mounds of gifts under the tree. He slept through a bit of it but enjoyed the rest. I think he likes the new stuffed animals the best although he will soon appreciate the books, outfits and music

This is not the most well produced video but it is made with love from PJ&V and after all...it is Christmas!!

Merry Christmas

PJ&V

Patrick's first trip!!

This weekend the family went to Paso Robles to visit our good friends the Kaiser's and enjoy time in the beautiful countryside of the central coast. As usual he was the life of any gathering, even when being a bit fussy at A.J. Spurs for dinner. Patrick of course ordered a bottle of infant formula! Highlights of the weekend include sleeping during the 4.5 hr drive both ways, sleeping 8.5 hrs on Saturday night, spending time with our good friends and seeing the new home of Templeton Community Church, a building that they own!! For those who are not familiar with the church, Vivian and I were part of the group that helped start the church 16 years ago and now they have their own building. Very exciting. We enjoy seeing Patrick develop each day and are thankful for all of the people that support us through this journey. Soon he will get to experience his first Christmas

Thanks for reading

Jim

Life of the party and love for the camera

We had our first photo shoot from our friend Lauren. Here is a sneak peak from the shoot.

Enjoy

Grandparents from Arizona!!

This past week Vivian's parents (Grandma and Grandpa) were in town and enjoyed time getting to know their grandson and falling in love with the little one. Patrick was his typical happy self through trips to the park and other fun baby outings.

Next up -- our first holiday season as a family of 3!!!!

Who's the Life of the Party Now!!!

Hint...it is not an adult :)

Thanks to Jay and Cathryn Wade, Andy and Debby Benis for planning a wonderful welcoming party for Patrick and thanks to all our friends for coming to see us as we begin this adventure.

Pics from the weekend party can be found herePictures from the weekend

Touchdown!!! and other views from the nursery

Boats and Birds and Bees, Oh My!

Last week was quite an eventful week in the life of our little 3-week old! On Monday we walked (strolled) around Dana Point Harbor with our friend Taryn and her dog Green Bean! Patrick was well dressed for the occasion in his boat pants and harbor shirt. Of course, he slept the whole time, but we all enjoyed the outing.
On Thursday we had the opportunity to do another walk at a huge dog park in Huntington Beach. Patrick had fun sleeping again while Mommy pushed the stroller around and talked with her friend Ruth, who tried to keep her dog Sport at bay! We even saw an egret on the grass, which was a surprise to everyone at the park. Patrick was not too impressed with the egret, but I'll bet the egret was impressed with him!
Friday was Patrick's first Halloween. We stayed close to home, dressed him in a "Baby's First Boo" onesie and a pumpkin hat that my cousin Denise had made, and hung out with the neighbors. Although our church held a huge Fall Fest carnival, we decided to avoid the crowds and have an easy evening on Ocean Mist. The highlight for Patrick was eating (again!) outside at night and posing for pictures with our 9-month old neighbor, Nathan, who was smartly dressed as a bumble bee! We are not big on Halloween overall, but it was fun to see the neighbor kids in all their cute costumes.

Halloween and fun with Mr. Bear

Patrick experienced his first October 31st today. I say that because he really had no idea that it was a day when lots of kids run around and get sick on Candy. He simply allowed us to dress him up in his outfit that Vivian's cousin Denise gave him and eat and sleep like normal while the festivities began around the cul-de-sac.

It is exciting seeing him grow, notice shapes and colors, and generally enjoy life as long as he is changed and fed. Those 2 simple ingredients along with sleep can make the biggest difference in his world as all parents quickly find out. He enjoys Mr. Bear, a musical wind up bear, that was also played for him in the womb as he has playtime or up-time in the morning and evening.

He is 1 month old on Tuesday November 4th. 1 year ago we had no idea that he would be coming into our lives. How quickly time can change.

Thanks for reading

Who's team are you on??

It's Sunday football time and baseball playoffs also!

Week 1 Check UP

All checked out fine at the Doctor's appointment today. He is back to his birth weight and is now 22inches. They say that they aren't really stretched out at birth so it is more difficult to measure them when they are minutes old. That would account for most of the 1.5 inch change in length. We are very happy that he is a healthy and growing little dude.

Patrick's first trip to see the ocean

Off we went to Crystal Cove in Newport Beach on Sunday afternoon. I am sure Patrick had a great time while we pushed him in the stroller, primarily because he slept through the whole experience. But we had a good time with the grand parents and Patrick out in the beautiful Fall afternoon.

Enjoy some pictures...there are more at google so click on the following link

More Pictures from Crystal Cove

Week 1 with Pictures

We are almost finished with week 1 of Patrick's life and I have to say that it is an amazing blessing that God has given us. There are pictures over at

Facebook and on Picasaweb at

Patrick's Pictures at Google

Even though kids do 3 basic things during the early days, eat, sleep, make messy diapers, repeat, it is amazing how much you can love a little person who God has entrusted you with and it totally dependent on your care. Nana and Papa (My parents (jim)) have been here since Wed PM and have been a great help. He has his first Doctor's appointment on Tuesday and I am working on understanding how to actually focus on work instead of wanting to be at home with him.

Anyway, hopefully Vivian will find some time to add her thoughts to the blog soon...until then

Thanks for reading...it is feeding time

Jim

First Day with Photos

The first day has been a long one but very rewarding. Patrick is doing what new borns do and doing it in style. He is very content and not fussy at all. It is God's grace for now. I am sure there will be plenty of trying times in the future. He is so healthy they are letting us take him home tonight which is the same day that he was born just 15 hrs later.

That's all for now, let the parenting adventure begin

Thanks for reading

Welcome Patrick

Patrick James came into the world at 2:35am on Tuesday October 7th weighing in at 8 lbs and 2ounces at 20 1/2 inches. All ready a very inquisitive little guy he is. I got the first chance to feed him and he consumed 2 ounces of formula without any problem.

More details and pictures later in the day.

Thanks for reading

Today is the day?

Latest reports from the mountain are the the medical director and the doctor and the birth mom met today and decided that today would be the day to induce. Hopefully all will go well, nothing will change and everyone will be very healthy after this is all finished.

More after it happens

Thanks for reading

His first game of "tug of war" and he is not even born!

The short story goes like this. She went to the doctor today and he wants to induce on Monday for normal medical reasons that we are all familiar with such as being 7 days late or more, etc. However, she would rather wait until the "natural" due date hence the tension between Doctor and Patient. But in the end the patient always wins so we are hoping for a natural birth sometime this weekend.

All that means that we still don't know and it could still be anytime this weekend or well into next week (that would be a bummer)

That's all from here...thanks for reading

What do we know?

That is a common question that I ask myself, what do we really know? For one, we know that we don't know the real due date. We know that Patrick can't move any lower without coming out. We know that it will be in God's timing and not ours. We know that through this we have been able to serve the birth parents by running errands for them, picking Tim up from his work, helping them with things that a birth mother shouldn't be doing such as carrying heavy loads of laundry from the car to the house down the many many stairs.

So as we all wait, and we thank you for waiting with us, sometimes it is helpful to focus on what we do know as opposed to what we don't know, since the unknown can seem overwhelming at times

Thanks for reading

Jim

The roller coaster continues

So after 23 hrs of regular contractions that convinced the birth parents that today was the day...they just stopped. Some people call them Braxton Hicks contractions but I am not the expert in this subject. So we wait on God's timing to see what adventure lies next. Hopefully a doctor's appointment will happen tomorrow but not even that is certain...Maybe this mystery will be solved one day.

Keep checking

Jim

Could today be it????

The contractions started again last night around 6pm and as of this
morning have not stopped. So the birth mother (Stephanie) is convinced
that it will be today. We are waiting for the phone call to go to the
hospital since she likes to spend as little time at the hospital as
possible!

So pray for the process today and everyone involved.

I will give you more details when they are available.

Jim

Saturday September 27th update

Nothing happened last night. There was no second call from the birth father so I assume the contractions subsided. I am hoping and praying for a birth this weekend as I head up the mountain this morning

We will see

Jim

Friday September 26th part 2

The birth father called Vivian tonight and said that the contractions were very hard and he thought that he might call her back tonight and say that they were off to the hospital. So that could happen anytime tonight but as I have said before "It is not about what I want" so we wait but we feel like we are getting closer. It still could be any day but I wonder.....

That's all for now

Jim

Friday September 26th Update

Well guess what...there is no child yet! I think we are all getting tired of hearing that. Vivian and I are always asking the question "When will he come?" But all things are in God's timing and the more he waits the bigger he will be and some say that makes him have a better chance at being that much more healthy so we wait.

I wanted to update the blog since I know everyone is checking and waiting expectantly with us. The Doctor did guess Sunday the 28th so maybe he will be correct.

Thanks for praying and checking in

Jim

Tues Sept 23nd update

It is still a guessing game with the medical doctor choosing Sunday the 28th as the due date and the birth mother choosing an earlier date. She probably settled on and earlier date because the last week of any pregnancy is definitely not comfortable for her. At Monday's doctor's appointment she was only 1cm but that can change fast. Regardless, it appears that the life changing moment will be here in less than 1 week so although we have been waiting and wondering the time is near.

Tonight I am writing on the blog, drinking a nice red wine and figuring out which work task to do next.

Next week at this time I will probably be helping with diaper changes, laundry or any of the various task that come with new life. But the gift of life is well worth it. It is part of God's sovereign plan and I am thankful to be chosen to be apart of it.

Thanks for reading

Jim

Enjoying the Wait

I have been up in Crestline (San Bernadino Mountains) since Wednesday waiting for Patrick's arrival. Jim has now joined me for the weekend, and we are staying in the guest home of the Gatons Family, who are friends of a friend in our small group at Compass. It has been beautiful and wonderful to have a few days of solitude, and I am glad that Jim can be local for a couple of days as well.

As for Stephanie's contractions, they are full strength and 10 (or so) minutes apart from about 4 p.m. until 2 a.m., and then they tend to stop. So she is progressing, albeit slowly. Since Patrick's earliest due date is not until 9-25, we are still early, even though it seems to be taking forever! Our birth family is doing well and hopefully we will be able to see them briefly while we are in Crestline (assuming the baby doesn't arrive today!)

It has been a good week of waiting on the Lord's timing and listening to His leading to keep the anxiety at bay. These mountains are so beautiful, and I have been able to slow down and enjoy these few days without a task list, because the time is coming when we will both be VERY busy with parenting tasks. God knows exactly what we need, and if I were at home in Aliso Viejo, I'd be spinning about all the things that need to get done before the baby arrives. But since I am not there, it's sort of "out of sight, out of mind." It will be good for Jim to enjoy some relax time as well.

As for Parenthood, we are definitely ready for it. My head is filled with all this book knowledge (which I will most likely have to throw out the window when it comes to practically working with our actual child,) but it is there nonetheless. I am excited about what God has for us along this journey, and I can't wait to meet the child that He has chosen for us. Hopefully, our next post will have stories and pictures of our new baby boy!

The weekend to wait and enjoy!

We are in Crestline this weekend enjoying the beautiful mountains and fresh air. Vivian has been up since Wednesday and I arrived tonight (Friday 9PM). I have stopped thinking about ideal situations because they usually don't arrive and it just proves that I am not in charge anyway, which I know, but it is always worth a reminder. It is possible that Patrick will be born this weekend but that is up to God as I have reminded myself before. And as 1 person said, "Don't be in a rush since it doesn't end for more than 18 years after you start" Depending on when he is born we may stay up here for a few days or we may return to Aliso Viejo depending on how we feel and other issues. Until then....we wait and wait and wait and take comfort in the fact that we are waiting on God who creates life and sustains life everyday.

Off to the weekend!!!

The Nursery

Now some out their in blog land are wondering, why do we want to see the nursery!!! But others are wondering what it looks like etc. So here are the pictures as best as I could take them in a small room. So without further discussion take a look at the picture in this blog and surf over to The Nusery for a few pics

Enjoy

The Move

God has once again provided in His amazing ways. The birth parents and their seven kids who were in serious need of housing and have not much money now have the keys to a new small house on 1 acre of land. And it has plumbing and a kitchen...how cool is that. In addition the money that God's people raised should last for about 9 months of rent!!!

7 of us (family and friends) are going up to Crestline this Saturday to help them move stuff from the storage unit to the new place. It is wonderful to see God's people come together and help others in need without thinking twice. This is a beautiful example of what the family of God can do when we keep our eyes focused on Christ and not ourselves. Not that christians in the O.C. ever have problems with that one!!! ha!

September 2008 - The Birth Month

If all things go according to what we know, the birth of Patrick James Turner will happen during the last week of September. It has been and still is an emotional journey. It started 3 1/2 years ago when I (Jim) was talking to a colleague at an auction we were both working. My colleague had already adopted 2 boys from Nightlight adoption agency in Fullerton, CA and I was happy that someone else had done the research into the the different agencies that did adoptions. The process was a long one, mostly due to our slowness, but was completed in November of 2007. In June of 2008 we got the call that we were one of 2 couples that were chosen by a particular birth couple. And the adventure began. 2 weeks later we were "officially chosen" by the birth couple. The journey is filled with emotional ups and downs, showers, visits and all sorts of fun stuff. Now we prepare and wait. Today I did some useful but not so important tasks such as putting up blinds, securing the changing table, organizing the garage, etc. What lies next is up to God in whom we trust

So here we are on labor day weekend and we are learning more about trusting God and resting in His timing.