First Night at Home

Good night Daniel



Good Morning baby

Arriving Home

Arriving home from the Hospital the day after Christmas

Dad spending some cuddly time with Daniel.





look at those beautiful bright eyes!

Time for a diaper change.

Cindy, Scott's sister came to visit and brought us a yummy dinner.

Noah is so happy to have a baby brother.

Leaving the Hospital

We left the hospital this afternoon.

The nurse came in and matched Angela's band with Daniels to make sure they matched

Noah was very excited to try out the babies car seat

Daniel spending some special moments with baby Daniel before it is time to leave the hospital.

Daniel did a great job getting baby Daniel dressed.

It was a very emotional goodbye

Daniel is so small in his carseat

Daniel and Angela are such wonderful people and we are so happy that we are family!

Best Christmas

Our first picture as a family of four!

Dad loves his precious baby.

Mom loves Daniel and is having so much fun with him at the hospital

Mom and Dad give Daniel his very first bath.

Angela loves her baby very much

Daniel is very sleepy

Mom just fed Daniel and he is full and happy

We are having fun getting to know each other. Have we really only known each other for just a day?

lots of love and kisses.

Everybody is feeling better after a shower.

more sleepy faces



Daniel is happy that his son has his name

He loves him very much and it has been so nice to get to know him too!

Christmas Surprise

MEET DANIEL CALEB KRISTIANSEN!
Born December 24th at 11:34am
weight 7 lbs `3 ounces
21 inches



Scott and I have adopted a beautiful baby boy! We were first contacted by an expectant mother December 8th. She was due January 17th and lived in MD. We exchange a few emails. We planed to meet each other and then we did not hear from her for a week. We were starting to lose hope, but then she finally wrote and said that her home internet was down. We didn't hear from her fro another week, and began to lose hope again, but her email was great and she was still interested in us. We wrote her back, but still hadn't heard from her 3 days later.
December 24th at 2:30 in the morning my cell phone rang. I looked at my phone and new that it was her. She was in labor and at a hospital 20 minutes from our house.
I woke up Scott and we started getting ready in a hurry. I knocked on my neighbors door and she said she would be happy to come sleep on our couch to watch Noah.
We arrived at the hospital by 3:00am
Our birthmom was 6 cm dilated. She was having contractions and in a lot of pain. She had planned on having a natural birth. The nurse came in and said that the anasisiologist had a busy scedule, so he was available now, or the next time was in 2 hours. She decided to get the epidural. The Dr. had a very hard time getting it in and it took about 10 minutes. At one point she asked me to stand up and hold her arm. I looked at the needle sticking out of her back, and the blood and I could feel myself starting to faint. I turned around and told Scott to take my place by Angela. He saw that I was stark white and helped me to the chair. I felt like a wimp.
By this time she was dilated to 8cm. She stayed at that point for a while. The birth father came so Scott and I went to the cafeteria to give them some time alone. When we came back up the social worker wanted to talk to us outside Angela's door. Just then a nurse came out and said that she was ready to push! We were so excited.

We went in and things were very calm. It was just one nurse, Angela, the birth father, Scott and I. She pushed for a half hour. We were all there to see Daniel as he was born. Angela held him right away, and then the nurses did a few things to get him ready. It was pretty quick and then we all got to hold him again. We all spent plenty of time with Daniel through out the day, and Angela had friends and family coming in and out to see him. Angela brought him to my room(the hospital gave us a room just down the hall) around 9 and I got to spend the night with him.

I decided to do adoptive breastfeeding again. I have been able to feed him with the supplementer each time he has eaten. It has been a great experience to be able to breastfeed him.

So far everything is going great. We love his birth parent, he is very healthy, and we are very happy! So far, this has been the best adoption experience that I can imagine.

I hope that everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

Remembering a Special Day and a Special Girl

It was two years ago today that Neena came to visit us for Thanksgiving. We picked her up from the airport and and stopped at an Olive Garden on the way home from the airport. She was 4 months pregnant. We sat down and made some small talk about her flight. After not too long Neena said she had some big news for us. She said, "Do you want me to tell you now, or do you want to wait until Thanksgiving?" We couldn't wait and said to tell us now! I was filled with so much anticipation and hope in the next few seconds. Neena said that she would like us to be the parents of her baby! I was so happy! Neena had brought an ultrasound picture with her. She made us wait until we got home to show us. She was having a boy! It was so hard then to imagine how much our lives would change in just a few months! We love Noah so much and of course could never imagine our lives without him.
We will always think of you around Thanksgiving time now. We love you Neena! Thank you!

Noah Meets the Fam

Today Noah met Scotts sister Cindy and her children Samantha(in photo with Cindy) Kelsey and Lauren (Jared and Andrew met him too but are not in the photos).There is also another picture of Katie hanging out with the little guy at the top of the page

Home at Last!!!

We finally have arrived at home and are all together again!!

First Noah and I arrived and then Scott got home from work shortly after. It is so nice to be home and all together!

CLEARED (at last)!!!

Horray! We were finally cleared by the ICPC to leave the state!!!! I am just waiting for Noah to wake up and then I will feed him and we will head out! It has been a long stay, and I am so happy to go home! Scott is excited and anxious for us to get home. He misses his little boy!

Noah Hits the Town

Noah got lots of attention when Katie and I went out to the Olive Garden for dinner. Everyone just loves his full head of hair!

Going Stir Crazy

Well I have been here in Michigan for 23 days. I am starting to get a little bored here just hangin at the hotel all day. It is nice to have Katie here though. We are still waiting for an agency called ICPC to clear us to leave the state. That could happen any day now. In the mean time we are just chillin. Noah pretty consistently sleeps 4 hours at a time and then wakes up to eat. In the night he goes right back to sleep and in the day he stays awake and alert for an hour or two to play. His umbilical cord finally fell off yesterday! His tummy looks so cute now. There is a cancer center across the street that has cheap massages so Katie is over there right now. They also have yoga and an art room that they said we could use. We might start going over there so that we don't get cabin fever. Stay posted for more photos of Noah!

Katie Has Arrived!

When we realized I was going to probably be here another week, Scott didn't want me to have to be alone, so we started thinking of who could possibly come out on short notice. I thought the most likely person would be my sister Katie, even though it was a long shot. She was able to switch her schedule around though and was able to come with just two days notice! She flew in today after a long red-eye flight. She loves Noah and says he is amazingly aware and alert. She thinks he is such a wonderful baby! Katie can't stop saying how cute he is! I agree. He is a wonderful baby!