Spring!

I just love warm weather. We decided to spend some time outside today. We went to the park and looked at ducks, had fun in the swing, and burned off some energy!

 These ducks are pretty used to having people around and let us get pretty close.

 

Then we came home and had lunch on the back patio. Panda sure loves being outside. 

 We've been having nap battles these last few weeks and this is what happens when he refuses. He fell asleep tucked up in the chair.

 Silliness with his sun-glassses. He sure is fun boy!

What have you been doing with the warmer weather?

Want to know more? Ask us! danielashleyadopt@gmail.com

Happy things this week!

Life is so much better when you focus on the happy. Panda and I try to spend our days doing fun things and things that make us happy. Yesterday we went to baby animal days at This is the Place Heritage Park. We had so much fun! It definitely was a happy thing this week!

 

He especially loved the train ride! 

What are things that make you happy?

Want to know more? email us! danielashleyadopt@gmail.com

We got the stamp of approval!

We had the last of our home study yesterday and we are now approved and ready!

Please help us build our family once again. We are hoping to find our daughter and complete our family. Thanks everyone!

Aaaaaannndd We're back.

We have spent the last two years thoroughly enjoying our son and our time as a little family of three. Since our last update we have been to Disneyland as a family, Bear Lake with family, taken a couple trips to Virginia, one to Maine and Canada, and moved!

Whew. And now it's 2017. Wow. Where did the time go?

Now it's time for more. We have more house and more yard and more love to give. It's time for us to grow our family again. We are just finishing up our home study and we'll be ready to go shortly.

We will officially be hoping and approved to adopt soon. Please help us grow our family again. Through the prayers, faith, fasting, and word of mouth we got out lovely little Panda. Can you all help us do it again? We are hoping to add a baby girl and call our family complete.

I don't normally like to ask for help, but we know we need it. Keep us on the fringes of your mind so that if an opportunity presents itself, you can help us connect with an expectant mother considering placing her baby girl. Panda needs his MeiMei (Chinese for little sister). I will continue to update the blog while we are searching. Are there things you want to know more about? Comment and tell me!

Thanks All!

One month old!

We have been parents for one month! Isn't he adorable?

I'll write his story out in the next few weeks. For now, here is some cute.

He loves to try and hold his own bottle. He has started watching things and likes to make eye contact. He still doesn't love baths, but we're getting there. We've had so much fun with him in the week since getting out of the hospital. He's sleeping about 5 hours at a time at night and is loving to stretch his arms up and his legs straight. We are simply in love and loving our new life as a family of 3.

We had some professional photos taken on Friday before going to the Dr.'s office and I can't wait to get them back. I'll post them once I get them back.

Getting to know us

We are participating in a 60 day challenge that also involves giveaways by some awesome people, like Charmed Collections, One More Loved and may others that includes gift cards to Target, Amazon, as well as many other exciting things! The purpose is to help adoptive couples spread their hope to adopt and increase their exposure. By following this challenge you will get to know more about us.

Adoption is hard. For every side. It is very important to us that when expectant parents are looking for potential families to place their baby with, that they know us as best as possible. It is also very important that we find a compatible relationship. Dear expectant parents, whoever you are, by your placing with us we are entering a lifelong relationship of love for a child. We want to be the best of friends and in order to help you and us, we are participating in this challenge. The hashtag to look up is #hopingtoadopt60days. You will be able to find us (@toadybear42) and many other families. It is so important you find the right family for your child and you.

If any of you want to know more birth moms and about their lives, please go on instagram and follow #reallifebirthmoms to meet and get to know some amazing women and how adoption fits into their lives.

This is such an amazing time right now and I hope that it is insightful and instructive for everyone involved in the adoption world.

Bingo Bonanza and other party games.

It was the annual family Christmas Bingo on Sunday. I had a great time. Daniel is such a sport and he does the calling and facilitating for it. We play for fun prizes like reachy-stick-grabbers and chocolate bars. We also got a $2 bill in an envelope. Fun fun! I saw some cousins I haven't seen in a long time. Fun was had by all and stuffed ourselves silly with too much food.

The whole room! We had such a good time.

Then Monday we went to Daniel's dad's family party. His dad loves to play games and he had a pretty silly one for us. They had to stuff a pair of panty hose with 10 small balloons and then put it on their head. It was pretty funny. Daniel was with his brother, Eric, for the first round and they won. The little kids had fun being silly with all the balloons.

Christmas is fun when we get to spend time with family. We are playing more games on Christmas Eve so I will post about those and our other Christmas festivities!