Independence Day | 2018



 Pretty sure my body is still trying to recover from July 4th. We had a great Independence Day spent with family and friends but it has completely thrown my body off since it fell on a Wednesday. We kicked off the holiday with a night swim the night before and it was nice.

On July 4th, Camden decided he wanted to wake up at 5:45 AM and that was ROUGH. Thankfully Craw let me continue to sleep while he entertained Camden for a couple hours. Around 8, Craw went and got us breakfast and we kicked the day off with french toast and waffles, compliments of Amy Jo's kitchen. Around 11, we left to go see Craws family. Camden has a tooth that has broke through the skin but hasn't come all the way up so he was a bit fussier than normal and completely refused to nap for us. Thankfully he was still his happy self around the family and Craws uncle was able to meet Cam for the first time.

We enjoyed spending a couple hours with his family. Next year there will be another baby with us for the holidays and I CANNOT WAIT! Our sweet niece is set to arrive sometime around the beginning of October.

That night we headed over to our friends house for a 4th of July cookout. I made Mikes Farm mac n cheese and it was a hit. It was nice to spend the evening with friends with not a care in the world. Cam fell asleep at their house so he didn't make it to see the fireworks but that's okay, there is always next year.


It was a great 4th of July and we ended the night celebrating our fur baby's 5th birthday. It's so hard to believe Hank is 5. He is so sweet and he definitely loves his brother.



Our Water Baby

It is no secret that Camden has loved the water since his very first bath. We can pour a cup over his head and he still laughs and thinks it is hilarious. I was so excited for summer to get here and be able to take him to the pool. We took him in the water a few weeks ago at the river but we enjoyed his first pool experience last week.

My cousin has a nice in ground pool and it was nice to go somewhere private for his first swim. Needless to say, he absolutely loved it and could have stayed in the water for hours. He loved splashing with his hands and Craw and I quickly learned we needed sunglasses in order to avoid him splashing our eyes. He enjoyed swimming with us, floating on his back, and kicking his legs while in a float. It was the perfect evening and one that I will never forget. We sure do love our water baby.

First Fathers Day | 2018

A little late posting this but Craw's first Fathers Day was one to remember. While our original plans did not work out, I think its safe to say he enjoyed his day. The original plans were to be at the beach for Fathers Day. I went down on Wednesday and Craw was supposed to join us on Friday. However, the stomach bug hit Craw, my dad, and I all at the exact same time and we were all 3 in separate places at the time. It was a rough 24 hours and we decided that spending the weekend in a trailer with a baby after being super sick probably wasn't the smartest idea. I left to go home on Saturday and enjoyed a relaxing day with Craw and Camden.

Since we had planned to be at the beach, we did not have our usual church responsibilities so we decided to skip church on Fathers Day and spend the morning together as a family. We also didn't want to take a chance of spreading any more germs at church. We had a lazy morning and Craw wanted the Creamery for lunch so that is exactly what we did.

After lunch, I took a nap with Camden and Craw watched TV. We went to see my dad for a little while that afternoon. We had already made plans to celebrate with dad a week later (since we were all sick) but I knew I wanted to get some pictures with him on his first Fathers Day as a Pappy.

After we left my parents house, we met Craws family for dinner. It was such a great night spending time with family and I love the pictures we were able to get.

One thing that I love is Craw mentioned several times how special Fathers Day was to him. A year ago, we had just decided to adopt and he mentioned several times that we could have missed out on Camden if we hadn't listened to God calling us to adoption. Craw is the absolute best daddy, as I knew he would be, and he is super intentional about spending quality time with Camden. For his gift, we gave him a new Columbia hat and 2 new polo shirts.


Craw, we love you so much and are so thankful to have you as the leader of our family. You are the best daddy and I cant wait to see how these next months and years unfold with you by my side.



Legally Ours | Adoption Finalization

June 28, 2018 will be a day that I never forget. It was the day that our "Baby Doe" became Camden Ivey Bolton forever. It is surreal that our adoption journey is over and I don't think it has quite sunk in yet. It seems like yesterday when I announced we were adopting and here we are 11 months since that announcement and our son is legally ours. God is good!

I have intentionally left our court hearings off of the blog as I didn't want to say anything until the adoption was finalized. With adoption, there are 2 different court hearings that have to happen before the adoption is considered finalized. The first is the termination of parental rights and that court hearing was on April 13th. Although our birth mom had already signed over her rights, a judge has to officially declare the termination of parental rights. Our lawyer represented us so we did not have to travel back to Florida for that hearing. Everything went good and it was a relief to have that court date behind us.

Our agency had to wait 30 days after the termination of parental rights before they could request a date for the finalization hearing. In the back of my mind, I was thinking we would probably finalize sometime in July but God surprised us again with a June court date. This was a blessing as Florida requires a post placement visit with our social worker once a month until the adoption is finalized. Those visits are NOT cheap so it was a blessing that we did not have to pay for a visit in June. Another surprise was that we finalized on the same day that Shannon finalized her adoption. How crazy is that?

Our hearing was scheduled for 9:45 AM yesterday and we had to have a notary present with us. At 9:43 AM, my phone rang and it was the judge as well as our lawyer. It was such a cool experience as our notary had to swear us in under oath and then the judge proceed to ask us to state our full names. Our lawyer then asked us a series of questions and Craw went first.

The questions were:

Do you understand that if something happens to your marriage, by granting this adoption, either one of you can sue for custody of this child?

And either one of you could have a child support obligation?

And this child becomes your legal heir as if born to you?

And knowing that, do you wish to proceed?

Are you asking this court to change the child's name? If so, what is the name you are requesting.

Short. Sweet. And to the point. We both took turns answering the questions and at 9:49 AM, the judge legally declared Camden our son.

We have treated him as our son since the day he was born. Even though we didn't meet him until his 2nd day of life, he was already our son in our hearts. However, legally he was not our son and we were seen as his guardians. There is so much joy, thankfulness, and love in my heart knowing that he is mine forever. It is also bittersweet that our adoption journey is now over.

We ended the day by celebrating with both of our families. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Pauls and Camden even sat in a high chair for the first time and loved it. He also now has a tooth so this has been a BIG week for us. We love this boy more than words can even describe and are so blessed that God chose us to be his parents.



Camden Ivey | Five Months

Life has been so crazy lately and I am a bit behind on updating this space. We have survived 2 stomach bugs (4 if you count my mom and dad), teething, and traveling. Today I am going to focus on the fact that my baby boy is already 5 months old (HOW?) and hope to catch up on our beach trip and Fathers Day soon.

Weight

Haven't weighed him recently but I'm going to guess he is over the 17 pound mark by now. We go back next month for his 6 month shots so we will have a more accurate weight then.

Eat

He is eating 8 ounces now. We just moved him up to 8 ounces this past week as he was doing 7 ounces. We started a couple of spoonful's of baby food for about a week and then decided he wasn't ready and plan to wait closer to 6 months.

Sleep

He has improved so much with his sleep. He is pretty much sleeping 8-6:30 and sometimes even 7:00. Every now and then he may wake up randomly and sometimes we bring him to our bed if he wakes up at 5:30 just so we can squeeze in another hour.

Milestones

Homeboy is rolling all over the place. You can literally put him down on a blanket and he will roll over and keep rolling until he gets stuck up next to something. He likes to roll in his crib but then gets mad when he gets suck on the railing. He is almost sitting up unassisted. He will sit up on his own but sometimes looses his balance and falls to the side. I say another month and we should have that nailed down. His laugh has really improved and we have found his tickle spots. Camden really started to notice Hank this month and will follow him closely with his eyes. He will erupt in a huge smile when Hank walks by and it is the cutest thing ever. We celebrated Craw's first Fathers Day and Camden spoiled him big time.

Likes

He still loves bath time and enjoyed swimming for the first time this month. I have a feeling he is going to love swimming in the pool this summer. He likes rolling over, playing with his Mickey Mouse toy, and chewing on his fists. We are at the stage where EVERYTHING goes in his mouth (blanket, hand, fist, bib, etc).

Dislikes

Being hot, tired, or hungry. I feel like this is the same every month but he will quickly let you know if he is one of those 3 things. He can literally be screaming one minute and all you have to do is stick a paci in his mouth and he is asleep within 10 seconds. Although we didn't really try food for long, he did NOT like bananas. The doctor told us to give him some bananas for a stomach issue he was having and he gagged and spit it out. Hoping that will change but we will see.

Clothes

He is in 6 month clothes in everything now. In fact, I have put all 3 month clothes away. There are a few 3-6 month onesies he can wear but it's mostly 6 month.

Camden Ivey, my smiley happy baby. You keep us on our toes in all the best ways. Playing with you is so fun because we love to hear you laugh. Watching you with your brother was my favorite this month because you think Hank is hilarious! You are so happy and will let anyone hold you but you still like to be able to see your dad and I. We love you little booger and are so excited to officially make you a Bolton this week at your final court hearing!