NYC

I am in love with New York City...done and done.

Yesterday, Adam's parents took us on a day trip to NYC.  As much as I have traveled all over the place,  I had never been to NYC before that.

It has always been a dream, and now it's realized.

We seriously took over 100 photos of the day and it is sooo hard to only choose a few of them but here we go...

Ok, I know that it's still a lot of photos but....I loved it!!

There are so many more photos and a ton of Instagrams and instal photos too.

I am definitely going to have to make a little mini book of our New York City trip.

HUGE thank your to Pops for driving me all over NYC and making all of my Big Apple dreams come true :)

xo

janel

nieces and nephews

We are having a blast here!

The past two days have been full of fun times with nieces and nephews up here in Massachusetts.  

Auntie Janel and Uncle Adam brought lots of presents for these cuties :) We are so lucky to have all of them in our family.

We also hit up some antique malls (which are amazing up here).

This trip has been a blast so far!  It is so good to see everyone and to catch up and to just spend time being with each other.  

It's so great to see Adam with his family. We love them!

Tomorrow is NYC!!

I seriously can not wait.

We are only going to be in the city for one day so I have a short list of things I really want to see on this trip.

On my list is:

* hot dog vendor

* pretzel vendor

*  The Guggenheim

* Statue of Liberty

*  Broadway

 * Times Square

I think that may be it but Im not sure. If it's a tourist trap, I am sure to be there :) Adam's dad is an awesome tour guide so I know we will get to see a lot of the city!  

I will have lots and lots of photos to share with you tomorrow night for sure

love you!

xo

janel

Insta-roadtrip

Did you know that you can make Instagram books with Blurb?  Pretty awesome right?

So, after finding this out, I decided that I would document our little trip to Massachusetts and New York with an Instagram book!

For the past two days, it has been driving driving, a night in Pennsylvania, and more driving.

We finally got to Adam's parent's house last night about 8:00pm EST.

It feels so good to be here and to be able to spend time with his family.

Anway, we are heading out to breakfast soon but I thought I would share some Insta-roadtrip photos with you before we leave :)

Start time!

 We drove by Gus' and had to stop for some fresh pretzels before we left St. Louis

 Indiana skies

 Ohio!

 My turn to drive

 Dinner at Cracker Barrel

road trip hair...yikes!

 rainy Pennsylvania

 Jersey

 New York

 The George Washington Bridge (so pretty)

a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for a frozen hot chocolate.

Although the ride was really really (times 100) long, we did have a lot of fun.  Adam is the perfect person to road trip with because he's so easy going and never gets crabby. Plus, he drives those long roads like a rock star.  I tried to get every singe "Welcome to..." signs as we entered states but I totally missed Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  I'll have to try and get them on the way home :)  Hopefully, after a week of family and fun I will have a cute little Instagram book to share!

Ok, pancakes are calling my name.

love you!

xo

janel

road tripping

(image)

Tomorrow morning, very very early, Adam and I will be embarking on a 21 hour road trip to Massachusetts.  We are both so excited to see his family and to be able to spend time with them! They have lots of fun plans for us including a day trip to New York City on Wednesday :)

We are also going to see Wicked on Broadway that night!!  so excited.  I also plan to eat a hot dog, and a pretzel in New York while we are there (both from vendors).

Needless to say, it may be a couple of days before I can post again, depending on when and where we can get internet  connection on the road.  We plan to break our driving up in two days with a night in either Ohio or Pennsylvania.

I have not packed a single thing yet, and Adam has challenged me to make at least 15 mixed CD's for the road.  Fun Fun!!

I'll be back with road trip photos as soon as I can :)

I love you all!

xo

janel

reading...

So, our next step while we wait for our Home Study Visits (after vacation) is to read, read, read.  We were given a list of suggested books that pertain to adoption.  We have to have  a list of these in our file.  There is a section on Open Adoptions, Adoption Issues, International Adoptions, and Biracial/Transracial Adoptions.  Fortunately, we have read a lot of the books on the list but the ones that we haven't we ordered.  

(We do have a 20 hour drive coming up this weekend)

Here are some of the books that we have read:

and we also made a list of all of the children's books that we have for our children about adoption...

I personally, have read all of these :)  I love children's books...like love.

If you have any suggestions on adoption books for parents or children or even family members I would love to hear them.

If you need some recommendations for these kinds of books, these were all pretty great.

Back to reading!!

xo

janel

a labor of love...

Well my friends, this has been a long time coming...

Our Home Study Application is DONE!!!

40 pages later...this lovely application is ready to be handed in.

We have been so blessed to be working with such an amazing social worker.

She is really helping us progress on the right track with our adoption so far.

We are turning our application and contract in tomorrow.

Since Adam and I are leaving for Massachusetts and New York this Saturday, we will start our Home Study visits the week we get back.

Please keep Adam and I and our future baby in your prayers through this process. 

Things are finally moving forward and I want to give all of the glory to God.

We are really really excited.

xo

janel