Amazing Week!

This past week just flew by and was amazing!

• I taught my first cooking class at our local Williams Sonoma. It was a lot of fun and believe I wow'd the pants off the General Manager. I had 10 people attending my class and we just had a blast. I look forward to the monthly classes!
• Mary Twedt from Arkansas Cooks came to our house and interviewed me for her radio program on NPR. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the new business that will come from the exposure. My interview should be on 89.1 FM in 2 weeks, Saturday at noon.
• Chefs USA called me and offered me a job doing monthly cooking demos at our new Fresh Market store in Little Rock. I agreed and look forward to using this to market my personal chef business.
• Robbie's mom finished the curtains for the baby's room. Check out the pictures below.
• We had the privilege of chatting over the phone with our birth mom today. She is doing well! She told us she has been experiencing some pain....I guess Collier is getting ready to appear. Her next doctor's appt is this coming Wednesday. We will get a new report then!
• I had the privilege of being with my mom today, celebrating Mother's Day. I cooked lunch and gave her a webcam for her computer so she can see Collier anytime she wants!

Russ

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We are registered!

Many of you have asked where we have registered. We spent this afternoon doing just that at Target.

Go to Target.com!

Russ

Baby Room Painting Complete

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Robbie and I have completed the painting of the baby room. We are especially proud of the checker-board behind the crib. It adds clean lines to the room and a little bit of flare! Collier will love the colors!! :)

Russ

And the names are.....

Robbie and I made our final decisions on names today while traveling to Ft. Smith:

Boy: Collier Zachary Rhodes
Girl: Brooklyn Grace Rhodes

This is fun!

Russ

Working on the nursery!

I am sitting here in the nursery working on this blog post. We have completely painted the room and I just finished putting the crib together.

Robbie is taping off squares on one wall...we are going to paint a checker-board on that wall. The crib will be up against this wall. I will take pictures of it and post them when it is complete.

It is cool to sit here; looking around the room; thinking about all the time that will be spent here; sleeping, eating, pooping, peeing, dreaming, playing, hoping, a little boy asking Jesus to be his Savior!

Russ

Just an awesome day!!

We made a trip to Ft. Smith today to meet the birth mom. We were nervous; not wanting to say the wrong thing, yet hoping to ask the right questions and give the right amount of encouragement. So, we prayed! We asked God to give us the ability to honor and glorify Him with our words, deeds and actions. And guess what? In God-like fashion, He did just that. The meeting was a great success and we are so thankful we relied on the Holy Spirit to guide our speech and actions.

It was great to finally meet our birth mom. We had a great lunch. We talked; she asked questions and we asked questions. We laughed, we cried, we hit it off! She gave us 2 ultra-sound pictures of the baby and we gave her a monogrammed bath robe.

After lunch, we went to Old Navy where she bought some clothes. From Old Navy, we went to her doctor's appointment. All is good..her blood sugar is good, her blood pressure is good and she did not gain any weight since her last visit. She is working very hard to eat healthfully, drinking lots of water and walking every day for exercise.

From there, we went to where she is staying during her pregnancy. We got a tour and it was an awesome place.

We believe this was an awesome visit. We know we made a good impression as much as she made a good impression on us!

Praise, honor and glory to our God; from whom all blessing flow!

Russ

The Joke is, "The Baby needs...."

Robbie and I made the pilgrimage to Babies-R-Us in Memphis. Nothing but a big store full of every baby toy/tool/trinket ever invented. It was overwhelming, fun, and budget busting all at once! We also went to the Carter's Outlet in Tunica. Well, yes, you can't go to Tunica without dropping at least 2 quarters into the slot machine...did we win, well NO! But baby needs a new.....!

We came up with this running joke to find ways to buy stuff for us...we would say, "The baby needs...(fill in the blank). The baby needs a new car...get my meaning? LOL I guess you had to be there.

Take a look at what we picked up:

Travel System

Playard (pack N play)

Painted Nursery/Phone call with birth mom

Today was a fun day! We got 3/4 of the nursery painted! The colors look fabulous! We also had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with the adoption agency and the birth mom. It was a short conversation, but mainly it was done to decide where we will meet for lunch this coming Wednesday. We will drive to Ft. Smith, have lunch with the birth mom and go with her to her doctor's appt.

Robbie and I are very excited about meeting her!

Russ

Specifics of Adoption Match

Here is more information concerning the birth mom we have matched with.

She is 22. Her family is very supportive of her decision!

She was shown several scrapbook portfolios and after looking through ours, she clutched it to her chest and said, "This is MY family!" We took this as a confirmation from God that she is the mom we have been praying for.

The doctors claim we are having a boy, based on an ultra-sound....but we will be prepared if a girl arrives.

We will be meeting with her a week from today (next Wednesday) as we go with her to her next doctor's appointment. Pray that our meeting will go well!

Russ

Baby Room Construction Has Begun!!

Robbie and I went on a hunt this afternoon to find fabric for curtains and bedding. We started at a local store and went through the whole store collecting samples. I found some things that I liked, but nothing that just WOW'd me...nothing that popped when you looked at it. If you know me, you know that I don't think long about something. If I like it, it is great...so grab it and go. It I don't, dump it and go. The key word here is GO! LOL

Anyway I turned around and saw this bolt of fabric leaning against the wall near the front door. We had walked right past it. I gasped and said, there it is! Robbie came over to where I was standing and fully agreed with me...it was it...we had found exactly what we were looking for and at the first stop. See the pics below. It is awesome! This fabric will be the curtains, bed bumper and a blanket. See pic below!
Russ