Our NEW man....

Ok...it has been a month now and I finally have a moment tell our blog friends....WE ARE PARENTS!

Matthew Aiden was placed in our arms on January 14th, 2011 and born on August 31st 2010. At the time we took home home he was 4.5 months & 17 pounds... a true bouncing baby boy. Matthew means "Gift from God" and we are truly blessed to have him in our lives.  We know it was meant to be since we weren’t on the official adoption list until November.

It was a whirlwind of a week…  Jan. 10th we got a call from our adoption social worker. She told us that a birth family wanted to introduce us to a little guy named Matthew.... on Thursday!

Long story short, we spent Thursday with the birth family, got to “babysit” Matthew Thursday night, and Friday Jan. 14 we got to start our journey home.

January 28th, 2011, we had the court hearing that terminated the parental rights of the birth family. We got to have a wonderful meeting with our birth mother and her cousin right afterwards. This is truly an angel on earth.

In the short time we’ve had together, Matthew is such a joy.  He is now 5 1/2 months old and he has already found a pretty cute giggle, has a wonderful smile, can create really smelly dipers, and has his two parents wrapped around his little fingers.

Thank you for all your support through this long/short process. We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Can’t wait for everyone to meet Matthew! 

So Long 2010...

Wow, December was a crazy month. We had a great holiday with friends, family and lots of SNOW! I have to say we are very lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing and supportive people. For the lack of things to say, here is a recap of our holidays in pictures. Enjoy!

Holiday Traditions

One of my favorite this to do during the holiday season is to bake...in particular, my Grandma Myrtle's sugar cookies. The late great Myrtle Gauslow was a master in the kitchen. She could make her oven do things many master pastry chefs jealous.

Every (and I do mean every) holiday Grandma would bake, decorate, and individually package cookies for my brother and my elementary classes. I was so proud to pass out the confectionary treasures to all my eager classmates. Thanks again Grandma...I love you!
In the spirit of giving, here is her famous recipe. Enjoy!
 White Rolled Cookies From: Myrtle Gauslow
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, unbeaten
2 tbsp. cream
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour (plus a little more for flouring your rolling surface)
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter, sugar, egg, cream and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl; flour, baking powder & salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix. Roll thin on a floured surface. Cut with your favorite cookie cutters. Sprinkle with a little extra white sugar before baking. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are a very pail light brown. Frost with your favorite frosting, but I have been using the one below.
Frosting:4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup shortening
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring
In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Spreading the word....

If you read my last post, you know that tomorrow is National Adoption Day! All over the country, thousand of families will be making their families official by finalizing their adoptions.

Help us (any the many other families hoping to adopt) by spreading the word about the miracle of adoption! Let's harness the power of Facebook and other social networking site... share this, create a post or add our "blog sticker" to your own blog/website (see the side links for the html code). Thanks to my dear friend and "work spouse" for her shout out on Facebook. That is what I am talking about!

The more people that know about adoption, the more families we can create.



Copy and paste the following code into an HTML gadget in your blog layout:
<a href="http://aaronkariadopt.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Hoping to Adopt!" src="http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j477/Kari_Kleingartner/blogbutton.jpg" /></a>



Talk about a sign from above....

November 20th is our 6th wedding anniversary! Wow, how time files when you are having fun.

We love our anniversary because it give us an excuse to go to a fancy dinner, have a nice wine and totally focus on each other. One of our traditions is we love to look at our wedding album and reminisce about stories of the day and how much fun we had (don't worry family, I will leave it at that). It is kind of hard to think of ways we could make it better... until now!

November 20th is also "National Adoption Day!" Not that we need any more confirmation that adoption is the perfect way to build our family, but is sure feels like a sign from above to me!

For years to come, our anniversary day will no longer be about us as a couple, but it will be a way for us to celebrate the creation of a family.

Please pass on the word about adoption...there are so many deserving families waiting to take a child into their loving homes all over the country. Help make our dreams come true.

Here is a link to the official Facebook page: National Adoption Day

The Happiest Sad

When I started our blog, in true Kari fashion, I set out to learn as much about adoption, blogging and the combo of the two. This week I came across this amazing blog by an even more amazing person. "The Happiest Sad" is written by a birthmother. It tells a story of adoption that is not often told, at least not as eloquently as this.

One post in particular I liked was the "How To Irritate a Birth Mother" post. It is a great education tool for the adoption community (and general public!)

Hope you check it out!

Lambert the Sheepish Lion

Lambert the Sheepish Lion was a staple in our house going up. It was one of our go-to movies when we were not feeling well, it was a snow day, or we just wanted to watch a good story. Now that I am older, I understand that Lambert was an "Adopted Child" of the sheep herd! If you have never seen it, it is totally worth the 8 minutes of your day!

Enjoy!