Pritchard Baby Fund......

We have had several people to ask us what they could do to help out with our adoption. This process is really teaching us alot about our family and friends. All good things, I promise! As most of you know we've taken out the equity on our home, held a BBQ fundraiser, applied for adoption grants, and filed our 2006 income taxes. Our beginning adoption budget was $0. We have now reached the 75% mark to our adoption budget goal amount. YAY! We're almost there!

We really take pride in being self-sufficiant and it has been hard for us to ask everyone to help out. We are trying hard to make our dream of a having a family come true. If anyone is interested we've placed a 'Make a Donation Button' on the right hand side of our blog above our picture. If you will click on the button it will take you directly to paypal for a secure donation. You just enter your donation amount and payment information. If anyone has questions feel free to call or email us!

A month of waiting.....

and still counting. I know a month really isn't that long considering what we will receive in the end. An angel! But considering the fact that we have been waiting almost four years for this to happen it makes it seem like soo much longer. There's not too much to update as of now. We've officially began clearing the 'nursery' of non baby items. We have one or two items still left but nothing major.

We will be picking up Savannah for an overnighter tonight and having dinner with Granny. We have also decided that we should go ahead and let her purchase the crib. We will order the changing table at the same time to make sure they match. We want to be prepared as a 'just in case' measure of precaution. When we're home with our baby we shouldn't have to worry about putting together nursery furniture and moving it around. We should get to be enjoying our new bundle of joy just like everyone else! Hopefully we won't have the typical nine month wait most parents do and we can't buy everything at once.

We appreciate everyone's prayers and hope you will continue to send them up for us!

First Baby Shopping Trip

Saturday, January 6th
(I know I'm a little delayed with my posting. Sorry!)

We made a trip to Macon to start purchasing baby items. We realized that there would be NO WAY we could run out and purchase everything at once. My Mom, Granny, and best friend, Meagan went to Baby depot, Target, and Wal-mart. We now have the basic baby items like bottles, bibs, a few diapers, a few wipes, and one piece outfits. I've never seen soo much baby stuff at one time! My Granny was on a mission to find us a crib but unfortunately we didn't get that accomplished. She and I have since found a really nice one in the JcPenney's catalog. Once we have one I will do my best to post a pic.

The past two Sunday's we have traveled back to our hometown church. It's soo nice to be back in our hometown where we know everyone and everyone knows us. We have a few friends here but there's nothing like seeing people who knew us growing up and seeing people we grew up with. We pray we can continue attending there at Dakota Baptist. It's only about a thirty minute drive and we can visit family while we are there. I think the only downfall will be not being able to go during the week. We shall see how things go!

Happy New Year

We hope this year brings joy and happiness to everyone! We spent New Year's Day with family. Chad's Mom cooked us lunch and my Mom prepared dinner. Both were wonderful!

We told Todd and Erine we had to hold Ethan since it's rumored that whatever you do on New Year's you will do all year long. He broke me in good with a big spit-up and a full diaper! I'm confident I helped him feel better. After he showed Chad what he could do he no longer put in to hold the little guy. He was just trying to break him in right!

Pictures from BBQ Fundraiser

Us with all the pound cake and bread!

Me and Granny

Chad cooking all those wonderful green beans.

Here are the pictures I promised from our BBQ fundraiser for those of you who couldn't be here. I forgot my camera that day so Meagan saved the day with a couple pictures. I think she always has her camera! Thanks!!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve night!!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was great and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a phone call. We're optimistic that this was our last Christmas alone. My Mom is also confident! (Hince all the gifts for baby Pritchard!) We are very greatful for everything. It's less we will have to spend on baby items. Thanks Mom!! I look forward to that shopping trip after we're matched and find out pink or blue. We hope everyone enjoys their DVD!

We spent Christmas Eve with Chad's family this year. Everyone was doing much better just in time! We had finger foods and exchanged a few gifts. Everyone got to come except Tonya and her family.

Christmas Day was spent mostly with my Mom. She had baked all of her specialty finger foods. Granny and Aunt Josie brought over a cheese tray and two Red Velvet cakes. Needless to say we had plenty of food. The kids had a great time opening their gifts and showing us what Santa had brought the night before.

Alex, Sam, Emily, and Josh we thought about you and we miss you!!! You guys spoiled us last year being here during Christmas. Hope we can see you guys soon.

Let the Submitting Begin!

Our homestudy has been received by Amy at CAC. She will begin submitting us ASAP to adoption agencies! Now we just wait for a birthmom to choose us to parent her child.

In the meantime we are still looking for creative ways to raise money to help fund our adoption. Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Anyone can leave comments on our website by clicking on the word comments at the bottom of each post. It will have a number before the word showing how many comments have been posted.

Please keep us in your prayers while we drive ourselves crazy with wonder and excitement!

We are in business.......

our homestudy was in our mail box this afternoon. I hope that CAC has received their copy. They are closed for Christmas but told us we would still be submitted when it was received regardless of when it arrived. We are praying that our wait is short but we know that we have to be patient. That's the one thing I think we've been taught over the past three years. Let the submitting begin!

Paper Pregnant!

Our homestudy has been approved and we are waiting to receive it in the mail. Once it is received by our consultant she will then begin submitting us as a waiting family to agencies across the United States. We are now to the drive us crazy part where we just sit and wait on a phone call. Once the agencies that we have been submitted to find a situation that they think we may be interested in they will contact our consultant. She will then contact us for the approval to submit our information to the birthmom. We will continue with those steps until a birthmom decides we are the family she wishes to raise her baby. If the baby has already been born we would then begin the frantic packing event and jump on an airplane to pick up our child. If the birthmom is still pregnant then we will follow her to the end of her pregnancy and meet at delivery when our baby is born to assume custody. Sometimes this can go very quickly and sometimes this can take several months.

Everyone who knows us knows that I like to be prepared for anything and everything. If I have the slightest feeling it may happen I prepare for it. If I think it might happen I prepare for it. If I have a hunch it could happen I prepare for it. LOL! You get my point! Chad and I have agreed that it would be best to wait until we are matched to start buying major baby items like a crib, changing table, etc. That way we should know the sex of the baby and we won't have a completed nursery without a baby to put in it. This has really tested me because I KNOW it is going to happen and that we ARE going to become parents in God's time. My brain keeps asking, "Why not prepare the nursery?" and my heart keeps telling me to wait because it might be too painful to have an empty nursery. Chad is being my restraint system at this point!

Todd and Erine's Newest Addition.....

This was right before his feeding and diaper change.

He just didn't want to wake up!

Second feeding after being born.

Ethan having his first diaper change! Stinky boy!!

has arrived! We are the proud Aunt and Uncle of Ethan Myers Pritchard, who was born about 11:30 this morning. He weighed in at 6lbs and 14.9 ounces. Big Sister Madison had to show off her little brother immediately to Uncle Chad upon him entering the room with Mama's post delivery Mountain Dew. She took him by the hand straight to the nursery to introduce her little brother!

We went together for a visit after work and they all seemed to be doing ok. Erine was in a great deal of pain and they were both very tired from not getting any sleep during the night. Erine requested more Mountain Dew and some chocolate before we went home. Chad's Dad, who was up one floor, had requested a cheeseburger. We had our orders and were off to complete them. We choose Wendy's since it's a burger place and convenient store in one. We delivered the burger, chocolate, and drinks and left for the night. We hope everyone has a good night sleep!!