Friday, April 18, 2008

A little life vest just for Kara



Kara received her first life vest today. It will really come in handy when we rent the pontoon boat in Florida! Our sweet girl will be very safe.

Kara's new play tent


Since we'll be taking several camping trips, and making a trip to the beach in Florida, we decided that a play tent would be a great idea for Kara. It gives her a safe area to play and nap, out of the direct sun, but allows lots of air to flow through the front and large windows on the sides. Kara seems to like it!

Kara's 1st haircut!




Kara's hair is growing so fast that it was covering her eyes--and keeping hair clips in a 9 month-old's hair is impossible! Teri, the wonderful lady that does Kathy's and Samantha's hair, was happy to give Kara her first haircut. The first picture is the 'before', and shows you just how long her hair was; the middle picture shows the haircut 'in process', and the last picture is the 'after haircut'. Isn't she a cutie?!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Another adorable picture


Just had to share the picture of Kara playing on Nevaeh's slide (Cammi's daughter)! What a cutie!

It's Official!


The finalization of the adoption in Pryor, Oklahoma went off without a hitch yesterday morning! In fact, it wasn't even a 'hearing' in the traditional sense. We arrived at the courthouse and met with the attorney at 9 am. The attorney told us to have a seat in Judge McBride's courtroom while she went back into the judge's chambers, and would come back to get us in a few minutes. About 10 minutes later, the attorney came out and told us, "You're done!" The judge didn't even choose to meet us or Kara, but the paperwork was signed, and just needed to be certified by the Clerk of Courts. It honestly was a little anti-climatic, but the end result is all that matters. Kara is now officially a 'Lang'--although she's always felt like one to us!

It seemed a little ridiculous for us to fly all the way to Oklahoma, just to sit in an empty courtroom for 10-15 minutes, and pick up a piece of paper that could have been mailed to us. All in all, the weekend was absolutely worth it (even all of the headaches with the airlines) because we got to spend precious time with Kara's birth family. We commemorated the day by taking a picture with a sleepy Kara, who had just woken up from a nap.

FYI...we didn't get home from Oklahoma until 2 am this morning. Needless to say, the three of us are still recuperating. :-)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Spending time with Kara's birth-family








Kara is 9 months old today! We spent a nice afternoon with Cammi, Kara's birthmother, Cammi's parents (Micara & Daniel), and Codie, Cammi's sister. Of course, they were all excited about seeing Kara and how big she's grown! Kara had a good time playing with Nevaeh, Cammi's daughter. We took lots of pictures that will be great to show Kara as she gets older.

The first picture is Tim, Cammi, Kathy & Kara. The second picture is Kara and Nevaeh. The third picture is Cammi & Kara. The fourth picture is Codie & Kara. The fifth picture is Micara, Kara & Nevaeh, and the last picture is Daniel, Nevaeh & Kara.

Flight to Oklahoma

Everything started out just great! We left Baltimore on time and landed in Detroit on time. Unfortunately for us, and all the other people that got on the plane in Detroit to fly to Tulsa, the pilot was a 'no show'. We got the news after we waited for 30 minutes on the plane, when the flight attendant told us we had to get off and wait another 1 1/2 hours at the gate. We were told not to leave the area, because there was always a possibility that we could leave earlier. Then, we were told that they would not give us Kara's car seat and stroller back--b/c it was already on the plane! No problem with taking us off...but wouldn't consider the idea of accommodating families with children who wanted their strollers. There were only two families on the plane that checked strollers at plane-side. So, we finally took off 1/2 hour after we were supposed to have landed in Oklahoma. Kara was happy on both plane trips--until she got tired. Then she cried herself to sleep, which is uncomfortable when sitting in such close quarters next to complete strangers. Poor thing! We landed in Tulsa at 10:30, and it was midnight before we arrived at our hotel. Kara slept in the rental van, and was an angel when we finally got her into her PJ's and fed her the last bottle of the day. She even slept in until 7:45!