Emmalyn Elise is here!

Emmalyn Elise was born on Tuesday April 3, 2012 at 12:12 p.m. She was 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 3/4 inches. She is a great baby! And her sweet sister has been pretty amazing with her too.

Newborn Emmalyn

Meeting big sister for the first time!

Headed home!

Dad and his beautiful girls

1 week old

New family pictures

Several weeks ago, Ryan, a friend of ours, took some great pics of our family. Here are a few of my favorites.

So many choices

You've heard of Pinterest right? Seriously, if you haven't, you really need to check it out.

I've been working on a board for Emmalyn's room, but it has so many ideas I'm having trouble paring it down. So to help myself, here are a few of my absolute favorites. What do you think?

For wall color and wainscotting (although ours will be higher up, more like 3/4's the height of the room)

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Love the yellow dresser. We currently have an old highboy dresser that is green. I think it is time for a new color and new handles.

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Love this free printable as a mobile

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Gorgeous hand lettered chalk sign for Emmalyn's name and birth date

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Love the tissue poms!

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Wall art options

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Two rug options:

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wallpaper behind the crib?

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OK I think that's enough for now :). Hopefully we will get started on the room over the holidays. I am ready to see it start to come together! We can't wait for Miss Emmalyn to be here!

Out of the mouths of babes

So, I just had to record my conversation with Lilli yesterday for posterity.

Lilli: Mommy, I don't know what I'm getting you yet for Christmas. I'm getting Daddy a new computer.

Me: You are?

Lilli: Yep, a blue one, not a white one.

Me: Who's going to pay for that.

Lilli: I don't know, but they are. And when they buy it, I'm going to download it.

Me: Oh really? Baby what does download mean?

Lilli: It's when they put it all in a package. I'm going to get it for Daddy and then download it!

Me: OK baby. <laughing inside and wishing I had recorded this conversation> I know your Daddy will love it!

Introducing....

Emmalyn Elise Cornwell

Big News!

Today we received this.....

Because of this.....

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting a new addition this Spring!!! (And yes, baby #2 definitely showed a lot faster than baby #1. Chris is convinced there are two in there, but I have had 2 ultrasounds to prove him otherwise.)

This has definitely not been the plan for the last two years, but we knew we really wanted to have another biological child. It wasn't a quick and easy process with Lilli, so when the "great slow down" with the adoption happened, we decided to leave it up to God as to which child would join our family next. Two months later we were pregnant.

We have made the very difficult decision to leave Gladney (current process requires that we go on hold until the new baby is 6 months old or terminate our contract). This was not easy. We still feel like adoption is God's plan for our family. Once the baby is born, we will start looking into different adoption options that will be open to us because we are older than we were when we started the Ethiopian process and because God has opened our hearts to different avenues of adoption we weren't previously open to.

I will still be following each and every one of your family's adoption stories. I can't wait to hear about all of your great news!! Since our adoption process is on hold, I will probably start our family blog back up, but more to come on that later. Thank you for all of the support you've given us over the last two years! It means more than you could ever know.

Life

Some of you may know my mom, some may not. She has watched Lilli, who lovingly refers to her as Nana, since she was just 6 weeks old. Do the math, that makes about 3.5 years. About a year and a half ago, she decided her days weren't crazy enough chasing around my busy toddler so she started a quilt ministry at her church. She and a group of friends get together and sew (and continue to sew individually) to make quilts to give to people who have been diagnosed with illness, injured in an accident, etc.

Recently her quilt ministry became more important than ever. You see, about a month ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her sweet, sweet friends in the ministry made her a quilt last week. Would you hop over to my mom's blog, see the gorgeous quilt they made her, and leave her a message of encouragement?

Mom started chemo yesterday and so far she is doing well. She will continue through chemo for about 18 weeks and then have surgery and radiation. My baby Lilli, who isn't really a baby anymore, will be starting preschool in just a couple of weeks. Lots of changes for all of us.

Would you say a prayer for my mom, Lilli, and our family? That Mom will continue to feel good through her treatments and that those treatments will work to rid her body of cancer. That Lilli will love her new school and handle the transition well.

Mom - if you made it this far - know that I love you very much. You are the strongest, most independent, headstrong woman I know. And while those traits may drive me crazy sometimes, I know for a fact that those traits were given to you for times like these. The next year will hold its challenges but we will face them together as a family with God by our side. I love you!

"You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away. And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning. And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security." Job 11:16-18