Guest Blog Spot! 

I was able to guest blog on an amazing site.  Please go check it out and read through the archives too!  Seriously amazing stories that point to our Savior.  Such uplifting reads.  Add this one to your blogs to check each day!  

http://www.revealingthestory.com/but-god/  

GGMa is home!

For those of you that know, Dan's Grandmother Florence lives with us. She is referred to as "GGMa" since she is Jadon's Great Grandmother. We are super blessed to be able to love on her and have her in our home.

On July 5th, she passed out in the hallway, and fell, fracturing her hip. Thus we have had a month of hospital stays, surgery for her hip, and recovery both at the hospital and a nursing facility where she received physical therapy to walk and get around.

I'm happy to say that our roomie is finally home as of noon yesterday! We are so thrilled to have her back in the house. Now Jadon can run up to her every morning like he used to. While she was gone he'd taken to knocking on her bedroom door to see if she would come out. They are too cute together!

Thank you all for prayers and blessing us with watching Jadon while we had to travel to and from the hospital and care home. We are truly blessed by so many friends and family who are prayer warriors with us.

Hello Again!

So apparently I'm not that fabulous of a blogger. Seems it has been since September 2010 since I blogged about our happy life. Well, here is the update!

After our roomie Brad moved out we quickly learned that Dan's grandma Florence was going to take us up on our offer to move in. This put into motion the completion of the master bath, and a massive room swap. We moved into one of the additional bedrooms, and created a fabulous suite with the master bedroom for GGMa to move in. So construction dusted our happy home for about 3 months. Christmas came and went, and in March, we moved GGMa in! Jadon is thrilled with our new roomie and greets GGMa with a happy "hi" every morning as she emerges from her room.

Jadon is doing awesome. We were able to have a visit with Shelby, Jadon's birthmom, in late December. This was a special time to re-connect with her and see how her life was going. There was a sweet moment in our visit, when Jadon fell asleep in her lap.

Fast forward to April, and we celebrated Jadon's first birthday. What a fabulous host of friends and family that surrounded him on his special day. Sadly Shelby and Clint (birth-dad) were not able to attend. This would have been the first time we would have met Clint, but alas car trouble prevented the visit.

Now we are headed into summer. With a garden planted and my new greenhouse up and full of herbs...I can't wait for the summer bbq's, fun in the sprinklers, and watching Jadon enjoy swimming for the first time.

Blessings to your summer too! Hope to post again soon.

Time Flys When You're Having Fun!!!

Wow, Time does indeed fly when having fun, which has been what the McChesney family has been doing all summer!

Since my last post, Jadon has grown tremendously. Somehow he thinks that it is imperative that he store up reserves for the winter, and has subsequently packed on the pounds. While my friends, with children the same age, are happily carrying around the equivalent of marshmallow puff, I am building P90X worthy biceps lugging around my tank of a kid. Everyone says it is just the baby fat...let's hope so! In the meantime I keep discovering the hidden filth of baby fat rolls. Eeeekkkkk! (Really he is adorable and I wouldn't change a thing [parental disclaimer])

So how much fun have we had you ask? Well, let me tell you! Our fabulous friends, Jason and Carrie, invited us to their family cabin near Yosemite (which we secretly pray for every time the weather turns sunny and snow melts off the peak...."Please Lord, let our friends invite us to their rockin' cabin for the summer, Amen") This particular year, was especially prayed over, because now we have Jadon. It is a whole new ballgame to be invited to someones second home, for many days, when you have a child. That child brings new challenges, and distractions, and an exceptional amount of planning. Nonetheless, we got the invite..kiddo and all. Dan and I each packed a suitcase....I then packed Jadon's entire nursery. See pics below..we had a blast, and Jadon did great (even in his life jacket). We also were blessed with the attendance of Sean and Sarah, whom we love, and were able to see their glorious attempts at wake boarding rewarded with actual wake time! So fun we almost couldn't handle it.

A return to reality (Because the cabin is in an alternate world where reality no longer exits...just pure bliss) brought us to our life group where much growth has taken place. Comprised of four couples including Dan and I, our life-group meets every other Sunday and we share our struggles, joys, frustrations, and marital issues. We pray for each other, encourage each other, and keep each other accountable to God's direction in our lives. We are super blessed and encouraged every time we see this group. It has truly been one of the great blessings for 2010, to share life with these amazing people. You know who you are and we love you!

So now September has arrived. I hope to blog more this fall. Jadon is four months old now, and I can't wait to see the milestones that arrive with each month. We are sadly losing our house guest, who has taken a job in Tennessee. You have been a great friend and roomie Brad. We wish you the best of luck, and hope to see you back in California soon!

With the loss of Brad as a roommate, comes the challenge of finishing the master bath remodel and planning the landscaping of the backyard for next summer. Planning must start now to ensure a successful summer project. (that is the OCDiva talking here)

Mother Nature's teasing of a couple cooler days has made me want fall to arrive in a hurry. Thank you summer, our time was fun, but we'd like your friend Fall to arrive and stay for some time. Pumpkins, apples, cinnamon, and cider....here we come.

Wishing you all a fabulous fall. Hope you visit again.

McChesneys

Baby Shower

I wanted to write on the feelings and emotions that come with adoption. That is part of my reason for this blog. (and to brag like crazy about Jadon and my hubby) So in all the whirlwind of activity that accompanied our selection as adoptive parents and getting ready to bring a little one home, and make the perfect nursery, and so on.....there was a moment that touched me deeply. My close friends Carrie and Sarah threw me a baby shower. That might not seem big to many people. All women who have babies have a baby shower. But that isn't so.

As an adoptive parent, you want so badly to experience everything that a pregnant woman would experience, and yet, when you don't have a belly hanging two feet past your toes, it is amazing how much you think you will miss, because no one knows to ask. And there is something about bringing up the topic. How do you ask your friends or family to throw you a baby shower? I really wanted to experience that, but would never have asked.

Luckily I didn't have to, my fabulous friends leaped into action. The moment we got the call that we had been selected, they were off and running. They put on the most elegant, perfect baby shower in less than 3 weeks, and I felt so blessed. I wanted to cry the whole day, because it was really happening. I was getting a baby shower, because I was getting a baby. It was surreal and weird, and wonderful all at the same time. (granted the weird part may have been because I stuffed a pillow in my shirt and pretended to be prego for the shower).

The secondary blessing that came from having a baby shower thrown for me, was that Jadon arrived almost two weeks early, and I would have been lost without the thoughtful gifts I received from my friends.

Now I should mention that my family threw an awesome shower after Jadon came home, and filled the gap by purchasing just about everything else I was still lacking.

So let me take a moment to say thank you to Carrie and Sarah for providing something every adoptive mom secretly hopes someone will remember, and for making it amazing and special. And for all you out there who are friends of adoptive parents or soon to be parents....please throw them a baby shower, complete with cheesy games. I guarantee its something they would love.

Welcome to McChesney Mania!

The beginning:

Dan and I met in the summer of 1998 and our courtship centered on swing dancing and bible study. What a great combo! In August of 1999, Dan proposed, and on December 4th, 1999, we married and began what has been ten years of marital bliss. Yes there have been ups and downs, and highs and lows, but overall, the marriage gets better and better every year. Our first couple years we lived in duplex in Roseville. Dan finished school and I worked. Then we both were in the corporate world, and in 2004 we bought our first home. Our five year anniversary we ventured to Ohau, Hawaii, and experience snorkling in Hanama Bay, hiked Diamond Head (pic), visited Pearl Harbor, and boogey boarded on Waikkikki Beach. What an amazing trip. We planned to go back again in 2009 for our ten year anniversary but instead we embarked on the trip of a lifetime.

After seven years of marriage Dan and I started down the road to children, only to find out we weren't on the freeway to pregnancy, but rather the frontage road of adoption. After finding we couldn't get pregnant, we attended a seminar with Bethany Adoption Services in July 2009, and by August we had signed up! It took another seven months of paperwork, and background checks, and profile creation to finalize all our requirements, and we were happily placed on a wait list for a baby in February 2010. We expected to wait for about a year before we got the call, so imagine our suprise when a little over a month later, on March 18th, 2010, we got the call that we had been selected by a birthmom, for her baby, due in May! Wow....it was a rush, and it was scary all at the same time.

Would we like the birthmom? Would she like us and still pick us after we met her? What were the circumstances and why did she want to place her child up for adoption. The birthmom lived 7hrs from us, and our first visit to her on March 29th, 2010 was a long, long, drive, with lots of conversation. Were we ready? She was due in May!!! That wasn't long to get ready and have the nursery I wanted, and to be prepared mentally for the single biggest change in our lives.

We met Shelby that morning, and it was amazing. We liked her immediatley and my heart went out to her and her situation. She was so brave and caring, and so amazing for making this decision for her child. It was in this meeting we found out it was a boy (our secret wish). We loved Shelby, we loved the situation, we loved that it was a boy. We were on cloud nine.

We had another visit with her, and began texting quite a bit. The relationship between Shelby and I was growing. I couldn't wait to see this little life growing inside her to come into the world and see the two sets of family that already loved him so much!

April 29th, 2010 I woke to a text from Shelby that she was in labor, and thus began the whirlwind day of travel down to the hospital (6hrs away) in desperation to make it to the birth. Shelby graciously allowed me to be in the room, and when our beautiful baby boy emerged not only were we there, but I got to cut the cord!

Jadon Ethan Cole McChesney was born at 5:23pm, at 6lbs. 13oz, 17in long. He was beautiful and perfect and amazing. He is now pushing three months old, and I thought it was time to start a blog about our experience with adoption, and our world with Jadon.

Shelby and I stay in touch through text messaging and e-mail. We have selected an open adoption plan, and so Jadon will always know Shelby and have visits with her, and he will be loved by family in both Northern and Southern California.

Welcome to our blog, we hope you follow our path and see how our family grows! God Bless you all.