The Final Fundraiser before Finalization

***This Fundraiser is now Closed. Thanks to everyone who bought a tshirt!***

We will be finalizing Ira's adoption sometime in June. It miiiiight be the beginning of June or it might be the end.  We find out for sure soon.

This will be the end of our fundraising.
It won't be the end of us paying fees, but once we move back overseas it'll be really hard to fundraise.

So here it is... your last chance to get yourself an awesome tshirt or tank!

And because who doesn't love accessories... my friend Melanie has offered to give us 100% of the profit from a Jamberry's Nail Wrap party. Wouldn't cute red polka dots go with your fantastic new red tee?
Just follow the link and be sure to choose "Rivers Party" at checkout. If you order within the next couple of days, the wraps will be at your door by Mother's Day! Just the little extra for all the moms in your life!

We ship! Internationally too!

Leave a comment to order a Tshirt. Follow the link to order some Jamberry's.

 

Here's us in the first round of shirts. (On Easter...thus the eggs in the grass...)

Again, leave a comment to order yours!

Our First Month with Ira Sebastien

  Ira Sebastien Rivers
March 27, 2015
7lbs 5oz, 20.5 inches

Just gonna go ahead and pull the "I've got a newborn in the house..." card and say I'm actually doing good- nay, I'm actually surpassing expectations- and getting a blog post up.

It's been one month and I've been awake for most of it.

But little man is awesome, and he WILL (so help me) get his days and nights back in order and me and my pillow shall meet again.

Excepting 1-5am, Ira has proven to be quite the perfect 5th child. He has dealt with the onslaught of affection that his sister Ivy has unleashed upon him like a deep rooted oak tree in a hurricane. Though if he could speak, he'd probably voice a complaint about the general noise-level of the older 4 i's. Alas, he's silent on the matter.

We will write more later about the hospital experience with him.

For now, we can't emphasize enough the strength, maturity, courage, and sweetness of his birth mother.  I will die for my children and if she and I took the situation to a grand jury, I think they would pick her as having the greater love. In situations like these, it's not the absence of love that a woman places her child with others, it's quite the opposite. We are happy to tell him all his life that he has never been without love. Aside from God himself caring for this sweet one, He arranged Ira's life to never have a lapse in affection.

And can I just say his dimples are almost too much?

I have hoped as each of mine has been placed in my arms that there would be a tiny bit of skin tacked down on at least one side in such a way as to melt every passerby in the universe. And yet I waited.

i1? i2?  i3?  i4?  Nada.  i5 has brought to our gene pool the most perfect set of dimples my eyes will see in a lifetime.
(when he starts smiling in the next couple weeks, there will be no end to the dimple pics)

 This month, Mr. Ira also tallied up the greatest number of "likes" and "comments" our facebook account has ever seen in a photo. Our Mighty Man owned it like a boss.

He also wins the "Largest baby feet" of any Rivers kid. They're not chubby yet, but there was never any hope for those tiny newborn socks.  So far 6 month socks are all that will stay on.

Here is his one month photo with his Chocolate Moose. Plus a glimpse of the dimples.
(so appropriate for our little Haitian I can't handle it)

We are blessed indeed. Though it's costing more and more to go out to dinner these days, I can't help but feel rich. The goodness of God is tangible when this one wraps those fingers around mine.