"She likes to spit on 'em"

Happy 1st-week-of-life Elise!

Thank you everyone for all your kind emails and comments on the blog. It has really meant a lot to us. We are grateful for supportive friends and family. We've been so blessed. Elise is such a good baby. She loves to sleep. Sometimes I can just sit and stare at that sweet little face for a long time. Every day I love her more and more.

Here are some answers to a few questions:
hair color: not sure at this point. It has a reddish cast, but the top is kinda blonde and the back is brown. It will be fun to find out what color it becomes!

room: In a couple months, the guest room will become Elise's room. I'm keeping the queen bed, but putting a crib in there. The walls are a light lime green (pic of the work in progress) and then I'm using pastels for the accents... pink, blue, yellow, etc. It looks really cute in my head... hopefully it will turn out that way. :)

April: We met up with Roger and April on Monday (day after everything finalized) for a visit. She's still feeling sick from the C-section and all the stress. However, I think she liked holding Elise for a bit. They left it as "We'll call you" and I'm guessing they'll want to see her in a few weeks.

look like Lucy? I think I'm the world's worse person at saying "she has your.... and his...." but at this point, I think they look similar through the nose and cheeks. Both have a folded over left ear that we think is pretty special. I think she'll fit into the fam just fine. :) As far as her birth parents, I think she has April's eyes, but I can't about the mouth.


Bottle feeding: Not bad! Here are some of my favorite things about bottle feeding: my mom and George can take shifts, I can tell how much she's had to eat and when she needs to burp, and its very fast. Here is a picture Lucy took of me feeding her.

Help: My mom has been here since late Monday night and that has been great. Lucy has a built-in buddy and they've made cookies, swam in the pool and the bathtub, read lots of stories, played Chutes and Ladders several times, etc. Friends and neighbors have been nice enough to bring some dinners, lend baby stuff, give gifts (both before and after she was born), given a "new-mother" massage, surprise lunch pizza, visit, and phone. We've really been spoiled! George's mom is also coming to visit and we'll be glad to have her. After the grandma's leave, real life will begin!


Did I forget anything? Probably. Feel free to ask in the "comments."

Its Official!

Elise April Tripp
has joined our family!

After lots of signing for both parties in different rooms, we met up with Roger and April and visited for a bit. They told us things they'd learned about Elise as they took care of her in the hospital... little habits and tendencies. We gave some remembrance gifts and then it came time for April to pass her to us.

tiny Elise in the carseat

By the time we picked up Lucy, the whole family was pretty tired. Every time Elise cried, Lucy would run in and see what the matter was and cry a little herself. Once Lucy fell asleep, she didn't hear anything else. So far, Elise has slept a lot and is a good little eater. She is a beautiful baby.

We decided on the middle name April to honor her birth mom. We have grown to love April more and more the better we've come to know her. On Saturday night, World War III broke out with her family and her grandma basically disowned her... said she can't go back to the house or speak to her. I think that will pass eventually, but my heart aches for April with all she's had to go through in addition to the emotions of adoption. She has been one tough gal and Roger (birth dad) and Brad (social worker) have basically been her only support. We are so grateful to Roger and April for their unselfish, loving gift and for the wonderful people they are.

Here she is!

Great, wonderful, fabulous news!

Let's cut to the chase: Last night, our little sweetheart was born at 7:56pm. She is 5 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 in long.

Now, here are some details: Our social worker, Brad, called us with the news around 9:30pm. He didn't have as many details as I just wrote (and some of the ones he'd been told weren't correct :). Still, we were thrilled. April seemed to be hanging in okay. The baby was breach, so they had to do a C-section and I'm sure all the C-section gals can empathize with her. She had a REALLY long night.... throwing up, etc. There was tons of drama with her family and Roger (baby's dad) and it was just stressful. Brad informed me of some of it when he called. I could tell Brad had a VERY, VERY long day trying to be the mediator and keep everyone settled down. My heart broke for April... all the emotions of childbirth AND adoption AND a fighting family/boyfriend. I just cried. Some of her extended family came and were trying to "help" her change her mind... just a BIG mess! Then I was worried about sending them the wrong food (they wanted specific things for dinner but April couldn't eat until morning so we decided to send their favorite meals for lunch the next day and some people were upset because we sent pizza for dinner... long story but all in all it was a miscommunication issue). Let's just say it was a long, long night. I didn't sleep much and stressed too much and gave myself a pounding headache. So if I talked to any of you today and you wondered why I sounded like a loser, that is the reason. I tried to get some rest, we cleared up the dinner/lunch issue, and George picked up flowers for April. Because of all the drama/contention, they thought it was best we didn't go to the hospital to see the baby. However, everyone still wanted food so we picked up their favorite meals and planned to drop it off at the hospital desk. We were about 10 minutes away from the hospital when April called and asked if we wanted to see our baby. DID I EVER!!! I was OVERJOYED!!! Of course, we didn't expect this so I had just jumped out of the shower before we left.... not lookin' the cutest. Oh well.
She is so precious! We stayed about an hour and visited and snuggled her. April and Roger told us about the delivery and more details of their day yesterday. Since we see them about every two weeks, the conversation was natural and good. Lucy kissed the baby over and over again... head, ears, eyes, etc. (I stopped her at the lips) It was really funny. She said she was going to teach her how to eat a binki and play with toys and asked why we couldn't take her home with us. I changed her clothes and she just slept through the whole thing. Maybe tomorrow she'll actually see us. It was such a great experience!
We came home and regrouped, I crashed, and we left at 6pm to find some different gifts for the placement. I am finally starting to have a clear head and that has been great. The visit with Roger and April just eased my mind and heart. I have been SO impressed with them. They've been so tough through this whole thing. I can only imagine how hard this would be, but also not to have much support with your decision. We've been so grateful for our social worker Brad. He has been so wonderful to work with and having him at the hospital really helped calm everyone was huge. Still some people are huffy and mad, but Brad has saved this whole thing, I think. The plans are for the adoption to be finalized tomorrow (Sunday) night at 8pm. Wish us luck!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Our social worker called this morning (around 8:30am) with the news that April's water broke! Aaaaugh!!!! I was so excited! I just talked to her this week and she said the doctor said the baby would be past due (date was June 7) so this is a big shocker! The baby is still really high and not in position so they are doing a C-section tonight at around 7pm. I got that news about an hour ago (4pm).

I am going nuts! The first part of the day, I called/texted our families and paced. And paced. And paced. I was driving myself crazy. I look like a big nerd with my cell phone strapped to me at all times. Luckily, my good friend Wendy had invited us to Sea World so I that is how we spent the afternoon! It was so great to have a little distraction. It was the first time for Lucy to ride the log ride and she thought it was pretty fun. Tonight we are going to take Lucy someplace (like Chuck-E-Cheese or something) to enjoy her last night as an only child.

For some reason, now I feel the need to write to get myself to relax a bit. So here's some Adoption Q & A for the curious....

What are you going to name her?

Ummm... still in debate....

The top choices right now are: Elise, Elizabeth (in many forms... Eliza, Lizzie, etc.), Camille and Lily. You might wonder why it is not narrowed down more at this point and the answer is, that is the narrowed down list. :) Also, those who know me well will notice "Clara" is not on the list... yep, George x-ed it, but that's okay. I x-ed some of his too. Also noticeably absent is a middle name... well, that is a LONG, LONG story and is still in debate as well, so if you want that story, you'll have to call me. :)

What happens now?

Texas law (and I think its the same for most states) requires a 48 hour waiting period until the mother can sign away her parental rights. Roger (father) has already signed. That would mean it is possible for us to come home with a baby on Sunday night. However, since April is having a C-section, she can do it when she is released instead (that would probably be Monday... we'll see). If she is released later than Monday, the social worker will push for her to sign Sunday.

Do you get to go to the hospital?

Probably not. The grandma is still having a rough time and doesn't want us around at all. I'm really hoping for a two-hour visiting block somewhere in there (when the grandma is gone maybe), but we'll see. April is worried it would cause contention and I want April to have the least amount of stress possible. I said that waiting two days won't kill us, but I am already DYING!

What about the future?

At this point, April isn't sure how much contact she wants. She's not sure if pictures/letters will be helpful in the healing process or make it harder. Our social worker is encouraging her to see us once before we move (this is usually best... helps the mother realize she made the best decision for her child and gives closure) but we'll take things day-by-day.

Are you ready?

HA! Is anyone ever completely ready for a new baby? However, I am happy about a few things. Yesterday our social worker inspected our house so it looks great right now! Lucky day because my house is usually not in this great of condition. I've had some "pregnancy" symptoms of nesting so I have clean baby clothes and the essentials as well as some frozen meals. However, HEB is 5 minutes away and its not like I need recovery time, so I am feeling good about things. I didn't get a quilt started that I wanted to do, but I think it was 100 degrees here today so she probably won't need one for a while. :) I have thought a lot about this last month... how it has been entirely different stress than the "last month prep" for Lucy. Of course, the most stressful thing is hoping that the whole thing happens and that all goes smoothly. One great thing about adopting a baby is that I am not all swollen up from the humidity so I will have much prettier feet than when Lucy was born. For all of you that didn't know me in Omaha, here is a picture of my lovely little piggies... wow! No kankles this time either. However, I can't say that I haven't gained a few "sympathy" pounds in other places...

Mighty Fishermen

Its been about a month ago now but we just got the photos developed so I'm using it as a chance to post about the fishing trip my dad, brother Jake and I took to the Green river when I was back in Utah for vacation. My dad goes to Green river to fly fish pretty much every May for the past 20 years. For lots of reasons I've never been able to make the trip with him. Most of the time its been because final exams in college seem to have fallen on the same week. Anyhow, a planned family vacation for this year somehow seemed to fall at the same time my dad had his fishing trip planned. Jake was also available and signed on for the trip. Sadly Ben is supremely involved in high school sports and frankly can't afford to miss much school so he didn't make it.

True to my dad's tradition the trip started with a 5 am departure. We picked Jake up in SLC and hit Evanston Wyoming between 7 and 8. My Dad's friend Al met up with us there and drove behind us. It was another hour or two to the river and we did a quick set up of camp and got out on the river to fish a little after noon. The green river is clear and fly fishing is fun in that you can see a lot of the fish and try to float your lure across their noses when they're eating.

As Kimberli will tell you, most of the highlights for me on a trip revolve around what animals I saw along the way and this trip was no different. We saw river otters swimming the river past where we were fishing, great blue herons wading along the banks, there was also an osprey that would cruise around where we were and plucked at least three fish out of the river while we were watching. In addition I saw snakes, lizards, moose, deer and we heard coyotes howling while we sat around the campfire.

We fished the entire second day and took a look at the river on the third day but didn't pursue any fishing as we couldn't tell it would be fruitful. We didn't have tremendous success but everyone caught at least one and most of all it was a good time just being together. I've come to decide that male bonding mostly revolves around being in the same general vicinity and doing something similar even if there is very little two way interaction. Being married I know this does not work for females!

Included are some pictures.

Big Sister prep

This week I washed Lucy's 0-6 month clothes in preparation for our newest arrival. There were some good sized stacks (for those of you who know my baby clothes weakness, this is not a surprise). I finished late at night and didn't put anything away. Before I could get to it the next day, Lucy had unfolded most of them and arranged them on the couches, floor, etc. in little matching "outfits." I thought it was so funny. She was also pretty interested in helping me set up the bassinet and wanted to try it out with all of her babies. She liked rocking them the best and whoa, they were really rocking! Speaking of rocking, we went to babies-r-us yesterday to look for a double stroller (we ended up buying one on craigslist instead) and Lucy loved the swing aisle. She had most of the swings going at the same time. I think she will be a helpful big sister... maybe too much help. :)

While we were in the car, Lucy asked her dad out of the clear blue...
"Dad, do worms have heads?"
and of course the question that follows...
"What about snakes?"

Happy Mother's Day!

I am blessed to have a wonderful mother. Here are a few of the things I love about her:

• She is a lot of fun! She loves to play with the grandkids. She plays tag, pushes them in the swings, reads stories (I think she's read "Aladdin" to Lucy over 30 times), etc.


• She is very thoughtful. She sends sweet cards in the mail and fun packages on the holidays.


• She is honest with her opinions. For example, I visited the homestead last week and bought myself a new dress. I showed it to my mom and she said she liked it, "but it looks maternity." I like to ask my mother what she thinks of stuff because she tells me exactly what she thinks. Well.... sometimes she'll give a long, long pause and then say, "Ummm.... it is different." or "It will probably be nice." Lacey, you know exactly what I am talking about! I think this comment is one of my favorites. I always laugh when she responds with that one.


• She is creative. The picture I posted is of the "Indian Day" party. She holds this once a year somewhere around Thanksgiving time. This party is a "no parents allowed" party and the grandkids love it! She gives them their own Indian name. Lucy's is "Singing Bird." All the grandkids make bead necklaces, Indian jackets out of paper bags, and mini-drums. They also make their own individual homemade pizzas. My grandma did this with her grandkids and we always loved it. I love that my mom continues this tradition and adds in her own flairs.


• She definitely loves her family! I know she would do anything for me. It has always been important to her to keep our family close. She plans activities and outings. My siblings are among my best friends and I think this is because of her. Happy Mother's Day, mom! I love you!

(George writing now)

When I think of my mom who has lots of great qualities the one that stands out is compassion. My mother has been a real example to me of being a friend to the person who really needs one. I'm not talking about the person who has had a bad day but the person who is often difficult to get along with, in some ways hard to like and who thus often has bad months because of it. I think my mom has become somewhat of a specialist in helping people in this situation. This of course often takes a lot of patience which my mother is blessed with a whole bunch of (its good she has some because my Dad lacks in this area). I know she feels empowered to "heal the world" and goes about doing her part one friend at a time.

My mother is also very smart and a great teacher of kids. I remember growing up and doing lots of puzzle type games that seemed pretty interesting. I also specifically remember sometime pre-kindergarten my mother teaching me how to find a spot in a grid by using coordinates counting across the top and down the side of the grid - my mom has raised lots of smart kids and can count herself (I think) as primarily responsible (both on the nurture and nature side).

A third quality of my Mom is she is a true example of faith. My mom can pray for hours and I would often go looking for her as a kid to find her kneeling at her bed in prayer. Several times in my life she has inspired me with examples of how the scriptures are true for her life. Briefly: I once asked her as a teenager about the promise made in the scriptures about tithing is true "you will be blessed so you will not have room enough to receive it." I challenged her a little asking if we had really been that blessed. She taught me that our family was very blessed both with money to do things we wanted and with blessings beyond what money could buy. She taught me about the time after my brother died and my parents wanted more children. They had a little trouble at first but eventually had a little girl and then a little boy. At the time they were considering adding on to the house to keep all of us in rooms - so in someways this was a literal fulfillment of the promise about tithing.

I love my mother's example of faith and wish her a Happy Mother's Day!

Big Tripp to Utah

Here are some highlights of our trip back to UT... (special thanks to Geo's parents who bought our plane tickets... so NICE!)

My youngest bro, Benji and his prom date, Breanne. These two have been "promised" as prom dates since their birth (they are three days apart.) :)

The Junior prom is a big thing in Grantsville... we have a big choreographed dance that the town comes out to watch. I couldn't watch the promenade, but it was fun to take some pics of my bro looking so handsome for his big date.

Geo and his MTC buddies

This little gathering had been planned since Christmas time. I was a little nervous because they planned to have a Filipino menu, but luckily wives were invited so there were some normal things there too. I can't think of any yummy dish that George has mentioned from the Philippines (except the fruit) so I was a little leery. Keep in mind, George lost 40 pounds in the first two months of his church mission and only remembers the gross stuff to tell me about (the good stuff wouldn't make a good story). It was fun to see his friends and they had a great time reminiscing.

Cousin Halle's 1st birthday

Cousin Gracie fixed Lucy's hair

dressing up as brides

another Hallie showing Lucy how to pet a baby calf

The mom had twins and could only care for one so Hallie gets to keep one of the calves in her backyard.

The main reason for this vacation was a Tripp family gathering. The first three days George, his bro Jake, and his dad went fishing on the Green River. Sadly, I don't have any pictures and George hasn't filled me in on a lot of detail, so he'll have to blog that. All I know is that he had a good time.

While the boys were gone, the girls took a night to go to Salt Lake and see "Annie Get your Gun" at the Hale Center Theatre. I love plays (especially musicals) and we had a great time. Before the play, we had dinner at Applebee's. This is Natalie posing in front of one of her favorite people.

When the boys got back from fishing, we spent time visiting and watching Ben's basketball and tennis matches. He is Geo's youngest bro and is a sophomore. We spent Thursday night in a hotel in Salt Lake. Lucy was SOOOO excited about that! Sadly, I don't have any pics of everyone swimming. I really wish I had video of it because Lucy was so funny hanging on to one of her uncles or aunt or dad and singing Ariel songs with her hair in the water. Its too bad her mother couldn't get her lazy bones out of the hot tub to go back to get the camera. But it was oh so relaxing for me.....

Friday we spent time at Tracy Aviary (which I haven't been to since grade school probably). It was a nice day and everyone had a good time being outside.

One of Lucy's favorite parts was jumping from log to log (with help from uncle Ben).

We had a yummy lunch and finished off the day with Laser Tag. This was my first time to play. Grandma Liz was gracious enough to watch Luce. I ran all around and thought I did relatively well. In addition to our family, they had two birthday parties... a group of 10 yr old girls and 8 yr old boys. They'd run around in little packs so it was fun to find them and shoot a bunch at once. Its a 20 minute thing and the boys came out real sweaty. We got our scorecards and to my shock I came in 16th place (out of 24)! Yep... a bunch of 8 and 10 year old kids whipped me! George (aka "Snake Eyes") got 1st place and said he just found a tower and kept shooting people. I'm sure he would love it if I would have scanned his score card so you could see how many people he shot ... but sorry, Geo. No such luck.

We finished off the vacation by making a trip to Logan to see my brother, Chris, and my brother-in-law Mark graduate from USU. It was so fun to remember the old college days as we walked around campus. It was one of my favorite graduation ceremonies, I think. I thought the speakers were excellent, plus it was nice and short!

Get to bed!

Lucy hasn't quite adjusted back to Texas bedtime yet. On Sunday night, she told me she wasn't tired (this was at 10pm). I got up quite early that morning and the plane ride was a bit tiring, plus I had to come up with some stuff for music class the next morning, so I was definitely ready to get to bed. I just wasn't in the mood to fight with her so I said, "Whatever. Just stay in your room." and left her playing in her bedroom. I have no idea what time she actually fell asleep. In the morning I asked her about it and she said she "wasn't tired so I just played with my babies." The babies get extra special treatment around here. When I went up to bed last night (this time around midnight... more like my normal self), this is what I saw...In case you are wondering, she does have a doll cradle, but I guess all five can't fit...

When I got back from Young Women's tonight, she was WOUND UP and again said she wasn't tired. George took her to her bedroom and she said, "I'm just going to sit here for a while and talk to my friends." She had the play cell phone out and as I walked past her door I heard, "Hi Kyla." "Hi Staley. Oh, are you playing with your mom? Are you there?" And the "coversations" continued. It is now 10:40 and the house is quiet so I'm hoping she's finally asleep.

Packing Helper

We just came back from a little trip to visit the fam in Utah. Fun times. Its always nice to take a break from normal life. I'll write about the trip when I'm more awake, but I thought I'd at least get a start on it...

We left SA on Friday. I'm always running around a bit trying to get the house as clean as possible (I really hate coming back to a big, fat, messy house) plus do a little packing. I told Lucy to pack her airplane bag. This is what she put together.... 5 baby dolls and 1 book. We had to make a few adjustments...

Speaking of bags... somehow on the flight back to SA, one of our bags went to Kansas City. I thought it was quite funny that only one bag got lost ... but whatever. It happened to be the big 'ol bag with all sorts of stuff in it (including my make-up and hair straightener) so I looked like a real cutie today. I'm sure I could have scrounged something up to improve my looks a little, but it seemed like a good excuse to take a day off.