"Little M" is 9 months old today

He's beginning to stir this morning, but I thought I'd try to blog quickly before our day begins.

He's 9 months old today -- hard to imagine that 3/4 of a year ago -- we had no idea that we would be chosen to call this sweet baby our own! Oh how different life was 3/4 of a year ago!!

Yesterday, we went to a "National Adoption Day" brunch held by our adoption consultant. She has placed over 80 families with babies this year... and said by the end of the year -- she's targeting over 100 families. (I didn't realize this, but she has families along the East Coast... there are several from NC, FL, and even a couple she worked with from Michigan.) Mostly people from Georgia were at the event yesterday, though, and only about 1/2 of the families that she worked with were there.

They had a bunch of tables set up in a church fellowship hall, a buffet at one end, and about 1/3 of the space was a play area for the kids. Yes -- she's done this before!! Setting up the play area was really really smart. All of the babies were younger than 1 year... so there were lots of things for them to do -- on the floor. Mats, bouncy chairs, exersaucers, etc. There was even a little tiny rocking horse that Todd put Mercer on for a minute. There were older kids there too -- siblings. In fact, one family adopted a baby (who's now 11 months old) and then got called back out to Texas by the birth mother to see if they wanted to adopt his older half sister. She's 2 1/2 years old. They did, of course. She was the oldest "adoptee" present. Pretty cool! The youngest babies (there were a few) who were around 5 - 6 weeks old.

She asked the crowd to raise their hands if -- once they were approved for their Home Study -- that it took over 12 months to be placed with a baby. No one raised their hands. It took less than a year from the time they started 'til they had added a little bundle to their families. She continued to ask people to raise their hands: less than 12 months... less than 9 months... less than 6 months.... less than 3... less than 1... less than a week? A few of us raised our hands. Actually I asked "how about if you were placed with a baby before the Home Study was approved / but by the time you got on the plane it was done?" There were three couples there (including us) raised their hands -- who it all happened very very quickly to! She's aggressive, but gets the job done!

There was one set of twins there. There were several couples from Colorado (their babies were born in Denver). But the couple we met in Colorado Springs the week Mercer was born (shown on our blog back in Feb) were not there. They were signed up to attend, but for one reason or another they didn't make it. There were several babies born in Utah, Nevada, Florida, etc. There were lots of stories about how they "got the call" and off they were to another state for this big journey... the "looks" they got for taking a several day old baby to a restaurant (yep - we got that look)... the "oddities" of raising a baby in a hotel room for a week or two (yep - we had that experiences too!).

The consultant showed a video of photos that parents had sent in. I suppose she only used digital photos that were emailed to her instead of scanning in printed ones sent because the only photo she had in the video of Mercer was one we emailed her while we were in Colorado (one of Todd feeding him when he was teeny-tiny). She then took a group photo -- which will be posted on her website. I'll put a link on the blog once the photo makes it up to the site. Currently, last-year's Adoption Day party attendees are still on there.

It was a good event overall and we're glad we went. It was the highlight of our week. We did other things too this weekend -- going out Friday night, stopping by a friend's house who lived a mile from the church we were at yesterday, attending a pot luck last night at a neighbor's house, etc... but the Adoption Day party was definitely a unique experience!! Since we've had our "fun" already, the rest of the weekend will be spent cleaning house (oh -- the dishes and the laundry never seem to end anymore!) and FINISHING some baby-proofing things.

I have a video to post to the blog of Mercer in his crib... standing... walking along the rail. Time to lower the crib to the lowest setting, now. And his crawling is getting better. Time to get that baby gate up at the kitchen because there's a step he's already headed straight for. When we have him up on the bed or the couch -- he doesn't seem to have any concept of "down" yet... he'd crawl right off trying to grab something on the floor... if we'd let him. He'll learn!