Gifts and Dinner

Dean and Jennifer, Ryan and Jill celebrating Sakura!

Tonight we met up with Jill and Ryan Patterson for a nice dinner at Yamabuki (Paradise Pier hotel) for our last dinner while we celebrate our Anniversary and the great news of the birth of our daughter!

Dean while we waited for Jill and Ryan, this picture is for Miss Carol - a Passion Fruit Mojito - he said it was VERY good!

Compliments of Yamabuki for our Anniversary - sooo sweet!

We had a very nice time finally meeting the Patterson's in person, although I felt like they were not strangers since Jill and I have been

e-mailing for awhile now...Jill and Ryan are also in the ATWA adoption group, their paperwork just went to Japan with Taz....boy do we remember the feeling of "whew..we're finally "just" waiting" - I could not wait to get to that point...Now I can't wait to go and get my daughter! Jill and Ryan came bearing gifts for baby Sakura - adorable gifts, I LOVE everything! Thank you so much Jill and Ryan - I will be sure to take pictures of our angel looking cute in these!

Cutest little ladybug sleeper, Heart Onesie, Burp Cloths (our first!), a sweet little butterfly rattle and a SOOOOOOOO Soft little blanket with hearts on it! SO sweet we LOVE it - it's a little hard to see, but Jill even got a card with cherry blossoms - how thoughtful is that?!

Look how sweet - it says I Love You on the butt!

Sakura...what else?

Peyton Sakura Shimizu

We received another couple of pictures of our little angel! We won't know any of her statistics for probably another couple of weeks, I forgot that they don't "know" anything until they receive the baby book from the hospital, which occurs about 1-2 weeks after the baby has been placed with Okada-san, we have to be patient! I will definitely post all of that as soon as we know.



Yesterday Dean and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary - we both are amazed and excited and know that there won't ever be a more memorable anniversary! Right now we are at Disneyland, we came back here because this is where we honeymooned 15 years ago....AND we had already booked our trip before finding out about Sakura. What do you think it means when you see this while walking around the grounds of Disney's Grand California hotel?




Sakura in bloom at Grand California hotel and spa





I think it means that our very own little Sakura thinking about us! I have said numerous times how with our adoption there have been SO SO SO many signs that this is what we were supposed to do, that THIS baby is the one meant to be with us, and I think that this along with everything else we have seen just solidifies things.


To our precious little Sakura - your Mommy and Daddy cannot wait to come and get you! We love you sooooo much our little angel!


To Dean, my heart and my life are complete - I love you!





Jennifer and Dean boarding the Monorail 12 Feb 09

It is amazing to me how things work out, yesterday upon our arrival we were greeted by "Max" - Max is the VIP person for Disney's Grand California Hotel and Spa, we were taken to the large center table inside and given a packet of things .... we had been selected for VIP treatment, our room upgraded, personalized room keys, Happy Anniversary buttons, a special number to call for any reservations we wanted on property and off, etc....This has been a TRULY amazing week!

Pink, Pink, Pink!

I'm thrilled that we have a girl and I can have a pink nursery...pink and brown that is :) Here is the bedding I have chosen for Peyton's room.

It's a Girl!

Introducing Peyton Sakura Shimizu

Dean and I have a daughter....

All we know that she is about a week old and that we will travel to Japan to pick up our daughter sometime in March, more details to follow!

A couple little blue birds....

Grandma painting baby blue birds

There are now a couple of baby birds in the nursery.....My Mom was here this weekend and thought it would be nice to paint a couple of baby birds in the nursery (for good luck/happiness) - I think they look sooooo cute, what do you think?

When we find out if we have a boy or a girl, more painting will take place :)


All finished - two baby blue birds in their nest above the closet door

Just Waiting.....

You can't have too many bluebirds hanging around :)

Not much going on here....we're still just waiting for our Bi0 Mom to find out about us (and pick us).

Please continue to keep all of the Bio Mom's in your prayers as they make this very difficult decision, please pray that they are taking good care of themselves and their babies.

We will continue to keep you posted!

Happy New Year 2009!

WoW - I can hardly believe it is 2009 --- what happened to the 365 days in 2008?

We had our share of ups and unfortunately a few downs in 2008. First I cannot believe I didn't get our Christmas cards done, and I apologize to all of you....but look for a little 'make-up' coming soon!

Back in April is when Dean and I got serious about adopting, and submitted our application to a China program....as you know we are adopting from Japan, obviously things changed at some point. A lot of our year has been full of discovery, challenges, and triumphs as we have progressed down the adoption path. We are very happy and excited about what 2009 will bring us - and we are hopeful that we will have a baby this year, but we are leaving things to God, it's in His hands now.

Cute little bluebird ornament we found this year

We also had a couple of very sad points this year, we lost my Grandma, and just two days before Christmas I lost a very dear and close friend, Patty. She was so much more than a friend, and I will miss her more than words can say - Patty fought a very tough battle with Inflammatory Breast Cancer the past 3 1/2 years. I feel very strongly that Patty will be in Japan, helping to find our baby, she is now our Guardian Angel.

Last week Dean assembled our crib and today after taking down all of our Christmas decorations I put the mattress pad and a sheet on. Here is a picture of the sheet I had bought many years ago...do you see why I chose this sheet? Hmmmm, look it has little bluebirds!

Our crib (not where it will stay in the bedroom)

Cute little bluebird on the sheet


Happy New Year everyone!