Kate's Birmingham Shower

Our sweet Kate's 3rd Baby Shower was thrown by some of my closest friends, and held in our neighborhood (Crestwood) on August 7th.

Every one of our showers were beautiful and special for different reasons. This one meant the world to me, because it was thrown by my best friend from high school and three of my closest Birmingham friends (who are also our neighbors!) They went all out for this special day... and every little piece of decor was perfect, down to the last detail! It looked like something straight out of Pinterest! ;)

I loved the map connecting Alabama and Thailand on the mantle, and the pink "ultrasound" with Thailand on it too. There were little touches all around like bunnies and elephants - that showed just how much these friends know and love me! They even printed out some photos from my blog to display of us throughout our adoption journey!

The food was delicious, and the decor was absolutely lovely! But what surprised me the most was the sweet craft idea the hostesses came up with. I have seen many craft stations at baby showers... to "create your own onesie", or burp cloth, or something else special for the baby. I had no idea my amazing friends would come up with something that would work for an adoption shower though! I almost cried when I saw this spot set up in the kitchen. 

Every one who attended was invited to write out a prayer for Kate on a prayer flag, that was later turned into a banner for her room. Neither Rusty, nor I, could hold back the tears when we read the touching words of our friends, lifted up to God on behalf of our daughter. This little "craft" was such a special addition to Kate's room!

Pictured below are my 4 amazing hostesses: To the left is Kristian (my best friend since the 8th grade), Heather (a dear neighbor-friend and fellow adoptive mom... and her new baby girl she is pregnant with is technically "pictured" here too! Her sweet kids Mason and Karis came as well. I loved the gift Karis picked out for Kate, and Mason was an awesome little 5 year old photographer when we needed a group pic!) To the right in this photo is Stefanie (a neighbor-friend who has been such a great support system to me), and Katie (a neighbor friend and church friend I have been so blessed to have in my life... and her sweet baby boy Harp!) I love these girls to pieces! There aren't enough words to say what they each mean to me, and I cannot wait for the day Kate gets to meet them! 

Once again, Kate received a car full of beautiful gifts! Her Aunt Kristian is already spoiling her rotten - by giving her dozes of gifts, including a princess doll, a princess castle tent, and a working microphone (the perfect gift from the friend I sang with for years and years! Her daddy was our choir director too, and I know he would have loved that gift!) My dear friend Erin got her the most adorable little gray upholstered chair for our living room (not pictured) that is just Kate's size! Our neighbors got her so many sweet things from her registry, including the cutest little kaleidoscope camera (so she can be a photographer like daddy!), and lots of Thai books that we will enjoy reading to her. And we love her little backpack from our across the street neighbors, which I know we're going to use a lot on this trip to Thailand! 

I got emotional several times throughout this shower... because the people who attended are the ones who have seen so much our our journey up close. They have witnessed the tears and the hard days first hand... and prayed and cried alongside us. They have cheered us on, held us up, and been the best support system we ever could have asked for. They are the ones who celebrated in person with us when we were finally matched, and the ones I know I will call when I need support once our baby girl is home. I loved every moment of this beautiful day with all of these beautiful ladies in the same room!

Thank you dear friends, for helping to shower us and Kate with so much love! 

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Hello from Thailand!

Friends, please forgive me for the delayed update here on my blog! The past week held a lot of unexpected challenges that took so much of my time and attention. (Par for the course it seems with this adoption!) My plan was to update my blog with several things I've been waiting to share, and to post a blog the day before we left for Thailand - but it just wasn't possible. Instead, we spent hours and hours on the phone with 3 adoption agencies, US Immigration, and our State Senator's office trying to figure out why our final approval has been delayed. We made phone calls in the daytime and packed at night... and didn't go to bed at all the night before we left the country. I'll share more about that later - but right now I am thrilled to tell you that we are already in Thailand!

Our last day and night at home were filled with messages from friends, texts, phone calls (I'm so sorry that I couldn't reply to all of them - but every message meant so much to us!) and unexpected visits. One precious friend stopped by to give us a beautiful weighted blanket she made for Kate (thank you Katie! We love it!!!). Our across the street neighbors stopped to pray for us in their driveway, let us try out our Lillebaby Carrier on their kids, and gave us lots of goodbye hugs (Love you Anderson Fam!) And our next-door neighbors, The Clantons, came by with more hugs, more prayers, and the sweetest cards!

The oldest boy and girl (Harris and Margo) wrote part of their cards in Thai (they've been trying to learn Thai so they can talk to Kate!) and even included a donation of their own money for our "adoption fund". I cried reading their sweet cards, and cried again when they prayed for us on our back porch. We completely hit the jackpot with our neighbors you guys! They are like family to us. I can't even begin to explain all the ways they have loved and supported us through this process! And as you can see in the video below, Kate has some pretty excited playmates who cannot wait to meet her! (This is Piper and Olive - who are just 2 of the 13 kids on our block!)

We can't wait to meet Kate! from Rusty Jackson on Vimeo.

We flew out of Birmingham Friday morning at 6am. Because of all we'd been dealing with last week, I honestly didn't have time to let the significance of our travel day fully sink in. One of our mentors used to preach about how God doesn't do things quickly - but He does things SUDDENLY. I can definitely say this has been true in our case! After waiting, working, and praying for almost 5 years - I was shocked to find that our travel day was suddenly here! My parents dropped us off at the airport at 4am, and that's when I started to get emotional. Our bags were packed and we were on the way to our baby girl! It seemed so surreal!

I let the tears fall when our plane lifted off out of Birmingham. This was it - our last moment in our city as a family of 2. We flew from Birmingham to Detroit, Detroit to Seoul, South Korea, and then finally from Seoul to Bangkok, Thailand. And all along the way, precious friends wrote so many encouraging comments on our social media posts. Thank you all for cheering us on! We have never felt so loved and supported in our lives!

My sweet Mama Bear made me this shirt, and it seemed appropriate to wear it on the day we left to get our Baby Bear! Every time I saw myself in the mirror wearing it, I couldn't help but smile. I've never had anything that said "Mama" on it! And I was completely shameless all day on our travel day(s) - showing anyone and everyone pictures of our baby girl and letting them know we were on the way!

After 30+ hours of traveling, we finally landed in Bangkok at 12:40am (Sunday morning) took a 1.5 hour cab ride to our hotel in Pattaya, ate some mango and sticky rice, showered, and finally fell asleep around 6am.

Right now it's Monday evening for us (Thailand is 13 hours ahead of CST). We've spent the past 2 days trying to get over jet lag, emailing people about our final adoption approval, getting reacquainted with the city (so that we know where to find what we need once we have custody of Kate), and trying to enjoy our last few days that we'll ever have "just the two of us".

The view from our balcony in Pattaya!

We've slept (a lot), run errands, taken walks in the sunshine, had a quick stop at the beach, and enjoyed a one hour foot massage for only $6! We've also eaten plenty of mango and sticky rice, cheap, fresh sushi, banana rotees, and watermelon shakes.

Over the next few days, I hope to catch up on my blogging (so brace yourself for a lot of posts this week!) so that I can share everything I want to share here before we meet Kate. Once she's home, I plan to print out this blog for her - so I don't want to miss anything!

In the meantime - for those of you who are friends and family - don't forget to follow along on Instagram! I'll be posting blogs as often as I can, but I try to update my Facebook page and Instagram accounts daily. My username on Instagram is ErickaBJackson, Rusty's is RustyAJackson, and Kate's is MissKateJackson. If you follow Kate's account, you will have to be approved. (Her account is the only place we will be sharing photos of her face, due to specific regulations for Thai adoptions.) So for those of you with nicknames on Instagram (versus your given name) - be sure to shoot me a message letting me know who you are and how we know each other so that I can approve you!

The countdown is on! Just 3 days left (including today) until we meet Kate! ♥

It Takes a Village...

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I am quite sure that's true. But as we have walked through our (long, difficult) adoption journey I will also add that I believe it takes a village to bring a child HOME!

We have had a pretty amazing village from the beginning of our adoption. Our family and friends (all over the world!) have been so supportive - and we saw that in full force when we shared the news last week that we were matched! The response to our news has been incredible!

Our first family picture! 

I wish more than anything that I didn't have to blur out her sweet face!

But outside our family - I have to say that some of the most excited people were our precious neighbors. Friends - these people are our real village... our day in and day out "take care of each other" tribe. We all look after each other's babies, pets, and homes. We chat in our front yards almost every day after work, and celebrate with block parties and cookouts all year long. And these people are the ones who have prayed and asked about our adoption more times than I can count... the ones who have listened to our heartache on hard days... the ones who have said, "I can't wait until your daughter is home!" right when we needed to hear it. So when we texted them the news on Monday afternoon, they were THRILLED! We actually had a crowd outside our door at 5:00 just waiting to CELEBRATE!!!

This isn't even half of the sweet friends who showed up to celebrate with us! 

I wish I could've gotten a picture of them all! We are blessed! 

We took to the front yard for an impromptu party and toasted to our news with pink lemonade, sparkling cider, and pink champagne as more and more neighbors trickled in. Some brought us flowers, some brought gifts, and one was so excited that he jumped out of his car (with it still running) to see our daughter's picture! There was laughter, tears, and CHEERS! It was such a sweet time! We were overwhelmed with how much LOVE is waiting on our baby girl!!!

If you can't tell - that is one excited Daddy popping a bottle of pink champagne for our neighbors!

I have never owned anything with red and white polka dots in my life - but I picked up this shirt on a whim a few weeks ago. 

So glad I had it in the closet so I could "match" our little girl! 

Here are some pictures of some of the precious kids (and their mommas) on our street seeing Kate for the first time. We have 14 kids on our street (with 5 more on the way through adoption and pregnancy!) - so it is a really special place. These babies are so sweet - and we know they will love and welcome our daughter well!

This little one is Piper (our next door neighbor), and she's just a few months older than our Kate. We just adore her - she is so spunky and spirited! She makes our street so much fun! The second she saw Kate's photo she announced with grandeur, "I'M GONNA SHER EVWEYFING WIF HER!" (Melt. my. heart.)

And this is Evie & Lydia (whose mommy's name is actually Kate too!) Lydia will look at our daughter's photo again and again and say, "Kate, Kate, Kate!" and Evie can tell you that Miss Ericka's baby is in THAILAND! Evie is just a few months younger than Kate, and they share a love for accessories and dancing. I know they are going to be fast friends!

Margo (the oldest girl on our street - in the polka dot shorts in these photos) has been particularly interested in our adoption from the beginning. She has asked regularly when our daughter is coming home, and why they (our agency) won't hurry up?! She has checked in on all of our latest news and asked if we would please teach her some Thai (so Kate will understand her when she comes home). She has said the sweetest things to me on some of my hardest days... so I couldn't wait to tell her our wonderful news! She is going to have so much fun playing with Kate when she's home!

One of the things that stuck out in Kate's file - that they repeatedly noted - is that she prefers playing with other children, she plays well in a group, and she shares generously. I know that it's no mistake that God placed us (a family with only one child) on a street that is overflowing with the sweetest playmates for our daughter! He is such a God of detail.

All of Kate's gifts from her neighbor friends 

(and my parents, who showed up at the end of the front yard party!)

We are counting down the days until our sweet girl is home and playing out in the front yard with the other Crestwood babies. We are so thankful for "our village" - every day... but especially on this sweet day as they shared our JOY.