Picnic Pics by @meredithteasley featuring #BabyMadison

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Yesterday our Training & Events group @LifeWay had a fun picnic in the park.  Note the pic of a picnic table full of people.  The invitation list included families, dogs, spouses, and babies.  It was fun to see everybody from work and meet their family members.  Emily wasn't able to go because of school, but I took #BabyMadison so she could meet some new friends from LifeWay.

Meredith took lots of pictures and shared them with me...she posted some of her other pics on her blog.  I love that she got pics of just about every one of my co-workers holding Madison.  That little baby got passed around the whole time!  At one point, Emily sent a text message asking me to take a picture of Madison, but she had already been carried off by Tommy Keown to meet some other people. 

Madison fell asleep on the ride home, and you can see the very last picture of her in the bed when we got home.  She took a 2 hour nap after the picnic!

It is always so sweet and encouraging to know that we've got so many friends and co-workers supporting us up to this point in our adoption journey, and now in our role as parents.

#BabyMadison is full of mystery (blog)

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One of Emily's former softball players, Leanna, was over to hang out last weekend. She called Madison our "little mystery baby."

As we chatted, we speculated about what Madison will be like. We hope she likes softball and becomes a pitcher. We think she might be left-handed because she usually reaches for things with that hand first. Some days her hair looks blonde, other days it seems to be getting more brown. She seems to be full of personality and really outgoing (like her mom...not like me on that one)

There are so many things about our baby that are unknown and mysterious. I guess it is that way with all babies, but even more so for us with Madison since she is adopted. Today, someone who saw her for the first time said she really looked a lot like me. That was really sweet to hear. We sure do love "our little mystery baby" a lot! And we can't wait to find out more as her personality develops.

Tried & Failed

This person obviously tried to keep from losing his car key by drilling a hole through the plastic part and putting it back on the ring when it broke off. But alas...
He failed and list his car key anyways....because I found these keys on the floor in the Johhny Rockets restaurant in the Columbus, OH airport.

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JE
Sent from my iPhone

#BabyMadison goes to court

Today was a special day for us to go to court for the final step on our adoption process.  Our post-adoption visits were completed, the paperwork was filed, and today it all became official.  Madison's name is now officially "Echols." 

It was so sweet for Nixon, Tina, and Haley to be there with us since none of our family is in town.  We have truly been blessed by the village of people surrounding and supporting us.

Just as we were going up to the front of the courtroom, one of Madison's little boots fell off, and the judge said, "All of ya'll can come up here, get the boot and everybody come on!"  The courtroom laughed and we started with the proceedings.

It was a fun day to celebrate this step in our journey!

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