Three months old

It's been a while since I've written. Things have been very busy, but good. On Monday, Sami went to the pediatrician for the second half of her two-month vaccinations. She turned 3 months old on Friday, but because of her small size, her two-month shots were divided up between last month and this month. She cried for a bit, but did pretty well. The pediatrician said Sami is doing amazingly well. She is continuing to roll over, and she's holding her head up really well already. She now weighs 9 pounds and 2 ounces and is 22 inches long. She still isn't even on the chart for weight for a three-month old baby, but the doctor said she is gaining weight great and growing really well. She is now eating about every 3 hours all day and evening, but is sleeping about 6 hours at night, which has been really great. She still has some days where she screams and cries for 10 hours straight, but she has many days where she laughs and smiles all day long, which makes everything worth it when I see her beautiful smiling face.

This past weekend, my cousins Ellen, Joe, Aiden and Dylan from New York came down to visit, and got to meet Sami. It was so great to see them, and they will be coming back down in s few months when we Sami has her baby naming. I'm so excited that they are coming back down for that! (I've attached photos taken this weekend of Sami with her cousins and her great-aunt, in addition to a couple of photos taken at home recently.)

Although work has been busy, I did have a bit of a setback recently, which I guess comes with the risk of freelancing. The client I have been doing most of my work for recently just declared bankruptcy, which means they are protected by bankruptcy law to not have to pay their bills from the past 90 days. Because they pay freelancers and vendors 6-8 weeks after invoice, this means I will not be paid for the last 8 weeks of work. This is work that the company has already published, and that I spent many, many hours completing. I will not receive the about $4,200 owed to me, and that is really hurting us right now, with the legal fees, court fees we have, not to mention the normal newborn costs most people with a new baby face. Taxes also went up here, so our mortgage payment is going up about $150 a month. The timing couldn't be worse.

We are still waiting for Elizabeth's parental rights to be officially terminated. After that, we will be waiting for our court date to finalize the adoption. The courts are moving very slowly these days, being impacted by job layoffs just like the rest of the world. Our attorney tells us she has many outstanding cases right now that are waiting for court dates. Once the adoption is finalized, we can have Sami converted to Judaism, and have the baby naming ceremony. We plan to have a party after that, celebrating the adoption being finalized, the conversion and the baby naming. It will be a very happy and emotional time for us.