On Cloud Eight

Cloud Nine was pretty spectacular.  There were nights I couldn't sleep.  I wandered around the house aimlessly.  Went into one room and forgot while I was there only to find myself in a different room without a reason.  I couldn't think of anything except our beautiful, sweet daughter.   

But Cloud Eight is pretty great, too.  It involves peace and contentedness.  

Cloud eight also includes a lot of nesting; I enjoy cleaning, laundry, gardening, cooking, baking and just being at home like never before.   Cloud eight involves looking at pictures of our sweet daughter several times a day and calling my mom just to say one more time, "Isn't she just perfect?"

(The rest of life is moving on, though, on Cloud Eight.  Tomorrow I even have a tech training for the district.  Mind you, it's voluntary, but I am beginning to think of the upcoming school year a bit.)

We bought a cute little gift for Lainey.  We can send it to her when someone goes to ET for a court or embassy appearance.  

Until we send it, I keep this cute little elephant under our covers.
Maybe it'll retain our scent the entire way there?

We are also sending pictures of ourselves in one of those slobber proof photo books.  I'm pretty excited for her to see who Mama and Daddy are.

Our dear friends, Tana and Casey, met Lainey at her orphanage.  Here are their words to describe our daughter:

Oh my gosh! Your daughter is beautiful. We saw her yesterday and briefly today. her and Baby M [their son] already had a play date in N [village]. We have a dozen pics of Baby M to share with you. You are going to be rocked when you meet her and realize how precious she is. Tana will write more later, she is upstairs recovering from the trip to G [village].

- Casey

I know Casey already emailed you about Lainey but I wanted to follow up :) when we first saw her in N, I recognized her face right away. She is ADORABLE, a doll, precious, sweet and FULL of smiles and that's not an exaggeration. She is a happy baby, of that I am sure.  I left about 5 pink outfits for her there. We had about an hour there and we shared holding her. We got some sweet pictures of her and video too. That day we headed to G to get our babies and it was awesome. I recognized M immediately as he was laying on his tummy, chin up looking right at me when we walked in. You can imagine that feeling...  I'll elaborate more on M when we get home. Mostly I want to tell you about Lainey this time. :) From G we took our babies to the N orphanage for them to spend the night, so you might say M and Lainey had their first slumber party. And their last! ;) But we did see her then too and again told her that the two of you are loving her and praying for her and that you can't wait to come get her. With kisses we said good night to her. We adults had to stay in a hotel that night and we returned to that orphanage in the morning to get our babies. We said goodbye to Lainey and gave her more hugs and kisses from you.   Let me tell you, she is gorgeous!!! You already know though... Can't wait to show you pictures too.

Much love!

Tana

While reading these words, this verse came to mind:

^"19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."

~Luke 2

These words will forever be in my heart as the first description of our daughter.   How is it I already feel connected to her?

Last night we celebrated with Tana and Casey at their house. Ribs, potatoes, salad, champagne.  We saw their 400+ pictures of their trip to ET, including several of their son and Lainey.     

Yeah, Cloud Eight is pretty awesome.