I've gone the way of many a good stay-at-home mom.....that's right, I'm....

SELLING STUFF!

I have discovered a new product called Scentsy Warmers. What is It?

It's the hottest new thing in candles! Unique Scentsy Warmers use a 25-watt bulb to melt the wax slowly, maximizing the fragrance time of the Scentsy Bar or Brick. Plug it in, turn it on, place one or more sections of your Scentsy Bar into the dish and enjoy the Scentsy feeling!

Now this is Jo speaking, so here's my practical approach to this. Let me give you....

Jo's Top 5 Reasons To Buy Scentsy

1. SCENTS-Everyone wants their house to smell good! (I mean really, right now my house smells like poop and baby spit-up)

2.SAFE-There is no flame or wick, and the melted wax doesn't get hot enough to burn you. (Believe me, I tried it!)

3.SMART- You won't be breathing in smoke, soot, or lead from wicks. (And after 5 years in Rochester, we know about lead.)

4.SELECTION-There are over 80 Scentsy bars and 50 ceramic warmers to choose from. (Like Cranberry Spice, Fried Ice Cream, and Sweet Pea & Vanilla!)

5.CENTS-They're a good deal! Each $5 Scentsy bar lasts 60-80 hours; as long as a quality 12 oz. jar candle. (You know how frugal I am!)

Check out my website for more. You're gonna love it!

www.scentsy.com/serenitynow

This is my first blog post ever!

I'm so technically-oriented now, wouldn't you say? Dave says I should try posting a picture or a movie. Ok. Here we go.

Wow! I did it! Now I'll try the movie of Isaac riding horseback on Joseph.

I hope this works!!!!!!!! Thanks for looking at my cute kids!

Love, Jo

Joseph is very serious about water safety. Isaac is becoming a real person! He follows with his eyes when we walk around the room and he smiles quite a bit. We are monitoring his growth carefully.

Also, here is a cute picture of Joseph and Isaac and Talmage and Sydney together. They love each other. Joseph is always asking to hold Isaac now, and now that Isaac is able to control his head a little better, we have been more willing to let him.

So... Here We Are!

Us with Isaac

We are the Farrer family, Portland, Oregon edition. After 9 years of marriage and 2 kids, our family has entered the world of cyberspace. We can't promise that we'll post often, but when we do, watch out! If you want to see more about the main branch of Farrers, you should go to http://farrerfamily.blogspot.com/. That's Dave's family of origin.

If you already know who we are, the information you are probably most interested in is that of Isaac's advent into our family. First, let me be the first to say (on a website) that he is cute and Joseph loves him!

In February, 2008, we started getting email on our "secret" adoption email address that was connected to our profile on LDS Family Services.

She asked us some questions like, "Are you still available to accept babies?" For any of you who have ever been on a waiting list to adopt a child, you can imagine the emphasis behind the word "YES!!" that we sent back. However, because Jo and I are veteran adoptive parents, we knew not to get too excited from one email contact. This birth mother started to email us pretty regularly, and gradually, we started to glean details about this woman who lived in an "undisclosed" location (although she seemed to know an awful lot about Portland).

LDS Family Services in our area has regular group meetings with birth mothers in the midst of their decision whether or not to place their baby. The social worker in charge of the group had contacted us earlier about participating in an "Adoptive Parent" panel where birth mothers could meet potential adoptive parents. We were quick to volunteer to be on the panel.

By the time this panel came up, we were pretty sure that the birth mother we'd been emailing was going to be there. We knew she was 28 and that she was very Portland (you might have to live here to know what that means). Right before we went into the room with the birth mothers, we asked the social worker the ages of the girls who were there. He said 28, 27, and 21. We thought, "AHAH!"

Once we got settled in the room, we began scanning for possible matches. Two women were sitting next to each other on the left side of the birth mother couch. One was blond and the other had long dark hair. The blond one kept looking at us and whispering to the dark-haired one. That clinched it, she was our birth mother from the emails!

After the panel had officially ended, the dark haired woman who our birth mother had been whispering to approached us and told us that she was our birth mother (the blond one turned out to be her birth coach). We liked her immediately. If you turned Jo's hair dark brown, then you would think they were sisters.

On Easter Sunday, 2008, the social worker who works with birth mothers for LDS Family Services, Brent, knocked unexpectedly on our front door. We were still in our PJs, and he was wearing a suit. He asked if he could come in, and we agreed. He went back to his car to pick up a humungous blue Easter Bunny and an Easter Basket and a camera. He sat us down on the couch and gave the bunny to Joseph, who liked it a lot. Then he gave us the basket. It had a sonogram and an invitation from the birth mother to be that fetuses parents.

We cried in our PJs while Brent took pictures as he'd been commissioned to do by the birth mother.

We were still wary to let our feelings get to vested because birth mothers change their minds all the time, and we didn't want to get hurt. Still, we were excited and we started hanging out with the birth mother about once a week. These were good times by any standard. She is hilarious, and she and Joseph get along great. During each visit, she let us feel her belly and watch baby Isaac (known as PokePoke at the time) roll around.

Isaac's birth mother is one of our treasured friends, and we love her to pieces. If she is reading, I hope she knows how true that is! She took the awkwardness out of every meeting. She gave us permission to be excited for this new life coming into our family and she celebrated with us. I can never be grateful enough for that.

On Sunday, July 20th, we got the call that our birth mother was in labor and on her way to the hospital. We rushed Joseph to Robin's house and started driving while Jo and I took turns using the cell phone to call people at church to tell them that we wouldn't be able to fulfill our responsibilities and why.

We got to the hospital four minutes after the birth mother. We were there from 9 AM to 4 PM. Most of that time we hung out with the birth mom's support people while she talked on the phone with her family and friends, taking advantage of the epidural. But when it came time to push, I learned why it's called "labor." I've never seen a person do such hard physical labor in my life.

Here are bunch of pictures of Isaac: