The Walker Blog

8 Months: January 11th, 2011

9 Months: February 11th, 2011

10 Months: March 11th, 2011

Oh my!!! It's been three months already since we last posted!! YIKES! Maybe we can get Cathy to start posting something every weekend so that we can stay up-to-date with things and not get so far behind!

As you can see, little Gus has been growing like a weed! He's now ten-months-old, and believe it or not, he's walking. He's been walking for about a week now... and each day get just gets more and more stable and comfortable. He's not able to stand up on his own, but he's quick to get up if he has something to grab. He's amazing.

Some of the highlights from the last few months include Gus starting to stand on his own (January 9th). He also has gotten really good with his eating and pretty much skipped over the pureed foods and went straight to table foods. He doesn't have any teeth, but he can gum it like the best of 'em!!

One of Cathy's favorite pictures of Steve and Gus (1-13-11)

We enjoyed watching the Green Bay Packers win the Superbowl and of course, we had to dress Gus up to watch the game.

The only thing that could have made it better was if the Bengals were playing!

February was a really busy month for us. Not only did Cathy take Gus out for a lot of fun playdates, but we also headed north to see Cathy's side of our family. While we were there, we were able to arrange to meet Gus's birth family too! It was a great trip and we'll be heading back north in May/June... as soon as Cathy's SIL Christie has her baby girl!! She's due May 18th and we're hoping to head up around Memorial Day so that we can take advantage of the extra day!

In February (on the 2nd), Cathy took Gus to the park for the very first time. He loved it! He wasn't too sure about the swings at first, but eventually got comfortable and had a great time!

We headed up to Michigan and here are some of the great pictures of meeting his birth family:

Gus's birth father's family

Gus's Birth Great Aunt and her family

Gus's Birth Mom's family

While in Michigan it snowed and Gus got to experience REAL snow. He liked it and enjoyed his first taste of snow!

We got back to Michigan and Steve's dad and Sue Ann came for a nice visit. They bought him his first wagon and had a blast taking him on wagon rides around the neighborhood!

On February 28th, Cathy took Gus to the park again to enjoy the 75 degree weather that we were having. Gus really had fun and while they were out, he started to show signs that he was ready to start taking his first steps!

This brings us to March. So far this month, Gus took his first steps (March 14th) and then really started to walk on the 16th. Cathy was able to capture the walking on video, and Steve got the first steps on video too!!

On the 17th Cathy took Gus to the zoo with our neighbor and her best friend Wendy. They spend just about every day together and the kids all love to play together. We're very blessed to have such great friends in our lives. Here are some pictures from Gus's first trip to the zoo!

As you can tell, it was St. Patty's Day and Cathy dressed Gus in the cutest little outfit! Here are some other favorite pictures from this month:

We'll make sure to post again soon!!! Be sure to check Gus's blog each Tuesday for updates and always check the You Tube channel for new videos!!!
:)
The Walkers

We had Cathy's parents for a week and then Steve's dad and Sue Ann were here for the actual holiday. While they were all here we did a lot of fun things and took a lot of great pictures. One fun thing that we did was take Gus to meet the Santa elf at the mall. He was so cute when meeting the elf and was all smiles. We're sure that this time next year will be a different story, but for his first picture, it was priceless. Here's the picture:


One day while they were here, Cathy brough Gus and her parents to The Hill Building at ATC to meet Steve for lunch and see the building. Cathy dressed Gus in a really cute tie onesie and matching orange shoes. Here are some pictures from that:





Cathy's parents left and then a few days later, Steve's dad and Sue Ann came down for their visit. They brought Gus some fun Purdue gear and we took some pictures of the three of them all decked out in black and yellow!

We had our first post-placement visit and it went well. We have one more in January and then the paperwork for finalization can be submitted to the court in Michigan. We don't know how long it'll take for the finalization to be granted, but we're hoping that it'll all be finalized before Gus turns one.

We are gearing up for our first Christmas as a family. The gifts have all been bought and it's sure to be a very special Christmas for everyone! This will be the first time in several years that Cathy's parents won't be coming down to spend the days after Christmas/New Years with us. Cathy is sad about it, but understands. It's hard to be away from family, but it's especially difficult during the holidays. Thankfully we have Gus to focus on, and we'll make sure that his first Christmas is a very special one.

We don't know what 2011 will bring for us, but we are so very thankful for all that 2010 has given us. We started the year with a recent submission of our formal application for adoption. We were waiting patiently (or, not so patiently if we're being honest) to begin our home studies and were so nervous about them. January and February were the months that they took place, and then March was when they were submitted. We were anxious to go and meet with Doris and finally get on the Waiting Families list! Little did we know that just 33 days from the day we did meet with Doris (April 1st, 2010), we'd find out that Gus's birth mother had picked us to raise Gus. We thought we'd have a month to really prepare for him, and it was only a week later that we got the call that his birth mom was in labor. The months from that point are all so special and have been filled with so much joy (and sleeplessness).

We hope you've enjoyed reading Gus's blog each Tuesday and have enjoyed seeing the pictures and videos. We absolutely love sharing them with friends and family and hope that they make everyone smile.

Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2011!
:)
The Walkers

We are on the waiting list!!! YAY!! We went to Charlotte yesterday to meet with Doris and spent about two and a half hours talking with her and sharing more about ourselves. It was a great visit and the best part was leaving the three Adoptive Family Albums and Expectant Mother letters with her! We should be on the CAS website in about a week or two.

Things are going well for both of us at work. Cathy has the Semi-Finals Reception on Wednesday for Wake County Teacher of the Year. She'll find out if she has been selected for the Finals (top 12 teachers in the county) on Wednesday night and she's already nervous about it. She had her observation at the beginning of March and didn't really get any feedback (positive or negative) about her observation. She wrote about it in her blog, so if you're interested in getting more information, definitely read her blog.

Steve is getting excited for the 3rd Annual Planet Earth Celebration with Burt's on the 17th of April. We'll be going downtown and volunteering, though we don't know what we'll be doing this year.

Steve is especially proud of recent accomplishments at work. His hard work and determination has helped lead Burt's to being a 100% Zero-Landfill company! That means that everything that they use each day is diverted to other places, and NOTHING goes to the landfill!! This is quite a feat and Steve is very proud of his effort, but also proud to work for a company that is able to do what many are not!

This weekend (tomorrow) we have our first Bulls game of the season. It's not the regular season yet, but we're going to the DBAP for the first ever game of the Bulls versus the Rays! A Minor League team versus their Major League Affiliate team!! We are going to cheer loudly for the Bulls and are excited for the forecasted 80 degree day tomorrow!! What a great way to spend the weekend!!

Last night we celebrated as we watched UD (University of Dayton) beat UNC (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) in the NIT College Men's Basketball Championship!! It was a great game and UD won 79 to 68!! It was a HUGE victory and Steve was especially excited. When on Earth would UD ever have the chance to play a power-house like UNC??? And then to win... it was amazing!! Steve wore his UD Basketball t-shirt to work today and proudly took his UD Flag that Cathy's parents bought him last year for Christmas. He is definitely soaking up the win!!

That's about all the news for us for now. We'll keep everyone updated on things with the adoption for sure. We were told that it could be very soon that we're matched, or a while. It's all a matter of what God has in store for us and we're asking for plenty of patience... and all the prayers that we can get!!

We've had several people ask about our registry (we're not having a baby shower), so we thought we'd put it out there again. We posted it a few months ago, but if anyone is curious about it here's the link again: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/2JQYX39EHGS21.

We'll write again soon...
:)
The Walkers

Hello friends! We hope this finds you all well! We are doing fabulous and are excited to share some recent updates with you all.

First, we had our second home study meeting this past Tuesday. We had to reschedule it from the 28th because Steve was violently ill. He spent his 35th birthday being very sick. Fortunately, he was only sick for a few days, but he was out of work for almost a week and was severely dehydrated and couldn't quite shake it. He's pretty certain that it was food poisioning from eating at Tossed.

Anyway, Cathy made Steve a cake for his birthday and that was good enough for him.

We went to Clayton on Tuesday to meet with Walt. This second visit was when he was going to meet with us both separately. He said it would take roughly two hours, so we went into it expecting to be grilled. Steve went first and was back to get Cathy after about 30 minutes. Then Cathy went in and met with him and was done in 20 minutes. We were on our way home in an hour from the time that we arrived.

He asked us questions about our parents and siblings, he also asked a few questions about our previous marriages. It was really easy and surprised us both that there wasn't more to it than that. Walt told Cathy that he thinks that we're a delightful couple and that he thinks we're very transparent. He likes that what you see is what you get and we're not trying to be something that we're not. He said he bets our home is a lot of fun. :)

We have our final home study this Thursday. Cathy tracks back in and then we have Walt coming over to the house around 6:30. We don't know how long this visit will be, but we're not expecting it to last any more than two hours at the most.

We've been recieving so many wonderful gifts for Tadpole Walker. We received the diaper bag that Cathy really wanted from her hair stylist Shannon. She also gave us four books that we wanted that are children's books on adoption. We also got a froggy johnny jumper from Kim (Cathy works with her) and then we also got a toy bag, froggy towels and another children's book on adoption from Mindy and Jason (Mindy is Cathy's little sister in AGD). Sue Ann sent us a cute frog blanket (pictured in the slide show) and some onesies. We're so lucky to have such great friends and family who are supporting us.

This week we decided to "save our marriage" and hire a cleaning service. Steve is having a hard time with the idea of paying someone to clean our house, but thanks to his coworker Christie, he decided to just give in. Cathy is very excited because we'll have someone coming every other week and they'll do all the dirty work. We'll just have to pick up and maintain, but it'll be so nice to have it vacuumed and clean!!

Cathy goes back to work on Thursday. She is going to go into work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and get some work done, so her vacation is pretty much over. She is going to be going to NYC at the end of the month for a wonderful opportunity with Scholastic. She's excited-- you can read more about it on her blog.

Well, we'll be sure to post something next weekend about the final home study visit. Pray for us that we're called by Doris soon and able to get put on the waiting list! Cathy (and her mom) has a good feeling about March. Her psychic said that March would bring a lot of change for us... so maybe that means placement!

Wishing you well,
The Walkers

Well Halloween has come and gone and yes, we had a ton of fun this year! We believe in all things easy and stress-free, and Halloween is no exception. We decided to put up a few decorations on Thursday and then on Friday we set up the strobe light and got the music ready. We of course, had the best house on the block (we might be a little biased though).

While we were getting ready for the trick-or-treaters, Cathy was wearing her costume (Green Bay Packers fan-- cheese head and jersey). She went into the garage, and our neighbor (Gary) was outside getting ready too. His little boy (probably 6 or 7) said to him, "Dad, did you see that Steve's daughter had cheese on her head?" At that, Gary laughed and said, "That's not Steve's daughter, that's his wife, Cathy." AH HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Cathy loved it!! (Steve didn't think it was quite as funny.)

Saturday we drove an hour to Clayton, NC for their Fear Farm. Stacy (works with Cathy) came over and we went together for their corn maze. We had a great time! When we first arrived (8:30pm) they said we couldn't get tickets for the corn maze because they stopped selling tickets at 8:00. Steve flipped out... got a manager and explained that we drove an hour... and their website said they stopped selling tickets at 10pm. They ended up letting us in and it was all good.

Cathy worked the polls yesterday for the election (see her blog for more information). We're both very excited for the change that will come our way under an Obama administration. The US as we know it will never be again.

Steve has oral surgery tomorrow. He's going to have his implant put into his gum (ouch). He'll be off work tomorrow and Friday to recover. Cathy has to go in Friday after 4:00 to set up her new classroom. We're both dreading it because it takes a lot of work to get her room ready.

That's it from here... we hope you're all doing well and are as excited and happy about this election as we are! YES WE CAN!!!

:)
The Walkers

Hello! We hope everyone that reads this is doing well. We're okay... hangin' in there. Steve went to the oral surgeon last Thursday and had his tooth extracted. It wasn't as bad as he thought, but it was still pretty painful. He's still recovering and has pain.



We went to the UD vs Richmond game on the 26th. We drove up to Richmond and arrived just in time for the game. We were excited to see Dayton (ranked 14 at the time) beat the Richmond Spiders, however, we were shocked at their performance. Richmond's team was hitting three-pointer after three-pointer and UD did nothing about it. No clue what the score ended up being, but Dayton was crushed.



Anyway... Steve had his birthday last Tuesday. He's 33 now. Cathy made him a birthday cake and made him dinner. She also bought him a UD Basketball t-shirt and a UD business card holder (glass) for him to use at work. His co-workers went all out with gifts. Apparently they call him "Bevis" and decided to take the theme as far as they could go. They bought him lunch and then also gave him a placemat that said Happy Birthday. On the back were numerous pictures of people with mullets (they love his mullet picture that's on his calendar at work). They also gave him the Bevis and Butthead Do America movie and a Bevis bobble-head. All wrapped in mullet-picture wrapping paper.



The calendar that they love so much is one that Cathy made for Steve for Christmas. It has pictures of friends and family thoughout the calendar and because Steve's birthday is in January, he is the spotlight for the month.



Anyway, that's the latest... Cathy enjoyed spending February 5th sitting outside reading a book in 75 degree weather. Does it get any better??



:)
The Walkers

We were able to experience our first snowfall here in NC this last weekend. Cathy had a Junior Circle outting planned for Saturday and she had to cancel it due to the weather predictions. Though she could have still had the event, the snow started to fall around 3pm on Saturday and kept falling until Sunday.

In other news, Steve went to the dentist and found out that his tooth will need to be extracted. He has an appointment on the 31st to get it pulled. He's not sure if they'll be doing a bridge or something else. He's really hoping that the bridge is a last-resort.

Cathy tracked out yesterday. She taught all day and then at 4pm she was free at last! She's been having some issues with her team. They do not communicate and as a result, there are a lot of bad feelings and resentment among them. Cathy gets along with all of them for the most part, but is easily frustrated with their words and actions. She was more than ready to track out simply to remove herself from the team!

This weekend we're going to the UD vs. Richmond basketball game in Richmond, VA. We'll be getting a hotel for the night and coming home on Sunday. Steve was emailed by the UD Raleigh Alumni club about the event and we decided that it'd be a lot of fun to go to a game and support the Flyers. They're ranked #14!!

In other basketball news, one of Cathy's students, Anna, has grandparents that are really into UNC sports. The grandpa attended UNC and has season tickets for football and basketball. Earlier this week he sent Cathy a letter that thanked her for all that she does as a teacher and offered her two tickets for the UNC vs. Clemson game on the 10th. Cathy was so excited!! We're both really excited to go to a UNC game!!

That's it for now. Nothing else really to report about!!

:)
The Walkers

Sorry about not posting in a long time!!! We're both doing well and wanted to give an update to how we are, for those of you who actually read this (we bet not many read it).

On Thursday, Cathy's cousin Corey and his girlfriend Heather came by for a visit. Corey is the son of Cathy's mom's sister Margie. Heather has her whole immediate family here (Greenville we think) and they drove down from Michigan to see her brother before leaving for the Navy. While they were here (in NC) they decided to come and see us and we were super excited!! They got here around 5:30 pm and came with FAYGO (three two-liters) and BBQ Better Maid!!! Cathy was SOOOOOOO excited!!!!

We went to the Bass Lake Draft House for dinner and enjoyed having the time to talk to them and hear about what they've been doing. They said that they don't plan on staying in Michigan much longer and they hope to move to NC in about a year or so (Cathy was very excited to hear that).

After dinner we drove back to our house and said our goodbyes. Cathy was so happy to finally see some family (she's been homesick since we've been here) and to know that they cared enough to not only come and see us while down here, but to bring Faygo and Better Maid for Cathy (she had blogged on myspace about all the things she missed about home and they were on the list)... really made us feel good.

On to other news... Steve is still happy with Burt's Bees. He has his days where he loves what he's doing and then there are days when he feels like he was hired to do one thing (something that he was excited about doing) but is actually being asked to do something completely different. He doesn't have the complete "team" experience that he needs to do his job well, but he was told that it takes time. So for now, he continues to give 100% and work hard, no matter what the job is that he's doing.

On Saturday, Steve had to be up at 5 am for a training that he did at 7am. He provided drinks, muffins, cookies, donuts and mini-cupcakes for everyone. Cathy thought it was really thoughtful and when she asked him how the group responded, he said they didn't say anything, but they ate everything.

Cathy had a HUGE all-day field trip on Friday. She was up at 4:45 am getting ready and then left the house by 5:30. Her parents and kids met her at school between 6:00 and 6:30 am and then their bus left for the coast. Cathy's class went with another 4th grade class (the other teacher's name is Lisa and she's one of Cathy's friends at school).

They went to the U.S.S. North Carolina Battleship in Wilmington. The kids watched a movie about the ship and then they were set "free" on the ship to explore. There were many levels and they got to go down through the stairs and see all kinds of neat things. (On Saturday, Cathy was getting some additional pictures for her slide-show and she saw that there are parts of the ship that are haunted!!!!)

After the battleship, they went to the beach at Fort Fisher to have lunch. From there they went to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The group had a presentation on whales and dolphins and then they were allowed to look around and see all the sea life. Cathy was not too impressed with the aquarium. She said that the aquarium at the Toledo Zoo has more interesting fish than the state aquarium does. Pretty odd considering that this NC aquarium is on the ocean and the closest body of water to Toledo is Lake Erie!!!

From the aquarium they went to the beach again (same place that they ate lunch) and spent about an hour and a half playing on the beach. It started to rain... and rained from about 3:00 all the way to 7:00. The kids got soaked, but they were all told to bring a change of clothes for the ride back (smart thinking).

Cathy's group returned to her school early (they had expected to return by 8:30 and instead arrived at 7:30) and then once the kids were all gone, she and Lisa went to grab dinner and some much needed drinks.

That brings us to today. We're going to go to Outback tonight to celebrate Cathy's birthday (she turned 31 on Tuesday). You'll have to read Cathy's blog to read about her birthday at school.

We'll write again soon...
The Walkers