Okay...I again apologize for those of you that get updates only from the blog. Let me start by saying today, we had our court date for the finalization of Brady Cameron's adoption. It was so wonderful. Our judge was so compassionate and truly a blessing to us. Judge Grant (Rankin County) made everything so easy and truly a pleasure. He waived the 6 mos waiting period for us and we were just thrilled that things went so smoothly. The pictures are of the Judge, our attorney, and Buddy, Brady, and me.... Jaydon was at school. We didn't want to run the risk of the judge not signing everything because Jaydon was running around screaming....ha...no really he wanted to go to school and we had court at 8:00 am. Once we got there we were glad that we didn't make Jaydon come with us because we had to wait a little while for the judge to get there. We can't believe that this is already finalized....with Jaydon he was almost a year old before we went to court. So God has truly blessed us in every aspect of this adoption.

Okay...for the update on Brady....he is finally doing much better. We went to the Pediatric Gastroenterologist last week and he diagnosed him with a severe case of Reflux. We are having to give him medicine once a day and rice cereal in every other bottle and feed him every two to three hours....it's more work on us...but it seems to be working so far. His diarrhea seemed to also work itself out. The doctor said that he was having that as a response to pain. It all seems to be getting better with this new treatment plan. Thanks for all the prayers for Brady. It has helped us get through a stressful few weeks.

Tomorrow is the big day....SHOTS!!! We will finally be able to get out in public...and we get to see how much he has gained.

Hopefully we will be able to get all the family together for a celebration dinner sometime this week. (We did that after Jaydon's adoption was finalized.) We have so much to celebrate!

We are so excited about our future....and we can't wait to keep you updated as our journey unfolds.....

....Waiting on the Results....

Okay....the latest is that we are now on Soy formula and waiting on some results from the doctors office. This will tell us if Brady Cameron has a stomach bug or exactly what is going on...hopefully. He is tolerating the soy well....hardly any spit up compared to before...but the other is still a problem. He is terribly uncomfortable and screams because he hurts. It is hard to be in this position of not doing anything for him...but hopefully we will be able to find something out soon.

They did tell me to go get some "Gripe" water....I had never heard of it. It is an all natural liquid that is supposed to help with cramping, gas, etc. So, I have been giving that to him as directed and it seems to help for a few minutes but not as much as I hoped it would. He does seem a little less irritable after he has taken the gripe water, so maybe it is working some.

Aside from all of that, things were wonderful and busy this Father's Day weekend. We had lots of company and we enjoyed it. Some of our friends/family from Natchez came up to see all of us and to see Brady for the first time. They were so excited. They brought gifts for Jaydon too. He got a new elephant (or HELEPHANT as he says it) from his PaPaw CB and MaMaw Joanne and from Mrs. Pat and Mr. Roger (or Raager as Jaydon calls him...like he is from up north..) they gave him an Ole Miss basketball (in one of the pictures) and he loves it. They also got Brady some cute LSU things....like a pacifier and sippee cup. We really enjoyed our visit with all of them and wish they all lived a lot closer than they do.

We also celebrated Father's Day with both sets of parents this weekend, one on Friday night and one on Saturday night. But after all of that, on Saturday evening Jaydon put on Buddy's tennis shoes and kept saying they were his and walking around in them.....so I just had to post a picture of him with them on for you to see. The other picture is of Brady wearing his MawMaw's spiderman outfit. He looked so cute in that outfit, but he only got to wear it for a few minutes, because that was on one of the days that he was still spitting up really bad, so the outfit had to be changed.

We are so thankful for our friends and family. We were so blessed to be able to spend good quality time with them this weekend. We hope everyone else had as much fun celebrating with their families.

....I will let you know what the results are as soon as I hear from our pediatrician.....

............Is that right?.......

Okay, we went to the doctor yesterday and Brady Cameron now weighs....7lbs...! Can you believe it? I wondered if the scale was right at first. He totally skipped the 6's and went right on to the 7. We were so excited and thankful. After celebrating for a minute then he spit up all over his daddy and we realized that we needed to bring up the whole formula thing again. So the nurse said she would call me and let me know what the plan is for his formula. It wasn't long and my cell rang and she said that we needed to go back to the formula that we were previously using......ugh! So now we are back to formula #2 again. So far, the spit up has slowed down drastically. They think he may have a small intolerance for lactose. Well, when he spits up the entire bottle....it doesn't seem so small to us...ha! Nevertheless, changing back has helped, and we will watch for the other problems we were experiencing.

After getting Jaydon and Brady Cameron home yesterday....in the rain, I decided that I would put my plants out so we wouldn't have to water them later. Great Idea......Jaydon always wants to help with the plants, so we went out front to get the ferns off the stands and put them out to get some rain.....and of course that is not all that got rain. Jaydon has never really played in the rain...so he took this opportunity to do so. He thought it was so fun. Meanwhile, I was trying to get the camera, listen for Brady Cameron and make sure to put all of the flowers and plants out there too. It was quite funny I am sure if someone would have been here to watch me run around trying to get all of this done. The truly fun part didn't begin until I tried to get Jaydon to come back inside. He didn't want to have anything to do with that. Brady was crying because it was time for him to eat and Jaydon didn't care at all....ha ha. He thought I could just go get his brother and we could all go in the rain and play. The one thing I said that got him in was that MawMaw and PawPaw were coming over to see him. He quickly let me get him all cleaned up....inside.....yeah! I was able to feed Brady, bath Jaydon, bath Brady Cameron (because he spit up all over everything), change my clothes, cook Jaydon some supper all before my parents actually got here. Sometimes....it amazes how much you can do and not realize that it was much at all until you sit back and think about it.

We had a great time yesterday evening. Jaydon really played hard with PawPaw outside playing baseball. MawMaw took him out front to ride his bicycle and by the time they left....he was so irritable because he was worn out. Once we got Jaydon in the bed, then Brady Cameron decided we had not been paying enough attention to him, so he decided to cry like he has never cried before, so we freaked out a little (mainly because Brady is not a baby that cries much at all). After we got that worked out Jaydon started crying (very unusual). So, needless to say, all of you who have children know what we experienced last night.

But all in all, yesterday was jampacked with fun, trials, and more fun. We prayed for these two boys for so long that all of the crying and fit throwing is so worth it and ALMOST like music to our ears.

Once again, we realize how blessed we are to be able to experience the fun with our sons. We cherish it, even when it is the not so fun part of parenting.

The past few days have been wonderful yet exhausting. Brady Cameron is still having trouble with his formula and our pediatrician is on vacation, so we will ask the nurse tomorrow when we take him to be weighed. We think he has gained a little, so we are anxious to see exactly how much.

He still smiles more than anything and holds his head up. If we could just figure out this formula to help his little tummy....we would be great! Some of the young couples in the church are bringing supper over tonight for us. We are so blessed to have families that are willing to do things like that for us, especially considering this is a large church and I hardly know any of them by name at this point. But, we are truly blessed time and time again.



My energy level is starting to fade a bit...ha ha! Just from the feedings in the middle of the night, but now that VBS is over for Buddy, he has been such a big help. We have a system going now. I am so thankful for him and the love that he shows me and the boys, even if it is at 3 or 4 in the morning.



I did manage to cook a big meal yesterday, thanks to the crockpot! I am learning that time management has a whole new meaning now! Honestly things have not been that bad. We are so thankful to live near family now and that has really helped when we really needed help.



I will update again....hopefully tomorrow to let everyone know how much Brady Cameron weighs.....we are hoping at least 6lbs now....but we will see.

....Another Formula....

Today has been so fun....last night Brady was up most of the night grunting and squirming. We are now trying our third type of formula per our doctor's encouragement. I hope this one works. Two bottles down and so far so good. We will see.

After the second bottle, I put him in his bouncy seat that Buddy put together today and sat in front of him with the camera taking pictures. I couldn't believe I caught a big smile. I was so thrilled.

Buddy has been very busy with VBS this week and Jaydon has been going also. They have both been exhausted when they get home, so not a lot of things going on here at our house in the evenings with those two. Buddy did capture some good pictures of Jaydon yesterday. I can't remember if I posted it or not that when we start taking pictures of Brady or really anything.....Jaydon says, "Take a picture of Jaydon". We just laugh and say okay. He poses for them most of the time. He is so entertaining right now. We laugh quite often around here with Jaydon. Fun times at the Knott house!

....Daily Life With Brady.....

I apologize that it has been a while since the last entry.....but we have been a little busy.....ha! Things are going better than expected here. Brady is a very good baby. We are dealing with the typical baby stuff, like trying to get the right formula for his stomach and things of that nature. We went to see our pediatrician for the first time yesterday and things went really well. Brady had gained some weight....he weighs 5lbs 11 1/2 oz. So we are excited about that. Everything else so far is good also. We took lots of pictures of the visit. Everyone just laughs because we take pictures of everything.

Brady still lifts his head whenever he wants to and earlier I had him leaned up in the corner arm of the couch and he lifted his head and pulled his body up as if he was trying to sit up.....I know....you don't believe it. I wouldn't either if I hadn't sat here and watched this baby do it myself! Hopefully I can get it on video.

Our company as finally started to slow down and a new normal is setting in. Jaydon is still doing great with Brady. He loves him. Yesterday when he and Buddy got home, the first thing Jaydon did when he saw Brady in the swing was lean over and kiss him and tell him "It's okay, Jaydon is here". It is so sweet to watch him love on Brady Cameron.

Our birthmother is doing really well, she and her mom came over Saturday afternoon for their first visit with us and Brady. It was awesome. Brady's birthmother just held him and watched him. She fed him and burped him (which she wouldn't do in the hospital). It was very sweet to watch them kiss on him and just stare at his little features. Of course, Jaydon put on a show for them. He played with everything imaginable so they could watch him. They even bought Jaydon some pool toys so he wouldn't feel left out that they had bought Brady something. They both go above and beyond trying to include Jaydon into the situation, which we are so thankful for.

As each day passes, we realize more and more how blessed we are to not only have a new baby, but to have a birthmother and grandmother that will forever be able to tell Brady Cameron themselves how special he is and how much he is loved by everyone. We all talk about how God obviously has something really important for Brady in the future and we are so excited to have a little part in it.

Thank you to all of those that have prayed for us and continue to. We are so blessed and God is so good to our family.

...Let's Catch Up....

Wow...How do I describe the emotions and feelings that have been going on since our last post? We had a very emotional week at the hospital last week. Our birthmother was so wonderful and strong. She really has given God all the glory for her being able to go through with this process. I am so grateful that God chose her for us. What a blessing.

This adoption process has been hard because we are so emotionally invested with our birthmother. So when the time came for her to leave the hospital on Thursday, let's just say words can't describe that moment in my heart. I was not expecting to be there for that, but she requested us to come up to the room...for which I am grateful. Her mom was also there for support and she is such a wonderful grandmother to Brady already. She loves him so much. I was so glad that she made it back to be there for her daughter during this terribly difficult time.

It was twice as hard because we found out that morning that Brady had to stay another night in the hospital due to his temperature not being what they would have liked for it to be. She wanted to make sure that one of us would be staying with Brady at all times. I decided to stay at the hospital from that point on. It was really weird to be in the hospital, but not be the one that actually gave birth to Brady. It was an experience that I will never forget.

We had the opportunity to educate some of our nurses on our particular adoption journey. They had not experienced anything like this before. It was really fun explaining everything to them. Our night nurse, Stephanie and our day nurse, Jackie, were the best! We became really attached to them and they loved on Brady.

We finally got to come home on Thursday afternoon. It was so weird seeing 2 carseats in my van. Buddy and I just laughed about it. Jaydon is so excited that he has someone to sit by him...even though Brady can't talk to him yet...! Jaydon is so good with Brady, he loves to hold him and when he is done holding him...he his done! He moves on to one of his toys or something else. So far, we have been blessed in that area!

Brady had to have a Bili-blanket for 2 days due to being Jaundice, but thankfully we took that back yesterday. We are so glad we are done with that big thing! Brady is glad too! He looked like a glow worm when he had it on. We took some pics and I will upload them this afternoon or tonight for you to see.

Many of our friends have called and emailed to check on us, and many are hearing about it for the first time and are shocked. To that we are sorry that we didn't keep everyone in the loop....we tried to guard ourselves as much as possible once again during this process. God protected us and provided a wonderful, yet difficult experience for us.

Brady Cameron is so loved by his birthmother that she cared more about his needs than her wants. She is so strong and courageous that it amazes both of us on a daily basis. I am happy to say that we have maintained contact with her everyday since she left the hospital. She is doing much better and she still says that God is the reason for that.

What a wonderful love story that we get to tell Brady Cameron about how God loves him so much that he gave him a special family.....We will tell him of how he is loved not only by us, but by his birthmother and how she sacrificed for just for him!