Flat Reed: Helping Daddy Make Popcorn

We had our Easter Egg hunt at SBC today and Flat Reed got to come along with us. After watching his mother paint faces for a while, Flat Reed wanted to come help me make popcorn.



Who could pass up popcorn made by cutest (and flattest) Reed ever? He really helped sell that stuff. Nevermind the fact that it was free.




"NEEDS MORE BUTTER!" Flat Reed liked the popcorn and he must take after me, because he thought the popcorn needed more butter. We had a blast!

When we came home from the Easter Egg Hunt, we had to send our official email that said we wanted to accept our referral of Reed. We thought it would be nice to let you all "reed" it.

Allison,

We absolutely, without a doubt, undeniably accept the
referral of Yang Kai Cheng that Tien sent us on
Tuesday. We are overjoyed, overwhelmed, and overcome
with love for him. We are eternally grateful to the
birthmother and family. We are also thankful to
Journeys of the Heart because they have obviously
given us a great baby. So many people have already
commented that he looks like us, and we are full
caucasian.

Please immediately fed ex the forms we need to have
signed and notarized as well as an email which states
how much money we need to send and when.

Your prompt response is desired and appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jeff and Abbey Land

Allison responded in a very quick email and here is a snippet of what she said:

"Are you sure??? HA! What a delightful email and what fun that it will
stay in your file forever! "

Adventures of Flat Reed: New Dresser

We have had my mom's dresser (from when she was little) in our house since we have been married. I painted it white shortly before we moved into our first home (apartment). My SIL painted it with lots of whimsical designs. It has been really great in our houses in Brandon, Fort Worth, and Springfield. But, now that the dresser is going to become Reed's, we had to make it look a little different.

Flat Reed took a nap while Abbey worked on one of the drawers.



Here's an idea of what it looked like before we did the new thing.



"So, you took Mod Podge and chose put it on the front of the drawer. Then, you cut pieces of SCRAPBOOK paper and glued it to the dresser using the Mod Podge. And you did this all for me?"





"Wow! This new dresser is fun! I can climb in the drawers!"



I think that Flat Reed really got into (literally) the new dresser. It's not really done yet, because we still have to paint the white an off-white color that matches the baby bed we're getting from Target. Not from the Goodlettsville or Hendersonville Target, because they don't have it! Don't even ask!

New Blog Series: Adventures of Flat Reed

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?



Well, we decided that since we didn't have an "actual" Reed here with us, we would make a Flat Reed and let him hang out with us until we get our little one.



Abbey didn't trust me to cut Flat Reed out.



That was probably a good idea since she did such a great job cutting him out. We put Reed's head and his actual hands on Flat Reed.



The first thing that Flat Reed wanted to do when he got dressed was to go out and ride in his new wagon. He had a blast out there. I think that the actual Reed is really going to like it.



Grandmothers' Land and Drake both had fun buying new clothes this week. This little onesie is one that I liked a lot, and those socks are too cool. Flat Reed thought the socks were great!



You know little ones won't keep their hats on, so he pulled it off as soon as we came in. He was just amazed at how nice his new house was.

Reed's New Ride and Meeting Mia

We came home today to a nice surprise. It was a Red Wagon! It's awesome. Our dear Sprinkles brought the wagon to us. It was really nice of them to do that. We left it up so that other people would see it and wonder what was going on.



Jack wanted to get in on the action. He thought that the wagon was for him, but we told him that it was for his brother.



Mia thinks that Reed is cute.



Reed is so lucky to have such a beautiful next door neighbor. AND ... Mia got a swingset today. Her daddy has been working on it for several days. It looks like it is going to be a whole lot of fun. Mia was definitely having a blast playing on it.

A Proud Aunt and a Proud Friend

After my parents had seen Reed's pictures yesterday, it was free game to let anyone see them. Ava was the next person on our list. She was pretty excited to get to see her nephew. She has the most patience because she was the first person to find out about the referral.

We had to have a fax number for some papers, so we told Ava and she received the fax for us!




We then surprised Abbey's "normal" friend Emily after school. She was really excited to see us and even more excited to see Reed.

We had a whirlwind tour and are now zonked, but we have to get up and go to work in the morning!

So, we want some pictures of our blog readers with Reed, print out a picture and send us a digital pic. Maybe you'll be featured on our next blog!

Just Can't Help Myself!

Here's the video of Reed. He is 7 days old in this video. Important parts to watch: near the beginning, notice how the nurse is trying to get him to do something, near the middle, notice the perfect "oh" shaped in his mouth (future American Idol???), and at the end the wink and scrunch!

Feel free to watch this video as many times as you would like.

Our Dads' Reactions

Mr. Roy was extremely cautious in his excitement, but when he realized that we were there for "good" reason, it didn't take him long to get excited. He was especially excited when he found out that we had pictures of his new grandson.





My dad was also a little confused as to why we were there. I am thinking that the men just didn't quite get it. But, again, when Daddy realized that this was his grandson, he got a pretty big grin on his face!

This has been a really exciting last day or so!

Our Mothers' Reactions

We arrived in Memphis last night around 6:40. We went to "More than Words" where Abbey's mom works. We were able to get all the way to the counter before her mom turned around and saw us. She had no clue what we were doing there. Then it hit her. Notice the first picture, it says it all! She was thrilled!







We surprised my mom in her classroom. We had a teacher go in and show mom the pictures of her "friend's" new grandbaby. After a few seconds, I came in and asked mom if "he" would do. She was so extremely surprised. She screamed, she cried, she clutched the pictures tightly, she jumped, and hugged.

Needless to say, the Grandmothers were pretty excited.

Introducing Drake Reed Land

Reed was born on February 16, 2007.



He was 6 pounds and 3 ounces.



He was 18.89 inches long.



He is so wonderful! We are so excited and he is just beautiful. God has certainly blessed us for. It is so hard to be patient when waiting on the perfect baby for our family, but God has certainly honored our patience. We are so tremendously blessed and how much do the words "How great is our God" mean to us now!

Two years ago we lost our first child to miscarriage a week before Easter. Last year, we suffered another miscarriage a week before Easter. This year, our awesome and wonderful God has given us more than we ever dreamed we would have, a week before Easter!

Xtreme Eggs and A New Thing for Reed

We had the Xtreme Egg Hunt for Preteens the other night and it was a blast. We had about 35 people involved. That's alot, considering the size of our church. It was a lot of fun though. There are tons of pictures, but the only ones that I have are the ones from my group. The kids got eggs as they went around town performing odd assignments and service projects. It was a lot of fun.



My sil Ava emailed me a link to an aution on Ebay. It was for a lady who makes these canvasses to match bedding. Guess what, she made them to match Reed's bedding. I immediately bought one and paid for it. I then emailed to ask if she could paint Reed's name on it. She was really nice and did it free of charge.

I think it turned out really cute. Good catch Ava. Now, I wonder how in the world did she find this on Ebay?



Abbey is asleep, she doesn't feel good. She's going to take a sick day tomorrow. I taught a conference for the TN Baptist Convention tonight. I had one person show up, so we combined with my friend Klista who was teaching the other section and we team taught.

Beautiful Mia

Okay, you're going to have to bear with me on this one. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures I took of the cutest neighbor in the world, Mia. She and her mom came over today while Abbey and I were working in the yard.

















Okay, so, guess what this means, when we get Reed, you will get TONS of pictures, and that's why you look at a blog anyway, right? I bet after that sentence it's hard to believe I am an Editor isn't it?

Mia is so sweet. When she left, she said, "Bye Abbey" and then, "Bye Bess." How come my one syllable name is so hard for young children to say!

Wright News

Jeff and Holly Wright are our good friends who we met while going to church in Joelton. Since then, we have kept up with each other and now it is easier to keep up with them since they live a few doors down. It's only temporary, but they are building a new house. This is them right before they are sharing some big news with Holly's mom.







Can you guess what the news is? Yes, Jeff and Holly are going to have a little one. Isn't that wonderful? Holly and Jeff are going to be great parents to this new one, as they are to Hannah and Ashlyn.

Abbey and I found out on Thursday of last week that they were expecting, so when they told us that they planned to tell Ms. Sheila tonight, we had to be there. We went to the basketball banquet for Jeff's team to watch the big news. It was wonderful. It was really exciting to see Ms. Sheila's reaction.





Now, we are hoping that the next "baby" post will be the announcement that we have finally gotten our referral. You can join us in praying that it will occur soon, but also pray for our patience.