One month

Andrew is one month today! Kind of crazy since he isn't even supposed to be born yet! It still amazes me how healthy he is for being born 6 weeks early. What an amazing kid! :)

I have this tradition with all my kids of taking a picture on their month "birthday" with a stuffed animal to show how much they grow in the first year. This elephant is extra special since it was given to Andrew from his birth mother the day he got out of the hospital.

What a CUTIE!!

I wanted to take a picture to compare how much bigger Andrew's big brothers are than him! They look like giants next to him!

They sure LOVE their baby brother!

Look how strong he already is. He has actually rolled over a few times already. We have tried to catch it on video camera, but of course as soon as we pull it out, he won't do it. Luke and Isaac did the same thing. :)

It's been an amazing month!

Introducing Andrew Roy Erickson!

We are happy to introduce Andrew Roy Erickson. Adoption truly is a miracle and we have been blessed with a new little miracle.

We got a call on 9/23 saying that Andrew's birth mothers water had broken. So we quickly made arrangements for Luke and Isaac and headed to GA were he was born. We had the incredible opportunity to be able to get to know Andrew's amazing birth mother. We sat with her for about 5 days while she as in the hospital. We just love her! When we decided to adopt, we knew we would have no problems loving the baby that came to our family. But we weren't quite expecting how much we love his birth mother. We feel so blessed to know her and to be a part of her life.

So after 5 days Andrew was born on Sept. 28th, at 5:15 am. He beat the doctor here and was delivered by the nurse. He was just waiting until he didn't have to share his birthday with his mommy. :) My birthday is the day before his!

He weighed 4 lbs. 13 oz. at birth and is 18 inches long. He spend time in the NICU, but is doing wonderfully.

We were lucky enough to be there for the birth. He came out hollering! Best sound in the world!

This is just after his first bath.

I got to walk him down the hall to the NICU, but we didn't get to really see him until an hour or so later.

Here is the first time I really got to hold him. Love is amazing! The instant I laid eyes on him, I was flooded with an over whelming love for him, and the motherly instincts just kicked right in!

First time Daddy got to hold him.

Can't wait to bring him home!

He had to wear a mask under the lights for jaundice, so you can't see his cute face. Still cute though!

Love his little feet!

And his little hands!

The white thing on his arm is an IV.

First time I fed him a bottle. He is a hungry boy!

He does the cutest things with his eyebrows when he eats!

Daddy's first bottle. He will get to help out with the feeding with this one!

The rest of these are some of my very favorites from the NICU.

While in the NICU Andrew exceeded all expectations! He was only there for one week instead of the four they expect for a baby born this early.

They did a car seat test to see how he handles being in a car seat. They stick him in there and check all his vitals and stuff. He passed, of course!

All bright eyed and wearing "big boy" clothes. He's been wearing just a diaper before this. It makes him look so much bigger!

Here he is in a "big boy" bed. Which just means he is out of the incubator and into a regular bassinet and is able to maintain his own body temp.

I sure love this little boy!

I just can't get enough of him!

Leaving the hospital! For coming at 34 weeks it is pretty amazing he was only in the NICU for one week.

I was stuck in GA for a week while all the inter-state paper work went through and was delayed due to a state furlough in GA. So I pretty much just held Andrew and took pictures of him. I've got about a hundred pictures of him that looks pretty much just like this one. But he is just so cute!

When we found out the GA state offices were closed for the weekend Tyler, the boys and my parents came to visit us. They boys were so excited to meet Andrew. They kept saying, "He is so cute, I just want to keep looking at him!" They will be awesome big brothers.

We took the boys down by the river for a hike. It was so good to see them. That is by far the longest I have been away from them!

Four become five!

Finally home. Luke loves holding his baby brother!

I have some truly awesome friends that threw us a baby shower on Friday. My friend made this diaper cake. So cute. Thanks so much for the shower!

Luke and Isaac brought toys over for Andrew. They are such good big brothers. They can't wait until he can play with them!

Here is our cute baby in some of his new clothes. Isn't he the cutest thing EVER!

This has been a truly amazing experience. We are so grateful for all 3 of our boys and the very special way they each came into our family.