John's life [thus far] in video...

Moving sonogram of John yawning in the womb.

Welcome to the world, John Spencer!  His first moments after being born in the Hutchinson hospital.

John seemed to have hiccups often while in the womb.  He kept this tendency after birth.  He must be used to it, but it still bothers him sometimes.

SOMEONE can't seem to leave John alone while he sleeps.  I guess it's because he makes so many different cute faces.  He seems to show the full range of emotions in this clip.

John has loved playing in his "play yard."  He likes kicking the keyboard to play the music, but he loves the dangling mirror most of all.  John just loves looking at himself and others in the mirror.

He loves the little frog toys (they make good teething toys).  This was the stage when John attacked everything violently with his mouth.  He gets a little frustrated when he can't get a good grip on it.

John loves the puppet giraffe, but is not sure what to make of the strange noise it makes.

John gets startled but cracks up at sudden loud movements (at least from mommy and daddy).  We like playing "Gotcha!"

John will play with just about anything you put in front of him, but he has developed a preference to certain toys over time.  It didn't take long for him to get to the "grabby" stage.

As you may notice from the most recent pictures and videos (by his chubbiness), John is a very good eater.  Here he seems excited about the food he is getting until he tastes it.  The look on his face is priceless.

John understands a few words, but he hasn't learned to speak any yet.  Still, that doesn't stop him from trying.  Here he is practicing his pronunciation skills, learning how to use his tongue and lips.

more to come...

174 Reasons (and counting) to Appreciate Birth Mothers

 On January 24, 2013, our lives were changed forever.  John Kimball Spencer was born and placed into our arms for the first time.  Each day since then has been a blessing.  We will forever be grateful to John's birth mother and to God for blessing us with parenthood.  There is no doubt we were meant to be together.  The adoption was finalized on February 28, and we were sealed together as a family for time and all eternity on March 30 in the Kansas City Temple.  We are delighted to share our story with you as it continues.  For many more pictures, videos, and updates, you can follow us on Facebook.  This has truly been the happiest time of our lives.  We are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy, and handsome baby boy.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to our adoption effort in various ways.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

3 Nephi 22

As some of you may already know, Mike and Lydia have been hoping to start a family for 8 years. In the past three years they have been preparing to be chosen for placement for adoption. It has been a trial but also a blessing. There have been ups and downs. For those that ride that roller coaster of life with them know how much they have hoped and waited.

On September 12, 2012, Lydia noticed a message from her adoption agent, Sam Scott. She was on her way to pick up the Sister Missionaries from her church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) to go to her friend, Panmook Albach's house to help her clean her house for sale. Lydia called her agent back right away because his office closes at 5 and it was already almost 4:30pm. Earlier in the month her agent had discussed with her and Mike about two potential birthmothers who were in Kansas that wanted to place their baby for adoption. One was due September 29th and the other sometime in January. Because the school year was just getting on a roll they hoped that they would be able to make the necessary transition into parenthood without disrupting the children they teach, in the process. (In other words, they hoped the January prospect would be theirs) 

Ok, back to the story...

So Lydia calls her agent and he tells her "You have been Selected for placement!" Of coarse, Lydia was overjoyed at being finally chosen to become a mother! The first people she shared the news with were the Sister Missionaries of coarse. Then her friend Panmook and her husband Karl. Then Mike. Mike was suppose to meet them all for dinner but he didn't get the message. SO he was the third person to know. 

The following week Mike and Lydia were able to meet Kim in person. She was tall and pretty. She was a touch cookie too. (She was Army Reserves) As they all discussed family backgrounds and shared photos. The similarities were uncanny! It was a HUGE testimony of how God really is real and does make things happen. Kim and Lydia are both very chatty and so they have been able to talk often.

On September 20th, Mike and Lydia attended Kim's ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby. Kim really wanted them to experience all they can since they can't carry their own child.

2012 Update

There has been much that has happened this year! 

January

Mike and Lydia Attended the Marriage of Maria Bohannan (Lydia's youngest sister) to Zachary Panter. They were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple. It was a blast to visit Utah once again and we even got SNOW!

June

Mike went to Panama again for the Rotary Teacher Exchange Program. He was a hot commodity. Different people begged him to come do a seminar for their area school teachers. He had a great visit and worked very hard!

Lydia worked summer Latchkey at Seltzer Elementary as well as had a few traveling adventures of her own.
In June, she rented a bright red Jetta. it was NICE! She then drove, all by herself, to Aurora Colorado to attend a Families Supporting Adoption Training Conference (FSA). She was there from Thursday to Saturday. On Saturday she drove to Colorado Springs to see what she could see. It was a beautiful drive from Denver to Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs she met up with an old friend and co-worker from Alabama! On Sunday she went to church and ran into More old friends- the James family! She then made the LONG 9hr drive back home.

July

Mike and Lydia visited her Dad in Missouri for Independence Day! Then Mike was off again to Washington D.C. for a Founders Fellowship. It was for History teachers. He traveled to lots of Historical sites, including George Washington's Home!

After that trip Mike attended a training conference in Overland Park, KS. 

Lydia got some practice mothering her nieces and nephews when her sister Misty had her 6th child near the end of July. His name was Aaron McDavitt! A Week after the birth Misty had some medical complications and so Lydia spent 4-5 days helping her in the hospital with Aaron while Misty's husband, Ben, went home to take care of the other kiddos. 

August

Lydia and Mike Celebrated their 8th Wedding Anniversary!
Then next day Lydia flew to Orlando, FL to be a full time nanny for a week for her brother, Lucas, and his wife, Alisha. Alisha's parents paid to have all their kids, grand kids, and the spouses vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. It was awesome! Expensive food but awesome! Since Lucas had to go back to school to complete some things he couldn't stay so they paid for Lydia to fly down to be a nanny for their 3 kids, Rebekah, Seth, and Isaac. It was a LOT of work but the experience was SO worth it.

Mike, meanwhile, was starting his teacher Inservice week for the new school year.

This year Lydia was upgraded to a temporary Para to replace the teacher that had a baby the year before. Her job is mostly to tutor kids in writing and the new Readwell program for Kindergarten and 1st grade. She loves teaching kids and being creative. The school theme this year was "Diving into Learning" Lydia got a little carried away but the result was awesome!

High on a Mountain Top

This is SO late in posting but its been crazy busy. I think I will make my new years resolution to be a better blogger. Anyway, Here bellow you will see that Mike and I took a Vacation to Utah this past July to visit family and meet the guy in this photo with the Zebras on his T-shirt. His name is Zach Panter. He is Maria's(pink shirt) fiance! Yay! We had a terrific time! I can say that no hiking in Kansas will EVER measure up to hiking in the Mountains. Trail or No trail. The hardest part for me, besides the obvious, was the lack of oxygen. Mike considered the "paved path" as "not much of a hike". He would prefer to go on a path less modernized.


left to right- Alisha Bohannan(Sister-in-law), Lydia Spencer, Michael Spencer carrying Isaac Bohannan(Nephew), Zach Panter (soon to be brother-in-law), Maria Bohannan soon-to-be Panter, and Suzanne Neises(Lydia's Mom)







We also went camping! (which I said I would Never do in the Mountains for fear of Bears!) Thankfully Rebekah(Lydia's 6yr old Niece) said a prayer that no bears would come and eat us or bother us. She continued to remind her mother and us that we didn't need to worry about any bears because God will protect us because she asked. Such Faith! And ya know what..She was right!

Uncle Mike and Rebekah making S'Mores.                          Uncle Mike was a favorite.

Suzanne (Lydia's mom) was able to come with us on our little adventure! She was also nice enough to let Mike and I use her full sized blow-up matress. We put it on our cots and we slept like babies! Poor mom had the one she slept on deflate on her in the night.
Isaac (the littlest guy) slept in this make shift baby caged area. This little fence came in handy! Great thinking Alisha!

     Playing toss the kid was fun and a good upper body workout. We just tossed Seth (pictured right) back and forth until we got worn out. Lucas's kids are like little fish. They just keep swimming swimming swimming! Wish we still had that kind of energy!

Well there is SOO much more to post on this subject but We will post more at a later time. (pictures too!)

Family Vacation 2011

The Spencer family took a little family history vacation this year to Neosho, Missouri. We stayed at the Eagle's Nest campground in Noel and Canoed the Elk River. It was a great adventure!

Lydia's Great Grandmother on her Father's side who has been a mystery for years. We finally found her burial plot. Location: Kenny Cemetery, Neosho, Missouri. There are still many questions about her family lineage.

There were many displaced creatures due to the recent flooding. The river rose 20 feet above normal just a week before the trip. Thankfully it went down enough to camp. The Alligator snapping turtle (above right) was wandering near our camp. He was one tuff dude!

PROM 2011

I did my own hair and makeup. I was going for a dramatic look.

This is Mike with the Northwest High Grizzley. FIERCE!

This year Mike and I went to Prom together. This will make Prom number 2 or us. We attened the Daleville, AL High School Prom in 2008. The theme at this year's E-School Prom was Masquerade. Mike was the Phantom and I was, well just a lady in black. It was really fun!