Introducing Austin!

Just a few fun photos of our Little Man!

Little Man is...

….Legally Free!! The contested termination trial began on January 28, and finally today, at around 5 pm, the judge handed down her decision that he is legally free and that parental rights will be terminated. It has been a long time coming, and we are so thankful for the outcome! We especially want to thank all of you for your support and prayers during this last year and half. It has been a long haul, but we really feel blessed that God has worked through it all.

Little Man's new name will be Austin Charles – and we are going to slowly start integrating his new name into our daily lives. We think it will be pretty easy – we’ve hinted around for a few months now with him about the name.

The next step, just like with Daniel & Gretchen, is to be assigned an adoption case worker. Then we have a few months of waiting for all the paperwork to go through. Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait! Hopefully, we’ll be assigned the same case worker for all three kids, and be able to adopt all three on the same day. That’s the next thing you can pray with us about. They tell us it will take about 6 months to do all the adoption paperwork and bureaucratic red tape, so perhaps late summer, early fall it can all be finalized. We will be planning a rather large celebration party at that time, and we are hoping the weather will still be good so we can have it at a local park.

Thank you again for all your love and prayers and support for our family. We feel very blessed to be able to adopt these kids – they have definitely made our lives richer!

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Little Man's Trial...

...is almost over! What started out to be a 4 day trial has really drug on. This morning the state finished their cross-exam of birth mom. Feb. 20 the two lawyers will do their closing arguments, and on Feb. 22 the judge will render her verdict. So far, all state parties are confident that the judge will sign termination. But until we see the ink on the paper, we are still nervous. And now we have another couple of weeks to wait. It's been a crazy week and a half, and I've never had so many headaches in one week as this past one. But we are done for a while, and can finally get back into a normal routine with our kids. I'll keep you posted!

Gretchen's 1st birthday photos

Friday night we took Gretchen for her 1st Birthday photos. Here are a few we took at home before heading to the studio. Isn't she a cutie?!?

Little Guy & Baby Girl are.....

….Legally Free!! The termination hearing was held Friday afternoon. It was scheduled for 1:30, and we all waited until 2:15 for the parents to show up, and they never did, nor did any of their family members. The judge heard the testimony from the social worker regarding the details of the case, and decided it was in the kids’ best interest to sever parental ties and sign the termination orders. It was a relief for us, that is for sure, although very sad that no one from their bio family cared enough to show up. Little Guy and Baby Girl are now going to be officially known as Daniel and Gretchen! And finally, here is a photo of the two little ones!

The next step is to be assigned an adoption case worker. Then we have a few months of waiting for all the paperwork to go through. Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait!

And we’ll be back in court on Monday and Tuesday for Little Man’s case, and hopefully we’ll be able to send out an e-mail on Tuesday or Wednesday announcing the same thing for him – that he is legally free.