This is a great video, and a really touching story about adoption. If you are not familiar with Steven Curtis Chapman, he is a Christian musican/singer and is both a biological father and an adoptive father. He has an organization that helps people adopt children. My friend dedicated this song to our family, and I thought I'd share it with you.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Report on Adoption Shower
The adoption shower was really fun, and we were extremely blessed with gifts for our family. They all truly "showered" us with love! Here are a few pictures to share:
Our lovely cake!
Sharing the story.
A friend's adopt devotion.
All our fun gifts!
Getting a little help opening gifts!
Our lovely cake! 
Sharing the story. 
A friend's adopt devotion.
All our fun gifts! 
Getting a little help opening gifts!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Adoption Shower
Our church has decided to throw us an adoption shower. I'm looking forward to it! I think it will be lots of fun, but I'm trying to decide whether or not to take the kids - it starts at 7 pm - or just get a sitter for them. 7 pm is their bedtime, so I'm sure the kids will be cranky if they come. I'm still weighing my options.
I'm trying to put together a slide show of various pictures throughout the last 2+ years that we've had the kids. I take a huge amount of photos - it's a good thing it's from a digital camera and I don't print all of them, or I would be bankrupt! But I have a ton of photos on my hard drive to choose from.
We also just got some great photos done professionally of the kids, so I'll bring those to display. That way, if the kids stay home, at least their images will be there!
It's a different thing registering for gifts now that the kids are older. Not as easy to do, but I think I've given everyone a wide variety of things to choose from.
I'm trying to put together a slide show of various pictures throughout the last 2+ years that we've had the kids. I take a huge amount of photos - it's a good thing it's from a digital camera and I don't print all of them, or I would be bankrupt! But I have a ton of photos on my hard drive to choose from.
We also just got some great photos done professionally of the kids, so I'll bring those to display. That way, if the kids stay home, at least their images will be there!
It's a different thing registering for gifts now that the kids are older. Not as easy to do, but I think I've given everyone a wide variety of things to choose from.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Our Adoption Caseworker
We have been assigned our adoption caseworker! How exciting! Daniel & Gretchen's case has been forwarded on to her, and we are just waiting for Austin's case to be forwarded - it is from a different social worker than the other two.
Our ACW came by on Monday afternoon and spent a little over 2 hours with us, asking questions, taking in information, observing our interactions with the kids. We were told several months ago that once the kids were legally free, it would still take 6-9 months for the adoptions to be finalized. But when we asked our ACW for the timeline, she said that she thinks she'll be able to finalize by the end of May or mid-June at the latest!! How totally cool is that!! We are so very excited - we'll be throwing a huge celebration this summer!!
She comes back next Thursday for another visit, and then she'll come back again when she has everything from the kids' files redacted that needs to be. Then we'll get all their information - most of which we know, but there may be some court related stuff that we haven't seen yet.
It's hard to believe that we can actually see a very close timeframe for all of this. We have been waiting for so long to legally call these kids our own, and it has finally come! Yippee!!
Our ACW came by on Monday afternoon and spent a little over 2 hours with us, asking questions, taking in information, observing our interactions with the kids. We were told several months ago that once the kids were legally free, it would still take 6-9 months for the adoptions to be finalized. But when we asked our ACW for the timeline, she said that she thinks she'll be able to finalize by the end of May or mid-June at the latest!! How totally cool is that!! We are so very excited - we'll be throwing a huge celebration this summer!!
She comes back next Thursday for another visit, and then she'll come back again when she has everything from the kids' files redacted that needs to be. Then we'll get all their information - most of which we know, but there may be some court related stuff that we haven't seen yet.
It's hard to believe that we can actually see a very close timeframe for all of this. We have been waiting for so long to legally call these kids our own, and it has finally come! Yippee!!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Menu Plan Monday
I've decided to join Laura with her Menu Plan Monday. This will be my first post, so forgive me if it's a little simple and plain.
Monday - Ham Leftovers with Potatoes and Veggies
Tuesday - Meatloaf with Rice Pilaf
Wednesday - Crockpot Chicken
Thursday - Pork Chop Casserole
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Spaghetti & Garlic Bread (and mom's night out with the girls, so daddy gets to cook!)
Sunday - Pork Roast
Maybe next week when my head cold is all gone I can jazz this up a bit!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Is night really for sleeping??
Well, it's almost 4 am, and I've been up since 1:30 am. First, it was with Daniel. I think he's having some growing pains. He woke up twice tonight, rubbing his legs and saying "owie". I spent 30 minutes each time with him, rubbing his legs until he could fall back to sleep. The second time he wanted new jammies on - not quite sure what that was all about. As soon as I changed his diaper and put him in new jammies, he settled right down. Maybe they other jammies are itchy - I'll have to check that out later. At 2 am Gretchen decided she needed a bottle, so wwe cuddled in the rocking chair while she drank her bottle. I really need to break her of this waking up in the middle of the night for 2 ounces! She's 14 months old, and it's high time she slept through the night. But I'm a softie! I got her back to sleep, and went back to bed myself, and while trying to fall asleep I kept thinking of e-mails I needed to send out. So, I got up, sent the e-mails, and now, almost 2 hours later, I'm still sitting here at the computer. It just sucks you in sometimes! As soon as I post this, I'm headed back to bed. Hope you all were able to sleep better tonight than I was!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Here are our little Leprechaun's, wishing you all the best for St. Patty's Day!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
A Cup of Sunshine
I took these pictures on Feb. 17, when Gretchen was still sick with the flu. I caught her playing in the sunshine streaming through our living room window, and it looked just like she had caught a cup of sunshine in her little green cup. You can see by her eyes that she's not feeling good - poor little thing! She lost 2 pounds while she was sick with the flu. But she's much better now, and eating normally again.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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!
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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