Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!



Brecken got these awesome Hulk boxing gloves for his birthday! They are so fun and they don't seem to hurt if the kids "accidentally" box each other. Cards are done (except I somehow ordered 50 less than last year so we will return to the full list next year)! Gifts are done (a few still need wrapped and I didn't find the bike ramp we wanted for Breck but that may be a good thing -- we don't have great health insurance)! We visited Santa today-- I almost forgot to do that! He even coaxed Kait onto his lap-- she didn't want to tell him what she wanted since she "knows he isn't real". You should have seen her eyes when he started guessing what was on her list (he's obviously talked to a few 8 y/o girls). She was pretty awe struck afterward which was so cute! So I'm off to start making some food and help the kids wrap some of their gifts
God Bless~ laura

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Details

Kev and I went for our first round of travel shots yesterday. Not terrible but man I hate shots! No problem with starting IV's/ drawing blood/ giving shots back in the ICU days but when a needle is coming at me-- I almost pass out! Luckily Kevin was there to talk me through it & remind me to breathe. Bella was there giggling at the Goofy bandaids they used so that helped too.
Last night we got our official referral packet. We finished the papers up this am and overnighted them back to CHI. We now wait for a court date which is when the adoption will be official. We will hopefully be able to travel about 3 weeks after the court date. We should know when the court date is within the next month. All that said, we are hoping that we will travel in late March but we will just have to wait to see if it all works out like that.
As we were sitting and looking at Taye's picture and talking about his life,Bella reminded me that even though we are sad that Taye is not being taken care of by a mommy and daddy, "it's okay mommy, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are with him and angels are watching him too" then I really cried :) Man, what would I do with out my kids to keep me on track!-- Liv, I know you can relate (with the phone and all)
So that is all I know right now. This stuff has pretty much consumed me for the last week and a half-- I have a stack of Christmas cards waiting to be finished but I'm having trouble focusing on that. Maybe I'll do them tonight-- I still have a few days right?
laura

Monday, December 15, 2008

REFERRAL!

When we were least expecting it... the call came. Monday I was praying that God would bring someone to reach out to into our lives that day. We are so blessed and I know that there are so many hurting people, even in our community. In my prayer I added that God would help me recognize this person as sometimes his plans are not ours. I then went to check our messages and had one from our social worker.. odd.. they usually email. When we connected she said that she wanted to see if we wanted a child up to 24 mo or if we really wanted to stay under 12 (we were approved for 0-24 but had preference as 0-12) . Kevin and I had actually recently discussed this and I told her that we were open for up to 24 mo. She said she was just checking and hung up. She then called back 20 min later and had Kevin on the phone. Wow.. we had been waiting 5 mo so we had not even begun to think that we might be getting a call soon. Then things took a different route. She told us about this little guy... found by police, abandoned near a church, they said his birthday was march 27th 2007.. obviously a guess. However, b/c of some concerning info on his Dr. eval she did not want us to see pictures until we had consulted a adoption Dr. This was not really at all what I had expected. Our minds went to worst case scenarios.. the difficulties that could show up from starvation, neglect. We waited anxiously for the report from the Dr (Dr. Keck / Riley) at the same time wondering what we were waiting for, would we actually say no? During the week I can look back and see how Satan loves to work.... messing with communication.. Kevin and I are almost always on the same page but suddenly we were misreading and misunderstanding each other. Fear.. the longer we waited the more I thought about the needs he could have and worried whether we would be able to meet those deep needs. Pride..the kids are so great (so far:)) what if this totally messed up our family. God is so good and the waiting time was not wasted. He clearly spoke to Kevin and I that this is his plan for our family, his grace is sufficient, and all things are for his glory. Finally on Sat Kevin and I were able to talk openly to one another and realized we were on the same page all along. We had received a partial report from the Dr. on Fri. She had some of the same concerns that we did and wanted more info. While we are still getting that info so that we will be better prepared, we called and left a msg that we wanted to move forward with the referral and were dying to see pictures. We received the pics this morning.. amazing! He is beautiful!!! We are praying that God will lead us each step of the way and are so excited.

We have changed our original name plans and decided to chose and Ethiopian name since names are very important in their culture. The name we have chosen for our precious boy is Taye Kevin (Taye meaning --you have been seen).

Wow, what a day :)
laura

Sunday, December 14, 2008

i've missed blogging!

We combed Bella's hair all out and got this great 'fro! We are thinking the she and her little brother may have similar hair!:)

After taking a break from blogging I have decided that I miss it and the great info you can share!