Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Back to MI
We drove to MI today, this time with Miya! She was fantastic, except for the hourly question, "are we almost there?!"
Derek and Miya dropped me off at Grandma Sue's to visit with Isaiah for a few hours (they have a policy that Miya cannot visit the host care). Derek took Miya to a nearby park to get some of the stored-up energy out from being in a car all day. Isaiah is great! He has gained one pound, and is now up to 7 lbs. 12 oz. He is as cute as can be, and we will post some pictures tomorrow.
After a nice visit, we headed to our host families where Miya got to meet Kenzie (3 years old). They were off playing in no time!
Tomorrow is the court date at 11am MI time. Miya will get to meet Isaiah tomorrow as well. What a big day!
Please pray the judge signs our adoption petition papers before the weekend! Thanks for your continued prayers!
Derek and Miya dropped me off at Grandma Sue's to visit with Isaiah for a few hours (they have a policy that Miya cannot visit the host care). Derek took Miya to a nearby park to get some of the stored-up energy out from being in a car all day. Isaiah is great! He has gained one pound, and is now up to 7 lbs. 12 oz. He is as cute as can be, and we will post some pictures tomorrow.
After a nice visit, we headed to our host families where Miya got to meet Kenzie (3 years old). They were off playing in no time!
Tomorrow is the court date at 11am MI time. Miya will get to meet Isaiah tomorrow as well. What a big day!
Please pray the judge signs our adoption petition papers before the weekend! Thanks for your continued prayers!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Court Date Scheduled
After a "hick-up" things are progressing once again and we are feeling more assured that the "hick-up" is behind us. Thanks for all the prayers! We are encouraged as should you be. We would be naive to think that we could do this all on our own. It's wonderful to be humbled and reminded of who to give thanks to and surrender this all to.
We are currently in what we are calling Phase 1... Waiting for the court date which has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 14th at 11am MI time. Please join us in praying that everything will go well. We will probably be heading back to MI on Tuesday. Prayerfully, when everything goes well at court, we will sign our adoption petetion Wednesday as well.
Phase 2 - waiting for the judge to sign our adoption petetion. Pray he does on Thursday or Friday! Once he signs, we then get custody of Isaiah!
Phase 3 - Interstate adoption paper process. We will have Isaiah, but are not able to leave MI with him until the process is complete. This can take up to 2 weeks. We are hoping it is fast!
Thank you for your prayers and words of encourgement! We have an amazing peace that can only come from our Heavenly Father!
We are currently in what we are calling Phase 1... Waiting for the court date which has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 14th at 11am MI time. Please join us in praying that everything will go well. We will probably be heading back to MI on Tuesday. Prayerfully, when everything goes well at court, we will sign our adoption petetion Wednesday as well.
Phase 2 - waiting for the judge to sign our adoption petetion. Pray he does on Thursday or Friday! Once he signs, we then get custody of Isaiah!
Phase 3 - Interstate adoption paper process. We will have Isaiah, but are not able to leave MI with him until the process is complete. This can take up to 2 weeks. We are hoping it is fast!
Thank you for your prayers and words of encourgement! We have an amazing peace that can only come from our Heavenly Father!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Loving the Lucious Lips
Isaiah was cute this morning. He has an adorable red hue to his hair. Again he has these lucious lips and we found some cute dimples on him sometimes when he makes "smile-like" faces.
He's been slowly getting the hang of this whole bottle thing. The host mom said his second night was much better than the first. We were able to feed him and he sucked down the bottle in record time. When he was done he made some bubbles for us.
6lb 15oz is pretty small. Isaiah is one little dude. When I lift him up, he feels so fragile. But he is like every other little baby... giving off heat and cuddling right up to you. I love holding him close. You can hear his little grunts while he breathes.
Joni and I are most entertained by the little guy's faces. They are so cute and funny. This video kind of gives you some examples of what I am talking about.
Lastly, we decided to head home today after our visit with Isaiah in the morning. With the court date being a couple weeks away and our visits being only a couple hours per day. Our case worker gave us encouragement that its ok to go home and be with Miya and trust our host mom. She is amazing... she has watched over 100 babies so we know Isaiah is in the best care possible. This way we don't have to sit in Michigan using up our time off only for 2 hrs a day. Instead we can use our time for when we have custody. It will be hard being away from the little guy but we feel its a good decision for us. Plus when we got home Miya was so excited. She ran to us and hugged us and was excited to look at pictures. That was very reassuring of our decision.
Oh yeah... this is what she looked like when we got home. It was crazy day at Awana's.
He's been slowly getting the hang of this whole bottle thing. The host mom said his second night was much better than the first. We were able to feed him and he sucked down the bottle in record time. When he was done he made some bubbles for us.
6lb 15oz is pretty small. Isaiah is one little dude. When I lift him up, he feels so fragile. But he is like every other little baby... giving off heat and cuddling right up to you. I love holding him close. You can hear his little grunts while he breathes.
Joni and I are most entertained by the little guy's faces. They are so cute and funny. This video kind of gives you some examples of what I am talking about.
Lastly, we decided to head home today after our visit with Isaiah in the morning. With the court date being a couple weeks away and our visits being only a couple hours per day. Our case worker gave us encouragement that its ok to go home and be with Miya and trust our host mom. She is amazing... she has watched over 100 babies so we know Isaiah is in the best care possible. This way we don't have to sit in Michigan using up our time off only for 2 hrs a day. Instead we can use our time for when we have custody. It will be hard being away from the little guy but we feel its a good decision for us. Plus when we got home Miya was so excited. She ran to us and hugged us and was excited to look at pictures. That was very reassuring of our decision.
Oh yeah... this is what she looked like when we got home. It was crazy day at Awana's.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Feasting Like Royal Court
We have been so blessed by our host family in our short stay! Juve (pronounced hu-vee) was adopted from Mexico when he was 15 years old and his birth mom and sisters also live here in MI. Juve's mom Angela came over today and cooked an authentic Mexican meal for us right before we went for our daily Isaiah visit. The pico de gallo was absolutely incredible and I never knew tortilla's could taste so good!
Our host family.
Eryn and Juve then invited us to her cousin's home for dinner (this is their Saturday night recurring event). Delicious shishkabob's with parmesan potatoes. Awesome!
Most importantly, we have decided to come home until the court date (yet to be determined). Emotions are running very high for me as it is VERY hard to be away from both my kids, but we believe this will be the best decision for all of us. We are heading back to Iowa after our visit with Isaiah in the morning.
Even though emotions are high, we have an amazing peace, as we know God is in control! Thank you all for your prayers. We look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Here are some pictures from our visit on Saturday.
Mom and Isaiah.
We just love this little guy's big lips.
A little glimpse of his eyes.
We've got him on binkies to strengthen his sucking.
Our host family.
Eryn and Juve then invited us to her cousin's home for dinner (this is their Saturday night recurring event). Delicious shishkabob's with parmesan potatoes. Awesome!
Most importantly, we have decided to come home until the court date (yet to be determined). Emotions are running very high for me as it is VERY hard to be away from both my kids, but we believe this will be the best decision for all of us. We are heading back to Iowa after our visit with Isaiah in the morning.
Even though emotions are high, we have an amazing peace, as we know God is in control! Thank you all for your prayers. We look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Here are some pictures from our visit on Saturday.
Mom and Isaiah.
We just love this little guy's big lips.
A little glimpse of his eyes.
We've got him on binkies to strengthen his sucking.
Meeting Isaiah
So this is from yesterday. Our internet was down, so we had to wait until it got back up.
We met Isaiah Allan today! He is amazing. Our time with R and her family was very sweet, and we will treasure it forever. R is amazing and we praise God for her wise choices at a very young age! First, she chose LIFE and then she chose to provide him with LIFE ABUNDANT that she felt she couldn’t provide.
We were suppose to be discharged from the hospital around 2:00pm, but the pediatrician wanted Isaiah to urinate first as he had been circumcised that morning. So, we waited and waited. He is a very sleepy baby, so we tried feeding him so he would urinate, but he wasn’t interested in eating much. We tried blowing cold air on his ‘area’ to stimulate him to urinate, but that didn’t work either. It was quite comical, three adults sitting around waiting for a baby pee (Jennifer - our case worker and us). Finally we were given permission to leave with him at 5pm, not because he had pee’d yet, but because Jennifer convinced the hospital to let us go because we had a long ride ahead. I rode with Isaiah in Jennifer’s car, and since we don't have legal custody yet we can’t drive him around. We drove from Bad Axe, MI (Isaiah’s birth place) - yes BAD AXE - to Saginaw where we met Isaiah’s host mom (where he will stay until we get custody). Grandma Sue we call her. She has cared for over 100 babies, and is amazing. We then began the second leg of our trip and caravanned with her across MI to Ottawa County. This drive was very hard, not being with Isaiah. We finally arrived to our host home around 10:30pm. What a very long day… we realized that we have driven around 900 miles in the last 48 hours!
We arrived at our host home and were happily greeted by Eryn and Juve who generously offered to host us during our time in MI. They had a large ‘It’s a Boy!’ balloon and sign waiting for us inside along with a baby blanket Eryn made. We had a great talk with them until midnight, got to know them very quickly. Around 12:30am we finally went to bed.
Of course what you all want to see is pictures so, here they are:
We met Isaiah Allan today! He is amazing. Our time with R and her family was very sweet, and we will treasure it forever. R is amazing and we praise God for her wise choices at a very young age! First, she chose LIFE and then she chose to provide him with LIFE ABUNDANT that she felt she couldn’t provide.
We were suppose to be discharged from the hospital around 2:00pm, but the pediatrician wanted Isaiah to urinate first as he had been circumcised that morning. So, we waited and waited. He is a very sleepy baby, so we tried feeding him so he would urinate, but he wasn’t interested in eating much. We tried blowing cold air on his ‘area’ to stimulate him to urinate, but that didn’t work either. It was quite comical, three adults sitting around waiting for a baby pee (Jennifer - our case worker and us). Finally we were given permission to leave with him at 5pm, not because he had pee’d yet, but because Jennifer convinced the hospital to let us go because we had a long ride ahead. I rode with Isaiah in Jennifer’s car, and since we don't have legal custody yet we can’t drive him around. We drove from Bad Axe, MI (Isaiah’s birth place) - yes BAD AXE - to Saginaw where we met Isaiah’s host mom (where he will stay until we get custody). Grandma Sue we call her. She has cared for over 100 babies, and is amazing. We then began the second leg of our trip and caravanned with her across MI to Ottawa County. This drive was very hard, not being with Isaiah. We finally arrived to our host home around 10:30pm. What a very long day… we realized that we have driven around 900 miles in the last 48 hours!
We arrived at our host home and were happily greeted by Eryn and Juve who generously offered to host us during our time in MI. They had a large ‘It’s a Boy!’ balloon and sign waiting for us inside along with a baby blanket Eryn made. We had a great talk with them until midnight, got to know them very quickly. Around 12:30am we finally went to bed.
Of course what you all want to see is pictures so, here they are:
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Isaiah is Born...on Our Way to Michigan
Well... today's the day!
At 6:30 this morning, our case worker Jennifer called. Joni was in the shower so I answered. I was a little thrown off to be frank, as she told me R (birth mom) was having contractions all night and went to the hospital this morning. I was thrown off because of news that we may be waiting another week that we received Tuesday. We had mistakenly made plans for the weekend. I had unpacked some shirts so they wouldn't get all wrinkly. I should of know better right?!
So after I talked to Jennifer I hung up and said to Joni... "It's begun", told her the news and we began getting ready. We finished packing the bags loading the car and getting Miya ready for another day at Jo's. We told Miya the news... she was excited!!, and then we prepared her for what was going to happen.
We dropped Miya off at Jo's around 9:30 said our goodbye's, tried to keep it quick so as to not make it emotional, and shortly after we were on the road.
At around 11:30 Iowa time, Jennifer called us and let us know that a healthy baby boy was born. Isaiah officially made his grand appearance weighing 6lbs 15oz, and measuring 21.5" in length. We were excited! Of course we quickly made calls to family and friends letting them know the good news. That was great.
It was a strange feeling not physically being there for the birth of our child. And we knew we wouldn't get to see him until the second day. We had a long drive ahead and wanted to give the birth family time with him to say there goodbye's. I can't imagine the emotions.
We had one "scare" on the drive. At our second stop to get some grub I panicked as I couldn't find my wallet. We scoured the car... and I began what I would call a panic attack. Joni made a call to the gas station we stopped at 2 hrs earlier. I started thinking I accidentally threw it away with our garbage. A wonderful employee there immediately began digging through garbage bags in the dumpster.... seriously an angel. After about 15 minutes of me trying not to vomit in panic.... I opened a weird nook in the van and....whalla! My wallet. I felt relieved beyond belief. We called the gas station back and let them know... they laughed we said a super thanks for all there gracious help to do everything to help us out.
So I was able to smile, relax and breathe as we got back on the road, we still had a ways to go.
driving....
driving....
driving....
10:30 pm Michigan time.... 9:30 Iowa we arrived at our hotel. 12 hours of driving later we are here. We are tired.... seems weird since all we did was sit in a car. But were are ready to get a good nights sleep and see our beautiful baby tomorrow.
So yes.... its begun. But we are ready!
At 6:30 this morning, our case worker Jennifer called. Joni was in the shower so I answered. I was a little thrown off to be frank, as she told me R (birth mom) was having contractions all night and went to the hospital this morning. I was thrown off because of news that we may be waiting another week that we received Tuesday. We had mistakenly made plans for the weekend. I had unpacked some shirts so they wouldn't get all wrinkly. I should of know better right?!
So after I talked to Jennifer I hung up and said to Joni... "It's begun", told her the news and we began getting ready. We finished packing the bags loading the car and getting Miya ready for another day at Jo's. We told Miya the news... she was excited!!, and then we prepared her for what was going to happen.
We dropped Miya off at Jo's around 9:30 said our goodbye's, tried to keep it quick so as to not make it emotional, and shortly after we were on the road.
At around 11:30 Iowa time, Jennifer called us and let us know that a healthy baby boy was born. Isaiah officially made his grand appearance weighing 6lbs 15oz, and measuring 21.5" in length. We were excited! Of course we quickly made calls to family and friends letting them know the good news. That was great.
It was a strange feeling not physically being there for the birth of our child. And we knew we wouldn't get to see him until the second day. We had a long drive ahead and wanted to give the birth family time with him to say there goodbye's. I can't imagine the emotions.
We had one "scare" on the drive. At our second stop to get some grub I panicked as I couldn't find my wallet. We scoured the car... and I began what I would call a panic attack. Joni made a call to the gas station we stopped at 2 hrs earlier. I started thinking I accidentally threw it away with our garbage. A wonderful employee there immediately began digging through garbage bags in the dumpster.... seriously an angel. After about 15 minutes of me trying not to vomit in panic.... I opened a weird nook in the van and....whalla! My wallet. I felt relieved beyond belief. We called the gas station back and let them know... they laughed we said a super thanks for all there gracious help to do everything to help us out.
So I was able to smile, relax and breathe as we got back on the road, we still had a ways to go.
driving....
driving....
driving....
10:30 pm Michigan time.... 9:30 Iowa we arrived at our hotel. 12 hours of driving later we are here. We are tired.... seems weird since all we did was sit in a car. But were are ready to get a good nights sleep and see our beautiful baby tomorrow.
So yes.... its begun. But we are ready!
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