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!

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!

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.

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.

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:

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!

Our Letter

To begin this blog let Joni and I explain the whirlwind of events that led us to where we are today. To clearly communicate it I need to step back a few steps and share what has happened to us over the past year and a half.

It was 18 months ago that Joni and I began planning and trying to extend our family with a new child. In our minds we thought it would be like it was the first time around (the first try). However months passed, and passed and still to no avail we found ourselves wondering "why was this so fast the first time". In December (after 16 months) we decided to begin testing to see what could be reasons for the inability to get pregnant. We received some unfortunate results, and while this may seem like whack in the face to some, for Joni and I it actually offered a lot of answers and resolve to our questions.

It was during this time of testing and seeking answers that I had lunch, by divine intervention, with a co-worker. I was able to share with Doug what was going on, how much it was hurting my wife and how I was beginning to have this feeling like maybe we should be looking into adoption. I was feeling uncomfortable with the thought of spending a "lot" of money on fertility methods. Doug was quick to share that he could empathize with our feelings and was able to share that his two kids were adopted. Of course this led into some fantastic discussion, and from that moment Doug has become a huge mentor in this situation and I go to him anytime I am mulling over things in my head.

That night I went home and shared with Joni what had happened. I was met with tears of joy as she said she had been having the same feelings for a few months. This was a pivotal moment for us, January we began "investigating" adoption. I kept telling Joni, knowledge is key, the more we learn the better this will be. And certainly by no explanation other then God's timing, doors began opening that were by no other explanation "miraculous".

Door 1: I found out another co-worker had adopted his two children I was able to spend some time learning from him about his situations.

Door 2: A few days after that I found out one of my coworkers was adopted and I got to hear from him about it.

Door 3: Joni and I went to an adoption meeting at an agency, we left feeling unified and at peace about pursuing this.

Door 4: Entertainment, yes entertainment. Everything we rented from movies to Television seemed to deal with adoption. Juno, Meet the Robinsons, Extreme Home Make-Over. Joni and I would look at each other and laugh. We were feeling like God was smacking us over the head with signs.

Door 5: Joni was motivated by a message at church to begin taking next steps. Due to financial restrictions our original thought was fostering to adopt. So next steps for Joni was to talk with a co-worker who foster parents.

Door 6: (this would prove to be a very pivotal door) Joni had a chance to connect with that co-worker that foster parents, this was a great chance for us to learn more about foster parenting.

Door 7: Feb. 17 when all other churches in Des Moines were cancelled because of a severe winter weather storm, Joni's co-worker's church still managed to meet. Joni's co-worker was addressed by a friend of hers who knowing she foster parents was asked "Do you know anyone who is looking to adopt? I have a niece who is looking to adopt out her child". Her response, thinking of us was "yes". She gathered information and later that day called us and shared with us this info.

Door 8: We called the birth mom that night. Most people would never have direct contact since she was working with an agency. But since we were only given her number we had that chance. It was maybe only a five minute conversation, but it was an amazing five minutes. We scrambled to tell her about us, about our situation. She seemed excited, nervous, and told us the name and number of her case worker. We hung up with this young girl and looked at each other and felt at peace. We knew we were following God's will. We then contacted the case worker and left a message.

Door 9: After talking with the birth mom that night, Joni found conformation in reading this scripture: Isaiah 43:4-7: Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you,I will give men in exchange for you,and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

Door 10: Monday we got a call back from the case worker, she said that the birth mom and grandmother had already called her to ask if we had called. They were excited and felt they had found the "adoptive parents".

Door 11: After pursuing calls with the case-worker. The birthmother said that if we want it, they will stop pursuing anything else, they feel we are the right fit and feel wonderful about choosing us.

Door 12: Here's the kicker on this... The baby is due April 26th!! What does this mean? Paperwork for adoptions is plentiful. One of those things is getting a home study. This is something that usually takes 3-4 months. We contacted the state adoption center, they said they couldn't do it in the small time frame. We contacted a private agency and they said if we get moving they could wrap it up in 4-5 weeks! "Miracle"!

Door 13: The father relinquished parental rights. The case worker said the father and his father confirmed feeling the child would be better off going to older more experienced people and really couldn't be any better situation. This is a very hard step to get, and it's done.

Door 14: Joni and I spent an evening to discuss. We both felt more at peace about doing this than anything else in our life. Our main distraction – the cost, was of no question. We felt like at this point there was no way we could say "no". We felt we would be blatantly disobeying God. Again I went to my mentor Doug about this. His words rung strong. "Derek, it's thousands of dollars. Ask for gifts from family and friends. This (coming from his experience with adoption) is nothing short of miracle in how fast and smooth this is moving. How much would you pay for Miya?" to that I responded "There isn't enough money".

Door 15: We formally accepted to adopt this child. We have begun the paper work. We have scheduled physicals and meetings with agencies. And we have begun emailing the birth mother and the rest of her family. Amazing conversations have already begun. I can't imagine how hard this is going to be for them and whatever we can do to comfort there decision we are doing.

So with all that said... we will be adopting what we know is a baby boy due to be born on April 26th. We are extremely excited! We had the opportunity to share this news with our immediate families this weekend and it was a huge blessing. Our families wrapped their arms of love and support around us. And we feel more than ever we are truly following God's will for our lives. Miracles do happen and this is one of them.

Please, please, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. For the birth mother, their family, and the baby. They are making an amazing sacrifice that I can hardly begin to empathize with. And of course for us! This is a big change that we are quickly getting ready for.

But we have no doubts that this will work out. We are excited! Miya is uber-excited! And are spare bedroom is being turned in to a nursery in record time.