gotcha day

three years ago, we got to hold this precious little boy in our arms!

he is such a blessing to our family and i'm so glad God has allowed us to be his parents. he is quite the character and a smarty pants!

i'm blessed to be his momma!

gotcha day

our kids' gotcha days are just a couple weeks apart.  i cherish both those days!  we were very practical in our gifts this year, we got them both things they could use all summer long.

our little guy was ready for a big boy bike and we let him pick it out.
for our little lady, we surprised her with some things she will need for all the adventure we will have this summer.  she loves to hike and these things will be perfect for it!
 

a beautiful adoption story

watch this...

it left me speechless and teary-eyed.

adoption is one of the most beautiful things i've experienced.

adoption has impacted my heart in more ways than i can describe.

i would love if God opened the doors for us to adopt more kiddos.

the things we say

i saw this and thought it was kind of funny.  obviously, it's part true and also a bit over exaggerated.

it does remind me how real some of the comments are and things people have said to us.

most of the time, i love the questions people ask about our two adopted kiddos.   it's a subject that i'm passionate about and love sharing our story.

however, there is also a part of each of our kid's adoption story that i'm very protective about and don't offer a lot of information.  mainly because it's not my place to tell...it's for them to tell.    they have the right to hear their histories from us first, and then it's for them to decide whether to share it or not.

adoption has been the biggest blessing in our lives.  i love how adopting our two children has given me a deeper understanding into my own relationship with Jesus and the amazing gift i've received by being adopted into His family.

i'm blessed by His unconditional love.  it's a great model for the love i need to give to my children.

our second adoption story...part 1

since it is national adoption month, i thought i would write about adopting our little guy.

we always had the desire to adopt again. God had already blessed us once through the miracle of adoption and we both felt like God was calling us to adopt again. we went through the same type of foster-to-adopt organization as we did with our daughter, just this time we were living in another state. since we were going through the county we lived in, we fully understood that we would probably foster a couple of kiddos before one would become available to adopt. again, we prepared ourselves, our daughter, family and friends, that we might care for a few kiddos before we were permanently placed with a child. we set up the room, put the crib together, added some gender-neutral decor and we were ready for a placement.

this time it was a little different than our first time around.  we were approved at the end of December 2010 by our social workers and were now on call for a placement.  over the next couple of months, we received a couple different phone calls from the county asking us to care for a couple different kiddos.    for different reasons we discovered through prayer, we opted not to be foster parents to those kiddos.   so the wait continued.

sometimes, waiting can be very hard and difficult to bear.  but, we continued to trust in God's timing and held onto how He provided the first time around.  the waiting process the first time around was so hard for me, but this time God had grown my faith and it was a bit easier.  i had experience the wait once before and i knew the blessing would come.  i spent a lot of time in prayer, praying for the child God had for us.  actually, we all were praying.  praying for the big things and also praying for the little details that we knew only God would care about.   we prayed for a healthy kiddo that would be a good match for our family.  my little lady was praying specifically for a baby brother.  we were open to adopting a boy or a girl, but we encouraged her to be specific with her prayers.  and that's just what she did.  she wanted God to give her a baby brother with brown hair and brown eyes.

i too, was praying specifically.  during the process, i really felt that we would probably be matched with a baby that was not a new born or just a couple months old.  since i felt that way, i began to pray for a baby that would have been given a biblical name by his or her birth parents.  this may seem weird or kind of random, but i knew that if the baby was a bit older then there was no way we were going to change their first name.  if they are coming to us to be adopted then they had already experienced so much loss, why would we take the one thing that they had been given?  plus, i think they need to hold onto something that was given to them by the person that brought them into the world.  i knew we wouldn't change their first name, so i prayed for one that we would love too.  i knew it was a simple little detail, but i knew God would listen to my prayer.  no prayer is too little or insignificant to Him.  it was simple to me...pray for a child that would have a biblical name.

at the beginning of April 2011, we were all at home enjoying the day together as a family of three, when we receive a phone call.

to be continue....

another gotcha day

this week my little lady had her gotcha day.  6 years ago, we met our sweet girl and brought her home.

i let her pick the meals for the day.

we started off with pancakes and she wanted them in the shape of a turtle. so this is what i came up with...

not too bad, since i've never made turtle pancakes before!

she wanted chickie (chicken) and rice for dinner. it's been her favorite since she was 2 years old. it doesn't matter what the recipe is, as long as it has chicken and rice in it, she's happy. so i tried a new recipe for her gotcha day.

one from pioneer woman's new cookbook...

it was good!  the recipe had shrimp in it, which she loves too and i added chicken to it and serve it with rice.

she got some fairies as a gift and can use them to play with in her fairy garden that we made a couple of weeks ago.

child dedication

On Sunday, we dedicated our little guy to the Lord during service at our church.

He obviously wasn't shy as he waved to the crowd!

my amazing husband wrote this letter, which he read to him during the dedication.

To our little guy, 

We have had you for just over a year now, and we are so thankful for the miracle of adoption. While getting you at 19 months old has brought its challenges, we are truly blessed by God to have you a part of our family. We love how your personality has blossomed over the past year. From a boy who was timid and fearful to one who is becoming adventurous, bold, and courageous; it has been remarkable to see your transformation.

Just as we chose you for our family, our prayer is that you will choose to follow God. We are sinners, but He is perfect. We will disappoint you, wound you, and let you down, but He will never leave you and never forsake you. You won't ever have a relationship with your biological father, but there is a Heavenly Father who loves you more than words can describe, and who wants and desires a relationship with you. 

Our heart's desire is that you would follow in your biblical namesake's shoes. We want you to do right in the sight of the Lord, and not to turn aside to the right or to the left. We want you to turn to the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might. Your mommy and I are committed to lead you down this path and with the help, accountability, and love from our family, friends, and church family, we are excited to see what your future holds.

our amazing pastor Bill and some close friends, the Campbells and Fausts supported us.

thank you for being a blessing in our lives!

mother's day

i'm very blessed.

God has blessed us with two amazing children.

two children that i didn't give birth to but grew in my heart as i waited for them.

mother's day can be a day of mixed emotions for me.   i realize that my mother's day is full of laughter, joy and treasures from my children.     i get lots of kisses and cuddles. and time spent feeling special that day.

but there is another mother out there and her heart is heavy too.  i have to imagine it is heavy with sadness, loss and pain from the unknown.  she knows that the child she gave birth to is not in her arms on mother's day.

my mind thinks about her often.  although i'm forever grateful to her, i grieve for her too.  because even though adoption is beautiful it began in brokeness and pain.  whether it is a birth mom whom chooses to give her child up for adoption or one where for certain reasons her child is taken away from her, it's a loss.

i don't want to forget her. because without her, i would be empty-handed.

even though i've never met either one of my children's birth moms, we are linked together.

i'm thankful for her love.

that she chose to give her child life.

and that i'm the one who God entrusted to be their adoptive mom.

i'm very blessed. 

gotcha day

last sunday, was our little guy's gotcha day. it's the day we celebrate getting to bring him home. it's been one year, since God gave us this cutie pie!

this day means a lot to us!

we spent the day together, just the four of us.

sometimes we give gifts or just go somewhere special.

he got to pick whatever he wanted for dinner.  he picked hot dogs.

we had a little surprise for him.

a new fishing pole.  it will get plenty of use this summer!

our little guy

it took just under a week to transition our little guy from the foster home he was in, to our home.

this was our first visit in our home with our new little guy. it just happened to be Easter day!



one of the first things we did, was give him a haircut! he looked like the old man from the movie 'Up' with his longer hair.
here's the before shot...


after

he loves the outdoors!

adoption day

"adoption is a promise acted out over a lifetime." ~Judge Boatright


we got to finalize our little guy's adoption on national adoption day. our county had 18 adoptions that were becoming finalized yesterday and we were one of them! you can also read about the article that was in the Denver Post.


waiting for the judge to enter the courtroom.

the proceedings had begun.

raising our right hand.

our caseworker, miss kelly spoke to us.

the guardian ad lidum, mr. barry spoke too.

we each took turns speaking and the judge asked us some questions.

the judge just pronounced we are his parents and declared his name to be...

Josiah Matthew

the name Josiah means God will save. with both of our children we felt it was important to keep at least one name that their birth moms gave to them. since Josiah was old enough to know his name, we kept it. plus we loved the name too!

the name Matthew means gift of God. we gave him this name. we loved the meaning and he is named after someone who is very important to us.


there were lots of fun things for the kids to do afterwards. our little lady made a picture frame for her little brother.

the kids got their caricatures done.