With Love, Mommy

With a big smile on my face, I can say that Cuddle Bug is working on sleeping more through the night. Every once in awhile, he gives us that joyous Silent Night with about a 4-5 hour stretch. Last night was 5.5 hours of pure bliss as we all slept soundly. We hope that Bug's Christmas present to us would be a full night's sleep and his first smile. We can hope! Christmas has arrived and we are trying to make baby's first Christmas so special. Bug got to meet Santa 3 times already, and even got an official certificate saying he's on the nice list. His swing is right by the Christmas tree and he seems to enjoy looking at the twinkling lights as he swings. Cuddle Bug also got to participate in lots of fun activities for Big Brothers 2nd birthday, like zoolights and even a visit to a fire station. I was hoping that the Christmas season would bring about a few less meetings and less drama. Sadly, it has not. We have had a handful of meetings every week this month. You kno...

Our little cuddle bug has officially become a part of our family.  Big brother has quickly grown to love his little brother and often looks out for him, saying "It's okay" when he cries and even wiping his nose with a tissue. Of course, Big Brother is also an older brother, so he knows the right buttons to push too, mainly touching Little Brother's nose when he's sleeping until he wakes up.  Big Brother has been acting out in other ways, seeking attention in all the wrong ways, but that may have something to do with him turning 2 years old next week.  My little man is figuring out that he has an opinion and he's falling right into his two-year-old BIG attitude. I've started calling Baby Brother my cuddle bug for a good reason; he's just so cuddly!  This tiny baby has grown before our eyes in the 3 weeks that we have had him in our home. He's gained 2 pounds, which is just a huge amount for a newborn. And he just wants to be held all day long. Bug...

We have had a very exciting and wonderful past 72 hours!  We welcomed a new member to our family this week.  In a matter of 3 hours, our lives changed completely.  To be honest, this is not the process we were expecting in the least.  However, we have prayed a lot about the process and we have decided to be flexible and trust that it will work out.  So, we dove in with both feet.  Please keep in mind the rules around confidentiality.  I will share, but much of the information is on a "need to know" basis. There may be many times in my children's life that I tell people that I cannot divulge certain information.  But there are also things I just simply would prefer not to share because it is information that should be up to my children to decide if they want to share later in life.  It is their story, after all!  With that said, here is our little story. Scene: A mom with disheveled hair trying to wrangle a toddler to nap-time, her mind...

The good news is that we are one day closer to meeting our children.  The bad news is that we do not have much to report.  We are trying to stay positive through the waiting process.  We are feeling very hopeful about one particular baby who may soon be looking for an adoptive home.  But with this particular case, we may not hear for a few weeks.  So, for now, we continue to wait and hope and pray.  We just ask for continued prayers that our children find their way home!

We are now certified to adopt!!!  Not only has the state of Arizona said that they think we can be trusted with children, but the court system and commissioner in AZ have also given us the go ahead.  We must be really good parents if the state has told us to take on even more kiddos! :)  As of this morning, our name has been added to the Central Registry, which is "the list."  It's a list of available adoptive families that CPS can look up.   At any time, CPS caseworkers can pull our file and consider us as a potential adoptive home.  Our caseworker expects us to hear back very soon!  We still expect that our family could be growing before the holidays this year.  It's also possible that it takes longer, and we are okay with that too.  This is such a lesson in giving up control! Our licensing worker came by for her quarterly visit and inspection this morning.  When children are placed with us, she will have to visit weekly (for the f...

We got our first taste of foster parenting when we took care of a baby for 4 days as a respite placement.  Of course, the rules of confidentiality restrict me from speaking about the details of this child or from sharing pictures.  What I can say is that this baby was happy and sweet.  It was a great experience for us, just a bit of a practice run.  We saw the areas that may be difficult for us.  It was really encouraging to see that the day to day functions were okay.  We were able to take care of the needs of both children even when it was a little rough.  The areas that were a bit more difficult for us were JT's jealousy (mostly over his beloved toys) and the difference in nap schedules.  I can see where it may be difficult to go out of the house with two kiddos who have different nap schedules.  Kevin and I had a chance to really discuss what we may do differently next time and what Little J needs during this transition.  We are stil...

The waiting just got a little more interesting!  We decided to help out in another way while we are waiting for our "Forever Family" to be completed with adopted children.  We are now opening our home as a respite family.  That means that we may be available to take care of children for a very short time while their foster families get a well-deserved break or if they can't take the children on vacation.  We will not have children coming in and out all of the time because we want to make sure we are keeping Jonah's best interest in mind.  But we hope this will be good practice for us all!

We got some great news yesterday: We are officially a licensed foster home!  The state says that they trust us to be parents!  :)  So, no worries, Baby J is in good hands.  This means that we can be placed with children at any time.  We are still waiting on our adoption certification.  I am told that it has all been approved except for our fingerprints (because our fingerprint clearance from DPS just won't do).  But, we do not need to have the adoption certification before kids move in, we just need it before we actually adopt (which will be months after children are placed). Exciting new things are happening every day.  We have already been contacted more than once about children looking for a home.  We are still unsure about where these roads will lead.  As soon as we have more information, I will update everyone! For now, we are very excited to have next week off work for a stay-cation.  J is growing by leaps and bounds. ...

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update.  We still have not been approved by the state for foster care or adoption.  Our homestudy has been assigned to a worker and our check to the courts has been cashed.  I expect to hear back by the end of next week.  In the meantime, our licensing worker is busy looking for our children. While we are waiting, we are enjoying our time as a family of 3 while we can.  We are planning a fun stay-cation in a few weeks.  And we are so excited to plan super fun things that we can do right here in Phoenix.  We will keep everyone updated as soon as we hear more!

We are trying to prepare as much as possible during this waiting period.  I worked very hard to finish our scrapbook last weekend, and it's looking good.  This scrapbook is something that our licensing worker will show to CPS caseworker when they are deciding if we are a good match for kids.  We will also use it to show the children so they know what to expect.  We have pictures of our house and backyard, their room, and our family.  We have pictures of our extended family, our pets, and the activities we like to do like going to the park, the zoo, Disneyland, and the children's museum.  We also included a page for each of us on our hobbies. I am also trying to get our organization systems ready before we hear about the kids.  We will have binders for each kiddo with medical information, incident reports, important contact numbers, and reports from CPS, therapists, or any other professionals in their team.  There are so many things to get ready!...

Our homestudy is officially in the hands of the state of Arizona!  Our adoption application was mailed on Monday to the Court and they will make the final decision if we are certified for adoption.  Today, our foster care homestudy was submitted to the state board.  The foster care homestudy will be reviewed separately and we will be licensed based on the investigation that we have been through.  So now, we wait!  It will take a few weeks to hear back about both of these.  There is a potential that kids may be matched and even placed in our home before we are licensed though.  So we are busy preparing ourselves! There are a few very important things that I would like to mention.  Remember that these kids will be coming into our home from foster care, which means that we have very strict rules until they are officially adopted.  We are not allowed to publicly share pictures of the children or any details about their case plan, for their own ...

We have some good news!  We are practically "paper pregnant"!  Maybe there's no growing belly or morning sickness, but we are EXPECTING!  We are expecting one or two children to love, we are expecting years of happiness, we are expecting laughter and tears, and we are expecting to complete our family in the most amazing way.  And now starts the waiting game. Details, you ask?  Well, we met with our licensing worker last Tuesday.  We passed our second inspection with flying colors, which means that we now go to quarterly inspections until we are no longer licensed for foster care.  We had our couple's interview and finished talking about some of the details.  We talked about the children that we feel we would be able to parent, along with their special needs.  We feel like we can be good parents to children with developmental delays, some medical issues, or emotional issues.  We do have some limits, but these children all deserve a lovi...

We are on our way!  We have been working so hard to get things ready for the adoption process.  Last week Kevin painted the kids room a beautiful sky blue that will be the perfect backdrop for some Tinkerbell pictures or a wall decal.  Today we cleaned up the room and hung book ledges for our vast collection of children's books.  It's starting to look like the perfect little Neverland!  I'm sure any children will love the understated Peter Pan and Tinkerbell theme. As far as paperwork, we are pretty much done!  We got our final set of fingerprints done today.  That's right... the courts in AZ do not trust DPS to do a background check, so they require their own fingerprints even though we have our fingerprint clearance cards.  There are just a few more papers to sign! So what's next?  On Tuesday, we have our agency home inspection and our final interview with our caseworker.  We will turn in the rest of our paperwork then.  This ...

This process is so much different than when we were expecting Baby J.  No morning sickness, but those paper cuts sure do sting!  :)   The current paper cuts come from a stack of papers we had to review and fill out for our home inspection.  Our state home inspection was yesterday, and we passed with flying colors.  We have been preparing for this inspection for weeks.  Every room must have a smoke detector, all medicines must be locked up, as well as all potentially hazardous materials, including all cleaning supplies (even windex and laundry detergent).  Our hot water has to be turned down and we must have a shephard's hook and a life ring for the pool, which of course must have a 5' fence.  There were many more requirements in our packet.  The state has officially approved our home for foster care.  We will have another inspection with our agency worker in two weeks. At that time, we will also have our final interview, where are lic...

A new adventure! Our family is growing!  We are so excited to announce that we are expecting!  But maybe not in the way you are thinking.  We have decided to adopt through foster care, and we are thrilled!  This process can be a little confusing, so I am hoping that this blog may serve as a way to keep our family and friends informed about the process.  Our desire is to adopt 2 siblings so they may stay together.  We are open to children up to preschool age, so infants to age 5.  Many people seem confused as to our motivation.  We truly know without a doubt that God has called us to adoption.  We have found our ministry, and it is providing a loving family to children in need.  God calls us to care for orphans, it's very simple.  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." ~James 1:27 Adoption th...

Time to refurbish the old blog!  Our family has some exciting changes happening, and I would love to make this blog a place to share the exciting details with our friends and family. So its time to start this blog fresh.  Keep checking back, it's about to get good. ;)