Opening the Mail

Today was like any other day, or so we thought! I dropped T and A off at work/school and I went on to work. We had to run to Sam's on the way home. When we got home I checked the mail, I have been waiting for something and IT CAME. I opened something fabulous, something that made US official with the great State of Texas. What was in the mail you ask ----- T's Birth Certificate with his forever name and our names were listed as his FOREVER PARENTS!!!!!

ADOPTION, BABY DEDICATION and MOTHER'S DAY.....

Let me see if I can hit the highlights of the last month..... T's ADOPTION was FINAL on April 18, 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today is Mother's Day and although I was a mommy last Mother's Day today was more fabulous than I could have ever imagined. My mom, A's parents and sister, a couple of aunts and an uncle, some family friends and our Attorney for T's Adoption went to church with us AND T was dedicated. OH YES and our Attorney gave us some wonderful news at the end of the service THE BIRTHPARENTS TIME TO APPEAL PARENTAL RIGHT TERMINATION AND T's ADOPTION HAS PAST. T is OURS, ALL OURS, FOREVER OURS.

A and I felt that God was leading us back to our roots; back to the church we grew up in. We had been feeling the pull back there for quite some time, however, we had to wait for God's timing to when we should go back. Several months ago, we knew it was time. This past week our church (ORBC) had 7 days of Bible Reading leading up to our GRAND entrance into our new church building. As many of you know almost 7 years ago (while A and I were floundering around at other churches trying to find our way BACK to each other, only we did not know that YET!) ORBC lost their building due to some toxic MOLD. Then the Pastor and Associate Pastor along with the rest of the staff left the church (retirement, other churches, etc.) except for one Secretary.

A and I have known each other since we were 3 and 6 (A is younger), we met at ORBC. We both are so grounded in our Faith in the Lord because of our parents and families and our ORBC teachers and we knew that God was leading us to raise T in this wonderful HOUSE OF GOD. We have been to several churches throughout our marriage and have always felt we were floundering (just as ORBC has been floundering while a new building was being built) until we went back to our ROOTS. These Roots of ORBC have fruited many pastors, missionaries, military, doctors, lawyers, plain folks, counselors, singers and many other things that we all have in common, WE LOVE THE LORD and WE SERVE HIM in all we do. Many of us are moms and dads that are striving to do the same for our children. Although we are now all over the world our ORBC roots are still just as strong as the people at ORBC that helped our parents give us the wings to FLY to spread more roots. This is what we wanted for T to give him roots so that when he has wings he will have the spiritual strength to FLY and spread his roots.

After church we met up with my mom and aunt, A's parents and sister, a cousin of mine and one of my brothers and his family for a wonderfully made lunch by mom and aunt.

Let me tell you T's Adoption was such a profound day, A and I walked into the courtroom as guardians/parents of a precious child not knowing if we were going to get to keep him and walked out 2 hours and 15 minutes later as PARENTS. Life changed for us that week, after 8 years with the same company I got a new job and we OFFICIALLY became parents. WOW isn't God awesome. The 15 months we took to finalize T's adoption was the most emotional time we have ever experienced and all we can do is give honor and glory to GOD.

Here is a picture of us is ADOPTION DAY. We were so exhausted!!!!

Dialogue 2006

Hi Family and Friends -----
As many of you know our year started with a bang….. On January 12th we were approved as a Therapeutic Foster to Adopt Home for the State of Texas’ Child Protective Services and entered the Legal Risk Foster to Adopt program through their cooperative program with DePelchin Children’s Center. However, God had other plans, on January 10th (yep 2 days before our official approval) A’s cousin called us just as we were leaving my favorite restaurant (Applebees in Magnolia) and said I have a friend with a 4 month old baby. She went on to say that her friend needed to have him adopted ASAP and had to leave where she was staying the next day so she would need to have him a home the next evening. Well let’s see how long do you think it took us to say YES? One look at that little baby boy and it was confirmed, this was our child.

We are doing great and enjoy every moment of mommy and daddy life. T has changed our lives drastically; he is the absolute joy of our lives. We are attending Allendale Baptist Church and are currently teaching 3 and 4 year olds in Sunday School. We still have Faith the kitty, she’s 9½ now and does not take anything from our 2-year-old lab mix Josie who thinks T is her baby.

T is so handsome and sweet; he’s 15 months old now and weighs in at 24.5 pounds and is 31 inches long. He just started walking and says, momma, daddy, Osie (for Josie), kitty, Uh-Oh, please, thanks (every once in awhile you’ll get a thank you), see, lights, HUSH (to the dog). He points and says something that sounds like "What’s that?" Our prayer is that T’s adoption will be finalized in 2007 and he will officially (by order of the law) become what we already believe in our hearts….. our SON.

We wish you all a blessed Christmas a time for peace, love and joy. Our verse for this year has been James 1:27: Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this to visit orphans.

God, Us and Adoption

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans….." James 1:27

After the decision to adopt our children came we decided immediately that WE WERE ADOPTING INTERNATIONALLY. We talked with several domestic agencies right after we married (just to get information) and determined that you had to be married for 2 years so we put everything on hold and besides we had decided not to adopt domestically. We finally made it to 2 years of marriage and began researching agencies and decided that our first adoption would be from Guatemala; then we'd go to China and if there was an Adoption Number 3 we'd decide on a country then.

Well, well, well, God intervened and brought a young woman named Melissa into our lives, she lived the next town over and was pregnant with number 2, number 1's dad was in prison and number 2's dad was nowhere to be found. Melissa never called us back and so we decided that we'd give her until Easter and if we did not hear back from her we would move on. Well, April, 2005 came and we moved on, we talked with a couple of other International Agencies and joined a Texas Christian Adoption Support Group called Forever Families for families that adopt Domestically, Internationally, or who are interested in Adoption. Through Forever Families we met Suzanne, a mom of 14, the 12 that are adopted were international adoptions. Suzanne kept inviting me to this DOMESTIC adoption informational meeting knowing that we were adopting Internationally, especially since this Domestic Adoption fell through. She kept telling me that God laid it on her heart to invite me, I reluctantly went and by the time I left this meeting God had changed my heart….. we needed to adopt Domestically, possibly children in Foster Care.

My heart was changed, BUT A's was not...... Two weeks later one of my aunts called me to tell me that she read in the local paper that the agency that Suzanne had encouraged me to go to was having another information sessions in a building half way between where my office and A’s office (and we only worked 5 minutes apart..... HMMMM what was God up to???). We went to that meeting and by the end of it A said, we are adopting DOMESTICALLY and through Foster Care, I was not sure that he was 100% on the page, but it was a start. Melissa’s due date was nearing and she contacted us again but when we called her back she flaked out on us AGAIN. I held firm that God was in control and it was going to be ok.

Suzanne and Julia (also a member of Forever Families) were on the board of another ministry called Here I am Orphan Ministries and I had gone to one of their workshops in May and they were having another one in August and A was able to go. After talking with Suzanne and Julia after that workshop it was obvious that A was on the path to Domestic Adoption with me. In September we turned our Application in to be a Legal Risk Foster to Adopt family (usually infants taken from the hospital and if any, their siblings). The birth parents have about 6 months to get their act together before you have the option of adopting the children. We were approved on January 12, 2006.

However, God had other plans for us, on January 10, 2006 we received a phone call about T from A's cousin, she was friends with he birthmother. Our adoption with T is a Private Adoption, which can be finalized any day.

God has moved in our hearts in such a miraculous way over the past several years, we realized that our desire for International Adoption was just that OUR DESIRE. We have come to the realization that Adoption is the least segregated thing that a person can do and are willing to go where God leads us. In our wildest Adoption Dreams did we ever think the child that we plan to adopt could possibly be born right here in our local hospital and that one of our relatives is friends with the birthmother that works at our local mall.

God is a God of Grace, dignity and LOVE. A and I are so blessed to be part of this miracle of life.

AL

P.S. - I have attached a picture of Ana and her dad on her ADOPTION DAY; she was adopted from Kazakhstan. Ana and her family are in our Forever Families group.