He was released from the hospital today! We're suggling him now :)
6 lbs, 6 oz
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Playing the waiting game
Well, it's been quite a day. A long day!
At midnight we found ourselves driving up high through the Alpine Tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park all so we could get home from camp as soon as we could. We didn't know if we'd begin traveling to "the other state" today to meet a new little baby boy or not. We didn't end up leaving today, as we have come to some bumps in the road so to speak. There are some issues with the birthfather. He says he doesn't care what the birthmother decides to do with the baby- he knows that she wants to give him up for adoption, they've already talked about this, but he also says he doesn't want to sign anything. In "the other state," they cannot terminate the father's rights without a signature. (in other states this can happen without a father's signature).
Anyway, it appears that the hold up we are facing all hangs on locating the birthfather and getting him to be willing to sign so the adoption can proceed. So, please be praying that the birthfather would choose to cooperate. If he doesn't sign, the baby cannot leave the state borders and may end up living a life in the foster care system. For the baby's sake, we sure hope this father will have a soft heart. Please pray for this situation.
Some positive news in the meantime as we wait this out, is that the birthmother was able to receive one of our reference letters very early this morning and we have been told that she is thrilled that our family would like to adopt her little one. She likes that we have 4 children already (she wants her son to have siblings), she likes that we enjoy traveling, and she likes that we homeschool! This is a blessing to us, knowing that she is happy with our family. We have been passed over by many birthmoms over the past several months because of these things such as homeschooling and having 4 children. We were thrilled to hear this!
A BIG thank you to all of you who were willing to spend some of your Saturday writing Reference Letters for our pending adoption at the last minute! What a blessing and a great encouragement you all are to us!
Tonight we continued to fill our more paperwork and the good news is that we are just about done!
Now we are working on applications for adoption grants to help lessen the costs of this possible adoption. We trust that God will provide the funds we will need to complete these final steps. We have heard amazing stories from other adoptions and we look forward to sharing our testimony of God's provisions!
Stay tuned!
At midnight we found ourselves driving up high through the Alpine Tundra in Rocky Mountain National Park all so we could get home from camp as soon as we could. We didn't know if we'd begin traveling to "the other state" today to meet a new little baby boy or not. We didn't end up leaving today, as we have come to some bumps in the road so to speak. There are some issues with the birthfather. He says he doesn't care what the birthmother decides to do with the baby- he knows that she wants to give him up for adoption, they've already talked about this, but he also says he doesn't want to sign anything. In "the other state," they cannot terminate the father's rights without a signature. (in other states this can happen without a father's signature).
Anyway, it appears that the hold up we are facing all hangs on locating the birthfather and getting him to be willing to sign so the adoption can proceed. So, please be praying that the birthfather would choose to cooperate. If he doesn't sign, the baby cannot leave the state borders and may end up living a life in the foster care system. For the baby's sake, we sure hope this father will have a soft heart. Please pray for this situation.
Some positive news in the meantime as we wait this out, is that the birthmother was able to receive one of our reference letters very early this morning and we have been told that she is thrilled that our family would like to adopt her little one. She likes that we have 4 children already (she wants her son to have siblings), she likes that we enjoy traveling, and she likes that we homeschool! This is a blessing to us, knowing that she is happy with our family. We have been passed over by many birthmoms over the past several months because of these things such as homeschooling and having 4 children. We were thrilled to hear this!
A BIG thank you to all of you who were willing to spend some of your Saturday writing Reference Letters for our pending adoption at the last minute! What a blessing and a great encouragement you all are to us!
Tonight we continued to fill our more paperwork and the good news is that we are just about done!
Now we are working on applications for adoption grants to help lessen the costs of this possible adoption. We trust that God will provide the funds we will need to complete these final steps. We have heard amazing stories from other adoptions and we look forward to sharing our testimony of God's provisions!
Stay tuned!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Could this be? It's a BOY???
Well, we've had a bit more adoption action in the past few weeks, but nothing has panned out. That is, until today (quite possibly). I am a bit hesitant to post this, as you never know what the outcome will be and we've already had several disappointments along the way, but we covet your prayers, so here are some fresh details: We received a call from our Adoption agency CAC regarding a potential adoption situation that was urgent. An African American baby boy was due to a -- year old mother of - children next Wednesday via scheduled c-section in another state. (we have the details, but we are unable to include them on this blog for safety reasons) We were asked if we were interested. Ben and I were on a 3 day camping trip with our boys (Caleb 9 yrs and Joshua 5 yrs) up in the gorgeous mountains of Colorado! Today was day 2 of the trip and we were having a fabulous time canoeing out to an island nearby our campsite. In fact we had been exploring the island for about 30 mins prior to the call, skipping rocks and following 2 delighted little boys. (Just a note, our girls, Caroline 7 yrs and Elisa almost 4 yrs) are staying with Grandpa and Grandma Belz.
Anyway, we took several hours to think through it all, as best as one can think while on a getaway in the mountains. We've pursued adoption for over a year now and it has been something that has been on my (Joy's) heart ever since I was a child. Soooo many details I could include about our adoption journey and today's mountain journey, but I'll try to keep this relatively short and to the point for now.
Back to the story...a few hours later we called our agent back and told her that, yes, we'd be interested in being considered by this birth mother. Agent said, "Ok, I'll send your info off to be considered."
About 5 hours after that, we found ourselves just finishing dinner at the campsite when a storm started heading our way. This was our first storm in our tent...we decided to abandon camp and empty our tent as fast as we could, transferring our things into our Suburban. While we were in the middle of this we get a call...its our adoption agency telling us that the baby had just been born...he came early and the mother had an emergency c-section and that the agency in "the other state" would like us to plan to be at the hospital on Monday afternoon!
So...here we are, scurrying around filling out new last minute paperwork and trying to make travel plans in route from ending our camping excursion with our boys early...we did end the day literally seeing a beautiful rainbow above the mountains we faced.
Its exciting! We trust in God's sovereign plan for our family and the good possibility that we will be holding a newborn baby boy in our arms Monday. Please pray for our paths to be made clear! Pray for us to have patience and much wisdom in the decisions that we will have to make in the next hours and days and weeks.
Please pray for the financial provisions we still need, as adoption is anything but cheap. We already know that God will provide and He will be glorified.
Pray that we will wait on the Lord in all that we do!
Check in for more updates....coming soon, Lord willing!
Anyway, we took several hours to think through it all, as best as one can think while on a getaway in the mountains. We've pursued adoption for over a year now and it has been something that has been on my (Joy's) heart ever since I was a child. Soooo many details I could include about our adoption journey and today's mountain journey, but I'll try to keep this relatively short and to the point for now.
Back to the story...a few hours later we called our agent back and told her that, yes, we'd be interested in being considered by this birth mother. Agent said, "Ok, I'll send your info off to be considered."
About 5 hours after that, we found ourselves just finishing dinner at the campsite when a storm started heading our way. This was our first storm in our tent...we decided to abandon camp and empty our tent as fast as we could, transferring our things into our Suburban. While we were in the middle of this we get a call...its our adoption agency telling us that the baby had just been born...he came early and the mother had an emergency c-section and that the agency in "the other state" would like us to plan to be at the hospital on Monday afternoon!
So...here we are, scurrying around filling out new last minute paperwork and trying to make travel plans in route from ending our camping excursion with our boys early...we did end the day literally seeing a beautiful rainbow above the mountains we faced.
Its exciting! We trust in God's sovereign plan for our family and the good possibility that we will be holding a newborn baby boy in our arms Monday. Please pray for our paths to be made clear! Pray for us to have patience and much wisdom in the decisions that we will have to make in the next hours and days and weeks.
Please pray for the financial provisions we still need, as adoption is anything but cheap. We already know that God will provide and He will be glorified.
Pray that we will wait on the Lord in all that we do!
Check in for more updates....coming soon, Lord willing!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Just waiting...
In case you are checking in for an update...the update is that we are simply waiting for a match still.
We are happy to report that we are thankful that God has graciously granted us contentment in the meantime and plenty to do to keep ourselves busy while we wait. We've just recently had 6 family members move to our area from Kentucy and Florida! So that is wonderful and we are also glad for the cute distractions who have moved in with us...we've got a niece (age 3) and a brand new nephew (only 5 months old today!). We are getting lots of practice becoming reacquainted with newborns, nap schedules, and feedings, not to mention learning what it is like to have 6 kiddos in the house! So that's fun!
Since my last post, we have been presented with 3 adoption cases, but we have not felt led to pursue them.
Please continue to pray for God's will for adoption regarding our family.
Feel free to leave a comment of encouragement or to ask a question if time passes and we do not get around to posting and you are wondering our status.
We are happy to report that we are thankful that God has graciously granted us contentment in the meantime and plenty to do to keep ourselves busy while we wait. We've just recently had 6 family members move to our area from Kentucy and Florida! So that is wonderful and we are also glad for the cute distractions who have moved in with us...we've got a niece (age 3) and a brand new nephew (only 5 months old today!). We are getting lots of practice becoming reacquainted with newborns, nap schedules, and feedings, not to mention learning what it is like to have 6 kiddos in the house! So that's fun!
Since my last post, we have been presented with 3 adoption cases, but we have not felt led to pursue them.
Please continue to pray for God's will for adoption regarding our family.
Feel free to leave a comment of encouragement or to ask a question if time passes and we do not get around to posting and you are wondering our status.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
No go
I meant to post this last week. God allowed us to have a quick wait on this one, which is an answer to prayer. This particular situation is a "no go" for our family. Another family was selected for these two little girls. We are grateful that this situation did not drag on, rather that it was resolved quickly! We are also thankful for the peace we have.
This was a great experience, as far as being able to see first hand what kind of "situations" are out there in real life. We were give a lot of information on this case and although it was a sad case, it was quite fascinating. We also enjoyed a few moments of excitment. Even though it didn't work out, it was encouraging to get a call about it!
We do pray that God would grant these two little girls a loving Christian home and that He would be at work in the lives of the biological parents who have clearly made several poor life choices.
Thanks for praying for God's will to be done.
We continue this prayer as we also continue on with the adoption process not knowing exactly which way to turn. We do believe that somewhere there is a child(ren) waiting for a family like ours. We trust that in time, God will lead us to them, wherever they are.
We've often heard the call of adoption to be described as, "knowing you have a child somewhere in the world, but you are on a search to find them/their location."
Please pray that our next directions will be made clear in God's timing and that we can, by God's grace, be joyfully patient in the meantime.
This was a great experience, as far as being able to see first hand what kind of "situations" are out there in real life. We were give a lot of information on this case and although it was a sad case, it was quite fascinating. We also enjoyed a few moments of excitment. Even though it didn't work out, it was encouraging to get a call about it!
We do pray that God would grant these two little girls a loving Christian home and that He would be at work in the lives of the biological parents who have clearly made several poor life choices.
Thanks for praying for God's will to be done.
We continue this prayer as we also continue on with the adoption process not knowing exactly which way to turn. We do believe that somewhere there is a child(ren) waiting for a family like ours. We trust that in time, God will lead us to them, wherever they are.
We've often heard the call of adoption to be described as, "knowing you have a child somewhere in the world, but you are on a search to find them/their location."
Please pray that our next directions will be made clear in God's timing and that we can, by God's grace, be joyfully patient in the meantime.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Possible Situation
Much has gone on since we last posted...here's a quick catch up...
We’ve chosen an international agency (& another domestic adoption agency in case we end up choosing domestic adoption after all) and have the applications ready to submit, but last week (after some time had passed since returning home from KY), I (Joy) just didn’t feel an urge to click on “submit” the applications. Something was holding me back. We contacted our local agency who did our home study last Fall to make sure everything was a “go” to start the international process. Everything was good on their end, and we left things that we’d let them know when we submitted the application for Ethiopia, but also that if any domestic situations came up that they were aware of, to let us know even at the last minute. Well, we’ve already gotten our pre-approval done for Ethiopia, through America World, but Monday morning we’ve received an exciting referral situation for a possible domestic adoption in Florida. This would be for a sibling set of 2 little girls. Their ages are (B)-just turned 2 and (A)- is 3, soon to be 4 in March.
We’ll see how it goes, as we are very much interested in pursuing it! (being the very close to the exact ages we were hoping for through an Ethiopian adoption). We have in fact already submitted our package to an attorney in FL who is in charge of this privation adoption case. Now we just wait.
We know well that it may not work out, and if that is the case by next week, we can still then continue to pursue International adoption. We'll see what this weekend holds. So far, no specific word yet.
Please pray for us as we wait and most of all, for the birth mother who will have her parental rights terminated on Feb. 15th by the State. I can't imagine being in her shoes. Her plan is to pick an adoptive family for the girls by Monday. Our family is currently in the running.
Please also pray for these two little girls, that God’s perfect Will be made evident in their lives in whatever home He provides for them. We pray for God's protection of these precious girls who will soon be orphans.
The Dad is in jail and is also losing his parental rights. Such a sad situation this family is in.
Whether we are the family to raise these girls or not, either way we trust we will have Peace from Him.
We’ve chosen an international agency (& another domestic adoption agency in case we end up choosing domestic adoption after all) and have the applications ready to submit, but last week (after some time had passed since returning home from KY), I (Joy) just didn’t feel an urge to click on “submit” the applications. Something was holding me back. We contacted our local agency who did our home study last Fall to make sure everything was a “go” to start the international process. Everything was good on their end, and we left things that we’d let them know when we submitted the application for Ethiopia, but also that if any domestic situations came up that they were aware of, to let us know even at the last minute. Well, we’ve already gotten our pre-approval done for Ethiopia, through America World, but Monday morning we’ve received an exciting referral situation for a possible domestic adoption in Florida. This would be for a sibling set of 2 little girls. Their ages are (B)-just turned 2 and (A)- is 3, soon to be 4 in March.
We’ll see how it goes, as we are very much interested in pursuing it! (being the very close to the exact ages we were hoping for through an Ethiopian adoption). We have in fact already submitted our package to an attorney in FL who is in charge of this privation adoption case. Now we just wait.
We know well that it may not work out, and if that is the case by next week, we can still then continue to pursue International adoption. We'll see what this weekend holds. So far, no specific word yet.
Please pray for us as we wait and most of all, for the birth mother who will have her parental rights terminated on Feb. 15th by the State. I can't imagine being in her shoes. Her plan is to pick an adoptive family for the girls by Monday. Our family is currently in the running.
Please also pray for these two little girls, that God’s perfect Will be made evident in their lives in whatever home He provides for them. We pray for God's protection of these precious girls who will soon be orphans.
The Dad is in jail and is also losing his parental rights. Such a sad situation this family is in.
Whether we are the family to raise these girls or not, either way we trust we will have Peace from Him.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Zoning in
Thanks for checking in on us again. Please contine to pray for us to know the direction that God has for us in this adoption pursuit.
Our latest thoughts...we could pass on the baby stages (adopting an infant), but we'd also certainly accept one if that's what God sends us) as we are now finding ourselves considering a sibling set (a young one). Ideally, we'd like to have an 18 month old-2 year old and a 3-4 year old. There is such a need for families to adopt sibling sets...they are harder to find homes for!
It gets crazier...we're finding ourselves pretty interested in Eithiopia!
Some facts:
*Eithiopia is twice the size of the state of Texas, yet it has 4.3 million orphans! The children are primarily orphaned due to poverty, and live in both government-run and privately established orphanages.
*Ethiopia is a country beset by years of war, severe drought, and epidemics, and crippled economically and socially.
*With a population of nearly 75 million people, there is an assorted collection of food, languages, customs and people groups. Ethiopia also contains a diverse landscape, including parts of the Nile River and the Great Rift Valley.
*As an East African landlocked country, Ethiopia is bordered by Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.
*Ethiopia, an ancient Christian nation, has deep-rooted Ethiopian Orthodox customs and practices. The Judaic-Christian roots of Ethiopia can be found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
*Today, about half the population of Ethiopia is Christian.
*Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous nation.
So... Eithiopia is what we are eagerly soaking up information on!
Caleb, Caroline, Joshua, & Elisa are all actively participating in our family discussions about adopting and they are on board with our exploration of all the adoption options.
We're also learning about the various International Adoption Agencies that exsist and we're asking around to feel them out.
Right now our top choices are: All God's Children International- http://www.allgodschildren.org/adoption/
Celebrate Children International- http://celebratechildren.org/
and America World Adoption- http://www.awaa.org/
We'll keep you posted on any developments!
Our latest thoughts...we could pass on the baby stages (adopting an infant), but we'd also certainly accept one if that's what God sends us) as we are now finding ourselves considering a sibling set (a young one). Ideally, we'd like to have an 18 month old-2 year old and a 3-4 year old. There is such a need for families to adopt sibling sets...they are harder to find homes for!
It gets crazier...we're finding ourselves pretty interested in Eithiopia!
Some facts:
*Eithiopia is twice the size of the state of Texas, yet it has 4.3 million orphans! The children are primarily orphaned due to poverty, and live in both government-run and privately established orphanages.
*Ethiopia is a country beset by years of war, severe drought, and epidemics, and crippled economically and socially.
*With a population of nearly 75 million people, there is an assorted collection of food, languages, customs and people groups. Ethiopia also contains a diverse landscape, including parts of the Nile River and the Great Rift Valley.
*As an East African landlocked country, Ethiopia is bordered by Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.
*Ethiopia, an ancient Christian nation, has deep-rooted Ethiopian Orthodox customs and practices. The Judaic-Christian roots of Ethiopia can be found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
*Today, about half the population of Ethiopia is Christian.
*Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous nation.
So... Eithiopia is what we are eagerly soaking up information on!
Caleb, Caroline, Joshua, & Elisa are all actively participating in our family discussions about adopting and they are on board with our exploration of all the adoption options.
We're also learning about the various International Adoption Agencies that exsist and we're asking around to feel them out.
Right now our top choices are: All God's Children International- http://www.allgodschildren.org/adoption/
Celebrate Children International- http://celebratechildren.org/
and America World Adoption- http://www.awaa.org/
We'll keep you posted on any developments!
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