September Samuel Update:

This month Samuel weighed in at his 3rd Dr. appointment at 10 lbs, 4 oz!
He is super strong and always very alert!
He seems very happy!
Wakes once in the night to have a 6 ounce bottle (usually between 2:30-3:30 am)
So far we've had ONE post-placement visit from our Social Worker...1 down, 3 to go! Our goal is to have all 4 visits completed by December so that we can finalize Samuel's adoption in late January.
(our State's law says we have to wait 6 months after placement)
Please pray for Samuel to continue to thrive being with our family, that we will make it to his adoption finalization smoothly, and that we will be able to raise the needed funds to pay off this adoption! We know that God will provide according to His perfect will!
Here are a few pics from September:

Samuel with the baby doll- to show how little he still is. We love this tiny little guy!

Picture with Daddy:

 

Peeks into our days with Samuel

 

We love, Love, LOVE our new little man!

flowers sent from our church family to celebrate SAMUEL

a great banner made for SAMUEL by some friends!

God gave us another! We're in love...

 

 

 

11 months, 3 weeks,and 5 days later...we've got a new little boy!

He was released from the hospital today! We're suggling him now :)

6 lbs, 6 oz

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!

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!