Our California Trip

Kinsey and I (along with my dad) left at the end of October for California to say goodbye to my grandma who was dying of lung cancer. It was great to spend so much time with my dad (2 days there in car and then two days back home) and the rest of my family in California. My grandma passed away 6 days after we got there and we left three days later. It was hard saying goodbye to her and to my family but what an amazing opportunity to spend so much time with my family who is hurting so much. It just intensified my love for them . There is just so much hurt and pain there and it stirred up something special within me for them.... bringing them before my Jesus. That side of my family don't believe in the power of God or his grace but I feel like this trip has opened up doors.

Some wonderful things happened while I was there though... death seems to cause children to have questions and concerns so I was able to be there to answer those questions and share the hope that I have. I was able to share the steps of salvation, Jesus' love and grace with three of my cousins' kids :-) They already knew some things which was neat :-) But when I shared that not only did Jesus die on the cross but that he rose from the dead one, one of them said "He did??" with such enthusiasm! Maybe I sometimes take it for granted and I don't think about how awesome it really is... HE DID, and HE DID FOR US! Anyway, they wanted to Jesus to be part of their life and prayed with me right there. They believed. I love thinking about how Jesus viewed the faith of children... and how important it is for us to be like them.

I hope that by sharing this with you that you'll mention them when you go to Jesus. I am going to get them each a Bible but they need prayer that God will place people in their life to encouarge this step in their life. They will fight an uphill battle which breaks my heart - but Jesus can break the cycle they are in. They could use some prayer warriors praying for them! Here they are :

She is our PRINCESS :-)

Our princess is just getting so big! She is the most amazing little girl ever. We never realized how blessed we would be! She is such a beautiful and happy baby... she makes us sooooo happy!!! At her last appointment (beginning of November) she was 18.3 lbs and 28 inches long :-) Her hair is getting longer and thicker and she is just getting more gorgeous each day!

Not as bad as we thought :-)

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers everyone! LUCKILY things we not as bad as implied to us by our social worker. From all the emotional abuse David had received from his previous families my assupmtion was that it had finally taken its toll on him. Our worker said that for them to postpone the adoption his issues my be very severe so I assumed the worse. Because it seems as though my social worker never seems to know anything, I called David's worker myself to get any info I could on him.

Turns out my social worker knew even less than what I thought... like, David DOES know about us and knows that we were in the paperwork process of bringing him home. How exactly our worker didn't get that memo is still a shock to me. Not to be negative or anything.... but seriously!

The "issues" David is facing: David's previous worker had told us that David had siblings that were younger and older and I guess the last month or so he has started getting back into contact with his two younger siblings. His issue is that he fears that if he moves out of state that he will not be able to maintain those relationships and so he is unsure if he wants to move out of state into an adoptive family. When he selected us as the adoptive family he wanted he was not in contact with his siblings so he didn't have a problem with moving out of state.

So when I talked to his worker she asked how I felt about them maintaing that relationship and even yearly visits - I let her know that Kyle and I have no problem with this at all. I can't imagine taking that last bit of family away from a boy who has lost everything.

They are leaving the final choice up to David if he wants to go through with this adoption or stay in foster care in Texas in hopes of being adopted by a Texas family and I could not be happier.

I let them know that we would be waiting for David's decision but that whatever he decides we will be happy with. I am just so glad that this was his "issue" and that it wasn't something harmful to him.

I feel a sense of relief that he FINALLY has some control over his life! I can be completely content with not having him home as long as I know that he is where that he wants to be :-)

Thanks for your paryers and thoughts for us and david, if nothing else we have a little boy to keep in our prayers no matter where he lives :-)