It's Love: 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Facebook

I am gonna be closing this blog since most the people I keep up with are on facebook. I am gonna have another blog where I can write and chat about adoption and life...

http://littlebodiesbigblessings.blogspot.com/

It wont get into identifying info about my kids - I'll save that for facebook. But I love following adoption blogs and I love to share my experiences and how God is putting our family together :)

email: kcg2005@gmail.com

Friday, September 24, 2010

3 months already??

I love this little man - LOVE HIM! Can't believe how fast he is growing!! :) When he was first born he looked like his first daddy - but more and more he is looking like his first momma :)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Gage - 2 months old!

Okay so I have totally slacked off on any update with Gage. Really, these last two months have been crazy and difficult but its slowly getting better. See, I was blessed with two incredibly easy babies to start off with so I was not prepared for the craziness a tad more difficult baby can bring :)

For the first month Gage would just cry and cry it seemed. He would be up all night needing to eat every hour and a half to two hours. We were in New Jersey with him for the first three weeks (two weeks longer than originally expected) and there was a ton of us in one little hotel room. That just spells MISERABLE right there.

We decided to bring the girls with us to New Jersey - I wanted them to be there during that special time and I didn't wanna be away from them that long. We also brought my sister and her boyfriend along to watch the girls while we spent time in the hospital (since we couldn't bring the girls). So that had us at four adults and three babies in one hotel room. Kyle left after one week and he took Kinsey home with him. After another week my sister and her boyfriend left and we flew my grandma out to stay with me, Gage and Cali.

We had all driven out together and so on the drive back it was a little bit smaller of a group - me, grandma, gage and cali. The highlight was those few days with my grandma. I loved it - spending time with her and having her there with me.

Back to Gage - turns out the formula was upsetting his stomach and nt settling well. A couple weeks ago we switched his formula to something the doctor had me try and he has been doing so much better! I had orginally planned to breastfeed him - I had been breastfeeding Cali until he came along for the purpose of having my milk supply - but I just couldn't stick with it. I breastfed him a handful of times - maybe 15 times - but I just couldn't stick to it. There are a couple factors that went into that but either way - its just not happening. He will eat now and go back to sleep (typically) instead of staying away for hours in the middle of the night. His crying spells are alot less than they use to be which is a plus.

The girls have been amazing with him. I think that has kept me sane. They love him dearly and shower him with kisses - sometimes too many kisses and hugs. They help me out alot - its amazing how nice it is to make a bottle and ask Kinsey to hold it and feed him so I can get something done. Sometimes it takes some bribery - but isn't that necessary sometimes in parenting?

No one can make gage smile like Kinsey can. She says the sweetest things to him:

"I love you mister!" or "Its okay Gage, mommy will keep you safe" or "I love you very so much" or "you don't have to be scared" or "Do you love me gage? Do you love me?"

They love him so much :)

I'll post more sometime on how everything came together :)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

We welcome Gage!

June 15, Tuesday, at 11:31am our son Gage was born!
We arrived to meet him the next morning :)

We love this little guy!
Still here waiting for ICPC to be cleared!
I will update more when I have some more time :)

Monday, April 26, 2010

On our next adoption

We have been looking into two other agencies to sign up with in addition to Project Cuddle and our own agency that places kids from the foster care system. Both agencies are small and located in our home state... they only do a few adoptions a year (each do about 6 a year) but I am hoping that between the three we are on with that something will happen. I have the applications filled out - just gotta mail them in this week. The fact that we are pretty open - open to race & gender alone should make a placement quicker - but thats not always the case. I would think that a placement in our home state would make things SO much easier - but I also know that I would go through all the stress and inconvienece of an out of state adoption to have my beautiful Kinsey in a heart beat. Since when is life suposed to be easy and stress free? :) Kinsey's adoption and everything surrounding how it went was pretty much perfect. I am not counting on the next one to go as smoothly but it would be nice :) Things never go the way you want anyway, no matter how close to home they are. I have no clue the direction God is gonna take us and I can't possibly guess. I play out scenarios in my head of when and where but I know it will be nothing like I imagine... and I think that is a good thing :) We keep trying to figure out if Kyle will stay home with the girls, if all four of us will go, if we will leave the girls with my parents... but really we can't know what to do until we get the call and the situations surrounding it. As far as our budget we are applying for grants and trying not to worry. We know God can provide the funds needed - and I just assume he will provide through grants... but what if he doesn't? Its a little harder to trust when he doesn't provide the way you want him to. I don't know.. just rambling a bit. I think adopting the second time around is alot easier than the first... at least I seem to have more patience this time. I am content where God has me and who he has entrusted to me. I am excited about the future but I am excited about the present too. I'll keep ya updated!

Friday, April 23, 2010

He is RISEN!

More April 2010

Here we are -- us moms and our beautiful kids!

I don't know what it is about being around other women who are

as passionate as I am about adoption... it thrills me.

It energizes me.

I wish they loved closer.

Andi - move closer!!

I got to visit with Andi and her family when they came to meet their beautiful new

daughter! What a blessing it was - seriously. I have enjoyed getting to know her and following her for the past couple years. More recently I have been bouncing

ideas/frustrations/joys off of her for the last several

months on a more consistent basis and its been great.

She is my adoption buddy :)

I love that we are both passionate about adoption and

the women who choose life for their children.

This guy is amazing... what a joy he is

Cali was EXCITED!

I love this look Kinsey has...

Yep - its precious...

Isn't Kingsley the cutest little guy??!!

And Cali couldn't get enough of holding baby Naya!

I think he likes her!

Now he wants his sister back :)

J :)

Well, J got his family! But it wasn't us. I had been holding out a little hope that we would be selected but I was prepared that we weren't. The caseworker for J said that there was nothing negative said about us, they were impressed with our family presentation and that the comittee loved us... but they felt that what was best for J was to be with his foster brother and the new adoptive family. I can't blame them... its who I would have picked too. Its just hard. When you view a child as the one who would be your son.... then you realize its not. That boy waited SIX YEARS to be adopted. My heart breaks that he waited so long. For the last two months I kept thinking that if he WAS my son - how could I explain that it took me so long to find him?? I am so happy for him though. So were his workers... he had a special place in their hearts. Maybe we will work with his worker in the future?? She said the committee loved us and then she said "Now they want to find a kid for your home!!" But she said all the kids that were mentioned wouldn't do well with our girls... I knew adopting thru the system would be hard and would take a while... especially with two young girls. Maybe we will have to wait til they are older... maybe God wants us somewhere else right now.

We are submitting our info to two other agencies besides Project Cuddle.... still open to any gender, any race, some unknowns. I feel so much more peace this time around. I get anxious and try to control but God gives me a little reminder that he has a plan.

Maybe its through one of the agencies we are signing up with...?

I pray for our future child's mom... Where ever she is... the same way I pray for Kinsey's first family. Having an open adoption changed my life. It changed the way I love and care about the women entrusting us with their child. I feel called to these women the same way I feel called to parent their children. I am thankful God will use me.

ANYWAY! That is the update! Its official - he isn't ours.