Joyful Day!

Nine months ago God placed this tiny wisp of a child into our arms and our hearts...

and last Friday we were blessed to officially welcome Rebekah Vivien into our family!

Energy levels were high as the big kids excitedly waited for the adoption ceremony to begin.

We came prepared with stickers and snacks and managed to keep the kiddos relatively quiet during the ceremony.  In a matter of moments, our family was made complete!

After the ceremony Adrian took advantage of a brief moment of freedom to take off running through the crowd of people gathering to pose for pictures with the judge.  When I finally cornered him at the back of the room, I saw where he was headed:  the table of cupcakes and candy!  I really can't blame him, now can I?

Speaking of the cupcakes...oh dear, let's just move on.

After the ceremony we were joined by a small group of friends and family for a celebration lunch.  Adrian had a power nap between the ceremony and lunch, so he was fully recharged and ready for action.  Thank goodness Aunt Deb was there to take control of the little guy for us!

While waiting for our meal, Joe was introduced to the world of Angry Birds.  

And here we have the star of the show, all pooped out from the excitement of her big day.

Relief, joy, gratitude.  That pretty much sums up our emotions for the day!  Thank you, God, for bringing sweet Rebekah into our lives and allowing us to become her Forever Family!

A Little Disappointment

Monday was supposed to be Rebekah's adoption day.  The i's were dotted and t's crossed, or so we thought, until about 2:00 yesterday afternoon when we learned we can't complete the adoption until Billy and I get updated fingerprints for a background check.  We submitted fingerprints 4 years ago when we were in the process of becoming verified for foster care, but our attorney said the judge will probably want a more recent submission.  (I'd like to ask them how, with all these kids, they think I've had time to commit any crimes??) We'd never heard of this any of the other 3 times we've adopted and really don't understand why we didn't find out about it until the last day before the adoption was scheduled.  We've spent some time trying to figure out who was to blame, but sooner or later you realize it doesn't really matter and it's pointless to dwell on being angry. We're disappointed, but the bottom line is we're still going to adopt Rebekah, we just have to wait a few more weeks . 

Our little girl has been doing great!  She's 8 months old now and received an excellent report from the developmental specialists who saw her earlier this week.  We've got a few exercises to do with her for some stiffness in her neck and to encourage rolling over.  We were also instructed to reduce the calorie mix of her formula - apparently she's getting a little too chunky!  Rebekah's adored by her siblings and her favorite person in the house is Daddy, of course. She showers him with smiles and wiggles in delight whenever he's around. 

So as you can see, we have an abundance of blessings to be thankful for and will continue on in faith and trust that God's timing, not ours, is what is best for us.

Rebekah Is Six Months Old!

It's hard to believe that on Sunday our little miracle turned six months old! We've completed the first step of the adoption process, the HSEGH (Health-Social-Educational-Genetic History), and the next step is to get a developmental assessment completed on her.  In the past two weeks we've lost both our agency caseworker (3rd staffing change in 4 months) and Rebekah's TDFPS worker.  We're doing our best to remain optimistic that the adoption process will still go as quickly as possible despite all of the changes in staff members.  We are so ready to be D-O-N-E with the regulations and red tape and start living life as a "normal" family!

You can see from the pictures below how big Rebekah's getting!  She'll be officially weighed tomorrow, but I'm guessing she's around 12-13 pounds.

Little Rebekah is nothing but a delight, quick to share her sweet smiles with everyone and she has begun gurgling and cooing in conversation with us.  She's sleeping much better at night and can sleep soundly for stretches of up to 4 hours at a time!

She's been taking a special high-calorie formula and a daily vitamin up to this point, but we expect her doctor to take her off of those at her next check-up. 

After the rough start to her little life, we are so thankful that God has allowed our Rebekah to grow and thrive in such a remarkable way!

Quick Adoption Update

I have great news to share!  We're one step closer to adopting Rebekah...parental rights were terminated this morning and our family has become the adoptive placement for her.  The fast-track process is really living up to its name.  Now we wait for paperwork to be completed and the rest of the 6-month waiting period to end.  We're still looking at a possible June adoption date.  Thanks to everyone for the continued prayers, love and support!

Adopting Adrian

For the third time in under three years we have had the blessing and privilege of adopting our foster children into our family forever.  You can read about Joe's and Daniel's adoption here and Mikea's adoption here and here.

This time around we were a bit more anxious about the day because it would be the first time venturing out with all 5 children.  We spent hours the night before getting ready and actually made it out the door on time.  However, that was about the only thing that ran smoothly.  Our first trial came when we had to go through the metal detectors at the courthouse.  We had 2 diaper bags, 3 activity bags for the big kids, and 1 purse to put through the scanner.  Problem was, they were all underneath the double stroller and were wedged in pretty good.  We had to take out Rebekah's car seat anyway so she wouldn't have to go through the metal detector, but the bags were still stuck.  So we tried to yank out the bags and corral Joe, Dan, and Mikea at the same time.  Meanwhile a line of people formed behind us, a line of people all in a hurry to get somewhere.  Unfortunately, some of our family members who had planned on attending got sick and couldn't make it and the others received bad directions and didn't arrive at the ceremony until after it was over.   So we were all on our own.

Well, we eventually made it through security and had to walk through a couple of buildings and take an elevator ride to get to the jury room where the ceremony was held.  We breathed a sigh of relief and began strategically arranging children in their seats.  There were fewer families at this ceremony than in previous months, which meant we sort of stuck out and I wasn't really surprised when a reporter from Channel 12 came over and asked to interview us.  That's when things got really intense for us.  We were trying to sit, hold 4 children, keep an eye on a baby in a car seat, and attempt to answer questions as coherently as possible.  Both Billy and I were extremely sleep-deprived and worn out from the ordeal of getting everyone to the ceremony.  The kids, on the other hand, were highly squirrelly.  Joe and Daniel kept grabbing the reporter's microphone, Adrian was head-butting me, eating my necklace, and trying to wiggle out of my lap.  Mikea was attempting to sneak away.  And Rebekah was due to wake up hungry any minute.  And so while we did everything we could to stay calm and look like we had it under control (because we didn't want it to look like we couldn't handle the kids ) in fact it felt like everything was falling apart.  Throw in a healthy dose of straight-up terror of being on TV, and you'll understand why the whole thing was incredibly intense and stressful.  Though the end result wasn't as bad as I thought. You can read about it here or watch the interview here.  Another channel interviewed us after the ceremony for a story on adopting sibling groups.  It's supposed to air on their morning show but I haven't seen it yet.

All that aside, what kept us going was the reason we were there: to make Adrian an official member of our family!  Here are a few shots of the day:

Hooray for the new Mr. Adrian James Morrison!  Praise God.  Now we stand at four down and one more to go...

All About Adrian!

Adrian is finally all ours!  I'll do a separate post about the actual adoption ceremony itself, but for now enjoy some of my favorite photos of our charming little guy!

                                 

                                 

  We love you, Adrian, and are so glad you are now an official member of our family!