Biscotti

Yesterday I was in the kitchen preparing dessert before guests arrived for dinner and Lana asked me 'What are you making?'  I was feeling distracted and absently replied 'Biscotti'.  Lana was really excited and said 'Hey mommy, that is Grandpa's name, biSCOTTY.'  At this point I was fully listening to Lana as she continued explaining that the dessert was Grandpa's name.  I could not help but have a little smile when Lana was not looking and then I popped our biSCOTTY into the oven.

Kayla's birthday!

After Kayla opened a purse (full of accessories) from Grandma and Grandpa I told her that she needed to tell them thank you this week.  Kayla wasted no time, she immediately picked up her new pink phone and said 'thank you Grandma for my purse'.

Fun at the Littleton Museum

Pulling things together and waiting for baby

It is difficult to wait, but we are enjoying all the preparations involved in getting ready for a baby.  We have received notice of 2 infants, but neither one would be a good fit for our family.  One of the babies would have required us to travel anytime in the next couple weeks, which would have been very exciting.  During a conversation with Judy, my mother in law, I was reminded that I needed to start pulling things together for the BABY (not just cleaning the house) in case we had a short notice.  Bottles have been washed, clothes pulled out from the crawl space and washed, a chest of drawers emptied.  We now have formula and size 1 diapers in our home again, it feels very good!

Does anyone have suggestions on getting out spit up stains in baby clothes?  Most of Bryant's baby clothes have these stains.  I didn't have the best luck getting them out with Lana's used clothes when Kayla came along.

Best homemade GF bread yet!

2 c rice flour

1/2 c tapioca flour

1/2 c soy flour

1/3 c cornstarch

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp guar gum

1 T yeast

3 eggs

1 T vinegar

1/4 c honey

1/4 c melted butter

1 1/2 c milk - I used almond milk

Blend dry ingredients together, then mix in all the other ingredients.  Beat with spoon until lumps are gone.  Place bowl in warm oven and let rise for 40 minutes.  Beat again for several minutes and pour into well greased loaf pans.  Let rise again in warm oven for 30 minutes.  Bake at 450 until golden and firm - 20 - 30 minutes.

This actually tastes like bread and is great with butter and jam fresh out of the oven.  I usually heat the bread again before serving since it tends to be dry when it is cold.  Finally the kids are eating peanut butter and jelly again!

Roxborough Park

Last Saturday we tried a new park for hiking and it was beautiful.  Very green with the gorgeous red rocks in the background.

The 'family books' and homestudy were ordered/sent on Monday.  We should be hearing from our agency soon and know when they will begin sending out our information.

School started this week and it has been fun for all of us to have the regular routine and learning schedule again.

Homestudy updated

We just read over our updated homestudy yesterday and are sending it back, with our signatures, to our agency today.  This weekend we have been putting together a 'family book' on Shutterfly that will be shown to prospective parents.  This has been totally new for us since there were no books or letters to prospective parents needed in international adoption.  We are very excited that the paperwork is almost done and we can begin hearing from other agencies about babies soon.  The picture is one that Bryant took yesterday since we needed a picture of just Gary and I in the family book.

Game night with Grandma and Grandpa

We had such a wonderful visit!

Waiting... and preparing

We are now waiting for our homestudy to be updated before our agency begins sending our information to other agencies so we can find a baby.  This process could be super fast, we could be bringing a baby home within months since we are requesting a baby that would more likely be placed in foster care.  There is also a possibility that this could take much longer, adoption carries so many unknowns.  Right now I am trying to get us as ready as I can in case we are placed with a baby soon.  I will start school with the kids on August 1st so we can take a few weeks off in the fall if we need it.  We will see what God has for us in the next few months.  My arms are aching to hold our sweet baby boy and my heart is thrilled that this waiting may be nearing an end.

Domestic Adoption

Well, it has been a while since I have given an adoption update because so much has been changing.  There have been some big decisions to make in the past few weeks.  The precious little baby boy from Ukraine that we had been praying about and our agency has searched for has been taken off of international waiting lists because of the change in laws prohibiting the adoption of children under 5, with only a few severe special needs as exceptions.  Because we were planning on adopting a child under 3, the Ukraine is no longer an option for us.  This has been a sad realization, as there are many needy babies.

We have prayed and researched international adoption from over 20 different countries and we either did not meet the country requirements or they did not meet our requirements. We still want to rescue an orphan, but we have changed our focus closer to home.  We are now redoing our homestudy for a domestic adoption.  One day we would love to bring a child out of an orphanage again, but for this season we believe God has closed those doors for a good reason and opened our hearts to a baby here in the US.  We are requesting a child of any race except Caucasian.  Kayla has recently learned her colors and tells me that she is black and I am white.  I had hoped for many years before she was even aware of the difference in color.  This adds to the joy we are feeling at the opportunity to adopt a child with darker skin.  Having a multi cultural/racial family has been a desire of ours since bringing Kayla home.  We are also requesting a baby if possible; a personal desire of mine has been to have one more baby.  A drug exposed baby or baby with a special need are also on our list of desires.  We want to bring home a child that is not easy to place in a family.  These changes are huge and God has been giving us wisdom, grace, and joy even as we let go of some of our own plans and embrace the direction that God is giving us.

Tea party

Summer time

I love this season!  The days are so long and we can finally feel of the warm sun shining down every day.  Summer time brings yard work, long trail hikes, pool time, popsicles, family walks after dinner, cool crisp salads, and lots of time just playing outside.

 

California trip pictures

 

Ukraine adoption laws changing

Right after we arrived home from CA last night we checked email and found some changes in the Ukraine international adoption laws.  It looks like they are now restricting adoptions of children under 5 to only a handful of severe special needs cases, this is the first report we have received.  We found a baby boy from Ukraine on a waiting list last month and our agency has been trying to find him for us.  He is so precious and we were really beginning to think this boy would be our new son but we realized last night that we may not able to adopt him after all.  Our prayer right now is that they will consider us as already in process and allow us to continue to adopt him or that they will consider him as a higher risk special needs because he was listed on a waiting children's list and will probably need surgery.  Whatever the case, we are trusting that God is in control of this situation and that He will unite us with the son He has chosen for us in His perfect timing.  As always, we appreciate prayers for this process!

Kayla and the chili

The other night we were eating a very cozy meal of chili and cornbread when Kayla decided that she wanted to eat another piece of cornbread and skip the chili.  I explained to her that we don't eat our dinner like that, if she wanted more cornbread she would need to eat some chili.  After a scowl and almost an out burst, yes, I said almost, my clever little girl decided on another tack at this meal.  Kayla reached her spoon into the chili bowl and lifted an empty spoon into her mouth and said, "Mmmm, delicious!'  She continued with her loud exclamations of  'mmmm' and threw in 'yummy' or 'delicious' for the next 15 minutes.  In all of Kayla's enthusiasm, she managed to never eat a single bite of chili.

Making some changes

The reason for this long time without updates is that after much prayer and research we have made some changes in the direction we are going with the adoption.  Bulgaria was not going to end up being as needy a country as we thought and the wait for a boy with the specific needs we were considering could have been years (apparently Bulgarians do adopt children with minor special needs).  As our direction started shifting and we began to consider other countries our hearts continued to be inclined toward the Eastern European orphans.  All this is leading up to us announcing we are now starting a program to adopt a child from the Ukraine.  We have seen several little boys, some who are actually babies, with minor/moderate needs available on waiting lists.  We are praying specifically about adopting a precious little guy on one of these lists.  Please pray with us that God would give us wisdom and peace as we move forward with Ukraine and choose a child.  We are very excited to see what God may have for us in the months ahead.  We will keep you posted on any new developments. 

Lord's Prayer and singing

Girls and tulips

Field trip

The picture was taken during a field trip with friends this week.  Many of my pictures came out a little blurry, the kids were in continuous motion.

To update on the adoption, we will be having our second visit with the social worker on Friday.  This visit we will meet at a park up in Fort Collins which is over an hour drive.  The outing should be good, but we will be praying patience for the kids during the interviews and time on the road.

Great visit!

We had a wonderful visit with our new social worker on Saturday!  Her name is Jodie and she is such a joy to share this process with.  It was a special blessing to be able to talk about the Lord with her have her reciprocate and share the same heart for the Lord.  We did the home inspection on this first visit and will do the individual interviews on the next visit.  The second visit has not been scheduled yet, but should be soon.

On a funny note, we told the children that the social worker was coming to visit.  They were so excited to meet her and kept asking when she would arrive.  One of these times Lana asked 'So when is the working girl coming to our house?'  Gary and I looked at each other, stifled a laugh, and explained that she is a SOCIAL worker and her name is Miss Jodie.

Home visit

Tomorrow will be our first home visit with our new social worker.  This is not a fearful experience like it was the first time we had a home inspection, in fact we are looking forward to meeting our new social worker.  This time around we are working with a wonderful Christian agency which is such a blessing. 

Please keep praying for wisdom and patience.  We are waiting for more information on a couple little boys and I find myself checking email many times a day hoping for some news.  I remind myself that God has a plan for each one of these little guys.  Even if none of the precious children I have seen so far will be our son I am grateful to have the opportunity to be praying.