And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog...

We're back!

Since everyhting is finalized we can, once again, post pictures, stories and video of the boys to share with everyone. 

Enjoy.

What's in a Name?

Part of the adoption process involves changing the boys name so that we are all "Moores."  This happens as a natural consequence of the adoption and the reasons it happens are simple to understand.  Well, we think they are, anyway...

Another name change that can happen is that, if they want to, a child can change their first and middle names as well.  There are many reasons to do this and many reasons to not do this but it is something that we talked about with the boys.  We wanted to give them an opportunity to do so if they wished.

Zach actually goes by his middle name and does not use his first name.  As Mike can attest to, using your middle name can lead to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.  So we talked to Zach about making Zachary his first name and coming up with a new middle name.

Sean has never liked his middle name and so we talked to him about changing his middle name.

After a rather brief conversation, they both agreed they wanted to change their names.

If we'd had a biological boy, we were going to give him the first name Potter, Kerri's maiden name and in honor of her dad and grandfather.  Their are no male heirs in the Potter family and Kerri's dad is the last male to have that last name in his branch of the family tree.

Although it wasn't as important to us, we thought it would be nice if one of the boys would take Mike's middle name, Michael, and use it as well.

We are very pleased to announce the names of our two sons: Zachary Potter Moore and Sean Michael Moore.

We are two very proud parents!

Zach Has Started Playing Soccer

We're such bad parents.

Mike forgot his camera entirely for the first game and his battery died after taking two shots at the second.

Oh well, here they are:

We'll do better in the future.

Sean's Big Night!

We love Sean.

Very much.

In sickness and in health.

Through emergency room visits and wrapped ankles.

The poor kid is just accident prone!

This morning at 3:40 am Mike was awakened to sound of a scream and a thud. 

What in the world...?

He runs into where Sean is sleeping and finds him in a crumpled pile between the bed and the dresser where he fell when he rolled out of bed during his sleep.  He apparently woke up (somewhat) as he was falling, screamed and hit the floor with a thud.

After about ten minutes of consoling from both Mom and Dad, we felt confident he was ready to go back to sleep.  At that point Mike patted him on the leg and he winced.  When asked if he was hurt he said "Yes" so Mike took a look.  After rolling up his PJ leg we see that he is bleeding from a rather nasty abrasion.  What he hit we don't know but he was hurt.

Well, mom goes and gets a cold washcloth to clean it up, we put a bandaid on it and Sean goes back to sleep.

This morning he comes to our room as he's getting dressed and says "I guess I forgot to tell you about this.."

Apparently he hit his face on the sideboard of the bed or on the dresser. Mike observed that as much as everyone likes Sean at school and how cute EVERYONE thinks he is, they are going to fawn all over him today.

This is going to be a really good day for him after all!

Happy Halloween!

Well, tonight was our first Halloween as a family.  It was the first time Mike & Kerri got to actually GO Trick-or-Treating!

There aren't pictures but you will know what they looked like when we tell you that Zach went as a soccer player and Sean went as a Termite football player.  They were so cute!  They both made sure to tell anyone who would listen that it wasn't just a costume but that they actually played the sport they were representing.

The best part was the method of travel.  Kerri and the boys bundled-up in blankets and rode on the tailgate of the truck while Mike drove around the neighborhood.  Don't worry though - he never went over 60 mph!  :o)

To both of our surprise they both overfilled the pumpkin buckets they carried with them!

Consent Day!

Well, yesterday was the 90th day of our 90-day waitng period.

So today we met with our attorney and social worker so we could receive the official Consent to Adopt paperwork from the State DHR office.

YEAH!!!!!

The original plan was for our attorney to file our petition with the court sometime tomorrow but, since it was still early enough in the day, he offered to file it today.

So as of this writing, we have formally filed a petition with the court to finalize our adoption of Zach and Sean!

God has been faithful in a mighty way!

Sean said...

I know this won't be read for some time but I wanted to get this out there while it was fresh.

Sean had arguably the worst day of his school-life today.

We don't know what he was thinking or why he did some of the things he did but, in the end, it all worked out, Mike had a stern talk with him and (we think) he understands why he got in trouble.

He also failed to bring home ANY books from school, his homework folder or anything from which to study for his history test the next day.

Mike had another stern talk to him about responsibility and consequences and again (we think) he understood what he'd done wrong and what needed to happen going forward.

Okay, having gone through a really bad day and having TWO lectures from Dad, Sean made a remarkable observation during dinner.

We were having soup and crackers.  Sean said how much he "loved" crackers in his soup.  Mike said how his favorite soup was Tomato (Sean shook his head yes) with some shredded cheese in it (Sean shook his head Yes) and a whole bunch of crushed crackers (Sean shook his head YES!!).  Sean said "That's something we have in common!"

Then he delivered the line of the day:

"I think we were made for you.  I guess God just made a mistake and out us in the wrong stomach."

It was really hard to eat the next bite of soup with that big lump in our throat...

Spirit Week - Spirit Day!

Day three was the day the could wear blue jeans (yeah!) and their school "Spirit Shirts.":

These are happy boys.

Spirit Week - Silly Sock Day!

On Tuesday, they had to pick the silliest looking socks they could find and wear them to school:

Let's take a closer look:

 What great legs!!

Spirit Week - Crazy Hat Day

Well this is homecoming week at school and so they have a week of getting pumped up by having a different theme every day.  The first day was crazy hat day.

Just so you can see how crazy these boys are, here is there photoshoot:



They look so natural...!

Sad Times...

There are (at least) five steps at the end of the process one goes through when adopting a child:

• Matching
• Visits
• Placement (for 90 days)
• Consent
• Finalization

We are currently about 66 days into our placement period.

We made an error in May when we posted pictures of two boys we had visited with at the zoo.  We were advised to take them down by a friend of ours we had met during our GPS class.  It was not an order (or even a request) but, rather, a "be careful" warning.  The message was that until a placement agreement was in place, we could not post pictures anywhere for public view of any children we were "in process" with.  This made a lot of sense.  Turns out that was good advice because we ended up not being a match for those two boys.

This is the ONLY direction regarding this issue we have recieved during our placement and adoption adventure.

That being the case, when we signed a placement agreement on June 28 for Zach and Sean, we happily proceeded to post pictures.  And post pictures.  And post more pictures.

Well, it turns out there has been a change in the rules.

DHR guidelines now state that no pictures can be posted of any child until the adoption has been finalized.  Read that again: finalized.

So, we have to suspend our blog for a while – we don’t want to delete the blog entries because that’s what it will take to get the pictures off.  We plan to write entries; we just can’t post them yet.  But rest easy, dear reader, for the day the judge signs that paper, we will be back.  And you will be able to catch up on all the great things that are going on in our lives!!!

Before we go, let us leave you with awesomeness:

One of the boys said very recently something to the effect of "You know, it's funny how everyone says we look and act like we belong to each other.  It's like you were always our parents and we just couldn't live with you until now."

We love our two boys.

Please pray that things move quickly after we receive consent.

The plan right now is to file the papers with the court on Thursday, October 27.  There are numerous, very important reasons we are trying to finalize the adoption prior to the end of the year. Please pray that all goes well with our family in the meantime and that we can get the adoption finalized by December 31.  We would love to have it finished by Thanksgiving.

A lot of people have told us it will be impossible to have it finalized by then but we believe our God is an awesome God and there is nothing He can not do.  We put our hope in the Living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe.

We'll talk to you down the road...

Photo Mural

Working on a little project for the house.

We like the television show "Lie to Me" where the main character has built his business on being able to get to the truth of a situation by looking solely at the facial expressions of the people he is interrogating.

In the show, as you walk into his office, there is a huge wall full of black & white photos of various different people, some famous, some ordinary.

We thought it was a really neat concept and got the idea to do something similar with our family.

Each of the pictures below (48 of them total) will be individually framed and hung in a giant mural in our family room:

Lapsus Linguae

It was one of those "From the mouths of babes" moments.  If only he understood just how funny it was...

So, we were driving around Saturday and we got to talking about about the make-up of our family.  How old we were.  The difference in our ages. 

This inevitably led to us talking about how old we were at certain critical moments in our lives.  Sean immediately pointed out that when Mike was 16, Kerri was only 8.  Yuck!

So Mike brings up that on the day he and Kerri were married, Sean was just over one year old.

Zach says "So, when you were at the funeral..."

The Learning Curve

There are some things you you can't prepare yourself for. 

There are situations you just have to deal with the best you can on the spot.  There are things that make you realize your life will never be the same again.  There are things you miss, and there are things you never thought you'd appreciate.

Taking care of a child is the biggest one.

We know we're new to all this, but here are eleven things we've learned very quickly, in no particular order:

• Half a Pizza Hut P'Zone and a salad does not a meal make for a 9-yr-old.
• "Sharing" is a relative term.
• Schedule?  What schedule??
• Laundry: it's not just for the weekend anymore!
• Whoever invented OxyClean and Shout deserve a Nobel Prize.
• 7:00 am IS sleeping in.
• The desire to spend someone else's money is inversely proportional to the amount of money that someone else actually has to spend.
• We now know why people wipe off the chairs after a meal.
• Packing for a trip out of town is a whole new experience.
• Mike thought he was done with homework.
• Small children are made entirely of elbows, knees and other assorted sharp objects.  Especially at 2:00 in the morning after a bad dream.

[On a side note, Mike has also learned to be careful what radio station you have on in the car.  Rihanna's singing "Whips and Chains Excite Me" can lead to an interesting conversation...]

Sean is hard-headed!

And we're glad he's hard-headed - we made our second trip to the Emergency Room on last Saturday.

We were invited to a friend's home to watch the Alabama football game.  After the game their two boys and ours were going to make use of their pool.

Well, they also have a trampoline and so all four of the boys climbed aboard and set about having a great time.  They had been on and off the trampoline several different times during and after the game with no problems - until the last time.

Literally as Mike was taking a breath to tell them it was time to go we saw Sean go dashing into the house with the other three on his heels.  As we get to the door one of the boys announces that "Sean split his head open!"  Yikes!!

Turns out there was a basketball hoop nearby and the last time he bounced up, he came in under the hoop and smacked into one of the hooks that hold the net in place.

After evaluating the situation we saw that he did indeed have a bloody spot on the top of his head:

So, we dropped Kerri off at home and Mike took both the boys to the ER (Zach wanted an adventure).

When we were called back to triage the nurse asked if Sean had been in recently - she recognized him from his first visit four weeks earlier!  Mike informed Sean that being on a first-name basis with the nurse at the ER was NOT a good thing.

The best part for Mike was when they began poking around the boo-boo, Sean quickly asked him to come over so he could squeeze his hand so it wouldn't hurt as much.  Sean told Mike that he was going to squeeze hard enough so he would know how bad it was hurting, so that he could feel the same thing.  LOL!!

The next stop was the treatment area for an evaluation of possible stitches, staples and a concussion.  After everything was cleaned up it turned out that he did not split his scalp, it only took a shallow gouge.  (So, yes, Sean scalped himself!)

Well, by the next day of this adventure Sean's scalp had healed incredibly quickly:

And by Monday:

We are thankful to God that Sean had only a minor injury and that he heals so quickly.  It seems he is our little crash-test dummy: he has cuts and bruises all over and nothing seems to slow him down.

On a lighter note, we want you all to know how very blessed we feel for all the prayers you send our way every day.  There are so many little things about this process that defy earthly expectation and, as a good friend of ours said, the only way to "explain it is through prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit."

Praise God!

Zach got his Gear!

Today Zach signed-up to play AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) Soccer this fall and probably next spring.  He had a fun time picking out his new gear and, if we do say so, he looks pretty sharp:

 Here's all the pics...

Are you ready for some Football?

Sean is playing Termite Football as part of his school’s first-ever football team. Here he is right before his first practice:

He couldn’t wait to get his game on…

First Day of School

Well, it has arrived - the boys first day of classes at their new school.

This is the first time in several years they have been in the same school and they were excited, or least they looked excited.

One of the things that was new to them was school uniforms:

As you can see, they had no problem with wearing them.

Here's a look at more pictures of their “school fashion shoot”:

We think Kerri might not be the only entertainer in the family...

Be Careful What You Ask For...

Lest you think that the title of this entry implies regrets or confusion over our adventures, you should know that nothing can be further from the truth.  The title of this entry refers to our remembering today that we had not posted in a while and that we should probably "put something out there." 

It took all of about 15 minutes to come up with an idea to post - we made our first trip to the emergency room as parents.

While Kerri and the boys were having an AWESOME time at the YMCA pool, Sean fell off the diving board, and his leg hit the side of the pool deck just below his left knee.  The response from the folks at Y was great!  They immediately got to him, made sure he was okay and helped him get to his feet. 

Yes, there were some tears, but Sean handled like a champ.  The lifeguard at the pool said Sean had won the prize for the best bruise of the day.  And Zach was right there to help Mom by getting the towels and beach bag so she could stay with Sean.

Mike left work to meet the family :o) at the emergency room :o(, wheelchair at the ready for Sean's arrival.  Unfortunately the only wheelchair to be found was an extra wide model that swallowed Sean's small frame.  It was quite the sight to behold.

Well, they took Sean and Mike back to get the vitals and set up to get some x-rays of Sean's leg to make sure it was not broken.  At this point Sean could not put any pressure on it.  Two x-rays later showed that "upon initial review of the x-rays, there were no apparent fractures ."  The part in quotes is their disclaimer that there may be a fracture they cannot see on an x-ray, so "don't sue us."

They wrapped it in an ace bandage, gave him some liquid lortab (a.k.a. liquid gold) to help with the pain.  We encouraged Sean to try and walk on it, and he took his first steps since the accident.  By later that night he literally was jumping up and down on it to show us how much better he was.  Oh to have that kind of resilience!

Point of Prayer: We have been referred to an orthopedic specialist because the impact was almost directly on top of the growth plate in Sean's lower leg.  If it has been damaged, then it can cause his legs to grow at different rate,s and he could end up with one leg shorter than the other.

You know, we thought it would a bit longer before we had to make a trip to the ER, but we guess with two boys their age we should have known better.  :o)

We love these boys.  Please keep praying for the four of us.  It is His protection and providence that get us through each moment.  Based on how blessed we have been, we know that you are all prayer warriors.  And for that we say Thank You.

First Family Picture

It's been a long day but we four are finally a family...

Mom, Sean, Zach and Dad

Thursday is Family Signing Day!

We had another great weekend with the boys, and we enrolled them in Sunday School.  Although they will be changing classes on August 21, they have at least met some of the other kids with whom they will be growing up.  After the 11:00 service, Sean saw one of the kids from his 3rd grade class and said "That kid is my best friend!"  He was so excited about all the newness.

Isn't it great how young children so easily adapt?

If all goes according to plan, this Thursday, July 28, we will sign the paperwork to have them live with us permanently.  A lot of people call this Moving-In Day.  We have to wait another 90 days before we can petition to finalize the adoption but this is a major step in the right direction.

We are so excited.  About having Zach & Sean with us full time.  About having a bigger family.  About what the future holds.  In a way it's like the wedding vows: "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish."  We know we'll have plenty of all of this, but there's nothing else we'd rather do.  We know this is what we are meant to do.  And we know that God is with us.  We know that He has brought us to this place.

Please continue to pray for us, all four of us.  Our adoption journey is not ending.  It is only beginning.

Our Kids - Zach & Sean

It is with no hesitation that we say, absolutely, positively that these two boys are our sons.  We had an absolutely fantastic weekend (three days and two nights).

We got them Friday morning at 10:00 and had planned to show them around Montgomery but after stopping by Mike's office and driving by the state capitol, they really just wanted to go home.  And the weather was bad enough that that was a really good idea.  We spent the afternoon playing with Lego's and hanging out.  They desperately wanted to go the pool but the weather had it closed.  Friday night we had pizza and some cut-up veggies.  Then we had ice cream - but we did have veggies!!!!!  We then watched some Disney Channel shows and played with Lego's some more.  We brought them to bed and prayed with them - that was such a parent moment!

Saturday morning, after a breakfast of homemade waffles, we decided to go to the pool as soon as it opened.  Of course there had been lightning in the area so it was delayed in opening but we did eventually get to swim for more than an hour.  Sean showed off his diving board skills (that were quite impressive) and Zach and Mike played volleyball - there was a net over the pool.  Mike showed off his cannonball, and Kerri jumped off the diving board when Sean asked her to try it.  It was fun!

When we left the pool, Mike rode in the bed of the truck with them while Kerri drove slowly around the neighborhood.  We even passed a police car and waved to him.

We had grilled burgers, mac & cheese, green beans and tater tots for dinner and then made a HUGE bowl of popcorn and watched Chicken Run for family time.

Sunday, we went to the 11:00 service at church and got to see several of our friends, and they got to meet Pastor Jay.

Before taking them back to Birmingham, we sat them down for the moment of truth.  We told them that we had really enjoyed having them for the weekend and that, if they would like to, we would really like them to come live with us permanently.  No response.

Kerri then asked "Would you like that?" and they gave a resounding "YES !"

There were hugs and high-fives all around for the next few minutes before we left for Birmingham.

God has blessed us so much through this journey, and we thank Him for his providence, guidance and love.  Thank you for all your prayers - keep going - we just figured out we don't know what we're doing!! :o)

We hope to have them living with us by the end of this week.  We'll let you know when that happens.  Keep praying!!!!!

We are in love!

We are, right now, excited, overwhelmed, so happy, scared, nervous, expectant and so grateful to God!!!  We met with our two boys yesterday at the McWane Center in Birmingham.  We had the best time - we could not have scripted it better!  We did not want it to end.  They are so cute - not just in how they look but their personalities and everything - the whole package.

We met them in the Food Court and chatted a bit.  Then, we started going through the interactive science center (if you have kids and you have not been to the McWane Center, let me encourage you to do so - really cool, fun and educational).  One of the boys would look, play with the exhibit we were looking at and then move on to the next one while we were still there; I asked him to stay with us because there were so many people, and he soon stayed with us - that way, we were able to interact with him more.  The kids had a lot of fun - they LOVED the shark/manta ray pet tank!!!  (So did we.)  We went there two times and must have spend almost an hour there.  The boys were content to wait for the sharks (small - the largest was about 2 feet long) to swim by while they talked to us.  It all felt very natural - which is one thing for which we were praying.  Both kids smiled and laughed and played.  We ate lunch - pizza for all - and got to know each other more.  Then, we revisited some of the exhibits they liked the best.

At the end of our time, we asked the boys if they would like to spend the weekend with us - they boys said a very emphatic "yeah!" and gave us high tens.  We then went over to a kind of Rube Goldberg machine with golf-sized balls that ran through all sorts of tubes and obstacles.  We just watched and talked and really didn't want to leave them.  That is such a good sign!!!  We got hugs!

We walked them to their social worker's car, and we kept talking and laughing.  When they finally had to pull away, and after we waved until they were out of sight, Mike looked at Kerri and said, "I'm in love!"  We just were in awe!!!

We saw so many great things.  We noticed on the video of the boys we saw on Heart Gallery, the older boy didn't look at the camera or at anyone - and he looked us right in the eye!  He also came up behind Mike and just put his arms around him!  They both really took to Mike - which is great!!  The younger boy also seemed to warm up to us rather quickly - he is very happy where he is, so his transition will be harder.  We had given them a scrapbook with pictures and information about us two weeks ago, and Mike quizzed them on some things.  The younger boy not only knew all our cats' names but also how old each one was - that was cool.

They are spending this whole weekend with us - we will pick them up at 10:00 tomorrow!!!  We have so much to do - gotta clean up the house and grocery shop and pray and try to sleep tonight!

God has orchestrated all this for us.  He is so amazing - we have given him the boys and our relationship and this whole process.  Thank you to all who are praying for us - this cannot be done without the Lord and His guidance, wisdom and love.  He created these two boys, and He loves them.  We want them to know Him and to know His love.

We'll keep you all posted!

It's time...

Well, the day has arrived to meet the boys for the first time.  We are excited to meet them and we hope they are as well. 

We have talked a lot with their state caseworker and have gotten a sense of what to expect although anything is possible.  We have been told they are excited to visit and we have been told they have some anxiety about it.  Both emotions are understandable.

From them AND from us.

Unless the whole situation devolves, we will have them for 2 nights this weekend, from Friday, July 15, thru Sunday, July 17.  They will be coming with us to church on Sunday (no autographs, please).  :o)

This is such a tremendous moment for us; in our personal, married and spiritual lives.  Please say a quick prayer for us and for them that all would go well.  We will post again soon to let you know how it went.

Date Set!

We have set a date to meet the boys. 

We will meet them for the first time on Wednesday, July 13 at the McWane Center in Birmingham.  With them will be their case worker and state social worker.

It will be a brief, about 4-hour visit and we'll all eat lunch together.

We have sent our family scrapbook to the case worker so she can send them on to the foster folks to share with each of them (the boys are not in the same foster home).  Hopefully something will "click" and they will have questions for us.

If all goes well, we will be getting them two days later, on Friday, July 15, for an overnight visit.

Kerri and I are very excited.  Please pray for the boys that God would ease their anxiety and replace it with joy, optimism and excitement about what the future holds.  Please pray also for us that God would open our eyes and hearts to see what the boys need so we can make educated decisions.

Going Ahead

Our Adoption consultants at DHR (two wonderful women) met with many, many people at a "state staffing session" today about the two boys with whom we've been matched and afterwards came by the house to talk about how the session went.  The boys' workers have a good feeling about us, and after hearing about how the meeting went and what they learned, we have a good feeling about the boys.  We were told that there had been a lot of inquiries on the boys but that their case workers felt we were the best match for them.

Our next step is to meet the boys sometime in mid-July.  We would visit sooner but Kerri is going to Virginia the beginning of July to visit her folks.  Mike can't get away - sad times. :(

We are very excited!  We have been asked to create a family scrapbook about our home, our life and us so that the boys' foster parents can show them about us and talk to them about us - to give them permission to get excited about us and the idea of a forever family.  They are both very happy where they are so we expect it will be a tough transition for them.

The Lord has been helping us so much to get ready for this and He has brought us some great DHR and APAC resources so that we can make a great transition together.

Obviously, we have not made any final decisions yet.  We need to meet the boys and they need to meet us and we all need to agree we want to become a family.  We want to invite them to become part of our family because we really feel they need to have a say in the decision.  We want them to take ownership of the decision and not feel like we are just the next stop for them.

Thank you for your prayers!  We need them and covet them.  Please pray for these two boys as well.

Here we go again...

This morning we met with DHR about the second set of boys. During the two-hour meeting we asked a lot of questions to sort of refine our understanding of issues and our social worker asked us how we felt concerning specific items about which we had been informed.

When we left the meeting, we both felt much better about the possibility. The are having a meeting next week at which time the official state panel will review our qualifications and the boys needs for a definitive match. Assuming we are a match, they will, at some point after that, ask us if we want to proceed.

We feel really good about waiting until mid-July to begin visits. That is probably a large part of our good humor - knowing that we have time to talk and discuss our feelings together. We are putting the brakes on so that we do not feel pressured by either the DHR or our desire for a family.

These two boys are 9 and 11 and will be in 4th and 5th grade next year. They are precisely in the age range we first identified and would not be in the same school with Kerri for their first years. That's a bonus. Although, it will fall to Mike to get them to and from school!!

Thank you for your prayers. Right now we feel positive about where this is headed. We need to continue to lean on the everlasting arms for help, support and guidance.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Meeting...

We met yesterday afternoon with our social worker, Judy, and the boys case worker.  This was our opportunity to talk to them about the boys and their opportunity to ask us questions about the time we spent with them.  Call it an "Exit Interview."

It was pretty much as we expected.  We had a lot to tell them and, given our EXTENSIVE knowledge and history of fostering following YEARS of practice, we had some advice to offer. There were just some things that we thought were causing issues and things we had done that worked really well.  Even in just three days.

Well, as you know, before we had been contacted about the boys, we had looked at several children on Heart Gallery and had made a few requests for more information and preliminary matching.  Friday afternoon Kerri got a call regarding one of the inquiries we had made.

There are two boys we have been matched with and we were able to get more information about them during our meeting on Friday.  We will meet with the boys case worker on Tuesday to go over some more information.

We have told our social worker that, while we are willing to look at these two boys, we have decided to wait until mid-July before we might begin any visits with them.  Our recent experience has left us in somewhat of a daze and, while we have no regrets for the experience, it took an emotional toll from which we are still healing.

Keep us in your prayers.  The fact that we have been potentially matched AGAIN in so short a time is nothing but the hand of God.  We both feel He has been preparing us this spring for a change.  Perhaps the first set of boys was the eye-opener (it really was, actually) but we need and want to be sure that in our eagerness to have a family, we don't make the wrong decision.

Please continue your prayers for discernment and wisdom.  We need every one you can offer!

Discernment and Peace

We had the boys for all three days of this Memorial Day weekend.  We had them from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturday, 1:30 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday and 5:30/9:30 am until 3:30 pm on Monday.  Since they were not placed together, on Monday we had to pick them up at different times.  And, yes, that 5:30 am time is not a typo.

These two boys are great kids, and have the potential to achieve whatever they want as long as they put their mind to it.  Having said that, while we may be a match for them, they, unfortunately, are not a match for us.  We quickly realized that they both needed more therapeutic support than we would be able to provide.  On Monday afternoon we notified DHR that we would not be able to continue as a resource for the boys.

Now, before you think how unfortunate this all is, please understand that we count it all joy.  When we began the visitation process with the boys, we specifically prayed for, and asked prayer for, discernment and peace with whatever decision we would make.  We laid it all at the feet of Jesus and asked for his guidance, strength and wisdom as we started what would be the biggest journey in our lives together.  Yes, we had hopes and dreams, but we also had faith that God would lead us to the right decision.

We had discernment given to us in that we realized that, as much as we want children, the children we were seeing were not for us.  And we realized this knowing full-well it could be a very long time before another possible match was made.  The world says take what you can, when you can, however you can but God tells us to wait on him, and we do.

We have a peace about our decision, and the whole situation, because we specifically asked for it.  There is so much we could wring our hands about, and worry if we made the right decision, and convince ourselves we could have done it.  But we have none of that.  We KNOW we have made the right decision and that knowing gives us peace.

We have a lot to be thankful for and to pray about.  We are thankful for the opportunity we had to meet the boys and spend time getting to know them.  They have much need, and we will pray for them every day for healing and, most importantly, that God would lead someone to them that can lead them back to Him. 

We also learned a lot about ourselves and what we want, what we're looking for.  Some ideas and desires were confirmed in a big way and some things made us re-define our positions.

We are looking forward to the next step, whatever, whenever and wherever it may take us.

Thank you for all your prayers and kind words.  Keep 'em coming!

Stay-Over

Unfortunately it's not going to be possible to have the boys stay the night this weekend (bummer) but we will still see them on Saturday and Sunday.

The Zoo

We just got back from spending time with the boys and Mike's first comment was "What's not to love!"  We had an absolutely GREAT time and just really enjoyed spending time with them both.

We went to the Montgomery Zoo and, just to show how God works, it was Foster Family appreciation day and we and the boys got in free.  They also had a free lunch and an awards ceremony.  Since we planned to go out to lunch we didn't go to either (but we did take advantage of a free bottle of water).

Here are some pics:

(May 25 - Sorry - We were just told that we could not post the pics until an adoption agreement was in place.  For those of you who saw the pics while they were on here, I'm glad you did.  If you missed them, stay tuned, as soon as we have all the paperwork in order, they'll be back up here, and then some!)

We hope to spend time with them again next weekend, maybe even have them spend the night Saturday and go with us to church on Sunday morning.

We really feel God is with us and we have His peace, comfort and joy.  Please continue to pray for us and both boys.

The Boys

Well, yesterday afternoon we met at DHR with several people to talk more in depth about the possibility of being matched with two boys, brothers. We talked for two and a half hours about everything we could think of, and some things we hadn't thought of. We asked questions. They asked questions, We ALL asked questions.

At the end of it all we felt good, they felt good and we told them we would like to proceed with meeting the boys for the first time. So this Saturday, May 21, we will. We are going to meet them (and their case worker) for a day at the zoo and then go to lunch. It will be a short visit but first visits usually are. What happens after that will evolve as it does.

When we started this adventure, our desire was to adopt straight out of foster care. We expected, and were told, that was a reasonable expectation. While we still think it is, at the request of DHR we are going to foster the boys for some time before we petition to adopt. This is a legal distinction and does not change our desire to and expectation of adopting the boys.

Please pray for the boys, and for us. Please pray for peace and patience for them and us. This is a life-changing event and we are excited and scared all at the same time. Please also pray that we are what they need, and want, and that they will be willing to bond with us as they become our kids. Our family.

Thank you so much for all your prayer and love. We will need even more of it in the coming months!

It takes time...

We need prayer.

For clarity and objectivity.

There is no doubt we could provide a good home.  There is no doubt we could provide what these two boys need.  We just don't know if it is what we are supposed to do.

There is a lot involved and we would both love to take them right now, but we are waiting for more information and, most importantly, listening for God's voice and guidance.  We find that this needs to be more of an intellectual decision than an emotional one.  Emotion - we got that down!

The meeting...

Well, we met with DHR this afternoon and were read-in on a case involving two boys, age 14 and 15.  They were both recently involved in Scouting (which is great considering Mike is an Eagle scout) and they are doing well in school and like being involved in athletics (which is great considering Kerri is a teacher and loves soccer and football - or is that football and football?)

Please pray for discernment, wisdom and objectivity.  A big flashing neon sign that says YES or NO would be great. 

Yeah, could one of you work on that?

Thanks.

Got a call...

Mike got a call today from our social worker.  She asked if we could set up a time to come to visit DHR to look at a case with two boys that appeared to be a match.  We're going Thursday, May 5.

Looked at available kids...

Tonight we decided to re-visit http://www.heartgalleryalabama.com/ to see if there were some new possibilities; kids that we might be interested in being considered for.  There were quite a few and we put in three requests for more information.  One of them is a single child (rather than a sibling group).

Wow - it HAS been a long time!

Betcha thought we had given up or decided not to post anything else.  No, it's just that nothing has been happening other than waiting.  And more waiting.

Today we met with the social worker assigned to us by DHR.  She has not been the most impressive person to work with.  The thing that gets me most is that she only works until 4:00.  That means that Kerri has to leave school early so we can both meet with her at 3:00 so she can be on her way home at 4:00.

What social worker works only until 4:00???  I thought it took sacrifice and wanting to help others!

Oh well, she gave us the news that she is leaving DHR and we will be assigned a new social worker.  Don't know who it is yet but we will see.

A most disturbing thing she told us was that she didn't see us being able to adopt without fostering first.  She said in her time with DHR, she had only made one placement.  Way to encourage us!  We were already considering changing to a foster-to-adopt situation so the choice was easy but the news was not.  We will most likely pursue that course soon.

Please continue to pray for patience.