Colorado Part 1

Yesterday in church, our pastor started a new sermon series on Genesis. I have always loved the Creation story, but it seemed even more inspiring after having spent a week enjoying some of God's most beautiful creation! We just came back from Colorado on Saturday and we both were so sad to go back to work today! We had a wonderful time! The weather was great, such a nice reprieve from our Houston heat and we really enjoyed our time away! Our week was jam packed so I'm going to break it up into parts.

We left Houston on Saturday, 8/15. We had a 7:30 AM flight so we got up extra early and got to the airport at 6:30 AM. This should have been plenty of time, but let's just say we ran into some turbulence at the airport. Apparently they decided to do construction and so the E terminal was the only terminal that was being used for check in. This wasn't the biggest problem though. There were about 20 families that over packed and their bags were over the 50 lbs weight limit per bag. Instead of making them pay or go to the end of the line, the airport staff stood there for 15 minutes watching the families re-pack their belongings! Seriously, we stood waiting to weigh our bags while a woman unpacked all her designer jeans with her bag sitting on the scale! Needless to say we missed our flight and caught the next one at 9 am. I was a little impatient that early in the morning, but recovered after we got some breakfast. Here I am with the plane we actually took in the background.

Thankfully we had time to tell Jeff's sister, Lisa so she didn't have to wait for us at the Denver airport due to our delay. She and Jamie picked us up and we took off for a full day of exploring. They took us to Boulder, CO to look at the shops and have lunch. Jeff had to have a picture with this guy. The man loves animal statues and figurines....don't ask me why!
We had lunch at Old Chicago. I didn't know pizza was so popular in Colorado, but we ate pizza twice on this trip and it was very tasty!
Jeff also took the edge off with a flight of beer with his lunch.
Me, I prefer to eat my calories and was tickled when we saw this place! Actually we saw a girl down the street from the bakery with a sign that said "cupcakes" and a giant arrow pointing to it. I'd love that job! They wouldn't even have to pay me!
I'd take these as my salary and be pleased as punch!
After shopping, lunch, and dessert, we went to Jamie and Lisa's for a rest before going to the Green Day concert. My rock star hubby got us the hook up and we hung out with all the hard core fans. I've never been to a concert with a mosh pit, but it sure makes things more exciting! We observed it all from a loftier spot and that was just great with me!

On Sunday, Jamie and Lisa showed us their stomping ground, Denver. Lisa works in Denver, but they actually live in a nearby suburb. It is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do.

We had lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery. They brew specialty beers and also have great food!

After lunch we went to the aquarium. My sister had told me about it and recommended we go so I was thrilled when Lisa suggested it. This is one of the places I took HUNDREDS of pictures, but I've chosen just a few to give you an idea. If you ever have a chance to go see it yourself, definitely go! It is by the same management of the Houston aquarium, but it is WAY better! No offense, H-Town!

There were a lot of opportunities to see sharks, but this is the best picture I could get. They're pretty fast!

What a cute little pot bellied sea horse!
There were also a lot of exhibits with sting rays. This picture is of a smaller one in a tank, but we got to pet larger ones in a pool.
The tiger exhibit was also really cool and a definite crowd pleaser! It took several shots before I got a good picture, but here is one of all three cats. One is grooming the other, while the third takes a nap!

Here's a good close up! I promise I didn't get in the cage, it just looks like I was that close! They sure are beautiful animals!

This is a lion fish. They always remind me of my Aunt Ann because she had some in a salt water tank at her house. I remember being amazed by them as a kid!
I also tried really hard to get a good picture of all the large sea turtles. They just floated through the water and I loved watching them swim!
I thought this picture of a jellyfish was cool, though they're not my favorite. The colors are pretty though!
Stay tuned for the next installment where Jeff and I explore a TON of land animals!

Colorado here we come!!

Tomorrow morning we will escape the heat for a little over a week in Colorado! We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time and thought we might be a family of 3 (or 4) by the time it came. But God is good and He knows just what we need. I guess we need to have one last trip just the two of us before we become parents. We plan to soak up all the beauty and relaxation and come back ready for whatever comes next in our journey! Expect a lot of photos when we return!

E Entertainment

Well, no real news about a possible adoption placement yet. We heard back that the two brothers we were asked to consider will be placed with their sisters, possibly with an aunt. So, we have been waiting and in the mean time got a call to provide respite for a 2 year old this weekend. Respite is an opportunity for waiting families like us to take care of children for foster families who need a break.

We picked up E on Friday night and had a blast with him all weekend!! We stopped off first at the Stephenson's house. They graciously offered to have us over for dinner and so they got to meet little E as well. After that we were off to our house for bath time and bedtime routines. E has the most beautiful smile, with a little dimple and everything!! I wish I could show it to you! But you do get to see pictures of some of the fun things we did and places we went!

I have always wanted to go to the Children's Museum, but they frown upon grown ups that go with no kids, so we'd never been. Well, we jumped at the chance to take E. We were there right at 10 AM Saturday when they opened and there was already a line outside!! This is one popular place and we quickly learned why! It is AWESOME!This area was one of E's favorites. He loved to watch the water and he really loved being outside! I guess he didn't mind the heat even though he always told us when he was hot and cold! That kid has quite the vocabulary for being 24 months old!
E loved the way the water felt on his sweet little hand! I had to keep cropping out his face and poor kid always said "cheese" not knowing I was just getting his hands!
Jeff really liked the turtles so this picture is for him! There were also dragon flies flying around!
This robot made out of old telephones was also one of Jeff's favorites! Mine too actually, although E was more into picking up the phone at the base and saying "hello."
How sweet is this picture of my hubby holding E's hand outside the museum!?! Jeff is totally a natural and helped me keep my cool all weekend! What a great daddy he will be!
This picture is for my mom because she loaned us this book and E loved it!
Harvey was so gentle with E! I was pleasantly surprised!! He let him pull his tail and hang all over him. He was a little unsure of the crib and the snoring sound coming from it, but other than that he was totally chill!
Thanks Aunt Jenny for letting us borrow the blocks and toys! E loved them!! They kept him busy every play time we spent at home!

On Sunday morning we took E to church. It was our first time ever dropping a child off at the pre-school ministry. We were nervous that they would ask for some kind of documentation that we were supposed to have the child. However, they didn't ask and it was an easy check in process. We were also worried how E would do for three hours while we went to Bible Study and worship service. They gave us a pager and thankfully it did not go off. The class director when we went to get him said that he did great. We received several strange looks from our friends - hey these people didn't have a kid, and all of a sudden they have one - How awesome!

We have been sad since we dropped E off this evening! He was such a fun little guy and a pleasure to take care of! His foster family is very sweet though and we know he is in great hands! We sent a little note with him with a picture of us to remember us by and offered to provide respite for him again anytime!

Please continue to pray for us that God will use this waiting time to continue to grow and prepare us for our new role as parents! We leave Saturday for Colorado so prayers for safe travel and relaxation are also much appreciated!

Prince Harry's New Castle

Some of you remember one of my favorite clients, Prince Harry from this post. Harry and his desire for stability and a permanent home began to open our hearts to the idea of adopting an older child. Well, this past week while I was telling my previous supervisor (who is adopted herself) about our verification, I had to ask about sweet Harry. When I left my position as a foster care social worker he was waiting for pre-placement visits with an adoptive family in the north east. Well, Harry was officially discharged from foster care to begin his new life with his forever family the exact same week that we heard we will be welcoming our own precious little one(s)! God is so good to have put Harry in our lives! We are so grateful that he is finally home, but not before being used by God in our journey toward growing our family! Thank you God for your sovereignty and provision in our lives as well as Harry's!

Celebration

Jeff has been working late, so we really haven't had much "face time" to talk about the newest developments in our adoption journey or to celebrate them. Thursday night I got several great surprises, the first of which was that my fabulous hubby was able to come home at his regular time. We started dinner when he got home and I was just chopping bell peppers when I saw these on the counter:

My sweet hubby had flowers delivered to celebrate our news that we are officially verified to adopt! How very sweet and thoughtful he is!! The card reads: "Congratulations on getting verified to adopt. I love you and appreciate all that you do. The most difficult part of attaining perfection is finding something to do for an encore. Love, Jeff"

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner of salmon cakes which Jeff made almost entirely by himself! Then we went to our local town square/shopping area to listen to live jazz music. It was a beautiful evening of celebration!

What's Next

Thanks to you all for sharing in our excitement! We have been flying high all week and I had to take a mental break last night just to calm down enough to function. Many of you may be wondering what's next. Well, we have a couple of initial decisions to make. Our agency would like for us to consider adopting 2 children instead of 1 to allow for the placement of siblings. We are prayerfully considering this and feel God's peace throughout that process. We are trying to take everything one step at a time, but we are truly in full swing of what had previously felt like a very slow process. I'm grateful our agency quickly attempts to place children with families and we are hopeful that it will be sooner rather than later that we will have found our match(es)!

We are going through the straight adoption process, which is different from foster to adopt process. All the children that will be presented to us will have had their parental rights terminated and be legally free for adoption. Once a child's parental rights are terminated they are "broadcast" to all the local agencies for consideration. Next, our agency will present information about children who are currently available that they believe are a good match for our family. We will let them know of our interest. They will then forward our home study to the CPS worker for his/her review. If we are selected as one of four families to be considered, our agency will represent us at the "four way" meeting. At this meeting the agency sings our praises and CPS determines if they think we are the best fit to parent this particular child or children. If we are selected we are able to read the entire CPS record and ask questions to see if we want to move forward. At this point if we are still interested, we attend a "child presentation meeting" to get all of our questions answered by CPS and the current foster parent(s). If we are still a go, we set up pre placement visits to meet the child or children at their foster home. The pre placement visits progress to over night and weekend visits at our home before the child or children are placed with us. They then live with us for 6 months before the adoption will be finalized and we will become a forever family! Oh what a happy day that will be!

It's official!

Jeff and I got an email from "home study man" today that we are officially verified pre adoptive parents!!! I can hardly contain my excitement enough to finish out my work day!! They also already have some kids they want to talk to us about! Please continue to pray for us to experience peace and have discernment in the coming weeks!

Jeff's working late, but I celebrated by getting myself a Sonic and Lil' Man 2 books about how much we already love him! Here's a photo from my solo celebration: