New pics

Here are a couple of new pictures I took today of David and I...he is so cute and looks so much different than he did 6 months ago!

6 months and our new life

Well, I can't believe we have had David for 6 months now. We had our 6 month post placement visit today and it felt strange to summarize David in an hour meeting with our social worker. It has only been 3 months since we saw her last, but so much has changed!

First, we now know that David is around 2 years old. To be on the conservative side, we are setting his birthday to May 12th. That makes him 21 months old, much different than the 17 months he would be with his ET birthday. After a fabulous evaluation at Children's International Adoption Clinic in Denver, we found out it his delayed in his speech and only talking at about a 14 month level. This was our biggest issue and we are relived to now know that his constant "uh, uh" is not at his age level. We will start therapy soon. Other than that, he is doing terrific, attachment is going well and he is settling in very well. Don't get me wrong...toddler adoption is hard! Our social worker said something so true today, "nature made them cute and sweet as babies so you had already feel in love with them before they became toddlers!"

Simon started the police academy in Denver two weeks ago. He is loving every minute of it and I am so proud of him. It is a huge commitment with 6 days a week for 12-13 hours a day. We feel God has provided us with everything we needed to follow Him in Simon's career path over the last several months. We are trusting in Him that He will provide Simon with a job in June when he is done with school.

So, since Simon is gone most of the time now, you can imagine that has changed my life a tad bit...no more working 12 hour days. I am now a mommy from 5pm until 8am. It has been a huge transition for our family, but surprising to me, a very fulfilling one. I have managed to remain fairly calm, mostly due to my OCD when it comes to planning. Lots of lists and lots of reminders in my Blackberry.

For Bella & Nicky, they are great. Nicky is such a fun 3 year old...we are soooo glad the 2's are gone. He has fallen into the big brother roll so quickly and actually was telling some kids at McDonald's to get away from his brother! Bella is growing to be such a wonderful big sister and sweet young woman. I am not sure how I would get through this time with Simon gone so much without her. Now, she just needs to learn her times tables!!

Well, that is the update for now...thanking God for his blessings and the grace He shows us everyday!

2010 Here We Come!

I LOVE the new year. It brings on a whole new list of possibilities for the year. Simon and I (probably mostly me) thought it would be fun to list what we think will be happening in our lives in 2010. By posting them publicly, we are somewhat accountable for the things we can control...yikes!

1. Pay off all debt (student loans and cars) and only have our house mortgage left. (If you aren't convinced this is a good thing, check out Dave Ramsey)
2. Simon will have a job, starting his new career as a Police Officer.
3. Jessica will work less. This means 40-45 hours a week outside of year end.
4. Bella will start school at Dayspring Christian Academy for 6th grade.
5. David will talk!
6. Nicky will start reading.
7. The entire family will spend more time worshiping our Savior together.

Here are some fun pics from David's first Christmas

Calling All Prayer Warriors....

It seems we may be having a new development in our lives (yes ANOTHER one). As some of you know, we received a referral for baby "T" about a year ago in November. Well, after 6 months of waiting for court, we were told there were lots of issues with his paperwork and he most likely would not be able to be adopted and we were told it would be best to accept another referral. This was incredibly heart breaking for us, but we felt God was leading us to accept the referral, fast forward to today - welcome David!

We have been adjusting well, although we did not know when we would be ready to adopt again...until last Thursday. Simon and I had both been thinking about baby "T", who by the way is 17 months old now, but did not say anything to each other. After a surprise email from another adoptive family asking if there was any chance we could still get him, we were feeling lead to contact our agency to get an update on him.

The email we received back this morning said they would check into it after Christmas. This is where all of you come in, we need your prayers like CRAZY right now. Please pray for God's will in this child's life, whether that is in our family or another, but that he will not have to live in the orphanage for another year!

Simon and I are following the opening that God has given us although we have no idea how we will 1. pay for it 2. take care of both David who is 19 months now and baby "T" who is 17 months.

More to come...

Update and Adoption Day #2

So, it has been awhile since I last blogged. My class for my masters program combined with work has sucked the life out of me. The good news is my class is over as of 30 minutes ago and I am taking the next semester off. I really need a break. I have a stack of about 10 books I have been accumulating along with David's life book still has all the ET pictures sitting in the box.

Last Wednesday we had David's court date to "validate" his adoption in our county. This is just a formality and gives us the documentation to seal the deal on his citizenship. Here are some pics and I promise I will be a better blogger!!

Our Adoption Video

We are finally done with our video from Ethiopia...enjoy. :)

God commands us to care for ophans and widows...

As many of you know, God has given me a crazy, uncomfortable, bigger than life, sad, wonderful heart for the orphans of the world. I am still processing all of this, our trip to Ethiopia and all that we saw while there.

One thing that is very clear is that God COMMANDS us to care for widows and ORPHANS in the bible. He doesn't say it would be nice, or we should consider it if we don't have anything else going on...we MUST do it. There are lots of way, adoption is not the only one.

Check out this video...orphan Sunday is right around the corner. Won't you consider helping one of the 147 million kids without a forever family (or clean water, or food, or clothes, or safety)?

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.