Travel Approval and a Wedding

Today we received our Travel Approval to go get this precious boy!

  
We would love to go as soon as possible to get him, however, there is a couple of other big events happening in our family and we will be delaying travel.  

You see, this amazing daughter of ours, Allison, will be graduating from college with honors in early May.

And the following week she will be marrying this amazing man.
  

As much as we would love to quickly go get our son, we know that with all the major events going on here, it will be best for him if we wait until life settles down a bit.  

We know the Lord holds all these plans in His hands and we trust Him.

Adoption Progress

We have been approved to adopt our little man by his country.  Now we have to get approval from the US for him to immigrate. So many steps to get through, but we are so excited to be moving forward.  The process of adoption is fill out paperwork, submit, wait, fill out paperwork, submit, wait, repeat...  Our next paperwork is ready to go and it will be sent out tomorrow.  So thankful to the Lord for what He is doing.

Eight Years Old

Today is Alex's 8th birthday!

He is doing great and making good progress.  

We are so blessed to have him as part of our lives.

 He looks less than thrilled, but he just doesn't seem to enjoy group pictures.

 Look how much he has changed!

So sweet!

His wonderful therapists!

Update on Tony

We asked for an update on "Tony" in the form of asking his orphanage some questions.  We can hardly wait to add this little boy to our family.

How would you describe his personality?
Very active and adorable. He is very social. He likes to play with other children. He likes to talk and helps others. 

How is his speech development progressing?
He can express himself quite clearly.

Does he get along well with other children?
Very much. 

Is there anything he is afraid of?
He doesn't like dark places.

What calms him down when he is upset?
To hold him, pat him, talk to him gently. Also ask him why he is upset and let him to explain to you. 

We are so excited to see what wonder, life, and joy this little boy is going to bring to our family.

Projected travel date (so many things happen between now and then) is June, 2014.

Adoption!

Adoption is the heart of God.  

It is the means by which He has included us in his family.

...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before [a]Him. In love  [b]He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the [c]kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  Ephesians 1: 4-6

We feel so humbled that He would choose us to adopt.  The last 20 months have been amazing as we have delighted in watching Alex grow and develop.  We are so blessed to have him as part of our family.  

A few months ago, we began to feel that familiar tug on our hearts. The feeling that God was not finished with our family.  After much prayer, we knew that we had to say "Yes".  We are willing to be used by the Lord in whatever way He wants.  So, once again, we will travel across the ocean to bring a special little boy into our home.  He will be added to our family and loved like our others.  Our whole family is excited with anticipation of their new brother.

Introducing "Tony"

(He will be given an appropriate "A" name, we just haven't decided, yet)

We hope to have him home in June, 2014.

Finally an update!!

I know, I am a lousy blogger.  Never claimed to be a good one and life is busy.  Alex has made some great progress in the last six months.  Right around the first of the year he started walking.

Here is some of his early walking.

He has also started saying a few words.  We love his laugh.

He can identify many of his body parts.

He loves his music class and dancing.

We are amazing blessed with this little guy and feel so honored to be his parents.  We love watching him grow and learn.

Seventh Birthday!!

Today we are celebrating Alex's 7th Birthday. 

I can hardly put into words how much this boy means to us. 

It has been such a huge blessing to watch him grow and change.

He has changed us all. 


This is a song his sister, Analese, wrote and sang for us for Christmas.  The words are below.

How He Gets Our Love

He was a butterfly in a cocoon
A sunflower just waiting to bloom
A recipe that needed some ingredients
Stirred up by the Master Chef
He was just waiting to shine
To turn into a butterfly

(chorus)
Because of his smile
We traveled for miles
To get the child God wanted for us
All they saw
Was his flaws
But that's what God calls perfection
I don't know how anyone could give him up
But I guess that's how he gets our love

For you it was a lot of pen to paper
And like 3 trips later
He sometimes throws his fits
But we all love him to bits
Now he can shine
He can soar and fly

(chorus)

In a year he sure has grown
Because of giggles, dancing and a home.
(chorus)