About the middle of last week I was browsing around a webpage that has a photolisting of waiting kiddos in the Kansas foster care system. I came upon a pair of brothers who caught my attention. Of course, lots of kids catch my attention but these two in particular stayed with me. A couple of days later I sent the link to their photo and description to Nathan. The two brothers immediately caught Nathan's attention as well. We decided to call about these two and find out more information. For now, I'll refer to the boys as Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo. I'm sure I'll be updating lots of info on the boys but I'll try to remain as vague as possible for their privacy and protection at this point.
So far we have had two in depth conversations with social workers who know the Dynamic Duo. We have received a ton of information, all of which we are processing now. On Saturday, our first home inspection will occur as well as a meeting with the Dynamic Duo's closest case worker. We'll call the worker Bob Kane (the original Batman Artist). So Bob Kane will be coming on Saturday to discuss the Duo with us at length and answer any questions Nathan or I have. Both conversations that have occured at this point were conversations I had. It will be nice to sit down with Bob and discuss the boys with Nathan present as well. At this point we are very excited about the Duo. They are 6 and 7 years old and they have a lot of needs that we are attempting to educate ourselves on. Although we are taking their situation very seriously, we don't believe at this point that this is something we are unable to handle. Making the Duo our forever kiddos will require some really amazing life changes for Nathan and I. We are discussing these changes and how they will impact us and our marriage, our jobs, our home, our families, etc, etc. I don't have any concrete information in terms of whether or not we will be pursuing the adoption of the Duo but I can say that we are both thrilled about the two at this point and are in the process of finding out more information.
There are obviously many things we need prayer for at this time. We are praying for clarity as to whether or not the Duo are meant to be our kids. We are praying for continued success with the Hawker Beechcraft job possibility. We can't feed two growing superheros on the money we're making now so this job is the key to pursuing the Dynamic Duo. We are praying for God's will in all of this; His will for our family as well as for the Duo. We are praying for peace with whatever our decision may end up being as well as for patience throughout the process. We are praying for clarity and peace for our families and friends as we pursue the Duo. We are praying that there would be support from our entire network and that they would be as excited as we are about the possibility of adding two superheros to our family. Please be in prayer with us on all those fronts. God's will is the most important thing in this journey of ours. Please let us know if you get any good thoughts from your prayer time regarding this wonderful development.
Be Blessed!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Lets Try This One More Time
It has been 16 days since I last posted. I know that is some sort of violation of the blogger code but I couldn't help it. Well, I suppose I could have made some time but rest ashured there weren't many bits of time to choose from. I have been recently distracted by working on a new blog, theflockyouth.blogspot.com. I decided to put a blog together for our youth group so we'd have a safe online spot to keep in touch with one another. It has taken a bit of my blogging energy lately. Not to mention that I'm working one full time job (which I love, btw), volunteering at another part time (should be full time) job, attempting to fit some Jockey parties in, feeding and caring for an unbelivably wonderful husband, two dogs, and the cat (which, btw, is a male cat and not a female cat as previously posted). Oh, and did I mention the physical therapy appointments I have to go to at least twice a week for my back. I threw out my back three days before our wedding and have been dealing with that since then. Things are much better in the back situation, but I still have to go to the PT appointments until mid October. We're also adding a really neat prayer meeting format to Sunday nights so I've been working on the prep for that. All in all, I can't even really remember the last several weeks. Looking at my calendar, it doesn't appear that this level of business will be letting up anytime soon.
As for our ever changing adoption plans...There are many people in my life who won't be surprised that the plan has changed, yet again. Many of those people aren't entirely comfortable with how much change occurs in our lives. Nathan and I have a different way of dealing with our choices and which direction we are headed in than most of the people we know. We take risks and we pursue things doggedly until the Lord shuts the door. Once one door has been shut, either permanently or temporarily, we move forward in another direction until we find where we fit, or where God is asking us to fit.
On that note, everything about where we thought we were headed with our adoption has changed. We are now on a road neither one of us expected but we are both thrilled about. There have been several things that have contributed to our new path but more than that, there has been a general move of God in our hearts. Prior to Nathan's arrival in Kansas, all of our prayer time was done seperately. Our ability to have a relationship with God from a married perspective was dulled. We weren't able to seek Him as a unit, only as individuals. We hadn't really settled into our married roles nor did we have opportunities to sit face to face and discuss our feelings and thoughts. Not to mention that our feelings and thoughts were often so muddled by the situation we were in. Now that we have had a bit of time to be together and to pray together and to seek our Lord, we are feeling a sense that we must move in a new direction.
We are now actively pursuing the foster to adopt program through an agency called Youthville in Wichita. Through this program, we become licensed foster parents and a child who is in the process of having parental rights terminated will be placed with us. We will foster the child(ren) until all legal proceedings make them available for adoption. At that point, we would process through the adoption and become a forever family. This is a program that has its fair share of risk and frustrations but this is where the Lord has led so we are trusting that our child(ren) are in this program. We have already begun the process to license. We attended the orientation meeting, we are registered for our 10 week training beginning on October 16th, and our first home visit is on the 29th of September. I talked to our social worker yesterday and she said she would be surprised if we weren't licensed by the end of March. Which means that a baby could be placed in our home any time after that.
There is much to be done between now and the end of our ten week course. We have to adhere to some of the state guidelines regarding our home. We must baby proof everything, lock up all medications and knives, add another foot and a half to the fence surrounding our pool to make it at least five feet high, install fire ladders in the bedrooms, test all the fire alarms, get the dogs and cat up to date on all shots, etc, etc, etc. We will be working on decorating the baby's room at some point over the next several months as well. We have requested children aged 0-12 mos and are open to children up to 3 yrs of age if it involves a sibling group. We are willing to accept up to 3 children who are related. We are open to any race and any gender. My plans for baseball central may not work out so well, but that's fine with me. We have so much to do but it is all very very exciting.
Please be in prayer with us during this time that all would go smoothly and we would be financially prepared for whatever may pop up. Nathan had an interesting encounter yesterday evening with some people from Hawker-Beechcraft in Wichita. They were very interested in him at a job fair he attended. So interested in fact, they had a lady chase him down at the door to make sure all his contact info was in their possession. Please be praying that the Lord would lead him to the right permanent job that could allow for our family to grow. Pray that we would have paitence (yes, I said it) and that we would be prayerfully considering each step of this process. Pray for our child(ren) as it is more than possible that they are currently in the womb or living in a bad situation. Pray for wisdom for our agency and our social worker as they determine the course of our application and as they choose a child(ren) to place with us. Pray for our extended family that they would have peace about our decision to move in this direction and that they would be supportive. (Oh, btw, becoming pregnant does not affect this process at all, so we're off the BC.) Pray that all would work as God desires and that we would be good and faithful servants of His during this process. Thanks for all your paitence as I am a terrible blogger and disappear for lengths of time. I'll try to be better.
Be Blessed - K and N
As for our ever changing adoption plans...There are many people in my life who won't be surprised that the plan has changed, yet again. Many of those people aren't entirely comfortable with how much change occurs in our lives. Nathan and I have a different way of dealing with our choices and which direction we are headed in than most of the people we know. We take risks and we pursue things doggedly until the Lord shuts the door. Once one door has been shut, either permanently or temporarily, we move forward in another direction until we find where we fit, or where God is asking us to fit.
On that note, everything about where we thought we were headed with our adoption has changed. We are now on a road neither one of us expected but we are both thrilled about. There have been several things that have contributed to our new path but more than that, there has been a general move of God in our hearts. Prior to Nathan's arrival in Kansas, all of our prayer time was done seperately. Our ability to have a relationship with God from a married perspective was dulled. We weren't able to seek Him as a unit, only as individuals. We hadn't really settled into our married roles nor did we have opportunities to sit face to face and discuss our feelings and thoughts. Not to mention that our feelings and thoughts were often so muddled by the situation we were in. Now that we have had a bit of time to be together and to pray together and to seek our Lord, we are feeling a sense that we must move in a new direction.
We are now actively pursuing the foster to adopt program through an agency called Youthville in Wichita. Through this program, we become licensed foster parents and a child who is in the process of having parental rights terminated will be placed with us. We will foster the child(ren) until all legal proceedings make them available for adoption. At that point, we would process through the adoption and become a forever family. This is a program that has its fair share of risk and frustrations but this is where the Lord has led so we are trusting that our child(ren) are in this program. We have already begun the process to license. We attended the orientation meeting, we are registered for our 10 week training beginning on October 16th, and our first home visit is on the 29th of September. I talked to our social worker yesterday and she said she would be surprised if we weren't licensed by the end of March. Which means that a baby could be placed in our home any time after that.
There is much to be done between now and the end of our ten week course. We have to adhere to some of the state guidelines regarding our home. We must baby proof everything, lock up all medications and knives, add another foot and a half to the fence surrounding our pool to make it at least five feet high, install fire ladders in the bedrooms, test all the fire alarms, get the dogs and cat up to date on all shots, etc, etc, etc. We will be working on decorating the baby's room at some point over the next several months as well. We have requested children aged 0-12 mos and are open to children up to 3 yrs of age if it involves a sibling group. We are willing to accept up to 3 children who are related. We are open to any race and any gender. My plans for baseball central may not work out so well, but that's fine with me. We have so much to do but it is all very very exciting.
Please be in prayer with us during this time that all would go smoothly and we would be financially prepared for whatever may pop up. Nathan had an interesting encounter yesterday evening with some people from Hawker-Beechcraft in Wichita. They were very interested in him at a job fair he attended. So interested in fact, they had a lady chase him down at the door to make sure all his contact info was in their possession. Please be praying that the Lord would lead him to the right permanent job that could allow for our family to grow. Pray that we would have paitence (yes, I said it) and that we would be prayerfully considering each step of this process. Pray for our child(ren) as it is more than possible that they are currently in the womb or living in a bad situation. Pray for wisdom for our agency and our social worker as they determine the course of our application and as they choose a child(ren) to place with us. Pray for our extended family that they would have peace about our decision to move in this direction and that they would be supportive. (Oh, btw, becoming pregnant does not affect this process at all, so we're off the BC.) Pray that all would work as God desires and that we would be good and faithful servants of His during this process. Thanks for all your paitence as I am a terrible blogger and disappear for lengths of time. I'll try to be better.
Be Blessed - K and N
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Back Again
Sorry about the long periods of silence lately. All that should be over now and you all should be hearing from me a couple times a week if all goes well.
We've finally gotten settled in and we're adjusting to all the new changes in our lives. I'm into my third week at work now and I'm loving it. It feels good to have a purpose each day and to be working in an environment meant to change the lives of children for the better. It was a hard adjustment at first after several months of working odd hours at the church. It was a bit hard to get back into the 8 to 5 routine but now I'm happy with it. Routine with work has helped me get into a solid devotions routine. Nathan and I have been pretty regular with our daily devotion and prayer time together and I think it has made all the difference in a smooth transition for our relationship.
It has been an absolute joy to have Nathan home again. I keep feeling like I'm going to wake up from this dream at any moment and life will go back to the way it has been for two years. We are certainly learning to adjust to one anothers little quirks and expectations. I think we are doing incredibly well on the communications front. We've been having a lot of fun together just learning about all the neat things that go with finally sharing the same living space.
As for all the things we were looking forward to, they all went fantastic. Nathan laid the tile floor and our family room is back to being my favorite room in the house. Our friends, Jenn and Joe, came and spent a few days with us for the wedding and that was really nice. The wedding was beautiful and special and more than I even thought it would be. I was really pleased with the results of all the hard work that went into putting that event together. Huge props to my mother in law for her incredible amount of contribution to the reception!!! I promise to post pics of the whole event as soon as I have time to sort through them all. (There were something like 600 pics on the CD we got from the photographer!)
Our vacation to Vermont in August was also wonderful. The road trip was even fun times!!!
Basically, the last month and a half have been a complete blur. It was all wonderful and amazing but we are so glad its all over. The one thing Nathan and I have wanted for the past two years is to have a normal, everyday life together. It is sure starting to feel a whole lot more like normal and we are so thrilled. On that note, now that things have settled down, Nathan and I can't seem to stop talking about and longing for our son. We are enjoying our one on one time together and we know how important it is so we'll be taking several more months of time together. Our plan is to begin our adoption process, the paperwork junk, sometime just after the Christmas season has subsided. Nathan is going to be working with a buddy for a few months while he looks for a more substantial job that will have some permanacy. We're praying that he will make that transition sometime around the end of the year. Once that happens, we'll definitely get started on our paper lined road to our first baby. Right now, we are sorting out some agency questions we have and we are planning to go to our information meeting with an agency we've been looking at sometime in October. We'll keep you all up to date as things progress.
That's all for now. I'll post again real soon, I promise. For now, I'll leave you with a sweet picture of Nathan's new baby girl...
We've finally gotten settled in and we're adjusting to all the new changes in our lives. I'm into my third week at work now and I'm loving it. It feels good to have a purpose each day and to be working in an environment meant to change the lives of children for the better. It was a hard adjustment at first after several months of working odd hours at the church. It was a bit hard to get back into the 8 to 5 routine but now I'm happy with it. Routine with work has helped me get into a solid devotions routine. Nathan and I have been pretty regular with our daily devotion and prayer time together and I think it has made all the difference in a smooth transition for our relationship.
It has been an absolute joy to have Nathan home again. I keep feeling like I'm going to wake up from this dream at any moment and life will go back to the way it has been for two years. We are certainly learning to adjust to one anothers little quirks and expectations. I think we are doing incredibly well on the communications front. We've been having a lot of fun together just learning about all the neat things that go with finally sharing the same living space.
As for all the things we were looking forward to, they all went fantastic. Nathan laid the tile floor and our family room is back to being my favorite room in the house. Our friends, Jenn and Joe, came and spent a few days with us for the wedding and that was really nice. The wedding was beautiful and special and more than I even thought it would be. I was really pleased with the results of all the hard work that went into putting that event together. Huge props to my mother in law for her incredible amount of contribution to the reception!!! I promise to post pics of the whole event as soon as I have time to sort through them all. (There were something like 600 pics on the CD we got from the photographer!)
Our vacation to Vermont in August was also wonderful. The road trip was even fun times!!!
Basically, the last month and a half have been a complete blur. It was all wonderful and amazing but we are so glad its all over. The one thing Nathan and I have wanted for the past two years is to have a normal, everyday life together. It is sure starting to feel a whole lot more like normal and we are so thrilled. On that note, now that things have settled down, Nathan and I can't seem to stop talking about and longing for our son. We are enjoying our one on one time together and we know how important it is so we'll be taking several more months of time together. Our plan is to begin our adoption process, the paperwork junk, sometime just after the Christmas season has subsided. Nathan is going to be working with a buddy for a few months while he looks for a more substantial job that will have some permanacy. We're praying that he will make that transition sometime around the end of the year. Once that happens, we'll definitely get started on our paper lined road to our first baby. Right now, we are sorting out some agency questions we have and we are planning to go to our information meeting with an agency we've been looking at sometime in October. We'll keep you all up to date as things progress.
That's all for now. I'll post again real soon, I promise. For now, I'll leave you with a sweet picture of Nathan's new baby girl...
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