Precious Moments

GO ILLINI!




Nathan is very alert to everything happening around him. He reaches for everything.




I love to watch a baby sleep, they are so at peace. Makes you want to wake them up to squeeze them! Oops-don't ever wake a sleeping baby. :)

A Guatemala Weekend

Our Little Guy getting ready for bed.

This is a picture of Nathan our first night in Guatemala getting ready for bed. I am still processing this great trip in my mind, but thought I would share a few thoughts.

1. It seemed so natural. While we were both excited to meet Nathan, the entire weekend just seemed right, like this was what was supposed to happen. Here is our son, not quite legally, but in our hearts he is part of our family.

2. I have always loved watching Ken with our kids. He is a "hands-on" dad! He is so tender with them. Nathan was no exception to this rule. We arrived Friday afternoon and spent a lot of time just playing with him and gazing at him. Saturday we went to go for a little walk and Ken was carrying him AGAIN. :) I finally said, "Can I carry him?" and Ken said, "Oh, sorry" and handed him to me. I thought I was going to have to fight him for him. It was fun to see Ken so excited about Nathan.

3. While we took a pretty short trip it was worth every moment. To get to meet in person this little child we have prayed for was such a blessing. He is at a fun stage of development so his smiles were easy and priceless.




4. Our other kids did great without us. We are truly blessed by family and friends that helped us out while we were gone and kids that go with the flow of things. We called home one afternoon and as I was talking with Joel and asking him how things were going he quickly said "fine, How's Nathan?!" I am so thankful for children that have welcoming hearts.

5. It was difficult to leave. As a foster parent I have been at the end of many visits but then I was the one taking the child home. This time I was the one leaving the child, it's hard. The Lord prepared our hearts ahead of time for that moment as we left him temporarily behind. We know that the Lord's timing is best so we are continuing to pray for us to be content with the Lord's timing in Nathan's home coming.

These are my initial thoughts. I have been doing mountains of laundry and trying to get my mind back in the Midwest. I'll post some more later. Thank you to all those who have and are praying for us. We know that we are living the benefits of those prayers.

Pre-Approval

I will post more later but wanted you to know we received our Pre-Approval today. So we are ready to be re-submitted to PGN! Yeah, let's pray Nathan home!

Tomorrow, Tommorrow...you're only a day away

Okay, I won't break into song for you. My younger sister, who is now the mom of 3 little girls, used to break into this song at strange moments. I'd like to tell you that she is past that but she did buy the CD for her girls.

Now back to the topic. Tomorrow is the day that we get to meet our precious little boy face-to-face for the first time. I have been emotional off and on today, which is not normal for me. I think that my heart is torn two ways, maybe three. First, I am very excited about meeting Nathan and being able to hold and care for him. Secondly, I am sad about leaving our other six children behind at home. They have told us to take many pictures and lots of video. Thirdly, I am looking forward to spending this special time with Ken.

Emotions about adoption are not new to us, we have three adopted children. But this is the first time we have done an international adoption, this long wait without the child is hard at times. We are so thankful for this trip, even though it will be short. It seems to be an okay amount of time to be away from the rest of the family and will still give us an opportunity to be with Nathan. It really is a gift to be able to visit Nathan while our adoption is still in process.

Please pray for our family as we are in two different places. And for our hearts as we will have to say good-bye, temporarily, to Nathan as we leave to come home.

"Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." Psalm 107:8,9

5-4-3-2-1

We are counting down the days until our visit trip and we get to meet Nathan face-to-face. It will be a quick trip but worth every moment. I have many emotions swirling as I think about holding him and playing with him. Ken summed his feelings up yesterday morning when he woke up, saying, "I'm ready to be there right now." Our other kids wish they were going. We have been instructed to take lots of pictures and video. :)

In some ways this week will pass quickly, because there are many things that need to be done and organized before we go. In other ways it will drag because we are so ready to hold our son.

As way of an update: It is our understanding that our attorney registered all his cases. We are now on Day #53 of our PA wait-any day. After PA we can be re-submitted to final court. We are praying that that can happen this week.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Now, this is what I call a Valentine's gift...new pictures.



Our little teddy bear! He is definitely huggable!



New Stats: 12# 5oz. 23.3 inches long. "He is very tranquil and smiles alot."
We are so excited about meeting him in now less than two weeks!
(Did you all notice he is sporting a spiffy haircut?) :)

Prayer for Registration with the Central Authority

Please be in prayer for registration of cases with the Central Authority through Feb. 12. In order to be grandfathered in, as I understand it, even cases that previously turned in their paperwork have to return to the Central Authority and receive a registration number for their cases to be grandfathered in.

So we are asking that you would be in prayer for our family and Nathan and for others that are affected by this. It is a stressful time.

We know that ultimately the Lord is in control of all things. It is in the stressful times that our faith sustains us.

Thank you so very much,
Ken and Amy

Please Pray

For many of you reading this blog you understand the stress and uncertainty that political moves put on an adoption. I am asking you to pray for friends of ours from our church - Karl and Julie, and their three new kiddos in Columbia. They have been in Columbia for over three weeks and are waiting for their adoption to finalize so they can come home. The courts in Cali have shut down and they do not know at this time when they will re-open, and until their case is completed they are stuck in Columbia.

So I am asking you to pray for them:

1. That they would know the Lord's presence in this situation.

2. That the situation would be resolved in Columbia ASAP.

3. For peace and (yes) patience as they wait this out.

4. That this may be a sweet time of bonding for all of them.

Thank you so much. Like I said above, many of you understand the stress of adoption and I know that your hearts will lift them to the Lord in prayer. Thank you, thank you.

UPDATE: Answered Prayer! The courts in Cali are to open on Monday and Karl and Julie's case will be heard in the court on Monday. Please pray that it would be signed off by this judge so that it can move to the final court. Thank you!

Puts a Smile on Our Face

We received a DVD of the Children's Home from Christmas. How fun to see Nathan moving and looking about, totally unaffected by the Santa holding him at one point. We are so looking forward to meeting him in person. I think that it will be a really emotional trip- first at the beginning when we actually get to meet him and at the end when we turn and leave him there. (If I can figure it out, or get Joel to figure it out for me we will post some of the video).

On the Guatemala end of things, there is positive news about the Central Authority coming out of Guatemala these days. They are working hard to put into place an agency to handle registrations, these are required since the new law came into effect Dec.31, 2007 (the new law was voted on mid-Dec.) So hopefully PGN will get moving shortly. This has not really held us up since we are waiting for Pre-approval from the US Embassy. We are close to the average wait time, so it could be any time or it could be a little while longer. :)

The Lord has been so gracious to us in granting us peace (most days) as we wait. I think my patience will be stretched after we have spent some time getting to know him, but it will be good to have the time with him.

Some days this is sort of matter of fact - "We are adopting another child.", while others days it is more like, "Wow! We are so excited that the Lord is blessing us with another child!" No matter what the day it brings a smile to our faces.