Adoption Status

I know I have been bad about writing about how our adoption process is going. It is not because I am not excited about it. I think it is because the waiting is starting to get to me & I try not to think about it too much.

We have finished our required classes for foster care/adoption through the state. We found out toward the end of our classes that the chance of adopting a child under the age of nine withoout being foster parents is very slim. This is because most of the younger children that need a family are adopted by their foster parents. Not many are moved out of a foster care situation into an adoptive home. Well we had heard that the wait would be longer we did not realize how long. Let me phrase it the way the adoption specialist did, "You could be waiting a long time or forever to adopt only through the state." So that was pretty discouraging. We didn't want to do foster care because we didn't want Mya's life to be disrupted by kids coming in & out. I don't think I could take it if we had a child for months & she got used to having a playmate & then have them reunited with their family & just disappear from her life! But we may be switching to foster care if we try adopt only for awhile & don't get any children...please pray about that decision with us if you think about it.

So the next step is have our homestudy done. We are going to go ahead with the adoption home study since it is more in depth than the foster care home study. That way whenever we do find a child to adopt we are already approved. Even if we don't ever open our home to foster care we still had to fill out all the paperwork to be a foster home. This is because if a child is placed with us that we plan to adopt they have to live with us for 6 months before we can proceed with the adoption. So during the 6 months we are foster parents in a sense. We found this out the last night of our classes (we should have found out the first night!) so we have to get 3 references sent in & find 3 approved babysitters before they will even schedule our homestudy! Aagh! Anyone who even babysits a foster child has to have background checks & be approved by the Dept. of Human Services. Anyone licensed for childcare will work, so we can use some of the couples that we met in our adoption class and/or a daycare. So we are going to hopefully have that all in this week so we can set up our homestudy!

I know this is just a long journal entry basically but some of you have been wondering. Have a restful Sunday!

Silver Dollar City Fun!

Water fight!!! Poor Ce got soaked so Aunt Lydia had to rescue him!

A couple of weeks ago my parents treated almost my whole family (we missed you Jamin & Jessica!) with a night in Branson. Friday night we went to the Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede...yeehaw! And Saturday we spent the day at Silver Dollar City which is fast becoming one of Mya's favorite places. For those of you up north, it is a small theme park with some fun rides, shows, crafts & good food. Mya and Cephas are tall enough for all of the kid rides. Usually one of the bigger people had to ride with them (As you can see the way my brother Matt is wedged in the caterpillar they are not meant for people over 6 feet tall!)

We bought Mya a new hat the day before and Jonathan kept insisting that she wear it backwards. = )

Me & my mom & sisters. I am so glad they are living close by again. We have a blast together!

I don't know if you can tell how excited Jonathan & Matt are to be in line for the kiddie coaster. They look absolutely giddy. = )

One of the best parts of Silver Dollar City for Mya is this huge play area. There are air guns mounted everywhere that shoot foam balls and tons of levels with slides & places to climb. Aunt Gigi (my sister Angela) with Mya and Cephas.

Mya thanking Grandma with a squeeze. It was a great mini vacation for all of us. = )

No such thing as an Adopted Child

I just had to share this quote I heard today. This is from the radio broadcast of Family Life Today. They are going to have shows about adoption for the next couple days. I like to go to their website & listen to them on Media Player if I miss a good one when it is on the radio. I'll write more about my thoughts on adoption soon but this is a great perspective!


FamilyLife Today - FamilyLife.com: "There is no such thing as an adopted child. Adopted is a past tense verb. It is not an adjective. It is something that has happens to someone, but it is not something that defines that person for the rest of his life."

Family Pictures 2009

One of our good friends, Miranda, of MC Photography (mirandacampbell.blogspot.com) took some family pictures of us a couple weeks ago. We met her at The University of Arkansas & found some great settings for our photo shoot. She did a wonderful job & we had a lot of fun!

P.S. For our mothers = ) If you want any of these pics, please let me know what size. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

For Jonathan’s 30th birthday (August 17th) he wanted to do some of his favorite things. So in the morning he went golfing with a group of friends. They came back to our house for a cookout lunch & then some of the guys went mountain biking with Jonathan for the afternoon. Here are some shots from lunch.

(Yes, Mya is wearing dress up clothes. She changed without me knowing. Oh, well she IS her daddy’s princess.)

This mountain bike was/is his early birthday present. He has been really enjoying riding it this summer & has competed in one race already this year with two races more coming up. If you want more details on the bike you will have to ask Jonathan. = )

I’m so thankful for every year that I have been part of Jonathan’s life. He is an incredible man & it was fun to take a day & just celebrate him. Can’t wait to see what the next 30 years bring!

Adoption Training

Hello All,

I thought I would give a quick update on our adoption process. We turned in the stack of papers that we had to fill out a few weeks ago now. The next step is adoption/foster care training classes. We went to the first one last night & go 6-9pm for 1 night a week for the next 8 weeks. It seemed pretty long last night but I can tell it will be interesting. It is only about 20 minutes away for us...some of the people are driving waaay longer every week.

The foster care system in our country is pretty complex. There are a lot of people involved with just one child. We have heard different things, good and bad, about social services in the past. The lady teaching our class (has adopted 7 children herself, plus has 2 biological sons!) really gave us a good impression. She stressed that the goal for everyone involved needs to be reunification of the original family if that is possible. We will be learning a lot & have tons to think about in the next few months that is for sure! I am not sure how long after the classes are done until our home will be open for adoption. However long it is I hope the time continues to go by quickly. We love Mya like crazy, but definately have room in our life for another child & the blessing that little person will be. = )

2 year old Wisdom.

Mya made a simple statement the other day that stuck with me. Jonathan was teasing her & calling her "Skinny Binny" (she used to be Chunky Monkey). Then he asked her "Mya are you skinny or are you chunky?" She answered with a shrug, "I'm just Mya." Isn't that great? Wish I could remember that when I am not happy to be me!