Weekend!

This spring the weather has been so bizarre but I'm still glad it's spring time! That means we start back up with Play days! Jaxxi was so excited to get back in the arena!

Daddy helping her run the poles!

Waiting her turn on "Bell"

Miss Madison on her new horse "Run"

It was so cold we mostly just set out in the truck, but it was still fun to resume are Friday night activity.

On Saturday some of my family decided to help out a cause for foster care with a mile walk called "Walk a Mile in my shoes" I think I cried most of the morning to see my family not only support me and Shane in our journey to fostering and adopting, but also see them help kids out in a way that they can! I encourage you if you can't do anything Prayer is so needed in each of these children's lives!

Jaxxi and Madison trying to stay warm before the walk.

The crew :)

Some of the donated suit case!

Sunday we had a lazy day playing outside! Jaxxi tied up her "horse" and was feeding it :)



 

Cayson 3 Months

Casyon your a sweet 3 month old baby boy! You are usually all smiles in the morning and get pretty fussy before bedtime. We just snuggle a little longer! We love you so much and don't remember life without you.

Your not so impressed with mom's picture taking :)

Getting little rolls!

Sissy wanted to give you some love :)

I can't believe how big you have gotten in three short months!

 

• Had your first ear infection :(
• Super smiley
• drink 7 oz.
• Weigh 12 lbs 13 oz and 23 inches long 15 head your at the lower end of the percentage scale but that's ok I have a feeling you will catch up!
• still in 0-3 but starting to out grow some of them.
• on soy formula even though not sure it's helping
• Sleeping through the night!!
• can hold head up great!
• started playing with the toys on your bouncy seat.
• loves to be snuggled up close.
• still not sure about bink.

Hopefully...

We are hoping for another placement! Jaxxi Case is moving right a long and coming to an end. Not a hundred appointments in a month, running to visits, court dates. We are just waiting to get our adoption paper work started. So with all that said we have been really starting to get ready for a second child. We have notified Jaxxi worker, and our caseworker that if a child came available to please consider us. I'm hoping to get a placement that will go as smooth as Jaxxi case went, but we will take whatever God has in mind for our family! So if you would please pray with us that the child who is for us, that things would start falling into place and we could welcome the newest Allen to the bunch! :)

Court

We had our Good Cause hearing yesterday, that is the hearing were they make sure there is no objection from any party for us to move forward with the adoption process. My biggest worry and stress was the tribe. We were only in court for a few minutes and everything went really smoothly, thankfully! I had a little anxiety about it. Our worker is thinking the adoption could be completely done in 3-4 months! Tomorrow will be exactly one year since we brought her home to live with us. Seems impossible it's been that long, and at the same time it's hard to remember life without her. There are times when it's just plain hard to be mom, but when she wraps her arms around me so tight and gives me a great big kiss all that pretty much vanishes. We feel truly blessed to call this little girls ours!

I seen this saying going through some things on Etsy
"I didn't give you the gift of life... but the gift of life gave me you"

I hope that as we embark on this life with her that she will always know that to us she is our own. I'm slightly nervous about all the emotions we will have as she grows, but we have a great support and I know we will all get through it!

Jaxxi update

I haven't updated about Jaxxi for a while and since this is where I keep all this stuff I wanted to make sure I get all of this down. Jaxxi started walking at just over 16 months old. We went to OU for orthopedics and she was completely fine for now, we go back in 7 months for more monitoring. she has said two real words, Horsey, and Huckie. She still won't say Mommy and Daddy to either of us, so we know where we rank! ha! She has all of her top teeth I think and now she's working on the bottom ones. I haven't slept much in over a month. Oh well it's worth it, just wished she would start feeling better.

The biggest and best update is that on June 25th exactly 11 months from when she was placed in our home, the birth parents relinquished rights! I was in tears when they told us they wanted us to adopt her and take care of her. I can't explain what a relief it was when that was finally over with! Now we have to wait for a hearing to move her case from the foster care side to the adoption side, and have to make sure the tribe that Jaxxi was born into will let a member from another tribe adopt her. Our worker doesn't think there will be an issue with that, but it is another hurdler on this road. So Hopefully by 2013 she will officially be ours forever and ever!

The Call

So Little Miss still has visit with her birth parents twice a month, these usually go off with out a hitch and I'm more than happy to share what's been going on and what new stuff she has been learning and doing, but the last two have been kinda strange. I knew something was up and it was honestly making me a little uneasy and nervous. So I contacted my social worker to see if they had begun talking relinquishment/termination of rights. and she said they hadn't begun those talks with the parents yet and weren't going to until the next family planning meeting with lawyers and counselors present. So I was still a little perplexed. I felt like they were telling her good bye and starting to let her go. Also telling me things they wished for her in the future. How she would be when she grew up and what they have allergies to and so on and so on. Then after our visit on Wednesday as we were leaving they asked to speak to our worker and so me and missy pants walked on out to the car with a home visit planned for Thursday. Well Thursday I got a call that they have decided they are ready to let her go and for me and Shane to move forward with the adoption! So things could be started as early as October 5! We couldn't be happier b/c I was prepared for a lot more drawn out process. Because up until this point they were going to continue to fight for her. Our worker told me yesterday that it shouldn't take more than 6 months for everything to be officially finalized! I honestly couldn't believe it! that will put her at a little over a year old!

It's funny what a difference a year makes. It was around this time last year that Shane yelled at me from the shower know how does this foster care thing work:) and from that our journey began. An my what a ways we have come. We are truly blessed and do not deserve an ounce of the favor God has shown us. I just find myself in tears humbled before God that he choose this little girl to have us as parents. It also gives me a slight anxiety attack not to mess it up! They can still change their mind and make the process of this longer, but would you pray with us that things will go smoothly and for me as I go to the family planning meeting. I know God has every detail mapped out and for that I'm thankful. I have never had any control and it's a huge burden lifted off to know I'm just a long for the ride!

Update...

We have Little miss in our home!!!! I'm so so excited! she has been with us since Monday and her worker says there is no real chance that she would ever go home! They have to give the parents every opportunity but the odds are definitely in our favor! So keep praying!! Her next court date is in October so hoping all goes well between now and then. We start visits with the parents the second week in August. She is so happy and adjusting well. She has to a have little medical procedure on her eyes in late August so please say a prayer that all goes well for that. Thanks in advance and thanks for all the love and support.

Just for your viewing pleasure :o) all the Allen cousins!

One cute bunch!

God's Promises

I haven't gotten a chance to really sit down and write out my thoughts of what the last month have meant to me... I really didn't know how to put it in words. I'm not going to lie and say I had no fear coming into the world of foster/adopting because the truth is I had many. If I let myself I could be completely crippled by them. I will admit that there have been a time or two I've given into the fear, and have had to surrender again the whole thing to God. It's pretty laughable to think that there is even anything else to do but surrender. Back in April the week before Easter I got the nerve to ask my social worker about LM and she said there was a chance of her being able to come to our home. I was elated. I remember crying, really more like sobbing in the shower after I called everyone to share the good news. I was just so relieved after five years of bad news we were finally getting what seemed like a YES! I was completely over taken with joy praising God through my tears.






So almost immediately after I received the good email my mind traveled to a million question mode. I emailed her back and asked if I should be getting things ready for her. Her email left me a little discouraged and I was pretty bummed. Then it hit me that it wasn't a no just not right now and refused to feel defeated. So instead I decided in that moment that it was all up to God if she would be ours. for a short while or forever... Then May came and went and still no news really to speak of it was a really hard month! Then at the beginning of June we got the call that we would get her for a week of respite care and we couldn't be happier but I still wasn't sure what the future held but we had a week with this precious girl and I couldn't refuse it! the the current foster mom called and the first thing out of her mouth was she will probably be adoptable. The feeling I got after that phone call was like affirmation that she would be ours.

So here we are a month later and still now solid news, we do know they are moving her to us probably by the end of July and we are just patiently ok maybe not so patiently :) but waiting no the less. God spoke to me through verse Revalations 21:5 when my grief was still so raw then again on then again through a preacher in early July 2010 I can't help but smile when I think he has made EVERYTHING NEW!



So I will rejoice in his promises for making everything new, and reap the harvest of what he planted! Thank you lord for giving me joy unspeakable!



This picture makes my heart do flip flops to watch Shane be a dad is one of the best things I have ever witnessed! LM is one lucky lady! I never doubted Shane would be a fantastic father, but he has way exceded my expectations!
Our first family photo! The only time I ever get really sad is when I think we will never have a truly complete family photo. But this is our life now and man it sure looks beautiful!

(once the adoption is finalized I will be taking off the heart stickers so you can see her sweet beautiful face!)

I am Blessed!!!

So Far So Good!

Our social worker came by the house last night for us to sign our contracts and be "officially approved" to be foster parents. We have known about the possibility of the placement of the baby girl since before Easter! Talk about patience. :) All we knew for sure was the week of respite care. Last night she confirmed that the baby will be transitioned in to our home! She told us to get excited. Well of course we are! She wanted to see the nursery and was surprised to see that it transformed into a little girls nursery :) My mom has gotten a ton of stuff so we were prepared for boy or girl! She is native American and the current foster family she is with isn't so since we are tribal that helps us tremendously! The Foster family she is currently with have had her since she left the hospital so she has been loved from the moment she was born and for that we are grateful!

I realize we are dealing with "the system" and things can change at any moment, but I'm just trusting and believing that God has all this worked out for us. As my Grandma Corene told me last night she's praying; it will go so smooth that it will be just like we had her.:) I wont be able to share her name on here. So I think I will refer to her as "little miss" for future post. We have people making bows and we can't wait to get her a dress for my sisters wedding coming up in July! I can't believe I'm going to be a mom to a baby in my arms not just in my heart!

Quick Update!

I just received a phone call today asking if we were interested in keeping a 3 month old baby girl... And of course I said yes! So far we will have her one week June 12-18Th so be praying that goes smoothly. I guess depending on how that week goes she maybe transitioned into our home! I'm not sure how everything works at DHS but I'm hoping that's a good thing. So I'm asking for prayers that everything will work out and she will end up being able to stay with us! I'm So ready to embark on this adventure and terrified of getting hurt. I know God is in control and I just have to trust that all will go according to his will. Thanks for all the prayers in advance. :)

P.S. I will will most definitely be counting down the next 19 days!