Faith....All That is Required of Us....

We need $1800 more to be able to travel and get Joshua....having a real hard time asking people to help us knowing many of you have and it is also Christmas time.  If you feel led to help please use our paypal link to the left as that will get us the funds to the agency the quickest.  The reality is that if we don't raise at least 1000 more by Sat evening, we won't be traveling to meet our sweet baby boy....can you help?

God Bless each and everyone of you!!

Mom of three boys...

We were able to talk to the babies birth mom today, how emotional.  She loves her little boy SO much but it isn't culturally acceptable to have a baby with a disability.  We will be bringing him into our home, and loving on him :)  We do need to raise 2500 to travel to bring him home to us...we are working on getting some items to auction off, do you have anything to offer?  A service, a homemade good?  We can't believe Elijah will have a little brother and Caleb two little brothers in a matter of months!!  We are so excited and can't believe we will be visiting CA two times in one year!!!  If you feel led to donate to us, our paypal button is at the upper left.  Thank you for blessing our family, that is growing by two feet again!!!!

Following the Call....

We received a call for another little baby boy that needs a home...he was born premature as he is a premie and was born on 9/6/2011....he is a twin.  For many days mom and dad visited him and his sister in the NICU in LA....until OCT 26...yes many days after he was born, and they found out he has down syndrome.  He has no visible traits so nobody tested him, why would they?  Mom is in her early 20s.  Then he began to have a hard time eating and they realized he had a hole in his heart, leading them to eventually test for ds.  As soon as mom and dad found out, they stopped visiting :(.  Mom is very attached, but they have filed for adoption as they do not want to parent him, only his sister.  We are willing to bring this precious little boy into our home, but we need to go to LA.  He will be having heart surgery probably the same day as Eli, crazy huh???  We would not need to be to LA until before Christmas as we need to be here with Elijah boo.  Sooo, we need to raise close to 2000 to bring this munchkin home (we do have a grant, but his fee goes a bit above this) ....do you have a heart for adoption for special needs kids?  So many of you have helped with Eli, we hesitate to ask again....but this baby boy needs a family!!  Our paypal is located at the top left corner, would you consider helping us?  Thank you!!!

Update From the Heart of Caleb....

Please if you are reading the blog right now, please pray that Eli's heart will be healed before his surgery. It would mean so much to me and my family and Eli has been progressing very well.  He has been smiling, breathing normally, and much more amazing things that he shouldn't be able to do until his heart is healed.   So, this is the update from my heart, Caleb.

P.S. Eli has grown into our family very well.  Now he is the cutest little baby we all know and we love him very much and that is it.  By the way from now on, there will be a weekly update from Caleb's heart.  Goodbye....

Update from Mommy....Gosh I love that Caleb!!!!  What a heart for his family and God :)  Brings such smiles and warming to this mamas heart!!!

Eli's surgery has been rescheduled for Dec 1st...we go for a cardio appt tomorrow, will update with any new news.

Getting Ready to Come Home....Or At Least We Thought.....

We were able to go back up to the NICU after our huge fiasco with Elis BM changing her mind....what a joy it was to look into his little face and bright eyes and know he was mine.  Yet, my heart ached, so badly for his birth mom.  I can't imagine the pain she was feeling!! I held and rocked Eli for a few hours and found it very hard to leave him there in the NICU but knew all the nurses would love on him in our absence.

Nick and Leslie were awesome and offered to keep Caleb on Saturday so David and I could go up together to be with Eli alone.  Caleb wasn't allowed in the NICU accept for scheduled visits so he was having a really hard time, he wanted to meet his brother!!!

David and I went and stayed the day with Eli and were given "lessons" on all of his care, which really was just his g tube.  But on this day, I got him to take an entire bottle!!  They nurses were amazed.  The plan at this point was for him to come back with us to Nick and Leslies on Monday and we would probably be released to come back to NY around Wed or Thursday.

That weekend we stayed at the Ronald McDonald house for two nights so I could go to the hospital through the night and feed Eli.  (We were staying about 30-40 min from the hospital).  The RM house is great!!  It is $10 a night and you have chores to help with the daily upkeep of the house.  There is always food and often people volunteer their time to come cook for the families there.  This is on my list of volunteer opportunities when Eli is a bit older.

When we went back to Nick and Leslie's on Sun night we were excited to think that Eli would be coming home with us in the morning.

David called morning and night to talk to Eli's nurses to get an update on his care, however, this mornings update was not what we wanted to hear.  Eli had blood in his stool and they were thinking he had an infection.  After much testing, it was confirmed and he was going to have to be off food for 10 days and then slowly reintroduced....our stay just got extended by at least 12-14 days......


ELI UPDATE.....Surgery is on Nov 16th at Strong Memorial Hospital.  We are trying to raise funds to get stay near the hospital and for David to be able to get back and forth everyday for the 7-14 days he will be in there.  If you feel led to help us we have an auction on Facebook under A Place in Your Heart for Eli.  OR you can use our paypal button, but please specify what you are donating for as our paypal goes directly to our adoption fund, but they will release the $ to us if you specify it is for surgery!  Thanks and I will update this blog daily during our hospital stay....

Been a while...

After we landed in LAX we started to look for rental car places and were told that you just pick a bus outside with a company that says they have available cars and they take you to their counter several miles away from the airport.  We chose hertz.  I had coupons, but of course they weren't valid there and the lady behind the counter told me that it would be 689.42 for the week.....ummmmm.....how about a night?  119.81 because we wanted to drop the car off closer to where we were staying so there was a drop of fee.  Ok, well we need to get where we are going, so we paid the money, walked out to find our teeny tiny Prius and went on our way.  GPS in hand we were off to find the Patapoff household!!  When we finally got to their street, there was no house with the house number we wrote down, i was getting ready to start knocking on doors when out came this sweet lady, Leslie waving us down.  Only God could let her know we were there!!!

Oh Nick and Leslie, they made us feel so welcome and we talked with them for a while, then headed to bed so that we could visit the hospital first thing in the morning to meet our new son!!!

The agency told us to go ahead and go up to the hospital as a social worker was meeting the birth mom at her house to sign papers.  So off we went in our 120.00 rental and drove the 30 minutes to the hospital.  Took us a bit to get to go back to see our little man who we thought for sure we were naming Landyn.....but when i got back there, a nurse was holding him, he was so tiny, so stinkin' cute!!!  I held him for a while and fed him through his g-tube....and in walked a woman that looked at me so harsh I couldn't imagine what was going on.  It was Elijahs birth mom......she came in with her cousin and was asking all kinds of questions about his feeding and such.  She then left and shortly after her I did as well, I knew David was chomping at the bit to meet his new son.

After David got clearance to go back, Caleb and I went into the waiting room and called our agency to tell them that I saw the baby and how precious he was!!  They asked if I was as shocked as they were?!?!?!  Why?  I asked.  Oh you have not heard, mom has changed her mind and wants her cousin to parent.  I immediately felt my heart sink and went to get David out of the NICU.  When he walked into the waiting room, he knew something was up.  I had to tell him but I almost couldn't get the words out.  "She changed her mind".  The next few hours felt like days as the social worker told us to go get some lunch off campus and she would call us after she talked with the BM and her cousin.  Get lunch?? Eat?? We went for a ride to the road where they told us everything was and just kinda sat in the car for a bit, poor Caleb....he wasn't sure what to say...or do.

Finally, after SIX hours the social worker called us and told us that the cousin (who was 22 and had three young kids of her own) realized that she couldn't handle to care that Elijah as going to need.  BM had decided to sign.....phew....but my heart just ached for her.  Her mom, though not supportive of helping to raise Eli, told her she was going to hell for giving him up, left her at the hospital and told her to take a taxi home (over an hour away for her).

When we returned to the hospital to cuddle our little boy again, we saw BM in the court yards, crying...she was signing all the necessary papers....she had 10 days to change her mind....and we thought  six hours was a lot........


UPDATE ON ELIJAH.......(who by the way got his name after David and I both saw him and said "He really looks like an Elijah....God is cool like that :)

He will be having heart surgery either the end of October or beginning of November....we are now raising money for a hotel in Rochester so that I can stay with him those 7-10 days....the hospital does have a Ronald McDonald house but we have been warned that it is near to impossible to get in as the hospital we are going to is very well known and provides a lot of services.  If you feel led to donate to our stay in Rochester, you can use the paypal button to your right....in the message section please put either hotel or surgery so the person that is handling our adoption account knows where said money should be applied.  Thanks all for your love and prayers.......we are LOVING our life as a family of FOUR!!!

The What Ifs...

We made our way to the airport totally on cloud nine and a ton of excitement in all three of us.  The next morning I would be holding our baby boy!!  What would we name him....Landyn, Liam, Levi, Joshua??  (Notice Elijah was not even a choice in there)

Parking....$26.00 a day.....yikes, but that is okay we should only be there a week at most.  We took the tram to get to our proper terminal and started the process of getting our tickets.  Once we had tickets in hand we went to our gate to put our names on the stand by list.....would we make it out??  We sat in a corner and took some time as a family to pray that God would bless our travels and the people we would meet along the way.  Right before we were ready to board I called Stacey and let her know we were on our way and to let Nick and Leslie know that we would spend the night in a hotel since we were coming on such short notice....said by to her and our names were called....here we go!!!!

Now, we only had one little problem.  Our seats were not together and Caleb is way to shy to sit by a stranger for 5 hours!!!  One woman who thought that I had a window seat willingly switched, but when the woman came to that row and realized it was here seat.....well yeah words got heated (not with us!!)  The stewardess quickly came and said that they would work everything out.  With moving some people to first class we were all able to sit together!!  See God cares even about the small things!!  We had a direct flight so the next time we touched ground we would be in our babies home state!!


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So you all know the drill by now, the part of my blog that I really struggle with addressing!!  We need funding and kinda fast, in the next two weeks we need 500.00 for the attorney and 250.00 for our first post adoption home visit. (I know you know, but the paypal button to the right goes right to an adoption account, if you don't feel comfortable using paypal and want to be part of Elijahs story feel free to email me at dfkmcoffee@aol.com and I can give you our address)   We feel so blessed by all of you!! Would you consider not getting coffee today or not taking your family out to dinner to help support us?  If you can't support us financially will you support us in prayer?  That God would continue to work in the lives of those around us?  That we would continue to adjust to a family of four?  That my fainting episode was nothing to be concerned about...except for the huge gash in my chin!!  And yes, it hurt!!!  But you know what even in that God was watching!!  I set Elijah down before it happened, I fell forward not backward....friends, it could have been so much worse and I praise God that I don't even have to go there!!!

On Our Way....

Before we could leave we would have to have a new home study done as ours was not by a certified Social worker (set up by the same attorney we gave much of our money to.. :(  )  so yes we had ONE day to get a new home study....how does one do that???  Through the power of God!!!  We were able to have a social worker come Wednesday morning and for only $1350.00 we got our new home study!!



We went to NYC on Wednesday because I was supposed to have an appt for my knee for a final review.  We figured we needed to still go because if the mom changed her mind for any reason we could go to the appointment but even if we were still going to go to CA we would fly out of Newark anyhow (for those of you that don't know, my brother lives in Long Island so we were headed for a visit as well) The entire trip there was consumed with phone calls from the adoption agency and our attorney.  They were trying to figure out how much it would be for us to adopt Eli as NY and CA have such different laws.  Now remember, we are headed to CA on FAITH alone, knowing that Elijah is meant to be our son as we were not fully funded.

The agency called at about 1:00 pm our time and said we could go ahead and book our flights for the same day.... yeah ok.....3 people, across the country.....same day tickets......how does $4000.00 sound??  Well the good news....Davids cousin works for Continental Airlines and got us what are called Buddy Passes.  This means we go on standby but that one way only cost $317.00 for all three of us!!!

So, with bags in hand, a suit case with all our things, one with all Calebs things, of course one for Elijah and an empty car seat we headed for Newark airport......


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Eli is doing GREAT!!!  His breathing seems to really be slowing down (think God is doing some healing???)  He is much more alert and is moving is head, arms and legs everywhere!!!  These things that they told us would be months before he may even attempt these things because of his low muscle tone!!  God is doing great things!!!  I posted a great link by the ZOE foundation on my facebook wall, if you have a chance, listen :)  If you feel led to financially support us on this journey there is a paypal button to the right that goes directly to an adoption account.  If you don't feel led to support us in that way, please continue to support us in prayer...we feel them everyday and know that God is doing great things!!!!

Chosen....

The mom was given our profile with several others and the next morning I read on facebook that the little boy with down syndrome found a family, since we weren't contacted my heart sank.  I did however feel a little nudging to call Michele from Adoption Answer (amazing, amazing agency) and said "I am assuming since you posted this baby found a family we weren't chosen", she said no, that family is you!!!!  My heart was overflowing with joy!!  Over the next few days we waited and waited, had many phone calls and unfortunately they never heard from the mom again, she was't returning calls, emails and wasn't going to the hospital to visit her baby boy.  At this point we were told to assume she decided to parent.  We were crushed but continued to pray for him because we weren't sure what kind of a situation he would be in knowing the dad didn't want to raise this precious little boy :(  Somewhere deep in my heart I still knew he was meant to be ours, but I didn't share that (except with David) as I was guarding my heart.

A few weeks went by and we were getting ready to go to Caleb's soccer game and my cell phone rang with a blocked call.  Figuring it was my mom telling me she was going to meet us at the field I answered really goofy....maybe not such a good idea!!!  The woman on the other end said "ummmmm, is this Kristen Coffee"?  I said yes....."this is Jamie from Adopt International, do you remember me"?  Remember her???  How I longed to hear her voice again because I knew it meant Eli was again going to be placed with a family.  She told us mom decided to place him with our family how soon could we get to California.....How is Thursday???  Thursday is great, see you then!!!!  And so the journey began!!


We are working hard on getting fully funded for Eli's adoption.  If you feel led to donate there is a paypal button to the right that you can use.  Also, we are in the process of doing an online auction and a pancake breakfast, if you would like to donate something for us to auction off that would be amazing as well!!  Thank you for investing in our family.  We continue to covet your prayers as we are on this journey ( and we are loving every minute of it, God is amazing us everyday!!)

More Donations...

Enter to win either a kindle 3g...black....or an ipod nano.....when using the paypal button to the right please specify which you wish to enter....

$10.00 One entry or $25 for three....if you do the 25 let me know if you want it all in one item or split between the two.

Thank you for your dedication to helping us fund Elis adoption!!

This will run until August 22nd......

Being called...

I knew that God was trying to talk to me for a long time, but I was so unsure of what He was calling us to. It felt as though we would never be chosen so I told David I wanted to stop the process.  A few weeks later we were in church and in the middle of worship.  For those of you who go to our church know that Bryan can really help draw you to worshipping our King.  I abruptly got a feeling in my heart and leaned over to David and said "what do you think about adopting a baby that has down syndrome"...his response..."whatever God has for us I am open to".....  This is where the story gets good!!!

The next night (ok, the middle of the night, was God preparing me or what!!!)   I was online and saw a post from a woman I had never met, but totally respected and prayed for as she and her husband went to Ethiopia to adopt their beautiful daughter.  Her post read, baby boy with down syndrome needs a family.  I tried my hardest to wake up David and tell him, but that my friends is next to impossible once he is asleep!!
I emailed my friend Stephanie and asked if she thought they would accept a family from NY.  She said "I don't know, but email this person, Tracey.  I emailed her and she was unsure but had me call Michelle....Michelle had us send over our profile and she sent us on to the agency that was handling the adoption.  This all happened in the matter of a day.....So if you are following me (kinda hard to follow myself... :)  I heard God on a Sunday and Elijah was born that Monday!!!  How good is our God???

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We are still not fully funded, should you feel led you can use the button to the right to donate, if you can't, we get that :)  but please pray for us that God would provide the funds we need.  We have given up coffee out, eating out and me getting my nails done......because that is what God called us to.....is He calling you to give up something today to help bless someone?

Looking forward to sharing more of our story with you....it only gets better from here!!!!

Much Love,

The Coffee Clan :)

THE NOOK WINNER!!!!

Thank you everyone who participated to help raise more funds for Elijah!!

We used Random.org to select the winner and it is.....

Mark Hager!!!

Congrats and thank you!!!  Please email me your address to DFKMCOFFEE@AOL.COM


Thank you again everyone!!!

The Beginning....the very best place to start....

David and I knew that we wanted a large family, little did we know that we would have had a hard time accomplishing that!!  We had always talked about adoption but thought that it would be later in life after our biological kids had grown.  After almost 5 years of infertility and no answers we decided to start looking into adoption at that point in our life.  We met with a private attorney and signed papers to start working with him.  We had just received a settlement from my knee and put away money from that knowing that adoption with this attorney would be about 7-8 k here in NY........so we created our profile, stated we were open to any gender any race.  Then.....we waited, and waited and waited some more.  We prayed, we thought about another baby in our house and at times we wept.....it was SO frustrating at times. I could feel myself withdrawing from God, almost getting angry.  But, I would always come back to Him, knowing He loved me and knew what was best for our family, I just had to be patient and know His timing was perfect, not mine.  As time went by other friends got pregnant, others adopted, and me....well I screamed out to God with tears streaming down my face "Either give it to me or take the desire away!!!!"....then I would again, calm down and know that He knew.  Maybe we weren't meant to have the large family I had dreamed about.....but maybe we were...........

I will write more next time....this is just the beginning of our amazing journey!!!

Tomorrow is the last day to enter for the nook.....we are so close, yet still so far away from being fully funded....like you read above we did have money that we set aside for our adoption.....but not enough, and unfortunately we poured  a lot of that money into an agency that got us nowhere....but God has a plan!! If we just had that money to hand over, well this journey wouldn't be as amazing and we wouldn't have gotten to see Him work in amazing ways!!!


I can't wait to see how God moves the next few days on our funding as we have a large portion due monday......will He use you?  There is a donate button to the right that goes to our paypal account that is directly linked to an adoption fund...should you not want to use paypal please feel free to email me at dfkmcoffee@aol.com...every dollar helps!!

I'm looking forward to sharing more of our journey with you as the days go by and hope you are all blessed by it and see how REAL our Father is!!!

Great Pediatrician Visit and our needs right now....

Eli went to the pediatrician today, he gained another 2 ounces....way to go little man!! Also, his heart sounded better and she was very surprised at his muscle tone and how much it is improving!!  YAY GOD!!!!  We continue to pray for complete healing for our little man, but should God not choose that we are ready and willing to walk this journey with him!!  We are so in love with this little boy and can't imagine our lives without him!!

Now the not so fun part,

We need to raise 500 by next Monday when we need to send another payment to our attorney in CA.....trusting God in this, though it is hard.  Sometimes I lay awake at night after feeding Elijah and think "what if we don't raise the money"  but God has been faithful at every turn at every surprise.  We are trusting Him with this too.  That is what faith is right, going forward full steam ahead when you hear the whisper trusting that no matter what He will take care of you, since He led you to it.....So with that...

Should you feel led you can donate with the button to the right, post our blog on your page as the more people that see it, the more people have an opportunity to bless us and be apart of Elijah's story!!

Also, you can read below about the chance to win a nook.  What a great chance to have a 250 gadget for as little as 10 should your name be drawn :)

In talking with several people I was saying how nice it would be just to be able to write a check and have all of Eli's fees paid for and the response "yeah, but then we wouldn't have gotten to see God work in all this"...How true is that??  Will you let God work through you?  If not to us, to who?  Who is God laying on your heart to bless....don't wait, listen, trust and give Him all you have.....you will be blessed!!

Win a Nook....support our adoption

Hi all!!!  We had a brand new nook color donated to us to auction off toward our adoption.  In order for this to work we need to raise at least $250 otherwise it would make more sense for this person to give us 250.00 in cash, but this could generate enough to finish our funding!!!

Here is how it will work....

1 Entry....10.00....if you give 20.00 you get 2 Entries....
3 Entries......25.00....so if you gave 50.00 you would get 6 Entries

To enter use the paypal button to the right and make sure to put NOOK in the message spot........if you want to enter but would rather pay another way please email me @ dfkmcoffee@aol.com.

Should we not raise the 250.00 (we have seen this on other adoption blogs and it has never happened) we would refund you your money.


THIS IS A NOOK COLOR~~~ 250 Value and comes with a Leather Case as well!!!!  


Thank you everyone for helping us to finalize Elis adoption!!

This will end 1 Week from Sunday (Aug 7th) and a name will be randomly drawn from a computer program.......

Good Luck.....and Have Fun :)

Post visit....

We are getting ready for one of six post visits...which of course you have to pay for.....:)

Eli is doing well, we love having him home, despite the many appointments a week.  We have seen the cardiologist, pulmonologist, the pediatrician three times, blood work and a chest x-ray.  We have spent several hundred dollars on oxygen and ointment for a granuloma around his g-tube.  Though this may seem daunting to some, we are loving this journey we are on.  The pediatrician we saw today said "wow, what a large mountain you all chose to climb"  Davids response was "actually God called us to climb this mountain and we feel so blessed to have been chosen"  love that man!!!

If you feel led to bless us for our fees to finalize our adoption you can use the button to the right....but most of all we covet your prayers as we continue this journey.  I have been asked by several people if I am going to write a book about our journey.....praying about it.  I want others to know that they can adopt, that no matter whether you are funded or not, if you feel called....listen!!! God will provide, He knows what He is doing and there are no surprises in the amount to Him!!

Thanks for coming on this journey with us!!  We love each and every one of you!!

Paperwork Submitted!!!

Our attorney has submitted our paperwork to California to finalize Elijahs adoption!!  Yippee.  He is such a great baby!!  We are so in love and it melts my heart to watch Caleb with him.  I have to be honest, for the longest time I was worried he would be an only child, which would have been okay but he prayed so much and hard for a sibling!!  God is faithful and already we can't imagine our lives without Eli in it!!

Several people have asked that I repost this to facebook as they feel led to support our journey so I will make sure that this gets tagged there!

Thank you to all who have prayed us through this!!  We love you!!

Cardiologist Appt...

We saw Dr. Orie today who is Elijahs new cardiologist....we LOVE him!!!  He was so thorough and explained everything to us.  Right now Eli needs to stay on the O2 to help him adjust to being outside the womb, this is quite common in children with heart defects.  We will continue to pray that the Lord heals his heart, but if he doesn't Eli will need surgery between 6 months and a year of age.  Thank you for continuing to pray for him!!

Elijah Mark....

 Adopting Elijah has been such an amazing experience for us as a family and our marriage...we have learned so much on what it means to be the body of Christ.  We have learned what it means to be giving, what it means to step up and help others, even those we don't know.  We learned what it means to love as Christ loves us!!  We learned that our new little man is AMAZING and NOBODYS opinion of our decision matters!!  We have chosen to listen to God and listen to what he asked of us and He was FAITHFUL!!!

 I have journaled all the ways God has provided for us on this journey and will share that in the coming weeks in detail!!  But I have a feeling most of you are waiting to hear about Elijah!!

He did great on the way home (with a little O2 issues through the mountains) but both boys were such troopers!!

He had his first appointment today and got two shots, he barely cried and I am assuming that is because of his many days in the NICU being pricked and prodded :(  The ped said he looks just as heathy as they said he was when he left Loma Linda....good news to this mamas heart!!  He will go see the cardiologist on Wednesday to see what we need to do for his heart...as of today he is still on O2 until we see the cardiologist....

He weighs 8lb 3.5 oz....yay!!! He is gaining!!  

We are in love, we know we are following His call and we know we are doing what we are supposed to be doing!!  

Leslie, I know you are reading this.....you are an amazing woman of God and I miss you terribly!!  You have tought me SO much!!!  Love you my sweet sister!!!

Amazing Worship!!!

This morning Caleb and I got to go to a local church with Leslie and Nick and I got to share our story.  Today I think is the first time I have let my self cry, like really cry!!  They prayed for us and prayed for complete healing for Elijah.  I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I felt to be a part of that this morning!!  Kinda makes me not want to go home......ya kinda!!

I can't wait until Eli gets out of the hospital and we can go home to Buffalo, I can't wait to be reunited with my husband and for my mom and dad to meet Eli.  I long to pick him up whenever I want without someones permission, without wires and cords and ivs....oh what a beautiful day that will be!!!

Eli is doing really good today!!!  They are upping his feeding every 6 hours and we are hopeful that he will be released in the next few days!! Please be praying with us that his heath continues to improve and he can come home!!!

The blessings here in CA have been abundant and I am so amazed at the love and support we have been given by strangers....I am committed when I come home to giving....I am committed to being sure that I love on and give to those I don't know as well as those who I do......

God is faithful!!  We are amazed at this journey he has placed us on.  Thanks God!!!

Goodbye Daddy :(

A message from Caleb:  .....Caleb asked me to post this....This is Caleb Coffee I am having a very hard time waiting for Elijah to come home, ♥  I only get to see Elijah in the hospital once a week I miss him very much when I do not get to see him, so please support us to get him home.Thank you love Caleb <3

We took David to LAX tonight, it was so hard to say goodbye, but know that the right place for Caleb and I right now is here with Elijah.  Looks as though they may start feeding him tomorrow am!!  That is HUGE!!!

Please pray.....

That Eli tolerates food really well!!  This is very important to him getting out of the hospital

For the state to get our paperwork done ASAP so we can come home....

For funding, I am not going to lie, I am scared....trying so hard to remember that God brought us here and he will bring us home.

I am missing our friends back home, it is hard to be away....

Caleb....he has been such a trooper, but he needs to get home too.............

Well, it is that time, while I am sleeping my sweet husband will be flying to the other side of the country and then have a long drive from Newark back to Buffalo, please pray for safe travels for him!!!  I miss him terribly already!!

Big Brother Visit....

Caleb got to visit Eli today, such precious moments!!!  I can hardly believe we are a family of FOUR!!  I feel so blessed and amazed at Gods goodness!!

Tonights prayer requests....

David leaves tomorrow :(  Please pray for safe travels for him (he has to fly for 6 hours then drive for 8)

Eli.....BOWEL SOUNDS!!! these are very important and if they hear them they can feed him, the sooner he can be fed, the sooner we are home.

For the birth mom, though tomorrow is a great day for us in that her rights are totally terminated, I can't help but to wonder what she is feeling.  Please continue to lift her up to our Father....

Finances, staying here longer with Eli in the hospital has added expenses.....

For Nick and Leslie....that they don't go crazy having Caleb and I here.....but I sure do thank God for our new life long friends!!! 

Remember the One who loves you and would do anything for you.  May He be glorifed in our journey!!!

God Bless!!

Great day!!

We had a great day today.  This morning we went to the hospital to see Elijah and he cuddled with daddy for a long time!!  Then we went to Huntington beach and enjoyed time with our new friends :)

This evening we went back to the hospital and I had some amazing time with Eli.  He stared at me for over a half hour and gave little smiles when I talked to him.  It was such a great night!!

We can't wait to bring him home!!!!

Poop....

Yup, Eli pooped :)  This is a good thing, it means that things in his intestine are going down where they should instead of draining through his g-tube.  We still have a bumpy road ahead but we are thankful to our faithful and loving God who is watching over us and our sweet boys.  Caleb has been amazing through all of this and if it weren't for Nick and Leslie I think he would be going crazy.  They have allowed Caleb to stay with them while David and I go to the hospital to be with Eli....

Please continue to pray that Eli has clear drainage not yellow or green....yuck....lol

That he continues to poop.....very important!!  That they hear good bowel sounds!! 

That we can come home!!!  SO many of you that we don't know have helped us in such amazing ways.....I am amazed that so many would help strangers, we are BLESSED!!!  You have set a huge example of what it means to be in the family of God!!

Hard day....

They had a really hard time getting a pic line into Elijah today, they tried for an hour and a half but then stopped.  They said he was getting too aggitated...um yeah I would think!!!  The night nurse was able to get one in, thank God!!

Please be praying.....

We need to see some movement in his bowels via xray even if it is only air......

That the discharge from his belly turns clear....

Finances, David is going home and Caleb and I are staying here in California with Elijah.  This brings on a whole new set of expenses......If you feel led to donate please use the button to the right :...We are seeing God move in so many ways!!  We have had a car donated to us until July 4th, this is huge!! 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!!

Where we are....

Well, Elijah was supposed to be released from the hospital yesterday but when we got to the hospital they informed us that he had blood in his stool and it comfirmed that he had an infection :(  He is now to be in the NICU for at least another 8 days!!  God has proven Himself present and faithful at all times.  I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we have been here.  We are staying wtih an AMAZING couple who we have had an instant connection with and Caleb is loving them and their two beautiful children as well. We weren't sure how we were going to get back and forth to the hospital but one of Leslies friends stepped up and said "I have a car that they can use "  (Rental cars in California are over 500.00 a week!!!)

We have been blessed more by strangers and are overwhelmed by that!! 

Things to be praying for....

Elijahs infection to go away....we need his G-tube to be draining clear!!
If David leaves to go home to work that we can raise enough funds for Caleb and I to stay here in California
Finances....I know God didn't bring us this far to not complete what He has started!!  We know that He will provide what we need.....should you feel led to donate there is a button to the right and that goes right to our paypal which is connected to our adoption account with our agency....

There are several pictures of our newest little man on my page....take a look, hes pretty cute :)  Not to mention how cute his big brother is who has been such a trooper through all this!!!

Last, pray for our birth mom...things aren't good for her now and her family has told her they never want to see her again.  She has signed Elijah over to us, but her heart is hurting!!

Thanks friends if you would, please post this on your page to help spread the word.....

God Bless!!!

David, Kristen Caleb and Elijah :) 

HUGE UPDATE!!!

We have a little boy and his name is Landyn Mark and we need to have a new home study done first thing in the morning as our home study we had done is only good in NYS and he is in California.  He is a little over three weeks old and is a baby with down syndrome.  We need to raise money and are confident that God will provide.  This is moving SO FAST.  We got a call at 5:15 and things have just fallen into place but we need help financially...if you feel led to donate no amount is too small!! The paypal link is to the right you can use that to get funds to us asap.  We will be flying out either tomorrow or Wednesday and if we don't raise enough funds he goes to foster care as CPS has been called by the hospital....

Thanks friends!!!

Thanks Dad!!

Talked with my dad for a while last night and he is really helping us to get some fundraising in place.  Also, our paypal now goes directly to an "adoption account" at Keybank.   This way all those funds are separate and can be submitted for a matching grant through hand in hand should we get final approval for them.

God is working in amazing ways and I love being witness to it!!!  If you feel led to give (see that cool donate button to your right, makes it really easy  :) , even a little we would be blessed, but again most of all we covet your prayers for our journey!!

Have a blessed day!!

Ever wonder if God is listening???....

I have to admit that over the last few weeks I questioned that!!!  David and I spent some time praying last night that God would help Bundle of Joy adoptions find someone that could work with NY families (you have NO idea how hard that is to do....ask me and I'll share)  and guess what....

She called this morning that they found someone and are working on a second!!!  Keep praying friends!!  Since they have found someone we can now send in our paper work when we have enough funds!!

Praise God!!!!

Today I am going to....

Rest on this.....

Be still and know that I AM GOD....Psalm 46:10......

He knows all the answers, the when, the where and who he or she is......

Today I promise myself that I am going to have peace and know that He already has it taken care of :)  Have a great day friends!!

Bringing our baby home....

Our journey has had a lot of ups and downs....but we know that God is faithful. He has called us to adopt to add to our family and we know that He will provide all that we need, emotionally, financially and most importantly spiritually.

As i was reading another blog "Along the narrow road" I was overwhelmed with emotion thinking, yes that is exactly what I am feeling.  Since she said it so well I am going to share the thoughts here....


..........Our hearts have been opened for whatever God wants. Older, younger, domestic, Africa, yet God just keeps saying "wait, I have the child for you."

I know that everything that we go through is for our transformation. I know that one day we will finally hear those words that we have been longing to hear.

But this waiting has been hard. Well over a year on this journey to our child and it is hard. The waiting the hearing the No's never leaves you. I may have peace about it most of the time, but it's still there. You get to a point where you feel like you have been forgotten about, you get to a point where you feel like it will never happen, you get to a point where you start asking the Lord "What am I missing?"

Yet He keeps saying, "Keep waiting, keeping your eyes on Me. I have great plans for your family and a special child that was picked to be a Coffee."

 I just want whatever the Lord wants and so waiting is where I will be, keeping my eyes fixed on Him, longing to hear a Yes! and trusting that His timing is ALWAYS perfect.........

If you feel led to help us financially please use the donate button to the right.

We covet your prayers as we start with a new agency that this is where God wants us to be.....

Much Love,

David, Kristen and Caleb Coffee