When your two youngest start preschool.....whats a mom to do?? Well..ADOPT of course :)

So many people have asked what are you going to do when the boys start school in the fall?  They will go to Wee Can from 9am-2pm.  Well, I could answer do laundry, clean the bathroom, get dinner prepared...CRY???  But my common answer with a chuckle is "adopt another child of course" :)  We were contacted today about an adoption situation for a little boy being born in September/October.  He has a heart condition ( Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome) that will require heart surgery when he is born and quite possible several months or years later. He may even at some point need a transplant.  We do however serve a God of miracles and healing!!  We are praying for him to be completely healed!!  Will you pray that with us?

We were asked to consider submitting our profile to the attorney that is working with the birth mom, quickly as if she didn't find a family she was going to go with an agency. I said I was at urgent care and I would send it as soon as I got home..(after talking to my shocked husband and really feeling God nudge us forward ).  Within an hour we got another email saying the birth mom decided to switch attorneys and they didn't know who that attorney was.  The adoption consultant said "hey we just pray and if this little boy is meant to be your son, he will be" .  A short time went by and I got an email that said "you are never going to believe this, can I call you"?  Seeing I was a little preoccupied she called David and said well, we called several attorneys and found the attorney that is working with this sweet birth mom.  What?  Wow?  No...God.  See His ways and timing are not ours!!!  But the story is just beginning....

The attorney working with our birth mom is a beautiful Christen woman who lost a son 14 years ago to the same condition this sweet baby boy has.  She has agreed to take on the case pro-bono.  This takes our fees from 21,000 to about 10,000!!  Huge blessing.  We have seen Gods hand move in mighty ways today. 

We will be having auctions, garage sales and other fundraisers along the way.  Our first hurtle is to raise $1400 by Friday.  We have to have our home study amended, as well as pay some fees.  

We are so stinkin'  excited on this road God is taking us down.  Will you join us?  Mostly in prayer but also if you feel led financially?  We are still paying some fees to the boys attorney but we know this is of God.  Our paypal link is in the upper left hand corner if you feel led to just give.  If you want to donate something to an auction that would be awesome too. We are also holding a 50/50 raffle so if you decide to go that route it is $5 ticket and just put that in the paypal message :)  We know that God has great plans for our family and for this sweet little boy!! WAHOOOOOOOO  my heart is soaring!!!!  

So in September instead of sitting around and eating bon bons and napping...err...i mean cleaning and doing laundry, I will have sweet lips to kiss and more diapers to change and songs to sing to this sweet little boy...Our newest son!!!!  Thank you to all of those of you who have blessed and continue to bless our family.  We couldn't do this without all of you.  Adoption takes a village.  We aren't all called to adopt but we are called to help those that are.  We are BLESSED!!!!

Being Real....in the Pink...

Ever been called someplace you weren't sure you wanted to go?  David and I were presented with the opportunity to adopt a sweet little girl "T" over 6 months ago.  I was led to her from a post on no other than Facebook, where we found our sweet Eli.  I started speaking with her foster mom and very quickly fell in love with this sweet girl.  The questions swirled, are we crazy? Three special needs kiddos under 3 years of age.  As I got to "know T" better we saw even more evidence that DS has so many levels of ability.  She can walk, talk, feed herself.  All things our boys don't do.  Bringing her into our family can be so beneficial for our boys as an example.  Among the questions, the what ifs I have spoken with and prayed with first and foremost my husband, but women of God that I admire and respect that have reminded me that we do this for God, when we feel called, we GO.  But what will others think?  Will they think we want her because we are a house filled with testosterone?  Will they think we are crazy?  So many more questions of what will people think.  Well, so many have said..Kristen "What does God think"?

We have said, yes, we have said no, we have said maybe.  We have said maybe we will foster her first, help her find her forever family here.  We have thrown out every scenario  you can think of.  In fact, David knew before I that this is where we would be today....knowing she is to come home and be a part of our family.  Just yesterday in Bible Study a sweet friend prayed for wisdom and discernment. God spoke very clearly last night during prayer time with my sweet husband.

So....this is where we are at.  We need to move.  Being a child almost three and a different gender (have i mentioned tights and bows and PINK??) she has to have her own room.  There is also the possibility that we will adopt "T" biological sister that is six years old and "typically developing".  More on that later.  Right now we need to raise approx $1500 by Sunday to secure new housing.  That is a lot of money friends, but not to God.

We truly believe that we are not all called to adopt but we are all called to to help orphans and widows. Just because "t" doesn't live in another country makes her no less of an orphan (Thought let me tell you, we are beyond blessed with the house she has been raised in up to the point she comes home)  Will you help?  Our donate button is at the top left.  I know this is our third adoption that we have asked for help with.  The reality is that we can afford to have her in our house, we can't afford the upfront costs to get her here.

We love each of you and ask that you pray for our family as we make this transition.  Thank you for walking this journey with us!!

Finalization...

To update all of you....wow, what a journey!!  We continue to be amazed by our boys and the fact that God loved us enough to choose us to be their mommy and daddy!!  They are army crawling now and sitting up for the most part :)

Eli says mama and dada ..okay, okay...mostly dada but every once in a while that mmmm slips out :)  He is still working hard at learning to eat and is trying new things all the time.

Gabe says mama and dada and babbles a lot!!  He is such a happy baby and has the most contagious laugh!!!  He brings us so much joy....even at 3 am!!

We were able to finish paying for Elijahs adoption in November which allowed us to finalize him December 10.  He is "officially" a Coffee...though he always has been to us.

We are working hard at getting Gabe finalized  :)  We have said we were going to keep fundraising for the last few months but put it off knowing we were supposed to get a subsidy from California that the payment would allow us to pay the adoption agency and attorney.  This has dragged on when the money from that is coming so we are going to fundraise again :)  I know so many question helping others fund an adoption so I am going to add this hear...it was posted by a friend of a friend and is so well said....

Well said!! Helping to fund an adoption..

FAR to often I hear from clueless and pitifully ignorant people (Christian people, I might add)...." If people can't afford what it costs to adopt, they shouldn't adopt." We were crushed one time by a person that was very close to us..."How come when YOU hear from God it costs ME money?" Usually I am too upset to respond with adequate words..... I
When a family seeks help in raising funds for an adoption, it's not like asking people to pitch in toward a new boat, or help pay for a vacation. What they are doing is committing to heal, with God's help, a child who has suffered the profound damage of being unwanted and unloved. They are obediently living out the command given in James 1:27 to care for the orphan, clothing the gospel of Christ's redemption in flesh and blood and now. When they ask for the body of Christ to come alongside them financially and prayerfully, they are giving us the opportunity to be a part of the miracles God works through obedience.

We need to raise a little over $6000.00 by the mid to end of Feb at the latest to keep from having to start our homestudy process over.  That would be a whole another expense.  We know God called us to adopt these precious boys and we know that He too will provide the needed funds to complete what He started.  We have a donate button at the top of our page where you can donate to help us finalize our precious Gabe.  Every little bit helps, even if you just give up a coffee for a day!!!

Last, we were asked to do a story with our local news...HOW FUN!!!  Here is the link for you to see our interview :)

http://www.wgrz.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2009270173001

Thank you all and God Bless....we will update this every few days so people know where were are with our fundraising :)

David, Kristen, Caleb, Elijah and Gabriel :)

Where we have been and where we are now :)

Wow!!  It has been such a long time since I updated this page.  All our boys are doing amazing.  Caleb is enjoying his summer and is the most amazing big brother!! Elijah is close to TWENTY pounds!! He is thriving and doing well with therapy, though he cries the whole time :(  He is able to sit up by himself for a very short period of time.  He continues to have that most amazing smile that lights up a room and also continues to inspire people everywhere.  Gabriel is such a happy baby.  Smiles and laughs all the time.  Gabe seems to be meeting milestones on time and is doing great.  Our life is amazing and we wouldn't change a thing.

We have been amazed at how God continues to use our boys.  We met a woman working at Target and were able to talk with her about our adoption and not only a month later she was holding her beautiful daughter Sofia (who has been blessed with ds) in her arms.  Thank you Jesus for letting us be a vessel to that adoption.

We got word this week that we are going to be able to finalize in August.  Exciting right???  Yes, very but yet so very scary.  We were also told that our attorney fees will be more than double what we thought.  So now we are still almost 11,000 yes you read that right away from finalizing both boys.

Unfortunately Elijahs dad "denied" him and we had to get a private investigator , a person to serve him with papers and then ultimately the court to terminate his rights as Elijahs birth dad.

If we don't finalize in August we have to start over with post placement home visits which we have at this point finished. This would obviously cost us a lot more money.

Of one thing we are confident...God started this and He will complete it.  We are going to have a garage sale the last weekend in July.  If you have anything that you would be willing to donate we would greatly appreciate it.  We can pick things up if you need to .  If you feel led to donate our paypal button is located on the side of the blog.

Most of all, we ask you to pray, pray, pray that God will work in this in ways we have watched Him all along!! He has blessed us with this amazing family and we would love to give the boys the COFFEE name by August.  Lots of Love from all of us!!!

Elijah update....

Hi :)  Eli is doing ok, but it was a rough couple of weeks.  For those who don't know how it all started I noticed that Eli was having some labored breathing and that his color was a bit off.  I took him to the pediatrician and she said his retractions were okay since he sounded clear and he was to see his cardiologist the next day.  I think i layed awake next to him all night watching him breath, it was scary!!  The next day we took Eli to Dr . Orie who also said he sounded clear and that in some babies with ds their esphagus can be a bit "crushed" causing the retractions.  Thursday was still breathing hard and by Friday I thought enough was enough.  David called the ped and came home early to go with us to see her.  Glad he did, she sent us to the hospital via ambulance.  I rode with Eli while David took Caleb home to my mom who was watching Gabriel.  His sats were only 82....should be 94 at the lowest...talk about a scared mom!! 

We got to the ER and they hooked him from the ambulance O2 to theirs and did all the testing again.  With O2 on he would sat at 97 which was ok.  Unfortunately, he was going to have blood drawn and an IV placed.  This is SO hard for Eli.  With ds they usually have flat veins.  It took 9 yes NINE sticks to get the blood and IV.  Eli was crying hysterically as was I :(

We were admitted to the eighth floor and there we stayed until Sunday afternoon when they thought Eli was stable enough to send us home on O2.  In the elevator he scared me, but he was okay, then the ride home too...he seemed short of breath even on the O2. (The reason would be revealed at a later date)  We went home and brought his crib mattress on the living room floor so I could sleep on the couch and be next to him.  We all took a much needed nap.  Eli woke and seemed hungry so we tried to feed, but he wasn't interested so we put his feed through his tube.  A few short hours later David and I both thought he looked blue and then he was really retracting...we called 911 and they wisked him away (with Daddy this time as Caleb was really upset so I stayed a bit with him....talk about gut wrenching on all accounts)  David called and said that he was stable and on O2.  I got Caleb to sleep and headed off to the ER.  We were there for a bit and they decided he needed high flow oxygen.  :(  He did not like this!!  And guess what??  Yep another blood draw and IV...SIX sticks this time...

We were taken up to the 10th floor and David spent the night.  We were informed that he had humanmetanoma virus (a very bad strain of RSV) and CMV (mono).  He stayed on high flow for days and was unable to be weaned off it.  We were sent to the PICU and then sent back to the floor..( I won't even go into my frustration with that!!)  While back on the floor we had an amazing resident who FINALLY listened to my PLEA FROM A MOMS HEART!!!  Please call his cardiologist, I really think he has an issue.  When his cardio finally came (5 hours later...mind you he is AMAZING and in high demand so this time did not bother us too much) he said "everyone wants to blame the heart guy, people he is repaired, this isn't a heart issue".  They sent him for an echo and when we came back to the PICU the cardio hung his head and said "its a heart issue".  Eli had an efusion around his heart.  Not sure if you all know what this is or means, but for us it meant this time in the hospital being sick was nothing short of a blessing!!  Something called tampinad can happen when too much fluid surrounds your heart it squeezes it and can eventually kill you.  In a baby his age we would not have seen any other symptoms.  Crazy thing is as soon as we found the efusion, his wheezing and breathing got so much better!!  God totally used the RSV for us to find the efusion.  GO GOD!!! 

We tried treating the efusion with steroids and motrin around the clock with no changes.  So Monday Elijahs cardiologist in Buffalo and his surgeon in Rochester decided it was time to make the trek to Rochester to have the efusion drained.  Had it been towards the front of his heart they could have done a ultrasound guided needle to asperate, but it was at the back which meant opening him up again.  Finally on Wednesday we took the long ambulance ride to Strong Memorial hospital where lots of familiar nurses and doctors awaited our arrival (well, not ours they were all excited to see Eli again)

Surgery was scheduled for Thursday but we got bumped (had that experience twice before) so we went at 7:30 Friday morning.  The surgeon was able to make about a 2 inch incision connected to his original incision and put the drain in about the same place it was before.  This drain is quite painful and it is hard to watch him try to move being so uncomfortable.   He spiked a fever but got over that quickly and it took a bit to get him to eat for anyone but mommy. 

We are at 4 days post op and are hoping they will pull the drain tomorrow and do the echo and let us go home!! 

We have been SO very blessed by the Ronald McDonald house, I would encourage each and everyone of you to donate time or supplies to one close to you.  We are planning to do something for our local RMH maybe over the summer. 

To those of you who are new to the blog ( I know there are several of you, welcome :)  Feel free to scroll down and read our story as it unfolds.  I will soon finish our story.  Thank you all for your prayers and for blessing us!!  We love all of you.

Tired....

But thankful that God cares for us the way He does and only He can!!  I will endure the sleepies to be with Elijah and walk this journey with him.  It is so hard because I miss my boys at home.   I can't wait to post pictures of Gabe on here, but I need to upload to this computer, but let me tell you he is STUNNING just like his brothers!!

So many have asked me to update, so here I am.  Eli is at Strong Memorial awaitng another heart surgery.  We are tired, overwhelmed and feeling blessed all in the same breath. 

Also, so many have asked how they could help.  We have had to pay out of pocket for meds and are going to have to stay in a hotel here as the RMH is not available at this time.  If you want to give up your coffee for a day to help, every bit adds up.  Our paypal link is on the side of this post.
More than ANYTHING we covet your prayers.  That this can be minimally invasive for Eli and that our stay would not exceed 5 days as they say...I want to be home with all my boys under one roof!!!

Thank you for blessing our family!!  We love each one of you!!

Who knew a walk could feel so good!!

We took Eli on a walk through the hospital tonight. He is free of all lines!! No IVs, no PICC line, only his drainage tube. We still have a few days here though.

Please be praying...

Eli's...

Lungs would clear, he sounds pretty yucky..
That he can keep his feeds down, most likely acresult of the yuckies in his lungs ;(
That his drainage will slow down..
That we can go home!!! I miss my other two babies!!

Praising God for ALL He has done!!

Eli has really changed me in many ways! He has "shown" me Jesus! I am going to wrote about that soon...but today, tomorrow, anytime when it feels like there is nothing left to say, just say HIS name...JESUS!! Blessings today sweet friends ;)