Christmas '08

Whitney is still very sick, she didn't even want to open her gifts.

Finally she starts helping Daddy unwrap a gift!

Ooooohhhhh, flash cards!!

Stackable boxes from Grandpa!! You can see a little smile here.

Horses from Great-Grandma, they were a huge hit!

At first she didnt know what to think about Elmo Live, but she warmed up after awhile!

Drake slept through the whole thing. He made out well though!

W had a great Christmas! We stayed home and opened gifts and ate lots of good food. Whitney is still sick so she didnt really get into the whole gift thing. She still hasnt played with them yet. She is still battling that 24 hour bug but since her immune system is so low, she is still sick. We took her to the doctor again today and he gave us some suggestions on what to do with her. But if she doesn't start getting better then he is going to admit her to the hospital for fluids. She lost a pound since Monday and since she is so little anyway, that is a huge worry for us. So please pray for Whitney, her poor little body needs some help healing.

Baby Pictures!

Sick Baby! Whitney crying because Drake is too!

Here is Drake crying, therefore, Whitney is too! FUN!

Whitney has a stomach bug and is sick, sick. She just doesnt know what to think about Drake yet. She wont get near him so I havent been able to take a picture of the two of them yet, other than our family picture. Every time he cries, she cries so that has been interesting! Drake is doing well though. He had a bath today and cried the whole time. He is eating and sleeping well. Here are some pictures from today!

Update on Baby Drake

We are now home with our baby boy, Drake Cason. Its been a very emotional few days and we are so happy to be home. We got a text message from birth mom today saying she wanted us to come get the baby, so here we are!

Here is what happened. On Wednesday Bert and I went to North Platte to meet with the Childrens Home and the BP to discuss the birth plan and to go to her last OB appt. We got there and she was having contractions so the doctor sent us to the hospital. After monitoring her for a couple of hours they decided the baby needed to be born that day because his heart rate kept going down. I went in the OR with her and got to see everything. He was born at 2:46pm weighing 6lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long.

When dealing with an adoption if the Birth Parents say they have Indian Blood then by law a letter to the tribe has to be sent saying this baby was born. With Whitney the tribe did not want her because of her medical issues. Last night our caseworker came in and told us the news that this baby is eligible for enrollment. This is a bad dream come true. I went to my room and lost it, I have read up on this tribe and know the conditions in which they live. So right now Drake is with us in foster care, kinda like Whitney was. We have to wait until the tribe gets back with us to see if they want him. If they don't then the Birth Parents have to go to court to relinquish their rights. If the do want him, they can take him to go live on the reservation. But its highly unlikely that they will because the bloodline is so far back and because we have his full sibling. We went through this with Whitney so we know what is going on. We have faith that God's Will will be done.

Drake is our family now and we treat him as so just like we did with Whitney. Look forward to seeing lots of pictures and updates and we can't wait for everyone to get to see him soon!!

Small Adoption Update

I am too tired to say much but we wanted to let all of you know. Baby boy was born yesterday and is doing great. We were there and I saw him being born.

Something came up tonight and we may not be able to bring this baby home. We are waiting for more information but thought it was best to remove ourselves from the situation and come home.

I cannot share what is going on, its very hurtful, but we will, in time. We wanted to thank everyone who has prayed for us and for this baby. We need more prayers. Most important for this baby boy, for our family and for the birth parents. We will know more on Saturday if we can bring him home and I will update again then.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart. We have heard that more times than we can count and are sick to death of it. We knew what could happen and we laid our hearts and our lives out there anyway. Whitney will know that we did everything we could to bring her brother home, that we fought for him and that means the world to us.

For the first time in months we are putting our family first by walking out tonight and we couldnt hug our daughter hard enough when we saw her

Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. We love you all.

Merry Christmas!

CHEESE!

Here she is in her new Christmas dress. She had to have her picture taken in her Elmo chair of course! She is doing great, saying and doing new things every day. She has 7 teeth coming in right now and she has not complained one time! She will have 15 total! We will be staying here for Christmas because of our new arrival coming the day after. But we will be thinking of everyone that we can't be with!

Happy Thanksgiving and Baby Boy Update!

Baby Boy at 36 weeks!

Grandpa and Whitney for Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving, Grandpa came up and ate with us. We showed him around McCook and decorated for Christmas! We had so much fun!

Yesterday I took Whitney to meet her Birth Parents and to go to the doctor's appointment. We saw the baby on ultrasound and everything looks great. He is about 4 lbs and 2 oz with just over 3 weeks to go. The planned c-section has changed to December 26th at 9:30am. We will need all the prayers we can get.

In the state of Nebraska the Birth Parents have to wait 48 hours before they can sign relinquishment papers. The baby will stay in the hospital until after the papers are signed and our plans are to be at the hospital as much as we can during that time. After the papers are signed we can bring him home. Nebraska also requires that the baby be in our home for 6 months before we can legally adopt. So the adoption will take place next summer sometime. We did this with Whitney so we know what to expect. The difference is that no long lost relative can take this baby away like they could when we went through foster care. So as soon as he comes home, he is basically ours. We know that some of you had a concern about that but we are confident that as soon as the papers are signed he is ours forever.

This process has been amazing and I can't say enough how honored we are to be able to get to be the parents to these kids. Our hearts could not be happier. Thank you to everyone who has been following all of this and been supporting us. Its not easy but its better with so much support.

Go Tech!

Guns Up, I'm a little Red Raider!

Whitney is all ready for the game to start! Thanks Aunt Becca for the cute onsie!

Whitney and Adoption Update!

Big owie, right in the middle of her forehead. She smacked right into the sidewalk!

She is getting so big, not a baby anymore!

Snuggling next to dada.

So many teeth!!

Whitney is doing very well. Our goal now is to get her to gain as much weight as possible. She is on a high fat diet and is now 18 lbs! She is saying lots of words and doing just about everything that the big kids do! We are having so much fun with her, all she does is smile and laugh!

The adoption process is coming along very well. We still are in shock that we are adopting again. Its so very hard but so exciting and wonderful too.

Tomorrow we have our last interview and then our home study can be written up and completed. We met with the birth parents last weekend, our first time meeting them, and it went well. We had a lot of our questions answered about Whitney and about them, it was really good. I was invited to the next doctor's appointment for birth mom, I am excited to get to go. I think at this appointment we will get to pick a day for the scheduled c-section. As of now she wants us at the hospital for the birth and me in the delivery room if the hospital allows. It's all becoming more real for us now and we are starting to prepare and be more excited!!

We will update more when we get closer to the birth. Thank you for all your support!

"Accidental Adoption"

"Accidental Adoption"
Have you ever noticed that you hear all the time about "accidental"pregnacies, but never about couples who experience "accidental" adoptions? Can you imagine:

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.

What is it?

Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went to the mailbox today and... well, we got a 171-H.

A what?!? A 171-H? As in, we're going to have a(nother) baby?!?

It looks that way.

But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A forms. Didn't you hide our home study update?

Of course I did, but don't forget, there was that one night...

What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night, But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles).

It was, wasn't it? I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.

So now we've got our 171-H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?

I already did.

And?

I'm five documents along.

Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated okay?

Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the Notary's middle initial but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.

Thank God. And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?

I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.

Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I'm happy.

Author Unknown

Evening at the lake!

Getting ready to run down the big hill!

Oops....fell down!

Back up again running down the hill!

Daddy giving Whitney a ride back up the hill!

We went to the lake on Saturday evening to see if we could find some deer and turkey. We didn't have much luck, just saw one young buck! Whitney had a great time even though it was really cold!

Halloween!

She did not want her picture taken!! She was too busy trying to get to the next house!

Daddy and the Little Flower!

Whitney and Colton getting ready to go out for candy!!

The cutest little flower and fireman EVER!!!

Mommy and Whitney!

Halloween was definitely one for the record books! The day started out very eventful. Whitney decided that she did not want her mic-key button anymore so she went to her room, alone, and pulled it out. She didn't even make a sound when she did it, then she went on about her morning playing. Mommy noticed a little while later when Whitney had milk dripping all down her shirt. Milk that had come out of her tummy through the hole!! So after a few minutes of panicking...mommy could not get it back in because the hole was already too small. So off to the ER we went. Poor baby girl was in so much pain as the Dr tried to put it back in without surgery. After dilating the area with steel rods and after 30 minsof trying to cram the button in a hole that was too small the button was back in. I have to tell you that that was the most painful thing I have had to do in my year of being a mother. Whitney cried and screamed for a full two hours after we got home. It was so sad. She now wears onsies under her clothes at ALL TIMES!! But she took a long nap and was ready for trick or treating that evening. She loved it and everyone loved her as a little pink flower!!

Pumpkin Carving!

Tying to pick up that pumpkin!

A hand full of seeds, what will she do with them?

Very nice, all over the face. She tasted them and then spit them right out!

Daddy working on his pumpkin!

Bert's Pumpkin! Turned out great!

Here is mine, not so great!

Today was so nice here. We took advantage of it and carved pumpkins! We had a great time. Whitney helped and loved to see them lit up!

Enjoying the day

It was in the 70's the other day so Whitney decided she wanted to enjoy her swing!

Cutie!!

Whitney is growing like a weed and thinks she can do anything! She is a little daredevil!

We are starting the homestudy process for the new agency. This time we have to do all the leg work, and its a lot! But we don't mind, it will be worth it. We are starting to go deeper with this open adoption business. Soon Bert and I will meet Whitney's bio parents and will have a reunion for Whitney. This is necessary so we can be at the birth and it be a positive experience. We are excited but a little nervous.