A Long Overdue Update

Hi Friends! It has been quite some time since we've written--not because we don't have anything to share, but because we've been so busy. Miles is growing and changing every day. He gas gone from a little five-pound bundle to a fourteen pound chunk! He is always so alert and interactive when he's awake, and such a wonderful sleeper at night. His favorite things are being outdoors, riding forward-facing in the Baby Bjorn, batting at his toys, looking in the mirror, eating, and talking with us. He's not so fond of riding in the car, tummy time, and getting dressed. As you can see, the "favorite" list is much longer than the "un-favorite" list, and that describes Miles's personality well. He's such a happy, laid-back baby, and he brings us so much joy!

Many of you have asked how Grant has adjusted to being a big brother. He loves Miles so much, and is very kind and gentle with him. The main thing we have noticed is that he has all the sudden "lost" certain abilities--such as the ability to feed himself. Of course he hasn't actually forgotten how to eat, but when we sit down to dinner he pleads, "feed me, feed me!" Although this is quite humorous since he has been eating by himself for years, we do realize that he is needing some extra love and affection since his place as only child has been permanently lost. It's been good for him, though, and overall he is thrilled to have Miles as a part of our family.

I have to sign off for now, but I will try to update more frequently with pictures and news. Oh, one more thing. November 4th is the scheduled date for the termination of birthfather rights. We are extremely grateful that God has so far answered our prayers and yours, and everything has gone smoothly. Thank you all for praying.

Love,

Jill, Stephen, Grant, and Miles

A Picture is worth a thousand words...

In our home lately we haven't had too much time for blogging. (Hmmm...I wonder why? :) Miles is a wonderful baby, but of course caring for him is 24/7, and we couldn't be happier. We just wanted to share a recent picture...can you tell that Miles is now 11 pounds?

Happy Birthday, Miles!

On Sunday, Miles will be one month old. Even though we have not had him with us for all of his first month, our time with him has flown by.

As you all may have guessed, we are now home and in the full swing of 24/7 baby care. Miles seems to be as happy to be home as we are. He is doing really well on his feeding/sleeping schedule, and does well at night. He is such a blessing from the Lord, and we absolutely love having him in our family.

Miles is ready to eat again, so this is a very short post. We hope to be at church on Sunday, so those of you who are there will hopefully get to meet him then. I will try to post more soon...

Heading Home

This is just a quick post to thank you all for praying--our Interstate Compact went through really quickly, and we are headed home tomorrow (Friday)! We are driving and will be stopping over with some dear friends tomorrow evening, then returning to Virginia on Saturday.

Miles had his first big outing today at the Georgia Aquarium which he loved :) He seemed to get as much attention as many of the fish did.

Virginia, here we come!

First Week with Miles

Today, Miles has been with us a week. In some ways it has flown by, but in others it has seemed quite long (especially at night :). Miles is such a cute and happy baby, and we love every minute with him--even the 2 AM feedings. Recently he has had some minor tummy troubles with gassiness/burping, but we're hoping a change in formula and some other small adjustments will help him.

We heard from our adoption agency today that Georgia has given approval for us to leave the state, and now it's up to Virginia to let us return. We hope to hear something by Thursday, and then we will return home over the weekend.

This past weekend my parents drove down to visit their new grandson. It was so nice to have them here, and we all enjoyed Baby Miles together.

We have a specific prayer request for all of you who are so faithfully praying. We have recently learned that the termination of birthfather rights might not be as straightforward as we had originally thought. At this point this isn't a big cause for concern, but it could potentially make it so the birthfather rights aren't terminated for another month and a half. Please pray that there won't be any issues with this, and that it can be done quickly.

Thank you all so much! We can't wait to introduce you to our little man.

~Jill

Pics

We've been snapping pictures every chance we get, and here are some of the most recent. Enjoy!

After Bath

Thoughtful Miles

Mommy Time

Smiles

Winking Already!!??

Baby Miles

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's taken a little while to update. Our day yesterday was wonderful but very, very long. We logged a lot of miles on our rental car.

The doctor's appointment went great, and from there we signed placement papers at the caring home, and then headed to the family's home where we are staying. After dropping off Anna and Grant, we headed back to the other side of Atlanta to meet the birthmom. We ended up not doing dinner as she was tired and had a long day, but we talked for a few minutes in a parking lot. We are so grateful we had the opportunity to meet her and express our thankfulness for the precious gift we have received.

Miles is on a good eating schedule (thanks, Norry! :), and he did quite well last night. The only thing is that he thinks 3:00 AM is party time, but we have plenty of time to work on that. He has been awake a lot today, so maybe he'll be worn out tonight. We still can't believe he's here with us for good. Grant loves having a brother, and even shared his new train with him. If you know Grant at all you know that he loves diesel trains, and the fact that he shared on his own initiative is quite significant.

We are so grateful to be able to share our joy with all of you. God has been kind to us in so many ways, but today we are especially thankful for God answering our prayers and bringing us Miles. We will put more pictures up over the next few days.

~Stephen, Jill, Grant, Miles, (and Auntie Anna)

A Big Day

Hi Everyone!

Here we are in Georgia, and today is our big day. We had a wonderful trip yesterday and some time in the evening last night to just hang out and get ready for today.

As of 12:00 AM this morning (or last night, if you prefer), Miles's birthmom can't change her mind--her revocation period is over.

Our social worker called yesterday, and in addition to getting to meet our precious little boy today, we will also get to meet the birthmom. We were expecting to get to do this at some point, but not necessarily today. So, here is our schedule:

!:00--meet the caring home mom at the doctor's office for Miles's first check up (we're so glad we get to go to this with him)

3:30-4:00--go back to the caring home and meet our social worker there for the official placement

7:30--meet the birthmom for dinner with Miles and the social worker

Thank you all so much for praying for us. We are so excited and overwhelmed by God's goodness. We will add some pictures from today when we have a chance.

~Stephen and Jill

Moving Ahead

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let you know how things are going. We have purchased our plane tickets, and we will be meeting Baby Miles for the first time on Tuesday, July 20th. We will arrive in Georgia on Monday afternoon, and Tuesday will be the official placement. At that time, the birthmother's revocation period will have ended. We talked with our social worker yesterday, and she feels very sure that the birthmom is confident in her decision and will not change her mind. Of course anything can happen between now and then, but there are some circumstances we aren't able to go into that make that extremely unlikely.

We had the hardest time coming up with a name we liked for him. Although we had a list of names to pick from, once we saw pictures of him they just didn't seem to fit. Last night we decided on the name Miles, and we are really happy with it. The caring home mom said that the name suits him really well.

Miles is growing quickly and doing great. He is already over his birth weight!

We have several prayer requests, and we would so appreciate your prayers. First, please pray for Grant. This past year has not only been emotional for us, but for him as well. I don't think we realized how difficult it is on him until the other night. During dinner, Grant stopped our conversation and said, "let's pray that our baby comes to be with us soon." We did that, and then again he stopped us and said, "and let's pray that the mommy doesn't change her mind." As we talked with him, it became clear that he is afraid we will get the baby and will have to give him back like we did with the first baby. We were able to explain to him that once we go to Georgia and meet Baby Miles, we won't have to give him back. This seemed to comfort him.

Also, please pray that our paperwork would go through quickly (and close to a weekend), so we can bring Miles home, and so Stephen won't have to take off much work for travel home. Stephen's work has an office not far from where we are staying, and his boss is graciously allowing him to work from there. We are planning to drive home, so Stephen will have to take some time off for that.

Thank you, friends!

More pictures :)

Picture...

Here is our adorable little guy! We have several names we like, and we're in the process of deciding which to pick.

He was discharged from the hospital this evening, and the social worker said all the nurses were sad to see him leave because he's such a good baby. He's already eating three oz. or more at feedings (which is great for him being so little), and sleeping four hours.

This is starting to feel a bit more real. Even though it's strange to think, over the past six months we've become used to waiting. It has been so hard, but it had become familiar. Now we feel as if we're emerging from a fog into the new and unknown. Our comfort and hope is in the fact that nothing is unknown to God, and adoption is his idea in the first place.

I (Jill) was also able to visit for awhile on the phone with the very kind lady who will be caring for our little one over the next 10 days. She was so warm and joyful, and it was obvious she knew what she was doing. We are so blessed to have this option of him being cared for during this time, although of course we would love to see and hold him now.

We will hopefully have more pictures soon.

~Stephen and Jill

Tuesday, July 20th...

is when we will get to see and hold our little boy for the first time. We just got word that our birthmom signed the relinquishment papers this morning, and our baby should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. He is doing so well--eating like a champ!

We are thrilled and a little in shock. We have gone into this situation knowing that at any point it could fall through, especially after learning some additional information about the birthmom's situation. However, things have kept moving forward, and praise the Lord the baby is healthy, strong, and perfectly formed. We learned that despite his early birth his APGAR score was 9 and 9!

Please continue to pray for us as we are now in a flurry of figuring out how we will go to Georgia and return home. We are still discussing our options, and at this point we are thinking we may fly down and drive home. Thanks so some kind, generous, friends of friends, we have our housing situation taken care of while we are there, and that is a huge blessing.

We hope to have some pictures to post tomorrow!

~Stephen and Jill

Baby Born!

We just talked to our social worker (whose name is Charlotte for future reference), and she said the baby was born at 1:50 AM this morning, weighing 5 lbs, 8 oz! It sounds like everything went well, and when he was born it appeared that he was closer to 36 weeks gestation instead of 34. He didn't require oxygen or even need to go to the NICU, so we are extremely grateful for all of your prayers. He is being checked out by the pediatrician now, and if everything is ok he should be released in the next day or two.

At this point the birthmom will sign paperwork tomorrow morning that releases the baby to the agency, and after 10 days we will go to be with him until the paperwork goes through that allows us to bring him home.

We are really excited, and will keep you posted on details!

~Stephen and Jill

Baby News...

Hi Friends,

We have anxiously awaited this day to find out more about our birthmother's due date and the baby. She had a doctor's appointment this morning, and we got a call from our social worker shortly after. She said the doctor sent her on to the hospital since her water had already broken!

I just received another call from the social worker, and the birthmom is now in full labor and expected to deliver soon. We are excited but also a little concerned, as she is not due until early to mid August. However, the doctor was able to do a sonogram before sending her to the hospital, and the baby appears to be already well over 5 pounds. Also, the birthmom has a history of delivering early, and her other babies were born at this weight, all healthy, and without complications.

Please pray for us tonight as there are many uncertainties. We are so grateful that the baby appeared healthy in the sonogram. Please join us in praying that the baby would be fully developed and able to eat, breathe and otherwise function without any complications.

We will be sleeping with our phones on tonight, as our social worker will call us with any news. Oh, and in case your wondering......




It's a boy!!!!!

Waiting...

Hi Everyone,

You're probably wondering why you haven't heard any updates from us in awhile. At this point we are just waiting. We found out last week that the baby may not be due as early as we originally thought. We hope to know more on Wednesday after the birthmom has a doctor's appointment.

In the meantime, please remember us in your prayers. If this adoption is successful, we will travel to Georgia for up to two weeks, and we are trying to prepare for that while not knowing exactly when that will be. Once the baby is born and released from the hospital, he or she will stay with a family in a "caring home" for 10 days. Georgia is similar to Virginia regarding the birthmother's revocation period. After the 10 days have passed we will travel to Georgia and stay there until we receive approval from the state and are able to bring the baby home to Virginia. (We also had the option to go to Georgia immediately after the baby's birth and be there during the revocation period. However, we--and our agency--feel strongly that we should not do this, for both emotional and financial reasons. If we were to be there during the revocation period, we would risk losing our travel expenses and becoming attached to the baby when we had no guarantees that the baby would be ours. Our birthmother was so gracious about this and agreed to let the baby go to a caring home during the revocation period.)

We are cautiously hopeful that we will be able to adopt this baby, but we have learned through previous experiences that many things can happen, and we are enjoying each day we have together in the meantime. Our desire to adopt is still strong, but it has been tempered by the many events of this past year. Please pray that God would continue to give us hope and joy as we wait, and would fulfill this desire that we truly believe he has given us--to adopt a baby.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, and also for just asking us about how things are going. We are grateful for friends like you.

~Stephen, Jill, and Grant

Some Exciting News...

Hi Everyone,

It has been quite awhile since we have done an update. Thank you all so much for your interest and prayers. We have been so blessed in this waiting time to know we have the support and encouragement of so many of you.

After some long months of waiting, we received word last week that our profile had been chosen by a birthmother! After having several disappointments, we have proceeded cautiously with this news and decided not to publicize it until we were able to speak with the birthmother and make sure we were all on the same page.

We were able to visit with her this afternoon via a conference call, and we are excited that we all agree to move forward in this process. She is due very soon...early to mid July, so we really do hope to have a baby before the summer is up :). We will not know if the baby is a boy or girl until he or she comes, and we are enjoying the suspense of that surprise.

We will keep everyone updated if there are any changes to this plan--we know that only God knows the outcome of this particular situation, and we have learned through this process to be okay with that uncertainty and to continue to trust him even when we don't understand. However, we continue to hope and pray that he would bring us the baby he has for us, and we really do hope this will be the one.

Thanks again for your prayers! Things seem to be moving rather quickly and we plan to update more often, so check back soon.

~Stephen and Jill

Moving Forward

Hi Everyone,

It has been a long month-and-a-half, and we're so thankful for all your prayers and encouragement. Here is an update of where we're at in our adoption adventure.

After much prayer and discussion, we have decided to pursue adoption out of state through an agency in Georgia. We are very confident that the Lord is leading us in this, and we are excited about moving forward. Since we already have our homestudy completed, things could move rather quickly, and we pray they will. But we do realize that it is all in God's timing.

We have submitted our application and are waiting to be formally approved. However, we have been in frequent communication with the agency and have every reason to believe we will be approved.

Please continue to pray for us as we contemplate issues such as travel to Georgia, adjusting our family profile book, and the adoption tax credit. God has led us so faithfully this far, and we know he will continue to be faithful.

~Stephen and Jill

Questions

Hi Friends,

We know a lot of you have questions regarding the decision we made, and how we are going to proceed. Although we feel we can't go into great detail on the blog, please know that first and foremost we want to honor God in all we do, including our decision. We want what is best for this baby, his mom, and our family. After the baby was born, some medical issues (and other potential medical issues) came up that we did not feel comfortable or equipped to handle. Along with this knowledge came a clear sense, one that we believe to be from the Lord, that we were not to proceed.

Some of you may be wondering what we are planning to do with the funds we raised for this birthmother. We are still in the process of working through what is best to do, and no action will be taken until we are able to meet with our adoption agency and discuss how to move forward. If you have any specific questions about this or our decision, please feel free to ask.

Please do keep praying for us. Although we have peace knowing we made the right decision and are following God's leading, walking though this particular trial has been much more difficult than we could have imagined. We are planning to take a "time out" from the adoption process to regroup and pray about how to move forward. We feel quite emotionally drained and in need of rest and refreshment. We so appreciate your kind, encouraging words and your prayers.

~Stephen and Jill

Difficult News

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let you all know that today we made the decision to not move forward with this adoption. We have several reasons for doing so, but it really comes down to us not having the faith to proceed. Although this was a really difficult decision to make, we did not do it lightly, and we have much peace as God continues to lead us. We are glad to talk with any of you who have questions. Please pray for us as we are dealing with sadness and disappointment, and also please pray that the birthmom will have wisdom as she contemplates what is best for her baby. Thank you all so much.

Stephen and Jill

Wednesday's News

Hi All,

I only have a few minutes, but just wanted to let you all know that Jackson is doing really well. He is totally off oxygen and is breathing wonderfully on his own. It is still looking like his difficulty breathing wasn't due to anything serious, but we will know tomorrow evening when his blood cultures come back. He is being given antibiotics as a precautionary measure until we find out about his cultures. We hope he will be out of the NICU by tomorrow evening, and maybe even released on Friday.

We are getting ready to go into a meeting with the birthmother and our Bethany social worker. This process has been more difficult for the mom than she thought it would be, and even though she is still quite sure she is going to go through with it she is having a hard time. Please pray for us as we go talk with her, that we will be gracious and loving, and show God's compassion no matter what the outcome. We hope to have a better feel for how things are looking after our meeting with her.

We are headed home after this meeting to spend tonight at home with Grant. He is still quite sick, and will be getting a dose of antibiotics since it seems he may be getting a secondary infection. Thank you all for your prayers. We'll keep you informed of any new developments.

~Stephen and Jill

More Info

We have had an unexpectedly full day today. Baby Jackson was born at 3:12 PM this afternoon, weighing 8 lbs, 3 oz. We first saw him through the windows of the nursery where the nurses were giving him some oxygen. His blood oxygen levels were not high enough, so he was then taken to the NICU for closer monitoring and more oxygen. This evening we were able to go see and hold him in the NICU. At present, he is doing well, though still on oxygen. The nurses and our pediatrician explained that sometimes babies born by Cesarean don't get the stimulation they would normally get coming through the birth canal, and they take awhile to start using oxygen like they should. We are hoping and praying that this is the case. However, Jackson is being kept in the NICU until at least Thursday night when test results come back to rule out any infection that could also cause low oxygen saturation.

In the meantime, one of the nurses at the NICU kindly offered to check on a room for us at a hospitality house within walking distance from the hospital. They did have a room available, so Jill and her mom are spending at least this first night there to be close by. This is an amazing blessing as it allows us to have quick access to Jack if we are needed, and also to visit the birthmom. Stephen is home with Grant, who is still not feeling well. We will regroup tomorrow and decide on how to plan our next few days.

Please keep us in your prayers. Even though the events of this day happened in an unexpected manner, we know that nothing surprises the Lord. We are so glad to be able to be such a part of Jackson's birth and subsequent care, and we trust in the Lord to let his little body function like it should. Please also pray that there is no infection, and also for Grant's quick recovery. We spoke with our pediatrician today, and she feels it would be safe to bring Jackson home after Grant hasn't had a fever for 24 hours, meaning he would no longer be contagious.

We hope to post some pictures soon--Jack is such a cutie!

Thanks, friends!

~Stephen and Jill

Baby is Here!

Hi All,

We are at the hospital because they decided to do the c-section today rather than tomorrow. We have been able to see Jackson through the nursery window, and we will hopefully get to hold him soon. He was 8 lbs, 3 oz, but we don't know his exact birth time yet--sometime between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM. We will update more later...

Please Pray

Hi Friends,

We are nearing the date of baby Jackson's arrival, and we find ourselves in need of much prayer. Saturday night, after our silent auction fundraiser, Grant developed a fever and bad cold symptoms. This would not normally be a big deal, but it can be very serious for a newborn to catch even a small cold, usually requiring hospitalization. As of today, Grant is still sick. We hope he is well and not contagious by the end of the week when Jackson is released from the hospital, but if not, the baby will not be able to come to our home immediately as we don't want to risk exposing him. Please pray for Grant's quick healing and recovery. We know that God is in control of all things, even illness, and that he has the power to heal. Thank you, friends!

_Stephen and Jill

Silent Auction Outcome

We had a wonderful evening at our silent auction fundraiser tonight. Thank you all for coming and for participating. We just tallied up the amount we made, and it appears that we have made at least $2,806. This is far beyond what we hoped or imagined. We feel overwhelmed by your generosity and grateful for all the help we received to pull this evening off. At this point we have more than enough to give to the bithmother for living assistance, and possibly what we will need for the legal fees as well. Thank you all again--God has been so good to us!

~Stephen and Jill

His name will be...

Jackson Daniel. (We'll call him Jack). We had a wonderful meeting with the birthmother today, and everything is in place for next week's delivery on Wednesday, January 13 at 8:00 AM. We are growing in our faith for this adoption every day. It has been difficult in some ways moving forward and trusting that we are hearing the Lord after what happened with Carver. I think this time we've had a lot more questions, and our social workers have been great about walking us through it all. When it comes down to it, though, we know that God's plans are perfect and he has something better in store. Last Sunday's message (thanks, Vince!) was so encouraging. Looking back at the time we had with Carver, it is tempting to ask "why?" when everything seemed so good, so perfect. And even though we prayed fervently for him to stay, God said "no, this is not my best for you, it will not bring you good." We know that he has heard our prayers, and will not give us a snake or a stone. And even if we never understand why things happen (or will happen) the way they do, we continue to trust that he is good and will work all things for his glory and our good, as he has promised. This fills us with so much hope and joy.

On a different note, we are holding a silent auction fundraiser this Saturday evening to benefit the birthmother as she needs some additional assistance in her recovery period after the baby is born. We think that we have invited all you who live in the area and are keeping up with what's happening in our adoption. However, if we missed you and you didn't get an invitation, please contact Jill. Some email addresses were incorrect, and some of the Evites we sent look like they haven't been received. We would love to have all of you join us for a fun evening of snacks and silent bidding. As mentioned, the proceeds will go to help the birthmom, and any additional amount we make will go toward our legal finalization fees and other baby expenses.

Thanks again, friends, for all of your love and care.

~Stephen and Jill

Birthdate News

Hi All,

We're sorry for the lack of posts over the holiday season. Honestly we haven't had any new information to report up until now. We have received news that a c-section has been scheduled for the birthmom on January 13 in the morning. This is not unexpected, but we weren't sure of the date until today. If she goes into labor before that, however, the baby could be born earlier. We will be meeting with the her one more time tomorrow afternoon to go over some planning items, and then we will continue waiting...

After we speak with her tomorrow we will let you all know the name we've chosen.

On another note, please keep two of our pastors and their families in your prayers. We found out on New Year's Eve that their father, Justin Hinders, passed away. Justin's wife of many years died earlier last year. It had been Justin's constant prayer that God would take her home first so he could continue to care for her. God answered this earnest prayer, and even though we are sad and will miss him, we are grateful that he is now in the presence of his savior and reunited with his beautiful wife.

Thank you, friends, for your care and support. We will update when we have more news.

~Stephen and Jill