The girls having fun on our camping trip...

Camping and relatives

We just came home from a camping excursion. It was a blast! We met up with Matt's family. We had days filled with lots of great food, bike rides, swimming, and relaxation. Can you imagine this crew coming at you on a bike trail? We owned the road. Our dog Moses pulled Matt up the hills on his bike. We ended up with two accidents. One was with my brother in law...that one we all had a good laugh at. The other one was with our little nephew Jaxon. He lost control of his bike and wiped out down into a ditch. His accident freaked us out, but he came out just fine.

Before we hit the campground we went to visit Matt's grandma and relatives. It was fun to introduce Hudson to them all. They live by a river and this photo was taken on their dock. It was a beautiful and tranquil morning. The water was a pure mirror, the air still, and the photo opp was screaming at me.

This is Hudson with Matt's cousin Sue. Hi, Sue...bet you didn't think I would put this on my ol' bloggity, but I did!!! :) It was fun seeing you. Thanks for all of your support of our adoption!

Here's the four generation pic. Matt's grandma was so cute with Hudson. I was a little scared when she went to hold him. He is a strong and heavy boy. When he shifts in your arms, you have to be ready for it. I sat right by his 88 year old grandma with my hand on his back...it's the protective mama in me.

another installment of cuteness...and stuff

Hudson's first time in the pool. He was so adorable!

(sorry, not sure why his hat is blown out white...but i love how cute his features are in this.)
He had so much fun in the water...and the girls had so much fun with him. We all swarmed him to see his reactions. He splashed himself in the face and everyone starting laughing...he thought he was pretty cute!


Now to the "stuff"---Thank you everyone for your prayers and support with our finalization issues. We have been trying to cover this issue from every angle possible. I'm exhausted, I've spent so much time trying to figure it out. As of right now, it looks like we will need to go to FL to finalize. We don't know the date yet. We talked with an attorney who was incredibly helpful. (It helps that he's a great friend and his wife is a fabulous friend.) Nothing like dealing with legal issues at 12:30am. I called them around 11ish, we talked about the entire situation. I went on to start talking with his fabulous wife. He started researching what he could right then. Then he got back on the phone so he could tell me what he had found out. Since this isn't his speciality he wanted to talk with another attorney he knows that deals with adoptions. He talked with the other attorney who explained that we are dealing with a real "stickler" in the DHS office. This attorney has fought her before on different technicalities, and he said if we were going to try to move forward..."we need to be ready for a real fight". We aren't ready for a fight...so we will head to FL.

I got to admit that it is really frustrating...to deal with DHS and something like this. I guess I'm just frustrated that they couldn't read our post placement reports to see how well Hudson is being cared for. (I know it isn't that simple though.) We all know how many kids in foster care get placed back into sketchy situations, yet here we are ready to finalize and being held up on a technicality. It is what it is, and we will do what we have to do to get everything finalized. I know God is in even this detail. We continue to rely on Him to show us His perfect plan in all of this. We are so grateful for His guidance, His peace, and His faithfulness. We appreciate all of you so very much! God is so good to bring along others who are willing to help us figure this out. Thank you!

Adoption finalization--bumps in the road

Guess it is time for us to share what we are now facing on our adoption journey. Below is an email that we sent out to our family and friends. We are really confused about what to do, so I am asking you all to pray for us. Here is the situation...

Well, one thing we know for sure is that nothing goes according to planned in the adoption journey! We had planned to finalize in a few weeks, however we have hit a glitch in our finalization plans. There is an issue with our original paperwork that was filed...our state will not allow us to finalize due to a box that was checked that said we would finalize in sending state. It is routine for the FL agency to check this box, because of finalization being covered in FL placement fees. However, our state absolutely will not allow them to change this. Other states do not have a problem with changing the finalization state. The FL agency has never run into this. They feel very bad about it.

We have two options now. We can re-file our paperwork through the state of FL and then our state...then hire a private attorney to represent us. This option would cost us anywhere from $800-1500 plus 4 additional weeks (if everything goes smoothly). Our other option is to go to FL to finalize. The cost of going to FL would be for our travel expenses only (hotel, rental car, meals, and airfare--about $300-400 plus airfare) All of the attorney's fees and paperwork fees were covered in our placement fee. All of the paperwork is complete and ready to go...we just have to show up.

We are humbling writing to see if anyone you know might possibly have air miles that are going unused. They could donate the miles to us in order to finalize our adoption of Hudson .

Please join us in praying that we will have very clear direction at this point in our adoption journey. We need to get this figured out very soon, so please pray. We know God has this all figured out, and we want to remain obedient to Him.

Thank you for your support!

Humbly,
Matt and Laura

We did hear that one of Matt's relatives has a ticket that we may be able to use. We praise God for this. We just want to do what the best thing is. We had wanted to have the girls at the finalization...they have been so much a part of our journey. At this point, the most certain option is to just go and get it done. All the paperwork is already completed and ready to go. The frustrating part is that I had already filed all of our papers at our courthouse. We had been issued a hearing time and date. Everything was set. The following morning is when we found this all out. (we could have saved the filing fee had we known) UGH...we're confused! We just want to get this done! Please pray for us...Thanks!

Praying the Bible for Your Children...

I have a little book that I absolutely love...Praying the Bible for Your Children by David and Heather Kopp. I want to recommend it to all of the parents that read my blog. In my opinion this is a must have! My parents gave this to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago and it never grows old. Each page is filled with a prayer and verses to pray for our children. I can find myself getting in a rut of praying the same things over and over again for my children. However each time I open this book it helps direct me to pray for a new area of their lives. It is a sweet encouragement to me. I think it will be for you too! I can not tell you how much you and your children's lives will be blessed by having this as a help for your prayer life.

Stains????

I need to know what your best tips, products and how-to's are for getting stains out. My dd gets all of her clothes dirty, and I can't get them clean. HELP!!!!!!!!

Not so little girl...

Our little girl is turning into a beautiful young lady who loves God. We celebrated her 12th birthday this weekend!!!! We had lots and lots of fun...lots of food, lots of people, and lots of smores!!!

Stef's Blog...

I know some of you have been wondering what happened to Stef's blog. Well, it disappeared into cyber-space, and here is the new address-- http://toliveloveandlaughtoday.blogspot.com/ Just wanted you to know how to find her. :)

A little lesson in baby skin care products for new parents...

When we first adopted Hudson I, of course, was new to the differences in his skin care vs. what I had known. I searched the Internet looking for information to help this new mama out. I've talked with numerous other adoptive parents. I joined a yahoo group for adoptive parents of AA or bi-racial children. For those of you that will be adopting soon or recently have adopted, I wanted to share with you what I have found to be the best products for Hudson's skin and hair. I've tried gobs of products and these are the ones that far outweigh them all.

We love Burt's Bees. It is gentle on his skin. He doesn't break out from it. We use the milk bath, the baby wash, the buttermilk lotion, and talc free powder, the apricot baby oil, and the diaper ointment. All of these smell divine! The baby oil is all natural and mineral oil free. I use it in his hair too. For those of you new to adopting a AA or bi-racial baby, you will find their skin to need much more hydration that you would imagine. Another superb product is Bath and Body Works Lay it On Thick shea butter lotion. This also smells delicious and people always comment on how yummy Hudson smells when I rub this on him.

I did google searches to find Burt's Bees products on clearance. I found them significantly reduced at Vitacost (I think...I can't remember which website I found them on). I've also found some Burt's Bees natural mosquito repellent that I plan on trying on him later this summer...oh, and some Avacado Butter Pre-Shampoo treatment. It can be used as a styling agent and it works well in his hair for that as well. It hydrates nicely and smells good. Both of these were clearanced out so I thought I'd try them. Anyway...I just wanted you to know that you can find them at reduced prices. Target also carries them if you need them right away.

I've tried Coconut Oil...it is nice, but the smell was just a little weird on him. I now use it for baking. :) I used Eucerin cream, but it was pretty hard to spread on him. He would wiggle around and it would get everywhere. :) Ok...I'll stop there, but just know that I've tried a lot! We don't do as many baths, because his skin just can not handle it. We do sponge baths, but keep the actual baths to weekly. We just make sure to keep him lotioned-up.

He is 5 1/2 months now and his hair is really beginning to change. His soft baby hair is growing into kinky curls. It is more coarse and dry. I love it!

I hope this helps some of you out. I know I was so confused about what I should and shouldn't use on him. If there are products that you have found to be great, please leave them in the comments...I'd love to know what other products are great. If you have any questions, please post them.