Have Passport, ready to travel....SO COME ON ALREADY AND LET US BRING MADISON HOME!

Ok, we officially have Jacob's passport in hand and are ready to go to
Guatemala at any time. We are getting really frustrated to say the least
about this process. As you can tell by the "ticker" up top we have been in
this process now for 1 year, 2months, and 4 days. WAY TOO LONG!!! It is
PAST time to bring Madison home. I am almost positive that our case is our
attorney's oldest (most outstanding) case he has so why has he not given it priority? I understand that other families want their children home just as bad as we do but honestly is it really fair for a family who just started the
process in December to be out of PGN and waiting on a visa already? We
know that there are several families who started after we did and are already out of PGN. Yes, we do know that other cases have not had the paperwork issues we have and that those children might have been born in another area that is more adoption friendly when it comes to processing things timely but
still does it seem fair? I learned as a kid that life was not fair and it
never will be but does it have to be so unfair? We personally feel that
our attorney should be making our case a top priority for the simple fact that it has been in over a year since we started. One would think that it would be in the best interest of Madison to have the case completed before
much longer.
Wayne and I have tried our best to stay positive during this entire process and have tried not to make too many waves. We have let our adoption agency know how frustrated we are and that we question if our attorney is working on our case like he should. We get told that yes he is working on it and that
they understand our concerns, but I can't help but think that due to the
language barrier we are not always getting the entire truth. It is very
hard to have a confrontational conversation with someone when you don't speak the same language.
Our attorney told our adoption agency that he should have our interview sometime this week but I can't help but think that he just says that to keep
from having to answer any more questions. I can tell you that if we don't
have any answers by Monday at the latest (if it is possible with the holiday coming up our agency might be closed) we are wanting to try to find a way to have a conference call with our attorney and our coordinator.

I cannot stress enough on how much we need your prayers about the adoption at this time so please keep praying.

We also want to ask you to please pray for Jacob, he is still having reflux issues as well as "tummy trouble" which keeps him from eating what he should as well as sleeping

Our prayers for some new pictures of Madison have been answered!

We received a medical update and pictures on Madison today. This update has been a very long time coming. We have been praying daily that we hear something soon about her well being and receive some recent pictures. She went to the doctor on the
16th and received a good report. She is 25 pounds and a little under 31 inches tall. She is walking and crawling, this great since she couldn't crawl at all when we were there in March. She was trying to walk and not crawl. She also finally has some teeth. In the pictures we can tell that she has at least two bottom teeth. We are so excited to be able to see how she has grown in the pictures and know that she is doing well. We continue to trust in God that he will bring her home very soon. Our attorney in Guatemala seems to think that our case will have the birthmother interview scheduled really soon and once that is over that our case won't be in PGN long at all. We are praying for her to come home really soon. Since January it has been really hard for us to not get upset and down about this entire process. We have seen other families be able to take their children home and wonder when we will get a break on our case and get to do the same. I have to admit though that if we were told we could have a child home by the end of the month but that it would not be Madison, I would have to tell them that I will continue to wait. I know Wayne feels the same way I do, any other child would not be Madison and Madison is meant to be a part of our family. While we wait we continue to pray that she comes home very soon and also for God to give us the strength to make it through the waiting period. We do not always know the rewards God has for us after a long waiting period but in this case we know that our reward is Madison. Wayne and I absolutely love her more than we can say. We know that everyone else will fall in love with her as well once she is home. We can't wait for Jacob to meet his big sister and for her to meet her little brother. I am sure that will be a day that I never forget.

Please continue to pray for us and that God will bring Madison home to us really soon.

Father's Day picture and still no news

Here is a picture of Wayne and Jacob on Father's Day. As you can tell they dressed alike for Wayne's first Father's Day. Everyone loved their shirts. Jacob is doing really well and changing each day. It is hard to believe that on Wednesday he will be 7 weeks old. I guess time really flies by when you are sleep deprived.




We are still waiting on news about Madison and/or our case. We are getting really frustrated because we have not received any information about Madison's well being since December. We thankfully had our visit in March which helped us get by a few months but now we are craving some information. It is so hard to know she is going through each day learning new things and we have no idea about her life for the past few months. We really need all of your prayers to help us through this time. We really feel in our hearts that we are getting close to the end but no news is really hard to handle.

Still playing the waiting game...

We found out that our attorney has had some interviews this week but unfortunately none of them have been for our case. We did hear that the interviews seem to be going well which is a good thing. We have also read through some other blogs that cases are being released from PGN so we really feel that as soon as we get our interview completed then it is only a matter of time before we will be out of PGN. Please pray that our case has an interview very soon. (As a reminder the interviews are when PGN interviews the birthmothers about the adoption as well as the attorney). Also please pray for Madison's birthmother during this process.
We are still working on getting some information about Madison such as how big she is, is she walking, etc. Hopefully we will have some new information about her case and her very soon.

This past weekend we went to the beach with some of my family. Here are a few pictures of Jacob's first trip to the beach.

(I can't wait to be able to post Madison's first trip to the beach - praying that it will be this summer that I get to post those pictures)







We did not take him any further into the water which is good since he wasn't too happy with just that little bit. I am sure he will grow to love the ocean as much as his Mommy does.

Still waiting...but asking for prayers

We heard from our adoption agency today that our attorney has still not been contacted with an interview time. Our coordinator has asked our translator to please ask our attorney how he feels about this entire process and what he feels about the rumors that are going around about the bribes,etc. We know that Guatemala is currently attempting to conduct over 2000 interviews because they have over 2000 current adoption cases open. We are asking everyone to please pray that our attorney receives an appointment time in the near future for our cases interview so that we might at least have that part over.

Still no news about the adoption

We are still waiting for news about the adoption. All we know is that Guatemala is still currently auditing all adoption cases in PGN. The audit process does include interviews with the birthmothers and the attorneys. As of late last week our agency reported that our attorney had not been contacted with an interview time but as soon as they knew something they would let us know. I understand the reason for the audits and Guatemala wanting to make sure all adoptions are legit but each day means that it is that much longer until our case is finalized. Wayne and I are both trying hard to keep our chins up but having Jacob home has really made us realize how much we are missing with Madison. I always knew we were missing out on a big part of her growing but it never really hit home until we brought Jacob home and we see how much he grows and changes each day. We believe that Madison will be home someday and we pray that someday is very soon but all we can really do is trust in God's timing. I wish I could say that I understand his timing but I really can't and I struggle with it each day. I can only go on faith and trust that his timing is perfect no matter what I might feel right now.
On another note after going through the pregnancy and then the delivery with Jacob it has made me really think about Madison's birthmother. Before, I knew she had to make a hard decision to give Madison up for adoption but I never really understood how hard of a decision it was until Jacob. I cannot imagine carrying him for 9 months, having my love for him grow with each day, going through labor, hearing him cry his first cry, and then giving him up for someone else to raise. She had to make a huge act of faith and trust a family she has never and probably never will meet that we would love her child and want to raise her child as our own. Our love for Madison grows each day and we know that some day we will be a family of four officially (in our minds and hearts we already are a family of four).

Please continue to pray for our adoption and that Madison will get to come home very soon. We also would like to ask you to pray for Madison's birthmother and the struggle she will have to go through of making the decision, of allowing Madison to be adopted, at least one more time (during her interview with PGN).

Jacob is doing good, he has reflux problems which are causing him some tummy troubles but he seems to be getting a little better. Please continue to pray for him as well.

Here is a picture of Jacob after a bath



A picture of Madison on her birthday (it seems so long ago that we took these pictures)

Getting used to the new routine...

Well Jacob has now been home for a little over a week now and I have to admit it has been hard getting used to the lack of sleep. We are slowly getting used to our new routine of being awake every 2 - 3 hours. I would normally complain about not getting my sleep but because Jacob is the reason I will gladly be sleep deprived.
Wayne went back to work today so it was my first full day with Jacob alone and I am proud to say that we both survived.
I think we have already created an issue by spoiling him at such a young age. He loves to be held and rocked which makes it hard when he wakes up and won't go back to sleep without being picked up. But in our defense how can you not want to hold someone as cute as he is and cuddle him when he is this young.

Jacob enjoying some time in his rocking chair


We are still waiting on news about Madison. We know that the Guatemalan President has ordered PGN to audit all current cases and that this audit involves another interview with the birthmother. We are not sure what else this audit involves but know that the entire process can take some time before PGN will start processing cases again. Please keep our case in your prayers and pray that the audit goes well. Rumor has it that some of the officials want to try to guilt the birthmothers into keeping their children. We do not now if this is true or not but would ask that you all pray for the best outcome for our case and that no "dirty" work is done. I truly believe that God has Madison planned for our family and that our birthmother made the very difficult decision to give her a better life.
We are praying that one day very soon we will be able to post that we are officially a family of four.

The saying on Jacob's onsie says it all!

Shirt says: "Instructions Not Included"

Today has been our first full day at home and it has been very long. It is no joke when people say that no two babies are the same. Wayne and I both have limited experience with newborns so Jacob's first night home was an experience. The evening started off well and fairly uneventful. We made it home late yesterday afternoon and took some much needed naps, then Jacob's Grandmamma and Papa Greg, and Greg's mom Betty came over and brought us dinner. We had a good visit with them and Jacob did great the entire time. About 1 am when it was time for him to eat again he woke up and refused to go back to sleep. He had terrible gas pains and was acting hungry the entire time. Wayne and I were both up with them for several hours through out the night. About 6 am he finally went back to sleep for a bit.
We both were wishing for a take home nurse during that time to help us out. Our limited experience with newborns always came with an experienced person there as well until last night. If Jacob had an instruction manual we would have read the entire thing last night and memorized it.

The day today has been much better, after getting his gas pains under control he sleeps better and seems to be back on track with how he was in the hospital.
We have all been able to get some naps in and relax a little bit more today.
We are praying for a better night tonight. (Prayer is the closest thing to an instruction manual we have since God created him).

We are still waiting on news about Madison but trusting that since we are in PGN everything is moving along as needed.

We can't wait for our entire family to be together under one roof.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.


Jacob enjoying his crib and the bedding - Thanks Nana!

Siblings for sure!

Only God could do this! If you look at the pictures below you will see how much Madison and Jacob look alike as infants. Madison's picture is when she was 3 days old and Jacob's picture is when he was a day old. (And NO, Wayne did not go to Guatemala prior to us visiting Madison in September....hahaha!)

Jacob Arrives On the Scene

Meredith went in the hospital Tuesday night. They started inducing her on Wednesday morning. Sometime around 4 pm Meredith's doctor came back to check on her and stated that Jacob's head still had not dropped like he would like and recommended at that time that she have a C-Section. We talked it over and decided that getting the C-Section done would be the best course of action, so at 6:30 pm they started prepping her for it. Jacob was delivered at 7:41 pm on 30 April. He weighed 9 pounds 12.2 ounces at time of delivery and was 20 1/2 inches long. We also found out that he was breech, so its a good thing that we did decide to have the C-Section done because his head would have never dropped like the doctor was wanting it to. Now for the moment that you have all been waiting for here he is.......