2 years!

Well it's been 2 years since the day we had to give our daughter back to her biological mother. I miss her everyday. There hasn't been a day or moment I don't think about her. Its funny cause Gavin is soooo much like Nikki was but a boy version. I am extremely thankful and blessed with the kids I have today but that doesn't make me miss her any less.

Court Update!

Well last Thursday July 16th there was court for Gavin. We were unable to go because it is such a far drive it makes it hard with the kids and all. Plus Jeremy couldn't get time off being we just returned from vacation so I would have had to go myself. So we didn't make it. But we knew it wasn't a huge court. So here is what happened. The bio mom did not show up (which we knew she wouldn't) so reunification services were terminated. This means that all the services the county offers to the mother to help her get her child back were taken away. What we were anxious to find out was when the next hearing would be set for. So the next court date is set for Nov.12th the day after my birthday. At this hearing they should be set to terminate parental rights and we can finally move forward to adoption with Gavin. This is great news! We were praying it would be sooner.

We wanted rights to be terminated by his 1st birthday which is Oct. 19th. Now this can possibly happen and this is where we need prayer. Most of you know that Gavin is Guatemalan, well his mother doesn't not understand our language or even the spanish we speak here. So understandably she is very confused with things and is fearful. She is under the impression that they want to find her because they want to force her to take Gavin back. That is not the case at all. So we need to pray that they can again find her and that she would come to understand that they aren't trying to force her to take him back and that she can sign the appropriate paperwork to release Gavin for adoption. If this happens in a timely manner there is a good possibilty that the court date to terminate parental rights can be moved up. Now understand that this is something only God can orchestrate. Because she is not from this country it is hard to track her. So we are praying she either comes forward or that she is some how found.

No matter what the day ends up being it all looks great to finally get to adopt our baby. I was telling our social worker today that his case just doesn't feel normal and she asked why? I said cause it has just been to smooth. LOL! With Aaden and Abigail we have had almost 3 years of ups and downs. One minute worrying if their parents would get their act together, the next worrying if another family member would get them. It was just one thing after another all the time. Delay after delay. So all in all Gavin's adoption process has been great and we can't really complain. And best things yet is looks like we can relax this August. Don't want to make it 3 yrs in a row.

As for Aaden & Abigail we are almost complete! I talked to the attorney's office last week and they were sending all the paperwork to us to sign and that we should have a court date sometime in the next 2 months.

We are getting there! Slowly but surely!

Randomness

Well life has been crazy!!! Jeremy and I were in Hawaii for 8 day in early July. I had RFKC the week before that. I feel like I have no time to sit. Yet all I wanna do is sleep. Haha. But I do have lots to post so very soon I will be posting Hawaii pictures, beach pictures with the kids and much more very soon.

I Heart Faces week- 27 Sports in Action

I took this picture this last baseball season. This is at my sons game. All the kids were sliding at this game cause they had just been taught how to slide at practice. They are so cute that young.

Stop on by at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ to check out all the other enteries.

Please leave me a comment. I love to hear what other people think and who all is stopping by.

I Heart Faces week 25- Wedding Bells

Celebrating Wedding Bells at

This was a photograph I took at my very first wedding I photographed. I captured this portrait and LOVED how it turned out. I was so nervous but I am glad the bride and groom and their family had so much confidence in me and they turned out great. It was at this wedding I realized how much I loved photographing weddings and have done quite a few lately. In fact I am headed to Hawaii in just a couple days to photograph a wedding. I can't wait.

Oh how she has grown!

It amazes me how much she has changed!

She is becoming more and more beautiful ever day!!!

Happy Birthday Abigail

Disneyland

So since Disneyland was offering free tickets for your birthday we decided to give Abigail a choice of a birthday party or go to Disneyland! She decided on Disneyland!!! We had so much fun! Every corner we turned the cast members were telling her happy birthday and she LOVED the attention!

We finally got in the park and we saw

Mary Poppins so she wanted a picture with her

After riding a bunch of rides Uncle Brandon wanted to buy
Abigail Mickey Ears with Abigail on them!

These are the ears she chose!

Then Uncle Brandon wanted to treat her to something special. After she got her face painted was may favorite part of the day! It was the longest line we stood in all day but Abigail wanted to do it so did! We went to the Princess Court! She got to meet 3 princesses, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel (her favorites) and Belle! We didn't tell her what princesses would be there cause they rotated quite often. So when we got to the front of the line the guy made Abigail close her eyes and lead her to the first princess which was Sleeping Beauty! She is her all time favorite! Needless to say it was AMAZING! I know she loved i but so did I!

Abigail with Sleeping Beauty

So most people know that I LOVE Ariel! She is my all time favorite disney character! And yesterday she was amazing! I mean I know its just someone dressed up like her but man it is just magical at Disneyland! So Abigail has this thing about sitting like a mermaid when taking pictures! It all started in August of last year when she was in a wedding and now almost every time she takes pictures she wants to sit like Ariel! So in the picture above you can see she is sitting like a mermaid! Well we told Ariel that so she said lets sit on the floor and sit like mermaids! I am not kidding you I almost cried! I was so caught up in the moment I forgot to take a picture with her myself :(

Abigail and Ariel being mermaids


Abigail and Belle

Family

Mommy, Aaden and Daddy with Abigail

Uncle Brandon, Cameron, Sissy, Nana and Papa

Abigail's presents from Nana and Papa

Big Day for Bug!!!

Well Sunday we took Abigail to Claire's to get her ears pierced! This was her birthday present from us! She did a really good job! They didn't do both at the same time so she was a little nervouse about the second earring! She was so excited to have them done! They turned out really cute! They are a little hard to see in the picture but the are little pink flowers! So cute!

I heart faces week 17-hats

Here is my entry for week 17 -hats at I heart faces!

(http://www.iheartfaces.com/)

Gavin is such a ham when the camera comes

out this shots shows it! This was taken in

my backyard on Easter. Enjoy!

Easter 2009

I can't believe Easter has come and gone!! Here are pictures from the Easter egg hunt at church and pictures from Easter at our house! It was fun we had Easter at our house this year being in the new house and all! We had a lot of fun with our family! Enjoy the pictures!

Gavin Michael

Abbie MaelenaCan you say drama??

Aaden Romeo

The kids with the easter bunny!

6 months old and a lost tooth!!!

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted a blog! Bad on my part! Life just gets so busy!

So we went to court for Aaden and Abbie on March 30th and after 2 years, 2 months and 7 days rights were terminated on their birth parents! We were very excited! We have been waiting for a long time!! So now we are offically in ADOPTION!!! Woohoo! It will take another 6-12 months to complete!

Everything is looking great as far as Gavin's case goes! They still have been unable to find the birth mother which works in our favor! So we have court July 16th and they should set the date termination of parental rights!!! So we are getting there!

Gavin is 6 months old

I can't believe he is 6 months old! It goes by so fast! He has tripled his birth weight and is a little over 15lbs now! He is quite the little piggy eating 2 containers of baby food a day! He is sitting upall by himself now! He hasn't rolled over much! Gavin has such a mellow temperment! He is such a boy! His smile just lights up our day! Here is a recent picture of my big boy!He is a ham when the camera is out! He loves being a big boy!

He is Aaden and Abbie's biggest fan!

It's offical Aaden lost his first tooth!

He is so excited! We told him to go eat an apple cause the tooth was really loose! So thats what he did and the next thing you see is his tooth fly out! We are excited that the grill is slowly leaving!!

I can't believe its been almost a month since my last blog! We have just been so incredibly busy! For those of you who don't know I officially have my new photography website it is http://pureblissphotography.org/! Please check it out! God has been so amazing the last month and has provided me with some amazing opportunities for my business! I have just been so amazed! I was asked in early January to photograph the Upwards basketball and cheer leading program at our church! It was a huge job! I photographed almost 300 children! It was crazy! But God knew what He was doing because it allowed my work to go to all those homes! Well all the pictures have come in and been given out and the response has been great! God has just opened up some amazing things! Just last week I was able to do a photo shoot for the Quartz Hill HS varsity soccer team! It was so much fun! But what a great opportunity to do this and get my name out to all these families involved! I just booked a small wedding today for April and one thing Jeremy and I are so excited about is I was asked to photograph a wedding in Hawaii this summer! We are so excited about this opportunity to take this trip! Yes its "work" but its "work" in Hawaii! So we are excited to be going to Hawaii this summer for 8 days! We will also make this our anniversary vacation! The wedding is on our anniversary of when we started dating July 5th, 8 years ago this year! Crazy! So needless to say God is doing some awesome things with my business!

On the home front we are doing well! Gavin had a court date in late January and it didn't go how we wanted exactly but such is life I guess! We were hoping that the mom would finish signing the relinquishment papers and if that didn't happen that they would fast track him! Well neither happened! As of right now it's gonna be a long process like Aaden and Abbie's has been! So for whatever reason God wants us here right now! not sure why but we are here!!!
On January 23rd Aaden turned 6! I can not believe he is 6 already! We had a great b-day party on the 24th and just celebrated him getting older! On the 23rd we also got to celebrate Aaden and Abbie being with us for 2 years now! I am just amazed at how much they have changed in 2 years! I thank God everyday He blessed our lives with our kids! I know this wasn't the road I had ever planned for my life! But everyday I am so thankful that God knows what is best for us because I LOVE my kids and we had to go thru the things we have gonna through to have them!

Aaden & Abbie's Update

Sorry I guess I could have done this last week! I totally forgot! But we had court for them on the 6th! It was continued till March 30th! This should finally be the day rights are terminated! I sure hope so!
Well tomorrow is Gavin's court date so please keep it in your prayers!
Other than that we are doing well! We are getting ready for Aaden's birthday! I can't believe he is gonna be 6 already! And that they have been apart of our family for 2 years now! I am amazed!

Have a blessed day!

Update on Gavin's case and latest Dr's Appt.

So Gavin had a doctors appointment today! He is growing so well! It just amazes me how much he has changed and how much love I have for that little guy! He is actually 2 1/2 months and he is the perfect weight the doctor said! He is 11lbs 3oz and 23" long! He is in the 50% for height and 25-50% for weight! His little belly button was still oozing yucky green stuff and he still had a little piece of umbicial cord coming out (sorry I don't remember the technical term) but they basically burned it and it will fall off! sounds bad but it didnt hurt him at all! He had to get 2 shots and it was so sad! He is still not having such a great day cause of them!
During the exam the doctor did find a heart murmer so he had to have a chest xray this morning too! So we are praying that God would just take care of his little heart murmer.
Other than that he is doing just great!
I just got a court update on Gavin! We need some big time prayer! Everything is still looking good but it is looking like this could be a long case! Here are the possibilities!
I guess they had begun the relinquishment process with Gavin's biological mother and they recently have been trying to get ahold of the mom and they have been unable to contact her! This creates a problem or can I should say! We want this adoption to just become a for sure thing!
1. If they get ahold of mom they can have her finish the relinquishment paperwork! That would free him for adoption and we would finally be able to move forward with the adoption! Which they say he would be adopted by the time he is 1!
2. If they can not find mother they will go to court and give her reunification services and begin a du-diligance on her! basically that is the process of finding her! This will take a minium of 6 months! If at that time they still haven't found her they will do a publication which is another 90 days! If at that time still nothing they will move forward with terminating rights and we would be able to move into adoption which takes 6-12 months to complete! If this is the process we go thru with Gavin he will be a year old by the time they are ready to terminate rights from a mother who wanted it to happen from the get go! And he would be almost 2 by the time his adoption was complete!
3. But we did hear that the judge has every capability to put Gavin on a fast track which means they go straight to termination of parental rights! This would free him up for adoption! They say fast track kids take about 6 months to complete!
So we are asking that you pray either the first scenario or the third scenario happens! We want to avoid the second completely!
When Aaden and Abby came to us their next court day was supposed to be termination of parental rights and now almost 2 years later we are STILL trying to terminate parental rights! We actually go to court tomorrow Jan. 6th and we are supposed to be terminating parental rights! But just last week we were told there is a good chance for another 90 day continuation! For something that is so dumb!!! So we really dont want to go thru this with Gavin too! It is a horrible emotional roller coaster and we are ready to get off!!

2009 Prayers & Goals

Well I didn't really want to make a reslution at New Years because I NEVER keep them! Especially the weight loss one! But I did want to accomplish some goals and have some prayers! The goals I have every ability to control them but my prayers I have no control. Which for me is a very hard thing because I like to control things! I like to know whats going on! So Jesus take the Wheel is a song I really want to come true in my life! 2008 was an extremely hard year for us! Lots of ups and downs but some how we pulled through it! So we are just praying God will bring us a season of miracles in 2009 cause we are ready! So here are my goals and prayers for 2009

2009 Goals

~Spend more time in prayer and the Word

~Bring in more photography business! I would like to shoot at least 2 weddings!

~ Go on at least 2 vacations with my family

~Buy a Dyson vacuum! (A pink one LOL)!

~ Get debt paid off

~Quit drinking Dr. Pepper (soda in general)

~ Lose at least 50lbs

~ Work on becoming a better wife, mom and friend

2009 Prayers

~ That the adoptions for Aaden , Abigail & Gavin will be completed

~ For us to get pregnant! I want to have the faith of my kids! I know they dont know why the doctors say we can't have kids but they have faith that could move mountains! They pray for a baby in mommy's tummy every time they pray and they pray that believing it will happen! I wanna be able to pray like that and believe like that!

So those are my goals and prayers for 2009! I know I can't do them all alone! So please pray with me, help me (esp the Dr. Pepper thing hahaha)! I am truely blessed with amazing friends and family and I thank God for them daily!