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Thursday, August 6, 2009

A new beginning...

Life had been plugging along when we got the call...2 young girls are in need of a loving, giving home to live, laugh, love. What better couple to give this to these young girls all of these things and more than Jake & I?!?

Sunday, July 12, 2009
- the call
Our cousin Amber called and told us about Kyra Violet, age 14 months & Aiden-Rose, a.k.a. Rose or Rosie, age 2 years & 10 months. Aiden-Rose will be 3 the day before our Wedding anniversary on 9/19. What a beautiful anniversary present to us to celebrate her 3rd birthday in her new home.

Monday, July 13 - Jake email'd social worker

Tuesday, July 14 - the email from Lindsey
We were contacted back from Lindsey after Jake's initial email to her the previous day. And from that day on it had been a busy few days. We contacted Kyra's social worker Lindsey via email. We heard back from her a day later and she was thrilled we were interested in taking the girls in our home and adopting them as our daughters.

Thursday, July 16 - attended a foster care orientation in Auburn.

Thursday, July 23 - trip to Fresno
Our morning began quite early...5:30am. We drove down to Fresno to meet with Aiden-Rose & Kyra's social workers. We were up pretty early to make the 3+ hour drive to meet with them at 10am. 5:30 comes early but when you have something this wonderful to drive somewhere for it's so worth it. On our way down we stopped and grabbed a quick bite for breakfast as we were pretty hungry. With us we took 4 pictures of our cats to show the girls and the social workers. We were told it would be good for the girls to see our pets. We were also told to bring photos of us and our lives together and what better way to show off pictures of us but with my scrapbooks. So I chose to take a camping album & a Disney album...what else would I take?!? We met the social workers at 10am and talked a bit about the girls before we met them. It was mentioned that Kyra may be a little behind in her motor skills and development but because she is so young they are unable to determine the extent. However since she has been in her new foster home the foster mom has noticed a great improvement. She speaks very little and does not crawl yet but with time it will come. She really took to me and I played with her quite a bit. She really loved the teddy bear we brought her. She really got me with that cute hair, she reminded me of pebbles. J Aiden-Rose was shy at first and she took to Jake really well. She sure does know who Mickey Mouse is. J We brought her a Dora doll and an activity book and she liked the book a lot…she especially LOVED the Dora doll. J This will be embedded in our memories for the rest of our lives. I asked the social worker if we could take pictures and she said as long as the girls were OK with it so Jake asked Aiden-Rose and she said that was OK with her. We only took a few with Jake’s iPhone camera. Aiden-Rose held up her Dora doll so needless to say there are two pictures of Aiden’s doll instead of her. Toward the end of our visit I carried Kyra out to her foster mom but when she saw her foster mom she wanted to stay with me in my arms. The foster mom told that she has never done that with any other people she’s been with since she’s had her in their home. She said to me “She must like you and must be very comfortable with you”. That made me feel soo good. As we left the office I asked Aiden-Rose for a hug and she happily waddled over to me and gave me a big bear hug. It made me so happy I almost cried. We loved being able to visit with the girls for the first time. After we left our meeting we headed over to get our LiveScan where we were fingerprinted. On our way home we stopped by to see our cousin Amber in Stockton. We got home pretty late but had an AWESOME day…especially meeting Aiden-Rose & Kyra.

Kyra Violet - age 14 months old

Aiden-Rose - 2 years, 10 months old

Sunday, July 26 - 1st shopping spree
Today was a good day. We started our day with breakfast at Kim's Country kitchen in Lincoln. Afterwards we headed to Sam's club where we picked up 2 outfits, baby wash and some small activity books for the girls. Then we went over to Wal Mart and picked up a few items...well more than a few items. Hehe. We picked up some outlet covers, diaper bag, baby hangers, a Johnson's baby pack with a bunch of things in it. We went hog wild, it was great. We couldn't help ourselves. After our Wally World trip we went over to Babies R' Us to check out car seats. There we picked up 2 matching car seats, doorknob covers and a cute Dora couch that turns out and has a built in sleeping bag. It's so stinkin' cute. :o) What a fun day today it was. We are looking forward to more shopping sprees in the next couple weeks.

All the goodies we bought


Outfits we bought for the girls


2 matching car seats we got for an awesome deal

Monday, July 27
We spoke with the social worker that is handling Aiden-Rose's case and have set up another visit with the girls on Thursday & Friday of this week. We are so excited to see them again. So after this week we'll know more as to when it is possible to bring Aiden-Rose home with us. Jake also spoke with Becky (his sister) and she told him that she and our cousin Crystal want to throw us a baby/child shower in the next few weeks. We thought that was absolutely soo thoughtful. We weren't sure how this would work but I guess we just had to register somewhere for things we think we might need sooo....we took a ride to Target this evening and made a registry. We weren't sure what date to put down so we put Aiden-Rose's birthday which is 9/19 but had to put 09 instead of 06. Our registry can be found at
Aiden-Rose/Kyra Registry. We also registered on Wal Mart too.

This is pretty cool, Jake found a
DORA toddler bed on Craigslist from a couple that live in Roseville so we made arrangements to meet up with them and buy the bed. We found it to be cheaper from them than to buy the bed & sheet set at Target.

toddler bed we bought from craigslist

9-bin toy storage

Thursday, July 30 - trip of Fresno - 2nd visit
We are down in Fresno now and we had our 2nd visit with the girls today. They as cute as buttons those 2. We had a busy morning, Jake worked till 11 and we headed out of the house around noon to make the 3+ hour drive again. We put the car seats in the truck just in case we were able to take the girls on our own today. And guess what?!? We were able to. We got clearance to have the girls unsupervised. We met the social worker Lindsey at Chuck-E-Cheese at 3:30. Aiden-Rose recognized us right away. Kyra, took a little longer to warm up to us. We ordered pizza and drinks. Man oh man can these little girls eat. I think Aiden-Rose herself ate 3 or 4 pieces of pizza and still wanted more. Kyra ate like a little champ herself. They were so comfortable with us it was AMAZING!!! Aiden-Rose so much wanted to ride in all the moving vehicles they had so needless to say Jake had TONS of tokens at the ready. She especially LOVED the car. As she was riding it while Jake supervised, he turned to me and said "She's already got me figured out!" by meaning he was the man with the tokens. haha...it was so cute! Kyra sat back for a bit before attempting to ride with her Big Sis and finally she looked at me and pointed to the car her sis was in. I assumed that meant she wanted to ride too. We put her in and buckled them in together. She started smiling and giggling and had a good old time. She was so happy. You could tell by the look on her face. At this point, I took the opportunity to take LOTS & LOTS of pictures. You all know me. I'm proud to say that I taught Aiden-Rose how to put both thumbs up and say Aah, like the Fonz. She kept doing it, and she even showed her foster parents she could do it. Aiden-Rose is a little bit of a whisperer but it was also hard to hear her in the loud CEC but she got louder at one point too. LOL Close to 6:30 we had to take them back to their foster home. We sat & got to talk to the foster parents and learn a little about the girls. Very insitful I'd say. We found out shoe sizes, clothes size, diapers...all kinds of stuff we would need to know. Aiden-Rose is still in diapers but once she gets acclimated to her new home, we'll eventually get her potty trained. After we left the foster home and went to
Famous Dave's BBQ. It was super yummy. If you ever visit any of their restaurants you MUST try the sweet mashed potatoes or their creamy mashed potatoes. Yum!!! Here are a few pics from today's visit and a little video of Aiden-Rose on one of the slides at CEC. Tomorrow we visit with the 2 social workers and their supervisors to discuss more about the process and where things are going.

ENJOY THE PICS & THE VIDEO OF AIDEN-ROSE

Friday, July 31 - all day visit with the girls
We spent the majority of the day just visiting with the girls. We picked them up around 12:30pm and took them back to the foster home around 7:00pm. We had such a good time with them. We first took them to Chili's for lunch. They ate really good. Afterwards we took a trip to Target for a mini-shopping trip for toys & snacks. Afterwards we took them over to the Fashion Fair Mall for some playtime at the play area they have.

Aiden-Rose in Target


Kyra in Target

Kyra in the playland @ the mall


Aiden playing @ the playland in the mall

At this point in the process of adoption we have to do many things to get placement of the girls in our home. Aiden-Rose is ready for adoption but she has to be in our home 6 months before adoption proceedings can begin. Kyra, on the other hand will have a lengthier process for her. We will keep everyone updated on the progress of the girls. Please feel free to check periodically for updates if I forget to send out emails or update my FB acct.

7 comments:

  1. How wonderful Laura and Jake. They are so precious. I am sure you will have no problem with the adoption process and those adorable little girls will be one your own sweet daughters! God Bless!!

    Lucy

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  2. Wow what a wonderful surprise!! I wish I had chatted with you longer at the GT you could have told me in person ;0) best of luck !!

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  3. How exciting for you both! What a blessing for both you and those adorable little girls. I can feel the happiness flowing out of the pictures you posted. It couldn't happen to a nicer couple! You will make a big happy family together. Thanks for keeping us posted!

    Much Love,
    Rachel

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  4. Laura, you KNOW I am crazy excited for you!!! The girls are soooo adorable, and will be incredibly blessed to have you and Jake for their mom and dad. You guys will be incredible parents - you both have so much love in your hearts. Congrats to you, and I will pray that all goes smoothly.

    Monique

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  5. That is SOOOO GREAT!!! I'm so excited for you!! God bless you both, and keep us posted!! I want to meet them! :D

    And let us know when that Child Shower is, and the sizes they are, and all that other important stuff!

    I don't remember, are Aiden Rose and Kyra sisters?

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  6. Oh my goodness! I am so happy for all four of you! Such a blessing couldn't happen to nicer people! I can't wait to meet your adorable little angels!

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  7. Laura I'm so excited for you and Jake! You will make awesome parents.

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