Update

I talked to the agency's attorney today and the birthmother actually called her today. She told her that she thought the agency said they would take care of her. The attorney said "how can we take care of you if we don't know what you need." So she has asked for us to pay for a few things - such as March's rent - which is fine with us. We want to do what we can to make her happy. She has a doctor's appointment Tuesday and the birthmother advocate will be taking her to that appointment. She said she would sign the papers after her appointment on Tuesday. So please pray that this is all she is wanting and that she will sign on Tuesday with no problems.

Trying again

Wow! That only took 30-40 minutes! I wonder how long it will take to publish the post!

More Pictures

Well, people have been getting on to me for not posting more pictures. I'll do my best but as my Dad said "gasp, they have dial-up." If anyone would like to purchase high speed internet for us so you can see more pictures of Hannah we would be happy to accept (hehe).

Pay close attention to the picture of her hair. When we washed her hair the other day it kinked up! It was so curly! But then the next morning it was straight again!

Oh and please don't be so overcome by the beauty of these pictures and forget to read the previous post - it is a very serious prayer request.

Ok - I can't get it to work - I'll try again later.

KEEP PRAYING

I talked to the agency today and they said that the birthmother still hasn't signed the papers. So they haven't set a court date yet because she has to sign the papers first. When they try to call her they get a message saying "this line is not accepting incoming calls". They aren't sure why she hasn't signed the papers but they don't think she wants the baby back. It is hard to know. They are going to send her a letter saying she needs to let them know if she is going to sign the papers or if she wants the baby back.

So please continue to pray about this. Since it is Friday it probably means we will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to hear anything else.


Hannah's Song: Great is Thy Faithfulness
Hannah's Verse:
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever."
Ephesians 3:20-22


No matter what happens we know that God has Hannah in our home for His purpose. Whether or not she stays this is where she needs to be now. We know God is in control and he sees the big picture. But I think I'm going to go back to being scared to answer the phone again.

I'll keep you up to date on what is happening but please keep praying. I definately believe in the power of prayer and I know there are many out there praying for us.

Thanks!

Legal Process

Just an update on the legal process:

At this point we are waiting on the birthmother's lawyer to get a court date which will terminate parental rights. Her attorney told us that she hopes to get it within two weeks, but it could be as long as 30 days. Up until this date the birth parents have the right to change their mind about the adoption. But, once the court terminates their rights it is a permanant deal. There can be no appeal. At that moment she will be ours (not legally but there is no danger of her being removed from our home).

Once parental rights are terminated the adoption agencies fills out paperwork on us that has to be filed with the state. This will be where they report on our training and homestudy and all of that. They have 90 days from the time of termination of parental rights to get these reports in.

Once there reports are in our lawyer can get a court date for us. She thought it would take 1-3 weeks to get a court date. This is adoption day! The day the judge will give parental rights to us! Our lawyer said it is a great day and anyone can come to the court with us and bring cameras, video cameras, etc.

So it is very possible that it could be 3-4 months before we are actually considered the legal parents by the state. But only about a month before we know for sure she is ours! So keep praying that the termination of parental rights goes quickly and smoothly.

Hannah's Bow

Papa here. Christy and Daniel have (gasp) dial-up internet, so to post a picture takes them a day and a half. So I'm putting a couple of pictures up for them. I LOVE this one with the bow in her hair. I think it's my favorite.
Feel free to leave comments about how beautiful she is. We don't get tired of hearing that!

I'm Back

I hope you guys enjoyed the updates from Papa but I'm back now and typing with one hand! There is a beautiful baby girl sleeping in the other one.

Wow, what a week! Thanks for hanging in there with us and ferverently praying for us through the ups and downs!

The birth father did sign the papers yesterday so that was a sigh of relief! Now we just have to wai for a court date for parental rights to be terminated. Until then the mother can still change her mind. It could be 2 weeks - 30 days before the court date.

We went to the pediatrician today and she said things looked good. She is going to try to get the hospital records because we don't know what they did in the hospital (what shots she received, etc.)

Tomorrow we meet with our attorney so we will probably have a better idea on how the rest of this process works.

Daniel and my Dad set up the crib, changing table, and dresser today. Grani and I sorted through the gifts people have brought us.

Which, by the way, those of you who have sent gifts thank you very much. It is nice to not have to worry about getting stuff.

We also really apprciate all of your prayers - we know there are so many of you out there praying and we are so thankful for that.

Well, I just wanted to give you a quick update. I will try to post some pictures soon.

Oh and check out my link to Ruth's blog - our good friends Kevin and Sara had their baby on the same day Hannah was born. We stopped by to see them yesterday so there are pictures of Hannah and Ruth on Ruth's blog.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand words

Hannah Rochelle Davis



Papa again. Daniel and Christy have to watch videos and read books and take care of Hannah tonight, so I'm putting up pictures for you to see! Isn't she beautiful?!

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Sorry, all you DCAP (Daniel and Christy Adoption Process) fans, but it's still Papa doing the typing.

It's true. Home IS where your heart is, and right now my heart is in three places! Thankfully your heart doesn't really divide up into little pieces. God simply enlarges it to take in more places. So my heart is always here with Grani, and it's in Oklahoma with Gibson and Haven, and now it's in a hospital in Kentucky with Hannah. (I guess you really didn't log in here to read about me. Ooops) But the good news is that Hannah and her mom and dad will be going to Louisville tomorrow and their hearts will all be at home together! We don't know the time yet of course, but soon Job will get to meet the new princess. Poor Job. His life has drastically changed and he doesn't even know it!

Christy and Daniel will have FIVE HOURS of videos they have to watch before bedtime Sunday night so they can keep Hannah with them and not put her in foster care, so they won't be able to have visitors. The agency has been so wonderful helping them get all the hours in that they need. They have been reading books this entire weekend to get in training hours. The videos will be just enough to finish up the hours.

I'll miss posting blogs. (Perhaps I should post on my own blog. http://PapaLyndel.blogspot.com Of course I would only blog about my grandbabies. And maybe some of the babies at church that call me Papa. Hi Olivia, Joshua, Lucas, Andrew, Hope! Are you reading this? I guess my heart may be in more places than I first thought.) Christy and Daniel will be back in the blogging business tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will be worshipping with a bunch of folks who also share my heart. This home www.fbcjoelton.org is where I love to be as I look forward to my heavenly home. I hope you all will share your heart with others at your churches and especially with God in worship tomorrow.

What's in a name?

Papa reporting again.

Grani and I had to go shopping today since we aren't allowed to go to the hospital to see the baby. (Those are the adoption rules, not because we are the unruley visitor types.) While we were at Target we saw a light-skinned girl about Christy's age who had a beautiful dark baby with her. The second time we passed her Grani had to talk to her. They had a great conversation about - hair! What an interesting adventure has begun! So we now have to learn some new names: names of hair products, names for skin color...

We also have a full name to share. You'll notice no middle name on earlier blogs. Daniel and Christy had a beautiful idea but had to check with the birth mother. They ended up with a name of love and heritage and a name that will show connections to many. Hannah's first name is a name Christy has always loved. She will share her birth mother's middle name. And of course her last name is from such a wonderful, loving, godly family. You put all of these together and you tell a wonderful story and you get a beautiful name - Hannah Rochelle Davis.

Stats

Hannah Davis
d.o.b. - Feb. 16, 2006
time - 10:07 pm CST
weight - 6 lb. 15 oz.
length - 19"

Christy and Daniel have a room at the hospital and will get to hold their new baby girl as soon as she warms up a little. They have seen her and watched her get a bath. She has a full head of hair and is beautiful.

This update brought to you by Papa. Papa and Grani aren't sleeping anyway, so we might as well be doing this.

a note from Papa

Christy can't write right now. She and Daniel are on their way to see their new baby girl! Here's the Reader's Digest version of a rollercoaster day and night. Dad said, "I want baby", agency said, "sorry, Christy and Daniel, no baby", agency called back, "dad changed his mind, mom is in labor", Christy called us "AAAAHHHHH!" (that's how I remember the conversation) Another conversation with the mom's advocate and she says "the birth mother says, I want a family here for the baby." Now it's 11:15 pm. Christy and Daniel are on the road with thunderstorms headed to the same place they are. Grani is a total wreck. Everyone cries. The baby is here, she is healthy and doing great. The hospital has a room for them. They will be holding her soon! Grani and Papa can't go to the hospital so tomorrow we'll go to Louisville and pick up the granddog Job.
God is good. His ways are above and beyond our ways. Our family is now much richer and more colorful! Gibson, Haven, Will, Alex, Sophie, and Grace Ann have a new cousin.

Bad News

Well... I'm sorry but I have bad news. The adoption is not going to go through. The Birthfather said he wants to keep the baby. So the agency has dropped the case. They will no longer work with the birthmother. The legal risks are too much. So I'm sorry for all of the excitment but we knew it could fall through. But we know God is in control and we knew going into this there would be ups and downs.

Picture of Us

This is a picture that was taken with our church directory. Unfortunately it is not the one that is going in the directory because it had to be the other background they used. Our other pictures weren't nearly as good as this one. We didn't buy any because they were too expensive but they are really good! We got a free 8X10.

Registry

I have had a few people ask where we are registered.

Right now we are only registered really at Babies-R-US. I did register on-line for a few things at Target but since this happened so quickly I haven't had time to do anymore registering. There are not any girl things on my registry at this time. If I have time on Friday I will go to Target and Babies-R-Us and update the registries. Both registries can be found on-line. Babies-R-Us has several Christy Davises and so you might need to search with my maiden name as well (Littleton) and make sure it says Daniel and Christy - that helps too.

Oh and U. Roger - don't you worry you are always on my "important" list. :) I'm sure that you will be one of our little one's favorite GREAT Uncles.

Things are going well still...

Well, we had a meeting with the agency today. We signed a bunch of paperwork and stuff like that. She said she did talk to the birth father today and he agreed to sign - he hasn't signed yet and he is still denying paternity but he said he would sign. So the attorney has to go to him and he will sign it in person. She said we still need to pray that he will sign because it is still not definate.

She also said the birth mother was very happy that a family had been chosen so quickly. So that makes me feel good - it sounds like she is still on track to place the baby.

Many of you want to be called when the baby is born - I can't guarantee when I will call but I will call my Mom and she will e-mail those on my "adoption updates" list. I will call people as I get a chance.

More Info

Things are looking GREAT and God is providing in more ways than you can image (exceedingly abundantly more than you could ever ask or imagine).

The financial aspect of this is the best scenario we could be in. The birthmother is only asking for $250 to cover her expenses - her insurance will cover the rest! So all we have to pay is the agency fee and some court fees. I was telling Daniel all we need now is the money to cover the lawyer fee (because we have the rest in savings and with the loan we got) - and guess what - we got a card in the mail today - it had the money that we needed in it (The exact amount!) GOD IS GOOD AND HE IS IN CONTROL!

Oh and the fax came with all of the information about the birthmother and the machine malfunctioned - right after all the pages came through! I'm so glad it wasn't before! Again - God is in control.

Things seem to be falling into place - we still are not without our risks but you guys can be praying about those and God will work those out too.
- Pray that the birthmother doesn't change her mind
- Pray that the birthfather will sign over his rights with no problems
- Pray that we get those 24 hours in so we can bring the baby straight home (which means the baby needs to be born AFTER next Thursday because we have a CPR class that counts towards our hours on Wed. and Thurs. night).
- Pray for MY NERVES!!!!!!!!!

Things look great on the birthmother's history and medical conditions. She had no alcohol during the pregnancy - which is wonderful news.

So now we wait for a call to say she is born!

A MATCH!

Well, it is almost official. We have a match! The baby is due next week. It is a full African-American baby girl! That is about all the information I have on her now. It will be a confidential adoption so we will not meet her mother.

Please pray that the birth-father will sign over his rights. If he doesn't it will be a LONG legal ordeal and we will be "foster" parents for several months.

I'll update more as I know.

Baby Room

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000A88JGO/102-1661233-8080938?v=glance&s=baby&n=542332&me=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures

4-5-6

Well, as I said we were going to register for a few things today. They make you tell them a due date - even if you are adopting you just have to guess. So since I've always wanted a baby on 4-5-6 (or 3-4-5, 6-7-8, 11-12-13) I chose for our baby's due date to be 4-5-6 :) (My great-grandmother was born on 11-12-13 - I hope to have/get a baby on 11-12-13 - wouldn't that be so cool - and if it is a girl I will name her Bernie Ann or Ann Kay after my great-grandmother (maybe). hehe.

I had fun registering. It is hard when you don't know the gender! There aren't many bibs, socks, clothes, blankets, that are gender neutral and Daniel was getting tired of GREEN! We picked lots of greens and yellows and of course a TIGGER bathrobe, bib, towel, washmit, toys, etc. and then lots of jungle stuff - I'm into jugle animals - always have been really, you can ask my parents - one time my Dad and I were going to paint a jungle mural on my wall - we did get it painted green but that is as far as we got - then we just bought a border with jungle animals.

The bedding we picked is Noah's Ark - it isn't real girly but I think it would work for a girl too - it is dark colors. But I really liked it and it will go with my picture that I have and the blanket I'm making. And it will definately go with SURPRISE TWINS! and I think it will be fine if we don't get twins too!

Well, I guess that is all for now. The only thing I couldn't find to register for was a bassinet sheet - do they make those? I bet I could borrow some from people at church ( I had two people on the same day offer me a bassinet - maybe they have sheets).

Not Chosen .... This Time.

Well, I heard from the agency this morning and the lady that viewed our profile this week did not choose us. It is kindof nice to know so that I don't have to wonder anymore. So we can all calm down a bit until we get another phone call!

I'm sure we were not chosen because we are still waiting on those surprise twins!

The lady did say to hurry up those grant applications (implying that she still thinks it will be quick). She told me on Tuesday that often it is hard to get a grant if we already have a baby - because that shows that we found the money somehow. I asked her if she thought it would be quick (this is a different lady than had told me it would be quick - she is the interim director of the agency), she said the fact that our profile has already been shown once is evidence it will go quickly.

So we just have to keep plugging away at those 24 hours that we have to get.

We are going to go ahead and register for a few things at Babies-R-US because my Sunday School class is going to give us a "basics" shower in March. But anyone else giving us a shower needs to make it a "Welcome Home Baby" Shower.

In other news...
I ate lunch with some ladies yesterday. Two of them are doing the foster to adopt program. One of them is the foster parent (hoping to adopt) a little black boy and the other one has two bi-racial little girls (one is already adopted one is foster right now), the third lady is in the process of adopting from Korea. So it was neat to see someone else who has or will adopt babies of other races, particularly African American.

We've heard nothing yet

Well, we haven't heard from the agency today - although my cell phone did ring during chapel - and it was the agency - but all they wanted to know was what college we went to.

We had our support group tonight and I asked how long the birthmother has to choose a profile. They said as long as she wants. So it is possible the mother they gave our profile to today has not made a decision yet. So we still await a phone call.

We had to change our CPR class and we can't get in to another one until the end of March - so I hope that we don't have a baby by then - because we won't have enough hours!

We tried for a loan today and we couldn't get the amount we needed. We don't have much collateral (which my Mom warned me about). But we did get a loan and it will cover about half of what we need. The other half can be covered by the credit cards (but hopefully we can get grants!).

I guess that is all for now. The most stressful thing is this stupid 24 hours we need to fit in before a baby comes home. This is state requirment, not agency. The most stressful thing for Daniel is the money issue - but I keep assuring him it will all work out (I'm mostly convinced of that but he is not).

So if we hear anything tomorrow I will let you know.

The Next Few Days

Keep your eyes out the next few days for updates. Pray for us tomorrow - we are going to go to the bank and get a loan. We want to make sure that we have the money before we agree to a situation. We are applying for grants but we want to make sure the money is there - so hopefully we can use grant money to pay off the loan. Pray that they will approve us for a loan.

What might happen in the next few days...(we are discussing hypothetical situations in my ESL class tonight so this is practice :) )

Our profile will be shown tomorrow.
If we are chosen they will call us, fax us info about the birthparents (medical history, etc.), we will have 24 hours to review that information and then we can accept or decline the case. (We were told not to decline too much because if we do they will show our profile to less people - because at this point we have been chosen and it hurts the birthmother's feelings if we reject the baby).
So if we are chosen and if we accept the case we will more than likely meet with the birthmother within 48 hours.
Then they will ask her and us if we like the match. If so then we are set to go. At this point we pay the agency $5,000 which they keep in an escrow account to use for the expenses of the birthmother.
Then we will call our lawyer and meet with her about the situation. We have to pay half of her fees before the court date and the rest after the court date.

Then we wait for the baby to be born. The birthmother can change her mind at any point in this process. So then we wait and wait and hope the baby is due soon so we don't drive ourselves crazy waiting.

Changes/Changes

Well, as we all know this adoption process is full of changes. The mother has decided to keep the baby - however they are showing our profile tomorrow.

PRAY!

Ok - if you are reading this you need to be praying for a little African-American girl that was born today. She was 27 weeks along so she is a premie. More than likely our profile will be shown to her mother. Pray for us, for our nerves, and that if this is the right baby for us that we will be able to pick her up. I'll let you know what if anything happens. The baby is being tested right now for drugs. We should know later today. I have no idea where the baby was born- I hope it is Louisville!

Too Much Fun!

Well, I have allowed myself to get excited. It is too hard to keep guarded. We went to Super Walmart today to get groceries and they were having a "Baby Days" Sale. Well, they had a kit that came with a crib, dresser, and changing table and it was pretty cheap. So we called Daniel's Mom (because she was wanting to get the crib for us) and she said go ahead. So we bought it! We also bought a baby boy outfit and a baby girl outfit so that we can have a "coming home" outfit for the baby. And we bought a pack of diapers - we are going to do that everytime we go to the store until we get a baby. So we have newborn diapers that Haley bought us and a package of size ones that we bought tonight. My church is probably going to give us a shower soon so we should get most of the rest of the stuff we need (bottles, blankets, diaper bag, pacifiers, etc.)! And we have to get a mattress for the crib. But we have plenty of time to get that because we have the bassinet for when the baby first comes home. Hopefully we can register at Babies-R-US and maybe Target - next weekend. I'm pretending that I am 6-7 months pregnant - so I'm trying to think what all a 6-7 month pregnant lady would buy to get ready for the baby.

On and some of my books have come in! That is exciting too but I have way too many things to read right now! I got one children's book that the nieces and nephews will probably get as a Chrismas gift this year. So I won't tell you what it is but it is good at explaining why people have different colored skin, etc.

Well, I guess that is all for now!

Approved!

The homestudy went well today. I was a bit concerned when the phone rang this morning at 9:45. I was afraid they were calling to cancel. But they did not cancel we just met a bit later. Basically the homestudy consisted of us answering questions - the same questions we answered previously as part of our application process. She liked our profile (scrapbook) and she was very happy that we had decided to adopt a baby of any race. Because of that she said we would be matched very quickly. She made sure we were ready financially so that she could go ahead and start matching us.

So for the last 3 hours I have been on-line printing loan and grant applications. Some of them are very detailed! Unfortunately they all have application fees and you don't necessarily get anything when you apply. So if anyone wants to know what I'll be doing this weekend you can pretty much guarantee I will be filling out applications.

But it is very exciting because it is very possible that we will get a baby soon. I told her that my Dad has been telling everyone we are getting a baby by Easter. I don't know if it will be that quickly but it will be quick - we think.

Oh and keep on praying for surprise twins! I meant to ask her how often they get twins but I forgot to ask. She did say they are getting about as many surprises as planned adoptions.

Well, it is very late and it has been a long day. I'll let you know if anything new happens.